educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: cartoon on “education nowadays”. (source: https://twitter.com/slidenerdtech/status, 30th august 2019). copy right © 2019 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. guest editor: aminat adeola odebode, ph.d. family and health counsellor at the department of counsellor education unilorin, university of ilorin, in ilorin, nigeria. e-mail: odebode.aa@unilorin.edu.ng editor-in-chief: dr. nurul zuriah umm, muhammadiyah university of malang, malang city, indonesia. e-mail: zuriahnurul@gmail.com managing editor: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 15 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http:// www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare/guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 foreword education is an integral part of sustainable human development. the inability to use education to achieve desired developmental objectives, especially in many ldcs (less developed countries) is attributed to poor institutional reforms, governance risks, and policy inconsistency. just as many ldcs are experiencing poor development, due to insufficient linkages between education policy and national development; and sizeable numbers of developed economies are confronted with rising income inequality, which is a product of selective educational opportunities in those climes. the above scenarios are an indication that the current education model is at great variance with the current developmental trend. i clearly and succinctly outlined that over reliance on education as a great enabler for human capital development without quality research to restructure and reposition the sector in line with the present realities would turn the craters into crevices. despite the huge stock of empirically validated and theoretical postulations on the positive connection between education and individual capabilities in achieving sustainable development path, very few studies have explored the missing role of quality research in promoting effective human capital development. instructively, in other to achieve robust national competiveness, social cohesion, improved standard of living, and shared prosperity for greater number of the populace, education and research outcomes should be synchronised in the context of sustained human capital development instead of recycling technical jargons in air conditioned offices. i went, further, to highlight that since 2008, the wb (world bank) report on the pathetic conditions of education and its concomitant effect on poverty in africa, there has been no concrete and bold actions to the contrary even in 2018. few cosmetics actions taken have little or no meaningful impact in revising the rising tide of poverty and under development. the result is also the same in south east asia, latin american, and middle east. the case of the gulf nations re-enforces the position of the authors on the need for science and education to be contextualised in line with the prevailing social-cultural norms otherwise the much touted promises of using education and research to improve human capital may continue to be elusive. it is quite disheartening if not inhumane that in multi-billion dollars economies, rich in hydrocarbons would be lacking sufficient investment in education which is aimed at nurturing citizen human capabilities and resultant improved standard of living. it is also the considered view of the authors, that rethinking the underlying assumptions of science, education, and development would be insufficient to generate the needed human development outcomes without addressing the second leg of poor educational outcomes, which include investment, governance, and policy direction. research and education, as important developmental objectives, should be vigorously pursued if desired outcomes are to be achieved. although, substantial investments have been committed with little or no measurable results, i am arguing for new structural reforms towards targeted investments in research and education. accordingly, the form, structure, and pattern of such investment should be re-examined in view of the present poor outcomes. on the structural side, it was shown that educational outcomes should reflect market demand, so that current skill shortages in critical sectors of the national economies are addressed. it was established that churning out graduates who may not be relevant in the current technological driven economic landscape is counterproductive and ill advised. governance and policy direction represent another obstacle towards full realisation of positive educational outcomes. despite a strong theoretical underpinning a positive connection between human capital and range of positive economic outcomes, such as growth and development, governance risks and policy inconsistency have hindered effective human capital stocks which education should be aimed at providing. government intervention in providing education, as argued by the authors, is based on three key policy and structural failures. firstly, higher private income has not automatically improved educational outcomes; secondly, government policies have led to inequality in education access and market forces have not equitably distributed educational opportunities; and furthermore, thirdly, resources alone may not be sufficient to generate the desired human development outcomes unless the structural and policy issues are addressed. in the concluding part, i argued that open market and globalisation have worsened the provision of educational outcomes and resultant human capital development in less developed countries and inequality in developed countries. education and research should be rediscovered in the context of the prevailing social and cultural norms if a lasting and positive impact on sustained economic development, social harmony, and shared prosperity are to be achieved. i submitted that unless universities, government, and relevant stakeholders devote enough time and resources to create open knowledge based education and learning model, desired economic, and developmental outcomes would be elusive. finally, education, research, and human development should be domesticated to achieve greater goods. only in that context, it would human capital development occupy its prime position. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. serdang, malaysia: august 31, 2018. associate professor dato dr. norhasni zainal abiddin a guest editor of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the faculty of educational studies upm (university of putra malaysia) in serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board: address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare cover design: cartoon on “online education” (source: https://www.pngwing.com/en/free, 30th august 2020). copy right © 2020 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. lateef omotosho adegboyega, ph.d. is a guest editor of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the department of counsellor education, faculty of education unilorin (university of ilorin) in ilorin, nigeria. e-mail: adegboyega.lo@unilorin.edu.ng dr. nurul zuriah is an editor-in-chief of educare journal in bandung, west java; and lecturer at the fkip umm (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of malang) in malang city, east java, indonesia. e-mail: zuriahnurul@gmail.com andi suwirta, m.hum. is managing editor of educare journal in bandung; and secretarygeneral of aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung; and lecturer at the fip upi (faculty of education, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, indonesia; and lecturer at the upsi (sultan idris university of education) in tanjong malim, perak darul raidzuan, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@ yahoo.com prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, indonesia; and lecturer at the apb ubd (academy of bruneian studies, university of brunei darussalam) in bs begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ ubd.edu.bn jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, indonesia; and lecturer at the faculty of education sciences pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, the philippines. e-mail: juno_6970@ yahoo.com prof. dr. mina hattori is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the school of postgraduate nu (nagoya university), nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohammad parvez is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the faculty of education amu (aligarh muslim university), uttar pradesh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the lu (lorestan university) in kashan, islamic republic of iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the ucm (universidad complutense de madrid) in madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the faculty of education qu (queen’s university) in ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. is an associate editor of educare journal; and director of minda masagi press owned by aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes. educare@gmail.com suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. is a secretariat staff of educare journal; and treasurer of aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 15 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author(s) abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http:// www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com, aspensi.himpro@gmail.com, and mindamas.journals@gmail.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare/guidelines bandung, west java, indonesia: august 30, 2020. sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. is a director of minda masagi press owned by aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: aspensi.himpro@gmail.com and mindamas.journals@gmail.com articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 75 info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social sciences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. since editions of may 2016 to may 2018, the sosiohumanika journal was organized by the lecturers of unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/ sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare76 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 tawarikh: journal of historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since editions of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since editions of april 2016 to october 2017, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of the faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 77 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since editions of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since editions of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals. mindamas.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail. com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare78 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since editions of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/susurgalur and www. aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur.jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 79 it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal was firstly published on february 5, 2016. since editioj of february 2016 to date, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (himpunan mahasiswa islam or association of islamic university students), who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index. php/insancita e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare80 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 81 one of the important things about the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agenda is to organize the national and/or southeast asia regional conference. as shown in the picture, aspensi committee has conducted the round table conference on the history education and historical studies in bandung, west java, indonesia, on december 27, 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is the core-business of aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare82 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 invitation letter to become the authors number : x/red.edu/viii/2021 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021, can be published. we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mails address at: mindamas.journals@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu as we know that the educare journal was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 30, 2021 best regards, sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi suci, as a publisher owned by aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board: address (for correspondence): minda masagi suci, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: cartoon on “covid-19 in cartoons”. (source: https://www.cartooningforpeace.org/en/projetsint, 30th august 2021). copy right © 2021 by minda masagi suci and aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. dr. nurul zuriah is an editor-in-chief of educare journal in bandung, west java; and a lecturer at the fkip umm (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of malang) in malang city, east java, indonesia. e-mail: zuriahnurul@gmail.com andi suwirta, m.hum. is managing editor of educare journal in bandung; and secretary-general of aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung; and a lecturer at the fip upi (faculty of education, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the upsi (sultan idris university of education) in tanjong malim, perak darul raidzuan, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the apb ubd (academy of bruneian studies, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the college of teacher development, faculty of education sciences pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, the philippines. e-mail: juno_6970@yahoo.com prof. dr. mina hattori is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the school of postgraduate nu (nagoya university), nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohammad parvez is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the faculty of education amu (aligarh muslim university), uttar pradesh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the lu (lorestan university) in kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the ucm (universidad complutense de madrid) in madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré is an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the faculty of education qu (queen’s university) in ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. is an associate editor of educare journal; director of minda masagi suci foundation; and member of aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. is a secretariat staff of educare journal; and a treasurer of aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 15 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author(s) abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www.worldbank.org/ content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com, aspensi. himpro@gmail.com, and mindamas.journals@gmail.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare/guidelines bandung, west java, indonesia: august 30, 2021. sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. is director of minda masagi suci foundation and member of aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: aspensi.himpro@gmail.com and mindamas.journals@gmail.com articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 13(2), february 2021 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market: evidence from indonesia. [93-116] hidayat & asep r. rukmana, the quadruple helix strategy for tourism development: case study at mekar rahayu village, marga asih district, bandung regency. [117-130] saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in indonesia. [131-152] sahroni, the development of human resources capacity of legal entity state university. [153-164] warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values for basic school teachers. [165-180] info-edu-tainment. [181-190] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 foreword in an international seminar, held during this season of the covid-19 pandemic, i stated that “creative pedagogy” is an interesting term for being discussed, as it provides a new perspective on the importance of creative and imaginative teaching-learning processes, especially in the subjects of history education and social studies education. creative pedagogy needs to continue for being studied and explored, especially in regarding to matters concerning the need for creative and imaginative learning in the context of implementing the concept of “freedom to learn” in schools. further, creative pedagogy can stimulate the potential of the human brain (both left and right) through creative-imaginative learning in the field of history education in particular. the educational process must continue. although the covid-19 pandemic is still engulfing countries around the world, it must not disrupt – let alone stop – the educational process, which is indeed very important for the progress and prosperity of a nation-state in the world. likewise, the process of research and studies in the field of education, which is then disseminated in the publication of scientific journals online, must continue to be carried out regularly. the online education process, including other activities, is an unavoidable condition for those of us who are now living in the 21st century. advances in information and communication technology have made it easier and more enjoyable for human life to carry out activities in all fields online. the publication of the educare journal, in this february 2021 issue, examines many things that have to do with the field of education. incoming articles have been sent via e-mail, then reviewed and processed to be published online, so that they can be opened and easily read by “stakeholders” around the world. the study of education, however, is always interesting to read, refer to, and follow up on by anyone who is concerned with investing in human resources for the progress and prosperity of the nation-state in the future. the first article, written by prof. dr. nugraha and indri ayu lestari of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, entitled “corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market: evidence from indonesia”. they stated that the government as the regulator only has the role of providing a legal umbrella and full corporate governance submitted to each company. it implies that the company with the poorer implementation of corporate governance tends to hold the cash compared to the company with the better corporate governance. the second article, written by dr. hidayat and asep r. rukmana, m.a.p. of unnur (nurtanio university) in bandung, west java, indonesia, entitled “the quadruple helix strategy for tourism development: case study at mekar rahayu village, marga asih district, bandung regency”. they examined that academic, government, business, and community as stakeholders of quadruple helix strategy play an important role in developing tourism in mekar rahayu village. bandung regency government policy related to tourism development in mekar rahayu village is to develop the potential of religious tourism that already exists in the village and become a mainstay tourism potential. the third article, written by saripudin, m.t., pof. dr. as’ari djohar, and dr. dedi rohendi of upi in bandung, west java, indonesia, entitled “typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in indonesia”. they confirmed that through a series of tests, it can be seen that the model developed has been able to improve student competence in achieving learning outcomes, through the implementation of pre-test and post-test at each practice session carried out. this shows that the typical oer (open educational resources) development model in this study is very feasible to be implemented widely. the fourth article, written by dr. sahroni of upi in bandung, west java, indonesia, entitled “the development of human resources capacity of legal entity state university”. he stated that hr (human resource) capacity development is performed at the system, institutional, and individual levels based on autonomy in academic and nonacademic management. in maintaining the excellence of human resources, two pillars have been reinforced, namely: the mind-set of the hr as an organizational asset and the application of the merit system principle. lastly, the fifth article, written by dr. warlim, prof. dr. encep syarief nurdin, and supriyono, m.pd. of upi in bandung, west java, indonesia, entitled “character development based on national values for basic school teachers”. they explained that developing character education in schools requires various learning innovations. in developing character, it can usually be sourced from a value and one of these values is national values. the development of character education based on national values does not mean that the development of character education is an obligation of subjects in elementary schools. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. bandung, west java, indonesia: february 21, 2021. andi suwirta, m.hum. a lecturer at the department of history education, faculty of social studies education upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and secretary-general of aspensi (international association for historians and history educators) for period 2018 to 2023. e-mail: suwirta.sahaja@upi.edu educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 i© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com volume 8(1) august 2015 www.educare-ijes.com issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [ii] huang jian, reconceptualization of the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment. [1-10] siti maryam, scheme implementation as an effort to build originality in writing. [11-22] mohd hasan & mohammad parvez, study of under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer. [23-30] christina andin @ nur qistina, abdul said ambotang & musirin mosin, teaching thinking skills in teacher education. [31-44] johni dimyati, a study of education history on gifted children: research on their learning achievement as they started their school under seven. [45-54] neha sharma, a study of the impact of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. [55-62] krizna rei m. palces, arthur s. abulencia & wensley m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education in a philippine teacher education institution: an exploratory study. [63-72] nabi ahmad & b. razia, study habits in relation to socio-economics status and gender among muslim adolescents. [73-80] susanto, fish community in serayu river, banyumas residency, central java, indonesia. [81-96] anant kumar varshney, attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students of aligarh muslim university towards computer. [97-104] info-edu-tainment. [105-114] educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 ii © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. the advancement of science and technology has changed the face of the world; it is no exception with the world of education. if in the process of teaching and learning conventionally, teacher has enough had a media by using “chalk and talk” in the learning method; then, in modern teaching and learning process, teachers must use a multi-media based on ict (information and communication technology) in order to attract the interest and attention of learners in the learning method. one of the ict-based learning media is the use of a computer. computers have changed the world of “virtual” into the “real world” in the learning process at school. anything that previously has not occurred and unlikely to exist, now all is available in computer as a media. hence, the teachers nowadays should be “computer literate” and they must have the ability also to utilize the media for the benefit and good educational purposes. good teachers are those who love the teaching profession. teachers who do not love their profession will feel forced and tortured in undergoing his/her profession as a teacher. meanwhile, a profession requires and demands a number of competencies. professional teachers, therefore, should have a number of competencies, which in the context of teacher education in indonesia, one of the important competencies is “didactic competencies”, in addition to other important competencies such as academic competence, personal competence and social competence. didactic competence is an ability to be possessed by teachers in managing the learning process in the classroom. this didactic competencies also required the ability of teachers in designing, implementing, and assessing the learning process, so that the real purpose of education, namely the “humanizing”, can be achieved very well. articles in the educare journal, issue of august 2015 – also in the context of commemorating the 70 years of indonesian independence – a lot of study about media of education, especially computers in the learning process, and about the profession of teacher education, in addition to other issues such as: evaluation of education, abilities in writing and thinking, academic achievement, multicultural education, environmental education, and study habits. what is exciting to me, as honorable patron of educare journal, is that the authors of this journal more than 50% came from the scholars abroad, namely from china, india, malaysia, and the philippines. of the 10 articles that presented in the august 2015 edition, only three articles come from indonesia, namely from lecturer of unsur (university of suryakancana) in cianjur, west java; and of course from the lecturers of ump (university of muhammadiyah purwokerto) itself in central java, indonesia. the scholars of india, especially from amu (aligarh muslim university), much to send the results of their studies, as apparent in the articles were entitled: (1) “a study of under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer” by mohd hasan & mohammad parvez; (2) “a study of the impact of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession” by neha sharma; (3) “study habits in relation to socio-economics status and gender among muslim adolescents” by nabi ahmad & b. razia; and (4) “attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students of aligarh muslim university towards computer” by anant kumar varshney. productivity of the scholars of india in conducting the research, study, and writing of the findings, i think, needs to be emulated and replicated by the scholars of indonesia so that the thinking and the results of their research are also known and recognized by the academic community around the globe. meanwhile, scholar of china presents an article on the importance of assessment or evaluation in education, “reconceptualization of the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment” by huang jian. as stated by the author that although many wellknown studies have been carried out for fa (formative assessment), or sa (summative assessment), or both, there has been contrasting views and misunderstandings about the relationship between fa and sa. it is argued in this paper that the confused relationship between fa and sa stems from the fact that it is either conceptualized from the perspective of function or from the perspective of process alone. the relation between fa and sa is very fine, far from clear-cut and a clarified relation between them is necessary for both our right understanding of fa and sa as well as the realization of the balance between fa and sa in practice as advocated by many educational policies. the scholars of malaysia examine on “teaching thinking skills in teacher education” by christina andin @ nur qistina, abdul said ambotang & musirin mosin, which states, inter alia, that the thinking skills policy in malaysia is motivated by the aspiration of the 2020 vision that was published in 1991. the vision states explicitly that malaysia will become a fully developed nation by the year 2020. so, the teaching thinking skills has also been given a high priority in educational policy. however, many teachers are ill-equipped with the ability to teach thinking skills. therefore, as the producer of current and future teacher, teacher education programme should emphasise thinking skills teaching. the scholars from the philippines studied on “predicting the priorities of multicultural education in a philippine teacher education institution: an exploratory study” by krizna rei m. palces, arthur s. abulencia & wensley m. reyes, which also states that multicultural education is a contemporary pedagogy, which prepares academic institutions to combat discrimination and oppression. it also aims to maximize learning by creating an environment that is safe and productive. multicultural education is quite literally the pedagogy of the oppressed. it is a pedagogy that was born out of the struggle of the oppressed sectors in the west such as the african-americans, women, homosexuals, religious minorities, atheists, indigenous people, the differently-abled, and others. this is the embodiment of the dreams of those who fought for equality and respect. since many forms of oppression are still existent in various societies, multicultural education continues to receive support from education sectors in many free countries. last but not least, the scholars of indonesia examine about “scheme implementation as an effort to build originality in writing” by siti maryam; “a study of education history on gifted children: research on their learning achievement as they started their school under seven” by johni dimyati; and “fish community in serayu river, banyumas residency, central java, indonesia” by susanto. studies from the indonesian scholars, once again i emphasize, must continue to be encouraged and raised so that the results of their research related to education can be read and disseminated widely by the scholars in southeast asia and around the world. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). purwokerto, central java, indonesia: august 17, 2015. dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad rector of ump in purwokerto, central java; and honorable patron of the educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 foreword today’s education system is far too different from the education we have ever been through. the 21st century education is an education that aims to produce knowledgeable generation, capable of thinking, acting and producing something that is beneficial in the light of the global scope and the latest technology, as well as handling the tide of development and the changing present. the 21st century education also empowers a person with ask, namely: attitude, skill, and knowledge, to do things that are necessary and should be done in the context of a constantly changing environment. in addition, education in the 21st century was synonymous with the digital era of ict (information and communication technology) skills. simultaneously with these changes, professionalism of educators should also be enhanced as they are the core and pioneer of 21st century skills in generating creative and innovative human capital. in the 21st century, we have seen various changes have taken place so fast. in order to adapt to current changes, educators need to adapt to the reform in teaching practices to improve the quality and rank of education to be at the international level. in most countries, particularly in the southeast asia region, education has been identified as one of the key success factors. therefore, the responsible party should always design, plan, and improve the education system in their respective countries. malaysia, for example, has taken positive steps with the introduction of the pipp (pelan induk pembangunan pendidikan or education development master plan) for 2006-2010; and the latest pppm (pelan pembangunan pendidikan malaysia or malaysia education development plan) for 2013-2025. both development plans are designed to boost the quality of education in line with the global needs of producing and highly competitive human capital. the 21st century education should be able to meet the demands and needs of a country in the new millenium. in line with these demands, the provision of quality human resources should be produced by the national education system. to achieve that goal, the characteristics of generations to be born in the 21st century should be rich information (including science and technology); have the power of mind (creative and proactive); the presence of good and noble values (including caring); spirit of self-identity and self-esteem; and entrepreneurship and skills. to determine the need for quality human qualities in the 21st century can be produced, then educators and students should be equipped with features such as mastering the subject (curriculum content); skilled and mastered in pedagogy (teaching and learning); understand the development of the disciples and love them; understanding the psychology of learning (cognitive psychology); have counseling skills; using the latest technology; screening research findings and latest research; cooperate with colleagues and others; and have confidence in the role and contribution as educators. focusing on the curriculum should be more than mastering basic knowledge and skills, but to the mastery of various skills, i.e. critical and creative thinking skills; effective communication skills; skill of enjoying the beauty of creation and art; choice skills and decision making; search, interpretation, and application skills; interpersonal skills and cooperate with others; and leadership and management skills. it should be emphasized that any form of organized curriculum transformation would not have the expected results if not followed by restructuring in other areas, inter-agency cooperation, and heavy attention to its implementation. in the pursuit of education transformation, the key focus should be on the development of technology infrastructure; the provision of teacher re-training; preparation of course materials and evaluation formats; as well as involvement of private parties, parents, and communities in addressing this great task. in order to transform the 21st century curriculum, teachers need to emphasize cooperative learning, critical thinking and reflective thinking, creativity development, generic skills, “multilinggualism”, patriotism and statehood, appreciation of noble values, various intelligence, and learning skills for learning. towards adjusting the education system in the 21st century, “partnership for 21st century skills”, in 2007, states that among the skills that must exist in 21st century students is to have critical thinking skills; problem solving skills; communication skills; collaborative skills; life skills and career; learning and innovation skills; skills in media, information and communication technology; and skills mastering core subjects in school. finally, it can be concluded that the education industry sector in most countries is changing dynamically and is expected to experience many changes and reforms in the 21st century. the goal of making malaysia as a center for academic excellence in the asian region as well as internationally in the 21st century, for example, requires the nation to enhance image excellence and quality of education to the world level, or gain a “world class education” status. world-class education demonstrates the rapid development and progress of the country’s education, especially in terms of quality, quantity, standards, and excellence recognized and accepted internationally. seen from a broad perspective, “world class education” is able to boost malaysia’s outstanding achievement in developing the education sector to contribute to manpower development; the rapid growth of the economy; the improvement of social welfare and quality; modernization and social reform of society; cultural and intellectual excellence; technology and science development; and the success of increasing the literacy rate among the community. the development of the education sector in neighboring countries in the southeast asian region also occurs the same, with the ultimate goal of becoming a developed, modern, prosperous, and civilized nation-states. the articles in the educare journal this time, february 2019 edition, remain concerned with education issues. educational research and study with various aspects comes from lecturers, not only from indonesia, but also from brunei darussalam and the philippines. from the findings of the research and study, citizens in southeast asia have practiced the “sharing and caring” motto, especially in the field of education as a human capital investment for the nation-state’s progress and well-being. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. kuala lumpur, malaysia: february 28, 2019. syed ismail syed mustapa, ph.d. a guest editor of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and head of department for research and innovation of teachers’ training professionalism in ipg (teacher education institute) kampus ilmu khas, 56000 kuala lumpur, malaysia. e-mail: syed_ismail@ipgkik.edu.my © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 81 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social sciences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. since editions of may 2016 to may 2018, the sosiohumanika journal was organized by the lecturers of unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/ sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 82 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 tawarikh: journal of historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since editions of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since editions of april 2016 to october 2017, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of the faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 83 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since editions of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since editions of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 84 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since editions of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 85 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since editions of april 2015 to october 2015, the sipatahoenan journal was organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 86 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal was firstly published on february 5, 2016. since editioj of february 2016 to date, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (himpunan mahasiswa islam or association of islamic university students), who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/insancita e-mail address: insancita. journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 87 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly published on march 11, 2016. since edition of march 2016 to date, the mimbar pendidikan journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik. jurnal.upi@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 88 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 it has been published, a new scholarly journal, honai: international journal for educational, social, political & cultural studies. this journal was firstly be published on may 2, 2018. since edition of may 2018 to date, the honai journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of stisip (college of social and political sciences) amal ilmiah in wamena, papua; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the honai journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the journal website (under construction) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/honai e-mails address: honai.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 89 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 it has been published, a new scholarly journal, historia: jurnal kajian sejarah di nusantara dan dunia (journal of historical studies in indonesia-malay archipelagos and the world). this journal was firstly published on december 27, 2018. since edition of december 2018 to date, the historia journal has been managed and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the historia journal is published twice a year, i.e. every december and june. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/historia e-mails address: mindamas.journals@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 90 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 91 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 one of the important things about the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agenda is to organize the national and/or southeast asia regional conference. as shown in the picture, aspensi committee has conducted the round table conference on the history education and historical studies in bandung, west java, indonesia, on december 27, 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is the core-business of aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 92 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 invitation letter to become the authors number : x/red.edu/viii/2020 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020, can be published. we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mails address at: aspensi.himpro@gmail.com and mindamas.journals@gmail.com as we know that the educare journal was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 31, 2019 best regards, sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 77 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. since issues of may 2016 to may 2018, the sosiohumanika journal was organized by the lecturers of unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/ sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 78 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 tawarikh: journal of historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016 to october 2017, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 79 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 80 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 81 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to october 2015, the sipatahoenan journal was organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 82 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal was firstly published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016 to date, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (himpunan mahasiswa islam or association of islamic university students), who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/insancita e-mail address: insancita. journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 83 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016 to date, the mimbar pendidikan journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik. jurnal.upi@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 84 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 it has been published, a new scholarly journal, honai: international journal for educational, social, political & cultural studies. this journal was firstly be published on may 2, 2018. since issue of may 2018 to date, the honai journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of stisip (college of social and political sciences) amal ilmiah in wamena, papua; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the honai journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the journal website (under construction) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/honai e-mails address: honai.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 85 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 it has been published, a new scholarly journal, historia: jurnal kajian sejarah di nusantara dan dunia (journal of historical studies in indonesia-malay archipelagos and the world). this journal was firstly published on december 27, 2018. since issue of december 2018 to date, the historia journal has been managed and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the historia journal is published twice a year, i.e. every december and june. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/historia e-mails address: mindamas.journals@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 86 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 87 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 one of the important things about the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agenda is to organize the national and/or southeast asia regional conference. as shown in the picture, aspensi committee has conducted the round table conference on the history education and historical studies in bandung, west java, indonesia, on december 27, 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is the core-business of aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 88 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 invitation letter to become the authors number : x/red.edu/viii/2019 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019, can be published. so sorry for the late publication. however, we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mails address at: mindamas.journals@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu as we know that the educare journal is firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 31, 2019 best regards, sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. 6 teguh.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 187 teguh julianto, s.pd., m.si. is a lecturer at the department of biology education, faculty of education and teacher training (fkip) muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump) in central java, indonesia. his e-mail address is t36uh_ump@yahoo.co.id improving knowledge of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method: an example of class-room action research teguh julianto abstract: this class-room action research was aimed at overcoming pedagogical problems in the teaching of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method among the students of xii grade (ipa-1) of man 1 purwokerto. it was conducted in three teaching cycles. each cycle consists of four actions, they were: planning, acting, observing and reflecting. the result showed that students’ knowledge in understanding the concept of heredity pattern increased. this increase was shown by some indicators, like the improvement of teaching activities, the rise of student participation in the teaching process as well as the progress of students’ learning achievement scores. observation or investigation activities increased from 32.5% to 55%. meanwhile, finding or searching activities increased from 28.75% to 50% and the activities of concept formulation increased from 13.7% to 25%. contributive participation in asking questions increased from 15% to 37.5% and contributive participation in giving opinion increased from 11.25% to 27.50%. furthermore, contributive participation in rebutting increased from 1.25% to 11.25%, while initiative participation in doing exercises increased from 40% to 68.75%. it was concluded that in this class-room action research, the use of discovery-inquiry method could improve the knowledge of heredity concept among xii grade students of man 1 purwokerto. key words: discovery-inquiry method, improving knowledge, contributive participation, initiative participation, and learning achievement. introduction biology is one of the main subjects taught at senior high school level. most of the materials in biology are about the life of organisms, so biology has a close relationship with students themselves and their surrounding (sastrodiroto, 1985). the presentation of the materials can also be understood easily. that is why these factors attract those teguh julianto, improving knowledge of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method 188 who are interested in biology? unfortunately, the current teachings activities lead students to merely memorize biology teaching materials. they do not develop students’ understanding nor make them think about how to apply those materials. as a consequence, biology is not an interesting subject for them. students show a little interest in biology. what makes things worse is that biology learning process needs high analytical thinking (sudargo, 2003). the difficulties in studying biology materials are mainly found in some materials dealing with the concept of life. one of the biology materials related to the concept of life is chapter “heredity patterns”. chapter of heredity patterns requires students understanding as well as their analytical thinking. the basic competency in this chapter is students should understand the basic components of genetic and relate them to the heredity process from parents to their offspring (depdiknas, 2004). as stipulated in the instructional objective of this chapter, students are required to be able to apply their understanding about heredity concept in some living organism from parents to their offspring. unfortunately, in the teaching process of heredity concept, students have some difficulties because the taught materials are abstract. therefore it needs a high analytical ability. meanwhile the current teaching activities are done by introducing some models of genetic substance by presenting dna model, chromosome picture, and diagram of hereditary patterns. in such method, the implication of the concept taught using those instruments is not effective. as a consequence, the students do not have a good understanding about the material. they understand heredity concept theoretically but they are not able to apply it in daily life. the problem of research the xii grade students of ipa (ilmu pengetahuan alam or natural science) – 1 of man (madrasah aliyah negeri or islamic senior high school) – 1 in purwokerto, central java, indonesia experience such difficulties. the daily test data showed that students’ knowledge about heredity concept is still low. one factor that causes students’ low understanding about chapter heredity patterns is inappropriate teaching method in presenting the materials. moreover, the lack of learning facilities and media becomes another factor. teacher’s explanation about heredity patterns is given as material to be memorized. in addition, teacher only shows the picture of dna and chromosome models. analytical ability in such process is ignored. meanwhile the students only listen to their teacher’s explanation without active participation during teaching process. it prevents students from gaining ability in analysis and synthesis on the materials being studied. in order to solve this problem, a teaching method variation that is suitable for the topic of discussion is needed (ali, 1983; sunaryo, 1984; sudjana, 1987; and suryabrata, 1993). discovery-inquiry method can be an alternative in this case. this method can be used to improve students’ analytical thinking as well as their involvement in the teaching process. discovery-inquiry method is a teaching method that involves all students’ capacities, so it can explore students’ curiosity about the studied matters (purwanto, 1990; suharyono, 1994; and ihsan, 1995). educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 189 as young learners, senior high school students’ are very curious about everything. therefore in the learning process, students’ curiosity should be maintained and encouraged so that they will be critical and ask critical questions about the object and material being studied, such as: “what, why, how and what will happen if something happens?”. in a more advanced level, this method can explore students’ ability to develop their process skill, such as: asking a question, guessing the answer, planning an investigation, doing an experiment, processing the data, evaluating the results and communicating their findings to others in many ways (depdiknas, 2004). discovery-inquiry is a teaching method that promotes the students to develop their analytical capability and creates an interaction between the concepts they have acquired and the findings or new evident they find. in such a way, students’ understanding about a concept through a process and exploration method can give the students a better “new concept understanding”. finally, the application of discovery-inquiry method can stimulate students’ mind and their analytical thinking in studying heredity patterns, so students’ understanding about the concept of heredity patterns can be optimized (sudaryo et al., 1987; and slameto, 1995). the problem statement of this class-room action research is: “could the xii grade of (ipa-1) of man 1 purwokerto students’ knowledge about heredity concept be improved using discovery-inquiry method?”. based on that problem statement, the problem source as well as the solution of this problem can be predicted as follows: teguh julianto, improving knowledge of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method 190 this class-room action research was aimed at increasing students’ knowledge about the concept of heredity patterns using discovery-inquiry method. meanwhile the benefits of the development of this innovation are: (1) for the students, it increases students’ knowledge and skill in understanding the concept of heredity patterns; (2) for the teachers, it increases teachers’ skill both in identifying and in solving teaching problems in the class. it also increases teachers’ skill in developing innovation in the class; and (3) for the school, it increases human resources quality in teaching process and in developing teaching method and its variations, so the teaching quality can be improved (wardhani, 2004; and wiriaatmadja, 2007). the research procedure the classroom action research was conducted at man (madrasah aliyah negeri or islamic senior high school) 1 in purwokero, central java, indonesia. the design of this study adopts kurt lewin’s action research pattern in which each action cycle consists of: (1) planning; (2) acting; (3) observing; and (4) evaluating and reflecting (in arikunto, 1998; stigler & hiebert, 1999; sukidin, basrowi & suranto, 2002; wardhani, 2004; and wiriaatmadja, 2007). in detail, the procedure of the study can be described as follows: first, planning. it is the procedure in which steps of learning process are determined. it comprises: (1) selecting discovery-inquiry learning method to improve students’ knowledge in the teaching process of chapter of heredity patterns; (2) selecting the order of teaching materials and objectives; (3) arranging teaching planning and the indicators of achievement for each cycle; (4) creating and completing learning media; (5) creating observation sheet to observe students’ activities and learning process; and (6) designing instrument of evaluation which are suitable for the teaching objectives. second, acting. conducting learning activities in which previously decided teaching model and design are used. third, observing. in this phase, acting phase is observed by using well-prepared observation sheets. fourth, evaluating and reflecting. the data during observation are collected and analyzed. the result of data analysis is used as the reflection of previous teaching educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 191 activities. in this phase, the extent of students’ knowledge increase can be assessed. based on the result of reflection, some weaknesses from the previous teaching activities can be identified for the consideration in deciding the class action in the following cycle. in order to ease the understanding of this class-room action research, a concept mapping is designed as follows: results and discussions generally said that the teaching of chapter heredity patterns using discovery-inquiry method could improve students’ knowledge and understanding about heredity concept. this improvement could be seen from students’ greater involvement in learning process table 1: students’ learning activities during learning process with discovery-inquiry method teguh julianto, improving knowledge of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method 192 that drove them to get a better learning achievement about the concept of heredity (sastrodiroto, 1985; and kartasapoetra, 1987). activity improvement as the realization of students’ knowledge and understanding could be seen from the observation result in each cycle. students learning activities in the teaching process increased from cycle 1 to cycle 3. it is shown in table 1 and figure 1. meanwhile, students’ active participation in the form of both contributive and initiative participation improved from cycle 1 to cycle 3. it is shown in table 2 and figure 2, and figure 3. figure 2: the increase of students’ contributive participation in the teaching process as an indicator of the increase of students’ knowledge table 2: the increase of students’ active participation in the teaching process using discovery-inquiry method figure 3: the increase of students’ active participation and initiative participation in the learning process as indicators of the increase of students’ knowledge educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 193 the increase of students’ learning activities and active participation in the teaching process led to the increase of students’ knowledge which was shown by the increase of students’ achievements. the percentage of the increase of learning achievement in cycle 1 was 6.45%. it increased to 19.30% in cycle 2 and to 20.62% in cycle 3 (table 3 and figure 4). table 3: the percentage of students’ learning achievement increase in the teaching process using discovery-inquiry method based on the data in table 3, it shows that the teaching process using discoveryinquiry method could improve students’ knowledge and understanding. it in turn increased students’ biology achievement. students’ activities in the teaching process increased and a better cooperation in group work appeared. this condition motivated the students to develop their affective, cognitive and psychomotor competencies. students’ competencies increased if they participated well in the teaching process (nasution, 1996; and asy-syakhs, 2001). discovery-inquiry method was applied since this learning method considers students’ competencies development. this learning approach allows the students’ to understand as well as to develop the learning concepts more easily. students’ knowledge and skill stimulate their intrinsic motivation, since they are satisfied with their capability. based on the evaluation results, discovery-inquiry method was less effective for big classes because it would spend longer time (arikunto, 2001). moreover, if that big class was not guided well, it could cause ambiguousness and vagueness to the studied materials. the teachers are required to be wellprepared. it includes their readiness to create work sheets and exercises (djamarah & zain, 2002). figure 4: the diagram of learning achievement increase during the teaching process teguh julianto, improving knowledge of heredity concept using discovery-inquiry method 194 conclusion based on the above results and the discussions, it can be concluded that discoveryinquiry method could increase students’ knowledge about the concept of heredity patterns. the teaching process using discovery-inquiry method should consider the following: (1) it requires better and more careful preparation and planning that comprises lesson planning, learning media and evaluation instruments; (2) the teachers should master the variation of teaching method to increase students’ motivation and interest in learning activities. it is important to increase students’ achievement; and (3) students’ activities and involvement should become the focus of teaching process. references ali, muhammad. (1983). guru dalam proses belajar-mengajar. bandung: sinar baru. arikunto, suharsimi. (1998). manajemen penelitian. jakarta: rhineka cipta. arikunto, suharsimi. (2001). dasardasar evaluasi pendidikan. jakarta: rineka cipta. asy-syakhs. (2001). keterlambatan belajar. translaltion. jakarta: gip. depdiknas [departemen pendidikan nasional]. (2004). kurikulum berbasis kompetensi mata pelajaran biologi untuk sekolah menengah atas. jakarta: depdiknas ri. djamarah, s.b. & a. zain. (2002). starategi belajar-mengajar. rhineka cipta. ihsan, fuad. (1995). dasar-dasar kependidikan. jakarta: rhineka cipta. kartasapoetra. (1987). pengantar anatomi tumbuhan-tumbuhan. jakarta: pt bina aksara. nasution, noehi. (1996). psikologi pendidikan. jakarta: universitas terbuka, departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan. purwanto, ngalim. (1990). ilmu pendidikan yang teoritis dan praktis. bandung: remaja rosdakarya. sastrodiroto, senarjo. (1985). biologi umum. jakarta: gramedia. slameto. (1995). belajar dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhinya. jakarta: rineka cipta aksara. stigler & hiebert. (1999). the teaching gap. new york: the free press. sudargo, f. (2003). “upaya meningkatkan kemampuan mahasiswa calon guru biologi dalam mengembangkan pembelajaran biologi dan sistem penilaiannya di smu untuk menunjang pelaksanaan kbk”. unpublished magister thesis. bandung: pps-upi. sudaryo et al. (1987). strategi belajar-mengajar i. semarang: semarang press. sudjana, nana. (1987). dasar-dasar proses belajar-mengajar. bandung: sinar baru. suharyono. (1994). strategi belajar-mengajar. semarang: ikip semarang press. sukidin, basrowi & suranto. (2002). manajemen pengembangan inovasi tindakan kelas. jakarta: insan cendikia. sunaryo. (1984). strategi belajar-mengajar. bandung: ikip bandung. suryabrata, sumadi. (1993). psikologi pendidikan. yogyakarta: fakultas psikologi ugm. wardhani, i.g.k. (2004). modul penelitian tindakan kelas. jakarta: penerbit ut [universitas terbuka]. wiriaatmadja, rochiati. (2007). penelitian tindakan kelas. bandung: pps upi dan rosdakarya. 7 nuning.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 81 education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage in the indonesian society nuning damayanti adisasmito abstract: transfer of culture from one generation to the next generation takes place in every period. this is an educational process in which knowledge was inherited to several groups of society within one particular country. the knowledge then becomes cultural heritage that will be used by the society. indonesian art education is divided into traditional art education and modern art education. despite the differences between the two, the transfer of indonesian culture’s values occurs in both processes. in general, art education is a processing media of cultural heritage in the context of individual development towards a socially and culturally whole human being, since art develops creativity and sensitivity for different, ever-changing aspects of life, such as the culture and the changes within the society. art education is considered as a process of cultural inheritance and human development – a creative process that functions as an agent of change for culture. key words: cultural heritage, educational process, art education, and transfer of indonesian culture’s values. introduction over the course of human history, civilized nations have always been noted as those which are able to respect their cultural traditions, value their artistic achievements, and perform the protection of the nation’s values and culture for generations. on the other hand, nations which failed to respect the value of cultural heritage have always lost their culture’s value of aesthetic inheritance and remained merely materialistic. when one nation’s values of culture remains materialistic, the civilization of the nation will become shallow because of the lack of the understanding for art and its life functions; thus, the society’s aesthetic and humanitarian sensitivity will start to become dull. art is a universal element of culture. it is a primary necessity in life, as well as integrative secondary necessity, because it correlates strongly with one’s sense of dr. nuning damayanti adisasmito is a lecturer at the faculty of fine art and design, institut teknologi bandung (itb), indonesia. she can be contacted at: aryasena@bdg.centrin.net.id nuning damayanti adisasmito, education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage 82 right and wrong; just and unjust; the value of making sense within whatever dimension of time and space the human exists in. these senses portrays human as a being of reason, moral and value. thus, since art means so much to one’s sense, art is inseparable with one nation’s culture (suparlan, 1985:3-5). in a perspective of education, art is perceived as a balancing media between sensibility and intellectuality; between being rational and being irrational; between logics and emotions – all aspects that form a whole human being. greek philosopher plato is notable for being quoted saying that art should be the foundation of education since art, in a certain extent, sharpens someone’s mind and character (read, 1970; and lavine, 1984). art education should not be exclusive to specific art institutions and professional art educations. it should be applied in a much larger spectrum. systematically, art education should start in primary education up to the highest hierarchy of education in the context of culture as a whole. art should be discussed both conceptually and empirically and should be placed as an educational facility in order to achieve an impartial goal of education that is relevant and necessary in today’s global perspective. art as each nation’s cultural heritage human beings consist of many races and nations that produce different cultural outputs. the cultural outputs depend on the character and life philosophy of each nation, contextual to the nation’s geographical location and historical background. one of those cultural outputs is art. art may be perceived as an element of culture, or also as a subsystem of culture. it has a clear function in human life. art, as an element of culture, functions as a guideline for activities done by the society, especially in the context of the society’s fulfillment of aesthetic necessities. art has incorporated aspects such as cognition-model equipment, symbolic system, or intertwining holistic interpretation of symbols transmitted along the course of history (e.g. ancient illustrations images). every nation’s art have uniquely different characters. art has been a tradition inherited since ancient times. the process of arts being inherited by a younger generation from its predecessor is on a course analogous with the inheritance process of other products of culture which is now identical with knowledge-transfer process or education system (rohidi, 1994). some of the products of art are being conserved and studied as they bear strong relevance to the development of time. others, which are deemed irrelevant and unnecessary, extinct. in this era of global connections, the dimension of space is no longer bounded by distance or territories. the development of recent technologies, especially information-sharing devices such as internet and television, allow human being to learn and interact with different cultures spread across the globe within very short period of time. information about the development of education from various places – especially to this context would educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 83 be the development of art education – can also easily be accessed. every nation has access to absorb the merits of other country’s method of art education, in such an extent that the sharing becomes mutually beneficial to enrich each country’s education system. at the end of the day, different form of arts from different nations will complement each other and enriching systems of education into a better process of shaping more innovative and creative future generation. art: irrational aesthetic transcendence within learning process universally, human beings move towards a better level of life. in this movement, they have to fulfill first the primary necessities, which are biological; then the secondary necessities, which are social; then an integrative necessity which consists of morality, reasons, and sense – these are the goals of education. these needs are integrated into a system morally understandable by thoughts and sensed through feelings (rohidi, 2000). the result of the anthropological and cross-cultural research on many specific bodies of culture shows that human-made cultural outputs have always been heavily incorporated with the artist’s aesthetic expression. this shows that however simple the daily life of an ancient culture may seem, there is always a necessity of aesthetic expression that emerges alongside the primary necessities. this is evidence to the statement that art is a universal element of culture that is inherent in every situation of time and place (read, 1967; and rohidi, 2000). the integrative necessity in a community is reflected in daily life’s aesthetic necessity. also, on some parts of indonesian community, for example, these necessities are reflected in human’s aesthetic needs which are materialized in daily activities embodying senses of right and wrong, just and unjust, the value of making sense. ultimately, decision making when creating cultural outputs has always been based on integrative reasoning sharpened through mind-and-body-revitalizing art activities. consequently, art activities become an integral part of life itself (rohidi, 2000). the type of activity that revitalizes both mind and body is playing. playing is parallel to art activities. in art activities or artistic processes such as kinesthetic art, music art, or visual art; a process of enjoyment always occurs. indonesian traditional playing is pararel to art activities (the dolanan anak jawa, 1920) nuning damayanti adisasmito, education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage 84 art activities, as well as activities considered as “playing”, is a creative process that involves a lot of imagination, otherwise, it’s boring. these types of activities allow human being to live in a boundless imaginary world that pushes them to sharpen creativity and find the side of newness in every ordinary thing. a human’s learning process is a lifelong process. however, this process should not be without fun and enjoyment, since if in this process the mind and body becomes stressful, the process would not be able to last long. learning process, which incorporates hard work, runs effectively in a relaxed and peaceful condition of mind and body. this is where art plays an important role – learning process that incorporates enjoyable activities would be essential as a mean of creative thinking. creativity is very important for problem-solving, the fulfillment of freedom of thoughts, as well as expressions of self-actualization. based on those thoughts, it becomes blatantly clear that art activities and activities of enjoyment is an important part of human life (tabrani, 2006). fun activities like games in the form of art activities imply virtues such as sincerity (less materialistic), independence (freedom), innovativeness (creativity), balance (fairness), and attitudes of transcendence (spirituality). art is a learning facility to perform all those thinking activities holistically. this is the reason why art activities should be an element integrated permanently in general education process (aronowitz & horoux, 1991). art education is a form of education that will sow the seeds of humanity and the sense of physical and mental transcendence, precisely the reason why art should be the foundation of education. art education as able to be applied for children since a very early age, even since the “deep-sleep ages”, and most importantly, as soon as children’s capacity of reasoning starts to develop. art should prepare children for further process of education that makes them perceive education as an enjoyable process (read, 1970). art education as able to be applied for children since a very early age (bumi limas, 2007) educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 85 results of the research conducted by education experts concede the fact that human being’s learning process starts with activities like playing that starts at a very early age. education, altogether, will work better when started at an earlier age. thus, systemically, early-age education is crucial in determining the results of someone’s learning process on whatever subject (tabrani, 2006). modernization in modern education and its implication on art education modernization is generally understood as a method of applying positive modern thoughts in problem-solving done by humans. the positivistic approach and the rapid development of industry and technology are conventionally perceived as a western success in applying science into important universal aspects of human life. this paradigm has become a model applied in the daily life of the western culture, thus obviously has a tangible causal correlation with this decade’s lifestyle of loving instantaneousness. this paradigm spreads all over the globe through information technology and social interaction, up to the point where it becomes a model of thought that infiltrates many cultural aspects of many different communities across the planet. modernization is an application of rationalistic thinking-sequence that is deemed paramount in defining all sorts of natural phenomenon as well as the dimension of life. the keenness on being rationalistic had been applied for such a long time, and becomes a regular practice, in modern education system in many countries nowadays. despite its good impact on human’s capacity of logical sequence, rationalism also reinforces human being to be too rational in assessing many dimensions of life. this leads to an imbalanced room of thoughts and creativity freedom, as then the potentials and emotions in human mind, other than logical rationalism, become massively unexplored. the domination of rationalism because of modernization, up to the frightening extent of being the only correct answer to the process of education, has its effects far on many life aspects and the community’s way of thoughts, in it also the effect rationalism has towards educational institutions. in today’s modern education, the exclusive treatment on strategy, productivity and teaching management in blaringly visible. this exclusivity is a product of the domination of rationalism that puts into peripherals the potentials and emotions inherent in human being. this gradually erodes student’s level of humanitarian sensitivity, and even on a further scale may result in a numb generation incapable of interacting and involving their souls with their surrounding sphere of living beings. the question is how would this happen? the problem starts with how modern education efficiently follows scientific pedagogy – a form of potentially solidified “rational-logical culture”. putting rationalism on a dominating governance that is almost tyrannical would abandon and deteriorate “the culture of imagination”. “rationalization” in education ends up in a system of education that forsakes imaginative, aesthetic, intuitive and creative aspects of human being – aspects that actually are crucially potential (rohidi, 2000). nuning damayanti adisasmito, education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage 86 art education, which is supposed to sharpen those aspects, is impacted by the wave of rationalism. the result is how art education is made as secondary element in education. or, the art education that exists in primary elements is then made too rational, to the level of cognitive education that doesn’t support aspects of sense (barret, 1982). the phenomenon of modernization happens in the system of education in a lot of third world countries. these are the countries where generally the infrastructure of education is not ready to adjust to methods of modernization. this starts with western colonialization in many countries, such as indonesia. the domination of western rationalism affects a lot of aspects in the life of indonesians, including the system of indonesian modern education. the knowledge of art and senses is no longer deemed important in daily life, when in the past, art has been such an important part of the community. influenced by modernization, the current system of education no longer understands the function of art education as an integrative necessity, a function that is managed to be comprehended by the system of education prior to modernization the framework of art education also suffers from rationalism. it becomes massively linear and focused on materials, technology and industrialization. the art education, which previously was an inherent part of life and learning process in general, no longer bears any fundamental importance and suffers from the reduction of development of sense, imagination, and intuition. to avoid unwanted impacts of modernization and materialistic culture, it is important to propose a revolutionary strategy of education, productivity and learning management. education should play a role in proliferating the transfer of knowledge of the importance of art and its function on daily life. the comprehension that art is important as an agent in cultural heritage would be vital, as without comprehension upon that matter, the society is on an easy road towards losing sensitivity towards aesthetics and humanitarian senses. art and art education in indonesia as a media of cultural heritage traditional indonesian communities found their civilization through art. with art sensitivities, dynamic cultural heritages were invented – they are full of passion and warmth, being both realistic and imaginative. culture is indicated by the forms of art that contains values within them, reflected in the output of the culture work itself. indonesian community is a heterogeneous community of many different races, ethnicities, tribes and cultures. the heterogeneous culture materializes itself in the form of various art products originating from different regions. this diversity is acknowledged in indonesia’s fundamental philosophy, which is bhinneka tunggal ika, a sanskrit phrase that means “unity in diversity” (bachtiar, 1986). the indonesian community can be classified into two groups. the first group is the group of those who are isolated/isolate themselves from the outside world. this group has a profound understanding about art, as they put art as a fundamental educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 87 guideline for their daily activities in the form of rituals with strict aesthetic rules that needs to be followed. the other group of the community is the group of those who have open and active interaction with the outside world. this group usually exists in big cities and metropolitan areas. they have huge scope of socialization and social dynamics because of the intensity of interaction with the outside world. between these two groups emerges varied forms of art, ranging from the simplest form to the most complex one. this shows how the society reacts to external influences, the ability to receive and absorb foreign cultures, and appreciate many kinds of art relevant and significant for the society’s life. the course of history shows that indonesia, as a nation that has a beautiful sense of art, appreciates the culture they inherit from their ancestors. this is also shown in the valuable art products, the capability to transfer this to succeeding generations as well as how the cultural values are being transferred to succeeding generation, then adjusted to relevant application of recent forms of life. indonesian community has a huge potential in arts. this is visible in many forms of aesthetic expression that are distinctive one another geographically, spreading from the most western part of the country up to the most eastern point. art in the life of traditional communities functions as an educational facility and also a form of learning process about traditional knowledge inherited from one generation to another. this learning process takes form of many activities such as kinesthetic art, music art, or visual art. these models of art activities are used selectively by indonesian community in the past as an effort to communicate and preserve knowledge and also as efforts to the various indonesian art products from different regions (private collection and indonesian heritage, 2001) nuning damayanti adisasmito, education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage 88 fulfill integrative necessities of aesthetic expression and appreciation starting from its simplest form up to the most complex one. art, according to the traditional concept of indonesian community, has attributes that tries to integrate other elements of culture that correlates with mind, thoughts and morality. art activities directly sharpen the sensitivity of understanding natural phenomenon and how nature works and interpreting the surrounding nature. with the sensitivity towards the surrounding nature, a human is rendered more humane and civilized (durkheim, 1961). traditional indonesian communities found their civilization through art. with art sensitivities, dynamic cultural heritages were invented – they are full of passion and warmth, being both realistic and imaginative. culture is indicated by the forms of art that contains values within them, reflected in the output of the culture work itself. directly, cultural heritage is an education for knowledge that is integrated with elements of life because it is directly applied in daily life. art, in several parts of indonesian community, is still a part of daily life, despite the fact that effects of materialistic modernization and bombardment of foreign culture yields such a significant culture shock. so far, indonesia as a nation is still capable of putting the values of art culture as an aesthetic transcendence and keeping art from degrading into a merely materialistic activity (geertz, 1973). today, indonesian community still lives in two worlds. they can be defined as a community in transition that struggles to establish new sets of values and tradition whilst unable to completely let go of the past. they still struggle to establish the sets of values that will be effective to put indonesia in the same power with other countries. in the context of indonesian education system, an effort of combining adopted modern system of education with the traditional education system is conducted – all the while adjusted to the highly heterogeneous character of indonesian community. past system of education that puts art educational in the same level with other subjects is an education system called as padepokan. this type of education systematically transfers traditional knowledge, for example, in java. the transferred material incorporates heavy influences from once-reigning hindu as well as islam teachings which in the past bear huge significance in building culture of literacy across the archipelago of indonesia. this system, that has been applied in java for centuries, apparently has resemblances with traditional education systems in other regions of indonesia. this implies the existence of general local traits of education that is relevant enough to be formed as an education system that suits indonesian local characters. transformation happens to this type of education each decade. the community manages to develop this system. one of the modern education systems that adopts traditional education system is known as pesantren. this type of education system exists in every region of indonesia. this modernized form of padepokan is considered successful in combining modern and traditional education system in the context of indonesia’s heterogeneous and multicultural society. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 89 modern education that uses the platform of padepokan applies art as the foundation of education. this leads to the proliferation of the life of art in each region and creatively playing the role of being a media of cultural heritage and knowledge-transfer that is able to adjust with today’s demands and necessities. art education in the system of padepokan more or less has become a media in the process of cultural heritage that enables development of individuals that will creatively determine how culture will change in the future (rohidi, 1995). concluding remark culture embodies important aspects that are passed from one generation into another. in a certain extent, culture is also passed on genetically. culture is also appreciated and owned by the supporting community. with that description, it is implied that the process of culture transfer occurs within the process of education. culture heritage can be defined as a process of culture transfer from one generation to another one, it is implied that the process of culture transfer occurs within the process of education. the transfer is conducted by the “teacher” and received by the “student”. substantially, the goal of this process of transfer is to make students apply the transferred knowledge as a practical guidance in life’s problem-solving. this transferred knowledge/heritage will be appreciated, owned, and developed by the students (the new generation) and adjusted with the demands of the era in which the students live. the success of the process of transfer (education) is indicated by: (1) applicable transferred material that conserves traditional elements of culture; (2) the process of transfer must include development and adjustment to dynamics and changes in the society’s current trends of culture; and (3) the process of transfer must include creativity and play a role of being an agent of changes in culture. picture of education system that puts art educational in the same level (padepokan) nuning damayanti adisasmito, education of art as a process of innovative and creative cultural heritage 90 art education is intended to sharpen human’s sensitivity and creativity – potentials that gives them chance to express themselves and support their character development from childhood into adults. thus, art education is not just an individual necessity, it is also the community’s social and cultural necessity. art education can be directed into the development of culture and values of humanity in the context of today’s multicultural condition. this means that the values owned by one nation no longer specifically belongs to that particular nation, it is shared by the cultures of many nations. furthermore, art education should be intended to improve international communication as well as national actualization. references aronowitz, s. & h. horoux. (1991). postmodern education: politic, culture and social criticism. mineapolis: university of minnesota press. bactiar, h.w. (1986). “bhineka tunggal ika dalam kebudayaan dan masalah persatuan banga” in analisis kebudayaan. jakarta: departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan. barret, m. (1982). art education: strategy for course design. london: heinemann educational book. durkheim, e. (1961). moral education. translation. fox glencoe iii: the free press. geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of culture: selected essays. new york: basic books. lavine, t. (1984). from socrates to sarte: philosophic quest. new york: bantam books. read, h. (1967). art and alienation: the role of the artist in society. new york: horizon press. read, h. (1970). education through art. london: faber and faber. rohidi, t.r. (1994). pendekatan sistem sosial budaya dalam pendidikan. semarang: ikip semarang press. rohidi, t.r. (1995). “kreatifitas dalam perspektif kebudayaan: peran pendidikan seni dalam proses kebudayaan”. paper in national seminar on the creativity and art education. bandung: ikip bandung, september 12th. rohidi, t.r. (2000). “transendensi estetik rasionalitas pendidikan seni: bahasan dalam perspektif psiko-antropologis” in journal art, craft and design research aim [australia-indonesiamalaysia], group, 1/1 juli. bandung: fakultas seni rupa dan desain itb. suparlan, p. (1985). “kebudayaan dan pembangunan”. paper presented in the seminar on kependudukan dan pembangunan in bandung. tabrani, primadi. (2006). kreativitas & humanitas. jogyakarta: jalasutra, ikapi. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 23© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com mohd hasan & mohammad parvez a study of under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer abstract: nowadays, the role of information and communication technology (ict), especially in education sector, has been increased to empower the educational activities. computer as an integrated part of ict has become a very crucial and handy tool to perform the various required educational activities. all the ladders of education system have their own ways and purpose to use the computer based applications in their set up. so, computer education has become mandatory in every walks of the life. educational activities at any level cannot be performed effectively until and unless one seeks help from the computer based applications. for an effective use of computer, one should have proper attitude towards computer as well as computer education. that is why the present study aims to investigate the computer attitude of under-graduate students of science and social science streams. a sample of 100 (male = 50, female = 50) was drawn by using standardized computer attitude scale, according to t. khatoon & m. sharma (2011), from the under-graduate students of science and social science faculties of amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh up (uttar pradesh), india. a non-probable purposive sampling technique was used to draw the sample. in order to test the hypotheses, descriptive statistical measures like mean and standard deviation and t-test were applied. analysis of data revealed that there is no significant difference between the computer attitude of under-graduate students of sciences and social science streams at all the basis of comparison. the study has an educational implication for educational practitioners and professionals. key words: information and communication technology, computer education, computer attitude, gender, science and social science streams, and educational practitioners and professionals. about the authors: mohd hasan is a research scholar at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, uttar pradesh, india; and assoc. prof. dr. mohammad parvez is a lecturer at the department of education amu, aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via mobile phone at: +91-9451513343 or be searched at an e-mail: mhasanedu@gmail.com how to cite this article? hasan, mohd & mohammad parvez. (2015). “a study of under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.23-30. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/03-a-study-of-under-graduate-students-attitude/ chronicle of the article: accepted (may 13, 2015); revised (july 16, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction nowadays, the role of ict (information and communication technology), especially in education sector, has been increased to empower the educational activities. computer, as an integrated part of ict, has become a very crucial and handy tool to perform the various required educational activities. all the ladders of education system have their own ways and purpose to use the computer based applications in their set up. computer knowledge has become the key to the success in both the professional and occupational spheres of life. due to the impact of globalisation, computer education has been proved as mohd hasan & mohammad parvez, a study of under-graduate students’ attitude 24 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the mandatory for the school education. vocational efficiency of students can be improved and enhanced by providing computer education and required training. ncsm (national computer saksharta mission), in 2008, a fully registered society, conducting full/short term courses on computer education for the students with the basic objectives: to give basic information and knowledge about the necessity of computer literacy in the various walks of life (ncsm, 2008). aicsm (all india computer saksharta mission), in 1999, a registered and autonomous institution, running various degree and diploma courses in computer education across the country. the organisation has also reached to the village and cities levels. aicsm functioning with the objectives of: to provide adequate knowledge of computer, personality development of students and computer course at the very nominal fee (aicsm, 1999). jlncsm (jawahar lal nehru computer saksharta mission), in 2010, is a leading organization with a social and economical obligation for imparting quality computer education and training to all, particularly the marginalized section of society. jlncsm believe that the computer education manpower can add much more productive outputs strengthen to our national economy than those who are not aware of the computer technology (jlncsm, 2010). the uniqueness of the organization lies in it’s reach to the grassroots level, which also provides excellent opportunity and growth. government of india has also been trying hard from the last few years to provide computer education at every level, but little success could be realised. now, computer education has been imparting at university, college, and school levels. even madrasas are also getting benefit to have computer education under the provisions of various government sponsored programmes. but, the desired results are not coming, especially from the rural areas, due to certain reasons. among them one could be the lack of proper attitude of students towards the computer education. that is why researchers have selected the present topic as a research problem to examine the under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer. computer attitude. g.w. allport (1935) has defined attitude as a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s to all objects and situations with which it is related (allport, 1935). computer attitude has been defined as a person’s general evaluation or feeling of favour or antipathy towards computer technologies and specific computer related activities (cf smith, 2000; fisseha, 2011; and kinzie, decourt & powers, 1994a). gender differences. a gender difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics and typically associated with either male or female or species in general. while the social sciences sometimes approaches gender as a social construct and gender studies particularly do, research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influences the development of gender in humans. gender is the characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, by which people define male and female. science and social science under-graduate. students pursuing graduation in science and social science streams at amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. review of literature b.d. brock & m.l. sulky (1994) carried out research on attitude towards construct validation and relation to computer use. results revealed that individuals completing these have two distinct affective reactions toward the computer; they may see it as a beneficial tool and believe that it is an autonomous entity (brock & sulky, 1994). m.c. vale & c.g. leder (2004) studied about student views of computer-based mathematics in the middle years; and found that girls considers the computer-based lessons less favourably than the boys, boys were likely to believe that computer attributed to their experiencing pleasure in these lessons, and make mathematics more relevant to them (vale & leder, 2004). educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 25© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com k. singh & r.k. allen (2007) conducted a critical synthesis of researches on women in computer-related majors, a critical synthesis of research and theory from 1994 to 2005. analysis indicated that women’s enrolment and retention in computer science majors has declined in recent years (singh & allen, 2007). b.m. kinzie, b.a.m. decourt & m.s. powers (1994b) suggested on the basis of drawn results that attitudes contributes contribute significantly to the prediction of self-efficacy for computer technology eve after the effects of demographic variables and experience are accounted for (kinzie, decourt & powers, 1994b). r. kay (2007) conducted extensive review on gender differences in computer altitudes, aptitude, and use. he suggested that to see the gender differences towards computer in a confusion free manner then, one has to switch from the traditional qualitative, constructed based approach to a qualitative, dynamic approach looks at processes of human behaviour (kay, 2007). c.t. despotakis, e.g. palaigeoriou & a.i. tsoukalas (2007) found that students’ attitudes were influenced by factors, such as the nature of the computer application to be learnt, students’ prior knowledge of that of that application, their prior learning practices, simulated practice, and so on (despotakis, palaigeoriou & tsoukalas, 2007). r. kay (2007) found also that male have the advantages in using computer that female. about the study variables in the present study are dependent variable: computer attitude; and independent variables: choice of stream, i.e. science and social science; and gender, i.e. male and female. objectives of the study are: (1) to find out the computer attitude of science undergraduate students; (2) to explore the computer attitude of social science under-graduate students; (3) to investigate the computer attitude of male science and social science under-graduate students; (4) to investigate the computer attitude of female science and social science under-graduate students; and (5) to find out the computer attitude of total male and female science and social science undergraduate students. hypotheses of the study are: (1) there will be no significant difference between the computer attitude of male and female science under-graduate students; (2) there will be no significant difference between the computer attitude of male and female social science under-graduate students; (3) there will be no significant difference between the computer attitude of male science and social science under-graduate students; (4) there will be no significant difference between the computer attitude of female science and social science under-graduate students; and (5) there will be no significant difference between the computer attitude of total male and female science and social science under-graduate students. delimitations of the study are: the present study is confined on under-graduate students; this study restricted to only science and social science undergraduate students; this study delimited to amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india; the consisted of only 100 sample (male = 50, female = 50) under-graduate students; and this is study confined to the variables of computer attitude, gender differences, and science and social science. method of the study design. present study comes under the category of descriptive research and data were collected through questionnaire. thus, survey design was used to carry out the present study. population and sample. science and social science unger-graduate students of aligarh district constitute the population in present the study. in the present study, sample consisted of 100 (male = 56, female = 44) under-graduate students of science and social science faculty of amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. sample is drawn by employing non-probabilistic purposive sampling technique. research tool used. in the present study, a standardised computer attitude scale by t. khatoon & m. sharma (2011) is used. the tool is comprised of 20 items (negative = 9, positive = 11). split-half reliability coefficient of the tool is given as 0.89, whereas the content mohd hasan & mohammad parvez, a study of under-graduate students’ attitude 26 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: showing the difference between the computer attitude of male and female science under-graduate students basis n mean sd df t-value computer attitude of male under graduate students of science 25 78.36 8.34 48 0.45 computer attitude of female under graduate students of science 25 79.45 8.51 not significant at 0.01 level table 2: showing the difference between the computer attitude of male and female social science under-graduate students basis n mean sd df t-value computer attitude of male under graduate students of social science 25 80.21 6.34 48 0.29 computer attitude of female under graduate students of social science 25 77.33 7.59 not significant at 0.01 level table 3: showing the difference between the computer attitude of male science and social science under-graduate students basis n mean sd df t-value computer attitude of male under graduate students of science 25 78.36 8.34 48 0.87computer attitude of male under graduate students of social science 25 80.21 6.34 not significant at 0.01 level table 4: showing the difference between the computer attitude of female science and social science under-graduate students basis n mean sd df t-value computer attitude of female under graduate students of science 25 79.45 8.56 48 0.05computer attitude of female under graduate students of social science 25 77.33 7.59 not significant at 0.01 level table 5: showing the difference between the computer attitude of total male and female under graduate students of science and social science basis n mean sd df t-value computer attitude of total male under graduate students of science and social science 50 79.42 7.19 98 0.90 computer attitude of total female under graduate students of science and social science 50 77.54 7059 not significant at 0.01 level and construct validity is determined by careful comparison of the items by computer expert, and opinions and suggestions sought from the experts of psychology and education. the discussed tool is based on likert five points scale, which follows a coring pattern like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for positive statements: sa (strongly agree), a (agree), ud (undecided), d (disagree), sd (strongly disgree); and for negative statements it follows 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 accordingly. statistical techniques used. the data was educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 27© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com analysed with the appropriate statistical measures to justify the objectives of the present study. descriptive statistical measures like mean and standard deviation were used in order to describe the nature of the sample taken. inferential statistics like t-test is applied for the purpose of inferential analysis. analysis and interpretation of data the analysis of data was performed in order to make inferences and generalisation about the population. the spps (statistical package for social science) version 22.1 was used with the supplement of microsoft excel. in order to test the null hypotheses, t-test was applied. table 1 reveals that “t” value 0.45 is statistically not significant at 0.05 level. this means that there is no significant difference between the computer attitude of male and female science under-graduate students. hence, null hypothesis is accepted. this means both male and female of science undergraduate students have similar computer attitude. table 2 shows that the “t” value 0.29 is statistically not significant. this signifies that there is no significant difference between the computer attitude of male and female social science under-graduate students. this infers that both male and female of social science under-graduate students have same attitude towards computer. a close view of table 3 reveals that the “t” value 0.87 is statistically not significant. hence, null hypothesis is again accepted. this means male under-graduate students of both streams (science and social science) have no difference in attitude towards computer. a close inspection of table 4 shows that the “t” value 0.05 is statistically not significant. hence, once again null hypothesis is accepted. this signifies that female under-graduate students of both streams (science and social science) have no difference in computer attitude. a close view of table 5 reveals that “t” value 0.09 is statistically not significant. this signifies that there is no significant difference between the computer attitude of total male and female under-graduate students of science and social science. hence, null hypothesis is again accepted. it means that total male and female under-graduate students of both steams (science and social science) have similar attitude towards computer. so, the findings of the study are: (1) no significant difference was found between the computer attitude of male and female undergraduate students; (2) no significant difference was found between the computer attitude of male and female social science under-graduate students; (3) no significant difference was found between the computer attitude of male science and social science under-graduate students; (4) no significant difference was found between the computer attitude of female science and social science under-graduate students; and (5) no significant difference was found between the computer attitude of total male and female under-graduate students of science and social science. conclusion 1 computer attitude casts a positive impact on the educational activities. it has become the part and parcel of educational system. due to the impact of ict (information and communication technology), or extensive use of it in educational sector, drastic changes have taken place, especially in the process of teaching and learning. this is the impact of ict that computer education has been declared as an important aspect of curriculum at every level. only inclusion of computer education in the curriculum is not the security of getting success from it. a positive attitude is needed to make use of it in the professional and occupational life. several studies have been taken by different researchers on the computer attitude of students with reference to different socioeconomic contexts of them. however, present study is concerned to the computer attitude of male and female under-graduate students 1acknowledgement: the researchers acknowledge mrs. b. razia; miss. tabassum fatima; mr. anant kmar varshney; and mr. abdul samad, all are as the research scholars at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india, for their valuable contribution to come up with this research work. however, all contents and interpretations related to this article are solely became the responsible of ourown self (two authors) academically. mohd hasan & mohammad parvez, a study of under-graduate students’ attitude 28 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com of science and social science streams. finally, the results reveal that both male and female of science and social science streams have shown high computer attitude with comparatively higher and lower among each other. in the light of result, attempt should be made to make use of the computer attitude of students in better way by providing the access of computer facility to them that ultimately could bring positive change in the arena of education system, especially in teaching and learning process. the findings of the present study have implications for teachers and professionals in addressing the need of making availability of computer accessibility to under-graduate students. students’ computer potentialities can be enhanced by giving the training about the computer based basic applications. the overall quality of education, especially higher education, can be improved by enhancing and trapping the computer attitude of undergraduate students. further, expansions and provisions of computer education can be made in the light of present study. under-graduates of science with higher computer attitude can be placed for the specialization of computer education. whereas the under-graduates of social science can be put towards the computer based professional courses to earn their livelihood. following suggestions can be made for the further study: (1) the present study was conducted on the under-graduate students of science and social science streams. however, similar study can be carried out on the students of art stream with especial consideration of language students; (2) it is suggested that same study can be taken on the research scholars as well the post-graduate students of different streams; (3) further study can be conducted on the under-graduate students of rural and urban domain; (4) a very meticulous study can be attempted by applying more sophisticated statistical techniques, such as anova or analysis of variances, regression analysis, coefficient and correlation, and so on; (5) further research can be planned out on a large scale by using different sampling techniques; (6) a comparative study can be made on the under-graduate female students of madrasas and college level institutions; and (7) further study can be conducted on the same problem in relation to different psychological variables.2 references aicsm [all india computer saksharta mission]. (1999). an autonomous institution. new delhi: registered no.61/rj, 1882-17-4219/iv and 21, 1880-s/55556, government of india. allport, g.w. (1935). “attitudes” in c.m. murchenson [ed]. handbook of social psychology. warchester, mass: clark university press. brock, b.d. & m.l. sulky. (1994). “attitude towards construct validation and relation to computer use” in journal of organizational behavioral, vol.15, no.1, pp.17-35. available online also at: http://www.jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jspjstor [accessed in aligarh, india: may 20, 2015]. despotakis, c.t., e.g. palaigeoriou & a.i. tsoukalas. (2007). “students’ attitudes towards animated demonstrations as computer learning tools” in educational technology & society, 10(1), pp.196-205. fisseha, mikre. (2011). “the roles of information and communication technologies in education review article with emphasis to the computer and internet” in ethiopian journal of education and science, vol.6, no.2. available online also at: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejesc/article/ viewfile/73521/62437 [accessed in aligarh, india: may 20, 2015]. jlncsm [jawahar lal nehru computer saksharta mission]. (2010). trust & society. new delhi: registered under the society & public trust act 21860 (reg. no s\97) and public charitable trust act 1882, under section 17 reg. no.1946 from government of india. kay, r. (2007). “gender differences in computer attitudes, ability, and use in the elementary classroom”. a research monograph. a research into practice sellers produced by a partnership between the literacy and numeracy secretariat and ontario association of deans of education. khatoon, t. & m. sharma. (2011). computer attitude scale: a manual for cas. agra, uttar pradesh, india: agra psychological corporation. kinzie, b.m., b.a.m. decourt & m.s. powers. (1994a). “an examination of gender differences in computer attitudes, aptitude, and use”. eric paper presented at the annual conference of the american educational research association in san francisco, ca, on april 20-24. kinzie, b.m., b.a.m. decourt & m.s. powers. (1994b). “attitudes and self-efficacy across undergraduate disciplines” in research in higher education, vol.35, 2statement: herewith, we have declared that this paper is our original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 29© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com no.6, pp.745-754. available online also at: http:// www.jstor.org/stable/40196198 [accessed in aligarh, india: may 20, 2015]. ncsm [national computer saksharta mission]. (2008). ministry of hrd government of india. new delhi: regd. no.is s-6422 1233. singh, k. & r.k. allen. (2007). “women in computerrelated majors: a critical synthesis of research and theory from 1994 to 2005” in review of educational research, vol.77, no.4, pp.500-533. available online also at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4624909 [accessed in aligarh, india: may 20, 2015]. smith, r.c. (2000). “starting with ourselves: teacherlearner autonomy in language learning” in b. sinclair, i. mcgrath & t. lamb [eds]. learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: future directions. london: longman, pp.89-99. vale, m.c. & c.g. leder. (2004). “student views of computer-based mathematics in the middle years: does gender make difference?” in educational studies in mathematics, vol.56, no.2/3, pp.287-312. available online also at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150285 [accessed in aligarh, india: may 20, 2015]. mohd hasan & mohammad parvez, a study of under-graduate students’ attitude 30 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the under-graduate students of india (source: http://www.universitiesrankings.com, 20/5/2015). government of india has also been trying hard from the last few years to provide computer education at every level, but little success could be realised. now, computer education has been imparting at university, college, and school levels. even madrasas are also getting benefit to have computer education under the provisions of various government sponsored programmes. but, the desired results are not coming, especially from the rural areas, due to certain reasons. among them one could be the lack of proper attitude of students towards the computer education. 5 azis.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 53 the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary furqanul aziez abstract: the main concern of this research is to develop a teaching model which can promote students’ vocabulary knowledge, especially the qualitative knowledge of the technical vocabulary. the problems underlying the research is that, despite its significance in language learning, vocabulary is methodologically neglected.this is especially true to the teaching of teachnical words. on that basis, this study sets out to generate a teaching model which is effective in boosting students’ qualitative knowledge of technical vocabulary through a set of learning activities commensurate with the curricular requirements, namely, which deems language as a means of communication, which puts students in the core of all concerns and activities, and above all which is applicable for any classroom settings. another result shows that despite its curricular demand, vocabulary is not taught by the teachers, while the teaching practice for other language areas is still dominated with the teacher-centered activities. the validation test results in significant finding: the model proves effective in evolving students’ qualitative vocabulary knowledge in the experimental class. in other words, the model is effective in teaching the indonesian technical vocabulary. key words: integrative, model, technical vocabulary, qualitative knowledge, and quantitative knowledge. introduction unlike the teaching of other language competence, the teaching of vocabulary shows a great gap between the importance of words, how words are acquired and taught, and the objective situation in education context. as john read (2000) says, one of the most consistent findings in the research on reading is the high correlation between the vocabulary test results and reading comprehension. another study by zimmerman also leads to the conviction that vocabulary is inevitable in the teaching of language (in nurwenti & read, 1999). dr. furqanul aziez is a lecturer at the muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump) in central java; and also at pasundan university (unpas) in bandung. he is interested in education and applied linguistics. his email address is: furqonaziez2007@yahoo.co.id furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 54 the second language learners, for instance, are much facilitated by a curriculum which has a strong commitment to the development of vocabulary. in that case language development of the learners is positively affected. vocabulary acquisition is indeed largely dependent upon so called incidental learning, namely through the exposure to the language use, such as in book reading, listening and discussion. and, of those communicative activities, reading is viewed as the most contributive one. however, in the case of adult students, including those of senior high, systematic learning plays a crucial role in not only providing lexical encounters but also in promoting interest in words. in terms of vocabulary teaching method, fran lehr (2006) says that an effective method for the teaching of vocabulary should involve varied techniques and activities, which does not only entails reading but also listening, speaking and writing. in other words, an effective method employs not only one but also a number of supporting interrelated techniques. commenting on the issue, i.s.p. nation (1992) suggests that in order to create autonomous learners, teacher should make them acquainted with three main techniques, namely guessing meaning from context, using mnemonic to memorize and recall learned words, and exploiting word morphology. and this last technique is mostly relevant to the teaching of foreign words containing affixes, especially the ones originating from greek, which frequently appear in scientific texts. the significance of, and ideal views to the teaching of, vocabulary as explained above do not go hand in hand with the contextual situation here in indonesia. as revealed in the preliminary investigation, vocabulary has never been a teaching objective in classes studied. the teachers claim that the teaching of bahasa indonesia has by far emphasized developing language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. in an interview one of the teachers admitted that he had been using “systemic” curriculum through structural teaching approach, irrespective of the government imposed communicative curriculum. he believed that language skills could never be taught well when students he taught had not mastered the system, the grammar. consequently, he reasoned the first and utmost job of a teacher to impart the knowledge of structures and grammar of the language with students. for him, grammar and structures make up a foundation of language, while other components serve as the building blocks, which can be added up after the foundation is there. what make things worse is that vocabulary, according to him, should not be formally included in the curriculum, since it can take of itself along the way. with such a stance, it is quite understandable if a number of activities demanded even by the current curriculum are neglected by the teachers, among other things: (1) listening to recorded text reading; (2) searching meaning of difficult words found in books; (3) skimming non-literary texts; (4) reading nonliterary books out of the classroom; (5) discussing with teacher difficult words found in textbooks; and (6) classroom use of dictionary. this kind of teacher’s stance is by no means relevant with the currently implemented curriculum, which, though providing no methodological suggestions, educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 55 has given adequate room for vocabulary. and, the 2004 curriculum has literally accommodated vocabulary in the standard competence for writing. in the same document, one of the objectives of speaking instruction is “discussing issues (found in news, articles, or books), identifying difficult words, and commenting”. moreover, in the basic competence of writing, there exists an instructional objective to “develop a small dictionary”, in which the learning experience it requires includes: (1) listing subject specific terms; (2) listing those terms in alphabetical order; (3) finding the meaning of the terms; and (4) developing the list into a small dictionary. hence i can say that both qualitatively and quantitatively the 2004 curriculum has paid sufficient attention on the development of vocabulary of the students. in relation with the technical vocabulary, its instruction is increasingly crucial, especially for the higher levels of education. hayes & ahrens (in lehr, 2006) shows that scientific texts rank the first in the ratio of low frequency words in every 1000, which is 128,0, compared to the newspaper with only 68,3, and the lowest come preschool books, which is 16,6 words in every 1,000. these low frequency words are dominated by the technical vocabulary, the ones usually spotted in academic texts. starting from the background, a study which leads to the development of vocabulary teaching model is needed. this model should not only be able to effectively present the technical vocabulary but also nurture communicative skills, raise interest in words among students, and hopefully enhance teacher’s awareness to the importance of vocabulary instruction. statement of the problem, subjects, design and procedure on the basis of the above background, this study wants to answer the following questions: (1) what is the quantitative knowledge of the indonesian vocabulary of year 10 students?; (2) what is the qualitative knowledge of the technical vocabulary of year 10 students?; (3) what is the actual vocabulary teaching like in our schools?; and what teaching model can effectively present technical vocabulary? the subjects of the study were students of one out of 9 year 10 classes of one public school in bandung regency. there were 365 students in all classes and only 41 in the experimental class. the sample class was taken on purpose, considering the collaborative teacher’s schedule. however, since the school employs heterogeneous class system, the distribution of high performing students was relatively even. in other words, the classes were relatively equal in academic performance. this study used w.l. borg & m.d. gall’s research and development design (1979). according to this design, research and development is a process used to develop and validate educational products. therefore, this study was carried out as an attempt to develop an educational product, namely an integrative model for the teaching of technical vocabulary, and to validate it as well. in the design r&d (research & development) had of two stages: library and laboratory study stage; and experimental study stage. the first stage of the study consisted of library and field study which were aimed at developing conceptual furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 56 model. the process commenced from literature investigation, developing word lists from monolingual indonesian dictionary, devising quantitative vocabulary test, identifying and listing technical vocabulary from year 10 textbooks, and devising qualitative technical vocabulary test. the first stage also included preliminary school observation, interviews with the indonesian language teachers, administering quantitative and qualitative tests, and conducting surveys to students using questionnaires. the second stage of the research was empirical test to validate the model through experimental study using randomized pretest-posttest with one experimental group. this study thus followed the following steps. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 57 data collection this study used two kinds of data: major and minor data. the major data, which were primarily used to validate the model, were taken from the qualitative vocabulary test. the minor data, which were used to help design the model, were taken from document, observation, questionnaires, interviews and quantitative vocabulary test. the quantitative (or, the breath) vocabulary test was constructed to estimate the number of basic vocabulary the students know. this test required the students to cross a, b, c, d, or e for the correct reply. the right option could be a synonym or association of the test word. this test was constructed in several steps. the first step was to arrange a basic word list which was based on j.s. badudu & m.t. zain’s kamus umum bahasa indonesia (indonesian general dictionary). the second stage was to sort the first list to become a finished list. following suzanne hazenberg & jan h. hulstijn (1996) the sorting criteria was that the words could not be: (1) specific words for specific professions; (2) compound words whose meaning can be traced from the meaning of the parts; (3) low frequency foreign words; (4) archaic words; (5) dialect words; (6) acronyms; (7) proper nouns; (8) words which were refered by other words; and (9) homonyms. the third stage was to put the words alphabetical order, from a to z. the fourth stage was to randomly take one word at the 100th count. because there were 16,000 or so words in the refined list, there chosen 160 items. the fifth stage was to arrange the words in a common vocabulary test format. the last stage was to provide the option and distractors for each item. according to john read (2000), to determine the estimated vocabulary knowledge using this kind of test is just multiply the correct reply by 100. for the reason, if a respondent obtained 120 correct replies, his estimated vocabulary size is 12,000. the qualitative vocabulary test was designed to see how well respondents know the test words. in other words, this test attempts to identify whether a person: (a) knows the meaning of the test word; (b) knows the meaning and can use it in a sentence; and (c) know the meaning, can make a sentence and morphologically analyze it. with this type of test, identification of deep knowledge problems can be made possible. the scoring system of this test was as follows: correct reply for word meaning was assigned 1; correct use of the word in self sentence was assigned 2; and correct morphological analysis was assigned 2. therefore, from one item a respondent might get the maximum score of 5, and since there were 20 items in the test, the maximum score of the test was 100. this test was designed in three steps. the first step was, read through year 11 textbooks which the students considered difficult. the books were of two kinds: science and humanity. the second step was to identify and make a list of technical words. the third step was to choose 20 words from the list to be the test words. the 30 words were words which: (1) proportionally represented the 6 textbooks; and (2) represented all parts of speech and affixes. furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 58 as for the documents the writer obtained technical vocabulary list from year 10 textbooks and basic word list from a general dictionary. from the documents too the writer developed a number of affix lists. technical vocabulary list was used to construct the qualitative vocabulary test, basic word list to construct quantitative vocabulary test, and affix lists as teaching materials. questionnaires were used to tap the data on students’ daily communicative activities, on school activities, on attitude towards vocabulary, on opinions about textbooks, and on the way they deal with difficult vocabulary. interviews were used to dig additional information related to the currently used the indonesian teaching methods, the position of vocabulary in the methods, the obstacles in the teaching of, if any, vocabulary. observation was used to gather information concerning students’ learning culture in school site, students’ activities in the library, and the classroom teaching process. this technique was also used during the implementation of the model as a means of identifying its weaknesses and strengths for further improvement. results and preliminary study preliminary study shows textbooks in sciences are considered difficult by the respondents and low frequency words as the main cause. this perception is proved by the finding of the literature study, which reveals that textbooks in science contain more technical words than those in humanity. as the finding exhibits, technical vocabulary is mostly found in sample biology textbook with 1,333 words, chemistry 1,009, physics 994, and mathematics 504. economy textbook contains 299 and civics education 701. these books are respectively considered the most difficult books for the students to discern. this finding is in parallel with garcia’s study (in lehr, 2006) that most elementary and secondary school students encounter difficulty in reading their textbooks, and the main reason is the lack of knowledge of abstract words. the quantitative vocabulary knowledge of the respondents was in average still low (8,228 words). the highest achiever obtained 11,500, very close to the curriculum demand of 12,000 words, and the lowest achiever 5,500. however, with the average knowledge of 8,228 words, the students were regarded as capable of actively taking part in this model (elpa, 2002). the qualitative vocabulary test also produced a bleak result, with the average score of 36.85 from the maximum score of 100, and the highest score was 63. respondents were still weak in two areas of the qualitative knowledge: sentence structure and morphology. it was also found that the teachers never taught vocabulary nor even mentioned it in the instruction. the cause might be the fact that the curriculum document did not offer methodological suggestions for the teacher to carry out the materials. theoretical study findings indicate that vocabulary teaching according to meszynzky (in templeton & pikulski, 2003) is best presented through a teaching approach which entails: (a) wide reading, (b) direct instruction, and (c) building an educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 59 interest in words. from the students’ perspective, vocabulary learning as stated by shane templeton & john j. pikulski (2003) requires learners to: (a) try to pronounce the word; (b) think of other words that remind you of this one; (c) look for familiar prefixes, base words, roots, or suffixes; (d) look for context clues; and (e) use dictionary. besides, vocabulary instruction has also to include an effective vocabulary teaching strategy, which covers: (a) determining what students may already know about the word; (b) providing students with several experiences to the new word; (c) providing a significant amount of information about each word, including definitional information and how the word is used in context; and (d) providing activities that provide deeper processing of the concept unserlying new words. all available theories regarding vocabulary teaching and learning hint the need for active involvement of the students in the process. from other perspective, vocabulary acquisition is divided into two ways: incidental and systematic. incidental learning refers to the way a person get acquainted with a word without a planned effort on the part of the learner, while systematic learning refers to the way an individual acquirs a word with the help of, or a planned effort of, others or oneself. in accordance with the above theoretical findings, vocabulary knowledge is in itself often divided into two types: quantitative and qualitative. the first refers to the how much vocabulary an individual knows. this knowledge is usually limited to the meaning of the word only. quantitative vocabulary on the other hand refers to how well an individual knows about the words. this knowledge might range from knowing the meaning to knowing the origin of the word. the integrative model: development and experimentation study the integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary was developed on the findings of the preliminary study aforementioned and was aimed at improving the teaching of indonesian vocabulary, especially the technical one. in the first stage of the development, a conceptual or prototype model was shaped and put into practice in the class. from the beginning of the development, the writer intensively collaborated with the teacher. this was meant to make the model actually answer the existing needs and to avoid potential problems in implementation. during the implementation, strengths and weaknesses of the model were recorded. at the second month of the stage, revision was carried out for the betterment of the initial model. the revised model was then implemented to see it worked. the integrative model entails three core elements of instruction: teacher, students, and teaching objectives. the roles the teacher has to play in this model include planning, explaining, monitoring and evaluating. in “planning”, the teacher plans what he is going to do in the class and put it in a standard lesson plan format. furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 60 the plan covers such elements as the competence he is going to teach, the indicators of teaching success, the materials to be used and the teaching scenario. at the beginning of the program, the teacher prepares sample presentation plan and presentation schedule. in “explaining” activity, the teacher at times helps clarify difficult concepts, and tells or informs students his experience with technical words, his interest in them, how important words are in dicerning messages, etc. at the outset he explains in details what and how important technical words are, what he and his students are going to do in relation with the matter. “monitoring” is very vital in that it enables the teacher to know if help is needed, correction is required, reward is to be given, and what score is to be assigned. “evaluating” is the teacher’s job to see how well the class has run, how well the the students have performed, how well the materials have served reaching the teaching objectives, etc. however, of the evaluating jobs, the most important is to see how well the students have performed. evaluation is carried out over students’ presentation plan, their performance before the class, and period-end test. information obtained from presentation plan and presentation performance would be used to adjust further stage, while data obtained from the period-end test would be used to compare with pre-test test result. students’ activities can be classified into four, namely: (1) interest fostering, (2) extensive reading, (3) preparing a report, and (4) presenting the report. interest fostering is done with the help of the teacher. interest fostering is done first by the teacher by asking students questions related to technical words, ranging from the meaning, the base word or even the root, the afixes they have, to their origins or etimology. the next activity would be the part of the students by studying the affix lists and use them to analyse any technical terms found in textbooks. extensive reading is encouraged as students’ daily activity, which is mostly done at home. reading materials are for the most part school textbooks. this activity is extended to identifying difficult, unique, new, or interesting technical words. extensive can be considered an entrance to the report preparation, as students are assigned to propose one of the teachnical words to the teacher for class presentation. this word be put in a notice sheet (called presentation word list) to avoid overlapping with other students’ choices. report on word study contains: (1) student’s name, (2) facts of the book in which the student found the word, (3) original sentence where the word appears, (4) the technical word, (5) morphological analysis, (6) self-made sentence containing the word, and (7) mnemonic. facts on books comprise (a) title, (b) author, (c) publisher, and (d) page, in which the word appears. morphological analysis takes in parts of speech, base word, affix, and if possible etymology. mnemonic is a sentence or a word that students can use to remember it. presentation of the word is performed before the class. this activity is devided into three parts, namely (a) introduction, (b) presentation, (c) question and answer, and (d) closing. in introductory part, a student introduces him/herself and expresses what he/she is going to present. presentation stage requires a student to read the report and write important facts about it, such as the word, meaning, and analysis. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 61 when a student is performing, the rest of the class listen and write the information on the board. after this stage is over, he invites questions or comments from their mates. the last part is the closing, in which the presenter student shortly reviews the material, expresses gratitude, and says goodbye. all these activities are designed to lead to three central objectives, that is students’ competence in meaning, use, and analysis of technical words. knowledge of word meanings refer to the dictionary meanings and field specific meanings. word use refers to the ability of the students to use the words in students’ own sentences. word analysis refers to the ability to break down a word into their parts, and know the meaning of each part. this ability has foremost use in helping students guess the meaning unknown words, thus assisting them smoothly read academic texts. a. prototype model the prototype model was the conceptual model was implemented in the class for a period of two months. if illustrated in a picture, the model would look as follows: b. revised model during the two months of implementation, a number of weakness were still spotted, among other things the high frequency of students’ unacceptable sentences, either grammatically, structurally, diction, and the use of parts of speech. these weak points of the prototype were overcome through the addition of teacher’s job, namely reinforcement. what was meant by reinforcement was in activity in which teacher gave feedback to the mistakes made, practice of the desired skill or competence, and quiz on the materials. this was done at the end of every meeting. furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 62 put in a picture, the revised model would look as the following: in the class context, the revised model, which comprised objectives, materials, to scenario, looked as the following: educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 63 c. effectivity of the model in the course of the implementation of the prototype model, the frequency of students’ mistakes was very high, both in written and in spoken utterances, which amounted up to 68 times. and, during the revised model implementation period the frequency dropped significantly, which appeared only 26 times. the details of mistake frequency in both periods can be seen in the following table. meanwhile, the qualitative knowledge of the students before the implementation of the model was very low. with the maximum score of 100, the average score gained was only 34.05, and the range was from14 to 63. after the implementation of the model the students’ qualitative knowledge raised markedly. according to the posttest results, the average score reached 51.51, and the range was from 20 to 88. therefore, the mean score difference between the preand the posttest was 17.46. the table below helps clarify the students’ scores of the two tests. furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 64 t-test result for the mean difference between the two tests was 2.30, which was above the table value. that means the hypothesis that the model could increase the students’ qualitative knowledge was accepted. conclusion this study came to some conclusions. firstly, there was a significant rise in the qualitative vocabulary knowledge of the respondents. the rise was observed in the improvement of knowledge of meaning, word class, morphology and use. the data was obtained from the tests and observation notes. secondly, there was improvement in language skills of the respondents, which was mainly seen from the decreasing number of mistakes made by the respondents and the increasing number of questions and comments made by the respondents. thirdly, there was recorded a slight increase in the quantitative knowledge of the basic vocabulary of the respondents. though this aspect was not the focus of the study, and therefore a hike was not expected, a slight rise was a bit surprising, considering especially the fact that this study took the writer three months and that an increase in quantitative vocabulary naturally takes a long time. references badudu, j.s . & m.t. zain. (1993). kamus umum bahasa indonesia. jakarta: pustaka sinar harapan. borg, w.l. & m.d. gall. (1979). educational research: an introduction. new york: longman group ltd. depdiknas [departemen pendidikan nasional]. (2000). kurikulum mata pelajaran bahasa dan sastra indonesia. jakarta: depdiknas. elpa [english language proficiency assessment]. (2002). vocabulary test 001: medium level. available at www.elpa.com/vocabulary/test/med.htm [accessed in purwokerto: 21/6/2008]. hazenberg, suzanne & jan h. hulstijn. (1996). “defining minimal receptive second language vocabulary for non-native university students: an empirical investigation” in applied linguistics, vol.17, no.2, p.145-160. lehr, fran. (2006). a focus on vocabulary. illinois: university of california press. nation, i.s.p. (1992). “teaching and learning vocabulary” in applied linguistics, vol.13, no.3, p.326-331. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 65 nurweni, ari & john read. (1999). “the english vocabulary knowledge of indonesian university students” in english for specific purposes, vol.18, no.2, p.161-175. read, john. (2000). assessing vocabulary. cambridge: cambridge university press. templeton, shane & john j. pikulski. (2003). “building the foundation of literacy: the importance of vocabulary and spelling development”. available at www.eduplace.com/ shane/vocabulary.htm [accessed in purwokerto: 21/6/2008]. furqanul aziez, the development of integrative model for the teaching of indonesian technical vocabulary 66 o n e o f th e m o st co n sisten t fin d in gs in th e research o n read in g is th e h igh co rrelatio n b etw een th e vo cab u lary test resu lts an d read in g co m p reh en sio n . educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 97© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com anant kumar varshney attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students of aligarh muslim university towards computer abstract: technology is the main support for the students learning developments nowadays. with shifting from the teacher-centred instruction to child-centred instruction, the role, activities, attitudes, reflections of the students become more important concern to overlook the effectiveness of technology in instruction. computers are the main technology support as a tool for effective learning and teaching process. computer based instruction and computers programs, tools as itself, provides much facilities and supports to students’ educational life. computers are update mechanism for the education and it is not only for education, these developments affect all global, cultural and economical life standards as well. the computer as productivity tool has great role in education. so, computers have become a necessary part of our life. we are using computers in every aspect of our life. but, there are many villages in india which are very much far from computers. how this absence of computer technology affects attitude of students of rural background? this study strives to find answer of this question. a sample consisting of 50 male and 50 female undergraduate students of amu (aligarh muslim university) was selected. their attitude was assessed through computer attitude scale constructed by t. khatoon & m. sharma (2011). after analysis of data, it was found that rural and urban students, both rural and urban undergraduate students, have favourable attitude towards computer, but rural girls showed less favourable attitude than urban girls. key words: computer, students learning, attitude towards computer, undergraduate students, rural and urban students, gender, and favourable and less favourable attitudes. about the author: anant kumar varshney is a research scholar at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. for academic interests, the author can be contacted via e-mail at: anant.0148@gmail.com how to cite this article? varshney, anant kumar. (2015). “attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students of aligarh muslim university towards computer” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.97-104. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/10-attitudeof-rural-and-urban-undergraduate-students/ chronicle of the article: accepted (may 13, 2015); revised (june 29, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction technology is the main support for the students learning developments nowadays. with shifting from the teacher-centred instruction to child-centred instruction, the role, activities, attitudes, and reflections of the students become more important concern to overlook the effectiveness of technology in instruction. computers are the main technology support as a tool for effective learning and teaching process. computer based instruction and computers programs, tools as itself provides much facilities and supports to students’ educational life. computers are update mechanism for the education and it is not only for education, these developments affect all global, cultural, economical life standards anant kumar varshney, attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students 98 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com as well. the computer as productivity tool has great role in education (agbatogun, 2010). computers include hardware and software, word processing functions, graphics, programmed instruction for problem solving, spreadsheets, databases, networking, and telecommunications for today high technology developments as a reflective to education. in addition to this, within the constructivist approach perspective, computers help the differentiate roles of students and teachers, application of instruction by providing equal standards, understanding, and meaningful learning for all students. computer help to convert teacher based instruction to child centred instruction with providing multiple intelligence atmospheres to the educational cycle (forcier, 1996). within the today’s application, it is important to get the meaningful learning for the students’ learning cycle. it is not necessary to get information directly from the instructors, what is important today is that experiencing reality, discovering reality with technology guidance. when we look at issues and ahead, we can commend that technology has main responsible process in instruction for today educational world. with the development of high technology improvements, students get main role in their learning process. computers have role to support easy study of students with their learning process. beside this, all students take advantage of learning opportunities technology offers within the instruction (grabe & grabe, 2001). following contemporary invention that is multiple intelligence is needed to them for contributing effective learning can get essential knowledge. multiple intelligence refers that every person has different capacity to different activity for learning. by this way, technology is a new dimension that provides multiple intelligence under the aim of stable effective learning. because technology includes various alternatives that are visual, oral, and textual elements in order to make individual easily catch information instantly. if we go deeper, we can easily realize that computer and its applications is a key factor to catch multiple intelligence opportunities for effective learning. because, every individuals can find their needs under the wide range of functions of computers (anderson & noyes, 1999). as we know that research is main consideration to form alternatives and critical thinking by comparing all issues. today, we can face with learning by doing, discovery learning, and learning by searching (bertea, 2009; and chai et al., 2009). these concepts refer to understand that individualized learning becomes more needed to contribute stable learning among individuals. in addition to this, computer is basic home to get and apply all these items under the idea of equalities in education among all people. because by the computer included learning, everyone get same chances to know and follow issues. therefore, considering issues should be done individually as being free. on the other hand, research is key factor at computer based life in order to know and apply all situations in a useful way at individual life (hakim et al., 1999). in order to be reflective on the usage of computers and facilities, there should be examination of the thoughts and attitudes of students towards computer. obviously, the quality of computer literacy is closely related to one of the major attitudes components is motivation. if a student is absolutely motiveless to work with computer, the learning result will not be optimal. a motivated computer user, even under unfavourable conditions, willingly works with computer (ray, sormunen & harris, 1999; and isman et al., 2004). this article deals with the study of students’ attitudes towards computer. because based on the constructivist perspectives, students have great role in the learning process and much affected from the technology support to their education. villages in india are deprived of, even basic technological support. a very few families have their own computer system in indian villages. so, students in rural area have this obstacle in modern age learning which cannot be possible without using electronic devices. students in villages also have rights to use technology enabled learning in their classroom. but sometimes, some arguments also come to know in opposition of investment in set up of computer facilities in indian rural schools. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 99© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com these arguments say about traditional thinking of rural thinking, resistance to adopt new technology, lack of electricity, and absence of internet etc. so, as a result, there is a lack of technological devices in villages, but when students from rural background come to cities for higher studies, their distance from computer comes in their way of success. so, there is a need to know how these undergraduate students from rural background see this world full of computers. so, there is a need to know whether these students have negative attitude towards computers or they perceive computers positively. a.s. fahad (2000) investigated the gender differences in attitudes of sixth-grade kuwaiti students toward computers by using caq (computer attitude questionnaire), translated from the english into arabic language for this study; originally developed by knezek and miyashita for the texas center for educational technology (university of north texas). the caq was administered to a random cluster sample of 10 public middle schools (5 boys and 5 girl schools), with a total of 562 students (265 boys and 297 girls), in the state of kuwait during the academic year 1999-2000. the pilot test was conducted to calculate the reliability with cronbach’s alpha = .87 for the caq arabic version. this study found positive attitudes toward computer use (mean = 3.31 on 4-point likert-scale); however, girls had significantly more positive attitudes toward computers (fahad, 2000). e. bebetsos & p. antoniou (2008), in department of physical education and sport science, democritus university of thrace, investigated the differences in attitude of greek physical education students towards the subject of computers. the sample consisted of 165 freshmen students: 93 boys and 72 girls. they completed the “computer attitude scale” questionnaire of 21 items which consist four factors: affect, perceived usefulness, perceived control, and behavioural (cf popovich et al., 2008; and teo, 2008). investigators found significant difference between attitude of boys and girls towards computer. boys were found to have more positive attitude towards computer in comparison of girls (bebetsos & antoniou, 2008). s. singh & s. yadav (2011) studied attitude towards computer among undergraduate students of csjmu (chhatrapati shahu ji maharaj university) in kanpur, uttar pradesh, india. for this purpose, descriptive survey research design was used. data was collected from randomly selected 320 male and female students of the urban and rural areas of kanpur in uttar pradesh, india. computer attitude scale was administered on the selected sample. the result showed that significant difference was found in attitude towards computer between undergraduate rural and urban students. rural and urban students both have positive attitude towards computer, but rural students have significantly less positive attitude than urban students. but, there was no significant difference between male and female students (singh & yadav, 2011). b. padma & n. vidyageetha (2012) studied effect of gender and location of schools on attitude of 855 students of 10 secondary schools in kumbhkonam; and 12 secondary schools in thanjavor towns of tamilnadu, india, towards computer by using dr. kumaran and dr. selvaraj’s tool to study the students’ attitude towards computer. significant difference was found between the boys and girls in their attitude towards computer. the girls are found to be better than the boys in their attitude towards computer. significant difference was found between rural and urban students in their scores in attitude towards computer. the rural students are found to be better than the urban students in their attitude towards computer (padma & vidyageetha, 2012). g. suri & s. sharma (2013) investigated the effect of gender on attitude towards computer among students studying at the punjab university in chandigarh, india, by using b.h. loyd & c. gressard (1984)’s computer attitude scale. differences between means were analyzed through independent sample t-test. study revealed that there is no effect of gender on attitude towards computer (suri & sharma, 2013). n. navneethakrishan (2014) investigated the effect of gender and location of school on attitude towards computer among d.t.ed. (diploma in teacher education) students anant kumar varshney, attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students 100 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com studying in teacher training institutes in cuddalore district of tamil nadu, india, by using attitude scale towards computer constructed and validated by d. kumaran & k. selvaraj (2001). the sample was selected by using simple random sampling technique. study revealed that there is no effect of gender and location of school on attitude towards computer (navneethakrishan, 2014). there are many studies also which are concerned with attitude of students towards computer, but there are a few studies which focus on attitude and perception of rural students towards computer. so, this study focuses on comparison of attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers. definitions, objectives, and hypotheses operational defi nitions of the terms used. l.l. thurstone (1928) defines “attitude” as the sum total of man’s inclination and feelings prejudices and biases, pre-conceived notions, ideas, fears, threats, and conviction about any specific topic (thurston, 1928). while, “attitude towards computer” in this study is an attitude of an individual towards computer that is assessed through his/her score on a questionnaire constructed by t. khatoon & m. sharma (2000) named as cas (computer attitude scale). “rural and urban students” are the students, whose birthplace meets following criteria, for rural students: (1) a population of less than 5,000; (2) density of population less than 400 per sq km; and (3) more than 25 per cent of the male working population is engaged in agricultural pursuits. while students, whose birthplace does not meet above written criteria, are urban students. “an undergraduate student” is a student who is studying for his/her first degree (usually entitled b.a. (bachelor of arts) or b.sc. (bachelor of science). there are three levels of undergraduate study equating to first-year, second-year, and third-year study. once the student has a first degree, he/she is called a graduate. objectives. objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers; (2) to investigate effect of gender on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers; (3) to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of male undergraduate table 1: showing distribution of sample type of students male rural male urban female rural female urban number of students 25 25 25 25 tabel 2: showing scoring of single item response sd d u a sa score on negative statement (statement no. 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 14, 17, 18, and 20) 5 4 3 2 1 score on positive statement (statement no.1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 19) 1 2 3 4 5 note: sd = strongly disagree; d = disagree; u = undecided; a = agree; and sa = strongly agree. table 3: showing interpretation of scores score interpretation < 60 negative or unfavourable attitude towards computer. 60 neutral or undecided attitude towards computer. > 60 positive or favourable attitude towards computer. table 4: showing levels of independent variables gender birthplace male female rural urban educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 101© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 5: showing comparison between attitudes of rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers gender no. of respondents mean standard deviation t-value df level of significance rural 50 77.70 8.8 0.26 98 not significant urban 50 79.48 5.4 table 6: showing comparison between attitudes of male and female undergraduate students towards computers gender no. of respondents mean standard deviation t-value df level of significance male 50 79.42 7.2 0.20 98 not significant female 50 77.33 7.6 students towards computers; and (4) to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers. hypotheses. hypotheses of this study are written in null form as follows: (1) “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”; (2) “there is no significant effect of gender on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”; (3) “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of male undergraduate students towards computers”; and (4) “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers”. method population and sample. the population for this study is defined as “undergraduate students of amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india”. the sample for this study consists of 100 undergraduate students of amu in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. simple random sampling was used for selection of sample. see table 1. tool used. present study has one dependent variable: attitude of undergraduate students towards computers, which is assessed through score of respondent on a questionnaire constructed by t. khatoon & m. sharma (2000) named as cas (computer attitude scale). the split half reliability coefficient of this questionnaire was found to be 0.86. for ensuring the content validity, the scale was checked by experts of educational technology and computer sciences. the construct validity was also determined figure 1: showing comparison between attitudes of rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers figure 2: showing comparison between attitudes of rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers by finding out the relationship between score on each item with total score on scale. score on each item was significantly correlated with total score on the scale that reveals good construct validity of scale. this questionnaire has 20 statements, in which 9 statements represent negative attitude towards computer; while 11 statements represent positive attitude towards computer. this questionnaire was made in form of 5 point likert scale. scoring of single item is given in table 2. anant kumar varshney, attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students 102 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com interpretation of scores of respondents on questionnaire is given in table 3. research design. this study has two independent variables: gender and birthplace. each independent variable has two levels as given in table 4. research design for this study examines significance of effect of independent variables, i.e. “gender” and “birthplace” on dependent variable, i.e. “attitude of undergraduate students towards computer”. data was analysed by using spss (statistical package for social sciences) software package. means were compared by t-test. basic statistical techniques like mean and standard deviation were also used for analysis of data. analysis of data and results as per the design of the study, the needed data is collected and then subjected to statistical treatment to verify the stated hypotheses. objective 1: to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers. hypothesis h 0 1 (null hypothesis): “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”. see table 5 and figure 1. table 5 shows that calculated t-value is 0.26 with 98 degrees of freedom which is not significant. so, hypothesis h 0 1 is accepted. so, “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”. objective 2: to investigate effect of gender on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers. hypothesis h 0 2 (null hypothesis): “there is no significant effect of gender on figure 3: showing comparison between attitudes of rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers figure 4: showing comparison between attitudes of female rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers table 7: showing comparison between attitudes of male rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers gender no. of respondents mean standard deviation t-value df level of significance rural 25 79.05 7.8 0.22 48 not significant urban 25 80.18 6.03 table 8: showing comparison between attitudes of female rural and urban undergraduate students towards computers gender no. of respondents mean standard deviation t-value df level of significance rural 25 74 10.8 2.06 48 0.05 urban 25 79 4.9 attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”. see table 6 and figure 2. table 6 shows that calculated t-value is 0.20 with 98 degrees of freedom which is not significant. so, hypothesis h 0 2 is accepted. so, “there is no significant effect of gender on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers”. objective 3: to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of male undergraduate students towards computers. hypothesis h 0 3 (null hypothesis): “there is no significant effect of birthplace on educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 103© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com attitude of male undergraduate students towards computers”. see table 7 and figure 3. table 7 shows that calculated t-value is 0.22 with 48 degrees of freedom which is not significant. so, hypothesis h 0 3 is accepted. so, “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of male undergraduate students towards computers”. objective 4: to investigate effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers. hypothesis h 0 4 (null hypothesis): “there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers”. see table 8 and figure 4. table 8 shows that calculated t-value is 2.06 with 48 degrees of freedom which is significantat 0.05 level of significance. so, hypothesis h 0 3 is rejected. so, “there is significant effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers”. urban girls have more positive attitude than rural girls. finally, the results are as follows: firstly, there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers. rural and urban undergraduate students, both have favourable attitude towards computer. secondly, there is no significant effect of gender on attitude of undergraduate students towards computers. male and female undergraduate students, both have favourable attitude towards computer. thirdly, there is no significant effect of birthplace on attitude of male undergraduate students towards computers. male rural and male urban undergraduate students, both have favourable attitude towards computer. fourthly, there is significant effect of birthplace on attitude of female undergraduate students towards computers. female rural and female urban undergraduate students, both have favourable attitude towards computer but rural girls showed less favourable attitude than urban girls. this study tells that students are wishing to use computer for their study purpose irrespective of their birthplace. high values of mean of attitude scores show that students have strongly positive attitude towards computer. gender and birthplace have not significant effect on attitude towards computer. this study investigated the effects of birthplace and gender on attitude towards computer. results of this study are in line with works of s. singh & s. yadav (2011); g. suri & s. sharma (2013); and n. navneethakrishan (2014) that there is no significant difference in attitude towards computer with respect to gender. on the other hand, some other studies showed opposite result like e. bebetsos & p. antoniou (2008), who found that boys had significantly more positive attitude towards computer than girls. while a.s. fahad (2000) and b. padma & n. vidyageetha (2012) found that girls had significantly more positive attitude towards computer than boys. results of this study are similar with work of n. navneethakrishan (2014) that there is no significant difference in attitude towards computer with respect to birthplace or location of school. on the other hand, some other studies showed different results like s. singh & s. yadav (2011), who found that urban students had significantly more positive attitude towards computer than rural students. while b. padma & n. vidyageetha (2012) found that rural students had significantly more positive attitude towards computer than urban students. but, a significant difference was found between attitude of rural girls and urban girls towards computer. although rural girls also want to use computers for their study, but they did not show their wish strongly as urban girls did. their mean attitude score was least among all 4 groups. any previous study did not find such type of interaction between gender and birthplace. conclusion apart of less access to computer and technology, students from rural background showed favourable attitude towards computer like urban students. they want to acquaint with computers and technological device. they want to learn computer operating and consider knowledge of computer necessary for their career. so, this is indicating about need of expansion of knowledge of computer in rural area. so, that rural students should not anant kumar varshney, attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students 104 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com lag behind due to incomplete knowledge of computer. although rural girls showed favourable attitude towards computer, but their attitude were significantly less than urban girls’ students. their mean attitude score was least among all 4 groups. this may be due to traditional environment in villages, in which it is supposed that girls are not capable to handle gadgets and devices. it shows need of emphasis on special arrangement of computer education for girls. incentives and scholarship must be included in girls’ computer education program. references agbatogun, a. (2010). “self-concept, computer anxiety, gender, and attitude towards interactive computer technologies: a predictive study among nigerian teachers” in international journal of education and development using ict, 6(2), pp.55-68. anderson, s.j. & j.m. noyes. (1999). “the intranet as learning tool”. available online also at: http://www.raco.cat/index.php/iem/article/ viewfile/205358/273896 [accessed in aligarh, india: april 8, 2015]. bebetsos, e. & p. antoniou. (2008). “university students’ differences on attitudes towards computer use: comparison with students’ attitudes towards physical activity” in interactive educational multimedia, number 17 [october], pp.20-28. bertea, p. (2009). “measuring students’ attitude towards e-learning: a case study” in conference proceedings of else: elearning and software for education, no.01, pp.417-424. chai, c.s. et al. 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(1928). “attitudes can be measured” in american journal of sociology, 33, pp.529554. available online also at: http://www.brocku. ca/meadproject/thurstone/thurstone_1928a.html [accessed in aligarh, india: may 1, 2015]. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 45© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com johni dimyati a study of education history on gifted children: research on their learning achievement as they started their school under seven abstract: a child with a high intelligence or a talented child was deemed able to distinguish between behaviors and to have a high learning ability. in contrast, another child having a low intelligence would always fail in all areas. this conventional view believed that intelligence is an ability that can be used to solve all problems in life. among indonesian society, especially among those involved in the basic education, there is a questionable belief that when a young child of less than 7 years starts to enroll a primary school he/she cannot study well. based on the theoretical frame, this research proposes a hypotheses: “a gifted child does not experience any problem of academic achievement and the disorders of mental hectic and brain fatigue when he/she starts the primary school before seven”. this is a longitudinal study using documentation and observation for the data collection. the observation carried out by following the educational experience of the subjects studied in a fairly long period of time. three subjects were studied. all of them started their elementary education under sever years old. they joined kindergarten under 5 years, and one of them even started his experience of learning when he was still so young, 3-year-old. the method of analysis data used a qualitative descriptive. the research results prove that the hypothesis proposed is accepted or proven, meaning that gifted children starting their elementary school before seven will not have problems in the academic achievement and do not suffer the disorders of mental hectic and brain fatigue, provided they are given education appropriate to their talents. key words: longitudinal study, gifted children, intelligence, elementary education under sever years, and not have problems in the academic achievement. about the author: johni dimyati is a senior lecturer at the faculty of letters ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via mobile phone at: +6285643534732 or via e-mail at: kristian.topz@gmail.com how to cite this article? dimyati, johni. (2015). “a study of education history on gifted children: research on their learning achievement as they started their school under seven” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.45-54. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educareijes.com/05-a-study-of-education-history-on-gifted-children/ chronicle of the article: accepted (july 3, 2015); revised (august 3, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction the hadiths of the prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him) recommend that parents in educating their children have to adjust to the development of science and technology and it must go with the era. he has warned that the science and technology will always change. therefore, it is not good and wise if parents educate their children in a way they were treated as they were young (mukhtar et al., 2013; and suryosubroto, 2004). the concept of islamic education does not prohibit young children to learn reading and johni dimyati, a study of education history 46 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com writing, even if they are still very young. islam considers that education and learning must have been started since the child is still in the womb. based on such the educational concepts of lifelong learning, parents have educated and taught their young to read and write from their early childhood (mariyana, 2005). it shows that the children starting their early education can succeed and they do not suffer a mental hectic or mental disorder. they also do not show any symptoms of brain fatigue as it is proved by their consistency of learning achievement at the grade of 4-6 years. such a theory of mental hectic and brain fatigue, due to a too-early education, seems to be no longer valid for them (cf mutiah, 2010; janice, 2013; and suryabrata, 2013). the children of today have changed and found a different atmosphere; they have adapted to the development of modern science and technology and culture. the parents only need to adapt their education style, according to their condition and needs. as parents find a special gift in their child, they have to provide him/her with an appropriate learning. it is no use to prevent the child from learning at school, even if he/ she is still under age. their calendar age is not a right gauge to determine their readiness for school. it is their mental age which will be the determinant. based on the universal law, each human is different in many ways. one aspect still receiving no much attention is the talent (sylvia, 1997; and mukhtar et al., 2013). the education community has not positioned gifted children at a right place. they are not provided with a necessary access for developing their talent. they are forced to hold up their willingness to start their learning until they are considered “ready”, 7 years old. an idea says that forcing them to start the education before the age will result in a mental hectic and brain fatigue (ellah, 2005). indonesian government, with their various regulations, has not provided the special services for the gifted children. the gifted would even be neglected; they are not allowed to join the elementary school only due their young age. many talented children have fled abroad for the school there, and they do not want to go back home to his/her country. as a result, the abundant natural resources in our country cannot be used for the advancement of science and technology and the welfare of society, because the gifted men do not like to stay home. problem statement. based on the background, this study proposes a problem statement, as follows: “is it true that gifted children under 7 years old, if they starts a primary education, will suffer from mental hectic, brain fatigue, as indicated by the good achievement in first three years, and the poor achievement in the next three years?” research objectives. the aim of this study is to conduct a long-term observation and recording on the gifted children as research subjects. these are to collect the data of learning achievement, a disorder of hectic mental, and the brain fatigue, due to the early start of primary education, under 7 years old. theoritical review the concept of intelligence or giftedness has drawn much controversy. it includes the basis of intelligence or talent; whether it is a biological inheritance, heredity, or the environmental factors. john w. santrock (2007) said that intelligence is human being’s most precious belonging. he, further, defines intelligence as an ability to solve problems (santrock, 2007). another expert argues that intelligence is a capacity to adapt and to learn the experiences. elqorni (2015) mentions that the gifted children is the interaction of three human natures, consisting of a general ability at higher than average, high commitment to the task, and creativity. a gifted child is the one who have the skill to combine and develop these three natures, and are able to apply in any valuable or meaningful action (elqorni, 2015). adi saputra (2012) explaines the indicator of learning success in the gifted child as follows: (1) has a high success level of learning; and (2) shows the optimum talents and interests. meanwhile, the outcome of a gifted child includes: faith and devotion to the god; high motivation and commitment for achievement and excellence; high interest in reading and writing; high discipline; and high educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 47© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com artistic sense (saputra, 2012). according to k.a.h. heller (2004) and elqorni (2015), a concept of giftedness can be seen from four dimensions of interrelated multi-factors: talents, performance, personality, and environment. the study of e.s. schaefer & r.q. bell (1958); u. bronfenbrenner (1979); and elqorni (2015) concluded explicitly that genetic factor has a major stake to an individual’s competence and talent. p.n. levett (1995) and elqorni (2015) stated that all pregnant women should understand the importance of good nutrition for the baby; and it must be prevented from any contamination or the influence of x rays. a gifted child has an excellent neuron systems which enables him/her to reach a high level of cognition. in a younger age than others, according r.h. swassing (1985) and elqorni (2015), a gifted child is able to read and this ability continues to consistently evolve and they are able to use an advanced vocabulary. howard gardner (2003) and john w. santrock (2007) proposed eight types of child intelligence: verbal, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist intelligence (gardner, 2003; and santrock, 2007). triyono (2005) argues also that every child has a different level of intelligence. some children have a high intelligence in some areas, and others may have a more complete combination of intelligence (triyono, 2005). howard gardner (2003) and triyono (2005), then, suggested the teachers to avoid the standardized tests. they required that teachers to be more rigid and careful in observing the children. for this, a teacher should record the behavior and habits of children and make a conclusion of the profile of children’s abilities (gardner, 2003; and triyono, 2005). research method type of research approach. the approach in this study is a longitudinal study. in the implementation, the researcher records the students’ thinking ability or their learning achievement from the first year to the end/the graduation (arikunto, 2006). the observation and recording are done consecutively every school year. the recording of learning outcomes is done each year. for example, for an elementary student, the recording has to be done from the first to the sixth graders continuously (arikunto, 2006). a longitudinal approach has an advantage, due to the analysis on the same subjects, the consistent internal factors will lead into a relatively consistent result (sudjana, 2007). subjects, place, and time of research. the subjects in this study are three persons. the place is the schools they went to. first, the subjects with code “a” joined tk (taman kanak-kanak or kindergarten) pertiwi in dukuhwaluh village, kembaran district, purwokerto, central java, indonesia, then went to an elementary school in the same village. his junior and senior high schools were done in purwokerto. he enrolled a medical faculty in ugm (gadjah mada university) in yogyakarta, and took a postgraduate program in ui (university of indonesia) in jakarta, and pursued his doctorate in songla university in thailand, with an education time of 1983 to 2015. the second subject with the code “b” started his kindergarten in slinga village, kaligondang, purbalingga district, central java, indonesia, and then he went to an elementary school at sd/mi (sekolah dasar/ madrasah ibtidaiyah or islamic elementary school) istiqomah, sambas, purbalingga, also in central java, the time of 2008 to 2015. third subject of the code “c” joined a kindergarten at ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) campus in central java, indonesia, then continued in an islamic kindergarten in thailand. after that, he started his primary school in the country, but then should move to an elementary school in purwokerto, sd (sekolah dasar or elementary school) al-irsyad al-islamiah, in purwokerto, the time of education are between 2010 to 2015. data collection and analysis techniques. the techniques of data collection are observation, documentation, and interview. the instrument of observation is used to observe the daily activities once in three months. observation is considered more effective if the information johni dimyati, a study of education history 48 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: personal identity name code “a” place, date of birth purwokerto, 4 september 1981. school sd (elementary school) dukuhwaluh 1 tahun 1985. names of parents: father mother johni dimyati. umi chotimah. parents’ job: father mother lecturer of kopertis vi, dpk ump purwokerto. hospital of rsud margono sukarjo, purwokerto. parents’ residence jalan tegal mulya i no.7, ledug, kembaran, banyumas, central java, indonesia. table 2: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in elementary school no grade/semester average scores predicate number letter 1 grade i / semester 1 grade i / semester 2 88 90 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 grade ii / semester 1 grade ii / semester 2 90 89 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 grade iii / semester 1 grade iii / semester 2 98 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 4 grade iv / semester 1 grade iv / semester 2 93 91 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 5 grade v / semester 1 grade v / semester 2 87 90 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 6 grade vi / semester 1 grade vi / semester 2 94 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory average score 91.7 a very satisfactory table 3: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in junior high school no grade/semester average learning achievement predicate number letter 1 grade i / semester 1 grade i / semester 2 89 90 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 grade ii / semester 1 grade ii / semester 2 90 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 grade iii / semester 1 grade iii / semester 2 98 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory average score 92.8 a very satisfactory table 4: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in senior high school no grade/semester average scores of learning achievement predicate number letter 1 grade i / semester 1 grade i / semester 2 85 89 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 grade ii / semester 1 grade ii / semester 2 90 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 grade iii / semester 1 grade iii / semester 2 98 95 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory average score 92.0 a very satisfactory educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 49© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com taken is natural conditions and facts, a natural learning outcomes research subjects in a natural situation (sukardi, 2009). through observation techniques, observation does not only record the data, but also considers the assessment in a graded scale. it will be effective if the observation is done using an observation sheet (arikunto, 2006). observation applied is the structured one. it is an observation that has been systematically designed on what to observe, when and where it will be, and whom to observe (sugiyono, 2008). documentation technique is used as an instrument to collect the learning achievement of the subject in the school they go. the document is the instrument to collect the data or the variables in the form of notes, transcripts, academic scores, letters, and others (dimyati, 2014). in this study, the documents used as a data source are the academic scores, the subjects’ learning achievement. interviews are used to table 5: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in bachelor, medical faculty of ugm (gadjah mada university) in yogyakarta, 1999-2003 no grade /semester average scores of learning achievement predicate number letter 1 year i / semester 1 year i / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 year ii / semester 1 year ii / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 year iii / semester 1 year iii / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 4 year iv / semester 1 year iv / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory table 6: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in master, medical faculty of ui (university of indonesia) in jakarta, 2007-2009 no grade /semester average scores of learning achievement predicate number letter 1 year i / semester 1 year i / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 year ii / semester 1 year ii / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory table 7: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in doctorate, medical faculty of su (songla university) in thailand, 2011-2015 no grade /semester average scores of learning achievement predicate number letter 1 year i / semester 1 year i / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 year ii / semester 1 year ii / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 year iii / semester 1 year iii / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 4 year iv / semester 1 year iv / semester 2 4 4 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory note: (1) granted a scholarship from ugm, or gadjah mada university in yogyakarta, in the third year; (2) granted a scholarship for the master degree from ui, or university of indonesia in jakarta; (3) granted a scholarship for the doctorate degree from su, or songla university in thailand; and (4) the average scores of the learning achievement from elementary to his doctorate degree is very satisfactory. johni dimyati, a study of education history 50 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 8: personal identity name code “b” place, date of birth purbalingga, central java, 16 october 2013. school mi (islamic elementary school) istiqomah, sambas, purbalingga. enrolled on 12 july 2010. names of parents: father mother bayu eko prabowo. anika r. sofri. table 9: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement in elementary school no grade/semester average scores predicate number letter 1 grade i / semester 1 grade i / semester 2 86 91 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 grade ii / semester 1 grade ii / semester 2 91 92 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 3 grade iii / semester 1 grade iii / semester 2 90 92 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 4 grade iv / semester 1 grade iv / semester 2 86 90 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 5 grade v / semester 1 grade v / semester 2 87 88 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory average score 89.3 a very satisfactory note: educational background: (1) on june 15, 2006, attended a kindergarten/ab in the slinga village, kaligindang, purbalingga, central java, at the age of 2 years 8 months; (2) on july 12, 2010, started his primary at sd/mi, or islamic elementary school, istiqomah, sambas, purbalingga, at the age of 6 years 9 months; and (3) the average of learning achievement = 89.3 = a, very satisfactory. table 10: personal identity name code “c” place, date of birth purwokerto, central java, 14 january 2007. school sd (elementary school) al-irsyad al-islamiyah 02 in ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) campus, central java. names of parents: father mother amin fatoni, s.si., m.si., ph.d. mekar dwi anggraeni, nes.s.kep., m.kep., ph.d. parents’ jobs: father mother lecturer at the unsoed (university of soedirman) in purwokerto, central java, indonesia. lecturer at the unsoed (university of soedirman) in purwokerto, central java, indonesia. residence perum griya satria indah ii blok i no.7 sumampir, purwokerto utara, banyumas, central java, indonesia. draw the data of obstacles and problems the subjects have along the education process, including classroom teachers, principals, and the parents of the subjects. in the interview, a direct contact is required the information will be more clearly revealed (dimyati, 2014). in general, the data analysis includes three stages: (1) preparation; (2) tabulation; and (3) the application of the data according to the research approach (arikunto, 2006). preparatory stage: the researcher conducted check the subjects and complete their identity; check the completeness of data, i.e. seeing the completeness of the pages in the documents educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 51© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and their contents and cross-checking with the research data; and check the content of the instrument of data collection, and the inappropriate data will be immediately discarded. tabulation stage: this tabulation activities, among others, include scoring the items need to be scored; codifying the items; changing the type of data based on the analysis techniques used; and providing the coding in connection with the use of computers (arikunto, 2006). data application according to the research approaches: the data are adjusted to their type, i.e. discrete, ordinal, interval, and ratio. the selection of the formula will be used to analyze the data according to the research data. data analysis of descriptive research: the collected data are grouped into two, qualitative data of words and symbols, and the quantitative data of numbers (arikunto, 2006). this study applied an analysis technique of qualitative descriptive data, i.e. the research data will be analyzed using certain criteria from the quantitative data of numbers into categories of very satisfactory, satisfactory, good, fair, bad, and poor. results and discussion from a long process of research activities, employing the instruments of observation and documentation, it comes to the data of the subjects and their learning achievement as follows. first, data of learning achievement development of the subject “a”, as shown in table 1, table 2, table 3, table 4, table 5, table 6, and table 7. second, data of learning achievement development of the subject “b”, as shown in table 8 and table 9. third, data of learning achievement development of the subject “c”, as shown in table 10 and table 11. based on the series data above, the information can be summarized like the following table 12. the figures of the learning achievement scores in the three subjects of reflect a table 11: recapitulation of his academic learning achievement no grade/semester average scores predicate number letter 1 grade i / semester 1 grade i / semester 2 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory 2 grade ii / semester 1 grade ii / semester 2 91 92 a a very satisfactory very satisfactory note: educational background: (1) on june 15, 2010, attended a kindergarten at the campus of ump, or muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, in central java, indonesia, at the age of 3 years 5 months; (2) on december 2010, moved to thailand, on january 2011 to january 2013, attended a kindergarten in thailand, and on 2013, moved back to indonesia; (3) on july 15, 2013, started his primary at sd, or elementary school, al-irsyad al-islamiyyah, at the age of 6 years 6 months; and (4) the average of learning achievement = 98 = very satisfactory. table 12: working table for the discussion on the learning achievement scores no code average score of learning achievement primary junior high senior high s-1 s-2 s-3 1 subject “a” 91.7 very satisfactory 92.8 very satisfactory 92.0 very satisfactory a very satisfactory a very satisfactory a very satisfactory 2 subject “b” 89.3 very satisfactory 3 subject “c” 98.0 very satisfactory johni dimyati, a study of education history 52 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com consistency. subject “a” began to attend an elementary school at the age of 4; along his course, he was able to finish on time and obtained a very satisfactory score. in the run, he did not experience any psychological and physical disorders. similar finding was also proved in his high schools. after attending college, he showed more consistency; he always had a very satisfying scores until his doctorate degree. the search on the learning development of subject “b” shows that he started his kindergarten at the age 2 years and 8 months, and he attended his primary school at 6 years and 9 months. along the education process from the first to fifth graders, he has never experienced psychological and physical disorders. his learning achievement in the study is proved to be consistent with an average score of 89.3, very satisfactory. the subject “c” enrolled his kindergarten in the age of 3 years and 5 months. after a semester, he moved to thailand and joined a thailand islamic kindergarten age 4 years. he attended the school for two years. then, he returned to indonesia, and started his primary school at sd (elementary school) al-irshad al-islamiyah at campus of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) at the age of 6 years and 6 months. along the run in the primary school, he can follow the lessons well, has not experienced any psychological and physical disorders. his learning achievement is consistent with the average score of 98.0, very satisfactory. conclusion based on the analysis in the previous section, it can be concluded that all three subjects in the study had attended their primary school before 7 years. their learning achievement scores show a consistent level of very satisfactory. parts of the figures indicate a little bit fluctuation, but the decreased score is still at the same predicate of very satisfactory. the notion among the society saying that too early start on the primary education, under 7 years old, will create a mental hectic and brain fatigue is not true. their learning score is always good from the first year to the end. they are not only good in their first three years. this means that gifted children are ready to attend their primary school before seven. based on the conclusion, this study proposes the following suggestions: (1) for the society, the gifted children should be given an opportunity to develop their talent. we should not treat them according to our will. it is not wise to prevent them going to school only due to their young age; (2) for the education communities of kindergarten and elementary school, they have to facilitate the learning process for the gifted children to maximize their learning achievement. this will have a good result of their academic achievement which will be a pride for the educators, parents and the society in general; and (3) for the government as the authority of the education policy, they should be wiser in applying the rule of minimum age for school enrollment. the age should not be an absolute screening in recruiting new students; their mental readiness should be put as the priority. thus, the rule will not neglect the good potentials among the gifted children.1 references arikunto, suharsimi. 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(2013). observasi perkembangan anak usia dini. jakarta: kencana prenada media group, translation. 1statement: herewith, i have declared that this paper is my original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 53© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com levett, p.n. (1995). “actiology of vaginal infections in pregnant and non-pregnant women in barbados” in western indian medical journal, 44, pp.96-98. mariyana, rita. (2005). strategi pengelolaan lingkungan belajar di taman kanak-kanak. jakarta: ditjendikti depdiknas ri [direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. mukhtar, latif et al. (2013). orientasi baru pendidikan anak usia dini. jakarta: kencana prenada media group. mutiah, diana. (2010). psikologi bermain anak usia dini. jakarta: kencana prenada media group. santrock, john w. (2007). perkembangan anak, jilid 1. jakarta: penerbit erlangga, translation. saputra, adi. (2012). “program siswa cerdas istimewa atau berbakat istimewa: akselerasi”. available online also at: http://adisaputrabtm.blogspot.com/2012/04 [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: january 18, 2015]. schaefer, e.s. & r.q. bell. (1958). “development of a parental attitude research instrument” in child development, 29, pp.339-361. sudjana, nana. (2007). penelitian dan penilaian pendidikan. bandung: pt sinar baru algensindo. sugiyono. (2008). metodologi penelitian kualitatif, kuantitatif & rd. bandung: penerbit alfabeta. sukardi. (2009). metodologi penelitian pendidikan. yogyakarta: pt bumi aksara. suryabrata, sumadi. (2013). psikologi pendidikan. jakarta: pt raja grafindo persada. suryosubroto, b. (2004). manajemen pendidikan di sekolah. jakarta: pt rineka cipta. swassing, r.h. (1985). teaching gifted children and adolescents. columbus, oh: merrill. sylvia, rimm. (1997). mengapa anak pintar memperoleh nilai buruk? jakarta: pt gramedia, translation. triyono. (2005). pintu-pintu pendidikan kontekstual: anak usia dini. jakarta: ditjendikti depdiknas ri [direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. johni dimyati, a study of education history 54 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com pupils of elementary school in indonesia (source: photo album of aspensi, 20/5/2012) the notion among the society saying that too early start on the primary education, under 7 years old, will create a mental hectic and brain fatigue is not true. their learning score is always good from the first year to the end. they are not only good in their first three years. this means that gifted children are ready to attend their primary school before seven. 2 andi.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 129 andi suwirta, m.hum. is a lecturer at the department of history education of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung and chairperson of aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education). he can be reached at: andisuwirta@yahoo.com the history of education in west java, indonesia: from traditional era toward modern era andi suwirta abstract: the history of education in west java, indonesia has been so long. if it is begun with informal education in family life, then its history can be started since people have been familiar with family life, a period of time that has never ended its beginning (time of immemorial) and its ending. meanwhile, non-formal education is acquired from social interaction between an individual and another, between an individual and his community, and between a community and its surrounding community. the true formal education was gained since sundanese people in west java interacted with the great tradition, from the religion and civilization of hinduismbuddhist, islam and western. these three waves of civilization had influenced our national life, from old times up to recent times, included education sector. this paper, however, tried to discuss the history of education in west java, its growth and development which had been existed since its earliest time – as long as the existing sources were possible – until the latest education development. therefore, this paper tried to study the history of education in west java, starting from hinduism-buddhist, islam, dutch and japanese colonial, national independence and up to this recent development period. key words: history of education, west java, sundanese people and three waves of civilization in indonesia. introduction neleng neng kung, neleng neng kung. geura gede geura jangkung, geura sakola ka bandung, geura makayakeun indung (kunto, 1986:153). [neleng neng kung, neleng neng kung. grow up soon and be mature my son, then go studying in bandung, to make your mother happy and prosperous]. that popular song among sundanese people in west java, indonesia, implies the importance of education. in this case, the role of bandung city, as the capital of andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 130 west java, in conditioning and facilitating education, is not only for people coming from sundanese area but also for people coming from other areas of java island and even people coming from other islands. nowadays, bandung is famous as a modern and advanced “education city” which provides various education facilities from kindergarten to college; from governmental education institutions to private education institutions; from religion education institutions to non-religion education institutions; and from strata programs to non-strata programs (courses and diploma). viewed from education historical aspect, bandung is a melting pot of education. in the perspective of indonesian community, education is meant broadly as the human’s and community’s effort informally, non-formally and formally in transferring moral values, religion, culture, science and skill from one generation to another. therefore, education is a conscious effort to produce intelligent and moral people, based on each religion our national youths hold. through education process, the illiterate society becomes literate society and once left-behind country becomes developed country. the history of education in west java, indonesia has been so long. if it is begun with informal education in family life, then its history can be started since people have been familiar with family life, a period of time that has never ended its beginning (time of immemorial) and its ending. meanwhile, non-formal education is acquired from social interaction between an individual and another, between an individual and his community, and between a community and its surrounding community. in other words, non-formal education means an education outside the school and it is still continuing until now. the true formal education was gained since sundanese people in west java interacted with the great tradition, from the religion and civilization of hinduismbuddhist, islam and western. these three waves of civilization had influenced our national life, from old times up to recent times, included education sector (lombard, 1996). in this context, i would study the history of education in west java since its beginning until nowadays. due to the vast history scope of education, the focus of this discussion was emphasized in formal education that was attempted consciously and in planning in every period of time. this paper, however, tried to discuss the history of education in west java, its growth and development which had been existed since its earliest time as long as the existing sources were possible, until the latest education development. therefore, this paper tried to study the history of education in west java area, starting from hinduism-buddhist, islam, dutch and japanese colonial, national independence and up to this recent development period. education in pre-colonial period education in west java throughout the period of pre-colonial was aimed as planned and attempted education before the 19th century, when the dutch colonial government actually introduced a modern education system. thus, the education of pre-colonial period was divided into three: education of hindu–buddhist period, educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 131 education of islam period and education of voc (verenigde oost indische compagnie) or dutch colonial period. this division was only periodic, because in fact each of education types – especially islamic education – had been still continuing until nowadays, which was fitted with recent needs and challenge of times. the existence of political entities, in form of hindu-buddha kingdoms in west java area marked the new chapter in cultural history. tarumanegara, galuh and pajajaran kingdom were founded in different period of times, starting from the 5th century to the 16th century a.d. (ricklefs, 1991). as a political system, those hindubuddha kingdoms needed supporting institutions and socialization, one of them was educational institution. as a means of socialization, education was an activity of people or civilized society in line with their period soul. therefore, education in hindu–buddha period was fitted with values, living practice and political interest of kingdoms. there were not many historical sources of hindu-buddha period in west java explaining the effort and process of education. from the existing studies, it was assumed that education process was formally conducted in padepokan-padepokan or boarding school institutions. educational institutions were founded by the permit of king. the teachers were invited and trained to teach knowledge, skill and life values related to hindu and buddha religions. the students following the learning process were still limited, in which they came from elite social classes (brahmana, ksatria and waisya) whose their main duties were: to learn, to teach, to sacrifice, to give and to take (said & mansur, 1953:14-17). educational process was individual and classical by the tradition of a dominant oral presentation. there was also other education type outside king patronage. accordingly, benedict r.o’g. anderson called such institution as counter institution for the authority, which its concrete form was seen in traditional schools in the history of education in indonesia such as pondok, dormitory and pesantren or islamic boarding school (anderson, 1972:52-57). the locations in which educational process persisting took place in remote areas such as in the middle of forest or in the mountains. the students learned from their teachers (pandita or kyai) everything related to mysticism, kadigjayan (body strongly), morality and the essence of power. in such type of education, it could not be ignored the effort of someone searching for knowledge and taking education process through lelampahan (personal journey) from one place to another as described in bujangga manik [scholar of manik] in sundanese society (noorduyn, 1982:413-442); or in serat cabolek [the book of cabolek] in javanese society (anderson, 2000). the growth of islam in indonesia did not change the existing culture and structure radically. therefore, the educational institutions at that time were accommodated and developed in accordance with value needs and islam educational practice. islam educational practice patronized by the king was still exist for the interest of power, as seen from the presence of palace-ulama, penghulu and modin or official moslem scholars of kingdom palace (hisyam, 1998). they were parts of kingdom bureaucracy system, whose main duty was to strengthen the mechanism of king power (moertono, 1989). the emergence of islam kingdoms in west java area such andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 132 as in banten and cirebon – as had been described by taufik abdullah – had steady structure and pattern in which the presence of kraton (the center of power), market (economic effort), and mosque (religion and education activities) were the integral social synergy (abdullah, 1987). the islam educational system that was independent and outside the authority patronage was seen in the presence of educational institutions such as pondok pesantren or islamic boarding school. according to zamakhsyari dhofier, islam educational institution was autonomous with the figure of kyai (or ajengan in west java) as its central point surrounded by his students (santri) living in pondoks, its mosque as a place for religious service and islam education (dhofier, 1983). there was not accurate data of the total number of pondok pesantren education institution in west java area in the early period of islam development. however, it was not doubtful that pesantren had significant role in educational process of moslem community in indonesia, therefore taufik abdullah called it as “fortress” and “alternative” institution. the first was related to the role of education to prevent the value of moslem’s belief and faith from the attack of other cultures that were not islamic, while the last was related to the role of value order and social structure that could be offered to community in line with the demand and teaching of islam (abdullah ed., 1983). the other aspect of islam education in west java area was the relationship between kyai and pesantren with its wide sufism network. this sufism organization was an effective and massive educational media to socialize esoteric value in islam such as simple living (zuhud), be patient, resignation and keeping the faith to allah swt. the relationship between the sufism teacher – students was so personal and intimate that made this organization develop widely in west java area as had been described by the sufism development of tijaniyah in cirebon, rifaiyah in banten, syatariyah and qadiriyah wa naqsyabandiyah in tasikmalaya (nasution ed., 1990). in later development, islam educational development had experienced reformation. it was triggered by the demand of inside and outside. as pointed out by karel a. steenbrink, pesantren education that had taken pre-islam form in the 19th century experienced a lot of adjustment due to its direct relationship with arab world (mecca) and the challenge of secular western educational system (steenbrink, 1986:23-25). the emergence of reformer group had triggered more needs to build a new paradigm in modern islamic education to fight against tbc (taqlid, bid’ah and churofat) that were assumed to be one of islam community deterioration. the educational system of pesantren experienced the improvement whether from curriculum, classical method, madrasah system or its orientation in educational purpose. along with that, since the 16th century, european people such as portuguese and dutch came to indonesia to trade and spread christianity. the effort of education through catholic mission organizations was done by dutch restricted to the social strata in which the mission and zending located. it was interesting that sundanese people in west java, at least until late 19th century and early 20th century, were not interested in the activities of mission and zending. the effort of religious educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 133 proselytizing by these sundanese people intended to do conversion toward christianity always failed. the effort of zending seemed only successful to make chinese people interested, not sundanese. as reported by nzv (nederlandsche zendingsvereeniging) that: “god gave us in the chinese, what we did not find in the sundanese” (coppel, 1986:19). in this context, that sundanese people in west java similar with islam was true, as “malay” was similar with moslem. colonial education and social change traditional and religious educational system had experienced challenge and change in the 19th century, along with the effort of dutch colonial government to introduce a secular, modern and pragmatic educational system. the expansion of dutch colonial authority had reached java and some areas outside java, and its authority consolidation needed an efficient and modern bureaucracy machine. in such thing, education was seen as a vehicle to prepare software and hardware for the modernization process of the dutch colonial government. the type and level of education were introduced starting from elementary education to higher education (brugmans, 1938). rationalization of the policy of education needs was ethic politic (etische politiek) in 1901. as had been stated by i.j. brugmans that dutch colonial government, in this case minister of education and governor general in indonesia, tried to execute the formal educations from elementary and secondary levels to higher level (brugmans, 1987:176-194). at the same time, social and religious organizations such as paguyuban pasundan [sundanese organization] and muhammadiyah [organization of mohammedan followers] participated in trying to execute the formal education in elementary and secondary levels. the education type tried by these organizations was alternative education to create competent and well-manner national cadres in the future. in one side, these schools adopted modern western educational system, but in other side they modified the aim, content and educational process that was proceeded to be in line with their interest and struggle wish. the prevailed elementary and secondary education types in dutch colonial period generally involved: els (europese lagere school), his (hollands inlandsch school), and hcs (hollands chinese school), each of them was passed for 7 years; and hbs (hooger burger school), mulo (meer uitgebreid lager onderwijs), and ams (algemeen middelbare school), each of them was passed for 6 years. the secondary formal education included vocational schools such as trading schools, agricultural schools, educational schools, vocational engineering schools and so forth (nasution, 1983). meanwhile since 1920s and following years, higher education institutions were founded in indonesia such as ths (techniek hooger school) in bandung in 1920, rhs (recht hooger school) in 1924, medical high school in 1927, and literature faculty in 1940, all of them were in jakarta. by introducing these higher educational institutions, even in limited numbers, indonesian people experienced social mobility process, either horizontally or vertically. in sociological perspective, this social andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 134 mobility was a trigger of social change emergence (johnson, 1987). therefore, education, social mobility and change were important variables for the process of human development in the world. since the first decade of the 20th century, we had seen the great social change in indonesian community, including in west java area. western modern education had been responded by traditional elite groups that then created modern elite groups willing to reach their advance, prosperity and independence of indonesian people (van niel, 1982). these educated groups, even in the relative limited number, would be priyayi baru (new upper class) or menak baru (new aristocratic) and became the vehicle of modern nationalism movement emergence as anti-thesis of discriminative, exploitative and repressive colonial system. in imagined alternative political community, they wanted an egalitarian, populist and prestige social and political system – including educational aspect (anderson, 1983). in other words, in educational aspect they wanted a national educational system that would give equal opportunity for all national generation, be democratic in its pedagogical process and have well-manner and competence as “community torch” (yamin, 2004). in this context, there were a lot of national movement figures who were aware of the needs of education in reaching the wish of development, prosperity and independence. in west java area, the figures such as otto iskandar di nata, dr. e.f.e. douwes dekker (then became dr. setiabudhi), dewi sartika, ayu lasminingrat and siti djenab tried to develop sundanese community life through educational means (lubis et al., 2003:44). they founded modern elementary and secondary schools while maintaining the identity of sunda and indonesia. moreover, educational woman figures from west java area pioneered the emancipation struggle in educational sector to make them developed, independent and well behaved as had been gained by men in social and politic sectors. meanwhile, the paguyuban pasundan organization also established “bale pawulangan pasundan” [teaching institute for sundanese] whose work was to manage and organize the modern education problems. in 1930s, the schools founded by “bale pawulangan pasundan” were spreading throughout the areas in west java area, 20 of by 48 schools in which 20 of them gained the subsidy from the government (lubis et al., 2003:54-55). in the colonial period, islam education had also been reformed. the persis (persatuan islam or islamic unity) organization in bandung founded in 1923, followed to establish modern schools (madrasah) in west java area. in 1930s, persis founded pendis (pendidikan islam or islamic education) next to persis pesantren intended to develop islam community in facing modernization wave. the importance of modern, islamic education was based on the fact that the existing schools were not teaching moral and ethic in line with islam tenet (lubis et al., 2003:62). the variety of the existing education types in west java area – starting from government schools, private schools, female schools and religious schools – showed that differentiation process in sundanese community was directing toward the development and social change direction. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 135 the education of japanese occupation and independence periods the education of japan period had changed. all of western things were going to be removed, including educational sector. being aware of its image as liberator soldier, japan changed the elitist and discriminated dutch colonial educational system into the open and populist educational system. the various elementary schools based on race line in dutch period were also removed and there was only one educational type, which was sekolah rakyat (sr) or people school for elementary level. junior high school (shoto chu gakko) and senior high school had also changed – included the same level of vocational schools. the aim of education was more directed to the ideology of japan war i.e. “the prosperity with the great eastern asia” (poesponegoro & notosusanto eds., 1984). therefore, the students were indoctrinated with practical teaching, kinrohonsi (voluntary labor service), the spirit of bushido [knight], taiso [sport] exercise, seikeirei [respect to japan caesar], japanese culture and language, and also indonesia history and language. when japan got more pushed against by the allied forces in the war field, some of political policies – including education – had changed. japan government reopened some colleges that had been closed before in the early occupation such as higher medicine school (ika dai gakko) in jakarta. besides that, in 1944 higher engineering school (kogyo dai gakko) in bandung and veterinary medicine school in bogor were opened. moreover, government academy (kenkoku gakko-in) was opened in 1945 in jatinegara, jakarta (lubis et al., 2003:173). the learning process in higher education institutions had experienced indoctrination, and then caused protest from the rest of indonesia students by being on strike to study or getting out of the institutions (nursam, 1995). in short, the education in japan period – although it was open and populist – had not experienced significant development because it was in war situation. japan government allowed private schools to be re-opened. furthermore, schools owned by persis, muhammadiyah, taman siswa, paguyuban pasundan, and raden dewi sartika were re-executed in some regions/ residence in west java. this policy was established because japan government had limited capacity in educational sector, for example children who needed elementary schools in bandung were 14,000 but the capacity of governmental schools was only 8,000 to 8,500 children (in 16 elementary), so that there were about 5,500 to 6,000 children who should be accommodated in private schools (lubis et al., 2003:174). but similar with schools executed by the government, private schools had been in werit (difficult) condition due to war period proceeded by japan. the surrender of japan to the allied forces in august 1945 had emerged a bright wish for indonesian people. the independence proclamation was declared on august 17, 1945 and the first indonesia cabinet was established in september 1945 under soekarno-hatta authority in which there was cultural, educational and teaching ministry trusted to ki hadjar dewantara (kahin, 1972). this ministry tried to rearrange educational system and structure in indonesia related to its aim, lesson andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 136 planning, school level and type, teacher provision and other supporting facilities. but the situation of revolution and independence war during 1945-1949 was impossible for educational sector to develop optimally. for example, in bandung and other regions in west java, there were some schools changed their function as the evacuation locations for the refugees. in war filed, there were guerilla emergency schools. the teachers and students participated to fight against in order to maintain the independence, and then they were well-known as tentara pelajar or student soldier (lubis et al., 2003:252). in the independence period, the school system and levels in indonesia were only divided into three levels, which were elementary, secondary and higher educations. six years-sekolah rakyat (sr), for example, was a form of elementary education in revolution era in west java; its total number was about 9,471 schools. meanwhile secondary education consisted of two levels, which were sekolah lanjutan tingkat pertama (sltp) or junior high school and sekolah lanjutan tingkat atas (slta) or senior high school in which each of the level was passed in 3 years. the secondary education was also divided into three types of schools such as general secondary school, vocational secondary school and educational secondary school (lubis et al., 2003:253). meanwhile, higher education institutions were also founded by the government as the continuity of secondary education. in west java areas, for example, there were agricultural faculty and veterinary medicine faculty in bogor, engineering science faculty and exact science faculty in bandung, physical science academy in bandung and military academy in cimahi (lubis et al., 2003:260). such educational system and levels – elementary, secondary and higher education – would be the firm structure in educational world in indonesia in the following periods. entering 1950s and 1960s, indonesian people experienced situation of liberal democracy period (1950-1959) and guided democracy period (1959-1965). the first period was marked by free political situation as the impact of the win of independence revolution, while the last period was marked by authoritarian political situation in which the freedom was managed and determined by the authority. it had influenced the educational world in indonesia. in 1950s, for example, indonesian people experienced booming in educational world. by being put uu (undang-undang or act) no.4 year 1950 into effect, the government and community were given freedom to follow education starting from kindergarten to higher educational institution. the educational sector was not only managed by ministry of cultural, teaching and education but also might be managed by other relevant ministries. especially higher education in west java, the period of 1950s/1960s was the golden age, considering that there were a lot of higher institutions emerged and founded in this period. ui (universitas indonesia or the university of indonesia) in jakarta was founded in 1950; ptpg (perguruan tinggi pendidikan guru or teacher education higher institution) as the pioneer of ikip (institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan or teacher training college) in bandung, which recently known as upi (indonesia university of education) was founded in 1954; unpad (the university of padjadjaran) bandung was founded in 1957; and itb (bandung institute of educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 137 technology) was re-founded in 1959. some private higher institutions were also founded in bandung in 1950s/1960s (rifai et al., 1965; and lee kam hing, 1995). for the first time in modern indonesia history, indonesian people were given wide and equal opportunity to get education in independent condition, starting from kindergarten to higher institutions; and it would implicate slowly and continually toward the national development. entering 1960s, the educational sector in indonesia experienced stagnancy. in addition to declining economic condition, the government political policy had restricted the freedom to express and have organization. in the educational world, it was known the existence of “dualism” in which there were two ministries managing educational matters, which were kementerian pendidikan dasar dan menengah or ministry of elementary and secondary education; and kementerian perguruan tinggi dan ilmu pengetahuan or ministry of science and higher institution. each of them had contrasting educational policy because there was polarization in ideology and politic at that time. the aim of education, curriculum and learning process were full with authority ideology, such as the needs of manipol (manifesto of politics) usdek (the constitution of 1945, socialism, guided democracy and economy and national personality) were stated in curriculum of panca wardhana dan sapta usaha tama or civics subject in elementary and secondary schools. in higher institutions, some of the subjects were favored with indoctrination process (hasan, 2007). the situation of undemocratic education would end soon by the break out of g-30-s (gerakan 30 september) incident in 1965, in which students and college students walk on the street together to demand the reformation in various sectors. the action of these students finally ended the guided democracy period in indonesia. concluding remarks: the education in development era the term of “development” in modern indonesia history was frequently identical with the modernization effort in various sectors, especially in economic sector, and it usually referred to new order government era (1966-1998). actually in 1969, the new order government had proposed the program of repelita (rencana pembangunan lima tahun or five-years development planning) in which educational sector development was included in it. by the release of inpres (instruction of president) in 1974 marked the new phase of educational development in indonesia because there were a lot of elementary and secondary schools funded by the government massively throughout indonesia areas. in this era, it was wellknown the existence sd [elementary school] inpres, smp [junior high school] inpres, and etc. therefore, the infrastructure development in the new order era was quite significant in leading indonesian people toward the relative development and prosperity – including building, school, education facilities and infrastructure (ricklefs, 1991). in west java area, the educational development in the new order was going rapidly, either qualitatively and quantitatively. by considering the limitation of government budget, private parties were given opportunity to take part in education andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 138 sector. the following table showed the development of number of general and vocational schools in west java in 1970s to 1980s: the development of higher education in the new order was quite significant. the quantity of government higher educations founded in 1950s/1960s were modernized and developed in 1970s/1980s. there were also a lot of private higher institutions founded in 1970s/1980s. the input of student entering higher institution or pt (perguruan tinggi) continually increased and the government determined the policy of nkk/bkk (normalisasi kehidupan kampus/badan koordinasi kemahasiswaan) in 1970s and wawasan almamater in 1980s. all act of university was to organize the campus life in order to make the students finish their study faster and not involved in practical politic. this domestication policy was actually effective in 1970s/1980s, but it had created new middle-class educated generation who were sophisticated in their thinking way and analyzing, thus in the late 1990s it had succeeded in ending the regime of new order by the spectacular reformation movement (sulistyo, 2001). in 1990s until nowadays, the educational development in indonesia had entered the new phase. there were a lot of governmental policy and programs presenting its significant concern to education sector. the introduction of wajar dikdas (wajib belajar pendidikan dasar) 6 years or six-years compulsory elementary education; and now becomes 9 years, was a political will and government program that should be appreciated, however in its implementation, the tuition was still expensive and there were still a lot of drop-out students so that it caused the phenomena of “street children” and unemployment. in the context of regional autonomy, the government had succeeded in establishing uu sisdiknas (undangundang sistem pendidikan nasional) or national education system act; and uu guru dan dosen or lecturer and teacher act that would secure and protect educational sector as profession. this policy has been still being discussed and socialized to public and it seems that it will be the phenomena about the importance of education sector in the development of indonesian people. finally, if it is compared with the development of education in other nations – including education development in neighbor countries in southeast asia – the concern and policy of indonesia government is still left behind. for example, in malaysia, the education ministry is an important and big department in which all educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 139 its prime ministers have been the education minister. in indonesia, the case is different. the president has not even been the educational minister, and the educational department itself is still in the later number if it is compared with other departments. moreover, the social critics and educational supervisor say that “the educational minister sometimes does not understand clearly the educational world in indonesia” (djundjunan in alumni network upi, 2006). but we must be sure that the development of education in indonesia will be better and more developed in the next times. references abdullah, taufik [ed.]. (1983). agama dan perubahan sosial. jakarta: cv rajawali. abdullah, taufik. (1987). islam dan masyarakat: pantulan sejarah indonesia. jakarta: lp3es. anderson, benedict r.o’g. (1972). “the idea of power in javanese culture” in claire holt [ed.]. culture and politics in indonesia. ithaca, new york: cornell university press. anderson, benedict r.o’g. (1983). imagined communities. london: verso. anderson, benedict r.o’g. (2000). hantu komparasi: nasionalisme, negara nasional dan asia tenggara. translation. yogyakarta: qalam publisher. brugmans, i.j. (1938). geschiedenis van het onderwijs in nederlandsch-indie. groningen, batavia: j.b. wolters. brugmans, i.j. (1987). “politik pengajaran” dalam h. baudet & i.j. brugmans [eds.]. politik etis dan revolusi kemerdekaan. translation. jakarta: yayasan obor indonesia. coppel, charles a. (1986). “from christian mission to confucian religion: the nederlandsche zendingsvereeniging and the chinese of west java, 1870-1910” in david p. chandler and m.c. ricklefs [eds.]. nineteenth and twentieth century indonesia: essays in honour of professor j.d. legge. clayton, victoria: centre of southeast asian studies, monash university. dhofier, zamakhsyari. (1983). tradisi pesantren: studi tentang pandangan hidup kyai. translation. jakarta: lp3es. djundjunan, ny. popong otje. (2006). statements in alumni network upi. bandung: ika upi [oktober]. hasan, said hamid. (2007). “perkembangan kurikulum di indoensa sejak zaman kemerdekaan” dalam andi suwirta & abdul razaq ahmad [eds.]. pendidikan sejarah & historiografi nasionalsentrik: konteks indonesia, malaysia dan brunei darussalam. bandung: historia utama press. hisyam, muhammad. (1998). “islam and colonial state: a case of religious courts in java”. paper presented in iaha. jakarta: august 27th – september 1st. johnson, paul d. (1987). sosiologi: klasik dan modern, jilid 2. jakarta: pt gramedia. kahin, george mcturnan. (1972). nationalism and revolution in indonesia. ithaca, new york: cornell university press. kunto, haryoto. (1986). semerbak bunga di bandung raya. bandung: pt granesia. lee kam hing. (1995). education and politics in indonesia, 1945-1965. kuala lumpur, malaysia: university of malaya press. lombard, denys. (1996). nusa jawa silang budaya, jilid 1. translation. jakarta: pt gramedia. lubis, nina h. et al. (2003). sejarah tatar sunda, jilid 2. bandung: satya historika. moertono, soemarsaid. (1989). negara dan usaha bina-negara di jawa masa lampau: studi tentang masa mataram ii abad xvi sampai xix. translation. jakarta: yayasan obor indonesia. nasution, harun [ed.]. (1990). thoriqot qodiriyyah naqsyabandiyyah: sejarah, asal-usul, dan perkembangannya. tasikmalaya: iailm. andi suwirta, the history of education in west java, indonesia 140 nasution, sorimuda. (1983). sejarah pendidikan di indonesia. bandung: penerbit jemaars. noorduyn. (1982). “bujangga manik’s journeys through java: topographical data from an old sundanese source” in bki, no.138, hlm.413-42. nursam. (1995). pergumulan seorang cendekiawan: pemikiran, karya dan kiprah soedjatmoko. jakarta: pt gramedia. poesponegoro, m.d. & n. notosusanto [eds.]. (1984). sejarah nasional indonesia, vi. jakarta: pn balai pustaka dan departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan ri, edisi revisi. ricklefs, merle c. (1991). sejarah indonesia modern. translation. yogyakarta: gadjah mada university press. rifai, bachtiar et al. (1965). perguruan tinggi di indonesia. djakarta: ri science and higher institution department. said, m. & dahlan mansur. (1953). mendidik dari zaman ke zaman. djakarta: pustaka rakjat n.v. steenbrink, karel a. (1986). pesantren, madrasah, sekolah: pendidikan islam dalam kurun modern. terjemahan. jakarta: lp3es. sulistyo, hermawan. (2001). lawan! perjuangan mahasiswa indonesia pada masa orde baru. jakarta: yayasan 123 publisher. van niel, robert. (1982). munculnya elite modern indonesia. translation. jakarta: pt dunia pustaka jaya. yamin, muhammad. (2004). “pembukaan ptpg di bandung” in helius sjamsuddin & zulkabir [eds.]. pentingnya pendidikan guru tingkat universitas di indonesia. bandung: ika upi and upi press. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 49 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria abstract: this study compared students’ results in waec (west african examinations council) and neco (national examinations council) ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) english language examinations in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. the study was limited to public senior secondary school students’ ssce (waec and neco) english language results in ilorin, kwara state, for the period of two years. a total of 600 students’ results were selected for this study from five local government areas using multi-stage sampling techniques. ex post facto research design was adopted for this study; and the instrument for this study was a proforma titled “students’ achievement in english language inventory”. descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages were employed to provide answers to the research questions raised, while spearman rank order correlation co-efficient was used to test the hypotheses formulated at 0.05 significant level. findings of this study revealed that majority of the respondents sampled passed english language in waec at credit level for the year 2018 and 2019, while the performance of students in neco is positively related and comparable in english language. it was, therefore, recommended among others that the examining bodies should also continue to meet the standards of test construction procedures. they should ensure that experts are engaged in their activities, especially in test construction and administration. they should always strike balance by giving out items that are fair to all candidates, so that they will not see their questions as inferior to other examining bodies. key words: ssce; waec; neco; english language; results. introduction education is one of the veritable instruments for social and political mobilization and the acquisition of important technical skills. for these about the authors: oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa, ph.d. and aminat ozohu aburime, ph.d. are the lecturers at the department of arts education, faculty of education unilorin (university of ilorin), ilorin, nigeria. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mail addresses at: jekayinfa.oj@unilorin.edu.ng and aminataburime@unilorin.edu.ng suggested citation: jekayinfa, oyeyemi jumoke & aminat ozohu aburime. (2021). “comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august, pp.49-60. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 1, 2021); revised (july 3, 2021); and published (august 30, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare50 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results reasons, a substantial share of the nation’s resources is invested in education. the performance of candidates on their graduating examinations after these investments has long been a matter of concern to many well-meaning individuals, institutions, government, and other stakeholders in education. likewise, the public disparages the falling standard of education as evidenced by the lack of inadequate skills and personal integrity of many school leavers (ololube, 2008, 2011a and 2011b; kpolovie, ololube & ekwebelem, 2011; and jwasshaka, amin & latif, 2021). however, the broad aims of secondary school education in nigeria, as stated in the national policy of education, are to prepare the individual child for: (1) useful living in the society; and (2) for higher education. in reality, these aims are very often defeated as most secondary school graduates fail to adapt adequately to society and fail to succeed in post-secondary education despite their possession of excellent or good certificates. the need to quantify behaviour cultivated in learners has placed evaluation at an indispensable position in the teaching/learning process in schools. evaluation is concerned with determining the extent to which educational objectives and the desired behavioural changes in the learners have been attained as well as making value judgments on the worth of the attributes (okoroma, 2006; fme, 2013; and matthew, 2013). in effect, the following are involved for the purposes of evaluation at secondary school level. first, internal evaluation in the form of continuous assessment, project, assignment, and so on. second, external evaluation organized by the waec (west african examinations council) and neco (national examinations council), nabteb (national business and technical examination board), and so on (olufemi, 2013; onyibe, uma & ibina, 2015; and onihunwa et al., 2018). some of these examination bodies in nigeria include the waec, neco, nabteb, and jamb (joint admission and matriculation board). a closer look at the operations of these boards reveals that some of them perform similar functions. waec and neco, for instance, all conduct secondary school graduate certification, although in the case of nabteb, the examination is reserved for graduates of nigerian technical and vocational colleges. the assemblage of subject examinations conducted by these examining bodies is known as the ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) and serves as an end-of-course evaluation for all secondary school graduates. the purpose of this examination is to ascertain to what degree students in a particular course have achieved the course or educational objectives (offor, 2001; zubayr & ibrahim, 2016; and ifeoma, ebio & jacob, 2021). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 51 the establishment of neco, which was seen by many as an attempt to reduce the burden on waec and mitigate the burden of testing large number of candidates, unfortunately led to concerns by some that credibility issues would inevitably arise. with two examining bodies, waec and neco, conducting parallel ssces, students admitted to write either version of the ssce should be assumed to possess similar academic strengths, those needed for undergraduate activities (afemikhe, 2002; kpolovie, ololube & ekwebelem, 2011; and fasoyiro, 2018). in the recent past, however, some calls have been made for the cancellation or scrapping of neco for fear that the ssce, it administers is not as valid as that of the waec. critics submit that a large portion (40%) of candidates’ final outcome in each of the subject areas at the neco senior school certificate examination is made up of school-based teacher assessment scores (ejinkeonye, 2004; and falaye & afolabi, 2005). this assertion (even if true) may not necessarily be a minus or detrimental to the credibility of neco certification as the national policy on education has been quoted by s.o. bamidele & a.e. adewale (2013) as stating that: […] educational assessment and evaluation is to be liberalized by basing such evaluation in whole or part on continuous assessment of the progress of the individual (bamidele & adewale, 2013). the implication of such action is that the council is complying with policy of education guideline on assessment at the secondary school level. the credibility of ssces (senior secondary school certificate examinations) and their certificates was also brought under serious attack at the foreign scene as some countries overseas doubted the validity of the certificates. this immediately resonated in the domestic scene, where institutions of higher learning and employers of labour started becoming skeptical about ssce results. the situation seems to be deteriorating by the day. m.o. philips (2011), and other scholars, have blamed teachers, students, and the examining bodies for it. the examining bodies and school authorities are not doing enough as they do plug loopholes and the attitude of students who perceive neco (national examinations council) ssce as inferior has also worsened the situation. they joined some members of the public, including some private agencies, employees of labour, government of some states of the federation, and institutions of higher learning to discriminate against neco ssce results. this unfavourable development is badly affecting the nation’s educational system and economy (ojo, 2006; philips, 2011; ajetunmobi, 2012; and upahi, issa & oyelekan, 2015). © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare52 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results despite the fact that the certificates being awarded by these three examining bodies are said to be comparable, yet, stakeholders in the education sector doubt their equivalence. if waec (west african examinations council) and neco are able to maintain high standards in the development and administration of senior school certificate examinations, then performances in the examination should be good indicators of individuals’ standings with respect to any of the tested subject areas. how often, however, is this the case? it is possible, for instance, to identify candidates who scored an f9 on the waec ssce and an a1 on the neco ssce in the same subject and in the same year, thus leaving observers to wonder if the three ssces are in fact parallel? the researchers, therefore, intended to approach the issue of the equivalence of certificates being awarded by waec and neco in terms of the validity of the examinations used for the award of these certificates. the study was hunched that public awareness of the comparability of the three examinations’ results will point at the direction of hope to the citizens and restore public confidence in this all important examinations. statement of the problem. the introduction of local examining body, neco (national examinations council) to compete with waec (west african examinations council) that had enjoyed the monopoly of place in the conduct of ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) for almost 50 years has had an unsettling effect on the nation’s educational system. this act jolted waec out of complacency for a robust sensitization of the public on its mandate and has kept it on toes in order to remain in business. on the other hand, neco in order to stay afloat and gain root in the presence of a more experienced and “almighty waec” has resorted to aggressive propaganda to establish the genuineness of their emergence (kpolovie, ololube & ekwebelem, 2011; upahi, issa & oyelekan, 2015; and egwa, 2016). these acts have left the public confused about the credibility and comparability of their examinations, especially as the examinations are not getting any better. the holders of the certificates are also not bearing witness to the claims and efforts of the examining bodies. worse still is the mass irregularities that often mar the conduct of these examinations (uwadiae & adelakun, 2011). however, the researchers believed that the noble objectives of secondary education can only be achieved if there is an effective evaluation and assessment machinery. also, one way of investigating the validity of public doubt about the comparability of ssce results is to determine the success of waec and neco in maintaining the once high standards of educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 53 the senior school certificate examination. these standards can be assessed using one or more of the following criteria: (1) coverage of course content; (2) coverage of educational objectives; (3) performance of candidates in the examination; (4) the examination as a good predictor of future performance; and (5) the reliability of the test (kpolovie, ololube & ekwebelem, 2011). the present study focuses on the performance of candidates in the examination. the main purpose of this study was to investigate the comparative analysis of waec and neco senior school certificate examinations english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. the following research questions were raised to guide the conduct of this study: “what is the profile of students’ performance in ssce (waec and neco) english language results from 2018 to 2019?”. research hypotheses. the following null hypotheses were tested in the study: ho 1: there is no significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language (2018). ho 2: there is no significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language (2019). method this study was limited to public senior secondary school students’ ssce [senior secondary school certificate examination] (waec [west african examinations council] and neco [national examinations council]) english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria, for the period of two years. a total of 600 students’ results were selected for this study from five local government areas using multi-stage sampling technique. ex post facto research design was adopted for this study and the instrument for this study was a proforma titled “students’ achievement in english language inventory”. descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages were employed to provide answers to the research questions raised, while spearman rank order correlation co-efficient was used to test the hypotheses formulated at 0.05 significant level. data analysis techniques. the demographic profile above shows that 258 (43.0%) of the respondents were female and 342 (57.0%) were male respondents. research question one: what is the profile of students’ performance in ssce (waec and neco) english language results from 2018 to 2019? see table 1. table 1 shows the frequency counts and percentages of students’ academic performance in english language for the year 2018 and 2019 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare54 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results may/june waec (west african examinations council), neco (national examinations council) across the selected schools. a total of 47 (7.8%) and 51 (8.5) respondents had distinction in waec english language for the year 2019 and 2016 respectively. also, 369 (61.5%) and 345 (57.5) of the selected students passed at credit level in waec english language for the year 2018 and 2019 respectively. around 98 (16.3%) and 103 (17.2%) of the respondents had pass grade, while 70 (11.7%) and 63 (10.5%) of the students failed english language for the year 2018 and 2019 respectively. this means that the majority of the respondents sampled passed waec english language passed at credit level for the year 2018 and 2019. the results of neco showed an improvement in the performance of students in english language as 72 (12.0%) and 70 (11.7%) of the respondents had distinctions in the 2014 and 2015 respectively. also, 401 (66.8%) and 414 (69.0%) students had credit grades for the year 2018 and 2015 respectively. while 57 (9.5%) and 53 (8.8%) of the sampled respondents had pass grades, 70 (11.7%) and 63 (10.5%) of them failed english language for the year 2018 and 2015 respectively. this implies that neco recorded better results in english language for the year 2018 and 2015 as most of the students passed at credit level. hypotheses testing. the hypotheses generated in this study were analyzed using inferential statistics of spearman rank order correlation co-efficient at 0.05 level of significance. ho 1 : there is no significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language (2018). table 2 shows the spearman rank order correlation co-efficient analysis comparing performance of students in english language for the year 2018 may/june waec and neco. the result in the table 2 shows that the calculated significance values of 0.000 is less than the chosen 0.05 level of significance. hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. thus, there is a significant relationship between students’ performance in waec (west african examinations council) table 1: frequency counts and percentages of students’ performance in english language in waec and neco waec year grades distinction (a 1 ) credits (b 2 – c 6 ) pass (d 7 e 8 ) fail (f 9 ) 2018 freq. (%) 47 (7.8%) 369 (61.5%) 98 (16.3%) 86 (14.3%) 2019 freq. (%) 51 (8.5%) 345 (57.5%) 103 (17.2%) 101 (16.8%) neco 2018 freq. (%) 72 (12.0%) 401 (66.8%) 57 (9.5%) 70 (11.7%) 2019 freq. (%) 70 (11.7%) 414 (69.0%) 53 (8.8%) 63 (10.5%) educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 55 and neco (national examinations council) ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) results in english language for the year 2018. this implies that the performance of students in waec and neco is positively related and comparable in english language. ho 2 : there is no significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language (2019). table 3 shows the spearman rank order correlation co-efficient analysis comparing performance of students in english language for the year 2019 may/june waec and neco. the result in table 3 shows that the calculated significance values of 0.000 is less than the chosen 0.05 level of significance. hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. therefore, there is a significant relationship between students’ performance in waec (west african examinations council) and neco (national examinations council) ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) results in english language for the year 2019. this means that the performance of students in waec is positively related to that of neco in english language. findings and discussion the findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents sampled had credit grades, i.e. b 2 to c 6 , in ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) english language (waec [west african examinations council] and neco [national examinations council]) for the year 2018 and 2015 respectively. it was also revealed that neco recorded higher number of distinctions and lower number of f 9 for the table 2: summary of spearman rank order correlation coefficient between students’ performance in waec and neco english language (2018) year variables n mean sd df ρ sig. 2018 waec neco 600 600 30.49 36.76 5.90 3.78 598 0.394 0.000 *significant at p<0.05 table 3: summary of spearman rank order correlation coefficient between students’ performance in waec and neco english language (2019) year variables n mean sd df ρ sig. 2019 waec neabteb 600 600 30.28 40.25 4.74 4.35 598 0.671 0.000 *significant at p<0.05 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare56 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results years under consideration. this means the respondents did better in neco for the year 2018 and 2019 ssce english language. this finding is not in line with the assertions of b.a. falaye & e.r.i. afolabi (2005); c.c. abanobi et al. (2014); and other scholars, who observed that neco is not valid like other examination and, thus, not comparable with waec. one of the likely reasons for this is neco and nabteb (national business and technical examination board) are examining bodies that assumed to be valid and reliable, because they adhered to the uniform procedures of test construction and standardization. thus, differences in performance should be exclusively the result of chance factors like the academic dedication of candidates and not necessarily because the examination is not valid (cf falaye & afolabi, 2005; bandele & adewale, 2013; and abanobi et al., 2014). another likely reason for this result may be because neco and nabteb usually come after waec, when the candidates may seem to have overcome exam tension, discovered their weaknesses, mastered exam rudiments, learnt how to manage exam time better and well prepared or organized. these examinations (neco and nabteb) usually provide a second chance for the students to re-strategize better ways of doing things. the outcome of hypothesis one showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language for the year 2018. this implies that the performance of students in waec and neco is comparable in english language and the examinations are said to be equivalence. this outcome supports that of p.j. kpolovie, n.p. ololube & a.b.i. ekwebelem (2011), and other scholars, who found a significant positive relationship between candidates’ performance in waec and neco ssces in all subjects. this finding may be due to the fact that waec and neco are examining bodies that perform similar functions. they are both giving the mandate of providing uniform standards to all test takers in ssce as an end-of-course evaluation for all secondary school graduates (kpolovie, ololube & ekwebelem, 2011; ajao & awogbemi, 2012; and gogo, ojimba & nathaniel, 2020). the result of hypothesis two revealed a positive and significant relationship between students’ performance in waec and neco ssce results in english language for the year 2019. this means that the performance of students in waec is related to that of neco in english language. this result lends credence to that of s.o. bamidele & a.e. adewale (2013), and other scholars, whose findings showed that waec, neco, and nabteb mathematics achievement examinations are highly reliable and valid. the likely reason for this result may be that performance of educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 57 candidates in the examination is one of the yardsticks of standards of ssce. since the performance of students in waec and neco is positively related, they are said to be standard exams and, thus parallel and comparable. another likely reason for this outcome may be because neco is an alternative examining body who may need to justify the purpose of its establishment. since neco can be used to seek employment or admission for further studies like waec, it means they are comparable (bamidele & adewale, 2013; bandele & adewale, 2013; and moyinoluwa, 2015). conclusion based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that the majority of the senior secondary school students in the sampled schools had credit grades, i.e. b 2 to c 6 , in english language for the year 2018 and 2019 may/june waec (west african examinations council) and neco (national examinations council). it was also shown that students had more credits in neco than waec in the sampled schools; it could also be concluded that there was a significant relationship between students’ performance in english language in ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) waec and neco for the year 2018 and 2019 respectively. about the recommendations, in view of the findings of this study, the examining bodies should also continue to meet the standards of test construction procedures. they should ensure that experts are engaged in their activities especially in test construction and administration. they should always strike balance by giving out items that are fair to all candidates so that they will not see their questions as inferior to other examining bodies. government should formulate educational policy that will mandate all tertiary institutions (home and abroad) to take the certificate awarded by any of these examining bodies for admission. since the results of these examinations are parallel and equivalent, candidates who hold neco certificate should not be denied admission for further studies. institutions of higher learning should be admitting holders of certificates of neco for courses of their choice provided they meet up with the admission requirements. this will help to dispel public opinions about the credibility, validity and comparability of these examinations. further discrimination against holders of any of this certificate may discourage parents and other stakeholders from enrolling their wards for it, and possibly for employment purposes. students should be re-oriented about the purpose of an exam. they should be encouraged to be serious in all examinations. they should © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare58 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results not see one exam as being important than the other. parents and schools should also help them by de-emphasizing the importance of one exam to their future career so that they will be able to take all exams seriously. teachers should be using the past questions of neco to prepare their candidates for any exam. they should test their students using questions from other examining bodies other than waec so as to remind them the importance of other exams.1 references abanobi, c.c. et al. (2014). “psychometric properties of nabteb economics multiple-choice test items from 2005 to 2011” in international journal of education, science, and public policy in africa, volume 4(1), pp.17-26. available online also at: www.ijesppaonline.wordpress.com [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 1, 2020]. afemikhe, o.a. (2002). “assessment policy in the first twelve years of formal educational in botswana and nigeria” in mosenodi, volume 14(1), pp.53-60. ajao, i.s. & a.c. awogbemi. (2012). “a correlational analysis of students’ achievement in waec and neco mathematics” in journal of education and practice, vol.3, no.1, pp.23-36. available online also at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234633277.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 15, 2020]. ajetunmobi, w. (2012). “waec sensitizes pupils in exam fraud”. paper for seminar organized by the waec (west african examination council), held in lagos, nigeria, on 1st march. bamidele, s.o. & a.e. adewale. (2013). “comparative analysis of the reliability and validity coefficients of waec, neco, and nabteb constructed mathematics examination” in journal of educational and social research, volume 3(2), pp.1-6. bandele, s.o. & a.e. adewale. (2013). “comparative analysis of the reliability and validity coefficients of waec, neco, and nabteb constructed mathematics examination” in journal of educational and social research, volume 3(2), may, pp.397-402. available online also at: https:// pdfs.semanticscholar.org/75a9/067ffa8af299260be081ad522f5e9a35e0a8.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 15 2020]. egwa, ene inyamu. (2016). “quality assurance in nigerian tertiary institutions: a significant factor for sustainable democracy” in ijer: international journal of education and research, vol.4, no.7 [july], pp.453-460. available online also at: https://www.ijern.com/journal/2016/july-2016/35. pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 8, 2020]. ejinkeonye, u. (2004). “scrap jamb, neco, and save nigerian education!”. available online at: http://lagosforum.com/comment.php?nr=1076 [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 1, 2020]. falaye, b.a. & e.r.i. afolabi. (2005). “predictive validity of osun state junior secondary certificate examinations” in electronic journal of research in educational psychology, volume 5(1), pp.131-144. fasoyiro, olufunke abosede. (2018). “an exploration of the factors that shape the early professional development of new teachers: the experiences of non-teacher trained graduate teachers in nigeria”. unpublished doctoral thesis. london: institute of education ucl [university college london]. available online also at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10071785/1/ fasoyiro_10071785_thesis.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 8, 2020]. fme [federal ministry of education]. (2013). national policy on education. yaba-lagos: nerdc press. gogo, z.i., d.p. ojimba & e.g. nathaniel. (2020). “inter-agency differential analysis of student mathematics grading in senior secondary certificate examination” in ijpsat: international 1statement: this is to certify that our research is a product of our collaborative effort. it is an original, with some literature review from other sources. our research is not plagiarized – relevant statements of authors in the literature review are properly cited. we certify further that our research has never been reviewed nor published in any other scholarly journal. this certification is issued on 30th june 2021 for whatever legal and official purposes it may serve. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 59 journal of progressive sciences and technologies, vol.23, no.2 [november], pp.158-165. ifeoma, i.a., a.l. ebio & o.n. jacob. (2021). “an evaluation of the problems faced by undergraduate of federal university wukari, taraba state, nigeria” in ejhea: european journal of humanities and educational advancements, vol.2, no.3 [march], pp.20-24. jwasshaka, s.k., n.f. amin & a.a. latif. (2021). “validation of employers views on soft and hard job skills of nigeria polytechnic construction graduates” in international journal of research in education, vol.1, iss.1 [january], pp.16-32. kpolovie, p.j., n.p. ololube & a.b.i. ekwebelem. (2011). “appraising the performance of secondary school students on the waec and neco ssce from 2004 to 2006” in international journal of scientific research in education, volume 4(2), pp.105-114. matthew, ige akindele. (2013). “provision of secondary education in nigeria: challenges and way forward” in journal of african studies and development, volume 5(1), january, pp.1-9. available online also at: http://www.academicjournlas.org/jasd [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 1, 2020]. moyinoluwa, toyin d. (2015). “analysing the psychometric properties of mathematics in public examinations in nigeria” in research on humanities and social sciences, vol.5, no.7, pp.24-30. available online also at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234674471.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 15, 2020]. offor, e.i. (2001). “content validity of senior secondary school certificate examination (ssce) chemistry”. unpublished m.ed. thesis. owerri: faculty of education, imo state university. ojo, l.b. (2006). “total quality management and productivity improvement amongst teachers and learners in private school secondary schools in lagos state, nigeria”. a postfield report presented at the department of educational management, university of ibadan, nigeria, on february. okoroma, n.s. (2006). “educational policies and problems of implementation in nigeria” in australian journal of adult learning, vol.46, no.2 [july], pp.243-263. ololube, n.p. (2008). “evaluation competencies of professional and non-professional teachers in nigeria” in see: studies in educational evaluation, volume 34(1), pp.44-51. ololube, n.p. (2011a). education and society: an interactive approach. owerri: spring field publishers. ololube, n.p. (2011b). professionalism, school effectiveness, and quality improvement: potentials and issues surrounding school effectiveness. saarbucken: lambert academic publishers. olufemi, adodo sunday. (2013). “quality assurance, relevance, and institutionalization of continuous assessment implementation as perceived by lecturers and students in nigeria universities” in journal of educational and social research, vol.3, no.3 [september], pp.253-260. onihunwa, john et al. (2018). “roles of continuous assessment scores in determining the academic performance of computer science students in federal college of wildlife management” in ajer: american journal of engineering research, vol.7, iss.5, pp.7-20. available online also at: https://www. ajer.org/papers/vol-7-issue-5/b07050720.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 8, 2020]. onyibe, c.o., u.u. uma & e. ibina. (2015). “examination malpractice in nigeria: causes and effects on national development” in journal of education and practice, vol.6, no.26, pp.12-18. available online also at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1077379.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 1, 2020]. philips, m.o. (2011). “parents, teachers must stop patronizing magic centres”. unpublished paper based on the interview with rasim sumaina at abuja, nigeria, during the conference of education commissioners, on 21 december. available online also at: www.education-philips. jpg-educationphilips.jpg [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 1, 2020]. upahi, j.e., g.b. issa & o.s. oyelekan. (2015). “analysis of senior school certificate examination chemistry questions for higher-order cognitive skills” in cjes: cypriot journal of educational sciences, volume 10(3), pp.218-227. uwadiae, i. & a.a. adelakun. (2011). the challenges of ensuring quality assurance in assessment in multicultural contexts: the care of the west african examinations council. lagos: west african examination council. zubayr, f.a. & a.w. ibrahim. (2016). “a meta-analytic assessment of standard fixing at senior secondary school certificate examination by west african examinations council, nigeria” in journal of teaching and teacher education, vol.4, no.1 [january], pp.31-40. available online also at: https://journal.uob.edu.bh/bitstream/handle/123456789/761/jtte040104.pdf [accessed in ilorin, nigeria: june 8, 2020]. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare60 oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results students’ waec performance in nigeria (source: https://guardian.ng/features, 22/06/2020) the students had more credits in neco (national examinations council) than waec (west african examinations council) in the sampled schools; it could also be concluded that there was a significant relationship between students’ performance in english language in ssce (senior secondary school certificate examination) waec and neco for the year 2018 and 2019 respectively. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i volume 14(1), august 2021 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation and preparedness of rural communities. [1-18] dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design and implementation during the covid-19 pandemic. [19-34] susanti, online class discussion and social presence to boost academic performance of english subject amid covid-19 outbreak. [35-48] oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime, comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. [49-60] rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective based on religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology: an analysis study at tkit al-fitrah. [61-74] info-edu-tainment. [75-82] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 foreword during the advent of lockdowns due to covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019) pandemic, one of the hardest hit was the system of education. most education leaders were caught unaware of the impact of the sudden shift from traditional face to face to distance or online learning modalities. there was reticence to hold and attend the classes using hard and soft instructional materials. some schools were quick to conduct synchronous and asynchronous sessions. online platforms, such as google meet, zoom, ms teams, canvas, and several others, suddenly became hot potatoes; while computers, cellphones, and other gadgets became even more in demand. these are only some thoughts in the past, but now an overwhelming reality. on this account, issues on mental health among administrators, teachers, students, and parents emerged to require immediate, but careful attention. the influx of requests and referrals for different counseling services was persistent from the beginning up to the end of the school calendar. schools, therefore, got eroded with series of webinars. what lies ahead of us for the next school year? the situation could be the same and we cannot afford to make another round of variable school interruptions. as covid-19 seems to have inherent tendencies to reproduce in different names or variants, we shall continue to make adjustments. while a multitude of school’s stakeholders, for example teachers, students, and their carriers, deserve sleeker rules, they shall continue to observe their covenant geared towards teaching and learning. thus, schools need to be nurturing and inclusive. teachers shall remain faithful to creativity in finding ways, in order to meet the learning and instructional needs of students. in the same manner, students have to be resourceful and honest as they perform their responsibility as learners. to cushion the impact of workloads towards these stakeholders, along with other sectors, they shall be reinforced to share resources and be ready to offer help for others. infused with this once in a lifetime situation, we are currently in, the same shall provide us, a compelling reason to create more knowledge. hence, our observations have to be described, so that our curiosities will be explained. there are also articles in the educare international journal, august 2021 edition, which examine the learning process in this era of the covid-19 pandemic. article written by dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti of indonesia, entitled “augmented reality based digital practicum card design and implementation during the covid-19 pandemic”; and article written by susanti of indonesia, entitled “online class discussion and social presence to boost academic performance of english subject amid covid-19 outbreak”, showed that, in one hand, practical learning activities cannot be carried out in workshop laboratories, due to the very dangerous covid-19 attack; while, in other hand, unconvinient atmosphere of pandemi covid-19 has caused all schools and campuses closed, then learners have online learning to follow the social distancing. the rest of the articles study a lot about mitigation issues for natural disasters, and of course their relation to the world of education; national assessments and examinations; and effective communication in the learning process. article written by marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga of the philippines, entitled “exploring disaster mitigation and preparedness of rural communities”, for example, explained about the general response in terms of the level of disaster mitigation and preparedness is “in the process”. most of the respondents have acquired information on general emergency preparedness with tv reports as the most common source of information and television as the most effective means of receiving information. article written by oyeyemi jumoke jekayinfa & aminat ozohu aburime of nigeria, entitled “comparative analysis of waec and neco ssce english language results in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria”, showed that majority of the respondents sampled passed english language in waec (west african examinations council) at credit level for the year 2018 and 2019, while the performance of students in neco (national examinations council) is positively related and comparable in english language. and last, but not least, article written by rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath of indonesia, entitled “developing effective communication in education perspective based on religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology: an analysis study at tkit al-fitrah”, explained about the communication process can take place between superiors to subordinates, fellow colleagues, in teaching and learning or even communication between the school and parents. here, it is necessary to deliver an effective message. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. manila, philippines: august 30, 2021. jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. an expert reviewer board member of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and a lecturer at the college of teacher development, faculty of education sciences pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, the philippines. e-mail: juno_6970@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: cartoon on “study is my right” by itan krisma putri of indonesia. (source: http://www.seameo.org/seameoweb2/index.php?option=com, 28 february 2019). copy right © 2019 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. guest editor: syed ismail syed mustapa, ph.d. head of department for research and innovation of teachers’ training professionalism in ipg, teacher education institute, kampus ilmu khas, 56000 kuala lumpur, malaysia. e-mail: syed_ismail@ipgkik.edu.my editor-in-chief: dr. nurul zuriah umm, muhammadiyah university of malang, malang city, indonesia. e-mail: zuriahnurul@gmail.com managing editor: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction method results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http:// www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare/guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issue of february 2009 to date, the educare journal has been organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board honorable patron: dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad (rector of ump, purwokerto, indonesia) editor-in-chief: prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) vice editor: dr. furqanul aziez (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) managing editor: haji ahmad, m.pd. (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) expert reviewer board for february issue: prof. dr. m. syaom barliana (upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia) prof. dr. ramlee mustapha (upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia) assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim (ubd, university of brunei darussalam, b.s. begawan, brunei) prof. dr. gonzalo jover (ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain) prof. dr. mohd shakir (amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india) expert reviewer board for august issue: prof. dr. haji zamroni (uny, state university of yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia) prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud (upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia) prof. dr. mina hattori (nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan) prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré (qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada) prof. dr. mohammad parvez (amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india) associate editors: haji joko purwanto, m.si (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. haji tanto sukardi (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. haji akhmad jazuli (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. suwartono (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) andi suwirta, m.hum. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) secretariat staffs: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) suwarno, m.si. (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) address: head office (for corresponding): minda masagi press, sekretariat aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com branch office: faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. e-mail: sekret_ump@yahoo.com and tukiranump@yahoo.com website: www.educare-ijes.com and www.mindamas-journals.com cover disgn: “cartoon of education” cited from cartoons of malaysia in aspensi album (17 august 2015) copy right © 2015 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, in collaboration with fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. guideline/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction sub title sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international academic journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published articles will require the author to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get the journal prints, journal off prints, and his/ her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website at: www.educare-ijes.com authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print and off print, but his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except based on written requests from the authors. for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: http://educare-ijes.com/ category/guidelines/ articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 19 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti augmented reality based digital practicum card design and implementation during the covid-19 pandemic abstract: this study aims to design a dpc (digital practicum card) application in the practice of learning basic automotive subjects. the application made is a digital practicum tool based on ar (augmented reality). the method in application development uses the mdlc (multimedia development life cycle) model through six stages of the development process, namely: concept, design, material collection, assembly, testing, and application distribution. the concept stage begins with the process of analysing the needs of automotive practicum learning, designing interfaces, developing 3d (three-dimensional) models with a blender, assembling applications with unity, testing systems, and distributing digital practicum card applications. the dpc application helps students carry out virtual experimental exploration activities on basic automotive materials without being limited by space and time, so that practicum learning becomes easy and can improve the quality of learning. the results of limited application testing for mechanical engineering students show that the package (apk) of the digital practicum card application can be installed on an android smartphone device, the camera can read markers and generate 3d models of automotive objects normally. in addition to testing from the hardware and software aspects, the dpc application can be used by mechanical engineering students as a practical tool and an average of above 80% states that dpc can be used easily, and as a fun automotive practicum learning tool. key words: augmented reality; virtual laboratory; digital practicum card. introduction vocational education and training have an important and strategic role in preparing human resources, who have industrial skills and competencies, so that they can work and do well. quality education in about the authors: dede, m.kom. is a student of doctoral candidate at the technological and vocational education study program sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. prof. dr. ade gaffar abdullah and prof. dr. budi mulyanti are the lecturers at the technological and vocational education study program sps upi in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail address: d32@upi.edu suggested citation: dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti. (2021). “augmented reality based digital practicum card design and implementation during the covid-19 pandemic” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august, pp.19-34. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi suci and aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 1, 2021); revised (july 3, 2021); and published (august 30, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare20 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design vocational education can only be done effectively by integrating work into learning through practical activities. practical activities are very important activities carried out by students and lecturers in the work-based learning process, especially in automotive mechanical engineering courses (nduna, 2017; kanwar, 2019; and rusmulyani, 2021). however, at this time, practical learning activities cannot be carried out in workshop laboratories, due to the very dangerous covid-19 (corona virus disease of 2019) attack. these situations and conditions force universities and colleges in the world to implement an online learning system (khosravi, 2019).1 covid-19 spreads through droplets released by sufferers through the air to people less than one meter away. this virus enters through the respiratory media and attacks the human immune system. the initial symptoms of an infected person’s body will be coughing, high fever, and finally difficulty breathing. when the virus has spread and enters the blood vessels, it can cause a heart attack and heart inflammation. the transmission of this virus is very fast depending on the immune system we have, if our immune system is low, it will be easy to get infected quickly. people, who have a strong immune system when infected, will not feel symptoms, but people without symptoms, or otg (orang tanpa gejala), can carry viruses that can harm others (oram, 2019). the implementation of learning using e-learning requires methods and strategies that can assist students in absorbing the subject matter. however, for vocational education, especially in the implementation of practicum, special strategies and tools are needed, so that students can still develop knowledge, skills, and gain hands-on experience even though learning is done virtually (ana, 2020). the solution to this problem is to design an android-based virtual laboratory application in the form of a digital practicum card by involving ar (augmented reality) technology that supports electronically assisted online learning. the design of the application can encourage student motivation in exploring scientific activities through online observations and prevent crowds without reducing the essence of the learning material (dede et al., 2018). according to s. cawood & m. fiala (2007), as cited also in m. mustika et al. (2015), ar is a natural way to explore 3d objects and data. ar is a concept that combines virtual reality with the real environment, so that two-dimensional (2d) or three-dimensional (3d) virtual objects look as if they are real and blend with the real world. in ar technology, users can 1see also, for example, the articles that are available at: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: november 3, 2020]. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 21 see the real world around them by adding virtual objects generated by the computer (cawood & fiala, 2007; and mustika et al., 2015). the application of virtual technology into practical learning and training is dominated by virtual technology, because it can increase learning achievement and motivation. thus, the integration of ar technology into virtual laboratories can support the introduction of new concepts as part of learning about science and technology; and introduce more general engineering knowledge, through more constructive education and training activities and collaboration on more complex engineering topics, such as learning automotive courses (potkonjak, 2016; akçayır, 2017; and alptekin, 2018). the combination of ar technology with educational content creates new types of automated applications and acts to increase the effectiveness and attractiveness of teaching and learning for students in real-life scenarios. ar is a new medium, combining aspects of multimedia technology with the surrounding environment. these media offer unique capabilities, combining the physical and virtual worlds, with the user’s implicit and continuous control over viewing angles and interactivity (utarbutar, 2017; and ana, 2020). ar must have three characteristics: it combines the real and virtual worlds; has real-time interaction with the user; and is registered in 3d space. ar allows users to interact actively through digital simulations and aims to complement reality without actually immersing the user in a synthetic environment (wang, 2018). the concept of digital simulation, that is integrated with ar technology, can change the conventional learning principle that is centered on the instructor to be centered on the learner. students become more active, creative, and critical in understanding various learning materials, so as to create inherent knowledge and skills based on findings and experiences so that students can do lifelong learning (andresen, 2002). this study aims to design an ar-based digital practicum card application in automotive mechanical engineering practicum learning in vocational higher education that is integrated with e-learning. the application made is a practicum tool in the form of a digital card as a medium used to make observations on online learning by integrating virtual technology into practical learning; how the application works by directing the android smart phone camera at each marker containing automotive material in the form of 3d objects. this application can assist teachers in explaining automotive material and assigning practical activities tasks virtually using an android smart phone device. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare22 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design development method the method used is mdlc (multimedia development life cycle), which is sourced from a.c. luther (1994) and has been modified by a. sutopo (2003). this method has been widely used in building learning applications, such as game-based learning (luther, 1994; sutopo, 2003; and gros, 2007). the multimedia development method consists of six stages, namely: concept, design, material collection, assembly, testing, and distribution. these six stages do not have to be sequential in practice, these stages can switch positions. however, the concept stage is the first step that must be done. here is the procedure for developing a digital practicum card application as shown in figure 1. figure 1 is the approach used is the method of developing a digital practicum card application for automotive mechanical engineering courses in a 3-d (3-dimensional) virtual laboratory. the following stages of application development are: (1) concept, this stage is determining the purpose and who the program user is, or identification audience, type of application, purpose of application, and general specifications; (2) design, it is to make detailed specifications regarding the application architecture, style, appearance, and the need for learning materials for making applications; (3) material collecting, it is the stage of collecting materials in accordance with the needs being worked on, and these materials include, among others, clip art images, photos, animations, videos, audios, and others that can be obtained free of charge or by ordering to other parties according to the design; (4) assembly, this stage is making all multimedia objects or materials; (5) testing, after the application is made, it is time to test the capabilities and performance of the application, whether it is as expected, and here, it is recompiled whether all connections, buttons, and other facilities can function properly; and (6) distribution, this stage is application to be processed and distributed in the form of an apk extension and stored in a cloud storage media on the google play store. figure 1: development method cycle educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 23 findings and discussion this research produces a virtual laboratory application for automotive mechanical engineering courses. a virtual laboratory made in the form of a number of cards containing markers for automotive mechanical engineering courses. the practicum card is used by directing the camera at the marker object contained in the card through the android smart phone camera. the marker object image contains material in the form of a 3-d (3-dimensional) animated video that will appear on the smart phone screen and machine drawing objects and 3-d object components for practice. concept. the concept stage is the stage to determine the purpose and who the program users are or user identification. in addition, it determines the type of application (presentation, interactive, etc.) and the purpose of the application (entertainment, training, learning, etc.). the details of the concept in this study are in table 1. design. this stage is consisted of three designs, namely: (1) application flowchart design; (2) application digital practicum card design; and (3) app mockup design. the explanation is following here: firstly, application flowchart design. flowchart design is the stage of making specifications regarding the program architecture, style, appearance, and material requirements or materials for the program. at this stage, make an application design and storyboard design. the design of the dpc (digital practicum card) application flowchart uses an online application that can be accessed on the draw.io web page and is available table 1: description of the dpc application design concept concept description title digital practicum card application material basic automotive knowledge learning objective create and implement cloud-based ar (augmented reality) applications on automotive learning materials. this application is expected to increase knowledge and skill competence, and independently be able to perform comparative, critical analysis, and make a summary of learning outcomes and improve the delivery of a more interactive learning process user mechanical engineering student audio automotive knowledge material narration video automotive knowledge material narration picture automotive objects 3-d (3-dimensional) model resource from lecturers, industry, and other open sources © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare24 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design online (giordano, 2015; and pot, 2018). in detail, the flowchart that has been made, is presented in figure 2. secondly, application digital practicum card design. the dpcs (digital practicum cards) are made using an image processing application, namely adobe photoshop. the dpc (digital practicum card) is made based on concepts that are adapted to automotive learning materials. the dpc size is as big as a business card, which is 9 cm long and 5.5 cm wide. the cards made are designed according to the layout and color sketch by paying attention to color aesthetics, then saved in the form of *.jpg extension according to the order of the cards. after the card design is made, which contains a number of automotive mechanical engineering course materials, then it is entered into the vuforia database. the card made functions as a marker and the image quality is tested, if the saved image gets a three-star rating or more then the card is worthy of being used as an ar (augmented reality) application marker. figure 2: application flowchart design educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 25 some of the assessments on the digital practicum card are shown in figure 3. the practicum card, as shown in figure 3, is an example of a practicum card design. the first card, called engine card 001, functions as a marker that displays a brief introduction to the material. the card can be read through the camera on the android smartphone device. based on the results of the marker quality test on the vuforia database storage application, all cards get a five-star value, meaning that the markers made have good image quality. thirdly, app mockup design. the application sketch layout (mockup) design is used to create a process flow for the digital practicum card application display, starting from the logo display, menu, and application usage. the application outline is used to provide an overview of the application that is designed to fit the established concept. the mockup is based on the system architecture that has been created as shown in the application flowchart design. the display design in the form of a mockup is made, so that the application development process using unity or the assembly stage can be made according to a predetermined concept. the tool used to create a mockup display is a design application that can be accessed online on the www.draw.io web page. the material for practicum learning activities is prepared based on automotive mechanical engineering courses with reference to industry standards, namely the skkni (standar kualitas kerja nasional industri or industry national work qualification standard). the following are the results of the mockup design for the dpc (digital practicum card) application display that was made,2 as shown in figure 4 and figure 5. material collection. material collecting is the stage where the collection 2see, for further information, www.draw.io [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: november 10, 2020]. figure 3: practicum card design © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare26 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design of materials according to needs is carried out. this stage is done in parallel with the assembly stage. the materials needed in making this application are as follows: hardware needed in the form of two units of laptop, scanner, sound recorder, printer. the required software are: windows 7 64 bit, unity 3d (3-dimensional), adobe premiere, and blender. the material collected in the development of a digital practicum card application is based on industrial competency qualification standards in the form of an introduction to the basic concepts of automotive engineering; basic engine components; how the gasoline diesel engine works; comparison of manual and automatic clutches; power transfer modes; and others. figure 4: mockup design for splash screen display and menu display figure 5: mockup design of the module view application and the ar camera view educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 27 photos and pictures are also required to be used as a reference or reference. one example of photos and images used in making a digital practicum card application is shown in figure 6. in addition to images of materials or assets needed in the development of the dpc (digital practicum card) application, videos are collected from various sources, namely the learn-engineering youtube channel and other relevant sources. sources of video material that have been collected are then selected based on the needs and concepts of automotive learning, including video material: (1) comparison of electric car work systems; (2) manual transmission; (3) how manual transmission works; (4) how the clutch works; and (5) introduction to the abs, or antilock breaking system, brake system (barry, 2015; mobasseri & mobasseri, 2017; and pot, 2018). in detail, it can be seen in figure 7. assembly. the assembly stage is the stage where all multimedia objects or materials are created. application development is based on the design stage. the assembly stage is the stage of making all the objects figure 6: material requirements for 3d model applications figure 7: material requirements for animated video applications © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare28 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design or multimedia materials created. this assembly stage includes uploading dpc (digital practicum card) markers to the cloud database storage media on vuforia, but first you have to login with a vuforia account. next, create a database and upload the dpc marker image that was previously made at the card design stage. see figure 8. after the marker database storage stage, the next stage of making the application is the process of combining all the content that has been created in the previous stage into the dpc (digital practicum card) application. flowcharts and storyboards of the application user interface that have been made at the design stage become a reference in making applications; application creation is done using unity 3-d (3-dimensional) software with the main data storage source used is vuforia, like educational game (pamoedji, maryuni & sanjaya, 2017; liu, sohn & park, 2018; and rahayu, 2018). the making of the scene consists of six scenes, namely: (1) splash screen; (2) menus; (3) guide; (4) modules; (5) print cards; and (6) arcamera. the assembly process of application development using unity 3d can be seen in figures 9 and 10. the development of ar (augmented reality) digital practicum cards in virtual laboratories uses several applications, namely assembling applications using unity 3-d (3-dimensional), designing flow diagrams and application sketches using design applications that are accessed online. the card design uses the adobe photoshop application for the design process and is assembled through the unity 3-d application. testing. in this section, we will evaluate the performance of our proposed application, so that the application created can be effectively used in practical learning that is integrated with the e-learning system. figure 8: dpc marker database storage educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 29 we ask the automotive course teachers to share applications that have been packaged in the form of dpc.apk. applications are shared via the telegram application to students, and a guide to using the application is provided. after the application is installed on a smartphone device, students are directed to use the application and study the material. this test was conducted to find out how effective, easy, and motivated users are when using the dpc (digital practicum card) application to observe virtually through a number of printed marker cards. the user is given the dpcar.apk application and asks to install it then students are asked to provide feedback on the application used (rajeswari, 2017; and griffith, carruthers & bliemel eds., 2018). after that, they were directed to fill out a questionnaire through the google form, after carrying out learning activities through the dpc figure 9: dpc application assembly process figure 10: dpc application display © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare30 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design application. learners are asked to rate statements, namely about learning experiences and their use, on a 7-point scale. the more they agree with the statement, the higher they rate it. the statements are listed in table 2. figure 11 explains that question 1 asks users to rate the dpc (digital practicum card) installation that is made to be installed by 72% and gives an appropriate rating and 38% less precise. statement 2 asked users to rate the design aspects and stated that 84% were easy to understand and 16% answered that they were not appropriate. statement 3 requested an acceleration of the marker scan speed and stated that 80% stated that the device used could easily read the card with the camera, and 20% stated that it was not suitable. the fourth statement shows that the 3d (3-dimensional) simulation displayed is in accordance with the automotive material, 88% table 2: list of application test statements no statement 1. the digital practicum card application is easy to install on android devices. 2. the menu design on the application is easy to understand. 3. digital cards can be scanned and display material in video form. 4. 3d simulation displayed according to automotive material. 5. i am very satisfied learning to observe using this virtual 3d object models. 6. i believe that this tool is able to build transform understanding interactively. 7. i can repeat the material and learn to observe virtually with this app again. 8. fast and accurate marker recognition. figure 11: the results of testing the digital practicum card application educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 31 say it is appropriate, and 12% say it is not. statement 4 of 3d simulations that are displayed are in accordance with automotive materials, 88% say they are appropriate, and 12% say they are not. statement 5 of the satisfaction of learning to observe using this virtual 3d object model of 96% stated that it was appropriate and 4% was not appropriate. statement 6 knowledge construction in learning is very easy to understand by 84% stating it is easy and 16% stating it is not easy. statement 7 application users can study observations repeatedly by 92% stating conformity and 12% not appropriate. the statement that 8 markers on the card are easy to access and through smart phone cameras, 96% are functioning properly and 4 percent stated that they are not functioning. distributing. the stage where the application is stored in a storage medium. at this stage, if the storage media is not sufficient to accommodate the application, then compression is carried out on the application. distribution of applications to each application platform. applications with the *.apk file format are distributed through the 3d (3-dimensional) virtual laboratory web application and will also be published on the google play store. discussion. the application of ar/vr (augmented reality/virtual reality) technology in technical and social learning is very helpful in increasing learning motivation and at low cost in the academic and industrial. several studies related to the use of ar/vr technology into various fields in education, industrial training, and science (cawood & fiala, 2007; pamoedji, maryuni & sanjaya, 2017; and puggioni, 2020). the application of ar/vr technology in learning construction engineering, engineering, and architecture showed a significant increase in the use of ar/vr in the aec (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry from 2017 to 2018. the results showed that the residential and commercial sectors adopted the most of these tools, compared to other sectors; and sectors institution and transportation had the highest growth from 2017 to 2018. industry experts anticipate solid growth in the use of ar/vr technology in 5 to 10 years, with the highest expectations for healthcare (cawood & fiala, 2007; pamoedji, maryuni & sanjaya, 2017; and noghabaei, 2020). in the field of tourism, research conducted by b.m.a. nayyar (2018), and other scholars, found the effectiveness of using virtual technology in guiding hospital consumers, besides that b.m.a. nayyar (2018) also applied ar/vr technology to the tourism sector (pamoedji, maryuni & sanjaya, 2017; nayyar, 2018; and lotfi, hamblin & rezaei, 2020). research conducted by j.s.h.l.h. yip (2019), and other scholars, showed that learning videos embedded in ar (augmented reality) © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare32 dede, ade gaffar abdullah & budi mulyanti, augmented reality based digital practicum card design technology can improve the quality of learning, it is tested using pretest and post-test. this increase is influenced by students’ motivation towards learning interest and ease of access to repeat learning that is not understood (cabero-almenara et al., 2019; yip, 2019; and pujiastuti & haryadi, 2020). learning to use smartphones is currently done online and using smart devices. this is in line with the research conducted by a.m. naciri (2020), and other scholars, that showed that learning cannot be done face-toface, due to the danger of transmission of the covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019), but the strategy must be supported by active, interactive, and fun learning methods and content (abidah et al., 2020; coman et al., 2020; and naciri, 2020). conclusion 3 by using the multimedia application development method of mdlc (multimedia development life cycle), an application called a digital practicum card, called dpc (digital practicum card), has been produced. dpc in a virtual laboratory is very helpful in the online practicum learning process and supports long life learning. this application is very suitable to be applied at this time, considering the government’s recommendations and prohibitions for universities to carry out the learning and teaching process at home to avoid transmission and prevent the danger of covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019). the dpc virtual laboratory application cannot only provide knowledge to students, but it also triggers student motivation in increasing the quality and intensity of practicum learning through virtual observation activities using dpc. this research can be developed further with a touch of the latest technology that will support fun learning with the touch of the latest technology, namely extended reality.4 references abidah, a. et al. 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(2019). “improving quality of teaching and learning in classes by using augmented reality video” in computer & education, pp.88-101. 5 ramlee.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 169 professor dr. ramlee mustapha is the director of the centre for learner diversity, faculty of education ukm (national university of malaysia) in bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. he can be reached at: drramlee@yahoo.com job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia ramlee mustapha *) abstract: the effect of globalisation on human capital development is decisive. a country that lacks the means to compete in global market is often left behind. competitiveness is based on a country’s capacity to add value to global economic products, services and processes. a key contributor in this regard is the knowledge and skills of the workforce. the education and skills of the workforce will be the key competitive weapon for the 21st century. thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the career satisfaction among vocational teachers in the selected technical secondary schools in malaysia. the aspects that were studied include the job domain, the work environment and the flow of information within the organisation. a sample of 101 vocational teachers in technical secondary schools in negeri sembilan and melaka was selected. the questionnaire contained three sections: (1) profile of the respondents; (2) job satisfaction; and (3) open-ended questions. descriptive statistics in the forms of frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used for the data analysis. the study found that the environmental and job factors are the aspects which bestow job satisfaction to vocational teachers, while the aspect of flow of information within the organisation was rated low. therefore, the school administrators need to improve the flow of information in the organisation especially between the administrators and vocational teachers in order to enhance job satisfaction among vocational educators. keywords: job satisfaction, vocational teachers, human resource development, and job descriptive index in malaysia. introduction human resource development should be given considerable attention because it is the most important element in ensuring that a country is competitive and resilient, especially in this era of globalisation and k-economy. in malaysia, various initiatives were planned and carried out to sustain its economic competitiveness. a critical challenge that faces post-modern society is to attain full employment and economic ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 170 growth in the global economy. the future of malaysia’s competitiveness depends on the knowledge and skills of its workforce (ramlee mustapha et al., 2008). with the advent of k-economy and globalisation, the need for a strong human capital has never been so critical. thus, human capital development is designated as the main thrust of rancangan malaysia ke-9 in 2006 or the ninth malaysia plan, 2006-2010. human capital development emphasizes on the acquisition of knowledge and skills in critical areas such as science and technology. equally important is the enculturation of positive attitudes, civilised mind, outstanding integrity and high ethical values. in terms of education and training, focus is given to the technical education and skills training. a relatively high amount of public allocation of rm 493 million was apportioned to enhance students’ enrolment in technical, vocational schools and skills training institutions in the ninth malaysia plan (rancangan malaysia ke-9, 2006). job satisfaction is the instinctive desire of every employable individual. people who achieve the high state of job satisfaction may be highly motivated and productive in assisting his or her organisation to achieve its goals. an employee upbeat attitude is important not only to himself or herself but also to the organisation. job satisfaction can be defined as positive or negative appraisal toward one’s career. job commitment, on the other hand, is an employee’s attitude towards the whole organisation (baron & greenberg, 1990). an employee high commitment towards organisation may arise from the acceptance of the organisation’s values as well as one’s willingness to work for the organisation. the study conducted by w. schaefer (1986) shows that employees with high job satisfaction have better well-being and longevity than those who are not satisfied with their profession. job satisfaction also has an impact towards an individual’s life condition outside the working hours. another study shows that the teaching profession is one of the most stressful careers (kyriacou, 1987). other studies also show that a prolonged work stress could affect teachers’ mental and emotional health and in the long run could affect teachers’ teaching quality (kyriacou & sutcliffe, 1978; manthei & solman, 1988; borg, riding & falzon, 1991; travers & cooper, 1996; and antoniou, 2000). meanwhile abdul fuad mohamad (1997) suggests that the increase in teachers’ workload and responsibility should commensurate with the recognition as well as the rewarding system in the career. however, the teaching profession is still perceived as “second-class job”, though various efforts have been taken to improve the image of the teaching profession. the concept of job satisfaction has a close association with teachers’ commitment towards the organisation and thus influences the effectiveness of the implementation of a programme (borne, 1972; and avalos & haddad, 1981). meanwhile a.l. kottkamp (1990) states that the quality of teaching is influenced by various factors such as job satisfaction and teacher’s attitudes. a.l. kottkamp (1990) also believes that job satisfaction is positively associated with job performance and commitment towards the organisation. literature shows that teachers’ satisfaction is also influenced by the form of communication practised by their principals (sim, 1994). further, an organisation may shoulder the cost incurred because of the uncommitted employees. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 171 absenteeism, operational delays and accidents occur in the workplace may be due to employees dissatisfaction. malaysia’s national institute of occupational safety and health (niosh) reported that accident rate in work place and compensation payments are on the rise (bulletin niosh, 2006:10). this may reflect the predicaments faced by employees in the workplace which might include stress-related problems. problem statement literature has shown that there are teachers who are not committed to their career. job stress, personal conflict, ambiguity of role, students’ disciplinary problems as well as lack of social support system are the challenges faced by teachers that may cause dissatisfaction among teachers. these pressures may affect teachers’ emotional and physical well-being that may lead to lower job satisfaction. according to william (in zubaidah aman, 1999), not all workers have positive view towards their careers. they might be experiencing emotional stress, disappointment, exhaustion, anxiety and unhappy feelings. further k. mattox (1974) investigated the reasons why teachers quit from the teaching profession. the study found that the main factors influencing teachers to quit their teaching profession include: low salary, limited opportunity for promotion, heavy workload, lack of freedom to make decisions and students’ disciplinary problems. according to s.v. kals & j.a. well (1985), work environment plays an important role in determining job satisfaction. their study found that low job satisfaction is caused by poor job condition, heavy workload, unconstructive work group, poor supervision and anarchic-type organisation. therefore, the rapport between employer and employees in an organisation is very important. according to abu bakar nordin (1986), there are teachers who feel that there exist loop holes particularly in terms of selection criteria for promotion and the weaknesses of the evaluation procedures. one of the weaknesses of the system is that only a small number of teachers receive recognition although everyone works hard. the system usually favours teachers who teach examination classes and senior teachers who almost retire. in addition, teachers may be required to work overtime, do clerical work, attend courses and seminars, and implement new teaching and learning methods (siti rohani md. sharif, 1991). a study in sarawak, malaysia discovered the main reasons why teachers quit which include personal factor, getting a better job offer, unwillingness to live away from family, unsuitable work environment and heavy workload. the school environment and students also influence the teachers’ job satisfaction (borneo post, 9/10/1996). the teaching profession in malaysia is at the crossroads. even though the salary of teachers has increased substantially but the infrastructure and the school environment have improved rather painstakingly slow. according to the malaysian national union of teaching profession or kesatuan perkhidmatan perguruan malaysia in 2006, job stress, lack of promotion, poor social support system as well as other chains of problem which were not solved fairly and satisfactorily have caused a number of teachers to quit and migrate to other professions or retire early. ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 172 literature also shows that most studies about teachers’ level of satisfaction were conducted regarding teachers in regular academic schools. therefore, there is a lack of studies conducted on technical and vocational teachers. thus, it is critical that this study is conducted to identify the level of job satisfaction among vocational teachers. purpose and objectives, theoretical framework and methodology this purpose of this study was to determine the job satisfaction among vocational teachers teaching in malaysian public technical secondary schools in melaka and negeri sembilan. specifically, the research objectives are as follows: (1) to identify the level of job satisfaction among vocational teachers; (2) to identify the environmental factors which influence the level of satisfaction among vocational teachers; and (3) to identify the level of flow of information within the organisation which influence job satisfaction of vocational teachers. the theoretical framework in this research was based on f. herzberg, b. mausner & b. synderman (1959) dual theory. the dual elements in this theory are hygiene and motivation. the fundamental factors (hygiene factors) include salary, job status, relationship with other employees and employer as well as employees’ safety and welfare. motivation factors, on the other hand, include recognition and the opportunity for promotion. the f. herzberg, b. mausner & b. synderman (1959) dual theory states that if these factors are fulfilled positively, the individual’s job satisfaction would increase. the independent variables in this present study were gender, age, levels of education, experience, income and marital status. the dependent variables consisted of job satisfaction, workplace environment and flow of information within the organisation. results of past research generally show that job satisfaction increases with age. for the teaching career, past research found that the main factors contributing to job dissatisfaction among teachers include workload, not-so-good relationship with the administrators and limited opportunity for promotion. this study utilised a survey research. mohd majid has stated that a survey research aims to collect information about the variables which are studied in a natural setting (in bulletin niosh, 2006). the population for this study was all vocational teachers in malaysia. the research sample consisted of 101 teachers selected randomly from technical schools in negeri sembilan and melaka. a pilot study was conducted to validate the research instrument comprising of a set of questionnaires. the instrument was adapted from the job descriptive index (jdi) inventory by smith et al. (in dessler, 1985; and miles & huberman, 1994). the questionnaire contains three sections namely a, b and c. section a contains 10 demographic items. section b consists of 60 items related to teachers’ job satisfaction. the sub-domains for section b include 20 items for job satisfaction; 20 items for environmental factor; and 20 items for the flow of information within the organisation. the items in section b use 5-point likert scale [1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=not sure; 4=agree and 5=strongly agree]. section c comprises of three open-ended questions. the data collected from section c were analysed educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 173 qualitatively based on the emerging themes (miles & huberman, 1994). the pilot study involving 70 vocational teachers was conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument. several drafts of the instrument were reviewed by a panel of experts. revisions were made based on their comments and recommendations. the internal consistency reliability for the instrument using cronbach’s coefficient alpha and was estimated to be á = 0.84. therefore, the final version of the instrument was considered to possess an adequate degree of content and face validity and internal consistency reliability. research findings: a. background of the respondents table 1 shows the six technical secondary schools from negeri sembilan and melaka that were selected in this study. the schools are technical secondary school (sekolah menengah teknik) in ampangan, sekolah menengah teknik in juasseh, sekolah menengah teknik in port dickson, sekolah menengah teknik in kuala klawang, sekolah menengah teknik in melaka tengah and sekolah menengah teknik dato’ seri mohd zin. a total of 101 respondents, 82 male teachers (81.2%) and 19 female teachers (18.9%) whom are teaching vocational subjects in technical secondary schools. based on the ethnic group of the respondents, 94 teachers (93.1%) are malay, five teachers (5%) are chinese, one (1%) indian and one (1%) from other race. looking into their marital status, 91 respondents (90.1%) are married and 10 respondents (9.9%) are still single. table 1: demographic information of the respondents ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 174 table 2 shows distribution of respondents based on their academic qualifications that are 63 respondents (62.4%) possess sijil pelajaran malaysia/malaysian certificate of education/sijil pelajaran malaysia vokasional; 24 respondents (23.8%) have diploma; 5 respondents (5%) hold stpm and bachelors degree; while the other 4 respondents (4%) have other academic qualifications. the respondents also obtained different professional qualifications such as 92 respondents (91.2%) have certificate in teaching, 5 respondents (5%) hold post-degree diploma and 4 respondents with other qualifications. frequencies of respondents based on their specialisations are 23 teachers (22.8%) in automotive maintenance, 17 teachers (16.8%) in building construction, 13 teachers (12.9) in electronics, 11 teachers (10.9%) in electrical maintenance, 8 teachers (7.9%) in commerce, 8 teachers in air-conditioning maintenance and 8 teachers (7.9%) in machine and tools. the sample of this research was divided into three age groups that are 58 respondents (57.4%) in the table 2: respondents’ qualification, specialisation, age group, religion and teaching hours for vocational subjects educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 175 range of 30-45 years old age group, 28 respondents (27.7%) below 30 years old and 15 respondents (14.9%) above 45 years old. in terms of religion, 73 of them (72.3%) are muslims, 13 respondents (12.9%) are buddhists, 12 respondents (11.9%) are christians and two of them (3%) are hindus. most of the respondents teach more than 15 hours of vocational subjects per week (52.5%) followed by 10-15 hours per week (38.5%) and only 9% of the respondents teaching less than 10 hours per week. b. on the some objectives first, objective 1: identifying the level of job satisfaction among vocational teachers. table 3 is about the mean score (m) and standard deviation (sd) for work satisfaction items among the vocational teachers. in general, the overall average (m = 3.60) shows that vocational teachers are quite satisfied with their job. they also believe table 3: mean and standard deviation of work satisfaction ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 176 that the career as a teacher is enjoyable (m = 4.08) and it is a secure job (m = 4.00). however, they admit that the opportunity for promotion like the government officers in other professions is limited (m = 2.93). they also believe that the society’s recognition towards teachers is also decreasing (m = 2.97). second, objective 2: identifying environmental factors which influence the level of satisfaction among vocational teachers. table 4 illustrates the mean and standard deviation based on respondents’ perception on workplace environmental factor which also influences their work satisfaction. in terms of the school environment, in general, the respondents rated moderately (m = 3.62). even though table 4: mean and standard deviation of workplace environmental factor educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 177 the teachers agree that their relationship with colleagues is good (m = 4.16) and the colleagues offer help in doing tasks (m = 4.00), respondents are unsure or doubtful (m = 3.31) whether the administrators give a fair treatment to school teachers and staff. they are also uncertain (m = 3.11) whether the training programmes for vocational teachers are given consistently. respondents are also uncertain (m = 3.03) whether the administrators take a serious attention to their complaints and suggestions. nevertheless the respondents agree that their relationship with the administrators is good (m = 3.93). third, objective 3: identifying the level of flow of information within organisation which influences the job satisfaction of vocational teachers. table 5 shows the mean and standard deviation regarding the flow of information relationship in the organisation which influences respondents’ work satisfaction. the findings table 5: mean and standard deviation of flow of information in the organisation ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 178 show that vocational teachers were less satisfied with the flow of information within the organisation (m = 3.30). they are unsure whether they receive repeated instructions (m = 3.18) or too many instructions from the administrators (m = 3.32). teachers agree (m = 3.59) that they feel stressed for having to complete the syllabus in the time frame which has been stipulated. they also believe that the opportunity to develop their career in the field they are involved in is very little (m = 3.65). c. on the questions first, section c (open-ended questions). table 6 shows the teachers’ work satisfaction enhancing factors. research finding identified 51 (50.5%) respondents stressed on salary or wages could enhance their work satisfaction. another 36 (35.6%) respondents stressed on conducive working environment and the rest 14 (13.9%) respondents mentioned that promotion opportunities may enhance vocational teachers work satisfaction. table 6: factors contributing towards work satisfaction rank item frequency (%) 1 salary or wages 5 1 50.5 2 working environment 3 6 35.6 3 promotion opportunities 1 4 13.9 101 100% second, cause dissatisfaction on teaching career. table 7 displays the suppressing factors which cause dissatisfaction on teaching career. majority respondents, 65 teachers (64.4%) stressed on work load, 19 of them (18.8%) on workplace environment and 17 teachers (16.8%) on limited promotion opportunities. table 7: suppressing factors on teaching career rank item frequency (%) 1 work load 6 5 64.4 2 workplace environment 1 9 18.8 3 limited career advancement 1 7 16.8 101 100% third, how to improve teaching profession. table 8 shows the recommendations to improve teaching profession. almost half, 50 (49.5%) respondents thought that reward/recognition, followed by 36 (35.6%) teachers stressed on training and 15 (14.9%) of them on motivation could enhance the teaching profession. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 179 table 8: recommendations to improve teaching profession rank item frequency (%) 1 reward/recognition 5 0 49.5 2 training 3 6 35.6 3 motivation 1 5 14.9 101 100% results and discussion: a. respondents’ reaction on their job generally, vocational teachers seemingly agreed that job aspects do give them satisfactions while working. based on the overall mean (m = 3.60) on work satisfaction, vocational teachers hope their achievement as a teacher may be enhanced (m = 4.10). they also thought that teaching career is fun (m = 4.08) and their work as a teachers is assured (m = 4.00). they believe carrying out daily tasks are continual responsibilities (m = 3.99) and they will be working hard till their work performance is recognised. however, they agreed that equal opportunities to be promoted are limited (m = 2.93) and provided with insufficient facilities compared with the government officers in other professions. they also noticed that current recognition by society on teaching profession is declining (m = 2.97) compared to previous time. this research finding was supported by a.h. maslow’s theory (1954) regarding employees being satisfied if they feel their job is secured and assured. j. klien & r.m. maher (1966) discovered that employees always compare works with their colleagues. due to these factors, the management should make sure the employees are being recognised fairly. j. greenberg (2000) asserts that an organisation’s recognition on employees’ contribution could prompt the feelings that they are being honoured. according to adam in his equilibrium theory, as the input from employees produces profit, the company should recognise and honour them in return (in mahmood nazar mohamed, 1990). if the recognition and honour is fair, they will be satisfied while performing their job. meanwhile j. greenberg (2000) also discovered that some procedures should be given importance such as the employees can voice out their views on the decisions made by their superiors to ensure the tasks given to them can be carried out without any problems. each decisions made by managers should be fair and consistent to all the employees. b. respondents’ reaction on environmental factor generally, vocational teachers agree that environmental factor enhances their working motivation. the total average mean for environment aspect is 3.62 which means that the environmental factor is perceived to bestow satisfaction among vocational school teachers. work satisfaction aspect is always associated with work environment, organisational atmosphere, organisational characteristics and employees interest on their career. respondents agreed that their relationship with colleagues are good (m = ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 180 4.16) as they often help other teachers to carry out their tasks together (m = 4.00). friendly relationship among colleagues motivate teachers to produce better work (m = 3.99). relationship with the administrators are good as well (m = 3.93). according to j. carol & f. tusi (1977), if an employee is interested in his/her work, he/she will be more committed with the organisation, more productive and attain higher work satisfaction. any individual usually functions well in calm, comfortable and away from negative elements (mahmood nazar mohamed, 1990). meanwhile b.a. locke (1982) mentioned that any employees will be satisfied with their work if the characteristics of work and working environment suits personal values and career expectations. an individual will be satisfied with his/her career if the job is suitable with the employee’s needs and values. the job also must be appropriate to their skills and abilities. however, the research finding shows that respondents were not sure or not clear whether the management provides fair treatment towards all teachers and staffs. they were also not sure whether they had received sufficient trainings. thus, they questioned the seriousness of the school administrators in listening to teachers’ and staffs’ complaints. according to s.v. kals & j.a. well (1985), work environment plays an important role while ensuring work satisfaction. lacking in work satisfaction may be due to the working condition, content of work, working group, supervision and organisation. if the employees are having conflicts or having heavy work load, they are likely to be stressed which led to work dissatisfaction (hamar & tosi, 1974). c. respondents’ reaction on information flow in organisation the findings show that vocational teachers were less satisfied with the flow of information within the organisation (m = 3.30). they are unsure whether they receive repeated instructions (m = 3.18) or too many instructions from the administrators (m = 3.32). teachers agree (m = 3.59) that they feel stress for having to complete the syllabus in the time frame which has been stipulated. they also believe that the opportunity to develop their career in the field they are involved with is very little (m = 3.65) and vocational teachers also felt that their salary is not compatible with the work load (m = 3.45). research conducted by s. wendram (1989) is about the connection between work satisfaction, work stress and tendency to quit work among the employees in a company in selangor. he discovered factory’s employee with low work satisfaction was going through heavy work pressure while employee with higher work satisfaction was facing less work pressure. previous research finding also supports the argument that those employees with low work satisfaction are more likely to quit their job while the employee with high work satisfaction has fewer tendencies to quit their job. research by lee meng chun (1990) on 101 factory employees discovered there were significant difference about work satisfaction by gender, age and working time except with place of origin among employees handling repetitive tasks. thus, if the respondents’ work satisfaction is low, it could be due to repetitive working tasks educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 181 which tend to create dissatisfaction and boredom among the workers. aminuddin mohd yusof (1994) mentioned that work satisfaction is an outcome of various behaviours applied by employees on their job. he also asserts that those who are satisfied with their work feel more comfortable and confident in carrying out their job. d. factors enhancing work satisfaction among vocational teachers findings from the open-ended questions show that 51 respondents (50.5%) mentioned salary or wages play important role to increase work satisfaction among vocational teachers. this finding is supported by f. herzberg, b. mausner & b. synderman (1959) whom explained that main factor influences work satisfaction is salary or wage. satisfaction from salary or wage depends to its value and function. according to lunch & ronan, high salary could enhance work satisfaction (in ahmad mohamad sharif, 1989). thus, dissatisfaction occurs among teachers with disproportionate salary compared to their work load especially in low rank. meanwhile e.a. locke (1982) explains salary payment should be proportionate with the completed tasks. salary is not only motivates them but also one of the factor that causes dissatisfaction among teachers. e. dissatisfaction among vocational teachers regarding their career among 101 respondents, the majority of vocational teachers (64.4%) were dissatisfied regarding their career. this may be due to heavy work load, as they need to teach the theories and also conducting practical session in unsatisfied working condition. vocational teachers have to conduct other tasks such as being a class teacher, sport teacher, co-curricular teacher and also doing clerical tasks such as collecting school fees and attending courses while in service. accordingly, d. male (1996) investigated the reason teachers quitting their job. some of the reasons were heavy work load such as conducting clerical tasks, lacking in support by administration and no recognition given to them. research by d. male & d. may (1997) in new zealand discovered factors contributing towards heavy work load among teachers in schools. they discovered stress, burnout and work load among special education teachers in joined, inclusive or special schools programme involving children suffering due to emotional or behaviourial learning problems are relatively high. they also identified that 80% of the respondents mentioned working more than 60 hours in a week that causes stress among them. they were going through very high level of stress as they need to handle children with emotional and behaviourial problems compared to other teachers. it contributes towards working environment stress and creates anger, tasks confusion, tiredness, ineffective in teaching, wariness and others. meanwhile abdul halim sulong (2000) discovered factors influencing stress among teachers include heavy work load, ineffective school administration and poor interpersonal ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 182 relationship. work load factor is the most frequent aspect contributing towards the total stress among male and female teachers. f. implications on teaching profession inputs from the open-ended questions given by the vocational teachers in this study recommend the ways to enhance teaching profession. almost half from the total number of respondents (49.5%) stressed rewards or recognition is the main factor to enhance teaching profession which strongly motivates individual performance. organisational reward system including salary increment, bonuses, promotion and other benefits could motivate teachers. rewards confer to teachers should be fair and proportional with their performance. teachers are also responsive towards non-cash incentives such as additional leaves, housing and car loans, chances in pursuing studies and many others. this view was supported by f. herzberg, b. mausner & b. synderman (1959) that responsibility, recognition, achievement and other professional enhancement contribute towards work satisfaction. thus, managers in an organisation have to be fair when rewarding their employees. sufean hussin (1993) mentioned that human being needs recognition, appreciation and honour on the tasks they have accomplished or will be carrying out. work performance may be enhanced if the person receives appropriate rewards with their effort and work achievement. rewards based on satisfied work performance create work satisfaction (dressler, 1985). meanwhile a.h. maslow (1962) stressed on recognition and appreciation as factors contributing towards work satisfaction. according to j.l. rundell (1984), teachers appreciate recognition, gratitude and respect. if teachers’ contribution is being acknowledged, teachers would be likely to work much harder. conclusion and recommendations the main findings of this study on work satisfaction among vocational teachers based on the three aspects of work satisfaction indicated that environmental and job aspects were contributing towards work satisfaction of vocational teachers, while information flow aspect was rated low. thus, school administrators should put emphasis on organisational and communication aspects in enhancing work satisfaction and teachers’ performance of vocational teachers. based on the research findings, the following recommendations may enhance work satisfaction level among vocational teachers in technical secondary school: first, the research findings show vocational teachers were dissatisfied on their prospects in school. some incentives should be given to teachers such as promotion, recognition and appreciation. promotion should be based on merit, experience and commitment, and not on favouritism. second, performance evaluation should be based on work achievement and outcome in the three-year period before promotion. the way of evaluating the teachers’ performance should be accurate and includes overall evaluation on teachers’ educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 183 performance. this includes activities conducted inside and outside of the classroom. the evaluator should not be limited to the principal only but also can include other individuals who have knowledge on the teachers’ work and contributions. third, relationship between the teachers and administrators should be enhanced. thus, the administrators should implement open and humanistic approaches such as tolerance, taking care of the welfare of the teachers and listen to their problems. fourth, communication and information flow in the organisation need to be upgraded. fifth, teachers should be exposed to motivational and self-improvement courses to enhance their morale, motivation and inspiration such as motivational courses, group training and self-confidence which are critical to work satisfaction. sixth, opportunities to enhance knowledge and skills should be opened to all vocational teachers. thus, courses related to teachers’ need should be held and given priority among the interested teachers. references abdul fuad mohamad. 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(1998). “kajian latar belakang dan beban tugas guru-guru perdagangan dan keusahawanan dan rasa kepuasan kerja”. laporan penyelidikan tidak diterbitkan. serdang: fakulti pengajian pendidikan upm [universiti pertanian malaysia]. zubaidah aman. (1999). “burnout di kalangan guru: perkaitannya dengan faktor latarbelakang, tekanan kerja, konflik peranan dan sokongan sosial”. tesis doktor falsafah tidak diterbitkan. bangi: fakulti pendidikan ukm [universiti kebangsaan malaysia]. ramlee mustapha, job satisfaction among vocational teachers in malaysia 186 the environmental and job aspects were contributing towards work satisfaction of vocational teachers, while information flow aspect was rated low. thus, school administrators should put emphasis on organisational and communication aspects in enhancing work satisfaction and teachers’ performance of vocational teachers. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 63© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com krizna rei m. palces, arthur s. abulencia & wensley m. reyes predicting the priorities of multicultural education in a philippine teacher education institution: an exploratory study abstract: multicultural education is a contemporary pedagogy, which prepares academic institutions to combat discrimination and oppression. it also aims to maximize learning by creating an environment that is safe and productive. international academic institutions as well as national institutions must take multicultural pedagogy as the best perspective in handling the reality of a pluralistic society. multicultural education is quite literally the pedagogy of the oppressed. it is a pedagogy that was born out of the struggle of the oppressed sectors in the west such as the african-americans, women, homosexuals, religious minorities, atheists, indigenous people, the differently-abled, and others. this is the embodiment of the dreams of those who fought for equality and respect. since many forms of oppression are still existent in various societies, multicultural education continues to receive support from education sectors in many free countries. this paper describes the diversity of learners in a philippine teacher education institution according to classifications of race, ethnicity, class, religion, and gender with the goal of predicting the priorities of multicultural education. the project started with profiling students using a specialized tool beyond demographics. the diagnostic tool identified categories significant for multicultural education. from the demographic, the researchers analyzed various aspects of multicultural education. the researchers identified the levels of diversity and made necessary recommendations needed for multicultural education. key words: multicultural education, race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, contemporary pedagogy, diversity of learners, philippine teacher education institution, and levels of diversity. about the authors: krizna rei m. palces, ph.d., prof. arthur s. abulencia and prof. wensley m. reyes are the lecturers at the faculty of behavioral and social sciences pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, the philippines. for academic interests, the author can be contacted via e-mail at: abulencia.as@pnu.edu.ph how to cite this article? palces, krizna rei m., arthur s. abulencia & wensley m. reyes. (2015). “predicting the priorities of multicultural education in a philippine teacher education institution: an exploratory study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.63-72. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/07-predicting-the-priorities-of-multicultural-education/ chronicle of the article: accepted (june 4, 2015); revised (july 6, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction the mced (multicultural education) is a contemporary pedagogy, which prepares academic institutions to combat discrimination and oppression. it also aims to maximize learning by creating an environment that is safe and productive. international academic institutions as well as national institutions must take multicultural pedagogy as the best perspective in handling the reality of a pluralistic society. multicultural education is quite literally the pedagogy of the oppressed. it is a pedagogy that was born out of the struggle of the oppressed sectors in the west, such as k.r.m. palces, a.s. abulencia & w.m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education 64 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the african-americans, women, homosexuals, religious minorities, atheists, indigenous people, the differently-abled, and others. this is the embodiment of the dreams of those who fought for equality and respect. since many forms of oppression are still existent in various societies, multicultural education continues to receive support from education sectors in many free countries. for where else must a new society be born, but in the minds and hearts of the young. j. banks & c. mcgee banks eds. (2010), further, defined multicultural education “whose major aim is to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups” (banks & banks eds., 2010). this arm of multiculturalism that has reached through the heart of american and european academes continue to grow and embed itself in other parts of the world, such as the philippines. american culture, where the original pedagogy, in the historical sense, was shaped from and for, is characterized by a strong inward respect. the mced (multicultural education) in america was technically designed to control an overwhelming nationalism that unfortunately entails ethnocentrism, both normative and epistemological (gorski et al., 1999). as defined by j. banks & c. mcgee banks eds. (2010), they said that: (m)ulticultural education is a reform movement designed to change the total educational environment, so that students from diverse racial and ethnic groups, students of both genders, exceptional students, and students from each social-class group will experience equal educational opportunities in schools, colleges, and universities (banks & banks eds., 2010:446). in a country, like the philippines, that acknowledges its natural cultural diversity, it is quite uncanny how various forms of cultural insensitivity and discrimination thrive unnamed and unnoticed due to a crippling lack of appreciation for cultural diversity. also the need to contextualize and localize mced (multicultural education) is beyond debate. since mced is born of western concerns, there is, intuitively, a great deal of tweaking involved to make the pedagogy work on the other side of the world – this side of the world, employing an asian perspective (cf sarino, 2012; and de charentenay, 2013). this research aims to: (1) create and try a diagnostic tool that seeks to gather demographic information as needed by multicultural education; (2) account the diversity an sensitivities of students and identify categories as priorities in preparing multicultural pedagogy; and (3) provide appropriate recommendations as to how the priority categories can be effectively be handled by a multicultural pedagogy. this study also includes five aspects of multiculturalism regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and social class, which are essential concern of this study. the concepts of race, religion, gender, and social class are defined by banks, j. & c. mcgee banks [eds], in their book, as editors, on multicultural education: issues and perspectives (2010). they said thet “race” is a term that refers to the attempt by physical anthropologists to divide human groups according to their physical traits and characteristics. consequently, different and often conflicting race typologies exist (banks & banks eds., 2010:447). while “religion” is a set of beliefs and values, especially about explanations that concern the cause and nature of the universe, to which an individual or group has a strong loyalty and attachment. a religion usually has a moral code, rituals, and institutions, that reinforce and propagate its beliefs (banks & banks eds., 2010:447-448). “gender” is defined as a category consisting of behaviors that result from the social, cultural, and psychological factors associated with masculinity and femininity within a society. appropriate male and female roles result from the socialization of the individual within a group (banks & banks eds., 2010:445-446). while “social class” is a collectivity of people who have a similar socio-economic status based on such criteria as income, occupation, education, values, behaviors, and life chances. lower class, working class, middle class, and upper class are common designations of social class in the united states of america (banks & banks eds., 2010:448). with all these labels, an in-depth study of educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 65© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com these aspects are needed to formulate a critical understanding of the multicultural pedagogy. these aspects are suspected elements that are relevant to mced (multicultural education). according to r.c. zuñiga vi (2010), the rich diversity of the society nowadays is clearly evident in many schools. it is not enough that some of our school children be educated. school educators and the society they serve must work for all and must reflect the cultures of the communities. multicultural education is an idea which has reached its time. the society we live is a society of mix-culture. conflicts arise due to lack of understanding of other’s culture, ethnicity, social class, and beliefs (zuñiga vi, 2010). aspects of multicultural education in the philippines context the philippines boasts of being one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. within its more than 7,000 islands, various cultural groups are found. it ranks as the 8th among 240 countries in terms of ethnic diversity. it has more than 170 local languages and dialects and has foreign communities attributed to migration and its colonial past. though the philippine state, according to philippine constitution article ii, § 22, that “recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development”,1 much should be done to further the thrust of multiculturalism. as for the philippine setting, these aspects are markers where we could peg our understanding of multicultural education: diversity in schools poses as an opportunity and a challenge. the philippine is enriched by the different school diversities. however, noticeably, whenever diverse groups meet and interact, different opinions are shared that sometimes discrimination is evident. since schools is the place where first formal learning is acquired and where students’ personalities are also mold, school authorities must find ways for their students to learn to respect the diversity of as well as help to create a unified nation to which all of its citizens have allegiance. 1see, for example, “ra (republic act) no.8371: the indigenous people rights act of 1997”. available online also at: http://opapp.gov.ph/resources/indigenouspeoples%e2%80%99-rights-act-1997 [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. the imbalance of power between the dominant and the dominated cultures has created years of arm conflicts, aggression, and resistance. the case of christian-muslim conflict in the philippines is a typical example of imbalance in cultures’ appreciation. it is the lack of understanding of other cultures that weakens the society. the practice of multicultural education is but one of the many answers for peace. approaches to multicultural education need to be given emphasis in searching for answer for cultural diversities (zuñiga vi, 2010). the philippine population is predominantly described as browned-skinned people with a mixture of foreign blood. it is unusual for filipinos not to have features of being short, flat-nosed, and relatively colored-skinned. nonetheless, the colonial experience for hundreds of years also resulted to frequent display of mentality with preference to caucasians.2 regionalism and ethnic pride are strong in the local level. one’s accent and language are definite indicators about one’s origin or ethnicity. but, major ethnic groups like tagalogs, cebuanos, and ilocanos continue to contend. manila-centrism has always been the rule. also some provisions in philippine laws support multicultural proficiency. seeking promotion for ethnic rights and protection is grounded in the philippine constitution, as seen in article 2, section 22. the state recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development. ra (republic act) no.8371 was enacted as an act to recognize, protect, and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples, creating a national commission on indigenous peoples, establishing implementing mechanisms, appropriating funds therefor, and for other purposes.3 the philippine state recognizes the separation of the state and religion and the freedom of religion. the philippine 2see “philippine participation at the national multicultural festival 2013”. available online also at: http://www.philembassy. org.au/philippine-participation-at-the-national-multicultural-festival-2013.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. 3see also “understanding best practices in mtb-mle in the philippines”. available online also at: http://actrc.org/projects/ understanding-best-practices-in-mtb-mle-in-the-philippines/ [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. k.r.m. palces, a.s. abulencia & w.m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education 66 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com constitution, art.iii § 5, stated that (n)o law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights (bagares, 2003). but catholicism stands adamant of more than 300 years of dominance since brought by colonizers. catholicism is a major portion of christianity. the hegemon that is christianity extends its influence over the philippine society. even today where there is a separation between the church and the state, many government compounds have displays of christian, specifically catholic, images such as the crucifix. it is also evident that some public areas host catholic chapels and are maintained and funded by public funds. public offices in the philippines usually employ christian/catholic prayers in official activities (bagares, 2003). as for gender, gender equality may grounded since, according to philippine constitution article ii, § 14, the state recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men (banks & banks eds., 2010).4 also, there have been laws being revised or implemented to pursue the equality of men and women. yet filipino culture remains quite misogynistic. in rape and sexual abuse cases, women are still being unjustly blamed for “dressing in a provocative way” or “being a flirt” (cf kassian, 2012). a culture of sex tapes grows, which is largely in favor of men and at the great shame of the women. the ultra-conservative virtue of virginity continues to apply only to women. unfaithful men are more easily forgiven over unfaithful women. initiatives from feminist groups are met and blocked by religious conservative groups, such as the rh bill and other pro-women movements.5 4see also “philippines officially enacts legislation for gender equality”. available online also at: http://www.unifem. org/news_events/story_detailfab5.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. 5see, for example, “philippines introduces gender equality law”. available online also at: http://www.figo.org/content/ philippines-introduces-gender-equality-law [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. but given all of these gender related situations, the philippines have ratified the cedaw (convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women), on 5 august 1981, without reservations. awareness on homosexuality has also been growing with popularization of songs and independent films promoting a more liberal perspective on homosexuality and gender differences. popular celebrities openly admit their gender orientation. advocacy political parties like of ladlad party-list continue to assert equality laws through legislation. homosexuality is tolerated in so far as it provides entertainment, but is immediately taboo once it asks for acceptance or equal recognition (limbago, 2015). there is a quiet acceptance of the glaring degree of economic inequality in society, and this quiescence perpetuates the economic divide in the philippines. the poor are sensationalized in reality and game shows, and the poor are ever willing to display no pride and showcase their poverty in exchange for favorable attention. this poverty extends most obviously to public schools, where facilities are below standard, if there is even any. educational equity seems to be one more bridge away, when sufficiency of supplies and facilities is still an issue. students in public schools are at an immediate disadvantage, since there is a lack of teaching materials and opportunities such as lack of internet connectivity, lcd (liquid crystal display) projectors, air conditioning, and even chairs. the question of sensitivity has long ago escalated to equity in the philippines, with the evident inequality among its population’s income. developing the diagnosis tool. the research started with formulating a diagnostic tool that could help in the identifying the demographic character of the target population as well as the level of multicultural sensitivity and biases of participants. the composition of the diversity and sensitivity tool is an important aspect of the research. the tool needs to be designed in consideration of its target respondent, the first year students of the pnu (philippine normal university). the tool is also meant: to be a basis of educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 67© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com future multiculturalism diagnosis tools; and to substantiate expected trends or discover new ones. this tool was created and was further validated by experts. it was designed to survey the first year students of pnu and aims to gather data on diversity and sensitivity in race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and class – the five aspects of multiculturalism. this research has also included suspected variables that are relevant to mced (multicultural education). for “race”, the variables are hair color and type, skin color, eye color and type, height and nose. for “ethnicity”, questions were designed to probe provincial and foreign cultural influences. language and accent are very important variables as well. in “sex”, correspondents are given more than the usual number of choices to peg their gender, namely male, female, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual. in “religion”, the correspondent’s religion is asked, as well as the dominant religion in one’s family and neighborhood. people who follow multiple religions are also identified by questions probing multiple religious interests. in “class”, the study has pegged php (philippines peso) 20,000.00 as the average household income. questions were designed to identify how far from the average income do correspondents fall into. the expenses are also probed to provide a more precise analysis of the family’s economic capability and status. further questions to precisely assess the correspondent’s economic status are included such as residential ownership, and family income stability. results and discussion demographic profi le and diversity of students. the total number of respondents is 545 students from the first year level of the pnu (philippine normal university). according to the official data from the office of the university registrar, there are 764 students during the first trimester of sy 2014-2015. this gives us a strong percentage coverage of 71.34%. the sampling is valid and adequate. the average age of the respondents is 16 years old. this is the expected age of first year college students across the universities of the philippines. race and ethnicity are tied to physical traits. it is therefore important for the study to probe on the physical make-up of the respondents which has predominantly black hair at 85%; brown at 11%; blonde at 1%; other colors at 2%; and no answer at 1%. the skin color of interest is dark at 13% of the respondents. fair is at 77%; light at 8%; no answer at 2%.21% of the respondents are regularly mistaken as someone form another race. about 74% do not; while 5% have no answer. the top two races that the 21% have been mistaken as are indian at 27%, and chinese at 19%. among the respondents, 75% are female, while 25% are male. this is consistent with the male-female percentages of the target population. with respect to gender, among the respondents, 92% are heterosexual: males at 2% and females at 70%. bisexuality is at 3%; male homosexuality is at 5.9% among males; and female homosexuality is at .4% among females. about 2% withheld information regarding their sexual orientation, and 2% are still undecided about their gender. there is a dominant 69% catholic composition among respondents, followed by 26% christian groups; protestants at 2%; others at 1%; and no answer at 2%. there are diverse sects among christian groups. iglesia ni cristo tops the herd at 3.7%, followed by born again christians at 2.6%, and baptist at 2.2%. there are only 15% who has an average or above average family income. there is an alarming 22.5% who only receive a maximum of 10,000 pesos per month as family income. most of the respondents’ family expense is between 10,000 to 15,000 pesos at 23.3% and between 5,000 to 10,000 pesos at 22.2%. majority of the respondents preferred not to disclose that information at 25.9%. about 5% of the respondents are working students already at their first year of college. data from the diversity diagnosis tool allows us to identify the dominant culture per aspect in the university. dominant is here defined based on quantity alone. for “race”, the dominant racial feature is malayan. for “ethnicity”, the dominant culture is the urban capital of the philippines, manila. for “gender”, the dominant category is female heterosexual. for “religion”, the dominant k.r.m. palces, a.s. abulencia & w.m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education 68 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com culture is roman catholicism. and for “class”, the dominant culture is the lower class. the data comes as what one would normally expect, yet the true merit of the research lies on showing exactly what amount of the population is this or that culture. the numbers will allow designers of mced (multicultural education) curriculum to assess how one culture is over or under represented. sensitivities and biases. in table 1 of the tool a, questions were designed to mirror the correspondent’s impression about their educational institution regarding cultural sensitivity (sensitivity diagnosis tool). two questions were provided for each aspect. while in table 2 of the tool b, questions were designed to mirror the correspondent’s own biases. two questions were provided for each aspect as well. table 1 of the tool a is designed to reflect the actual level of multicultural sensitivity in campus, as perceived by the respondents. table 2 of the tool b is designed to show the biases, beliefs, and perspectives of respondents that will reflect their less observable multicultural stances. the researchers have decided to measure both the actual incidents relevant to multiculturalism, table 1 of the tool a, and the potential or mental attitudes relevant to multiculturalism. the findings are the following: conflicts between religious affiliations and discrimination towards economic classes are rare. there is moderate actual insensitivity towards racial features, ethnicity, and gender. this reveals that specific racial features are being made fun of, a person’s linguistic identity is also being harmed and homosexuals are not being treated equally in the campus. these data affirm an urgent need for mced (multicultural education) initiatives for addressing the insensitivity. actual events have been witnessed in moderate frequency, the target of mced is to reduce these events to zero frequency, thus, there is a real cause to design and implement mced. the respondents perceive a moderate sense of multicultural sensitivity regarding race, gender, religion, classes, and ethnicity from the university. this shows that the students generally do not see lack nor excess in the university’s initiatives for multiculturalism. it appears that a moderate frequency for promoting mced is insufficient in preventing table 1: actual multicultural sensitivity in campus: sensitivity tool a statements n mean interpretation 1. there are campus incidents of people mocking others due to being dark-skinned or flat-nosed. 540 1.654 sometimes 2. there are campus incidents of people mocking the provincial accent of others. 542 1.755 sometimes 3. there are incidents of women and homosexuals being discriminated because of their gender. 540 1.685 sometimes 4. there are campus incidents of conflict due to different religious affiliations. 541 1.081 rarely 5. there are campus incidents where the rich and the poor are treated differently without due justification. 545 1.200 rarely 6. there are initiatives in campus that promotes racial sensitivity. 533 1.608 sometimes 7. there are initiatives in campus that promotes sensitivity towards persons from the province. 536 1.690 sometimes 8. there are initiatives in campus that promotes gender sensitivity. 545 2.149 sometimes 9. there are initiatives in campus that promotes sensitivity towards different religions. 535 2.097 sometimes 10. there are initiatives in campus that promotes sensitivity towards the concerns of poor students. 536 2.278 sometimes total 544 1.7186 sometimes educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 69© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com conflict and discrimination arising from cultural insensitivity. thus, there is a need to implement more initiatives to combat prejudice. the findings are the following: the respondents strongly disagree about the trustworthiness of poorer students being less than those of wealthier students. this data is made sensible by the earlier data from the diversity diagnosis indicating that the strong majority of the respondents are from the lower economic class. the respondents collectively disagree on: ethnicity being a hint of academic competence and moral aptitude; on the idea of the superiority of the male sex and the tagalogs; religion being an issue in compatibility; economic class being a factor in moral aptitude; and racial features being a hint on proper behavior. regarding the superiority of the male sex, details of the research reveals that 33% of the respondents do not disagree that male is the superior sex. although the respondents are not dominantly sexist, there is an alarming level of sexism that permeates throughout the population. considering that the 33% of respondents who does not deny the superiority of males are even greater than the 25% of the respondents who are male, even if one supposes that all males are sexist, one needs to believe that even some of the women are also sexists. this allows us to state that even some of the females are sexists in favor of the men and at the expense of their own sexual identity. the respondents possess a moderate bias against homosexuals and a moderate level of religious ethnocentrism. the gender aspect of mced (multicultural education) is again indicating a need for to be addressed. about 23% or almost 1 out of every 4 individuals think that homosexuality is an illness. although 23% is a sure minority, that number is too high to allow the existence of a community with gender equality. there is gravity in the thought that 1 out of every 4 individuals would see homosexuality as a disorder. religious normative ethnocentrism is at an unsafe minority at 43%. that amount is unsafe since it is too close to being half of the population. thus, there is a strong need to rectify this biased assumption immediately. the following are the results from the sensitivity data pertaining to conflicts, according to chart 1: for “race”, at least 8 out of 10 people have seen incidents of racial insensitivity in campus; for “ethnicity”, at least table 2: multicultural biases: sensitivity tool b statements n mean interpretation 1. i think people from manila are better students than people from the province. 543 2.239 disagree 2. if there is a possible harmless therapy, homosexuals should be cured and become men/women again. 538 2.675 neutral 3. i think a person’s religion can give clues whether that person is someone i can effectively work with or not. 539 2.445 disagree 4. i think upper class persons have a better sense of morality than lower class persons. 541 1.821 disagree 5. i think that a person’s ethnicity/cultural background determines whether he/she is a good person or not. 541 2.124 disagree 6. it is a good thing for non-tagalog students to behave more like the tagalogs. 539 2.419 disagree 7. i think that male is the superior sex. 539 2.113 disagree 8. i think it is correct that a christian prayer is in every campus activity. 538 3.370 neutral 9. i think students from low-income families are less trustworthy than students from high-income families. 540 1.483 strongly disagree 10. i think that a person’s physical traits indicate that person’s tendency to behave or misbehave. 539 2.115 disagree total 544 2.2767 disagree k.r.m. palces, a.s. abulencia & w.m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education 70 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 8 out of 10 people have seen ethnic insensitivity in campus; for “gender”, at least 8 out of 10 people have seen gender discrimination in campus; for “religion”, at least 6 out of 10 people have seen religious conflicts; and for “class”, at least 6 out of 10 people have seen class discrimination. since our target is to reduce incidents that reflect cultural conflicts to zero, these numbers are significantly high. there is a very strong need to design mced (multicultural education) activities that would decrease the instances measured above. the following are the results from the sensitivity data pertaining to initiatives, according to chart 2: one out of five people have not seen initiatives for racial sensitivity; at least 1 out of 10 people have not seen initiatives for ethnic sensitivity; 1 out of 10 people have not seen initiatives for gender sensitivity; at least 1 out of 10 people have not seen initiatives for religious sensitivity; and 1 out of 10 people have never seen initiatives for class sensitivity. there is a moderate amount of initiatives for multicultural sensitivity in the campus. relating this data to the preceding chart implies that a “moderate” amount is insufficient to promote and sustain cultural sensitivity. below is the summary of the indicators of prejudice. they are grouped according to mced (multicultural education) aspects. each aspect has at least two indicators of prejudice, as seen in the design of the table in the questionnaire. for “race”: at least 1 out of 10 people would be willing to judge a person through his physical appearance. at least 1 out of 10 is willing to judge a person based on their ethnical background. for “ethnicity”: at least 1 out of 10 people believe that non-tagalogs should be more like tagalogs. they display regionalism in favor of the tagalogs. at least 1 out of 20 people believe chart 1: sensitivity data (condensed) chart 2: sensitivity data pertaining to initiatives chart 3: the prejudices detected that manilenos are superior students over provincianos. for “gender”: at least 1 out of 10 people are androcentric. at least 1 out of 5 people think educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 71© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com that homosexuality is a disease or an illness. for “religion”: at least 2 out of 5 people see nothing wrong with a christian prayer in a secular institution. this is normative ethnocentrism. approximately 1 out of 5 people believe that religious affiliation defines one’s morality. this implies epistemological ethnocentrism. for “class”: 1 out of 20 people believe that the rich are more moral than the poor. only a very few believe that the rich are more trustworthy than the poor. as the chart 3 reveals, among the prejudices detected, religion is the most prominent with an average of 3. followed by gender, race, ethnicity and class, in that order. conclusion according to the results of the survey, there is low diversity in all aspects of mced (multicultural education) among the respondents. the target population has been identified as dominantly malayan by race, mostly tagalog (manileno) by ethnicity, largely heterosexual, dominantly christian (roman catholic), and mostly of the lower economic class. incidents of conflict and discrimination arising from cultural insensitivity have been witnessed in campus: moderately observed are racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination; while rarely observed are religious and class discrimination. the respondents have acknowledged a moderate amount of initiatives for multiculturalism from the university. the research has consistently identified the aspects of religion and gender as most challenged. there is a significant amount of prejudice in the aspects of religion and gender. chief concern is the almost half of the population who display normative ethnocentrism in the aspect of religion. of significant concern is the perpetuation of the belief in the pathology of homosexuality among 23% of the respondents. of equal concern is the andro-centrism prevalent among the respondents at a rate of 33%. the fact that there is a decent amount of multiculturalism initiatives from the university, yet, there are still moderate incidents of discrimination prompts us to investigate the source of this prejudice. as multiculturalism is a national effort, other aspects of the community may have contributed to the insensitivity among the respondents and have negated the university’s decent efforts. upon evaluation of results the research team made the following recommendations: (1) an investigation on the sources of discrimination is recommended; (2) the data and the conclusion of the research prompt a recommendation for the reinforcement of programs/campaigns that promote religious and gender sensitivity; (3) a study on the detailed manifestations of this prejudice, its nature and source, is also recommended; (4) a similar research to this may be due for the university employees. the university, after all, is composed of more than just the students; (5) an annual deployment of the sensitivity diagnosis tool would be effective in monitoring the progress of the students regarding cultural proficiency; and (6) an official integration of the diversity diagnosis tool into the university’s required documents for freshmen/transferees would be effective in guiding the university in its multicultural education planning.6 references bagares, romel regalado. (2003). “re-configuring our social imaginary: a rightful place for ‘godtalk’ in the filipino public sphere”. available also online at: http://pcij.org/blog/wp-docs/bagares_ church-state_separation.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. banks, j. & c. mcgee banks [eds]. (2010). multicultural education: issues and perspectives. usa [united states of america]: john wily and sons, seventh edition. de charentenay, fr. pierre. (2013). “the dilemma of multiculturalism: blueboard by fr. pierre de charentenay, s.j.”. available online also at: http:// www.admu.edu.ph/news/ls-research-updates/ dilemma-multiculturalism-blueboard-fr-pierre-decharentenay-sj [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. gorski, p.c. et al. (1999). “a brief history of multicultural education”. available online also at: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/ papers/edchange_history.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. 6statement: herewith, we have declared that this paper is our original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. k.r.m. palces, a.s. abulencia & w.m. reyes, predicting the priorities of multicultural education 72 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com kassian, mary. (2012). “to flirt or not to flirt”. available online also at: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/ true-woman/blog/to-flirt-or-not-to-flirt/ [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. limbago, czen. (2015). “is homosexuality generally frowned upon in the philippines?”. available online also at: https://www.quora.com/is-homosexualitygenerally-frowned-upon-in-the-philippines [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. “philippines officially enacts legislation for gender equality”. available online also at: http://www. unifem.org/news_events/story_detailfab5.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. “philippine participation at the national multicultural festival 2013”. available online also at: http://www. philembassy.org.au/philippine-participation-at-thenational-multicultural-festival-2013.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. “philippines introduces gender equality law”. available online also at: http://www.figo.org/content/ philippines-introduces-gender-equality-law [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. “ra (republic act) no.8371: the indigenous people rights act of 1997”. available online also at: http://opapp.gov.ph/resources/indigenouspeoples%e2%80%99-rights-act-1997 [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. sarino, v.l. (2012). “a critical appraisal of multicultural awareness in higher education institutions in the philippines: towards a framework for equity pedagogy” in licej: literacy information and computer education journal, 2(2). “understanding best practices in mtb-mle in the philippines”. available online also at: http:// actrc.org/projects/understanding-best-practices-inmtb-mle-in-the-philippines/ [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. zuñiga vi, r.c. (2010). “multicultural education: introduction”. available online also at: http:// chamzun.blogspot.com/2010/09/multiculturaleducation-introduction.html [accessed in manila, philippines: 16 june 2015]. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 foreword human resource development, which is a global initiative, deals with the process through which people, organizations, and society systematically develop their capability over the time to enable them achieve social and economic goals through improvement of knowledge, skills, system, and institution. the human resource, in the development of a nation, empowers the citizens to maximize their potentials for the wellbeing of the nation, so that they can enjoy the benefits of a comfortable life. and to achieve this, education is key! education, as we know, is said to be the process of facilitating learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits, which is achieved through educational methods, like teaching, training, discussion, direct research, etc. it has also been established that the power of education has been known not to be only in the academic knowledge, but also in finding ones place in the world and also acquiring life experience. this explains to us that education helps us to develop the powers of reasoning and judgment, which generally prepares us intellectually for a mature life. education, in human resource development in any society, is developing the latent potential in an average citizen through enlightenment, publicity, and orientation, which can be achieved through education. thus, human resource development starts with educating the human mind in order for him/her to discover what he/she can achieve for him/her-self and his/her society at large. education, thus, helps the individual to develop an inbuilt capacity in order to become valuable to him/her-self and his/her society. it is no gain saying that the human resource development of a country is basically hinged on the quality of education of that country, because human resource development cannot have positive impact on the development of the nation, if the educational system – which is its bedrock – is faulty. in order to achieve great national development, there must be reasonable investment into the human resource through education as no nation can develop beyond the level of her education. the stuntness in the economic and social growth experienced in the country is as a result of the decline in the quality of education in the country over decades. thus, to have a shift from this, there is the need to have an improvement in the educational planning and methods; providing good and conducive learning environment; and quality financial investment and proper monitoring of the system in order to improve on the education standard of the country. human resource programs of a nation is expected to be inculcated in its educational system; thus, the quality of the educational system of a country determines the quality of its human resources. it is worthy of note to state that the qualitative educational system of a country is not determined by the number of institutions in such country, but by the result shown in the qualitative and skilled manpower produced. education is expected to accelerate economic growth of a nation, equalize income distribution, forge national unity and integration, and enhance cultural and social advancement. all these are expected to be, if the education given is of good standard. a nation’s educational system is expected to determine the type, nature, and caliber of manpower to be supplied to its various sectors, but it has been discovered that the various manpower supplied into our nation shows that our educational system is faulty, as it makes some of our graduates to be unfit for the labour market; and, this is so because there is a disconnection between the skills acquired and the labour market requirements. it is very essential to state that the greatest investment any nation can make for quick development of its economy, politics, sociological, and human resources is education. human resource development is symbolically related to a nation’s development. human resource development through education is the only solution to solving the problems of poverty, unemployment, and other developmental problems experienced in the nation; and we must also know that the quality of human resources of a nation determines the rate at which it overcomes some of its developmental problems and challenges and as well achieve its developmental goals. in achieving good and qualitative education, different players are involved; these players are seen as the stakeholders in the education sector. these are the parents, teachers, government, society, non-governmental organizations, religious bodies, and the students themselves. every stakeholder has very important roles to play in achieving the type of education that will improve and accelerate the development of our nation and each can play its role well by making having qualitative education a priority. the articles published in the educare journal, august 2020 edition, still revolve around education studies from various countries, especially from indonesia, the philippines, and nigeria. the authors from indonesia have studied a lot about: “profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia”; “the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth”; and “self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year”. when the authors from the philippines studied about “profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions”; and author from nigeria reviewed about “influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria”. thus, in the end, education is not only important for the progress of a nation-state in the world, but education will also continue to be studied and researched, in all its dimensions, in order to gain theoretical understanding and good policies to be implemented in a practical level. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. ilorin, nigeria: august 30, 2020. lateef omotosho adegboyega, ph.d. a guest editor of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and lecturer at the department of counsellor education, faculty of education unilorin (university of ilorin) in ilorin, nigeria. e-mail: adegboyega.lo@unilorin.edu.ng © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 12(1), august 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals in the implementation of k to 12 program in the philippines. [1-24] yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook for the students of senior high school in indonesia written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati. [25-38] siti maryam, life map to improve student engagement in writing learning for strengthening students’ character. [39-56] meike mamentu, evaluation management for secondary schools learning of manado city, north sulawesi, indonesia. [57-68] aini yurisa, correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior. [69-76] info-edu-tainment. [77-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 foreword education and human existence continue to be at par, as education remains a “vibrant polish” for human being hood. education is a lifelong process, which kicks up at the birth of man/woman and ends at his/her death. education, which as being established to imply a way by which learning is facilitated and knowledge, is acquired in specific areas of life is therefore continuous. it is a process of bringing positive change to individual socially, morally, and spiritually. the wealth of knowledge gained by a person depends on the quality of education he/she received. education is the totality of actions that assist an individual to advance in abilities, skills, and disposition to the benefit of self and the society. education can be formal, which is structured and takes place in the axis of an institution. it could also be informal such that it is not structured and could be accidental. globally, education has aims of developing individuals, acquiring knowledge, and enhancing cultural heritage, ensuring good character formation, promoting peaceful coexistence, and developing democratic and patriotic citizens. education equips individuals with experience. knowledgeable people are reasonable and well informed, which lead to rational decision making. rational decision in-turn can bring about positive individuals and societal growth. education breeds individuals who are responsible, who are capable and trustworthy, reliable, and trusted. with education, citizens can take full responsibility for their actions. usually, this makes any country a peaceful place to live. education provides citizens with needed skills to move the country to compete globally. it equips man/woman with the required expertise in various fields for self-growth and national development of its citizens. with a well-trained society, it will make the country to be free of debt and less dependent on other countries. education promotes cultural heritage. it is only with education can the ways of life, values, and benefits be preserved and transmitted from one generation to another. it implies that african culture, asian culture, american culture, and other cultures have their lifestyles transmitted from an earlier generation to the present, and such will be for the upcoming generations. education increases domestic income and eradicates poverty. countries with high education can produce, and export goods and services which increase the revenue generated in the country. education increases creativity, innovation, and productivity of individuals and economic growth of the country. education enhances peaceful coexistence in the country; because individuals are well informed of the pros and cons of peaceful relationship or otherwise. countries with high education are relatively peaceful and promote good interpersonal relations. education enhances civilization and technological advancement. education paves the way for better methods and strategies for solving problems. it was through education that computers and their accessories were invented and it got better through education. with education, new ideas and opinions are shared. the whole world, therefore, becomes a global village. individuals can understand and fight for their rights. education equalizes citizens giving them equal footings, promotes experience, and boosts confidence. in conclusion, education has no alternative. it is either education or ignorance, which is not an option. a country without education suffers underdevelopment, harbours setbacks in virtually all sectors and nurtures conflict. it implies that worldwide, education must be given utmost attention for the betterment of the citizens and the country. the articles in the educare journal this time, august 2019 edition, remain concerned with education issues. educational research and study with various aspects comes from lecturers, not only from indonesia, but also from the philippines. from the findings of the research and study, citizens in southeast asia have practiced the “sharing and caring” motto, especially in the field of education as a human capital investment for the nation-state’s progress and well-being. the issues on curriculum in the eyes of school principals; readability of a textbook for education in schools; student involvement in the process of writing and building character education; management regarding educational evaluation; and the spiritual competence and self-expression of students in the learning process at school are still important and interesting to be discussed. finally, education is a broad and rich field, and there will be no end to its study, discussion, and benefit for the progress and welfare of humanity in the world. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. ilorin, nigeria: august 30, 2019. aminat adeola odebode, ph.d. a guest editor of educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia; and family and health counsellor at the department of counsellor education unilorin (university of ilorin) in ilorin, nigeria. e-mail: odebode.aa@unilorin.edu.ng 9 noni.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 103 exploring challenges in phd studies: a case of science student norhasni zainal abiddin abstract: phd students have to take responsibility managing their own learning and getting a phd. they are also responsible for determining what is required as well as for carrying it out, and must always keep in touch in regular meetings with the supervisor. the student is the main person responsible for his/her phd research. doing a phd clearly indicates that this is a student’s own research and work. the objective of this research is to provide better guidelines for effective roles of a phd science student, especially the foreign student. the actual research to be reported used the case study method. three malaysian phd students from three major disciplines of study i.e. arts, science and social science, were interviewed in depth several times within a year. all three case studies would make the present article too long. therefore, only one case study which focusing on science student will be presented in this article in order to achieve a better understanding of the story. as a result, the research had developed the best effective guidelines in order for students to success in their study. key words: foreign student, phd research student, and roles of supervision in the university. introduction one factor driving the decision to do a phd is the consideration that this qualification is needed in order to become an academic. as the doctorate is the highest grade, completing a phd is seen as a substantial investment in human capital (mangematin, 2000). often, starting a research degree marks a transition in the lives of students (phillips & pugh, 2000). for some, it is a transition from recent undergraduate work where learning was structured and directed to a situation where the learning is more self-directed. for others, starting a research degree may be a return to study after a lengthy break. some students may already be employed in a university and be switching back from the role of teacher to that of a student. whatever the situation, the student will need time and help to adjust to the new role (smith, 1989; and spear, 2000). dr. norhasni zainal abiddin is a lecturer at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies, universiti putra malaysia (upm). she could be reached at: nonie@ace.upm.edu.my norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 104 all foreign students have a lot of challenges to overcome, such as cultural differences, language, families, money etc. which may lead to lower achievements by them (graves & varma, 1999). these challenges are much greater if the student is doing postgraduate education, which really consumes time, effort, patience and enthusiasm. furthermore, those mature students coming from overseas together with their families and with limited sources of income may face many more challenges than those who are younger and single. most malaysian students, who have been sent to the uk (united kingdom) for postgraduate studies, are civil servants in the malaysian government, and they are contracted to serve the government again after they have completed their programme. it is their duty to ensure that they fulfil the government’s aspirations to contribute their acquired knowledge for the benefits of the country. while the amount of allowance that they have received to live on overseas is very minimal, the government of malaysia spends a lot of money in order to develop the knowledge of its people. this is seen as a crucial factor in the development of a better educated work force, particularly in science, technology and related professions. therefore, the students are expected to complete their programme as soon as possible and certainly within the contracted time frame. many factors can contribute to foreign students being unable to successfully complete their programme within the given time frame. all other aspects need to be taken into account in studying the foreign student’s experience of supervision. these include the support of the department or school, as well as the fact that the students should properly know their own responsibilities (moses, 1992; holdaway, deblois & winchester, 1995; and hockey, 1996). this research project studies the three malaysian phd students’ experience in relation to their roles as a research student. in general, the objective of this research is to identify the experiences in supervision of phd student studying in the university of manchester, united kingdom (uk). this includes of what he/she had obtained, what were the problems he/she went through and what he/she expects from the parties who had involved in him/her research such as supervisor, school and sponsor. such experience will be good as general guidelines in order to identify the main problems and helping the involved parties to improvise their services and conducting the necessary research when the issue aroused. the implication of this research will be the students especially the foreign students would be able to apply the experiences and guidelines discovered from the findings. literature review a literature search has provided evidence that the student/supervisor relationship is vital to the phd process. the literature includes statements about the single most important problem, in the eyes of many respondents, being the quality of supervision (buckley & hooley, 1988). various books have approached the acquisition of phds, including the management of the supervisor/student relationship (phillips & pugh, 2000) and many departments carry out their own educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 105 surveys in an attempt to assess their performance in the supervision of their students (haksever & manisali, 2000). while e.m. phillips & d.s. pugh (2000) point out that the acquisition of skills by postgraduate students should be effected as professional learning conducted under their own management. in other words, research students have to take responsibility for managing their own learning and getting a phd. they are also responsible for determining what is required as well as for carrying it out, and must always keep in touch in regular meetings with the supervisor (powles, 1989 and 1993; and moses, 1992). and i. moses (1985) also argues that supervisors expect students to be diligent, hardworking, energetic, keen, tenacious and conscientious and to have a sense of urgency. they also expect students to be enthusiastic and motivated towards research work, to be pleasant at work and to contribute to a good working environment. also, students should give continual feedback, so that the supervisor can give informed instruction. the student is the main person responsible for his/her phd research. doing a phd clearly indicates that this is a student’s own research and work. e.m. phillips & d.s. pugh (2000) emphasise that it is the student’s responsibility to determine what is required as well as carrying it out, and that students have to come through with the clear aim of becoming a competent professional researcher. in other words, it is agreed that the student is responsible for an original contribution to the subject and for developing a mature, critical knowledge of the subject area and its context. it is also a good idea for them to talk to other postgraduates about their experience of the role as well as their work. and a. russell (1996) found that one of the highly rated constraints on research students’ are personal problems. in fact, sharing apprehensions helps to resolve problems through the knowledge that the problem is not an individual one (arksey, marchant & simmill, 1994). once students are able to share feelings and talk about them and their effect on their work, they will all start to feel better (russell, 1996). students should identify the topic and preliminary reading (brown & krager, 1985). this can be linked with other parts of the phd task, like the development of a relevant body of knowledge, placing the research in the context of the literature and originality (salmon, 1992; russell, 1996; and haksever & manisali, 2000). meanwhile i. moses (1992) and e.m. phillips & d.s. pugh (2000) elaborate this statement mentioning that the process of defining the research topic varies across disciplines. the supervisor in a science discipline has to take the lead in obtaining the physical resources and the research personnel required. the student’s research topic will be clearly defined to fit in with the innovative thrust of the supervisor’s research programme. in contrast, in the humanities and social sciences, students often come with their own topics within the field in which the supervisor is expert. additionally, after surveying aspects of graduate education in canadian universities, e. holdaway, c. deblois & i. winchester (1995) report that in education, social sciences and humanities, graduate students choose their thesis topics themselves more frequently than those in other disciplines do. norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 106 the thesis is usually the most substantial piece of writing yet undertaken by students, and it provides an opportunity for them to develop their skills in writing and in marshalling arguments (haksever & manisali, 2000). on the other hand, they should submit written work in some form as early as possible in their studies so that writing problems can be recognised and corrected (spear, 2000). while j.g. donald, a. saroyan & d.b. denison (1995) propose that the responsibilities of the student should include understanding the scope of doctoral work, such as the number of years to be devoted to full time study, knowledge of research methods necessary to carry out studies, the regulations on thesis submission and the expectations of the supervisor regarding every aspect of the research. a good student should have a broader view of academic training in the discipline in which he/she is undertaking the research, seeing it as professional development (phillips & pugh, 2000). in this sense, professional development include attending conferences, writing papers for publication, attending seminars and workshops, making presentations, networking with other researchers, working as a research assistant and teaching (brown & krager, 1985; holdaway, deblois & winchester, 1995; and phillips & pugh, 2000). students are expected to gain expertise in the research process so that their talents can be observed in as many different settings as possible (brown & krager, 1985). most overseas students are sponsored by appropriate bodies during their study. they have been given a specific period, namely three years, to complete their study and return to their own country. therefore, time is one of the enemies of the overseas student. this is relevant to the study conducted by a. russell (1996), who found that students are concerned about time and time management. lack of funding seriously affects some students’ research, or requires them to partly self-fund it and this result in serious concerns and deep frustration (holdaway, deblois & winchester, 1995). this view is supported by the economic and social research council (esrc) which reported that less than 20 percent of students receiving a grant complete their study within four years while 27 percent complete within five years and that completion rates trailed off markedly after five years (elton & pope, 1987). so, students should expect to work within deadlines (salmon, 1992; yeatman, 1995; and phillips & pugh, 2000) and to have a planned timetable (rudd, 1985; bowen & rudenstine, 1992; and frischer & larsson, 2000). methodology this article will be focusing on one case study of malaysian phd student studying in the university of manchester, united kingdom (uk). the participant represented the science discipline. the researcher also decided to choose participant who was already in at least her second year of study, such student have much more information than first year students, due to the greater experience she had gained. initially, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with twelve participants and decided to pick three of them to participate in the case studies to represent science, social science and arts discipline. the students were then interviewed again to obtain educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 107 more information about recent developments in their current year of study. however, due to the case study best to be presented in narrative order, the article will be way too long. therefore, for this article only one case study will be presented which focusing on science student. the researcher will not reveal the real name of the participant, as it is part of the ethics of doing research where the background of participant should be kept confidential. therefore, ainin (female) will represent science students for this case study. the case study was conducted over a one year period with the subjects. the interviews, which were semi-structured, were taped and transcribed and then the transcripts were checked with the subjects before the data was used. the purpose of the case study is to gain as much information as possible about the participants’ experiences in supervision and university practices. the case study generated large amounts of written data from the students concerning their views and experiences of supervision. the case study was used as part of the data collection method for the actual research project. other methods that been used by the researcher was survey on 110 respondents and in-depth interviews on 12 informants. however, this article will only focusing on the results related to the roles and experiences of phd student. the results were obtained through one case study which emphasising on science discipline. the researcher decided to report the case study as a narrative. many quotations are presented in reporting the case study in order to give a better understanding of the story. results and discussion: a. participant’s backgrounds on ainin ainin is a 32 year old woman and is staying in a student accommodation hall in the university of manchester. she is married but has no children, and her husband is working in malaysia. she did her bachelor’s degree in malaysia. just after completing her first degree, she received an offer to join a university in malaysia as a tutor. before coming to the united kingdom, she worked for a short time in one of the universities in malaysia where she gained some experience in doing research. she came to manchester to study for a masters degree in engineering and chose metallurgy as her area of research. after completing her masters in one and a half years, she returned to malaysia for about six months before continuing her phd under the same supervisor in the same school at manchester university. she decided to do a phd for two reasons. firstly, her sponsor insisted on her doing a phd straight away; and secondly, her supervisor encouraged her to continue her masters research, which would make a strong contribution to the field of metallurgy. another reason for choosing her current university for her phd is that it is known as one of the best universities for engineering in the united kingdom. ainin mentioned that her masters was done by coursework and that therefore she knows a number of lecturers and their backgrounds. this helped her to choose the best person to supervise her phd. in her view, this is one of the advantages of norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 108 doing a masters and phd in the same school of the same university. the other advantage she discovered is that she knows where to seek assistance when she has problem with her work. in fact, she did not need to adapt to a new environment during her first year as a phd student. there was nothing new for her. as a student, she explained that she had to know what a person was like before she decided to choose anybody to be her supervisor. for instance, students must know whether the targeted supervisor is the appropriate one, bearing in mind the way they work. ainin claimed that her supervisor is an internationally well-known professor and a specialist in her research area. he has also published a lot of books and articles. currently, there are five phd students under his supervision. he is said to be a very busy person and has always wanted ainin to be independent in her research and she seems to have got used to it. however, she has unexpectedly faced a problem in her second year, due to having had to change her research material and therefore, to do her research all over again. this has made her feel very stressed. in fact, time has become one of her enemies at this current stage. during the interview session, she seemed to be a very talkative person, communicating easily about her experience during her studies. so, for this case study ainin will represent the sciences, since her research involves experimental and laboratory work. b. ainin on the student’s responsibilities firstly, ainin emphasised the student’s responsibilities on the basis of the experience she gained while doing experimental work. as a student who did her bachelor’s degree in malaysia, she was able to make a comparison between her current university and her former one in malaysia. initially, she found that the technology in her current school’s laboratory was much more sophisticated, while in malaysia she usually found difficulties in doing good research because of the lack of new technology. therefore, as a student, she said that one should try to get as much experience as one can, especially when doing practical work in the laboratory. she did not face big problems when dealing with dangerous machines, as she is quite familiar with the equipment from master’s research. in order to get as much knowledge as possible in doing practical work in the laboratory, ainin suggested that the student should ask the appropriate person questions whenever necessary, even though they may be silly ones. this is also important in order to ensure that the student is dealing with a dangerous machine in the right way. moreover, the experiences ainin has gained in the laboratory can be used as an asset in teaching her future students. as she put it: i think we should try to get as much experience as we can because here we can have a lot of technology that cannot be obtained at home. we shouldn’t be afraid to ask anything that we feel important. we are going to train other student when we get back home […]. secondly, she spoke about how she managed her work. a good student should work systematically by having a timetable or research plan. ainin has planned her educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 109 work very carefully, especially during her first year because she needed to book equipment in the laboratory, and also she had to deal with the technician in the school. the equipment has to be booked as early as she can to ensure that it is available to her when she needs it. students who are working in a laboratory have to plan their time carefully in order to manage their own schedule as well as to ensure that the technician is available. it is also important for the students to talk to the technician if they need his help, but they have to check the availability of the technician beforehand. it is for this reasons that they must have a research plan in order to arrange their work properly. as ainin put it: my project is a little but difficult. sometimes i have to do lab work at night. i have to take out the sample at night. normally i have to book the technician and equipment […] before i decide to do any experiments in my lab. but sometimes i have to wait until the technician is free, so when i have already booked him, i make sure i go there. in telling the researcher about her daily activities, she insisted that she would make a note to prioritise things. therefore, she prefers to have a daily timetable rather than a weekly one because it is less likely to be changed. from her first year until the present, she claimed that her weeks look very full of activities. she spent her first six months of her first year conducting trial-and-error experimental work. after that, she presented her results to a company that was interested in sponsoring her research. the next two months she spent writing the proposal, including some results that she got from her experiments. ainin also mentioned that her work was held up by illness for about six months. as a result, she was advised by her doctor not to do any hard work. then she decided to go back to malaysia to spend time with her family and come back to manchester when she felt healthy and energetic. in the first year, the literature review seems to have been unimportant to her. hence, her timetable was likely to focus on her work in the laboratory. as she said: i have future plans with my project. in my case if i want to do something, i like to make a note of what the priority is, and what i should do. for example, on monday, what i want to do. ok, if i want to do heat treatment for example, i want to use the furnace, so i have to see the technicians to get permission to use the furnace. i make my plan day by day because it may change. according to her plan, when she reached her second year, she expected to have good results from her experimental work. she planned to concentrate on her literature review at her current stage. unfortunately there are circumstances that prevented her working according to her plan. therefore, she still has to spend most of her time in the laboratory testing the new material. as she mentioned: now my work is critical, so almost every day i go to the lab. i have just received a new material, so we need a result. it depends on what kind of experiment. for example, if i’m going to do heat treatment, like tomorrow morning, i have to go early at about seven o’clock because i have to take out a sample each day, each time. for example, one hour, one hundred hours. i have to calculate everything. so i have to do it properly. if not, i will have problems. norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 110 some supervisors have suggested that their students familiarise themselves with the literature before they decide to do experimental work. otherwise, the student will be doing experimental work at the beginning of their first year. ainin would prefer to do the experimental work in her first year and will be doing the literature search in her second year, according to her plan. she also mentioned that her supervisor has advised her to do the experimental work first. unfortunately, in her current year of study, she does not have many references as she has to spend most of her time in the laboratory, even though she just has another two months to go to be in her third year, if one calculates from the second interview that was conducted. indeed, she felt very worried about her work, since she did not have much work written up because she had not read much or written enough. she seems to be very interested in doing her laboratory work. this situation can be seen very commonly among scientists. the changing of her research material has made her change her research plan. as she mentioned to the researcher: actually i have just started to do my reading because, prior to this, i did a lot of experiments. i did a bit of the literature review in the first year. i have just found some references and i haven’t read them yet. just got them in the last three weeks. i’m quite busy with my lab work and sometimes at night, i am too tired. so i have to manage the time very well. although i am nearly in my third year, i have just got new material so i have to start again from the beginning, a to z. can you imagine? i’m nervous. up till now i haven’t got any results. she seems very worried about whether she has enough time to finish her study in the remaining period. initially, her sponsor will allow her to extend her study for another six months and, if she feels that she cannot finish it, she has to apply for another six month extension and that will be the final one. subsequent to that, she will be called back and have to finish it in malaysia. in fact, she needs at least another one-year extension to complete her phd. her supervisor is aware of her worries, because he has asked her when she can finish her phd. from researcher’s point of view, it is obvious that the way she managed her study is the reason why she is getting worried. furthermore, this is her second year and she still has not completed any written work. she said: what i’m not happy about now at this moment is when i get results that do not make sense, and it effects how i feel, as well. i have thirteen materials, but i will not do all thirteen […] for my project. the rest are for new students who are coming soon. we don’t know how to choose material suitable for my project. we haven’t got good result with this machine. and now it is february, i still can’t finish it. ahaaa […] last year, he (the supervisor) asked me about my scholarship: “when will your scholarship end?”. i think he is concerned about that. i told him in another year and a half. of course i cannot finish it, but i’ll try my best. she gave another example to express her worries: i’m not really satisfied with my progress because i have just got a new material. of course, my supervisor knows that i’m a little bit depressed because my scholarship is for three educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 111 years. this is not my fault. my sponsor or my government just want me to complete my phd in three years. of course i’m nervous. otherwise, if they want to sponsor me after that, it is ok. i know i can do this project, but i am just nervous about the time. however, from the researcher’s perspective, she has tried to calm herself by saying that if she had studied the literature as early as her first year, it might have happened that the references were not applicable later on. besides, she said that a student could get “bored” when reading too much at the beginning of research. that is the reason she preferred to do the experimental work first, before going further into reading and writing about the theory. she said that most of her friends also lack of knowledge of the literature at the beginning of their study. she insisted that, even though she did not put much effort into her literature search, she has already “done it”, as she is carrying on her master’s research. as she mentioned: for instance, a friend of mine who is now in his third year told me that the things that he understood during his first year are different from what he understands in his third year. everybody that i have asked says that they have no knowledge about theory in their first year. the supervisor will not give everything. i have to do the thinking and reading and we will only know when we start the writing. i know when i attend one of the seminars in my university, the student should do firstly read the journal references and then do the experimental work. but sometimes, a student gets bored when he reads books or journals. you know why? i did a masters before and i’ve done the dissertation and i am carrying on my masters research to my phd. i already have the basics of the theory. moreover, doing the experimental work made her feel very stressed and tired. by the time she gets back to her room, she does not have much time to write-up her thesis as well as the literature review. as she said: the important thing is to make sure i have the references that i need. so, as a good student or researcher, in the morning or afternoon, you do your lab work. at night, you read journals or books. that is a good student. i try to do that, but just a little bit. i will do more of this now because i’m nearly in my third year. i plan to start writing up my literature review. i had to modify my transfer report in my first year. so i had to read more to add new contents. however, she mentioned that, by doing a lot of experimental work, she can improve her skill in dealing with her research. also, this will give her the capacity to teach and guide new students in how to do the experiments. for her, this is an advantage of working for two years in the laboratory, due to the change in material, without the results having been achieved. besides, she mentioned that, while doing her research in the laboratory, she has learnt many things, especially about her subject area. she gave an example: doing experiments is a very tiring job because sometimes you need to spend the whole day until night in the lab. now i try to allocate myself some time for reading my literature. i managed to improve my other skill. staying long hours in the lab makes me more confident and knowledgeable in the lab to the extent that i am able to guide new students to do their experiments. yeah, i’m learning because i started from the beginning. you norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 112 have got materials. first of all, what should you do? firstly, i got experience in how to start a new metal. for example, finding out what the composition of the material is. what is the temperature? it is something like this because different materials have different compositions, different temperatures. thirdly, ainin has spoken about her responsibility to be an independent student in doing phd research. since she did her masters, her supervisor has always reminded her that the research that she is carrying out is her own. hence, she has a right to make decisions that she thinks are the best for the research. she agreed that the phd student cannot rely too much on her supervisor because most students who are doing phds are mature ones. they can manage their work independently, without being told step by step what to do. ainin is comfortable if she is given the freedom to do her research. it is when she gets stuck that she needs her supervisor to tell her whether or not she is going in the right direction. she also said that she has to think on her own about what she is supposed to do and what not. as she put it: don’t rely too much on the supervisor or other people. we have to try to do it ourselves. we are going to train other people when we get back home, so we have to start to learn to stand on our own feet. at the very beginning of study, students have to rely on a supervisor because they know very little about their research. now, i am a second year, being a phd student is like being a researcher. we cannot depend entirely on our supervisor. so we have to do things on our own. sometimes, we have to share ideas with supervisor […]. i have to survive by myself, find out by myself and think by myself, because my supervisor told me that i am the boss now. you will know a lot if you read a lot. in doing a phd, you will never get your supervisor to tell you bit by bit like when you were undergraduate. they expect you to do it yourself, unless you ask. but you won’t be getting everything you want. as human beings, generally people always want to get the best things. it is apparent to her that this has happened sometimes when she has compared her supervisor with another supervisor. she likes to work independently, but she is very pleased if her supervisor can provide her with references. this was particularly the case at the very beginning of her research. she also mentioned that finding reference material in the uk is not as difficult as in malaysia, as long as she is hardworking. therefore, she did not feel that frustrated when her supervisor decided not to give her many references. this situation also made her strong, so that she put more effort into searching the related literature. as she stated: my supervisor used to give me one book for reference, but not a journal. for example, my supervisor loaned me a book, but since i found that the book was very useful and helpful, i decided to buy it for myself. all students have their own different projects and it sometimes creates tension and pressure for me when i see that other students can easily get what they want from their supervisor. as we know, doing research has its risks and factors. in the uk, i have found that it is not as difficult to get references as when we study in malaysia. so we must be hardworking and independent, even though our supervisor has given only a little help in supervision. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 113 finally, ainin said that a phd student has to do the research that she likes most in order to work happily towards the end of the study. as for her, her supervisor has chosen her current topic of research. luckily, since her first few months doing the research, she seems to have been very interested in the subject area. however, when she is dealing with difficulties, she feels very frustrated and has thought about changing the topic and even her supervisor. as she put it: as a matter of fact, given the chance, i want to change my project because it is quite difficult since i have to use tem (transmission electron microscopy), which is so tiny and detailed. it takes a lot of time to prepare it and it is tiring. i need to use the machine to analyse it and it is very difficult. only if the person is really good at it, can he do it, and very few people in malaysia can do it. she also agreed that there is an advantage if the student is doing research in an area that she likes most to explore. this is because the students might have prior knowledge and more information in that particular field. on some occasions, students may find difficulties in carry out research. however, with a lot of enthusiasm and interest in the research, the student can normally find the solution in the end. ainin also mentioned that she was given her research topic by her supervisor. she spoke about it: for me, the most importance thing in doing research is the supervisor. the second thing is of course the project. you should like it. i like metal, i like aluminium alloy. but i don’t like using machines. and he (the supervisor) has another project that does not use the machine. i don’t say that the project is easy, no. but i’m happy at least that the project does not use that machine. because my supervisor offered this project to me, i don’t have any choice, you know […]. when she can solve her own problems in relation to her research, then she feels more confident in carrying it out. nevertheless, she is thinking of treating this situation as a challenge as she can gain a lot of experience when dealing with new things. her aim now is to share her knowledge with her future students after completing her phd. for instance, she has seen that this experience could be very important when she is about to teach and supervise students. conclusion the actual research which was done by the researcher had involved the foreign phd students studying in the united kingdom. survey on 110 respondents and in-depth interviews on 12 informants were used as part of the actual data collection method. however, as for the case studies method, the researcher aimed to focusing on malaysian phd students only. for this article, only the results from one case study were discussed. ainin was seen as having to face challenges. ainin is married but her husband is in malaysia and the main factor that made her return to that country a few times was to see him and her family. homesickness affected her study a little. for instance, norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 114 when ainin was facing her research material problems, which caused her experiment to fail, she was quite worried about the time constraints because her sponsor was covering her tuition fees just for three years, and it was beyond her ability to complete in that time. however, she still feels very glad to have had a very helpful supervisor. at least she knows her supervisor very well, since she used to work with him before she started her phd. phd student is experienced in his/her study and work and he/she realise that he/she must be independent throughout his/her study. ainin spent most of her time in the laboratory during the first two years of her study. ainin also refer to her friends when she has any problems. she is of the opinion that it is good to discuss things with friends in the same field before seeing their supervisor. she only seeks her supervisor’s help when the problems cannot be solved in her circle. ainin mentioned that she have to take responsibilities in planning her own research, including searching the literature, collecting data and writing up the thesis. she also claimed that she gained a lot of skills while doing her research. these include writing and communication skill. also their english has improved and she has become more knowledgeable in their research area. the most important one is the decision-making skill. she needs to decide every single thing in relation to her phd. in this case study, ainin has mentioned many interesting things about her study as well as the process of supervision. in her view of the student’s responsibilities, she emphasised her responsibilities for gaining experience while studying for her phd. this experience will be very helpful in supervising her students after she has completed her study. she does not have a long term plan, because almost every day she thinks about what she should do next and makes decisions about what to do. even though she is in her second year, she still does not have any experimental results. so, she cannot proceed with her plan to do a literature search. what she has written so far is just a proposal about her latest findings, which she will present to the school as a transfer report and also send to her sponsor. therefore, she claimed that, time is her enemy and makes her worried. another thing that she said is that a student should like her research area in order to enjoy her life as a phd student. however, the research topic was recommended by her supervisor. she also mentioned that she has relied on her supervisor when she cannot understand or when she wants to check on her plans or methods. then she expects him to give her guidance because it is a new thing for her and, as a professor, he should have a lot of experience in that particular subject. unfortunately, her supervisor always wants her to use trial and error or asks her to find her own solution because he believes that the research is her responsibility. he never recommends someone else who can help her. rather, when she has something interesting or unusual, she discusses it with her colleagues in the laboratory. sometimes, she will discuss it with the technician if it is something to do with the machine. after that, she might present the results to her supervisor or discuss them with him in a proper meeting. all of these people are important to her. her friends are very helpful in checking her understanding and helping her when she is working in the laboratory. there seems to be collaborative work between phd students in educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 115 the laboratory when they are discussing their work among themselves. she claimed that she has learnt many things while completing her phd. however, she thought that she did it on her own to make herself knowledgeable in her subject area and her supervisor is not that good at encouraging learning. it is hoped that this research could provide general views of the experiences faced by the phd science student while doing phd in overseas. it is true that each individual had different experiences, challenges and problems during their studies and it will be very interesting to study those things. it is also true that we cannot make generalisation and conclusion towards the findings of this case study since this article had only focusing on one malaysian phd student in the united kingdom. as mentioned earlier, the researcher had used various methods and more than one case study for the actual research. however, this case study could 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(1985). “supervising postgraduates” in the canadian journal of higher education, xxv(3), p.1-29. norhasni zainal abiddin, exploring challenges in phd studies 116 moses, i. (1992). “good supervisory practice” the canadian journal of higher education, xxv(3), p.1-29. phillips, e.m. & d.s. pugh. (2000). how to get a phd: a handbook for students and their supervisors. buckingham: open university press. powles, m. (1989). “how’s your thesis going?” in the canadian journal of higher education, xxv(3), p.1-29. powles, m. (1993). “staff development for phd supervision” in e.m. philips & d.s. pugh [eds.]. how to get a phd. milton keynes: open university press. rudd, e. (1985). “a new look at postgraduate failure” in higher education, 28(1), p.483-498. russell, a. (1996). postgraduate research: student and supervisor views. australia: the flinders university of south australia. salmon, p. (1992). achieving a phd: ten students’ experience. staffordshire: trentham books limited. smith, r. (1989). “research degrees and supervision in polytechnics” in journal of further and higher education, 13(1), p.76-83. spear, r.h. (2000). supervision of research students: responding to student expectations. canberra: the australian national university. yeatman, a. (1995). “making supervision relationships accountable: graduate student logs” in australian universities’ review, 38(2), p.9-11. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 49 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development abstract: training reinforced individuals to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes through learning practises to achieve effective performance. hrd (human resource development) theories support the significance of training, in which it is considered as one of the factors in accomplishing organizational objectives. previous studies suggested that employee training is a significant predictor of employees’ job performance. this article, by using the qualitative approach and literature review method, tries to elaborate pertaining the relationship between training and job performance to enhance the hrd in general. the aspects of training purpose, employee performance, on-the-job training, theories on training, and training dimensions will be discussed and elaborated in the context to enhance the hrd. study showed that on-the-job-training enhances employee performance and there were strong positive relationship between training and performance of employees. training increases the efficiency and effectiveness of both the lecturers and the institution itself. employee performance depends on many factors, but the most important factor is training. knowledge workers can easily accomplish their tasks successfully with high self-sufficiency level. therefore, management should build their interest in continuously training their employees according to requirement of working environment and positively perceiving and responding their feedback. it was recommended that all employees should be involved in training to enhance employee knowledge, skills, ability, competencies, and expected behaviour. this could also be done through support and participation. key words: training; job performance; knowledge, skill, and attitude; human resource development. about the authors: mohammed alhaji yusuf is a student of graduate program at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies upm (university of putra malaysia) in serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. assoc. prof. dato dr. norhasni zainal abiddin is a lecturer at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies upm in serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. e-mails address: alhajiyusufm@gmail.com and nonie@upm.edu.my suggested citation: yusuf, mohammed alhaji & norhasni zainal abiddin. (2018). “relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august, pp.49-58. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 1, 2018); revised (july 3, 2018); and published (august 30, 2018). introduction r.a. swanson (1995) defined the hrd (human resource development) as the method of developing and applying an employee competency through training and development with the aim of improving organisation performance (swanson, 1995). according to r.a. swanson (2001) also that hrd is specifically targeted to three areas of application: human resource management, career development, and quality improvement (swanson, 2001). © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 50 mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance d. ulrich (1997) posits that human resource will achieve its eminent position, if it transitions from administrative and clerical roles into a strategic partner, which will enhance organisational long term objective (ulrich, 1997). hrd is centered on employee performance and organisational effectiveness. its long term value will depend on how practitioners and scholars address numerous challenges facing the field which includes organisational cultures, technological innovation, environment, and employee attitudes and behaviour (ulrich, 1997; byremo, 2015; and oriordan, 2017). training is an organised process by which individuals acquire knowledge or skills for a specific purpose (farooq & khan, 2011). this means that the trainees shall acquire new manipulative skills, technical knowledge and skills on the job in such a method as to aid in the attainment of organisational objective (iqbal et al., 2012). the main rationale of training is to acquire and improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards work related tasks. it is one of the most important potential motivators, which can lead to both short-term and long-term benefits for individuals and organizations (nassazi, 2013; and oriordan, 2017). according to s.p. robbins (1998), many people view motivation as a personal attribute (robbins, 1998). studies have, however, revealed that motivation is as a result of interaction between an individual and the situation (robbins, 1998; and carr, 2005). d.a. olaniyan & l.b. ojo (2008) also define motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals conditioned by the efforts and ability to satisfy some individual need. motivated employees tend to learn and apply acquired skills and knowledge more effectively; while associated benefits increase positive feelings toward an institution and, therefore, enhance affective job performance (olaniyan & ojo, 2008). the significance of this knowledge lies in the concept that the lecturer should have the capacity to bridge content information to his or her practice of teaching; and the nature of this bridge requires a clear knowledge and understanding of the conceptions of three key areas of learners, curriculum, and social contexts. a.a. benedicta (2010) suggests that a strong foundation in subject matter would allow academics to use this knowledge flexibly to command teaching strategies that address a variety of techniques to become skilled at in today’s complex society and economy (benedicta, 2010). according to w.l. njanja et al. (2013), knowledge takes place when the performance of people changes based on the results from experiences. therefore, one assess if learning has effectively taken place by comparing and contrasting a person’s performance earlier than on a plan and after; therefore, there should be a behavioural change when training takes place effectively (njanja et al., 2013). educational environment change from time to time which calls for continuous upgrading of employee knowledge, skills, and attitude to improve on their job performance and ability to adapt to the rapidly changing economic situation to remain competitive (archieve, 2008; and nassazi, 2013). however, effect of training is mostly regarded as formal exercise in order to maintain appropriate knowledgeable people for now and in the future. recruiting, selecting, orienting, and then placing workforce to the institution and their professions do not ensure achievement. in most cases, there may be gap between staff, attitude, knowledge, and skills and what the profession stresses. the gap must be complete through training programs; therefore, change in attitude, knowledge, skills, and experience of academics has direct effect on institutions input to achieve objectives (archieve, 2008; nassazi, 2013; and day & sammons, 2014). this article, by using the qualitative approach and literature review method (guest, 2011; day & sammons, 2014; tracey, 2014; manuti et al., 2015; and torraco, 2016), tries to elaborate pertaining the relationship between training and job performance to enhance the hrd (human resource development) in general. the aspects of training purpose, employee performance, on-the-job training, theories on training, and training dimensions will be discussed and elaborated in the context to enhance the hrd. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 51 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 findings and discussion purpose of training. moreover, t.l. amos, a. ristow & l. ristow (2004) postulated that training is the process that provides employees with the knowledge and the skills required in operating within the systems and standards set by management (amos, ristow & ristow, 2004). study of a. elnaga & a. imran (2013) stated that training will be used as planned activities on the part of the organization targeted towards increasing the job knowledge and skills, or to modify the attitudes and behaviours of employees in ways consistent with the goals of the institution and the requirements of the job (elnaga & imran, 2013). this definition has been chosen because, as in the study of a. elnaga & a. imran (2013), the researchers will include into employee training not only formal but also informal and on-the-job training as well as other professional development activities (cf misko, 2008; elnaga & imran, 2013; and manuti et al., 2015). p.f. drucker (2008) supported this by saying that next to schooling, human capital increase after entrance into the workplace is considered significant to economic performance at both the employer and the employee level (drucker, 2008). job performance refers to behaviour that are directly involved in creating service, or activities that provide indirect support for the organization’s core methodological processes (armstrong, 2001; drucker, 2008; and adewale & anthonia, 2013). performance is a construct and an extremely dynamic measure that determines organizational successes or failures. a. elnaga & a. imran (2013) define performance as the attained outcomes of actions with skills of workers who perform in some situation (elnaga & imran, 2013). according to h. abdullahi (2014), the performance of a worker is his/her subsequent behaviour on a job, which can be observed and evaluated (abdullahi, 2014). polytechnics in nigeria have move towards to recognize that training offers ample of technique of developing skills, enhancing job performance, efficiency and value of work, and make-up the reliability to the institution (treichel ed., 2010; and babagana, 2014). m.j. armstrong (2001) stated that ineffectiveness of not training lecturers reduces the institutional efficiency (armstrong, 2001). lectures are the underpinning of any institution, that is the stability and development of institution highly relied on academic staff performance. it is an advantage to measure staff ’s efficiency in terms of the significance of work achieved (armstrong, 2001; and babagana, 2014). employee performance. furthermore, the institutional teaching and technical development cannot take place without welltrained lecturers (benedicta, 2010). however, education at this level is not predictable to be these expectations without dedicated, commitment, hardworking, efficient, and well knowledgeable academics whose attitude, skill, and knowledge to work and compared with the world best practices. training has long been fundamental concern in organizational settings. institutions rely on learning strategies, training, and development of knowledge efforts to prepare their academics (farooq & khan, 2011; and rafiei & davari, 2015). moreover, according to m.j. armstrong (2001), training is the process of teaching otherwise giving new and old employee the basic skills and knowledge they required perform their work (armstrong, 2001). training is an educational process through which people can learn new information, re-learn, and reinforce existing knowledge and skills; and more importantly have time to think and consider what new options can help them improve their effectiveness at work (armstrong, 2001; and scott, 2015). on-the-job training. it is a training that is planned and structured that takes place mainly at the normal workstation of the trainee – although some instruction may be provided in a special training area on site – and where an executive, supervisor, trainer or peer colleague spends significant time with a trainee to teach a set of skills that have been specified in advance (hogarh, 2012; chepkosgey et al., 2015; and galhena & mihirani, 2015). on-the-job training looks at methods that are applied in the workplace, while the employees are actually working. on-the-job © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 52 mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance training is the most common and popular training employees get when they first join an organization and in some cases that is the only training available. on-the-job training shows a significant role in the development of institutions, enhancing performance as well as increasing productivity, and ultimately putting institutions in the greatest position to face competition and stay at the maximum (hogarh, 2012; chepkosgey et al., 2015; galhena & mihirani, 2015; and wormley, 2015). this means that, there is a significant relationship between organizations that train their staffs and organizations that do not (iqbal et al., 2012). every organization, that is committed to generate returns for its executives and providing quality service for its regulars and beneficiaries, must invest in the on-the-job training for its employees. in order to sustain economic growth and effective performance, it is important to optimize the contribution of employees to the aims and goals of the organizations (iqbal et al., 2012; and nassazi, 2013). theories on training. the significance of knowledge lies in the theory that the lecturer should have the capacity to bridge content knowledge to his or her practice of teaching and the nature of this bridge requires a clear knowledge and understanding of the conceptions of three key areas of learners, curriculum, and social contexts. lecturers must first know and understand their subjects they teach in order to help students develop a rich understanding and appreciation of the content. in the educational context, skill be referred to as achievements or behaviours to be acquired through practice or training to facilitate the student learning and classroom management (chong & cheah, 2009; chintalloo & mahadeo, 2013; and serdyukov, 2017). according to a. shafighi (2013), effective lecturer education requires lecturer to integrate multiple kinds of knowledge, attitude, and skills as they are used in practice to forge connections between theory and practice (shafighi, 2013). primarily they must have a collection of illustrations that combine training methods with subject matter and provide appropriate outline to continually make learning interesting (kuvaas & dysvik, 2009). similarly, consistency theories assume that individuals need to have consistency among their knowledge, skills and attitudes, and modify to achieve objective (chase, 1994; harrison, 2000; and fabrigar et al., 2006). training dimensions. according to b. pool (2007), many people view motivation as a personal trait (pool, 2007). studies have, however, revealed that motivation is as a result of interaction between an individual and the situation. motivation for training can be the degree to which employees are willing to make efforts to improve themselves and their task performances with training (kuvaas & dysvik, 2009; dobre, 2013; and kuranchiemensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). motivated employees tend to learn and apply acquired skills and knowledge more effectively while associated benefits increase positive feelings toward an institution and, therefore, enhance affective job performance. intrinsic job satisfaction may come from performing a task well and from being able to exercise a new repertoire of skills. benefits for the organization include improved employee work performance and efficiency; shorter learning time which could lead to less costly training and employees being “on line” more quickly; decrease in wastage; fewer misfortunes; less absenteeism; lower labour turnover; and greater student’s satisfaction (benedicta, 2010; burton, 2012; and kuranchiemensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). therefore, training becomes one of the most important potential motivator and, hence, the following benefits do accrue from training programmes. the lecturer on training suggested that staffs who reflect positively on benefits of training would be more affectively guarantee to the institution that provided training (aguinis & kraiger, 2009; xiao, 2010; and njanja et al., 2013). discussion. it was revealed that training provide strategies on how to manage work stress, increases performance and efficiency, enhances commitment of responsibilities, improves intelligent quotient, and improves techniques to discharge responsibilities. the study also revealed that training facilitates acquisition of skills and knowledge that support attainment of institutions objective. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 53 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 the study also disclosed that most of the employers offered training to their employees to improve work efficiency, to deliver skills that are presumed to be more academically inclined, improve competency of lecturers, boost the morale of the lecturers, and also to provide strategies to that will aid realization of objectives (chinelo, 2011; and robson & manacapilli, 2014). it is in relation with this opinion that m. farooq & a.m. khan (2011) lamented that training has been the main factor for influencing the employee’s skills, abilities, and attitudes (farooq & khan, 2011). they added that for employees to embed these attributes in them, there is an immense need of continuously educating and training them about how to improve their individuals as well as group performance, because knowledge workers can easily accomplish their task successfully been the main factor for influencing the employee’s skills, abilities, and attitudes (farooq & khan, 2011; and dike, 2013). training empowers academics job performance with greater accuracy and preciseness, which are all accepted are the observation made by a. shafighi (2013), when he state that institution that provide training benefits not only from development of skills and knowledge of its academics as significance from increased efficiency and performance of staffs (shafighi, 2013). similarly, b. archieve (2008) mentioned that the objective of training is to achieve change in the behaviour of those trained employee (archieve, 2008). this means that the trainees shall acquire new manipulative skills, technical knowledge, and change in attitude on the job in such a way to support in the achievement of institutional objectives. training provides problem solving techniques and strategies, which guarantees self-confidence and self-governing (archieve, 2008; and ngure, 2013). d.a. olaniyan & l.b. ojo (2008) stated also that training can solve variety of manpower problems, which inspire against optimal output in institutions (olaniyan & ojo, 2008). b. kuvaas & a. dysvik (2009) state that motivated employees tend to learn and apply acquired skills and knowledge support this assertion more effectively. they advanced that training and development enhance emotional performance of academics, when extensively trained (cf olaniyan & ojo, 2008; kuvaas & dysvik, 2009; zhang, 2012; and nassazi, 2013). according to b. archieve (2008), it is the process of teaching or giving new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs. he, further, stressed that training is an educational process through which people can learn new information, re-learn, and reinforce existing knowledge and skills; and more importantly have time to think and consider what new options can help them improve their effectiveness at work (cf archieve, 2008; aacte, 2010; and scott, 2015). therefore, it does not make any sense when somebody to say that training is a waste of time considering the assertions made by these authors and many more. academics that have more on-the-job experience have better chance of performance, because there is an increase in both the skill and competencies as a result of more on-the-job experience (nassazi, 2013; and rafiei & davari, 2015). in this context, b. pool (2007) observed that human resource is very important and the backbone of every organization and it is the main resources of the organization (pool, 2007). therefore, learning institutions should invest huge amount on the human resource capital, because the performance of lecturers will ultimately increase the performance of the school (elnaga & imran, 2013; and rafiei & davari, 2015). h. yang (2008), on his part book, lament that performance is a major multidimensional construct aimed to achieve results and has a strong link to strategic goals of an organization (yang, 2008). m.o. agwu (2013) explains also that to improve the organizational performance and the employee performance, training is given to the employees of the organization (agwu, 2013). along this view is a.a. benedicta (2010), who explains the correlation between training and other variables, when he remarks that training is important for the employee development; and the employee development encourages self-fulfilling skills and abilities of © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 54 mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance employee, decreases operational costs, limits organization liabilities, and changing goals and objectives (cf benedicta, 2010; zhang, 2012; and elnaga & imran, 2013). this is why m.b. ahmad, e. wasay & s.u. malik (2012) state that training is of growing importance to companies seeking to gain advantage among competitors. they, further, collaborate that statistics have indicate that investment in training is continuing to grow as more and more companies realize its importance (ahmad, wasay & malik, 2012). ameeq ul ameeq & f. hanif (2013) explain also that performance is the key element to achieve the goals of the organization; so performance increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization, which is helpful for the achievement and efficiency organizational goals (cf zhang, 2012; ameeq & hanif, 2013; and nassazi, 2013). however, m. asim (2013) stated that training becomes imperative if only the organization want to stay on board and gain competitive advantage (asim, 2013). note that education at polytechnics’ level is not predictable to live up to these expectations without dedicated, commitment, hardworking, efficient, and well knowledgeable lecturer whose attitude, skill, and knowledge to work and compared with the world best practices (asim, 2013; aaltonen et al., 2013; and kantane et al., 2015). the creation and transfer of knowledge in an organization has become a critical factor in an organizations success and competitiveness. numerous organizations are now concentrating their efforts on how knowledge, particularly tactic knowledge that exist in the organization, can be transferred across the organization (agwu, 2013; omotayo, 2015; and janus, 2016). thus, it is the knowledge and skills acquired for the job that makes employees effective and efficient. conclusion one of the most important resources of all organizations is the people. people develop ideas that eventually become product(s) that satisfy people’s want and needs. training increases the efficiency and effectiveness of both the lecturers and the institution itself. employee performance depends on many factors, but the most important factor is training. knowledge workers can easily accomplish their tasks successfully with high self-sufficiency level. therefore, management should build their interest in continuously training their employees according to requirement of working environment and positively perceiving and responding their feedback. it is, therefore, strongly suggested that all stakeholders, the mayor, directors, senior managers, junior managers, supervisors, and the employees should be involved in one way or the other in training as there is a positive relationship of training and performance to enhance employee knowledge, skills, ability, competencies, and behaviour. this could also be done through support and participation.1 references aacte [american association of colleges of teacher education]. 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(2012). “the impact of performance management system on employee performance: analysis with wers 2004”. available online at: https://essay.utwente.nl/62260/1/daisy-master_ thesis.pdf [accessed in serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia: october 9, 2017]. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 58 mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance human resource development (source: http://www.promed.co.id/page/view/hrd, 9/10/2017) one of the most important resources of all organizations is the people. people develop ideas that eventually become product(s) that satisfy people’s want and needs. training increases the efficiency and effectiveness of both the lecturers and the institution itself. employee performance depends on many factors, but the most important factor is training. knowledge workers can easily accomplish their tasks successfully with high self-sufficiency level. therefore, management should build their interest in continuously training their employees according to requirement of working environment and positively perceiving and responding their feedback. 1 arviola.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 1 prof. serafin a. arviola jr. is an assistant professor of the philippine normal university (pnu). he is currently a director of center for linkages and extension services of pnu and a human rights fellow of international center for tolerance education based in new york city. he could be reached at: sarviola2002@yahoo.com community-based lifelong education in the philippines: a proposed model in grassroots participatory democracy in southeast asia serafin a. arviola jr. abstract: conflicts among family members, among different groups in the community, and among nations continue to escalate, threatening the survival of the human species. the philippines is not an exception to these atrocious realities. in this case, mindanao has experienced one of the most violent armed conflicts in the history of the philippines. a series of armed confrontations between the government and various muslim separatist groups have placed the civilian population at the mercy of conf licting parties. various government programs and projects were initiated to address the problem of war and violence in mindanao. the study is an attempt to evaluate an existing community-based peace-building program with the aimed to draw out insights on what kind of program suitable for culturally diverse communities that experiences protracted social conflict. the researcher recommends exploring other indicators not included in this study in order to draw out more insights on the dynamics of peace building at the grassroots level. key words: conflicts in the philippines, government programs and projects, communitybased lifelong education, and grassroots level. introduction the beginning of the twenty-first century is marked by a continued presence of conflicts at almost every level of human endeavor. conflicts among family members, among different groups in the community, and among nations continue to escalate, threatening the survival of the human species. according to the armed conflict report as cited by john paul lederach (1997a), between 1989 and 1996 there were more than seventy wars happening in sixty different places around the world. as of serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 2 january 1997, forty-four conflicts continue to devastate thirty-nine countries. other disturbing figures indicate that half of the current wars have been causing severe human sufferings for almost a decade and one-quarter of them for more than two decades. the philippines is not an exception to these atrocious realities. since the 1970’s, continued lawlessness and violence in cities and countryside brought about by intensified and continued government assaults against the rebel groups: moro islamic liberation front (milf), new people’s army (npa), and the terrorist group abu sayaff, have killed 120,000 people and displaced 1.5 million from their place of origin (neufeldt et al., 2000:3). mindanao has experienced one of the most violent armed conflicts in the history of the philippines. a series of armed confrontations between the government and various muslim separatist groups like mindanao independence movement (mim), moro national liberation front (mnlf) and moro islamic liberation front (milf) have placed the civilian population at the mercy of conflicting parties. various government programs and projects were initiated to address the problem of war and violence in mindanao. these peace initiatives have failed miserably because of lack of political will on the part of the government, limited financial allocation, bureaucratic mismatch of local and national line agencies and leadership style of former rebels turned government managers (abubakar, 1999). despite all these setbacks, in september 1996 former president ramos signed the final peace accord with mnlf chair nur misuari in jakarta ending decades of armed conflict in mindanao. the implementation of the peace agreement yielded some positive initial results. it opened windows of opportunities for ngos, private organizations, and church groups to work for peace in support of the peace agreement (deles, 2000). communities caught in the armed conflict have declared their area as “zone of peace” in order to become an active participant in peace-building and eventually reap the gains of the peace process (regehr, 1995). one of these communities is the bual zone of peace in isulan, sultan kudarat. it was officially recognized as a zone of peace last april 15, 2001 by virtue of a municipal ordinance. the context barangay bual is situated 17 kilometers away from the town of isulan. with a population of 3,508 individuals or roughly 1,600 families, it has an area of 14,948 hectares, making it the largest barangay of the municipality of isulan, the capital town of the province of sultan kudarat. it can be reached by tricycle and “skylab” (motor cycle) with six to eight passengers one ride. bual is located at the foot of mount daguma range, which connects the province of maguindanao, and sultan kudarat. the mountain provides sanctuaries for the rebel groups milf and mnlf. within bual, a military camp of the 15th infantry battalion is located with a small detachment of paramilitary (citizen’s armed forces geographical unit or cafgu) found sparsely in the area (eliseo, 1999). educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 3 bual means, “spring water”, and the area are rich in both natural and human resources. it has a large tract of fertile agricultural lands suitable for corn and palay production. the present population comprises a majority of muslim inhabitants (60%) who are mostly maguindanaoan in origin, some christian ilonggo and ilokano (38%) and lumad (2%). bual being a muslim-inhabited area is surrounded by three adjacent barangays namely: lagandang, new pangasinan and barangay daguma, all of which are mostly populated by christian inhabitants. during the violent years of marcos dictatorship, this area became the battleground of military and moro rebels, making life miserable for the people of these 4 barangays (n.n., 1998; and castaneda, 2000)). background of the conflict in bual on december 16, 1996 violent acts perpetuated by a small group of “christian ilongo” wreak havoc on muslim settlement in the quite community of barangay bual. more than 200 houses of muslim residents, a mosque, and cooperative facility were reduced to ashes. an indiscriminate firing of weapons resulted to the killing of a child and wounding of the entire muslim family added to the direct casualty of the incident. this violent episode forced 600 muslim families to abandon their dwellings and immediately became internally displaced refugees for almost five months. the mass evacuation of muslim residents in bual generated a deep sense of fear and insecurity from both sides aggravated by the lack of concern from the military authorities to the plight of the victims (montiel, 1995). the main suspect in the burning incident was charged with criminal offenses waiting for the final verdict of the case in the municipal jail of isulan while the other suspects are still at large. most of the respondents interviewed were one in saying that the burning incident was caused by a land dispute between two families: the perales family and the galmak family. although they came from distinct religious and tribal affiliation, the perales being christian ilongos and the galmak’s being muslim maguindanaoans, their relationship is characterized by deep friendship, mutual understanding and generosity during the early years of engagement in bual (eliseo, 1999; and castaneda, 2000). the relationship was strained because of the “intervention of the third party” which according to muslim respondents was the military operating in the area during that time. in a study conducted by jazer castaneda (2000), he cited from the police report of the provincial office of sultan kudarat the identity of this “third party” that magnified the conflict in bual and these were the milf, mnlf and the armed forces of the philippines assigned in the area. the conflict confirmed a long-standing prejudice of muslim residents of bual against the christian that they were part of the groups called “ilaga” (means rat) and “tadtad” (means chopping by using a sharp bolo). both groups were composed of christians who organized themselves to protect their lives and properties from the abuse of muslim rebels. historically, ilaga and tadtad have also committed criminal serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 4 acts against the civilian muslim population during the martial law years (coronelferrer, 1994; and bid-peace program terminal report, 2001). the feeling of revenge was deeply felt by other muslim respondents towards the christians and anger towards their fellow muslims in the mountain, the milf and mnlf. they believed that these so-called “muslim comrades” have rejected them during those days of attack by christian residents of bual against the muslim community. the negative perception created by the conflict was deeply expressed during the fgds with the youth group. they have argued that their sympathy towards the moro separatist movement grew because of the injustices that they have experienced. the conflict have inflicted a collective consciousness among young muslim residents the need of revenge and armed struggle (kadtuntaya foundation brochures, 2000; and catholic relief services brochures, 2000). amidst the direct physical liability of the social conflict in bual lies a deep harmful psychological and emotional effect among the muslim victims. negative perceptions were heightened between the two groups, unconfirmed prejudices were developed and an act of retaliation turned out to be reasonable because of the injustices afflicted to the victim. the first days of the muslim residents in bual who came back from the evacuation center was characterized by a high degree of caution against each other for fear that the incident might happen again. efforts towards peace-building in bual one of the first ngos who responded to the problem of the muslim residence in bual is the kadtuntaya foundation inc. it is a development oriented ngo in cotabato city established in 1989 with outreach program and services on the areas of livelihood development, women literacy and health programs, relief and rehabilitation, community organizing and cooperative socio-economic programs. it is actively involved in communities affected by conflict between the rebel groups and the government in the provinces of maguindanao, sultan kudarat and north cotabato (francisco, 1996). kfi envisions the grassroots communities of mindanao where christians, muslims and lumads are “politically empowered, economically sufficient, environmentally sustainable and gender conscious peacefully co-existing in equality, respect and prosperity” (kadtuntaya foundation brochures, 2000). it implemented the relief and rehabilitation for the residence of bual with the financial and technical support of crs. kfi helped facilitate much needed government intervention during the initial months of crisis thus created the bual rehabilitation task force (brtf). it was given with funds from the government amounting to 4 million pesos for house construction, repair of public facilities, and relief services. the catholic relief services (crs) on the other hand, is an international relief and development ngo. it is an official service agency of united states catholic bishop’s conference established in 1943 located in 80 countries worldwide. crs started its operation in the philippines in 1945 to help provide war relief after the world war ii. crs/philippines is active in providing its services in visayas and educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 5 mindanao with the aim of “assisting extreme poor, and also a facilitator of peace and reconciliation” in the communities torn by political, economic and cultural problems. it envisions a society “where justice, love and solidarity are the driving forces of social and economic development; where every tribe and faith is respected; and where diverse people work together in just and peaceful coexistence” (crs, 2001). bid-peace program goal, objectives and services the bid-peace program is a community-based integrated approach to peace building designed to promote peace and restore mutual trust and respect between muslims and christians in barangay bual. it started out of the need to rehabilitate and to reconcile the communities torn apart by the violent burning incident, which caused deeply, rooted tensions and divisions. it envisions barangay bual as a “community of muslim and christians contributing to one another towards upholding respect, empowerment, equity, prosperity, peace and sustainability” (alim, 1999). it was designed to sustain the gains achieved in the implementation of the relief and rehabilitation and further enhanced the capability of the people to implement the peace-building projects in the community. the bid-peace has the following program components: first, organizational building and strengthening (obs). it is the “core strategy” of the bid-peace program with the aim of enhancing the capability of the counterpart people’s organization and other important structures in the community like the barangay council, church groups etc., in order to implement various components of the program. second, farm & economic enterprise development (feed). as a “sustaining strategy”, it is tasked to ensure that the basic needs of the families and the community as a whole is provided through on-and-off-farm enterprise livelihood projects. it also task to increase internal mobilization of financial resources and involves threesub projects: (a) ecological farming: its objective is to increase the capacity of the po’s farmers in food production through sustainable farming system by providing credit facility, animal dispersal and technological assistance; (b) off-farm enterprise: its objective is to provide livelihood skills for women in order for them to contribute in the economic well being of the family through livelihood seminars and credit facility assistance such as the famafen loans or family managed enterprise loans; and (c) cooperative projects: its objective is to organize a viable multipurpose cooperative in the community that will manage the production, marketing and financing of the income generating projects of the members. third, community social services (css). as a “support strategy”, it is task to provide health and pre-school services in the community. capacity building training for community health volunteers (chv) is a major feature of this project in order for the community leaders to conduct health education classes to promote health and sanitation in the community. pre-school for moro children with a volunteer serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 6 teacher will be provided to design the curriculum that will foster positive human values and appreciate their culture and religion. fourth, peace building projects (pbp). as a “must strategy”, it is tasks to sustain the different initiatives to promote peace and cultural understanding in the community through culture of peace seminars, conflict resolution skills training for leaders of pos, joint community celebration of peace and reconciliation day and symposium on religious festivals and traditions. research goals and data-gathering process this is a case study, which assessed the effectiveness of bual integrated development and peace program (bid-peace) in improving the relationship of muslim and christian residents in the community. the study aims to explore how the program components served as a means in peace building and conflict transformation using selected success indicators adopted from the peace paradigm of development with cultural tolerance as an added area of assessment. the researcher employed participation, equity, appropriateness of technology, critical empowerment, ecological consciousness and cultural tolerance as indicators in assessing the effectiveness of the program in improving the relationship of muslim and christian residents in bual. the descriptive qualitative method was used. specifically the case study method using document analysis, key informant interviews, focused group discussions and participant observation. using purposive sampling procedures, project staff and community leaders were selected on the basis of their participation and knowledge in the program inherent in their position in the community and in the program. other respondents include the women sectors, farmers sectors and the youth sectors, categorized as program beneficiaries and community residents. they were chosen using criteria collectively agreed by the researcher and the community leaders. a final list of 10 respondents per sector were deliberated upon and approved during the general assembly of the pos. interview guides and focus group discussion guides were used. the researcher conducted the study while immersing himself in the activities of the bual zone of peace from feb 2002 to april 2002 continuously. assessment of the bid-peace program barangay bual is an example of one of the many culturally diverse communities in the philippines that experienced division and animosity among its people brought about violent social conflict. the conflict in bual not only resulted to the lost of lives and properties but also exacerbate negative emotional and psychological effects among the people that jeopardized the relationship of the people (toh, 1996; and abaya, 2001). through the bid-peace program, the muslim and christian residents of bual started to rebuilt this broken relationship upholding “respect, empowerment, equity, prosperity, peace and sustainability”. the major findings of educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 7 this study evaluating whether this vision was accomplished inline with the peace paradigm and cultural tolerance indicators include the following: 1. on the promotion of participation the program encouraged greater participation among the different sectors of the community in terms of the active involvement of the religious leaders, women, farmers and the youth groups in the implementation of projects and activities. the respondents were one in saying that the conduct of culture of peace (cop) seminar, capability-building trainings, joint community solidarity projects, multisectoral consultations and interreligious dialogue were effective in motivating people to participate and providing the much needed social interaction among the residents despite of the conflict that they have experienced. added to this, the respondents argued that their active participation could also be attributed to their commitment to transform the conflict in bual towards their desired future where peace and development abounds in the community (acosta, 2000). there was also a high degree of observance to democratic process in decisionmaking and sharing of leadership responsibilities in the implementation of the program between muslim and christian residents either in the barangay council or in the samakana multipurpose cooperative. representation across sector, religious affiliation and cultural origin was highly observed in the management of the bid-peace program. the provision of capability-building trainings for the people prepared them to actively participate in the conduct of sectoral consultations, interreligious dialogues and joint community solidarity projects. the role of kfi as facilitator of the bid-peace program was instrumental in encouraging the religious leaders, the farmers, the women and the youth sector to collectively act in improving the relationship of muslim and christian residents as manifested in the formulation and implementation of the zone of peace declaration (lee & gastardo-conaco, 1994). the project staff and community leaders considered some problems that have affected the participation of the community residents in the program, e.g. the occurrence of natural and man-made calamities, inaccessibility of the some sectors such as the “lumads” because of the bad road condition and unstable peace and order situation in the area where these sectors reside (paez, 1997). but the program has addressed the problems by intensifying the advocacy campaign for peace promotion involving the influential religious leaders; provision of relief services and other basic social services for the victims affected by natural calamities; and continuous sectoral consultation and trainings for the people. 2. on the promotion of equity the respondents generally agreed that the program has made available enough basic services for the community such as the provision of relief and medical services in time of natural and man-made calamities; employment and livelihood opportunities serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 8 for farmers, women and the youth sector; financial assistance for house construction, public utilities and small-scale business enterprises; and the provision of capabilitybuilding seminars (kadtuntaya foundation seminar proceedings, 1999). all of the respondents especially the community residents perceived that the process of utilization of these basic services was fair and equitable because there was no favoritism; criteria were clarified before the distribution. the process discouraged “dole out” mentality by promoting counterpart mechanism among the direct beneficiaries of the project (castro, 2001). there were adequate resource mobilization activities undertaken by each sectoral committee maximizing local sourcing of funds particularly the samakana multipurpose cooperative. the respondents as a result of their involvement with the feed-related projects and trainings have observed changes pertaining to the attainment of economic self-sufficiency in their families (malag, 1999). these changes include increment of income income, reducing dependency from loans sharks and usurers and enhancement of values such as hard work, and perseverance. the community residents particularly the farmers have expressed serious concern over the prevailing system of land ownership in the community. they perceived this problem as an eventual threat particularly in the process of empowering the people towards economic self-sufficiency and in general the promotion of peace and development in the community. 3. on the promotion of appropriate technology there were differences of perceptions among the respondents with regards to the appropriateness of the program to the needs of the community. almost all of them agreed that the program provided appropriated services during the relief and medical operations and the implementation of pre-bid-peace program. the methods, activities and projects used were responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people especially during crisis situation. during the implementation of bidpeace program, respondents have mixed perceptions. the community leaders, the women and youth sector agreed that the knowledge and skills that they have acquired as a result of their participation in the capability-building trainings were relevant and useful to their day-to-day realities (toh, 2000). while the farmers perceived that the application of sustainable farming technologies were not appropriate to their actual situation and current realities. they were not convinced that the use of organic farming technologies would help increase their production capacity (dela torre, 2001). generally, the services provided as well as the technologies introduced in every phase of bid-peace implementation were appropriate because of the continuous consultation between the project staff and the community residents. specifically, there was a high level of acceptance of the utilization of local resources in the community in terms of the use of local manpower in program implementation, the use of materials, products and equipments found in the community and the use of educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 9 indigenous knowledge on dispute settlement, cure of common diseases and ways of organizing things (salazar-clemenna, 2000). this made the program responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people. the respondents cited problems that affected the responsiveness of the program to their needs and aspirations such as the escalation of armed confrontation in mt. daguma range and the occurrence of natural calamities. therefore changes have to be made in terms of work schedules and prioritization of activities. another problem cited was the system of land ownership in the community that discouraged farmers to adopt sustainable farming technologies. 4. on the promotion of critical empowerment in terms of critical empowerment of the people, the respondents generally agreed that seminars and trainings gave them relevant and useful skills in understanding the root causes of conflict besetting the community in the past and at present. although the respondents have varied understanding on the concept of peace and violence, they were able to relate the conditions that facilitate and hinder the attainment of peace in the community towards the zone of peace declaration. it was also observed that there are still challenges on the part of the project staff and community leaders to disseminate among the residents a holistic understanding of the culture of peace and its relationship to the importance of sustaining the zone of peace declaration (coronel-ferrer, 1997). furthermore, the respondents have expressed that their ability to adhere to peaceful approaches in resolving conflict in the community can be attributed to the peace-building components of the program. they have developed “political peace making behaviors” needed in the maintenance of the peaceful atmosphere in the community. this includes: (a) moral persuasion in averting armed confrontation in the peace zone; (b) collective enforcement of peace zone provisions; (c) strategic collaboration of community leaders in conflict settlement through the barangay peace and order council; (d) participative and shared decision-making in conflict settlement; and (e) commitment to building-relationship and its related values. problems cited by the respondents were the lack of skills needed to implement technical and difficult tasks resulting to the dependency of the community leaders to kfi staff in terms of program management and the lack of coordination among project staff in the implementation of programs caused by differences in the application of community organizing and peace-building framework in the community. 5. on the promotion of ecological consciousness the program promoted ecological consciousness in the community by encouragement of farmers to adopt organic farming, conduct of sanitation drive through health education classes and search for modelong tahanan for women, integration of environmental issues in the day care curriculum, annual tree-planting activities for the youth. the respondents during the interviews and fgds conducted serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 10 marked a significant awareness on environmental issues in the community as a result of their involvement in the program. but the awareness did not translate to concrete actions in preserving and conserving the environment as manifested through their unsustainable consumption practices and harmful utilization of natural resources found in the community. problems attributed to the promotion of ecological consciousness includes the indecisiveness of the barangay council in the enforcement of regulations pertaining to the preservation and conservation of natural resources to complement the bid-peace program, lack of cooperation among the residents to follow rules on cleanliness, proper waste disposal and proper use of chemical-based fertilizers (jantzi, 1991; and dela torre, 2001). 6. on the promotion of cultural tolerance the program contributed in the promotion of cultural tolerance between muslim and christian residents by assuring representation in the organizational structure of samakana and in the sectoral committee composition; provision of joint community celebrations and symposium on religious festivities; and joint implementation of activities and project. the respondents cited these strategies as helpful in increasing greater understanding of other people’s culture, belief sand practices, reduction of prejudice, mislabeling and stereotypes and enhancement of the values of openness, acceptance and recognition of identity of other people in the community (rardon, 1997; and sta. maria, 1998). the community agreed that their involvement in the bid-peace program renewed their personal rapport with one another and strengthened their friendship and solidarity towards the attainment of the common goal set in the peace zone declaration. initially, the project staff experienced difficulty in encouraging elders in the community to participate in the program for fear of conversion to the catholic faith. but through constant dialogue and sincerity of the project staff, the elders were convinced and came to understand the program goals and objectives. conclusion from the findings of this research one can draw out certain conclusions as to the effectiveness of the bid-peace program in rebuilding a culturally diverse community torn apart by protracted social conflict. community-based peace building program constitutes a dynamic process of rebuilding relationship and finding creative ways of how social interaction be initiated and sustained among the people adversely affected by the conflict. it is not only limited to the reduction of violence and conflict settlement efforts but requires individual and social transformation towards a desired future. the implementation of the bid-peace program did not only stop the cycle of violence in bual between muslim and christian residents but also empowered them in rebuilding their own community through the “coordinating community structures for peace enforcement” (sta. maria, 2000) such as the formation of the educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 11 zone of peace declaration, the establishment of people’s organization and the effective operation of barangay peace and order council (bpoc) in resolving conflicts peacefully. these “community structures” were made possible because of the capability-building trainings provided by the program that resulted to the proactive participation of all sectors of the community in peace building endeavors such as multisectoral consultations, joint community solidarity projects, interreligious dialogues and organizational activities. in john paul lederach’s (1997b) term, these community structures propelled by trained individuals formed the “infrastructure for peace-building” in societies beset by violence and war. findings of this study highlighted a kind of peace building program that promote a change process among individuals and institutions aimed at building a just and humane social order where the basic human needs became the center of both peace and development agenda. this process of change involves the multidimensional aspects of addressing physical and structural violence in the community by the people themselves inspired by a vision of a peaceful community (clay, 1998; and abrams, 2000). a kind of transformation involving personal, interpersonal, structural and cultural aspects of community life providing a space for mature relationships characterized by respect, compassion, equality, sustainability and pluralism. community-based peace building programs shall include participation of all sectors affected by the conflict in the leadership and decision-making processes in the community; fair and equitable distribution of material and non-material resources in order to achieve economic self-sufficiency of the people and the community; responsiveness of the program to the needs and aspirations of the people through the utilization of local resources found in the community; critical empowerment as manifested people’s capacity to understand the root causes of conflict in the community and resolving it independently using peaceful non-violent approaches; concern for the environment as manifested in the sustainable consumption and utilization practices of the people and continuous enactment of laws to preserve and conserve the natural resources; and awareness of interdependence and solidarity as manifested in the conscious efforts of understanding other people’s beliefs, culture and values and also the reduction of prejudice, mislabeling and stereotypes among different social groupings in the community (azar, 1991; un resolution a/53/243; and adam, 2000;). it appears that the result of the assessment on the effectiveness of the bidpeace program in improving the relationship of muslim and christian residents of bual using the peace paradigm and cultural tolerance as indicators falls with in the existing framework of peace-building. it is apparent in the “integrated framework for peace building” of lederach that peace building involves active and collective participation of critically empowered individuals and institutions across sectors, religious affiliations and cultural origin (lederach, 1997b). the results appear to support gzo-pi model of conflict transformation that healing past wounds in deeply divided societies can be achieved if the root causes of the conflict are addressed especially related to justice and equitable distribution of resources with particular biased for the marginalized sectors. serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 12 hizkias assefa’s assertions on his “peace and reconciliation paradigm” about the necessity of allowing the indigenous knowledge and local resources to be use to effectively implement development programs in order to assure sustainability of peace efforts and appropriateness of technology (assefa, 1993). on the other hand, fe baronia’s hypothesis that political peace-making behaviors of the people in a given social conflicting setting are products of common vision of peace, consensus on vital issues and mutually enriching social relationships (baronia, 1998). therefore, the promotion of participation, equity, appropriate technology, critical empowerment, ecological consciousness and cultural tolerance towards the improvement of people’s relationship of culturally distinct communities which experienced division caused by protracted social conflict are seen as an effective strategy in community-based peace-building programs. recommendations the researcher having considered the major findings of this study recommends the following strategic policy direction in the next phase of program expansion in order to sustain the success of the five-year bid-peace implementation and maximized use of limited resources. the provision of capability-building training on disaster management for the people of bual and other expansion areas in order to equip people with appropriate knowledge, skill and attitudes in addressing emerging natural and man-made calamities in the context of mindanao experience (conference report, 2001). this is needed specifically so as not to jeopardized scheduled programs and activities but also become part of learning exercise of empowerment, community solidarity and growth. the expansion of peace-building activities in bual in the adjacent barangay and the “lumad” sector in order to solicit support for the zone of peace declaration to further develop critical mass of individuals or peace constituency committed towards peace promotion. the expansion will also strengthen the peace initiatives in bual geographically but also across sectors, religious and cultural origin. the inclusion of programs addressing issues on land ownership together with the provision of additional family-based alternative resources generating activities in the community as one of the major program intervention towards the attainment of equity and economic-self sufficiency of the people. this includes the capacity of the people to undertake ancestral domain claims and other issues related to agrarian reform with government agencies and other ngos (executive order 125, 1995; and lederach, 1995). institutionalization of ecological consciousness in program implementation by involving not only women sector but also the project staff, community leaders, the youth, the religious sectors and the farmers. inclusion of provision on environmental protection and conservation in the zone of peace declaration and capability building seminars on community-based proper waste disposal, recycling and sustainable development principles are needed in order to address the problem of increasing environmental degradation, health and sanitation in the community. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 13 leveling-off of community organizing framework vis-à-vis peace-building framework for the project staff and community leaders in order to evolve a common framework appropriate to the community experience, needs and aspirations. this could be done through continuous capability building trainings for project staff, samakana officers, other influential community leaders, including the youth sector to update their knowledge and skills in peace-building, conflict resolution and program management. exploration of other areas of collaboration with protestant groups in the community since their doctrines forbids them in participating with interreligious dialogues. strengthening of education committee of samakana in terms of its tripeople composition and capacity of the committee members to conduct seminars and trainings other the project staff. this is to maximize learning gained in the seminars and training provided by kfi and other ngos for the community leaders of bual and at the same time promote the capacities of the people of bual with other local, national and international peace related organizations. establishment of strong linkages and networking of samakana with other established peace zones in the country in order to encourage sharing of technologies and mutual enrichments among grassroots communities involved in peace-building. developed capabilities of samakana officers in dealing with national and local government agencies, international ngos, private institutions and donor agencies to promote the unique peace-building initiatives evolved in bual and avail of resources and opportunities provided by these organizations. the study is an attempt to evaluate an existing community-based peace-building program with the aimed to draw out insights on what kind of program suitable for culturally diverse communities that experiences protracted social conflict. the researcher recommends exploring other indicators not included in this study in order to draw out more insights on the dynamics of peace building at the grassroots level. example of these indicators include, right-based indicator such as civil, political and socio-economic rights, gender-based indicators etc. although cultural tolerance was added as one of the indicators of this evaluation, the researcher feels it is inadequate to measure qualitatively the depth of culturalbased experiences that the community underwent during the implementations of the bid-peace program. it is suggested to expand more the other culturally rooted indicators other than tolerance which includes spirituality, ideology etc (toh & virginia, 1987; and galtung, 1995). the researcher also recommends to explore other areas of study pertaining to the peace zone formation, implementation and evaluation which includes, indigenous conflict resolution practices, development and validation of standardized assessment tool for community-based peace-building program, comparative assessment of established peace zone in terms of its engagement with state and non-state actors. serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 14 references abaya, ma. concepcion. 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(1996). non-government organizations: new issues and challenges. intersect: february issue. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 15 galtung, johan. (1995). “essays on peace” in m. salla [ed.]. violence, peace and peace research. queens land university press. jantzi, vernon. (1991). “helping developing nations: socio-political paradigms of development” in charles p. de santo [ed.]. christian perspectives on social problems. london: new hampire press. kadtuntaya foundation brochures. (2000). kadtuntaya foundation seminar proceedings. (1999). towards building a culture of peace. sultan kudarat: bual elementary school, july 27-29. lederach, john paul. (1995). preparing for peace: conf lict transformation across cultures. new york: syracuse university press. lederach, john paul. (1997a). building peace: sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. washington d.c.: united states institute of press peace. lederach, john paul. (1997b). peace-building in divided societies: tools for strategic and responsive evaluation. guatemala: organization of american state’s propaz. lee, z. & gastardo-conaco. (1994). “peace zones in the philippines” in peace and conf lict resolution and human rights reseach report, no.2. quezon city: up center for integrative and development studies. malag, melindi. (1999). health resource development program as a strategy in promoting peace and development: an institutional case study. cotabato city: notre dame university. montiel, cristina jayme. (1995). cry out for peace: philippine politics and society. quezon city: ateneo center for social policy and public affairs. municipal profile of isulan. (2001). isulan: sultan kudarat. neufeltdt, r. et al. (2000). explicit and implicit peacebuilding: catholic relief services in mindanao, philippines and bosnia-herzegovina. new york: catholic relief services. n.n. (1998). “building a culture of peace in barangay bual terminal report” in kadtuntaya foundation. cotabato city: june. paez, patricia ann. (1997). “state-civil society relations in policy making (focus on the legislative)” in marlon wui & glenda lopez [eds.]. state civil society relations in policy making. quezon city: up third world studies center. reardon, betty. (1997). tolerance: the threshold of peace. paris: unesco publishing. regehr, ernie. (1995). “rebuilding peace in war-torn and war-threatened societies: the challenge of peace-building” in the ploughshares monitor, vol.xvi, no.4 [december]. salazar-clemenna, rose marie. (2000). “counselling for peace” in de guzman a. [ed.]. building peace: essays on peace psychology. manila: de la sale university press. sta. maria, felice. (1998). “filipino attitudes towards tolerance” in peace and tolerance in the history of the philippines. manila: unesco. sta. maria, madelene. (2000). “managing social conflict: the philippine peace zone experience” in philippine journal of psychology, vol.33, no.2. toh, swe-hin. (1996). a strategy to fight poverty: philippines. the world bank country operation division, country department 1, east asia & pacific region. toh, swe-hin. (2000). “flowing from the roots: an educational journey towards a culture of peace”. paper presented during the award ceremony of unesco prize for peace education, france, december 11; and it was published at the international journal of curriculum and instruction, vol.2, no.1. toh, swe-hin & floresca-cawagas virginia. (1987). peace education: a framework for the philippines. quezon city: phoenix publishing house, inc. un resolution a/53/243. (1999). declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace. new york: united nations, adopted on september, 53rd session. serafin a. arviola jr., community-based lifelong education in the philippines 16 the beginning of the twenty-first century is marked by a continued presence of conflicts at almost every level of human endeavor. the philippines is not an exception to these atrocious realities. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 165 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono character development based on national values for basic school teachers abstract: action research is a new paradigm and strength for research practitioners, because it requires researchers to be involved in the process of improvement or change in behavior, and research respondents are not only played as objects but as subjects. in other words, the research subject may be the researcher himself and the community involved with the researchers. this study – using action research – is concerning the character education in indonesia. character education is expected to be the main foundation in increasing the degree and dignity of the indonesian nation. character building based on national values must be done from an early age to introduce the national identity. the community service activity is motivated by the idea that the lack of attention to character education for students in elementary schools causes various social problems. developing character education in schools requires various learning innovations. innovation is very dependent on the understanding and skills of teachers in developing learning. in developing character, it can usually be sourced from a value and one of these values is national values. the development of character education based on national values does not mean that the development of character education is an obligation of subjects in elementary schools. however, all subjects develop national values. on that basis, the development of national values can be a source of developing character education in the classroom. key words: character education; spirit of nationality; basic school teachers. introduction the dire situation and condition of the nation’s character has prompted the government to take the initiative to prioritize national character development. national character development has become the main stream of national development. this implies that every development effort must always be directed to have a positive impact on character development. about the authors: dr. warlim, prof. dr. encep syarief nurdin, and supriyono, m.pd. are the lecturers at the department of general education fpips upi (faculty of social studies education, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. e-mails address: warlim_isya@upi.edu, encep.sn@upi.edu, and supriyono@upi.edu suggested citation: warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono. (2021). “character development based on national values for basic school teachers” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february, pp.165-180. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (october 28, 2020); revised (december 14, 2020); and published (february 28, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare166 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values according to the opinion of gede raka (2006), and other scholars, that from the point of view of national development, factors that can be used as a basis for consideration in determining character development priorities are: (1) the need to maintain the integrity of the nation; (2) the need to build a society with noble character; (3) the need to become a developed nation; (4) the need to increase the prosperity of the nation in a sustainable manner; and (5) the need to uphold justice (cf raka, 2006; fanani, 2013; and widodo, 2019). the process of character building in a person is influenced by specific factors that exist within the person concerned, which is often called endogenous factors and by environmental factors or what is often called exogenous factors. it should be remembered that endogenous factors can be said as factors that are beyond the reach of society. everything that is under our influence, whether as individuals or part of society is an environmental or exogenous factor (abdjan, 2011; hopwood et al., 2011; and santner & fornahl, 2014). normatively, the formation or development of good character requires good environmental quality as well. school is an educational environment that can be used as a place for character building. to develop better character education in schools, various learning innovations are needed. innovation is carried out strictly depending on the understanding and skills of teachers in developing learning. there are various things that must be considered in developing learning innovations starting from lesson planning, learning models and methods used, assessment, and the media or learning resources used. all of these components must be understood by the teacher and implemented in making learning innovations (lickona, 2012; sari, 2013; and haryanto & akhirin, 2018). learning innovation is essentially how teachers change habits that are considered unfavorable to be changed into something different and better and habits that are carried out by teachers in learning. there are two main things that teachers must understand in carrying out learning innovations, namely: firstly, how the teacher understands the elements of learning; and secondly, understanding the material (putra & pratiwi, 2005; setiyawan, 2017; and zainal & matore, 2019). the learning element is closely related to how teachers plan, develop various models or methods, use media or resources, and use assessment tools to see learning achievement. meanwhile, in terms of understanding the learning material, the teacher must understand the field. in organizing the curriculum, character education is not a separate subject. however, inherent in all subjects. this means that all subjects must carry a mission or develop material that leads to the development of student character educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 167 (mulyasa, 2012; muqowim, 2012; and zainal & matore, 2019). the development of student character is not only an obligation in religious subjects or civic education. character is essentially a behavior that is inherent in a person’s deed. when someone behaves, it will be influenced by various factors, both family environmental factors, school, and the wider community. basically, school can be an important area in developing student character. in developing character, it can usually be sourced from a value and one of these values is national values (lickona, 1991; husaini, 2010; and zainal & matore, 2019). national values are an important component that all indonesians must remember. national values can be a source to form a sense of nationality that can realize the ideals of the indonesian nation. these national values are the form of attitudes and behavior that we will do and show as indonesian citizens in the life of society, nation and state. in behaving, we must know how we behave and behave in the community and behave as indonesian citizens. in the view of national ideology, national values become an agreement in building togetherness and cooperation. in ideology, national values become an ethic in social life and become a goal to be achieved by the indonesian nation (zubaedi, 2013; kuning, 2018; and pesurnay, 2018). method implementation of pkm (pengabdian kepada masyarakat or community service) using the method of action research based on partnership and local potential. action research is an activity and or corrective action for something that is planned, implemented, and evaluated systematically and systemically, so that its validity and reliability reach the research level. action research is also a process that includes a cycle of action, which is based on reflection, feedback, evidence, and evaluation of previous actions and the current situation (arikunto, 1997; selener, 1997; and cohen, manion & morrison, 2007). action research is a response to pragmatic and philosophical pressures and the need to understand research that is focused on efforts to improve, enhance, and develop the quality of individuals in organizing or managing themselves, the quality of society and the quality of family life. action research is a new paradigm and strength for research practitioners, because it requires researchers to be involved in the process of improvement or change in behavior and research respondents are not only played as objects but as subjects. in other words, the research subject may be the researcher himself and the community involved with the researchers (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007; crist et al., 2009; and sarbunan, 2018). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare168 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values the approach used in action research to investigate a problem is a collaborative approach that places the research subject on an equal footing with the researcher and is an active participant during the research process and is action-oriented. the basic premise of action research is the researcher’s interest in various problems in groups, communities and organizations. the research aims to help individuals understand the situation so that they are able to adapt and also function to solve the problems they are experiencing (crist et al., 2009; martler, 2009; and sarbunan, 2018). action research can be a way to establish a local or specific model for a particular situation or group or apply a theory on a small scale to solve a specific problem with a specific situation. ernie stringer (2008), and other scholars, defined action research as a collaborative approach to investigate, study or study and find something, which allows people to use systematic action to solve a problem (stringer, 2008:15; martler, 2009; and sarbunan, 2018). furthermore, c. rochman, e.c.s. mahen & d. nasrudin (2018), and other scholars, stated that the assessment was carried out as an attempt to change, improve, improve the quality of behavior or eliminate negative aspects of the behavior being studied. action research is an assessment of practical, situational and contextual problems, so that specific appropriate actions can be determined to solve problems collaboratively between researchers and research subjects through self-assessment procedures (khasinah, 2013; rochman, mahen & nasrudin, 2018; and sarbunan, 2018). results and discussion character education. education is an activity to guide human children towards maturity and independence. while the formulation of education as in law number 20 of 2003 is a conscious and planned effort to create a learning atmosphere, so that students actively develop their potential to have spiritual strength, diversity, self-control, personality, intelligence, social attitudes and skills needed by themselves, society, nation, and state (langeveld, 1980; setneg ri, 2003; jumali et al., 2008:20; and subakir, 2017). character is a compatible mixture of all goodness defined by religious traditions, literary stories, wise people, and a group of common sense people in history. in addition, character is a basic value that builds a person’s personality, it is formed both due to the influence of heredity and environmental influences, which distinguishes him from others, and it is manifested in his/her attitudes and behavior in everyday life (novak, 1986; lickona, 2013:81; and samani & hariyanto, 2013:43). so, basically, the term character actually increases with morals. it’s educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 169 just that, if morals are firmly based on the al-qur’an and al-sunnah, then character comes more from the constitution, society, and family (joesoep, 2013; sauri, 2013:8; and nihayah, 2014). looking at the definition of character, that has been explained previously, the notion of character education is teaching habits of thinking and behavior that help individuals to live and work together as a family, community, and citizen. the character explanation is divided into two parts, namely: a broad understanding and a simple understanding (budimansyah, 2012a and 2012b; nihayah, 2014; and unsriana & ningrum, 2018). in a broad sense, character education can be interpreted as value education, moral education, character education, character education which aims to develop students’ ability to make good and bad decisions, to maintain the good in everyday life. in a simple sense, character education is what positive things the teacher does and affects the character of the students being taught (budimansyah, 2012a and 2012b; martadi et al., 2012; and kuning, 2018). character education is a teacher’s conscious and sincere effort to teach values to students. character education is a system of instilling character values to school members, families, and communities which includes components of knowledge, awareness or willingness, and actions to carry out meaningful values, both towards god almighty, yourself, others, environment, and nationality so that they become human beings. character education is a conscious and sincere attempt of a teacher to teach values to students (winton, 2010; sumantri, 2011:447; samani & hariyanto, 2013:43; and hidayat, 2019). the purpose of character education is to facilitate knowledge and development of certain values, so that they are manifested in children’s behavior, both during the school process and after the school process. the purpose of character education is important for students and teachers. for students, the goal of character education itself is to encourage the achievement of student learning success, and to be able to mature students so that they have sensitivity to complete moral values and are balanced between intellectual, emotional, and spiritual intelligence. while the goal of character education for teachers is expected to be a primary effect that can provide and make themselves role models for all school environments, especially students, so that teachers have full professionalism and responsibility to build national civilization through educational institutions (kesuma, 2013:253). the goal of national character education is a direction to achieve education that has noble character and towards a better direction in © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare170 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values everyday life. the objectives of character education are: (1) developing the potential of the heart/conscience/affective of students as humans and citizens, who have cultural values and national character; (2) developing the habits and behavior of students, who are commendable and in line with the universal values of the nation’s religious cultural traditions; (3) instill the spirit of leadership and responsibility of students as the next generation of the nation; (4) developing students’ abilities to become independent, creative, nationalistic people; and (5) developing the school life environment as a learning environment that is safe, honest, full of creativity and friendship, as well as with a high and strong sense of nationality (aar, 2011; and sumantri, 2011:4). according to president sby (susilo bambang yudhoyono), as cited in newspaper of kompas in jakarta, underlining five basic things that are the goals of the national character education movement. this movement is expected to create indonesian people who excel in the fields of science and technology. the five basic things are: firstly, indonesian people must be moral, have good character, and behave well. therefore, the community is urged to become a religious society that is anti-violence. secondly, the indonesian nation has become an intelligent and rational nation. knowledgeable and have high reasoning power. thirdly, the indonesian nation has become an innovative nation that pursues progress and works hard to change the situation. fourthly, strengthening the spirit must be possible. no matter how big the problem is, the answer is always there. fifthly, indonesian people must become true patriots who love their nation and country and their homeland. it is hoped that character education that is instilled from an early age will have a positive impact in the coming years, with the emergence and birth of superior indonesian people. thus, indonesia can catch up (saidek, islami & abdoludin, 2016). the spirit of nationalism. talking about the spirit of indonesian nationalism cannot be separated from the history of the struggle of the indonesian nation in the past. the struggle to gain independence from colonialism has given birth to a struggle to achieve national reintegration. after experiencing the ups and downs of the dynamics of the life of the nation and state of indonesia with all its influences until now, it has brought us back to a reflection on how we should interpret the meaning of loyalty and love or sense of nationalism to the nation and state (wertheim, 1999:246253; kahin, 2009; abdullah, 2011; suwirta, 2015; and wahyono, 2016). in enhancing and inculcating national nationalism, we must explore our own culture and to add cohesion in order to preserve the morals of our nation. this is in line with the opinion expressed by wang dongxiao (2000), and other scholars, that in promoting and cultivating nationalism, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 171 we must explore our own culture and to enhance its cohesion in order to keep up the morale of our nation (dongxiao, 2000:15; mardawani, 2015; and kuning, 2018). the development of indonesian nationalism is important for enhancing and re-instilling the ideals and morals of the nation. even though the indonesian nation was legally independent on the proclamation of 17 august 1945, in reality this was not the case. the indonesian nation must continue to strive hard for the sake of realizing its national ideals. in line with this, w.f. wertheim (1999), and other scholars, stated that even though the indonesian people have carried out a revolution, their struggle is not final, but is the first step in the process of realizing the full capacity of the indonesian nation as an individual and as a society (wertheim, 1999:269; kahin, 2009; abdullah, 2011; suwirta, 2015; and wahyono, 2016). in this case, even modernization and industrialization seem to be one of the important factors causing the decline in indonesian nationalism. the ideology of modernization and developmentalism, de facto, replaced the nationalism (politics) which became the dominant ideology in the asian region before the 1970s (azra, 2007:17). the above suggests that there are still many challenges that must be faced by the indonesian nation in fulfilling its independence. in such conditions, nationalism is still an important source of spiritual strength needed to build a new indonesian society (wertheim, 1999:269; kahin, 2009; abdullah, 2011; suwirta, 2015; and wahyono, 2016). azyumardi azra (2007), and other scholars, divided three phases of the development of nationalism in indonesia and other developing countries, namely: (1) the initial growth phase and the crystallization of the idea of nationalism; (2) the phase of the japanese occupation; and (3) the phase of the rise of the new order era (setiawati, 2005; azra, 2007:25; and mahanani et al., 2019). nationalism, which is the strength of the indonesian nation, is nationalism which is based on pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia). this means that nationalism is combined with the principles of pancasila, including what bung karno called socio-nationalism. such nationalism requires respect, respect and tolerance within the framework of national unity. so, it can be said that the nationalism of the indonesian nation is different from the nationalism adopted by individualist countries. the spirit of nationalism in indonesia and asian countries in general was nationalism that emerged as a reaction to colonial oppression (zuchdi et al., 2011; ismail, 2018; and irawan, 2020). furthermore, it was said that nationalism was a strength for colonized nations that would one day open a glorious future for that nation. the © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare172 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values nationalism initiated by soekarno reflected a sense of anti-colonialism and imperialism. nationalism which he believed was born from “my nationalism is humanity”. so nationalism that lives and develops in the peace of nations (moser, 2008; ismail, 2018; and irawan, 2020). regarding the characteristics of indonesian nationalism, namely as follows: firstly, anti-colonial populist nationalism/unity. the independence formulated by the indonesian nation is a statement of independence for the indonesian nation, and not a statement of individual independence. secondly, patriotic, religious populist nationalism/unity. indonesian nationalism was born from the struggle for the indonesian independence movement and was sourced from the grace of allah almighty and the noble desire to establish a free national life. thirdly, folk nationalism/unity based on pancasila. indonesian nationalism is nationalism based on the sovereignty of the people based on pancasila, which in its implementation aims to protect the entire indonesian nation and shed indonesian blood to create public welfare, educate the nation’s life, and contribute to creating lasting world peace and social justice (moser, 2008; al-rosyidah, 2013; ismail, 2018; and irawan, 2020). meanwhile, the characteristics of the nationalism of the indonesian people today are further strengthened by the third principle, namely indonesian unity. in this third principle, the characteristics of indonesian nationalism consist of the following: (1) placing the unity, integrity, and safety of the nation and state as a common interest above personal or group interests; (2) able and willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the nation and state if necessary; (3) developing feelings of love for the homeland and the indonesian nation; (4) develop a sense of nationalism and indonesian homeland; (5) maintaining world order based on freedom, eternal peace, and social justice; (6) develop indonesian unity on the basis of bhineka tunggal ika or unity in diversity; and (7) promote association for the sake of national unity and integrity (muslich, 2011; murdiono, miftahuddin & kuncorowati, 2017; and pesurnay, 2018). the emergence of nationalism in indonesian society is influenced by factors from within (internal) and factors from outside (external). internal factors that influenced the emergence of indonesian nationalism were: (1) the re-emergence of the middle class, the educated; (2) the suffering and misery experienced by all people in various fields of life; (3) the influence of the peranakan or hybrid group; and (4) the desire to break away from imperialism. external factors that influenced the emergence of indonesian nationalism were: (1) modern ideas from europe, such as liberalism, humanism, nationalism, and communism; (2) the pre-islamism educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 173 movement; (3) movement of colonized peoples in asia; and (4) russia’s victory over japan (wertheim, 1999; kahin, 2009; and suwanda, suyitno & sarmini, 2018). several other terms or concepts related to nationalism are patriotism, chauvinism, tribalism, a sense of nationality, national spirit, and nationalism. patriotism is the attitude and behavior of a person who is carried out with enthusiasm and is willing to sacrifice for the independence, progress, glory and prosperity of the nation. a person who has patriotic attitudes and behaviors is characterized by things such as: (1) love for the country; (2) willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the nation and state; (3) placing the unity, integrity and safety of the nation and state above personal and group interests; (4) spirit of reformer; and (5) not giving up easily (kania-lundholm, 2012; gafur, 2013; and suwanda, suyitno & sarmini, 2018). the patriotic concept does not always occur within the scope of the nation and state, but also in the scope of schools and villages or villages. we may find a student or community doing something that has enormous meaning for the school or for the village or village environment. chauvinism is an excessive love of the motherland by glorifying one’s own nation and degrading other nations. this attitude is contrary to the nationalism of the indonesian nation. the most well-known example of chauvinism in the world is as put forward by adolf hitler with the phrase deutschland uber alles in der welt (germany above all in the world). this slogan is still sometimes used in germany to encourage athletes to compete. britain also has the slogan right or wrong is my county. likewise, japan considers its people to be descendants of the sun god (padmanabhan, 2008; kuning, 2018; and suwanda, suyitno & sarmini, 2018). national character. the sense of nationality is a form of love that gives birth to the spirit of togetherness of the owner. for the same purpose, they form songs, flags, and symbols. in nationality, we recognize the existence of race, language, religion, boundaries, culture and others. but, there are also countries and nations that are formed independently of various races, languages, religions and cultures. the sense of nationality for indonesia is actually a sublimation of the youth pledge, which unites the determination to become a nation that is strong, respected and respected among the nations of the world. the archipelago’s insight into national life, which includes political, economic, socio-cultural life and defense and security, must be reflected in the mindset, attitude pattern, and action pattern that always prioritizes the interests of the nation and the unitary state of the republic of indonesia or nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia) above personal or © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare174 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values group interests. archipelago insight is a value that animates all laws and regulations that apply to every stratum in all regions of the country, so that it describes attitudes and behavior, understandings, and a high spirit of nationalism or nationalism, which is the identity or identity of the indonesian nation which is the bond of national values. however, the bonds of national values that have been deeply imprinted in the life of the indonesian people, which are the embodiment of the love for the country, to defend the country, and the spirit of national patriotism have begun to fade and become loose and even almost disappear. the cultural values of mutual cooperation, a willingness to respect each other and mutual respect for differences, as well as a willingness to sacrifice for the interests of the nation, which were once firmly embedded in the heart of society, which is known for its very strong national spirit, are increasingly depleted (evarinayanti, 2013; prasetyo, suyahmo & handoyo, 2017; and zarbaliyev, 2017). the definition of national spirit or nationalism is a combination or synergy of a sense of nationality and a national understanding. with a high spirit of nationality, the fear of threats to the integrity and unity of the nation can be avoided. from the spirit of nationality, a sense of social solidarity will flow, a spirit of self-sacrifice, and a spirit of patriotism. a sense of social solidarity will strengthen the national spirit of a nation. the spirit of self-sacrifice is the willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of big interests or for the sake of the state and nation that has led the indonesian nation to independence. for a nation that wants to progress in achieving its goals, apart from having a spirit of self-sacrifice, it must also be supported by a high patriotic spirit. the patriotic spirit will stick to a person, when that person knows what they are sacrificing for. nationalism is the understanding of the people and society of the nation and state of indonesia, which was proclaimed its independence on august 17, 1945. a detailed description of the indonesian nationalism. first, “by the grace of allah almighty” on august 17, 1945, together with the proclamation of independence of the republic of indonesia, a nation, namely the “indonesian nation”, which consists of various ethnicities, cultures, ethnicities and religions. second, how to realize the future of the nation in accordance with the preamble to the 1945 constitution which has mandated that the struggle of the indonesian nation has led the indonesian people to a country that is independent, united, sovereign, just, and prosperous (yunus, 1978; rahman, 2013; and prasetyo, suyahmo & handoyo, 2017). in this context, suprayogi, n. isdaryanto & e.y. lestari (2017), and other scholars, state that the spirit of nationality is the true determination educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 175 of the entire nation to defend and be willing to sacrifice for the interests of the nation and state (cf prasetyo, suyahmo & handoyo, 2017; suprayogi, isdaryanto & lestari, 2017; and kurniasih, utari & akhmadi, 2019). based on the description above, it is clear that the spirit of indonesian nationalism is the spirit of nationalism, which reflects the rejection of all colonialism and imperialism systems. nationalism based on the noble values of pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) and not on the basis of a particular group or ethnicity. such nationalism must of course be maintained in indonesian society. awareness of nationalism (national spirit) as a movement against colonialism and realizing the goal of an independent indonesia will facilitate the formation of a national identity. in their development both will influence each other. national identity emerged after the establishment of the independent state of indonesia. therefore, national identity is secondary, because it was born later after primary identity, namely ethnicity identity. conclusion in addition to being a part and process of shaping the character of the nation’s children, character education is expected to be the main foundation in increasing the degree and dignity of the indonesian nation. character building based on national values must be done from an early age to introduce the national identity. the educational process is strongly influenced by environmental conditions, so that the environment has a large enough role in shaping the character of students. schools and society as part of the environment have a very important role. therefore, every school and society must have discipline and habits regarding national-based character values that will be formed.1 references aar. 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(2011). model pendidikan karakter terintegrasi. yogyakarta: uny [universitas negeri yogyakarta] press. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare180 warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono, character development based on national values action research and character education in indonesia (source: https://tangerangnews.com, 27/12/2020) implementation of pkm (pengabdian kepada masyarakat or community service) using the method of action research based on partnership and local potential. action research is an activity and or corrective action for something that is planned, implemented, and evaluated systematically and systemically, so that its validity and reliability reach the research level. action research is also a process that includes a cycle of action, which is based on reflection, feedback, evidence, and evaluation of previous actions and the current situation. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 57 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare meike mamentu evaluation management for secondary schools learning of manado city, north sulawesi, indonesia abstract: the assessment instrument formula is a product of the form of evaluation produced by the subjects of the subjects to achieve the learning objectives of the assigned educational institutions. the purpose of community service activities is to facilitate the subjects in improving the quality of assessment according to the evaluation standards that meet the mastery of student learning and become the standard measurement tool for subjects. the specific target is to change the behavior of partner schools in formulating learning instruments that are right on target according to the learning objectives and to meet minimum learning completeness. to realize the program, the methods to be used in the activities include methods of socialization, education/counseling and training, implementation of learning technology, and mentoring. the implementation method is to achieve the stated goals. the results obtained are the concepts of structured instruments evaluating standards and completeness of student learning. so, the implementation of the partnership with the community from unima (universitas negeri manado or state university of manado) in north sulawesi, indonesia’s professional staff can help overcome the problems of the klabat manado high school and the manado pioneer vocational school as partner schools. education and counseling/training of subject teachers based on learning materials according to the field of study or teaching material taught, the teachers can arrange test instruments in standard form. the formulation of learning instruments is formulated precisely based on the level of difficulty, learning objectives can be achieved with a minimum standard of learning completeness of students. key words: instrument evaluation learning; standard assessment; minimum learning completeness; community service activities. introduction the educational process encourages a person to truly uphold basic human values; and to describe and develop them. in other words, the essence of the education process is the process of awareness of basic human values. every time, we talk about education, and every time we talk about human resources. the development and excellence of a nation’s life is very much determined by the quality of its human resources. in this context, education carries a big responsibility, which is preparing the next generation of the nation, that is smart, resilient, and independent (asmal, 2001; murphy & ruane, 2003; and oecd/adb, 2015). in fact, it is true that the next generation will have to face the challenges of the times about the author: prof. dr. meike mamentu is a lecturer at the faculty of economics unima (state university of manado), jalan tondano, minahasa, manado 95618, north sulawesi, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: meikemamentu@gmail.com suggested citation: mamentu, meike. (2019). “evaluation management for secondary schools learning of manado city, north sulawesi, indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august, pp.57-68. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 22, 2019); revised (july 17, 2019); and published (august 31, 2019). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 58 meike mamentu, evaluation management that are increasingly full of sharp competition among nations that need to get education and teaching that are in line with the times. the existence of teachers, as implementers of education and teaching, will face many challenges of the times to fulfill changes and development in the world of education in achieving learning goals through evaluation of learning that is carried out by the teacher (arikunto, 2011; oecd/adb, 2015; and dilas et al., 2019). thus, the teacher is expected to have competence in preparing learning evaluations. at the pioneer vocational school and sma (sekolah menengah atas or senior high school) advent kalabat in manado, north sulawesi, indonesia’s subject, teachers do not fully have teacher competence, so that in carrying out evaluations, it is not achieved as expected (depdiknas ri, 2014; syamsinar & jabu, 2015; and dilas et al., 2019). as a teacher, who wants to progress and develop, he/she always has to have a high creative power in developing the knowledge he/she has gained in the education process, which is then devoted to educational institutions where the teacher devotes him/her-self to that skill in implementing learning evaluation instruments is very expected. along with the development of the curriculum, learning used in the teaching and learning process needs to be developed in accordance with the applicable curriculum and experience many changes in realizing national education goals, including evaluation skills (bryce & withers, 2003; richmond, 2007; and sudjana, 2009). learning is one of the processes carried out by individuals to obtain a change in new behavior as a whole as a result and their own individual experience in interaction with their environment. with the sake of student activity in learning activities is very dependent on the utilization of the potential of the teacher and the students themselves; and the activeness of students in undergoing the learning process is one of the keys to the successful achievement of learning objectives for it can be seen from the results of learning. the means for achieving learning objectives have been formulated in the teaching program and defined as potential regional guidelines for educational units; and are created in accordance with the achievements of the graduate competencies of students, this can be evaluated appropriately (ioesmani, 1988; martyn, 2007; and bean, 2011). the curriculum structure contains the burden of learning, the framework of implementation, syllabus and learning burden for each type and level of education compiled based on national education programs, and according to the potential needs of the region and more specifically educational institutions that achieve results depending on the evaluation carried out (sudjana, 2009; moec ri, 2016; and chaira, 2017). the curriculum level of education unit or ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan/ school-based curriculum) as in manado pioneer vocational school in north sulawesi, indonesia, as an operational unit curriculum, that contains curriculum details on the kurnas (kurikulum nasional or national curriculum); kurda (kurikulum daerah or regional curriculum); kalpend (kalender pendidikan or education calendar); and rpp (rencana program pembelajaran or teaching program planning) in the form of rps (rencana program sekolah or school peogram planning) will be evaluated precisely with the learning objectives (moec ri, 2016; wahyuni, 2016; and chaira, 2017). the structure and content of the kurnas includes a number of subjects, whose graduation and depth are learning burdens for students in vocational high schools that bind a number of kd (kompetensi dasar or basic competencies) and have certain characteristics in aspects of subject matter that contain a number of subjects containing some contents of self development activities; arrangements learning burden; mastery learning; increase in class and graduates; specialization; character education; and life skills that must be evaluated appropriately that meet local and national excellence-based learning outcomes (mudjito, 2010; moec ri, 2016; and wahyuni, 2016). evaluation is one of the processes carried out by teachers, as implementers of education, to assess changes in overall new © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 59 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 behavior of students or students as learning participants. this is the result of learning and individual learning experiences of the students themselves in interaction with the learning environment. with the sake of student activeness in learning activities is very dependent on the utilization of the potential of the teacher and the students themselves; and the students’ skills in undergoing the learning process until the achievement of learning outcomes (depdiknas ri, 2014; moec ri, 2016; and wahyuni, 2016). the teaching and learning process can be evaluated for success through evaluating the final stages of learning, which is the key to learning achievement. the means of achieving learning objectives have been formulated in the teaching program prepared by teachers, who teach subjects by formulating appropriate evaluation tools in the form of evaluation instruments. a set of teaching plans in the teaching program contains arrangements regarding objectives, content of learning material, and evaluation as a guideline for conducting learning activities, which includes a series of learning evaluation instruments compiled by subject teachers (oliver et al., 2008; aji & budiyono, 2018; and dilas et al., 2019). learning evaluation is an evaluation instrument to measure the achievement of learning objectives in each subject to subject teachers. the teaching program contains rational teaching material that will be taught and can be evaluated by students’ learning burden, implementation framework, syllabus and learning burden for each type and level of subjects taught, and arranged based on the needs and professional potential of students or students that contain a number of expected competencies which needs to be translated by the teacher (arifin, 2011; cpcs, 2017; and gunawan, 2017). the achievement of the teaching program can be evaluated by formulating an evaluation instrument based on the expected competencies. for the achievement of learning evaluation instruments compiled by subject teachers must be well organized and contain all learning component indicators according to the expected competency standards. graduation standards contain the depth of teaching material, which is a burden of learning for students that must be achieved and hinted at for each subject (cf djamaroh, 2008; wenno, kampono & kempa, 2017; and eryanto, swaramarinda & nurmalasari, 2019). the subject units taught binding a number of sk (standar kompetensi or competency standards) and kd (kompetensi dasar or basic competencies), which have certain characteristics in the aspects of teaching material which consists of a number of learning burdens and student learning completeness burden, which must be achieved. size of achievement has the characteristics of competency in scientific skills and life skills (subandi, 2014; syamsinar & jabu, 2015; and nabila, 2016). in fact, in private vocational schools where there is a lack of teachers whose educational potential is lacking, because they prioritize subject matter and not educational science, so that they do not have the educator’s competence, especially in formulating standardized evaluation instruments that can measure learning completeness. the learning outcomes for vocational high schools and private high schools have not shown the expected number of competencies (cf ahmed, 2011; rosser, 2018; and dilas et al., 2019). competency is expressed in the form of ki (kompetensi inti or core competencies) and is, further, detailed in the kds of subjects taught by the teacher and is a categorical description of competencies in aspects of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that can be accurately measured by subject teachers. the ki is the quality that must be possessed by students, who are organized in active student learning processes; and the kds prioritized on attitude shutter as well as intellectual abilities or abilities at high cognitive levels. the kds in the learning process are developed to achieve competency in the ki and kd, developed on the basis of accumulative principles of mutual reinforcement and enriching between subjects taught. so, kis and kds need to be evaluated for their achievements, which are precisely formulated by subject teachers with indicators of competency must be formulated © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 60 meike mamentu, evaluation management in standard evaluation instruments; and this is the graduation competency standard (sukardi, 2010; syamsinar & jabu, 2015; panggabean & himawan, 2016; puspitasari, anugerahwati & rachmajanti, 2016; and gunawan, 2017). learning outcomes are measured based on the skl (standar kompetensi kelulusan or graduation competency standard), which are formulated in learning programs and contain competency standards that must be achieved by students become the responsibility of the subject teachers. the formulation of skls, which are formulated from the needs of students that are needed when they are in the community, must be described in the learning instrument. the skl consists of the qualifications criteria of students’ abilities that are expected to be achieved after completing their study period in an education unit at him/her, such as in a high school level. which is the main reference for the development of content standards, process standards, standards for evaluating learning achievement are the completeness of student learning and becoming a graduation standard (depdiknas ri, 2008; wahyuni, 2016; and rangkuti, 2019). for that graduation competency standards, based on the decree of the minister of education and culture, no.54 of 2013, concerning graduation competencies that have the following attitudes, knowledge, and skills: attitude dimensions, possessing behavioral abilities that reflect the attitude of believers, noble, knowledgeable, confident, and responsible interact effectively with the social environment of the community within the range of relationships and existence of hudupnya. the knowledge dimensions has the qualifications of factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge in science, technology, art, and culture with insights of humanity, nationality, statehood, and civilization regarding phenomena and events that appear to the eye. the dimension of skills has the qualifications of thinking skills and actions that are effective and creative in abstract and concrete shutter according to what is learned and other similar sources. the three things uni is the standard of student learning achievement that is expected to be evaluated by each subject teacher in the evaluation instrument for which the teacher must have special skills in preparing learning evaluation instruments (arikunto, 2011; depdiknas ri, 2014; and subandi, 2014). the learning principle is evaluated for the achievement of learning; and learning in accordance with graduate competency standards and content competency standards consist of: students are told to learners to find out, from the teacher as the only source of learning to learning based on various learning sources, from the textual approach to the process as strengthening the use of a scientific approach, from a content-based approach to competency-based learning, from partial learning to integrated learning, from learning that emphasizes a single answer to learning with multi-dimensional truthful answers, from verbalism learning to applicative learning skills, improvement and skills between physical skills (hardskills) and mental skills (soft skills), learning that prioritizes civilization and empowerment of students as lifelong learners (yusuf, 2008; moec ri, 2016; and wahyuni, 2016). learning that applies values by giving exemplary (ing ngarso sung tulodo), build will power (ing madyo mangun karso), and develop students’ creativity in the learning process (tut wuri handayani). learning that takes place at home, at school, and in the community; learning that applies the principle that anyone is a teacher, whoever is a student, and anywhere is a learning class. use of information technology and communication to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning. recognition of individual differences and cultural backgrounds of students. all of these standards that will be reviewed become students’ learning completeness. cognitive, effective, and psychomotor shutter owned by students (budimansyah, 2002; cheng, 2002; and samuel, 2005). the above needs to be evaluated both for the achievement of teachers in carrying out learning tasks for each subject that is taught and the learning completeness of students. based on standards related to the above principles, a standard assessment process is developed which includes the assessment © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 61 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 of learning outcomes and supervision of the learning process. the three shutter competencies that must be evaluated in the achievement of the learning process through the trajectory of obtaining different psychological processes have not been achieved as expected. evaluating attitude changes is obtained through the activities of accepting, implementing, appreciating, living, and practicing (bloom, 1981; guskey, 2009; and sukardi, 2010). knowledge evaluation is obtained through activities of remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating, which can be evaluated on the level of achievement. this shutter will be reviewed to measure student learning achievement. skill evaluation is measured through the activity of observing, asking questions, trying to reason, presenting, and creating. the characteristics of the competencies of these students can be evaluated on the achievement of teaching and learning processes that have special skills for subject teachers. in the trajectory of the acquisition of knowledge of students evaluated it also influences the characteristics of the graduation standards of the students (oecd/ceri, 2008; russell & airasian, 2012; and brown, 2018). in learning evaluation, it is also necessary to emphasize the scientific, thematic approach, and need to be evaluated on research/discovery-based learning (discovery inquiry learning) to deepen understanding of knowledge for students. this evaluation encourages the ability of students to produce contextual work, both individually and in groups. to achieve this learning, it is strongly recommended to use a learning approach that produces work based-problem solving or project-based learning (arikunto, 2011; karnasih, 2017; and meehan, 2018). the three shutter competencies evaluated by the teacher can be detailed and evaluated using the following operational words: attitude shutter includes accepting, exercising, appreciating, living, and practicing. the shutter of knowledge competence includes remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, and evaluating. the skills shutter include observing, asking, trying, reasoning, presenting, creating. these three competencies shutter are evaluated for their level of achievement using various assessment techniques (budimansyah, 2002; syamsinar & jabu, 2015; and panggabean & himawan, 2016). according to the assessment techniques of the bsnp (badan standar nasional pendidikan or education national standard body), the assessment techniques can be carried out by: performance tests, demonstrations, namely collecting quantitative and qualitative data according to the competencies assessed by subject teachers, observation, assignments, portfolio, written tests, oral tests, journals with learning descriptions related to performance or attitude, interview tests, inventory, namely psychological scale tests, self-assessment, and evaluation between friends. this type of test can be evaluated using evaluation instruments, such as: description form tests, objective form tests, oral tests, and action tests. while evaluation instruments for non-test types can be done by: observation, interview, attitude scale, checklist, rating scale, questionnaire, case study, incidental record, sociometric, personality inventory, and awarding techniques (iskandar, 2014; sayuti, 2015; and artika, 2018). while the technique of managing test results can be done with total scores, conversion scores, attitude scale scores, scores for domains and psychomotor, and management of data on pap (penilaian acuan patokan or benchmark reference assessment) and pan (penilaian acuan norma or norm reference assessment)’s data. to analyze the quality of tests and items, the degree of validity can be measured by validity test, reliability test, question homogeneity test, and effectiveness of option functions. for this reason, teachers need to be equipped with the technique of preparing assessment instruments as a form of learning evaluation in measuring the achievement of student or student learning outcomes (yusuf, 2008; ratri, 2015; and komalasari & saripudin, 2018). teachers at the pioner vocational high school and advent high school klabat, manado, north sulawesi, indonesia still consist of study field teachers, who have graduated from college and non-college © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 62 meike mamentu, evaluation management until they need training in the preparation of learning evaluation instruments for teachers, so that they can formulate learning evaluation tools to meet the minimum learning completeness expected. the problem that will be overcome in partner schools is focused on improving the quality of infiltration of evaluation instruments for learning by subject teachers. in smk (sekolah menengah kejuruan or vocational high school) and sma (sekolah menengah atas or senior high school), as a learning process balancer, has not been able to be creative in formulating learning evaluation instruments in standard to measure student learning completeness according to the standards of assessment and completeness of student learning (sayuti, 2015; moec ri, 2016; and dilas et al., 2019). as for the purpose of the study, the subject matter teachers are not educators who come from the output of the lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training higher education institution), but at the institutions with high expertise in the field of study, so that they do not have sufficient knowledge to develop learning evaluation tools in achieving learning objectives. this problem will be overcome by providing knowledge and skills about the preparation of learning evaluation instruments according to competency and minimum standards of mastery learning as learning methodologies in the form of training in the preparation of learning instrument (purwanto, 2015; syahril, 2016; and dilas et al., 2019). methods the method or strategy approach that will be applied is in addition to the implementers in this activity, who will provide assistance and facilitate the entire process of implementing learning activities; it will also involve teaching staff/subject teachers in schools as institutions for implementing education and teaching. the training involved a number of students by referring to the ppl (program pengalaman lapangan or field experience program) pattern and the kkn-ppm (kuliah kerja nyata – pengabdian pada masyarakat or real work lecture on community empowerment program), which aims to have all activities to be implemented in order to answer the above problems fully facilitated and accompanied by students for two months. students who will be involved are mainly those from the economic education study program at the unima (universitas negeri manado or state university of manado) in north sulawesi, indonesia (cf yusuf, 2008; fao, 2011; and daniel, 2013). the strategy of this approach is one step to answer or be a solution to the problem of partners about the quality of human resources in education management and teaching in preparing standardized test instruments. also provide knowledge and skills about the collection of assessment instruments according to the assessment standards and learning objectives, namely minimal learning completeness using the assessment method according to the standard and form of test items. tests are arranged based on the degree of difficulty that varies with a touch of varied technology, so as to increase the profit of partners as educational institutions and the teaching of subject teachers has a standard evaluation instrument to measure the success of students (yusuf, 2008; fao, 2011; and phelps, 2012). the steps that will be carried out by the executor are making preparations that begin with a discussion of the program and work steps starting from the division of tasks and responsibilities of each team member to administrative preparation and supporting devices. other activities included in the preparation were to coordinate with groups of schools implementing education and learning to deliver plans for implementing activities. the next preparation is drafting an instrument that will be used as a reference in capturing accurate information or data about the fundamental problems of partners. thus, the instruments compiled include the identification or screening of information on fundamental problems that must be understood together before initiating these activities, among others, is to identify and sharpen and re-analyze the factors that cause the main problems, also obtain information and perceptions of the teachers and students © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 63 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 about problems and roots problems faced and programs offered (yusuf, 2008; fao, 2011; and hanson, 2017). the following steps will be taken to overcome problems, especially those related to efforts to overcome the problem of improving the quality of human resources in the management of education and teaching of subject teachers in the preparation of evaluation instruments: the first step that will be carried out in the process of implementing activities is socialization on “the learning process of evaluation theory”. after the socialization, the implementation of the activities will be followed up with the learning process activities and the activities of providing evaluation learning materials, and the practice of preparing learning instruments (arikunto & jabar, 2010; ratuanik & nay, 2017; and dwi, haryono & florentinus, 2018). then, the implementation of learning evaluation technology and technology for study group members, namely subject teachers in smk (sekolah menengah kejuruan or vocational high school) and sma (sekolah menengah atas or senior high school). the subject teachers according to the assignment with what has been planned or programmed and agreed with the group in the training to carry out learning evaluation activities. the material to be provided includes the technique of preparing evaluation instruments, assessment standards, teaching materials related to core competencies and competency standards, and attainment of minimal mastery learning (arikunto & jabar, 2010; sayuti, 2015; and dilas et al., 2019). learning methods are using the lecture method, discussion, introduction of competency-based learning technology, and training in the preparation of learning instruments. various teaching aids that will be used to speed up the learning process in the form of slides, videos, etc. the implementation of learning technology in the formulation of evaluation tools is formulated as a learning instrument (mcevoy et al., 2005; fao, 2011; and gervais, 2016). the implementation of techniques for preparing learning evaluation instruments using learning technology relates to using levels of difficulty, competency standards, and minimum standards of mastery learning. the implementation process starts from giving assessment material up to the practice of compiling assessment instruments in standard form in the form of test items. overall, the methods used in this activity are education and counseling of teachers and learning materials according to the field of study or teaching material that is taught and the preparation of test instruments in the form of standard, mentoring, and practice of preparing instruments (purwanto, 2015; retnawati, hadi & nugraha, 2016; and amat, hariyanto & nuryadin, 2014). results and discussion the results obtained in the implementation of this service were the teachers of the manado pioneers vocational school and study teachers at advent klabat high school in manado, north sulawesi, indonesia, who had the ability and skills to provide learning instruments in standardized forms according to competence, curriculum content, and students had minimal learning completeness (cf panggabean & himawan, 2016; puspitasari, anugerahwati & rachmajanti, 2016; and wahyuni, 2016). the outputs used in this activity are as follows: the ability of partner schools to have knowledge and skills in formulating learning assessment instruments and formulating standard instruments as evaluation tools that are the subject matter of teachers; has scientific publications on the community service journal; and have a report on training activities for the preparation of evaluation instruments by default (rokhman & yuliati, 2010; azhar, 2018; and hastuti, tiarani & nurita, 2018). as an input for the development of the formulation of the standard learning evaluation instrument becomes a guideline for teachers, who are teaching students. the availability of professional teachers as human resources, who have the ability to prepare learning evaluation instruments at the end of the semester standardized teaching program (arikunto & jabar, 2010; fao, 2011; and © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 64 meike mamentu, evaluation management suratno, 2014). educational institutions have qualified teachers after the activity. school institutions have qualified teachers, who are professional educators. availability of standard learning evaluation facilities for subject teachers in schools. availability of teaching staff, who have quality pedagogic competencies and have the capacity and ability of educator resources as members of partner schools in solving problems of existing pedagogic abilities. they also have learning products that achieve minimal learning completeness of the students (villegas-reimers, 2017; rosser, 2018; and dilas et al., 2019). the occurrence of educated workers, who are qualified and have knowledge and skills when they are in the world of work. availability of partner efforts in the field of developing education and teaching in a sustainable and quality manner is provided to overcome problems in the field of education and teaching (cf tremblay, lalancette & roseveare, 2012; oecd/adb, 2015; and dilas et al., 2019). conclusion the implementation of the partnership with the community from unima (universitas negeri manado or state university of manado) in north sulawesi, indonesia’s professional staff can help overcome the problems of the klabat manado high school and the manado pioneer vocational school as the partner schools. education and counseling/training of subject teachers based on learning materials according to the field of study or teaching material taught, the teachers can arrange test instruments in standard form. the formulation of learning instruments is formulated precisely based on the level of difficulty, learning objectives can be achieved with a minimum standard of learning completeness of students. the ability of school partners to have the knowledge and skills in formulating learning assessment instruments by default becomes an evaluation tool for subject matter teachers. the pkm (pengabdian kepada masyarakat or community service) partnership products can be published as scientific articles in the community service journal and in other general journals. report on pkm activities as input for the development of knowledge in partner schools and students who are carrying out knowledge. the availability of professional teachers as human resources, who have the ability to prepare learning evaluation instruments at the end of the semester based on the k-13 (kurikulum 2013 or 2013 curriculum). institutions of high school and vocational education schools have qualified teachers after pkm activities. school institutions have qualified teachers, who are professional educators. availability of teaching staff, who have quality pedagogic competencies. having the capacity and ability of educator resources as members of partners in solving problems in the form of pedagogic abilities that can arrange learning instruments appropriately. partner schools have learning products that achieve minimal learning completeness for students. the creation of an educated workforce that is qualified and has knowledge and skills when they carry out learning tasks and students have the knowledge that can be used in the world of work, when they are in the field world. the availability of partner businesses in the field of developing sustainable and quality education and teaching provided to overcome problems in the field of professional education and teaching in schools. schools from the klabat high school and the manado pioneers vocational high school in north sulawesi, indonesia are expected to be able to utilize professional teaching staff in implementing education and teaching programs. the standard instrument formulated would be the right guideline for teachers in compiling standardized test items, while carrying out teaching assignments. the unima, as a partner, continues to carry out assistance to overcome the problem of teacher duties in schools as institutions that issue professional education and teaching personnel.1 1statement: i confirm that this article has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration in whole or in part by another journals. this article is also not product of plagiarism. so, i have no conflicts of interest to declare it. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 65 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 references ahmed, hashim a.e. 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(2008). evaluasi program dan instrumen evaluasi untuk program, pendidikan, dan penelitian. jakarta: renaka cipta. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 68 meike mamentu, evaluation management the unima campus in north sulawesi, indonesia (source: http://cindy-vionita.blogspot.com/, 21/4/2019) the implementation of the partnership with the community from unima (universitas negeri manado or state university of manado) in north sulawesi, indonesia’s professional staff can help overcome the problems of the klabat manado high school and the manado pioneer vocational school as the partner schools. education and counseling/training of subject teachers based on learning materials according to the field of study or teaching material taught, the teachers can arrange test instruments in standard form. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 131 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in indonesia abstract: access to a quality learning materials in the era of ict (information and communication technology) is increasingly massive, so it can solve problems such as imbalances in the quality of educational materials and access to the intended materials. every country in the world strives to provide wide-open access through the use of web-based applications to facilitate and provide support to the population on the needs of teaching materials according to their needs. distance learning can be one of the alternative solutions done easily by utilizing ict infrastructure. in indonesia, research on oer (open educational resources) in the field of vocational education has not been widely carried out, more research has been conducted only on aspects of the application of oer in higher education in general. the purpose of this research is how to develop a typical oer development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel)’s university based in an effort to improve their quality and competence. this research method uses dbr (design-based research). through a series of tests, it can be seen that the model developed has been able to improve student competence in achieving learning outcomes, through the implementation of pre-test and post-test at each practice session carried out. the results show that the average of the consensus from the experts for all aspects of the model that has been developed is 88.8%. this shows that the typical oer development model in this study is very feasible to be implemented widely. key words: information technology; educational technology; open educational resources; design-based research. introduction the development of distance learning, e-learning, and los (learning objects), along with the development of new technologies in the field of about the authors: saripudin, m.t. is a student at the technological and vocational education study program of sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. pof. dr. as’ari djohar and dr. dedi rohendi are the lecturers at the technological and vocational education study program of sps upi in bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail address at: saripudin@upi.edu, asaridjohar@upi.edu, and dedir@upi.edu suggested citation: saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi. (2021). “typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february, pp.131-152. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (december 14, 2020); revised (january 15, 2021); and published (february 28, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 132 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model ict (information and communication technology), have encouraged efforts to provide equal access to educational facilities for all (arimoto, barroca & barbosa, 2016; and otero et al., 2018). in terms of providing quality and reusable learning material for everyone without the need for permission to be adopted has encouraged movements that demand openness and freedom of learning resource materials, the result is in the form of new concepts and technologies in the concept of oer (open educational resources) or open learning resources (lawrence & lester, 2018). oer has become an interesting topic that is widely discussed by researchers in the world and is one source of strength for contributing to improving the quality of the education system and openness. oer are open-licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, education, assessment, and research purposes. oer included lectures, lecture materials, content modules, learning objects, journals, and various supporting tools for the delivery of learning content (unesco, 2011; and zancanaro, todesco & ramos, 2015). the government of indonesia clearly states its support for this open educational resources learning in article 79 and paragraph 4 of law number 12 of 2012 concerning higher education. oer opens new opportunities for the process of producing and disseminating knowledge, while promoting an adaptive learning environment, suitable for each individual’s needs. oer is essentially a licensed learning resource open in the sense that each source is intended, open for everyone to access, modify, combine and customize, and redistribute according to user needs (cf hylén, 2006; d’antoni, 2009; and setneg ri, 2012). research on oer in the field of vocational education has not been done much, so far the research has more application in higher education in general, such as shown in the study results of: marshall s. smith & catherine m. casserly (2006); unesco [united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization] & col [commonwealth of learning] (2011); eileen scanlon (2012); angela murphy (2013); gajaraj dhanarajan & david porter (2013); jeremy knox (2013); markus deimann & norm friesen (2013); robert a. rhoads, jennifer berdan & brit toven-lindsey (2013); sara hammer (2013); ophat kaosaiyaporn, jaitip na-songkhla & lalida boonthong (2015); john hilton (2016); rosa navarrete, sergio lujan-mora & myriam penafiel (2016); ilias o. pappas, michail n. giannakos & patrick mikalef (2017); jose luis martin nunez, edmundo tovar caro & jose ramon hilera gonzalez (2017); michael henderson, neil selwyn & rachel aston (2017); shouhong wang & hai wang (2017); tarah k. ikahihifo et al. (2017); and yetunde a. zaid & adefunke o. alabi (2020). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 133 the implementation of the 2013 curriculum in the indonesian national education system for vocational education makes teachers act as facilitators and motivators in the learning process in the classroom. the learning process should not be done haphazardly. the learning process must be planned, organized, and carried out effectively and efficiently to achieve a goal. the lack of availability and access to learning resource materials has an impact on the quality and competence of teachers, prospective teachers, and students in vocational schools. therefore, awareness of every element involved that the availability of learning resources is a necessity (trust & pektas, 2018; and engeness, 2020). the development of distance education or pjj (pendidikan jarak jauh), e-learning, and los (learning objects), along with the development of new technologies in the field of communication, have encouraged efforts in provide facilities for equal access to education for all. especially, in terms of providing quality learning materials that everyone can reuse without requiring permission to be adopted, it has encouraged a movement that demands openness and freedom to learning resource materials; the result is in the form of new concepts and technology in the form of oer (open educational resources) or open learning sources. oer has become an interesting topic discussed by many researchers in the world; and it is a source of strength for contributing to the improvement of the quality of education systems and openness (zancanaro, todesco & ramos, 2015; arimoto, barroca & barbosa, 2016; pannen et al., 2016; and lawrence & lester, 2018). oer is an openly licensed document and media that is useful for teaching, learning, education, assessment, and research purposes. oer has not been tested in many academic programs at universities, so it is an opportunity to enrich research on the implementation of oer in universities in indonesia. the potential for oer is expected to contribute to the process of increasing the productivity and quality of students and teachers in indonesia, especially prospective vocational school teachers. it is generally known that vocational schools with curriculum content require students to do more practice than theory, so they need more money than another public school model (wang & wang, 2017; and tlili et al., 2019). the results of preliminary research regarding how much student’s literacy is towards oer-based materials, at the preliminary study results measuring the electrical engineering education students’ understanding of oer and its benefits (saripudin et al., 2019) can describe the level of understanding and awareness of oer and ipr (intellectual property rights). see figure 1. the survey results in the study, eighty point two percent (80.02%) © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 134 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model considered themselves to have poor knowledge of oer (open educational resources) and ipr (intellectual property rights). what is interesting is that ninety-five percent of the respondents agree, if the oer material in the field of electronic engineering education is developed specifically. see figure 2. what was surprising and actually not realy surprising was that when students were asked about the legality of the lmr (learning material resources) they used, it turned out that eighty-four point nine percent 84.9% were pirated. see figure 3. the availability of oer (open educational resources) is a solution to help teachers, prospective teachers, and students with the problem of the availability of teaching materials and learning resources, because it can ye n do not understand yet what is figure 1: level of participant knowledge of oers (source: saripudin et al., 2019) figure 2: participant opinion regarding oer materials development educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 135 save costs and time in getting quality learning resource materials; everyone involved in the educational process at a vocational high school can actively be involved; materials can be modified, distributed, and reused according to their individual needs, so that through the oer scheme the concept of education for everyone can be easily achieved (hilton iii et al., 2014). the spread of oer along with the rapid development of ict (information and communication technology), with the support of web 2.0 technology, is made easier especially through the use of opecourseware applications that are increasingly developing with more advanced concepts with the moc (massive online course) concept. this has further increased the achievement of equality in gaining access to teaching materials, especially oer-based materials (saripudin, 2015; saripudin et al., 2019 and 2020; and tlili et al., 2020). through the use of increasingly advanced web technology, the implementation process of using moc can be used to integrate the distribution of oer-based learning materials. oer materials or materials that have been used can be stored into the oer repository portal, so that they can be easily searched and recalled if needed again or needed by other parties with various purposes in accordance with the subject of the needy party study (goyanes, bermudez & docampo, 2018; saripudin et al., 2019; and al-imarah, shields & kamm, 2020). see figure 4. by applying the concepts in figure 4, both students and professors can be connected to carry out the learning process both synchronous and asynchronous to increase learning outcome. the aim of this research is to develop a typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational school teachers in indonesia. in this study, a case study was conducted on prospective vocational high school figure 3: legality of learning material sources © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 136 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model teachers in west java, who were currently studying at one of the largest lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel)-based university in indonesia (cf dixon & hondo, 2014; saripudin, 2015; and saripudin et al., 2019 and 2020). the research method used in this study is the dbr (design-based research) method. in this context, feng wang & michael j. hannafin (2005) defined dbr as: a systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation, based on collaboration among researchers and practitioners in real-world settings and leading to contextually-sensitive design principles and theories (wang & hannafin, 2005:6-7). so, dbr (design-based research) is not so much an approach as it is a series of approaches, with the intent of producing new theories, artefacts, and practices that account for and potentially impact learning and teaching in naturalistic setting (barab & squire, 2004; herrington et al., 2007; and nieveen & flomer, 2013). dbr – similar approaches have been termed design research, development research, and others – has recently received considerable figure 4: application-linked oer reopsitory (source: vicente goyanes, anxo sanchez bermudez & domingo docampo, 2018). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 137 attention by researchers in education as an emerging framework that can guide better educational research. dbr can address some of the deficiencies of other research methods in investigating the role of tools and techniques in the classroom (brown, 1992; cobb et al., 2003; akker et al., 2006; and amiel & reeves, 2008). the figure 5 shows an illustration of how the dbr approach in educational technology research. based on the description above, the researchers will examine on how the typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational school teachers who are currently studying at the university of lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel)-based in indonesia (cf akker et al., 2006; reeves, 2006; amiel & reeves, 2008; saripudin, 2015; and saripudin et al., 2019 and 2020). method the research method used in this study is the dbr (design-based research) as shown in figure 5. and then, the authors will elaborate pertaining: respondents, instruments, procedures, and data analysis as following here: respondents. the research respondents chosen in this study were 25 students of the department of electrical engineering education study program or jpte (jurusan pendidikan teknik elektro) at the upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education). the selected students are students at upi, a university which is one of the oldest lptks (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel) in indonesia, where in the curriculum it makes an education is the core of the abilities and competencies of its graduates. the place where the research was carried out was in bandung, west java, because it was considered to be representative of student respondents in indonesia. another consideration made was that the upi could represent 11 lptks in indonesia. subjects in this study were selected through snowball sampling with selection based on criteria. this selection method is used, because the researchers find it difficult to obtain a list of students who can represent the criteria for being prospective vocational school teacher students at the lptk colleges. this happens because there is no guarantee that the student will become a vocational teacher when they graduates, apart from the above. there is no guarantee either from the campus as an alma mater in taking their education or from the government. snowball sampling is considered, especially valuable in qualitative research where access to participants is limited. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 138 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model instruments. the development of instruments for the assessment aspects of this study was adapted from the “attributes of instructional materials” (mcalpine & weston, 1994; and murniasih et al., 2020). drafted instruments in accordance with the classification of data types, data collection instruments in this study were divided into several categories, including: the first category is an instruments for capturing and exploring various things related to testing the validity of models developed from experts in their fields, for examples: expert test instruments against model validity; expert test instruments against model support devices; learning effects test instrument; and test instrument for subject’s perception of the model. the second category is the instrument used to collect and extract data related to instructional effects testing; and the third category is an instrument that aims to capture and explore data related to the perceptions of research subjects towards the development result model both in terms of instructional and appearance. procedures. in selecting participants, firstly, the researchers developed three main criteria to consider each student, potential participant, eligible or not to participate in this study, for example, students have taken at least 4 semesters; they have not submit digital engineering subject; and they are students of the electrical engineering education department. this criterion was determined according to research seeking to gain an understanding of oer (open educational resources) in indonesian lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute problem design iterative cycle reflection identification and analysis of problems with the availability of oer learning resources for prospective smk teachers designing a solution to the problem outcome in a preliminary study, in the form of an initial design of the oer development model for prospective vocational school teachers iterative cycling process models using the notation from the addie model coupled with the oer development model from the oer starter kit conducting a review of the test results implemented in the form of oer-based learning resource products in the form of student learning outcomes from the pre-test and post-test results as well as the results of suggestions and input from experts in each field figure 5: oer research design development model with dbr approach (source: t.c. reeves, 2006:59) educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 139 for education personnel) universities after the government issued law number 12 of 2012 concerning higher education and implemented the 2013 curriculum, in which the role of the teacher is more of a facilitator (setneg ri, 2012). after the criteria have been determined, the researchers look for potential participants to the faculty of technology and vocational education. the development model of learning materials or resources in this study uses a combination technique between two different types of models, namely the addie (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) instrcutional design model (chang, 2006; patricia, rocio & elizabeth, 2010; breault, 2012; dick, 2013; lee & jang, 2014; aldoobie, 2015; wibawa, 2017; and trust & pektas, 2018), combined with the open source learning development model from the oer starter kit by abbey elder from iowa state university and william meinke from the university of hawaii (meinke, 2018; and elder, 2019). the table 1 describes the stages of the research procedure carried out. the model development phase consists of: (1) analysis, in the form of a preliminary study consisting of a needs assessment and literature study; (2) model design, in the form of a stage design/syntax model, activity design for vocational school teacher candidates at each stage of the model, and model design from the developed model; and (3) model development, in the form of determining the stages of the model and details of the activities for each stage. model development, model validity testing is carried out by experts or expert judgments who are competent in the field of instructional design, covering content and it (information technology) aspects, and model testing. meanwhile, the testing phase for the effectiveness of the model consists of a limited model implementation stage and an evaluation stage of the implementation results. testing is one part of the model development procedure, this stage plays table 1: the oer development model method for prospective vocational high school teachers development activities development method/model preliminary studies. surveys, literature, observations, problem analysis, and analysis of current conditions. development of a hypothetical model. integration of the oer starter kit, with the addie learning design model. initial test. expert judgment with the delphi technique. main field trials. experiment, survey. operational field trials. experiment, survey. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 140 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model an important role in the process of determining the validity and quality of the model being developed. in accordance with the illustration of the development procedure in the picture above, the model trial in this study was carried out in several stages, namely the test from the experts (expert judgment), the main field test or limited field test, and the operational field test or expanded field test. the stages carried out by the delphi technique include: (1) identification of problems through needs analysis; (2) prioritization in this type and model development; (3) determination of program objectives; and (4) determining the solution to solve the problem. the delphi technique procedure is carried out in the following order: (1) determine the goals to be achieved from the product made; (2) preparation of a questionnaire or questionnaire; (3) determination of experts as samples; (4) sending questionnaires to respondents or experts; (5) review of the questionnaire returned by the expert; (6) invite experts to clarify answers; and (7) drawing conclusions based on the results of expert consensus (cf yousuf, 2007; and soenarto & rahmawati, 2019). data analysis. the data from the model implementation trial were analyzed using the percentage technique for the validity of the model and the subject’s perception, while the impact of learning was analyzed using the mean difference test score. firstly, model validity analysis. analysis of the model validity of the model that has been developed is intended to test: (1) the accuracy of the materials and design of oer or open educational resources-based learning materials by experts; (2) product quality in the form of output from the developed model; (3) achievement of the expected goals; (4) revise the product in the form of output from the developed model before general use; and (5) testing the feasibility and suitability of the product in the form of output in the form of teaching materials and supporting devices from the model developed as a learning resource. secondly, learning impact analysis. testing the learning effect of a model that has been developed in the form of open learning materials or sources is carried out by testing the difference between learning achievement before taking lessons and learning achievement after participating in or implementing learning or technically conducting a difference test between pre-test and post-test using techniques t-test. after the difference test is carried out, if the results show that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores, the next stage is plotting the average score of both at each learning session to see data in the form of how the students’ learning outcomes tend to be during the following sessions. lesson session takes place. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 141 however, if the difference test results do not show a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores, the process of plotting the values of both is not carried out. by using the graphic analysis process, a data description will be obtained that can reflect or display the trend in how the pre-test and post-test average values are presented at each session or learning stages from the stages that have the highest, medium and lowest influence on the achievement of results learn from students as research subjects. thirdly, analysis of subject perceptions of learning. to determine how the subject’s perceptions of the instructional aspects and the presentation of the product in the form of outputs from the developed models, used descriptive narrative analysis with a percentage. each statement item in the perception questionnaire has a score with a value range of 1 to 5. the determination of the perception tendency is done by using percentage techniques using a formula such as equation below: the explanation for the formula in equation is that p shows the percentage of perception: n1, n2, n3, n4, n5 respectively the number of choices for sts (sangat tidak setuju or strongly disagree), ts (tidak setuju or disagree), r (ragu-ragu or doubtful), s (setuju or agree), and ss (sangat setuju or strongly agree); and n indicates the total number of questionnaire items. lastly, fourth, analysis of subject perceptions of the system. the analysis of the subject’s perception of the system from the developed model is intended to determine the subject’s perception of the system aspects that have been developed, the percentage of views and aspects of the system components of the developed model, using a narrative descriptive analysis with a percentage. findings and discussion results. this research has produced a model, in the form of an oer (open educational resources)-based educational resource development model for use in lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel)-based university, especially for electrical engineering education students who are prospective teachers at smk (sekolah menengah kejuruan or vocational secondary school) in developing oer-based materials. see figure 6. the average percentage concencus from the experts is 83.3%. from © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 142 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model the chart 1, it can be concluded that the experts agree that the output of the developed model is equipped with adequate learning tools, easy to understand, easy to implement, and can help smooth how to implement the model. see again chart 1. based on the chart 2, it can be seen that the average of the consensus from the experts for all aspects of the model that has been developed is 88.8%. this shows that according to the experts, typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in this study is very feasible to be implemented widely. see again chart 2 and table 2. from table 2, it can be seen that the results of the study indicate that the use of the developed model and its outcomes can increase the competence of subjects. based on the data from the results of the analysis above, it can be concluded that the use of oer (open educational resources)-based olm (open learning materials) was developed based on the lrdm (learning resource development model) that has been developed and applied to each of them during digital engineering practice activities, start r eady w ith oer exploration of oer material according to the learning subject d o you have oer or open textbook ? adopt existing oer or open textbooks modifications according to the needs of the learning subject is air available according to the subject of study ? c reating , and or combining existing oer materials r esource modification at no cost n o n o yes yes n o yes analysis d esign d evelopment evaluation r evision u sing open textbooks / modules for w eekly learning lms / e-learning oer portal publication finish output 1: practical solutions problem oer development model contextual diagram output 2: theoretical contribution solution t h e l a c k o f a v a il a b il it y o f q u a li ty a n d o p e n t h e l e a rn in g r e s o u rc e s im p le m e n ta ti o n r e fl e c ti o n c o la b o ra ti o n figure 6: oer development model contextual diagram figure 6: oer development model contextual diagram educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 143 chart 1: average of the percentage of the concensus from the experts chart 2: summary of the experts judgement for the model proven to have a positive impact in the form of an increase in the learning achievement of students who practice participants, where there was a significant increase in scores of 11.46 points between the results of the pre test and post test. discussion. the purpose of this research is to produce models and the prototype products that are developed based on the results of the development model in the form of oer (open educational resources), which are typical for vocational high school teacher candidates in an © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 144 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model table 2: learning impact analysis using oer materials development results using the t-test number of subjects of 24 people practice session variable average standard deviation difference average t p significance of the difference i post-test 1 70.26 20.0 15.60 3.900 0.001 significance pre-test 1 52.55 24.800 (p<0.05) ii post-test 2 60.80 12.705 10.20 3.500 0.002 significance pre-test 2 48.58 12.676 (p<0.05) iii post-test 3 76.55 13.500 11.00 2.645 0.019 significance pre-test 3 66.60 18.404 (p<0.05) iv post-test 4 72.08 12.504 4.22 2.005 0.047 significance pre-test 4 67.92 13.181 (p<0.05) v post-test 5 54.80 15.606 9.15 2.402 0.035 significance pre-test 5 45.67 18.805 (p<0.05) vi post-test 6 46.50 13.270 9.18 3.900 0.001 significance pre-test 6 39.33 10.072 (p<0.05) vii post-test 7 72.41 25.459 18.50 3.330 0.004 significance pre-test 7 51.83 15.591 (p<0.05) vii post-test 8 65.50 16.706 10.20 2.200 0.034 significance pre-test 8 55.25 16.670 (p<0.05) average post-test 64.74 9.376 11.46 8.857 0.000 significance pre-test 53.28 8.158 (p<0.05) effort to improve their quality and competence. the main purpose of data analysis is to carry out validity, testing, and revision of the model and its output. the output of this research is the production of models and examples of oer teaching materials that are complete and ready to be implemented so that they can be used as a reference for developing oerbased teaching materials with various subjects. to test the initial model that has been developed, apart from testing through assessment instruments by involving experts, learning resource materials have also been developed with the 5r (reuse, retain, revise, remix, and redistribute) concept according to the oer principle. these materials are the output of the model as a medium to test the effectiveness of the model and are tested to students in the form of pre-test and posttest, which are carried out before and after practical activities are carried out independently and guided. the research that has been carried out so far has succeeded in answering educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 145 the research objectives mentioned at the beginning of this paper, so a detailed explanation of each answer to the research question that has been answered is as follows. one of the research questions is how the typical open source learning or spt (sumber pembelajaran terbuka) development model for vocational teacher candidates in an effort to improve their quality and competence. based on the results of the development of the model that has been carried out as described in the hypothetical model figure 6, the typical open source learning or oer development process stages for prospective vocational school teachers in indonesia consist of identification in the form of key questions to measure the oer knowledge and skills of those who are interested in developing oer. the second stage is measuring the readiness of oer teachers/content creators in the oer project. at this stage is the stage of determining whether to proceed at the next stage or repeating the previous stage, because it requires special knowledge and skills that prospective teachers must possess in developing oer open source learning material. the next stage, third, is the process of exploring the material available in the subject according to the needs and the teaching objectives required are the steps that are quite clear, so that it can be easily followed by prospective smk (sekolah menengah kejuruan or vocational secondary school)’s teachers. the fourth stage modifies or changes the available openly published oer textbooks or sources. the fifth stage combines, this is done if oer is not found in accordance with the objectives and needs in the field. the sixth stage is looking for oer resources at no cost or modifying oer resources at no cost. the seventh stage is the core stage of how the process of developing oer-based teaching materials adopts a development model. with addie instructional design, which consists of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (chang, 2006; patricia, rocio & elizabeth, 2010; breault, 2012; dick, 2013; lee & jang, 2014; aldoobie, 2015; wibawa, 2017; and trust & pektas, 2018). the eighth stage is the publication or publication of the final oer material into various media and in various formats to facilitate the process of dissemination and utilization to parties in need. the ninth step is the last step is formative and summative evaluation. after the model is developed, trials are carried out in the form of compiling a set of examples of oer products in the form of teaching materials for one course and their completeness. then, an assessment © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 146 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model process is carried out by experts in each area of expertise. the measurement or assessment process involving experts is intended to obtain validation of the hypothetical model from. the designed model and its supporting devices after the assessment data by the expert are obtained then corrections are made according to the recommendations and input. the next step is to do limited trials on a number of subjects, namely students of vocational teacher candidates to get an overview in the form of limited trial result data about the validity and quality of the model developed. based on the stages that have been carried out, a model and several products have been produced, for example, a development product developed based on a model in which the stages or steps of development and measurement stages are described in the form of a hypothetical model that has been proven to produce sufficient oer-based open learning sources well. this can be seen from the results of trials that have been carried out on prospective vocational school teachers and the results of validity tests and product revisions of the models that have been produced and developed and based on the results of testing the impact of learning from oer-based teaching materials that have been produced, in the form of presentations and improvements. the model output is in the form of a product output from a model that has been developed based on field trials. in an era where ict (information and communication technology) is developing so rapidly, it is very easy for students to access the material needed to support the success of their studies. however, these conveniences are not accompanied by a level of awareness of respect for ipr (intellectual property rights). this can be seen from the survey results at the stage of the data literacy analysis process and the benefits of the oer concept for vocational high school teacher candidates. the survey conducted at the beginning of the research process of this dissertation can be seen that the subject understands the importance of ipr, but the percentage level of using licensed materials by pirating is still relatively high (ofili, 2014; and chauhan et al., 2020). ocw (open course ware) developing around the world cannot be separated from the rapid development of ict in both developed and developing countries. ocw is one of the pillars of oer development around the world, it requires progressive strategies, especially when it comes to enriching various materials because developing countries are not far behind technologically. except in terms of the amount of material available. the model that has been developed and its outputs after validation and limited testing can be concluded that it is effective enough to be used educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 147 and can increase the competence of prospective teachers in the form of increasing learning outcomes as evidenced by the results of the pres-test and post-test in the practical process, so that the model and the outcomes has been developed worthy of wide use. the repository that has been built can store various types of oerbased material in various formats, including text, audio, and video, etc. in the future, it is hoped that everyone who has the ability to develop learning resources can contribute by saving the results of the developer, so that the contents of the repostory will be richer and more diverse with various subject matter topics. as explained in the previous section, the oer-based material development process can be carried out using various approaches using the 5r principle by utilizing the development model that has been produced in this study, either independently or in collaboration. conclusion the model effectiveness test is carried out using the output in the form of teaching materials from the developed model that reflects the effort to solve problems that are prioritized to be resolved, and the formula has led to efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of education delivery. this can be seen from the average of consensus percentage from the experts amounting to 93.8% where this figure has shown that the teaching materials of the developed model, especially based on the part of determining the program objectives, are very feasible to be implemented in other words quite effective. this research has produced a repository that can store various oer (open educational resources)-based learning resource materials in various formats so that in the future it is hoped that it will facilitate the developers of oer-based learning resource materials. this research has produced a repository that can store various oer-based learning resource materials in various formats, so that in the future it is hoped that it will facilitate the developers of oer-based learning resource materials. developing an oer learning resource model using a combination of several approaches, namely the addie (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) learning design model. oer development model in the form of the oer starterkit and meinke william from university of hawaii has produced a model and several outputs as a complement to support the implementation and testing process to ensure that the model developed is sufficiently feasible to use.1 1statement: the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article. authors confirmed that the data and the paper are free of plagiarism. authors declare the article not to be submitted, reviewed as well as published by other scholarly journals. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 148 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model references akker, jan van den et al. 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(2020). “sustaining open educational resources (oer) initiatives in nigerian universities” in open learning. zancanaro, airton, josé leomar todesco & fernando ramos. (2015). “a bibliometric mapping of open educational resources” in international review of research in open and distance learning, volume 16(1), pp.1-23. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 152 saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi, typical oer (open educational resources) development model on the prospective vocational high school teachers in west java, indonesia (source: https://en.antaranews.com/news, 09/10/2020). the aim of this research is to develop a typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational school teachers in indonesia. in this study, a case study was conducted on prospective vocational high school teachers in west java, who were currently studying at one of the largest lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institute for education personnel)-based university in indonesia. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 1© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com huang jian reconceptualization of the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment abstract: formative assessment (fa) and summative assessment (sa) constitute two indispensable parts of any effective assessment system. as fa was proposed as an alternative to sa, there has been an academic concern about their relationship since the birth of these two concepts. although many well-known studies have been carried out for fa, or, sa, or both, there has been contrasting views and misunderstandings about the relationship between fa and sa. it is argued in this paper that the confused relationship between fa and sa stems from the fact that it is either conceptualized from the perspective of function or from the perspective of process alone. the relation between fa and sa is very fine, far from clear-cut and a clarified relation between them is necessary for both our right understanding of fa and sa as well as the realization of the balance between fa and sa in practice as advocated by many educational policies. this paper aims to: (1) carry out an analysis of the function-based perspective and processbased perspective; and (2) re-conceptualize the relationship between them by combining the two perspectives together. the study results suggest that: (1) both fa and sa are, first of all, assessment and therefore share the same neutral assessment processes of elicitation of learning evidence, interpretation of evidence, and use of assessment results; (2) the purpose governs the how each process should be carried out and the extent to which summative or formative function is performed depends the how the processes are carried out; and (3) formative use of sa is more feasible than summative use of fa in practice. key words: relationship between formative assessments, function perspective, process perspective, contrasting views, misunderstandings, and re-conceptualize. about the author: huang jian is a lecturer at the school of foreign studies cufe (central university of finance and economics) in beijing, china. address: 39 south college road, haidian district, beijing, people republic of china, 100081. e-mail: summerofhj@sina.com how to cite this article? jian, huang. (2015). “reconceptualization of the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.1-10. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/01-reconceptualizationof-the-relationship/ chronicle of the article: accepted (february 16, 2015); revised (april 21, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction since b.s. bloom, j.t. hastings & g.f. madaus [eds], in 1971, borrowed the term “formative”, coined by m. scriven (1967) for program evaluation and brought it into classroom assessment, formative assessment has experienced more than 40 years of development. in the past 40s years, a lot of academic and financial investments has been made into the field of fa (formative assessment); and the value of fa for promoting learning has been widely recognized and accepted. now, it has been promoted by many countries like usa (united states of america), uk (united kingdom), and new zealand as part of their national educational policy. however, in spite of more than 40 huang jian, reconceptualization of the relationship 2 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com years development of formative assessment, there has been much inconsistency on how fa is conceptualized in dominant literature, especially in its relation to sa or summative assessment (wiliam & black, 1996; black & wiliam, 1998a, 1998b, and 2003; popham, 2008 and 2011; stobart, 2008; bennett, 2011; wiliam, 2011; and huang & luo, 2014). since fa was born in the development of sa as an alternative to it, the study of its relation to sa will surely contribute to our understanding of fa; and, therefore, has been much explored in assessment community. up to now, the relationship between them have been studied and discussed either from function perspective or from process perspective. unfortunately, instead of agreement, the studies and discussions have produced more disagreements than agreements and even misunderstandings. in function-based discourse, there are contrasting ideas about whether sa and fa are competing or complementary. in the process-based discourse, in addition to the competing or complementary argument, there are tendencies to mis-conceptualize sa as the first step of fa while feedback as fa, which ignores the impact of the purpose on human assessment activity and downplays the assessment essence. this diverse and misleading understanding of relationship has caused many difficulties for both researchers and practitioners, making it hard for assessment knowledge to be exchanged, accumulated, and practiced. this paper attempts to clarify the relationship between them by examining the existing understandings and proposing a new perspective of purpose and process combined to look at it. it is hoped that the clarification will pave way for better development of both fa and sa in the future. method the purpose of this study is to critically examine the existing understanding of relationship between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) for re-shaping it in a more sensible way. to achieve this purpose, the research is carried out in following steps: (1) fa-related literatures from 1967 to 2014 are collected; (2) the literatures are examined for the discourses regarding relationship between fa and sa; (3) the discourses are analyzed and then put into two categories: function-oriented and process oriented; (4) the two categories are analyzed for its contributions and weaknesses; and (5) a new perspective of understanding is proposed and elaborated based on previous analysis. results and discussions first, relationship between fa and sa from perspective of function. because dominant fa (formative assessment) discourse defines fa in terms of function, the relation between is much explored in terms of the function. spectrum & continuum metaphor. the relation between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) was characterized by d. wiliam & p. black (1996) as two ends of spectrum and continuum as below: however, these two scenarios, the classroom discussion and the formal test, are best regarded as two ends of a spectrum. there are many intermediates (wiliam & black, 1996:540). [...] summative and formative functions are, for the purpose of this discussion, characterised as the ends of a continuum along which assessment can be located (wiliam & black, 1996:544). as seen from figure 1, at one extreme (the formative) the problems of creating shared meanings beyond the immediate setting are ignored: assessments are evaluated by the extent to which they provide a basis for successful action. at the other extreme (summative) shared meanings are much more important (wiliam & black, 1996:544). however, for either summative or formative purpose, there is a cyclical process of assessment. according to m. taras (2007), there are three positive aspects of this conceptualization: firstly, the need for elicitation of evidence for assessment shows an attempt to gather enough evidence in order to make an ethical judgment; secondly, discussion of the consequences of assessment makes us aware of the ethical and social dimension of assessment; and thirdly, the educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 3© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com focus on fa that is learning, not sa that is assessment (taras, 2007). but, this conceptualization entails a necessity of two processes for two different functions. in this conceptualization, sa and fa become two separate and distinct processes. according to d. wiliam & p. black (1996), as long as a distinction is maintained between the elicitation and the interpretation of evidence, formative functions need not be incompatible with national curriculum assessment. after elicitation, one interpretation will produce sa and to obtain fa, a new and different interpretation is required. clearly, what they describe is not a change from fa to sa, but a change of criteria to describe two processes of assessment. m. taras (2007) argues that the first process of their fa is actually sa, but taken intermittently at different parts of the course and aggregated to form a profile. their sa is again sa, but considered so because it is at the end of the course. according to this work, providing sa involves one process and providing fa involves a new beginning (interpretation) and a different focus since it will use different criteria and provide new information. see figure 1. this is both time-consuming and repetitive. in the words of m. taras (2007), this means the links between sa and fa seem to be lost resulting in unnecessary duplication of the process. as a result, fa and sa are put in a competing relation. the backside metaphor. j. biggs (1998) compared d. william & p. black’s conceptualization of relation between sa and fa to two trees. they are separate entities and it is the separateness of the two that is emphasized. on the basis of criticism of d. wiliam & p. black (1996) conceptualization of relation, j. biggs (1998) proposed a metaphor of the backside of an elephant to conceptualize the relation. see figure 2. figure 1: diagram showing linear metaphors of spectrum and continuum representing fa and sa (source: d. wiliam & p. black, 1996) figure 2: diagram of the backside of an elephant metaphor (source: j. biggs, 1998) the image that j. biggs (1998) proposes is of one beast, with the appendages as mirror images of each other. as the figure 3 implies, each limb must work with the other in order for the whole to work; the animal is stronger as it is better balanced and without one back leg the elephant would fall over. therefore, the relationship and links are what dominate and not the marginality of the differences (taras, 2007). j. biggs (1998) used the context of hong kong to illustrate how sa (summative assessment) and fa (formative assessment) work in support of each other to promote huang jian, reconceptualization of the relationship 4 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com effective student learning. the contribution of j. biggs (1998) in illuminating the relation between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) lies in that it removes the line or boundary separating the two (stronach, 1996:365 and 368). this makes it a very good metaphor to describe both the relation between sa and fa; and also to denote the inseparable link between the two. m. taras (2007) believes that just as important is his attempt to be “supportive” of and d. wiliam & p. black’s position (1996), when j. biggs (1998) is in fact diametrically opposed to it: i hope my comments can be seen as deriving from a similar starting point as black and wiliam, but instead of seeing fa and sa up close as two different trees, i would zoom to a wider angle conceptually. then, in the broad picture of the whole teaching context — incorporating curriculum, teaching itself (an excellent feature of their review), and summative assessment — instead of two tree-trunks, the backside of an elephant appears (biggs, 1998:108 ). although j. biggs (1998) provides a different relationship for sa (summative assessment) and fa (formative assessment), it suffers from two weaknesses: firstly, as d. wiliam & p. black (1996); and p.j. black & d. wiliam (1998a and 1998b), he formulates the relationship only in terms of function (biggs, 1998). we know that they are interrelated and can work together to support each other. but, we don’t know how they work independently or we don’t know what their processes are like respectively and how they fulfill their respective function; and secondly, m. taras (2007) believes that it suffers from another weakness that it places fa and sa on the same footing hierarchically. m. taras (2007) claims that since sa can stand alone, but there can be no fa without sa (be it implicit), then sa must be hierarchically more important and that it must come first. in one word, j. biggs (1998) stresses the complementary relationship between fa and sa. but, his stress is from the perspective of whole assessment system and based on the idea that both summative and formative function must be fulfilled for the working of the system (biggs, 1998). cao’s complementary proposal. like j. biggs (1998), r. cao (2012) also proposes complementary relationship between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment). her proposal is based on the belief that all assessments are formative assessment. specifically, any assessment is supposed to have impact on learning and so sa and fa are complementary in the sense that they can both be used to support learning (cao, 2012). again, this conceptualization shed new light on relation between sa and fa in terms of function, but fails to illuminate their relation in terms of process. second, relationship between fa and sa from perspective of process. m. taras (2005 and 2007) made an attempt to explore the relation between sa (summative assessment) and fa (formative assessment) in terms of process by making a closer revisit to m. scriven (1967) and d.r. sadler (1989). the change in the distinction between the two to that of functions originates in the work of b.s. bloom, j.t. hastings & g.f. madaus [eds] in 1971. in the context of mastery learning, they used fa in their cyclical bitesized aspects of learning to provide feedback and therefore support learning. this distinction was inherited by many leading scholars of fa (wiliam & black, 1996; and black & wiliam, 1998a and 2003). and then, due to their figure 3: diagram of the backside of an elephant metaphor (source: j. biggs, 1998) educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 5© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com influence, function is widely recognized as the distinguishing feature of relation between fa from sa. however, this was not what was intended by m. scriven (1967), when he coined the terms. when he first made this distinction, m. scriven did not concern himself primarily with the functions, but with the process of assessment. indeed, he specifically warned against focusing on functions as opposed to the process (scriven, 1967:41). as for the process of assessment, m. scriven (1967) gave such definition: the activity consists simply in the gathering and combining of performance data with a weighted set of goal scales to yield either comparative or numerical ratings, and in the justification of (a) the data-gathering instruments; (b) the weightings; and (c) the selection of goals (scriven, 1967:40). assessment is a complex process with all the elements used to make the judgment in constant interplay. the result is the judgment that can be compared to a standard or a number on a standardized scale. drawing on m. scriven (1967) and d.r. sadler (1989), m. taras (2005) presented a comparison between summative and formative steps as shown in table 1. m. taras (2005) characterizes relation between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) in ordinary language below: sa + feedback = fa (summative assessment + feedback = formative assessment) more precisely, and perhaps more accurately, a summative assessment will produce feedback which, when used, results in formative assessment: sa → feedback feedback use = formative assessment according to m. taras (2010), making a judgment according to specific parameters is assessment, or summative assessment at that point in time. this assessment will produce feedback. the feedback may remain as an implicit judgment within the person’s head, otherwise, any manifestation or communication of this judgment will provide information. the criteria, the standards, and the goals will be used to make the judgment and measure the shortfall from the ideal. information produced will provide feedback which is required to improve the work. the use of this formative feedback by the learner will result in formative assessment and bring the work closer to the ideal. fa (formative assessment) requires mandatory use of feedback, while sa (summative assessment) not. what differentiates summative and formative assessment is that the latter is used by the learner to update and improve the work (or, at the minimum, to understand what would need to be done and how). summative assessment does not exclude feedback (or knowledge of results) and even a number grade or physical reaction will provide information no matter how minimal. often, in higher education, graded work is the main source of feedback (taras, 2006). because assessment is such a universal and constant process, with an infinite means of describing it, much of it is implicit, automatic and taken for granted, and, therefore, the obvious and the basic premise of the process tends to ignored. f. coffield & s. edwards (2009) have shown how lack of engagement table 1: comparative steps for summative and formative assessment summative assessment (m. scriven,1967) formative assessment (d.r. sadler,1989) 1. a weighted set of goal scales. 2. gathering and combining of performance data. 3. to yield either comparative or numerical ratings. 4. in the justification of: (a) the data-gathering instruments; (b) the weightings; and (c) the selection of goals. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = sa 1. concept of standards, goals or reference levels. 2. compare actual level with standard 1 + 2 = sa feedback possible only after sa. 3. appropriate action to close the gap. 1 + 2 + 3 = fa huang jian, reconceptualization of the relationship 6 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com with the basic premises of “good” assessment principles results in shoddy practice and research. m. taras’ presentation of steps involved in assessment process shed light on how assessment is carried out, making the might-be-implicit process explicit. and this proposal that sa happens before fa or sa as precondition for sa adds support to conceptualization as complementary rather than competing (taras, 2007). to further clarify the relation, m. taras (2007) proposed it could be metaphorically expressed as a single cake. see figure 4. and elaborated it as below: we would expect it to be made more palatable and decorative according to the context of use (as with criteria, standards, etc.). this would imply a complete cycle of sa and fa. if sa and fa are separated, we are left with an incomplete and unbalanced product, in the same way as an elephant would be unstable if either sa or fa is expected to stand alone. furthermore, separating them has led to a view that they are essentially two separate entities, as in the two trees metaphor. the focus on functions (and functions can be very different) has led to the belief that sa and fa are difficult to reconcile. this could give us an image of two halves of different cakes (see figure 5) which do not fit together well, because they are essentially different cakes (taras, 2007:65). simply speaking, the cake metaphors stresses two things for relation of fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment). the first is that they are inseparable processes. second fa is more than function like the icing and cherries on the cake and a decorative addition to the assessment process. but, there are several weaknesses in m. taras (2007)’s conceptualization of relation between fa and sa. firstly, sa equals assessment. according to m. taras (2010), making a judgment according to specific parameters is assessment, or summative assessment at that point in time. this assessment will produce feedback. the feedback may remain as an implicit judgment within the person’s head, otherwise, any manifestation or communication of this judgment will provide information. here, m. taras confuses, assessment process, a neural process with a sa, which, implies its intended use and therefore is value-laden (taras, 2010). secondly, use of feedback equals fa. while d.r. sadler (1989) conceptualize fa as 1 + 2 + 3, m. taras (2010) take use of feedback as fa as if the process leading to feedback would not have impact on improvement of learning. in other words, fa quality is only the result of the appropriate action and has nothing to do with the quality of process itself. thirdly, use of feedback is not mandatory for sa. this reveals a partial understanding of use and feedback. as mentioned before, assessment will produce feedback. the feedback may remain as an implicit judgment within the person’s head, otherwise, any manifestation or communication of this judgment will provide information. i argue that even it remains in the person head, it is kind of use as it might change the assessor’s idea about instruction, offering him internal feedback (cf nicol & macfarlane-dick, figure 4: diagram of assessment as a cake figure 5: diagram of assessment as two halves of a different cake: the artificial educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 7© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 2006). as long as there is assessment, there is information produced and it being there is kind of use, which cannot be avoided and will have impact on the assessor. fourthly, difference in functions equals difference in criteria. as a matter of fact, difference in functions means change in almost all aspects of assessment activity, throughout the three constant steps of assessment process. this point will be further developed in the following part. third, reconceptualization of the relation by combining function and process perspectives. just as p. black & d. wiliam (2009) emphasize too much on function to ignore process, m. taras (2010) stresses too much on process to underestimate the impact of function on every aspect of assessment process. a reasonable conceptualization of relation between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) should be based on both function and process, to examine how the process can be different or similar to serve their respective purpose. exactly speaking, we propose to examine fa from the perspective of assessment process governed by purpose. such examination will reveal that relation between fa and sa is neither competing nor complementary, but inclusive: fa is inclusive of sa. assessment process consists of three major steps: elicitation, interpretation, and use. this process is neutral and universal for any kind of assessment. in other words, each of these three steps is indispensable for either formative assessment or summative assessment. however, as any human activity is controlled or guided by purpose, each step of assessment process is subject to the intended purpose of assessment activity, like summative purpose or formative purpose in this study. these different purposes have different requirements for each step of the process. for example, as mentioned before, m. taras (2007) believes that change of function between summative and formative actually means change of criteria. but, we are inclined to believe that things are much more complicated than m. taras (2010) thinks. change of criteria doesn’t only happen as sa changes to fa, but also takes place within the process of assessment itself when it comes to fa. construction of learning intention and success criteria is a dynamic process (yang, 2012). so is its application. it might be set up before start of assessment cycle and then changes as it is applied in the process of assessment: elicitation, interpretation, and use. specifically, it can and should be used for development of instrument, interpretation of learning evidence, and application of assessment results. in sa, it might remain stable; while in fa, it is and should be allowed to vary in order to meet the needs of student’s learning in specific context. what is more, not all learning intentions and criterion can be materialized feasibly in the sa, for example, it is almost impossible to assess affective quality of test-takers in the typical form of sa. however, in fa, there is a greater possibility of materializing different learning intentions table 2: differences between sa and fa aspect summative assessment formative assessment purpose public, collective, specified private, individual, negotiated agent administrators administrators, teacher, students time specified time limit anytime space controlled space anywhere instrument limited unlimited (all activities) object of assessment student outcome: product student outcome: product process and classroom interaction judgment level judgment for gap judgment for gap, reason and solution interaction between assessor and assesse none or limited intensive interaction expertise demand low high huang jian, reconceptualization of the relationship 8 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and success criteria given the freedom of time, space, and agents of in each step of assessment process. in other words, the different purposes have an impact on almost every aspect of assessment as shown in the table 2, in the form of difference between fa and sa. seen from table 2, the impact of purpose on assessment process is not only confined to criteria. in every aspect of assessment, which is present in every step of assessment process, it can be said that fa (formative assessment) is inclusive of sa (summative assessment). this is obvious in most of the aspects and what might require further explanation is why there is a higher expertise demand for fa than sa. in sa, development of instrument, interpretation of evidence, and use of the results, all have impact on the quality of assessment. the same is true for fa. the existing literature have revealed that to development quality summative assessment is no easy at all, having to take into consideration of reliability, validity, fairness, practicality, etc. fa, the bridge between assessment and learning, is even more challenging in the sense that it must respond to both assessment demand and learning demand. so, it can be said that fa is inclusive of sa; and their relation can be expressed roughly in figure 6. what figure 6 tells us are: firstly, both sa (summative assessment) and fa (formative assessment) share the same process of assessment. in one word, any assessment process is neutral and can be used to serve either formative or summative purpose. secondly, how well the assessment process can serve the purpose (summative or formative) depends not only on the originally developed instrument for elicitation, but also on how the evidence is interpreted and used, especially for formative purpose. in other words, what determines formative nature of an assessment activity is not only the action taken based on assessment results. each step of assessment process can have formative impact. thirdly, the steps intended for summative purpose and formative purpose are also connected. summative steps being linked to formative steps means that the intended purpose may no lead to expected result, especially when assessment developer and user are not the same person. an assessment process developed for summative purpose may be used formatively and vice versa. but, summative steps are connected to formative steps in full line, which means all sa can be used formatively; while formative steps are linked to summative steps in dotted lines, which means not all fa can be used summative. that is to say that fa is inclusive of sa. what is worth noting is that this is more a practice-oriented conceptualization than theoretic one, for theoretically, all assessment can be used formatively and summatively, as the assessors like. but, as proposed by l. bachman (2004), assessment in education also needs to meet the demand of practicality. it is in this sense that all assessment designed for sa can be used for fa, and only part of fa can be used for sa. for example, it is almost impossible, given practicality requirement of sa, to use interactive fa for summative purpose. figure 6: relation between summative and formative educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 9© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com conclusion1 there have been many different views about the relationship between fa (formative assessment) and sa (summative assessment) in assessment literature. by revisiting the existing literature of fa and sa, we have pointed out that the major weaknesses of existing conceptualization of the relationship lies in thinking them as competing or complementary as well as sa prerequisite for fa, and stem from too much emphasis either on function or on process. against this background, this paper has proposed a new understanding of the relationship from the perspective of both function and process combined: firstly of all, all assessment activities from formal tests to classroom interaction, either for sa and fa, share the same assessment process of three steps: elicitation, interpretation, and use. secondly, fa can differ from sa in all aspects of assessment for each of the steps to serve different purposes. thirdly, in principle, any particular assessment processes can be used for either formative or summative purpose while in reality, it is easier to implement formative use of sa than summative use of fa. in this sense, relationship between fa and sa is neither competitive nor complementary. it might be more rational to regard fa as being inclusive of sa, at least at theoretical level. such understanding of the relationship will presumably promote the development of development of fa and encourages the construction of balanced assessment system, including sa and fa. however, this study is by nature a library research, and assessment is a highly contextualized activity. as a result, more empirical studies are needed in the future for exploration of better interactions between sa and fa, so as to give a full play to the potential contribution of assessment to education.2 1acknowledgement: this research is funded by research project on instruction and assessment reform for english major program of cufe educational and pedagogical reform funding, 2014; and cufe outstanding talent cultivation plan: experimental program of financial translation, 2014 (021650514003). many thanks for this institution. however, all contents and interpretations for this article are solely rested to my own responsibility academically. 2statement: herewith, i have declared that this paper is my original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. references bachman, l. 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(2012). “a study of real-time formative assessment by chinese university efl teachers”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. beijing: beijing foreign studies university. 7 beny.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 195 dr. cornelia j. benny is a lecturer at the postgraduate program of uninus (islamic university of nusantara) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for academic purposes, she can be contacted at: jalan cipedes tengah no.208 bandung, west java, indonesia. tlp. +6222-2009452. the perspectives of organizational power: a general overview cornelia j. benny abstract: power is a phenomenon appearing in the personal, interpersonal and structural behavior. within the personal behavior, power is a need that has to be realized to get satisfaction. accordingly, the power that is inherent in an organization is of dynamic character and may be regarded as a driving force to internalize its values so as to enable the organization to increase its adaptability to changes, and its productivity as well, which in their turn will boost its work satisfaction and efficiency. based on the above statement, we may conclude that power means the ability or force that causes other people to do (or act) according to the desire of the power holder. in short it may be said that the process of building functional power will contribute (highly) to the organizational effectiveness. this paper tries to elaborate, in general overview, the power process in an organization (behavior, structure and process) that has the potential to interfere with the organization’s success as a whole, a uniting factor will be much needed. stated differently, the power process should be viewed as an effort to internalize those values that could make the organization to have the ability to changes, to be more productive, to upgrade the job satisfaction and efficiency. in short it may be said that the functional power process could well contribute to the effectiveness of the organization. key words: power, organization, management, leadership, and effectiveness and successful in the organization. introduction an organization is designed as an effort to coordinate the cooperation among a group (or groups) of people as – signed to achieve a common goal through the division of jobs and functions within a well – defined structure of roles and rules. on entering an organization, the individual will be required to observe all of the designed rules. but in practice, each individual has his/her own interests which are not always in line with those of the organization. the intermingling between the organizational and personal interests has led to the (so called) psychological cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 196 transaction between individuals and organization. both the individual and the organization are bound to make continuous adjustments in compliance with the ever changing environmental demands, externally and internally. such adaptation efforts are characteristic to the behavioral system of the organization. essentially, the organizational behavior is a reflection of the synthesis of the functions and behavior of the individual persons, of the group and of the entire structure. personal behavior includes the actions of individuals to obtain their needs. such personal behavior is typically unique because each individual has his/her own personality which is different from any other ones. interpersonal behavior comprises collective actions based on certain norms of the appointed groups. while structural behavior consists of actions designed to fulfill the organization’s interests. the roles and rules are meant as restrictions to the structural behavior. power is a phenomenon appearing in the personal, interpersonal and structural behavior. within the personal behavior, power is a need that has to be realized to get satisfaction. similarly, within the interpersonal behavior, power has been actualized in many forms and manners. while within the structural behavior, power is (being) given to individuals or a group of individuals. power, when used as a touch-stone to measure an organization’s behavioral discipline, should be neutral in the sense that as an empirical phenomenon, it should be unbiased (or free of prejudice). but in empirical phenomenon, power is oriented towards utility or usefulness, it would lose its unfairly and would go along to where it pleases. uncertainty and conflicts constantly accompany the processes of power in its personal, interpersonal and structural conflicts behavioral aspects. these potentials for uncertainty and conflict should be given close attention and be managed for the benefit of effectiveness in the personal, interpersonal and structural ways. the perspectives of power power is a very important element of life. communication interchange happens every time in every human life, sometimes unilaterally, sometimes bilaterally. in such interchange, the participants are bound to “influence each other”, which may make them depend on one another. the capability of a person or a group (of persons) to make another person or another group do something as desired by the first person or group, is called power. according to fred luthans (1986:447), “power is the ability to get an individual or group to do something get the person or group to change in some way”. while according to gibson, invancevich & donnelly jr. (2001:480), “power is the ability to get other people to do as desired by the first party”. based on the above definition, we may conclude that power means the ability or force that causes other people to do (or act) according to the desire of the power holder. there is also the idea of influence implied in that definition, as the essential of power i.e. “one has the power over another one”. it has been mentioned above that influence may work reciprocally when two people or groups are in the habit of communicating with each other. in the following discussion, influence will be identical to reciprocal influence. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 197 in real life, power is divided or shared, because of the notion that objectives would be more easily achieved if the power is shared with a certain group or person(s). the so called absolute power held by a single person or a single group (of several persons) is rarely found. the sharing of power with a different person or group that consists of different people with different qualities, will lead to the creation of power structure in life. this power structure is hierarchical and dynamic. hierarchically, the power extends vertically from the highest levels to the middle and down to the lowest ones, thus depicting the degrees of power (or authority). horizontally, it portrays the relatively homogeneity in the possession (or assignment) of power. the mobility, both vertically and horizontally in the assignment of power has made the power to be placed in a dynamic situation, meaning that there happens “some exchange of power” which may lead to conflicts. therefore, weighing the topic of power will frequently occur together with conflicts, politics and leadership. within an organization, power is formally constituted and stands as legitimate power which is frequently known as authority. fred luthans (1986:448) said that authority is a source of power or is the right to change others. meanwhile barnard (in luthans, 1986) further added that authority as the character of a communication (order) in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted by a contributor to or a member of the organization as governing the action he contributes. in an organization, as a collective gathering of people who are cooperating to achieve a common objective, power is restricted and designed for the common good in the pursuit of that common goal. so, authority is actually a mandate from a group of people trusted to the person who holds a certain position. but power need not be legitimate (luthans, 1986:448). this signifies that, although one’s authority has been restricted, one can still exercise power beyond his authority. since power is dynamic in character and occurs in social interactions both formally and informally, it is (as might be) expected that one of its important aspect is influence. influence is usually conceived of as being broader in scope than power. it involves the ability to alter other people in general way, such as by changing with satisfaction and performance (luthans, 1986:448). influence is a “power transaction”, a process in which a person or a group of persons is influencing another person or group to perform something as desired (by the influencing agent). this notion of power transaction has been deliberated in the concept of leadership, because power is the substance of leadership. theoretical experts such as crozier (1963) and pressman & wildavsky (1973) have said that the leader’s policy and power are very influential in an organization (in razik, 1995). from the various concepts of power mentioned above, we see that power may be viewed from different perspectives i.e. (l) personal; (2) political; (3) interpersonal; and (4) organizational. a. the personal perspective in the personal perspective, power is idiosyncratic i.e. each individual has a need that motivates him/her to act in a particular way. a group of such actions is developed cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 198 into an individual personality structure that is unique in character. power is the basis that moves individuals to do some actions, such as mentioned in mcclelland’s theory about needs (in gibson, invancevich & donnelly jr., 2001:485-486). one who has a need of power will have the desire to influence other people, using three methods: (1) using stern measures, giving some help or advice, while controlling the subject; (2) using certain actions that arouse emotions in others; and (3) by paying attention to reputation. we may deduce, then, that the source of power with the personal perspective is some need that is to be realized in the intensified search for power. results from mcclelland’s study show that the intensity of the individual’s search for power could lead to either negative or positive implications. the negative realization of power may result in weakness, neurosis and other trouble. while the positively applied power may bring about effectiveness, a high degree of both adaptability and motivation (razik, 1995). b. the political perspective in the political perspective, power becomes the objective of certain individuals or group of people, reflected in formal organizational dynamism. with the political perspective, power generally appears illegitimately and informally (hoy & miskel, 2001:230). fred luthans, too, has stated that as a political area, organizational behavior is important, especially in relation to the acquisition of power (luthans, 1986). the power source for the political perspective may be obtained from coalitions between individuals or between groups of people “who bargain among themselves to determine the distribution of power” (hoy & miskel, 2001:235), as reflected in the political behavior, characteristically showing: (1) behaviour that is generally outside the legal range; (2) behavior designed to benefit certain individuals or a certain organizational sub unit, frequently, at the general expense of the organization; and (3) behavior deliberately designed to obtain and maintain power (sweeney & mcfarlin, 2002). c. the interpersonal perspective with the interpersonal perspective, power occurs in the context of interaction between people or groups characterized by susceptibility to influence as the unilateral process of influencing from one party on the other and vice versa (luthans, 1986:457460; and hoy & miskel, 2001:224-225). sociologically, it is marked by relationships between people in the community, so that this power is of various kinds and forms, of various origins and levels from the highest ones held by the state (leaders), frequently known as sovereignty down to the social stratification arranged in various types of societal layers. as from the relationship between persons, power may have its origin from: (1) rewards; (2) expertise; (3) tradition; (4) compulsion; and (5) referent. this source of power is being actualized in interpersonal relationships between persons, in which educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 199 those having greater importance can influence others according to their desires (hall, 1982). d. organizational perspective organization has been defined as the coordination of a number of human activities planned to achieve a common objective by way of the division of jobs and functions, the arrays of authorities and responsibilities, in which some of them are signified by stratification and centralization. centralization concerns the decision making centers that are influencing the other units. while stratification describes the role levels of persons or the parts in the organization. the power in the organizational perspective deals with the role arrangement of individuals which is developed into a formal structure so as to constitute an authority hierarchy. the simplification of the broader meaning of power within the organization has been stated in the content of “authority”. that is why authority has been frequently mentioned as legitimate power (hoy & miskel, 2001:217). the source of power resulting from the organizational perspective has been originated by the structural regulation of the organization in dividing the decision making policy among the various positions. that structure also creates a line of information and the acquisition of abundant resources that facilitate the leader to gain authority, and when an intervention should happen from the top political autocrat who holds absolute power, then there would have occurred some leak in the system as an indication of some serious inefficiency (abeng, 2006). reciprocal influence reciprocal influence in this context means the mutual relationship between sources of power used with orientation towards the involvement of the power receiver. the basic concept of reciprocal influence has been discussed by amitai etzioni and french & raven in richard h. hall (1982), fred luthans (1986), and paula f. silver (1986). reciprocal influence consists of several variables: (1) applied source of power; (2) process of power; and (3) influentially ability of targets. first, sources of power. the topic of the sources of power is related to the question why a person or a group of persons has the ability to influence others. french & raven have categorized the sources of power into three groups: (1) reward, coercion and means ends-control; (2) referent and attractiveness; and (3) expertise, legitimacy and credibility (in luthans, 1986). but amitai etzioni has proposed the following three categories: coercion, utilitarianism and normative matter (in hall, 1982; and silver, 1986). those sources have different effects on the person’s involvement as the power’s target. in the above plan, the power sources are grouped in four categories i.e. individual, interpersonal, organizational and political perspectives. second, process of power. the process of power concerns the activities of power transaction between person or groups (of persons), mentioned in the compliance cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 200 theory of paula f. silver (1986) as “the process of interaction (relationship) that results in a particular psychological condition on people or a group of people who have become the target of power”. meanwhile amitai etzioni has stated that the use of coercive power sources may cause involvement effects that are of alienating character (in hall, 1982; and luthans, 1986). the use of power sources in a utilitarian way may result in involvement effects with calculable quality while normative power sources may give involvement effect with moral quality. in their concept on power process, french & raven have stated that the use of power sources of the category reward, coercion and means-ends-control may bring about effects with complying quality, showing observance of rules (and discipline) for fear of punishment (in hall, 1982; and luthans, 1986). power sources categorized referent and attractiveness may produce effect with identifying quality, showing observance based on the attraction for having social relationship with the power user. lastly, the use of power sources of the category expertise, legitimacy and credibility may lead to involvement effects based on the internalization of values that are similar to those of the power user (silver, 1986). third, target of influence. the target of influence is the form of behavior that is visible as the effect of the power process. according to french & raven, the power’s target is that behavior that is visible on account of the psychological condition following the power process, i.e. compliance, identification and internalization (in hall, 1982). while amitai etzioni’s concept, on the other hand, has mentioned alienating, calculable and moral. the observed behavior is the result of the power transformation into the power process (in luthans, 1986; and silver, 1986). in other words, the behavior observed as the power’s target is the effect of the power’s target using certain power sources. management, leadership and power during the industrial revolution age in the 19th century, it had always been the management who made decisions. in america (the united states), cooperative structure within organizational groups started in 1930, while adept people in japan had developed specific means that had changed the top-down management into a system of problem solving. methods of moral development with the participation of groups in the educational management started in 1950s (tuominen, 2000). leaders used their authority to increase organizational strength through synergistic evolution within groups; however, providing reinforcement to the organization would require suitableness of both organizational structure and managerial style under authoritarian control. this, of course, is difficult to realize. the transfer of both authority and responsibility are needed for the effective management (steers, 1984). originally, management had been better known in the public world and was used in military forces. in 1908, there was in nigeria, a town leader who ruled with managerial principles as part of his policy. subsequent times had seen people debating the word “management” against business. but actually management has already educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 201 been used in various institutions, such as in the government, in the military, in schools and universities, in hospitals, in museum, in professional associations, in the scout association, in religious institutions, in the red cross, and also in informal organizations all of which are being governed through instructions and rule prescribed with authority in their respective management (drucker, 1999:176). through the authority in management, one would feel assured about the prospect of being cured in hospital. good management and proper working techniques will increase productivity the workers, services to clients will be better, and in hospitals the chance for recovery will be enhanced, and all these will constitute absolute values of the management. management with authority in it should have some strength in performing its duties. authority is legitimate power. strength (or might) without authority is no more than “might without right”. legitimized management should be viewed as professional management carrying professional responsibilities as well. such management satisfies professional standards and managerial competence requirements. authority through management carries a public function, which will lead it to enter the political world as described in the social and public laws theories, and well because management as a discipline must in its activities have relationships with different people and different social values. such differences concern those in the specialties related to the respective tasks and responsibilities (pareek, 1984). additionally, there are differences in behavior and thinking patterns which may develop certain specialization in the management that would benefit the relation between differences and integrity. management shall reveal the structure of its authority’s responsibilities and accountabilities. in the 1950s and 1960s, capitalistic corporations began to enlighten (give more knowledge or information about) professional management which had strength and absolute authority in its self supervised corporation. a system like this suffered many friction and was bound to collapse, eventually (drucker, 1999). the legitimacy of management and the sharing of authority are both obligations that must be done. management set up speculatively will lead to uncertainties and will hamper the execution of the determined standards, or may even neglect any standardization of the management’s behavior because authority is being performed on absolute-basis, or worse still, its execution may become completely arbitrary, neglecting any professional qualities (schein, 1983; and abeng, 2006). response to responsibility would affect production and service in any fields that demand certain conditions of the management’s competence, not only in the direction of behavioral actions but also of its social effects, and this clearly concerns its public function. ever since the 19th century, the entities “leadership” and “authority” had been the intense interest of researchers who wanted to give concerned people some enlightenment about leadership and management both of which signify and include authority or power. of course leader and management are different. but leadership meaning the group of leaders in an organization and management are expected and therefore should be able to change the social environment by helping people in cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 202 solving their social problems, in improving their welfare, their access to educational opportunities, their health service and other social aspects which need improvement. success in these aspects will lead to the betterment of the human resources quality (lunenberg & drusteir, 2004). there are certain theories meant to help those who aspire to become leaders, giving advice in the form of: (1) providing enlightened opinions, attitudes, ideas etc. suitable for candidate leaders, and identifying short comings and compensating them with certain skills; (2) studies of behavioral action of leaders showing specific samples of activities which identify patterns of habits and conduct; and (3) the influence of authority or power in connection with the use of the authority’s strength or might to produce certain effect on other people who are connected with the authority (mcmillan & schumacher, 2001). behavioral actions of a leader and their effects to include: (1) observation shows various behavioral actions of a leader will result in various take effect other people; (2) relationship between leader and subordinates or followers will have effect on the followers; and (3) culture oriented relationship between leader and followers will develop into the organization’s culture (sweeney & mcfarlin, 2002). anyhow, the relationship between a leader and his/her followers will always effect the latter. this is because such a relationship will be continual and lasting. as for the authoritarian leader, his/her influence on subordinates will be: fear or terror within the organization (soekanto, 1990). communication occurs top-down, violence tends to be used (in punishing wrong-behaving subordinates), and decision making and supervision are both centralized. abbout & caracheo believed that there were only two power bases, i.e. authority and prestige (in hall, 1982). power will be based on authority originated from the leader’s established position within the social institutional hierarchy (which is) delegated by an institution. validated power comes from subordinates or followers based on the institutional environment’s authority; authority is the same as power. meanwhile yukl argued that power signifies the capacity to influence one or more persons. influence, in this context, means something that produces effect(s) on the person’s attitude, perception and behavior. influence may occur downwards, upwards and sideways from three sources: position, personal and political (in rogers & schoemaker, 1971). analysis of successful power the power position originates from the organization’s hierarchical structure. in this case, the followers or subordinates will obey the legitimate leader. the followers will be aware of the scope of power, the supervision (or control) on the existing resources, penalty and praise, the physical environment and the organizational subsystem. a charismatic leader has charisma, i.e. the power to inspire devotion and enthusiasm. the group of leaders working as his assistants or deputies depends heavily on him identifying the followers’ interests and values that would motivate them to make commitments with the followers. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 203 reference power is being formed and developed slowly through activities conducted by means of work arrangements done in the attitudes formation with (special) reference to the organization. expert power depends on the followers awareness of the strength and expertise of their leader in reality, that it is difficult to find his equal and difficult, too, to imitate or to copy his skills. such a leader constantly uses logics and confidence, and applies his skills in a unique way (razik, 1995:146). richard & greenland have said that the interests and values of one in (public) authority will affect the choice of leadership’s style of an organization’s leader, which will show (be visible) in his/her manner of management or in what style of management he/she will choose to implement, and his/her management as fundamental character will be reflecting the style he/she has chosen. the leader’s behavior will always involve influential words to others. this style will be affected by the needed personal system: (1) the desire to help others; (2) close friendship; (3) self-respect; (4) job prestige and self-actualization; (5) personal growth; and (6) independent thought (in sweeney & mcfarlin, 2002). one study of leadership and power is quoting the opinion of cameron & o’reily who argued that “power is very clearly showing and very important to the holder of strategy” (in luthans, 1986). meanwhile bizrbaum said that the successful leader will be more likely to think realistically rather than idealistically. he/she has a good understanding of the cultural aspects of the institution, as well as the symbolical aspect in his/her position of power holder. a leader should be able to effectively exercise influence on others (his/her followers?) instead of only applying his/her authority. influence in the institution depends on various reciprocal processes of social changes (in sweeney & mcfarlin, 2002). rost defined a leader as the influential relationship between leader and followers, which produces real change and which inspires activities that serve various purposes (in soekanto, 1990). while zalesnik explained the difference between managers traits and skills associated with successful leaders traits skills adaptable to situations intelligent alert to social environment conceptually skilled ambitions and achievement creative oriented diplomatic and tactful assertive fluent in speaking cooperative knowledgeable about group task decisive organized dependable persuasive dominant (desire to influence other) social skilled energetic (high activity level) persistent self confidence tolerant of stress willing to assume responsibility source is adapted from lunenberg & drusteir (2004:143) cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 204 and leaders. “managers”, he said, are more oriented towards rationality and control. they adopt impersonal attitudes to goals. they perform coordination and balance/ equilibrium originated from various interests, thus compromising (weakening) the development of problem solving. they attempt to take the smallest possible risks so as to strengthen the existence of their institutions (in abeng, 2006). leaders, on the other hand, just look at what lies behind those rationalities, to find the point from where they can control the perspective to picture the vision of the organization: what is it like, how will it be and what will it become in the future. they are seeking for suitable approaches and provide options for dealing with problems (abeng, 2006). to become a successful leader as the holder of power, one should be in the possession of the suitable qualities and competence. concluding remarks an organization consists of a combination of the dimensions of behavior, structure and process. the dimension of behavior comprises the aspects of individual behavior and relationship behavior between behavioral ways of acting not designed by the organization. the dimension of structure includes aspects of jobs design and organizational design. and the dimension of process comprises aspects of communication (management of information), decision-making, and the dissemination and development of careers. the combination of those three dimensions will result in power process (pareek, 1984). power process may happen functionally or not functionally within those three organizational dimensions. the gauge for measuring whether the power process is functional or not functional is the contribution to success of the organization which should include adaptability, productivity, job satisfaction and efficiency (silver, 1986:24-25). within all of the four perspectives individual, interpersonal, political and organizational, the power process may contribute to the organization’s success, or the reverse may be true. in the individual perspective, the functional power process may be indicated by the effective realization of the search for power (by satisfying the need of power), by the high motivation and creativity. nothing functional search for power, on the other hand, shows weakness in behavior, neurosis and serious problems. interpersonally the power process may also cause an individual to become highly dependant on those who hold power, quite contrary to the desirable condition of growing into maturity and self actualization. politically viewed the power process may produce political behavior with negative quality. lastly within the organizational structure, the power process becomes not functional when its structure (the designs of organization and jobs) lacks the ability to adapt itself to the changes occurring in the external environment. the current leadership crisis has been caused by the fact that there are many men and women having power in their hands but lacking the relevant responsibilities. the leaders who hold power should also have the power of understanding about the phenomena occurring in the world (agustian, 2001; and abeng, 2006). educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 205 since the power process in an organization (behavior, structure and process) has the potential to interfere with the organization’s success as a whole, a uniting factor will be much needed. this uniting factor is about equal to the values owned by the power holders. stated differently, the power process should be viewed as an effort to internalize those values that could make the organization to have the ability to changes, to be more productive, to upgrade the job satisfaction and efficiency. in short it may be said that the functional power process could well contribute to the effectiveness of the organization. power is a dedication, a (divine) mandate, hard work, great confidence, mutual appreciation and support, while constantly mindful of the welfare of mankind (razik, 1995; and agustian, 2001). references abeng, tanri. 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(2000). managing change: practical strategies for competitive advantage. wisconsin: asq quality press. cornelia j. benny, the perspectives of organizational power 206 the current leadership crisis has been caused by the fact that there are many men and women having power in their hands but lacking the relevant responsibilities. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 105© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2014 to date, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of pps unipa (graduate program, university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and starting issue of may 2016, it will also be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www. sosiohumanika-jpssk.com and www.mindamas-journals.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 106 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since 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lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.atikan-jurnal.com and www.mindamas-journals.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail. com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 108 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.susurgalur-jksps.com and www.mindamas-journals.com e-mail address: susurgalur.jurnal2013@ gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 109© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to date, the sipatahoenan journal has been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.sipatahoenan-journal.com and www.mindamasjournals.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 110 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com it will be published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal will firstly be published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insancita journal will be organized by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.insancitaislamicjournal.com and www.mindamas-journals.com e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@ yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 111© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com it will be published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal will firstly be published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016, the mimbar pendidikan journal will be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com e-mail address: mimbardik.jurnal.upi@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 112 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com signing ceremony of moa (memorandum of agreement) between fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java and minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 27th december 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is a core business of the aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 113© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com index of author ahmad, nabi & b. razia. 73-80. allport, g.w. 24, 28. alwi, hasan et al. 15-16, 21. arikunto, suharsimi. 47, 49, 51-52. bagares, romel regalado. 66, 71. barnet, sylvan. 12, 21. belagali, h.v. 56, 61. bennett, r.e. 2, 9. blume, r. 32, 42. brock, b.d. & m.l. sulky. 24, 28. bronfenbrenner, u. 47, 52. caldas, s.j. & c.l. bankston. 74, 79. chomsky, n. 20-21. coffield, f. & s. edwards. 5, 9. craft, a. 31, 42. dillon, j.t. 36, 40, 42. dimyati, johni. 45-54. duatepe, a. & o. akkus. 57, 61. effendi, h. 82, 95. ellis, v. & j. mcnicholl. 55-56, 61. elqorni. 46-47, 52. facione, p.a. 34, 42. fazal, m. et al. 74, 78, 80. fisseha, mikre. 24, 28. fokker, a.a. 17, 21. gardner, howard. 47, 52. ghosh, s. & s. bairagaya. 57, 60-61. gorski, p.c. et al. 64, 71. greenbank, p. 34, 42-43. harjasujana, a.s. & a.r. syamsuddin. 13, 21. hasan, mohd & mohammad parvez. 23-30. heller, k.a.h. 47, 53. hokaday, f. 36, 43. hussain, s. et al. 56-57, 61. ismail, taufik. 13, 21. isman, aytekin et al. 98, 104. janice, beaty j. 46, 53. jassin, h.b. 20-21. jian, huang. 1-10. johnson, d. & r. johnson. 36, 43. kassian, mary. 66, 72. kauffman, s.e.r. & b.e. sawyer. 57, 61. keraf, gorys. 17, 22. khatoon, t. & m. sharma. 25, 28. krathwohl, d.r. 33, 43. lall, ramji. 20, 22. levett, p.n. 47, 53. limbago, czen. 66, 72. lunenberg, m. & f. korthagen. 32, 43. maliki, a.e. 56, 58, 60-61. maryam, siti. 11-22. mohamad, mahathir. 32, 43. murray, r. 15-16, 22. nalini, h.k. & g.h.s. bhatta. 74, 78, 80. navneethakrishan, n. 99-100, 103-104. newell, a. & h.a. simon. 33, 43. nicol, d. & d. macfarlane-dick. 6-7, 9. nur qistina, c.a, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin. 31-44. odum, e.p. 83, 90, 95. o’shea, r.p. 19-20, 22. osunde, a.u. & t.i. izevbigie. 57, 60-61. padma, b. & n. vidyageetha. 99, 103-104. palces, k.r.m., a.s. abulencia & w. m. reyes. 63-72. perveen, a. 74, 80. phillips, e.m. & d.s. pugh. 15-16, 22. popham, w.j. 2, 9. popovich, p.m. et al. 99, 104. purwanto, g.w.m. & s.j. bustaman. 88, 93-95. ramlan, m. 17, 22. ray, c.m., c. sormunen & t.m. harris. 98, 104. reinke, k. & c. moseley. 56, 61. resnick, l.b. 33, 35, 43-44. sachlan, m. 83, 95. sarino, v.l. 64, 72. sharma, neha. 55-62. singh, k. & r.k. allen. 25, 29. singh, s. & s. yadav. 99, 103-104. smith, d.m. 57, 61. srivastava, g.p. 75, 80. stobart, g. 2, 9. supriadi, dedi. 18, 22. suri, g. & s. sharma. 99, 104. susanto. 81-96. swartz, r. & s. parks. 35-37, 44. sylvia, rimm. 46, 53. taras, m. 2-7, 9-10. tarigan, henry guntur & djago tarigan. 16-18, 22. terzi, a.r. & e. tezci. 56, 61. thurstone, l.l. 100, 104. triyono. 47, 53. vale, m.c. & c.g. leder. 24, 29. vermunt, j. & l. verschaffel. 56, 61. varshney, anant kumar. 97-104. wardoyo, s.t.h. 83, 95. welch, p.s. 88, 95. wiliam, d. 2, 10. yang, h. 7, 10. yuwono, p.b. 82, 95. zuñiga vi, r.c. 65, 72. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 114 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com index of subject act on ideas. 33-34. aligarh muslim university. 24-25, 97-98, 101. al-qur’an. 14-15. approachs to teaching thinking. 35-36. aquatic qualities. 82-83. attitude of primary school teachers. 55-56. bachelor of science. 100-101. backside metaphor. 3-4. banyumas residency. 81-82. born again christians. 67-68. build originality. 11-12. caucasians. 65-66. central java. 81-82. combining function and process perspectives. 7-8. computer. 23-24, 97-98. computer attitude questionnaire. 99-100. critical and creative thinking. 34-35. defining thinking skills. 32-33. developing the diagnosis tool. 66-67. diploma in teacher education. 99-100. dukuhwaluh villages. 47-48. education history. 45-46. effective surprise. 35-36. elementary school. 52-53. essential skills. 33-34. exploratory study. 63-64. feedback. 5-6. female undergraduate students. 27-28. fish community. 81-82. formative assessment. 1-2. gender differences. 24-25. gifted children. 45-46. gonade growth index. 83-84. good assessment. 6-7. high-order questioning. 36-37. high school and college levels. 12-13. hong kong. 31-32. impact of qualification and salary. 55-56. indonesia. 81-82. indonesia university of education. 15-16, 20. information and communication technology. 23-24. integrating various form of thinking skills. 39-41. interaction of tributaris. 82-83. islamic kindergarten. 47-48. kembaran district. 47-48. klawang river. 81-82. konfics and simulfix. 19-20. learning achievement. 45-46. liquid crystal display. 66-67. logawa river. 81-82. macro thinking skills. 33-34. multicultural education. 63-64. muhammadiyah university of purwokerto. 47-48. muslim adolescents. 73-75. national curriculum assessment. 3-4. national philosophy of education. 36-37. new zealand. 1-2. observation applied. 49-50. one-way communication. 32-33. ordinary language. 5-6. osborn’s creative problem solving. 34-35. parental education level. 77-78. perspective of process. 4-5. philippines context. 65-66. philippine normal university. 66-67. practical classes. 38-39. predicting the priorities. 63-64. problem solving. 33-34. qualification and salary. 55-56. quality of performance. 73-74. race and sex. 56-57. reconceptualization. 1-2. relation to socio-economic status and gender. 73-75. republic act. 65-66. rural and urban undergraduate students. 97-98, 100. sapi river. 81-82. scheme implementation. 11-12. sensitivities and biases. 68-71. serayu river. 81-82. socio-economic scale. 75-76. starting from reading. 12-15. study habits. 73-75. summative assessment. 1-2. teacher education. 31-32. teaching profession. 55-56. teaching thinking skills. 31-32, 35-37. theory classes. 35-37. thinking through geography. 35-36. tulis river. 81-82. undergraduate students’ attitude. 23-24. under seven. 45-46. united kingdom. 1-2. uttar pradesh. 24-25, 75, 101-102. villages in india. 98-99. vocational efficiency. 23-24. west java. 13-14. working conditions. 56-57. writing. 11-12. yogyakarta. 11-12. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 17 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 intan puspitasari profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia abstract: empathy is a matter that must be possessed by every person, because it is closely related to moral that is important in human’s position as social creatures. the early childhood empathy ability is determined by the environment, where he or she lives in and interacts. in a good environment, early childhood will have high empathy. on the contrary, if a child lives and interacts in a bad environment, the empathy level becomes low. therefore, parents and educators must become role models and create good environment that support growth of early childhood’s empathy. this study aims to determine the development of early childhood empathy. this study uses descriptive qualitative method of data collection through triangulation techniques consists of observation, interview, and documentation. the results of this study that there are differences in empathy in the four subjects. girls have higher empathy than boys. habituation conducted at ra (raudhatul athfal or islamic kindergarten) iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia is appropriate to develop children’s empathy. these activities are carried out every friday and also visiting the orphanage. children learn also many things from parents, especially about behavior. parents, who have high empathy, will find it easier to teach empathy to their children. parents can provide examples starting from how to appreciate the feelings and emotions experienced by their children and how to react to them. therefore, suggestions for further research on empathy are expected to be able to find out more into the factors that supporting and inhibiting the growth of empathy in early childhood, such as family background, the effect of gender on the level of empathy, and others. key words: empathy behaviour; early childhood education; role models; good environment. about the author: intan puspitasari is a master student at the study program of educational psychology sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: intanpuspita0523@gmail.com suggested citation: puspitasari, intan. (2020). “profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august, pp.17-26. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 10, 2020); revised (july 17, 2020); and published (august 30, 2020). other people experience from that person’s point of view. empathy is an understanding of the emotional condition of others, which is felt as a condition that is felt by oneself (baggs, 2011; utami, 2014:16; and boswell, 2015). empathy is a matter that must be possessed by every person, because it is closely related to moral that is important in human’s position as social creatures. there is research from g. gini et al. (2007), and other scholars, which explain that there is relation between introduction as social creatures, everyone needs one another. one of the factors for humans on their success in social interaction is empathy. people who have good empathy can be seen based on their behavior or actions (taufik, 2012:39; decety & cowell, 2014; and decety, 2016). empathy comes from the word “empathia”, which means to share. in other words, empathy is sharing the feelings that © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 18 intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior empathy and bullying. people who have high empathy ability will not do bullying. in addition, empathy brings benefits in social life by making a person can control him/her-self from selfish attitude and avoid feeling superior from other person (gini et al., 2007; chatters, 2012; and walker, 2017). many researchers focus on researching cognitive empathy. cognitive empathy is defined as the ability to recognize and understand the emotional state of others. however, the focus of the researcher is emotional empathy, precisely on early childhood. emotional empathy is the ability to share in the emotions of others (davis, 1980; christov-moore, 2014; decety et al., 2016; and beadle & de la vega, 2019). the early childhood empathy ability is determined by the environment, where he or she lives in and interacts. in a good environment, early childhood will have high empathy. on the contrary, if a child lives and interacts in a bad environment, the empathy level becomes low. therefore, parents and educators must become role models and create good environment that support growth of early childhood’s empathy (blandon, calkins & keane, 2010; decety et al., 2016; and houston, 2020). according to m.h. davis (1980), as cited in taufik (2012) and other scholars, there are three types of processes in empathy, namely: non-cognitive process; simple cognitive process; and cognitive process. non-cognitive process is empathy process that occur without cognitive or without prior understanding. the next process is simple cognitive process. this process has played a cognitive role. an example of this process is when the observer sees the irregularity or discomfort received by others, the observer will accept the same thing (davis, 1980; taufik, 2012; and de guzman et al., 2016). another example when we see an old beggar was begging on the side of the road, then we will feel sad like he or she feels. the latter process is advanced cognitive process. this process involves empathy on the next level. an example is a child who says that his/ her parents have divorced, but the child shows no expression of sadness, but the observer shows empathy when hearing it (preston & de waal, 2002; meneses, 2011; and bavel et al., 2020). the process of empathy is an intrapersonal ability that produces two kinds of outcome, namely affective outcome and non-affective outcome. affective outcome is divided into two forms, namely: parallel and reactive. the parallel result is harmony between what other people feel and what we can feel too. whereas reactive outcome is reaction to other people’s experience (karim, 2011; pihlajaniemi & raitio, 2018; and gunawan et al., 2019). intrapersonal ability affects the observer, while interpersonal affects the observer’s relationship with the subject. one form of interpersonal outcome is emergence of desire to help or also called helping behavior (martin & dowson, 2009; pietromonaco & collins, 2017; and krauss & fussell, 2018). besides the process of empathy, the important thing in empathy is the aspect of empathy itself. according to n.d. feshbach (1975), and other scholars, one of aspects of empathy is recognition or discrimination of feelings. this aspect in practice is the ability to name and identify emotions that can be done by children in the age range between 4-6 years. they can already name the emotions they feel (feshbach, 1975; quas et al., 2017; and juckel et al., 2018). the next aspect of empathy is role taking perspective, which means understanding that other individuals see and interpret situations in different ways, and the ability to take and understand other people’s perspectives. in other words, role perspective is the ability to think about something that other people think. the last aspect, according to n.d. feshbach (1975), and other scholars, is emotional responsiveness, namely the ability to experience and realize the emotions experienced by oneself (feshbach, 1975; lazo & vik, 2014; and quas et al., 2017). empathy arises because of supporting factors. there are four factors that support empathy. the first factor is cognitive factors. cognitive insight and cognitive skills gradually increase in early childhood, so that they learn to recognize the signs of other people’s sadness and be able to adjust their concern with appropriate behavior (preston © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 19 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 & de waal, 2002; mcdonald & messinger, 2018; and read, 2019). the second factor is inborn factor. for example, boys tend to have the nature of wanting to protect others physically. while girls help and show empathy by supporting the psychological side, such as cheer up by listening to stories of friends who are sad (weeks, 2000; zakrzewski, 2014; and eion, 2018). the third factor is education factor. one of the most important education is moral or religious education. the better morals of a child, the easier, it will be to appear empathy for others (tangney, stuewig & mashek, 2007; unesco, 2014; and kingston & medlin, 2018). the fourth factor is the family factor. family members who have high empathy will set an example for children, so they will have high empathy, which he/she will apply to his/ her daily life (quann & wien, 2006; hirsch, 2007; and read, 2019). previously empathy was thought to be something that had existed since birth, so theorists believed that empathy could not be influenced or even taught. empathy is considered part of heredity. if parents have high empathy, it will come down to their children too (preston & de waal, 2002; mcdonald & messinger, 2018; and read, 2019). as time passes by many researchers, who try to research about empathy and provide treatments to increase empathy. in one study, it was found that children who have high empathy abilities, learn it from the behavior of parents who set an example for their children. in another study, it was found that students learned empathy through behavior exemplified by their teacher (kremer & dietzen, 1991; taufik, 2012; and riess, 2017). from the results of the research above, we can conclude that empathy is not something that cannot be improved and studied. in this context, j.f. kremer & l.l. dietzen (1991), and other scholars’ research, showed that children can receive empathy lesson and learn from the examples of parents and teachers shown to children in the form of behavior (kremer & dietzen, 1991; riess, 2017; and cotton, 2018). in the early stages of empathy development, children can use empathy even though they don’t know the reason. children’s empathy develops and changes in four stages. the first stage is the early stages of infancy; the second stage is 1-2 years old; the third stage is early childhood; and the last stage is 10 years to old (nichols, svetlova & brownell, 2009; santrock, 2014:267; and mcdonald & messinger, 2018). the thing we need to remember is that the stage of empathy of each individual with other individuals can be different. in infancy, children still show empathy responses in general or known as global empathy. at the age of 1-2 years, children begin to realize their feelings. for example, when a child feels depressed when his/her toy is taken by his/ her friend. he/she realize that feeling already, but nothing they can do to overcome these feelings of distress (mcdonald & messinger, 2018; jordan, 2019; and read, 2019). when reaching childhood, children begin to respond better to the feelings of others. while at the age of 10-12 years, the child’s response to the feelings of others is better. children begin to be able to feel a variety of their environment and children’s selffelt concerns are also growing. similarly, when a child interacts with a group of other children. he/she will learn how to look after themselves and their behavior (rubin, coplan & bowker, 2009; dowling, 2010:42-44; and santrock, 2014:367-368). meanwhile, according to d. goleman, r. boyatzis & a. mckee (2005), and other scholars, empathy is strongly influenced by sex. women empathize better than men. many studies tell us that women can feel the feelings of others, who are nearby (cf goleman, boyatzis & mckee, 2005; badea & pană, 2010; and stuijfzand et al., 2016). the conclusion from the description above, it can be seen that there are four stages of empathy. the first is the global empathy experienced by newborns, which is characterized by babies who cry when they hear other babies cry. the second stage at the age of 1-2 years, at this age the child has begun to realize his feelings. for example, he/she was depressed when his/her toy was taken by his friend. the third stage in early childhood; and the last is at the age of 10-12 years, at this age the empathy of children has © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 20 intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior increasingly developed. he/she has begun to be able to feel the feelings of people who are not as fortunate as him/her-self (huang, su & jin, 2016; ruffman et al., 2019; and meidan & uzefovsky, 2020). research method the research method used is descriptive research with a qualitative approach. through this method, the researcher aims to describe the object of the problem in research in accordance with the facts that occur. the subjects in this study were ra (raudhatul athfal or islamic kindergarten) iqro sabila in jambi, sumatera, indonesia’s students consisting of 2 boys and 2 girls and 1 teacher as an informant (creswell, 2003; williams, 2007; and aspers & corte, 2019). in this study, researcher used three techniques of data collecion, namely observation, interview, and documentation. observations were made through the subject’s parents, i.e. the researcher gave pictures and short videos, then the subjects were asked to name the emotional names of the pictures. as for the short video, the subject is given an impression and while watching the subject is observed. the observer records and names the emotions the subject shows while watching (creswell, 2003; kim, sefcik & bradway, 2017; and aspers & corte, 2019). the second technique is interview conducted through wa (whatsapp) application media, started on friday, 1st may 2020. the observer conducted an interview via video call to the subject to find out how far the subject knew the names and reasons for the emotions the observer asked (fontes & o’mahony, 2008; kim, sefcik & bradway, 2017; and aspers & corte, 2019). the interview was also conducted to a teacher as an informant. the interview was held on friday, 15th may 2020. the third technique is the documentation of the results of each interview and observation properly in the form of photographs and sound recordings (fontes & o’mahony, 2008; hendriani, 2018; and aspers & corte, 2019). see chart 1. results and discussion the results of this study can be concluded as follows. there are differences in various aspects of empathy. the first subject has a fairly developed empathy seen from the aspect of emotional responsiveness. this is indicated by the first subject being able to name and know almost all emotions asked by researchers. as for taking perspective and the role and recognition is still not developed very well (cf gruhn et al., 2008; taylor et al., 2013; batchelder, brosnan & ashwin, 2017; and interview with respondent a, 1/5/2020). the second subject has better empathy than the first subject. the second subject excels in aspects of emotional responsiveness and role perspective taking while recognition still needs further guidance (cf nichols, svetlova & brownell, 2009; who, 2012; beadle & de la vega, 2019; and interview with respondent b, 1/5/2020). the level of empathy of the third subject is almost the same as the first subject. the third subject is quite developed in the aspect of emotional responsiveness, while in the aspect of recognition and discrimination feelings still observation interview documentation chart 1: techniques of data collection © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 21 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 needs further guidance (cf nichols, svetlova & brownell, 2009; hendrawan et al., 2015; mcdonald & messinger, 2018; and interview with respondent c, 1/5/2020). the fourth subject has quite developed empathy in aspects of emotional responsiveness and perspective and role taking. while in the recognition aspect, the subject still needs direction and guidance (cf mchale, updegraff & whiteman, 2012; yoshikawa & kabay, 2015; read, 2019; and interview with respondent d, 1/5/2020;). the ra (raudhatul athfal or islamic kindergarten) iqro sabila in jambi, sumatera, indonesia provides empathy learning by familiarizing children with routine charity that is loaded into an infaq, or donation, box every friday (cf astuti, 2017; rizkyanti & murty, 2018; and rahmawati, 2019). based on information from the teacher who became the informant, the children also have an agenda every ramadhan (fasting month) to visit orphans in the orphanage. previously, children and parents were asked to collect items suitable for use and money to give when visiting (cf hendrawan et al., 2015; meilanie, 2016; suyahman, 2016; and interview with respondent e, 15/5/2020). this activity is carried out with the aim that children have good empathy and continue to develop. in addition, children are expected to have high empathy when they are adults. examples of behavior exemplified by teachers and parents will be easily imitated and applied by children in daily life (decety & meltzoff, 2011; decety & cowell, 2014; and hendrawan et al., 2015). conclusion 1 empathy must continue to be developed and maintained in schools, so that children 1an acknowledgment: i would like to express my gratitude and high appreciation to my supervisors, namely: prof. dr. haji juntika nurihsan and dr. mubiar agustin, both of them are the lecturers at the study program of educational psychology sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, who have given me encouragement and assistance to conduct studies and research on this topic, and write it in the form of an article, so that it can be published in a scientific journal. however, all contents and interpretations of this article are entirely my personal academic responsibility, and have nothing to do with the various assistance that other parties have given me. will always have growing empathy. habits, such as giving to infants and visiting orphanages, can improve children’s empathy abilities. one of the lessons that can increase children’s empathy is through storytelling using hand puppets. storytelling is an effective learning method, because it can form positive characters in early childhood. in fairy tales, there are good values; while hand puppet media is used as a tool to attract the attention of children, so that when teachers tell stories, they will follow the learning in a fun way. children learn many things from parents, especially about behavior. parents, who have high empathy, will find it easier to teach empathy to their children. parents can provide examples starting from how to appreciate the feelings and emotions experienced by their children and how to react to them. if children are neglected from childhood emotions, the child is difficult to have empathy for others and their environment. empathy is an aspect that is needed in social life in society. therefore, suggestions for further research on empathy are expected to be able to find out more into the factors that supporting and inhibiting the growth of empathy in early childhood, such as family background, the effect of gender on the level of empathy, and others.2 references aspers, patrik & ugo corte. 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(2000). “behaviour problems in the classroom: a model for teachers to assist learners with unmet emotional needs”. unpublished ph.d. thesis. south africa: university of south africa. available online also at: https://core.ac.uk/ download/pdf/43175719.pdf [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: december 22, 2019]. who [world health organization]. (2012). developmental difficulties in early childhood: prevention, early identification, assessment, and intervention in low-and middle-income countries – a review. geneva, switzerland: world health organization. available online also at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/ handle/10665/97942/9789241503549_eng. pd [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: december 27, 2019]. williams, carrie. (2007). “research methods” in journal of business & economic research, vol.5, no.3 [march], pp.65-72. yoshikawa, hirokazu & sarah kabay. (2015). “the evidence base on early childhood care and education in global contexts”. available online at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/ pf0000232456 [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: december 27, 2019]. zakrzewski, vicki. (2014). “debunking the myths about boys and emotions”. available online at: https:// greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/debunking_ myths_boys_emotions/ [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: december 22, 2019]. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 26 intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior islamic early childhood education in jambi, indonesia (source: http://insanmadanijambi.org, 2/3/2020) empathy must continue to be developed and maintained in schools, so that children will always have growing empathy. habits, such as giving to infants and visiting orphanages, can improve children’s empathy abilities. one of the lessons that can increase children’s empathy is through storytelling using hand puppets. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 1 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 mohammed sabrin a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries abstract: this paper analyzed elementary ted (teacher education) programs in the top performing timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) asian, i.e. japan, south korea, and singapore countries to explore how much emphasis should be placed on general content knowledge, versus general pedagogical knowledge, and versus methodological pedagogical knowledge. three theoretical frames of reference were analyzed during this process: whether the programs were consecutive or concurrent; the model of partnership followed between universities and field experience institutions; and the overall status of teachers in the society as categorized by position-based or career-based. methodologically, only peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2018 was used. it was found that the top performing asian timss countries usually: have consecutive and concurrent options; provide very intensive ted experiences to their students focusing on diverse and practical field experiences; place more emphasis on academic subject expertise than pedagogy; require students to major in at least one academic subject; have national accreditation institutes for unifying standards; their sponsor countries enforce various types of induction and professional development once in the field; offer salaries competitive with other professions that require the same amount of years and training; and, most importantly, only accept the top academic achievers into their programs. one of the recommendations is that since saudi arabia has just initiated “vision 2030”, a sort of privatization schema for the entire economy, it seems higher selection criteria will be critical to ted in line with this national vision. key words: teacher education; trends in international mathematics and science study; asian countries; comparative study. about the author: dr. mohammed sabrin is an assistant professor at the college of education, taibah university, office sb-29, college of education building b-13, al-madinah al-munawwarah, kingdom of saudi arabia. e-mail: patience62003@gmail.com suggested citation: sabrin, mohammed. (2018). “a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august, pp.1-16. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (february 17, 2018); revised (may 2, 2018); and published (august 30, 2018). introduction this paper analyzes elementary teacher education programs in the top performing asian (timss = trends in international mathematics and science study) countries. this is critical since there is still a very controversial and complicated understanding in the literature as to: how much emphasis should be placed on the gck (general content knowledge), as opposed to the gpk (general pedagogical knowledge), and as opposed to the mpk (methodological pedagogical knowledge). this study explores these questions, while analyzing the elementary ted (teacher education) programs of: japan, south korea, and singapore (cf haruo, hiroki & akira, © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 2 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis 2013; jho, hong & song, 2016; clement, 2017; and sabrin, 2018b). this study relies on peer-reviewed literature on these topics (jones, 2004; pautasso, 2013; and kelly, sadeghieh & adeli, 2014), published between 2000 and 2018 in the english language regarding ted programs that prepare students to teach at the “primary level”, a term that variously covers kg-8th grade or kg-5th depending on the context. we will now turn to three other theoretical frames of reference that will be utilized throughout this study. there is a spectrum of initial teacher education models found globally ranging from the concurrent to the consecutive. the consecutive model is where students receive a bachelor’s degree in a particular subject and then enroll in a diploma or masters level program of ted at the end of their degree. the concurrent model is that which combines specialized education in one or more academic subjects with ted (coursework and field experiences) throughout the completion of the bachelor’s degree and sometimes graduate studies (tatto et al., 2008; haskins, 2016; and sabrin, 2018a, 2018b and 2018c). the oecd (organisation for economic co-operation and development) countries, for example, can be generally categorized as belonging to one of these two categories or having both options within the same country (tremblay, lalancette & roseveare, 2012; and ingvarson et al., 2013:24 and 50). about 11 of 35 and 17 of 22 oecd countries with available data require a m.s. (master of science) degree for primary level and secondary level teaching respectively (oecd, 2014:502). these two ted models will be important indicators for describing the general framework of ted programs in this study. the second theoretical reference point for this study will be the type of partnership followed between universities and the institutions, where their field experiences take place. some scholars, such as j. buitink & s. wouda (2001) and d.w. maandag et al. (2007), have tried to synthesize the different types of collaboration between schools and universities into five models: (1) school as workplace or work placement model; (2) school with a central supervisor or coordinator model; (3) trainer in the school as a trainer of professional teachers or partner model; (4) trainer in the school as the leader of a training team in the school or network model; and (5) training by the school or training school model (buitink & wouda, 2001; and maandag et al., 2007). the main difference along this spectrum is that power and responsibility of the university gradually secedes to the school going from the first to the fifth model. this paradigm will be applied to ted field experiences in this study, when enough data is available to classify. the third theoretical reference point for this study will be the status and role of teachers in the society as categorized by position-based or career-based. generally, the former is more centralized and the teacher is a civil servant, compared to the latter being decentralized with more local decisionmaking and individual autonomy. careerbased countries are the likes of south korea, japan, and france —where all decisions regarding recruitment, pay, area of placement, and the like, are through the ministry of education; salaries in such systems tend to be much higher over time based on experience compared to position-based systems (ingersoll & merrill, 2011; greany et al., 2016; and sabrin, 2018a). position-based countries are those like the usa (united states of america) and uk (united kingdom), where matters are usually decided at local, district, city, or statewide levels and salaries tend to flatten out much faster in such systems; however, the individual has more control over their career as a teacher. career-based systems put the burden of finance, but luxury of control, with the government (particularly helpful when trying to avoid teacher shortages). teachers in such systems have the luxury of semi-permanent jobs, but reduced freedom (ingvarson et al., 2013:112; greany et al., 2016; and sabrin, 2018a). in sum, we could say that career-based positions are more prominent in more politically and culturally centralized countries, whereas position-based positions are in more politically and culturally individualistic (decentralized) or “market-based” countries. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 3 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 given the geo-political influence of japan on the world stage, this study will start with a discussion of their ted programs. findings and discussion firstly, context of japan. in the most recent timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) rankings, japan ranked fifth for 4th and 8th grade math. as for science, japanese students achieved fourth place for 4th and 8th grade respectively (timss website, 2016). japan follows the concurrent model for primary teachers, and the consecutive for secondary teachers, which seems to be the most popular trend in the top timss countries. japan offers an example of a country whose ted (teacher education) system has spurred some innovative ideas on the macro and micro levels. future teachers are essentially civil servants in line with the career-based model of teachers (ingvarson et al., 2013:112). ted in japan has traditionally been conducted only at the undergraduate level; however, in 2008, “graduate schools of teacher education” were established, reaching a total of 25 institutions by 2014. the main qualification to enter such programs is merely a bachelor’s degree, and the program itself is one to two years ending in a postgraduate diploma in teaching or master’s degree. although the ministry of education provides a framework, individual faculties at universities create their own curricula. most programs don’t require a concluding thesis to graduate; hence, a primary criticism is that students learn about research, but do not participate in it at any deep level (ingersoll et al., n.y.:41-54; and eid, 2014:4 and 9). on a policy level, a common response at the higher education bureau and national institute for educational policy research in japan, for example, was that although research was viewed as important in general, it was not deemed a high enough priority to include in the packed curriculum of ted students, which was centered on subject matter (eid, 2014:7-9; zhao, 2015; and nier, 2016). the malcontent towards the state of ted globally over the past three decades has called for national reforms that have been variously labeled “research-based”, “sciencebased”, “standards-based”, and the like. one of the most popular forms of research that has appealed to teacher educators and their students alike for its practicality has been action research, whereby a teacher is involved in a cycle of constant reflective research and implementation of data discovered about their own teaching on a daily basis to improve their teaching (darling-hammond, 2012). a study on the effects of the new graduate level ted in japan, including the attempted introduction of research (particularly action research) courses, will be looked at in the context of waseda university and tokyo gakugei university. however, first a brief outline of japanese ted is in order (appeid, 1990; arimoto, 2002; and darling-hammond, 2012). japanese ted (teacher education). all applicants to national universities in japan must take a national exam that will determine which university and program students can attend. similar to korea, japanese ted is very competitive as it is a very lucrative (economically as well as in terms of social status) profession,1 that is aspired to in the country. in 1999, for example, only one in 12 graduates secured a position. after bachelor’s degrees, students can teach in their appropriate fields or continue to graduate studies. upon appointment to a position, new teachers must participate in a mandatory one-year induction program, which includes 30 days of out of school training, and 60 days of in-school mentor-based training (schumann, 2006; ingvarson et al., 2013; and watson, 2016). new teachers are assigned a school-wide team of experienced teachers for mentoring through: giving and receiving observations, lectures, feedback on teaching materials and lesson plans, and collaborative planning and feedback among teachers. once in the field, teachers are also required to not only change grade levels within their schools every two 1teachers in south korea have starting salaries that are more than 2.5 times that found in countries, such as the usa (united states of america), and correspondingly over 90 percent of eighth grade students in countries, such as japan and south korea, have teachers who majored in mathematics in their university studies, compared to 61 percent of their counterparts in the usa. see, for further information, l. ingvarson et al. (2013:154); and mohammed sabrin (2018a and 2018c). © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 4 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis years to better grasp the connections between the skill sets and knowledge taught at each level, but even periodically change schools to teach a variety of learners (collinson & ono, 2001; and howe, 2005). teachers wishing to pursue graduate study must receive permission and follow up with the board of education; they can enroll in a two year full-time program (during which their salary continues unchanged); or they can enroll for one year as full-time and finish part-time while continuing to teach parttime during the latter portion; and the third option is to enroll in night classes for two years (there’s no financial support for this last method). there are also options for taking unpaid leave for up to three years without losing one’s position to pursue graduate studies (appeid, 1990; collinson & ono, 2001:236; and ingvarson et al., 2013). while no data has been found evaluating the effectiveness of the pre-service ted programs in japan, one can say that at least on paper things look very promising. and of course the timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) results are a helpful indicator as well. however, there has been some empirical data also collected on the students of graduate ted programs in japan, which we will turn to at the moment (cf collinson & ono, 2001; clement, 2017; and yenmez, 2017). a japanese case study. waseda university and tokyo gakugei university have recently undergone a change to offering their ted (teacher education) program at the graduate (masters) level. this transition has offered some benefits, but two main criticisms on the part of students have been that: the theory learned is not well connected to the practical field experiences; and that a research based approach to ted was not implemented (hood, 2001; shimizutani, 2011; and eid, 2014). while recent studies have shown that the overwhelmingly mainstream of the ted field (90%) don’t consider student evaluations a reliable enough indicator of the quality of ted to use in assessing quality (eid, 2014; and kyriakides et al., 2014), given the lack of literature on this recent change it doesn’t hurt to consider what has been said later on in this discussion. at tokyo gakugei university, in particular, the main objective of the ted program was seen as developing “school leaders who could coordinate between teachers to develop and continuously improve elementary or lower secondary school curriculum”; and research education was seen as a pivotal part of doing this (cf eid, 2014; seker & maehara, 2014; and project impuls, 2016). at the undergraduate level, for example, students are required to take at least four units of research methodology; at the graduate level, students must take at least two courses from an “educational practice development cluster” and a “research methodology in education cluster” (eid, 2014:10). in terms of the ted faculty at waseda university, they are not required to have research experience, nor are there any compulsory courses dedicated to research methodology; there are one to two elective courses on using questionnaires. again a primary theme among teacher educators was that most educators in japan don’t see the importance of research for teachers, particularly those not having trouble teaching, as well as the idea of there not being enough time to include such courses as obligatory, given students’ schedules of completing 46 credits in two years (tanaka, 2011; eid, 2014:11-13; and imafuku et al., 2015). speaking of students at the ted program of waseda university, students interviewed were often found to take 18 credits of compulsory subjects, and about 16 credits of electives, aside from a teacher-training course, which is completed simultaneously during 15 days (cited in eid, 2014:13). students also felt that there were not any opportunities to practice the issues they felt they needed most help on at their field experiences since mentors chosen for field experiences are based on the network of the university professor and not the matching of students to mentors or necessarily university philosophy of education to the pds or professional development schools (cf brooks, steen & williams, 2009; eid, 2014:14; and parker et al., 2016). regarding specific statistics on student opinions of the use of research in education © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 5 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 experiences at waseda university: 60% of students who provided data through interviews or questionnaires reported they had not been involved in any training programs related to research methodology; nor in data analysis (60%); action research (70%); writing a research report (60%); nor using data and research in decision-making (50%). as for courses, 90% felt that there was a lack of research methodology courses in the university education, and 60% believed they had not learned to conduct research during their studies. despite the policy framework data mentioned above, 70% even reported that they had not learned how to plan for research or prepare research questions, or design a survey questionnaire (cited in eid, 2014:18). the proverbial “take-away”. in sum, japan has concurrent and consecutive systems for primary and secondary education respectively (although we have not discussed the latter as it is outside the scope of this paper)—as well as adding to this an elaborate emphasis on the importance of induction for new teachers. formal induction programs are required in half of oecd (organisation for economic co-operation and development) countries with available data (bracey, 1997; arimoto, 2002; and oecd, 2014:503). even at the micro level, the use of collaborative “learning study” as a way to plan, teach, and reflect on one’s teaching has been found to not only help in japan (to which the method is attributed), but other countries who’ve imitated this practice (davies & dunnill, 2008), when applied correctly (parks, 2009). lastly, japan has also utilized case-based learning for ethics education in ted (maruyama & ueno, 2010; and doig & groves, 2011). secondly, context of south korea. as for south korea, in the most recent timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) rankings, south korea ranked 2nd for 4th grade math and first for 8th grade math. in science, south korean students achieved first place for 4th grade and third for 8th grade (sen & arican, 2015; and timss website, 2016). south korea accomplishes these rankings despite having the burden of some of the highest pupil per class ratios among oecd (organisation for economic co-operation and development) countries, about 36.7 average students per class in 2002 middle schools for example (kim & han, 2002:82). hence, it probably requires the most of our attention in this study. the primary ted (teacher education) program is concurrent and contains an extensive mandatory induction program (oecd, 2014:508). teaching in south korea can be categorized as career-based (ingvarson et al., 2013:112). the success of south korean ted probably stems from the immense amount of competitiveness in south korean national culture; however, this competitiveness has many structural aspects that can be easily imitated. the status of teaching, its commensurate salary, and the qualifications needed to enter the profession in south korea goes almost unrivaled compared to most of the other countries in this study (choi, 2014; oecd, 2016; and ncee, 2018). there are 13 institutions for primary level teachers to graduate from in south korea: 11 public “universities of education” (roughly one per major district), which are essentially 2 year colleges of teacher education that were extended to four year bachelor’s degree programs in 1981 and re-labeled universities (however they don’t offer any other concentrations or majors outside of ted); one public “national university of education”, aptly titled “korea national university of education”; and one department of elementary education at ewha woman’s [sic] university (private). most primary teachers are graduates from the first 11 universities of education mentioned; they are located in seoul, inchon, pusan, taegue, gwangju, gongju, chonju, cheju, chinju, cheongju, and chuncheon. about 5,000 candidates for elementary school teachers are produced yearly (kedi, 2006; ryu et al., 2006; and sook et al. eds., 2012). secondary level teachers come from a wide variety of avenues, including traditional undergraduate ted programs in the national university, graduate programs, and shorter alternative routes, the last of which have led to concerns over teacher quality at the © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 6 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis secondary level (kim & han, 2002:49-51; and cieb, 2016). while this paper focuses on primary level ted, the shortage of primary level teachers in south korea has led to occasional government exceptions for secondary level teachers to teach at the primary level, which has created tension in the education sector among professionals (appeid, 1990; kim, 2002; and ncee, 2018).2 hence, occasional points will be made regarding secondary level teachers when relevant. similar to the usa (united states of america) and uk (united kingdom), the existence of teachers graduating from alternative ted programs has created a “wild card” aspect to teacher quality (sabrin, 2018a, 2018b and 2018c). south korean ted. admission to a primary ted (teacher education) program depends on a high school diploma and a student’s score on a college scholastic ability test, like any other major. recently, interviews have also been introduced into the procedure given the competitive nature of the profession; teaching was the number one ranked profession sought after in surveys done on high school students (cited in cieb, 2016; and kwon, 2016). once admitted, students experience a concurrent curriculum of subject area content and pedagogy courses lasting four years. however, first they must finish what we might refer to as university breadth requirements. these general courses are 25% of the bachelor’s degree curriculum (35 credit hours); of this 25% and 65% are courses that are required in the humanities, natural and social sciences, and physical education. the other 35% of general courses are electives from within the aforementioned fields. the required courses are comprehensive foundational courses, while the electives are essentially advanced, more focused inquiry into specific topics of the required courses (cieb, 2016; and kwon, 2016). the other 75% of students’ coursework is coursework related to their actual education 2this problem has been exacerbated by the fact that there are more primary schools than secondary ones, but more educational institutes for secondary school teachers than for primary ones. see, for further information, o.n. kwon (2016). major—educational theory coursework, subject specific methods, the actual subject they have chosen to specialize in teaching and which will be written on their eventual teaching certificate, a graduation thesis, and their nine week field experiences. the field experiences are four courses in: observation practice, participation practice, teaching practice, and administrative work practice (kim & han, 2002:58; cieb, 2016; and kwon, 2016). upon graduation from their bachelor’s degree, students will be awarded a “grade two” teaching certificate; they can advance to a “grade one” certificate after three years of experience and 15 credit hours of in-service training. there is two weeks pre-employment training on-site, as well as six months of post-employment training to all serve as mandatory induction. all teachers must take two extensive employment examinations to be appointed as teachers in any public school. the first test is multiple choice: 30 points dedicated to the study of education, and 70 points dedicated to the study of their major subject. this test chooses 120% the expected size of employment. the second test consists of essay writing and an interview, given to those that passed the first test (kim & han, 2002:58 and 64; cieb, 2016; and kwon, 2016). in terms of further promoting competitiveness, the south korean government has also instituted a “master teacher” program, whereby the top teachers maintain teaching roles but also take on mentoring roles at the school and district levels, helping develop curriculum, pedagogical practices, and evaluation systems. to qualify, teachers must be grade one certificate holders and have 10 to 15 years teaching experience; an extensive screening process is involved, but upon appointment master teachers are given research grants of $150/month in addition to their normal pay (cieb, 2016; and yiannouka & tan, 2017). while all of these elements of south korean primary ted could rightly be seen as competitive, roughly 100% of graduates will be provided a position due to the shortage of elementary teachers, compared to 20% of secondary teachers (kim & han, 2002:65-66). © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 7 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 if it were not for the overall high standards of south korean education, such a statistic for primary teachers would be a catastrophic blow to maintaining high standards for teacher quality (kim & han, 2002; and townsend & bates eds., 2007). in terms of professional development, it is not mandatory; however, in-service training is offered about 180 hours (30 days) per year, and teachers can earn certificates that help towards promotions and wage raises (cieb, 2016). in-service training is required for promotion to grade one as a teacher, or wage raises; there are 1,322 institutions for in-service training as of 2002. however, the biggest critique of the existing in-service education is that it is essentially a mimic of the pre-service experience with no customization or change idiosyncratic to the experiences of existing teachers (kim & han, 2002:59-60). this is a rough outline of south korean ted, but we will provide a more detailed glance at some of the most popular institutions’ curricula (kim & han, 2002; cieb, 2016; and diem, levy & sickle, 2018). a south korean case study. as an example of the particularities of south korean ted (teacher education), one could look at the curriculum of the gyongin branch of the korean national university of education. since asian, and particularly south korean, ted programs are most lauded for their emphasis on subject matter, it behooves us to take a look at what an elementary level mathematics education major takes (kim & han, 2002; and choi, 2014). their content knowledge subjects are all two credits with the exception of introduction to geometry (which is three credits): linear algebra; calculus; probability and statistics; introduction to abstract algebra; topology; and introduction to geometry. see table 1. the pedagogy knowledge subjects are: assessment in mathematics education; theory of mathematics education; theory of teaching mathematics materials; psychology of mathematics education; and teaching problem solving—all are three credit courses except assessment in mathematics education, which is two credits. students must take at least 21 credits between these two categories. as can be seen there is a fairly balanced ratio between content knowledge and content specific methods; however, there is a roughly 70/30 ratio of subject coursework to pedagogy coursework at the secondary ted (teacher education) level. on a macro level, institutions’ of ted as a whole in south korea range from a 78/22 percent ratio of subject to pedagogy knowledge as in seoul national university to 60/40 percent found at ewha women’s private university (kwon, 2016). nonetheless, almost all public ted institutions are almost table 1: example of curriculum: seoul national university of education, 2002 classification: general subject offering credits required electives philosophy 2 and 15 subjects general logic 2 and 29 subjects 33(35) 49(51) 16 classification: specialized subject offering credits required courses optional courses specialized subject & extracurricular activities art and physical education specialized course teaching practice discretionary subject foundation of elementary education 2 and 8 subjects educational technology 2 and 2 subjects elementary school ethics education 12 and 25 subjects practice in elementary school physical education 1(20) and 6 subjects 12 courses by specialization, each worth 20 credits observational practice [1 week] and 4 subjects 2 courses 13 2 48(59) 101 5(10) (117-127) 20(20-30) 4 4 total 150(168-178) notes: the numbers indicate credit hours; the numbers in parenthesis indicate class hours. source: “seoul national university of education” in http://www.snue.ac.kr (28/10/2017). © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 8 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis exactly like the seoul national university distribution (kim, 2002:165). as can be gleamed from the above discussion, there are many aspects of south korean ted that might be highly beneficial if adopted elsewhere; however, due to psychological pressure that nations feel to follow countries politically more powerful, much of the recent discourse among south korean educators has been to implement ideas that have not been found to have profound effects in their host countries or may not be suitable for the contexts intended (kim, 2004; and choi, 2014). for example, on the level of policy a comparison of reform plans between the usa (united states of america) and south korea found that south korean reform efforts were often found to imitate ideas attempted in the usa 5-10 years prior. this pattern was found regarding issues of school staffing, introduction of merit-based pay for teachers, and increasing the length of ted between the 1980s and 2000s (yeom & ginsburg, 2007). some have also called for general decentralization similar to the usa to allow for more pedagogically creative and versatile graduates (kim, 2002; and sabrin, 2018a and 2018c). these are ideas that seem to contradict what we know about good ted, as will be seen in the analysis section, but were copied from the usa by south korea. attempts to introduce child-centered pedagogy in pre-schools has also been met by resistance from parents of private pre-schools who don’t believe in such an approach, and are in a position to exert influence since they are the ones funding the schools (kim, 2004; harkins & barchuk eds., 2014; and sabrin, 2018a and 2018c). it might be safe to also say that switching from a teacher-centered to student-centered approach would also take a more dialectical approach to pedagogy than currently exists at the ted programs themselves since it is well-known that without such deep excavation of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, they usually teach as they were taught as children (kim, 2004; jambor, 2009; and schreurs & dumbraveanu, 2014). thirdly, context of singapore. as for our last country, then, it is singapore. in the most recent timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) rankings, singapore ranked first for 4th grade math and second for 8th grade math. as for science, singapore students achieved second and first place for 4th and 8th grade respectively (timss website, 2016). as for the pedagogical model, then, singapore’s one ted (teacher education) institution offers a motley of consecutive and concurrent options (nie singapore, 2009; musset, 2010; and lau, 2015). it is actually one of the two countries in this study that offers options to specialize in a subject even at the primary level—the other being south korea. it is also ironically in the lowest tier of percentage of national expenditure spent on education compared to the other 15 countries in the recent teds-m (teacher education and development study in mathematics) data set, a data set which will be discussed in the analysis section (ingvarson et al., 2013:27, 31 and 40). singaporean ted. singapore only has one ted (teacher education) institution, the nie (national institute of education), which is a part of ntu (nanyang technological university). needless to say, singapore’s ted is highly centralized and, hence, career-based. ted is aligned with the format of the public education system: primary education is grades one to six; secondary is grades seven to ten, which would be referred to as lower secondary in typical international studies; and postsecondary, a term usually referring to tertiary education globally, is grades 11 and 12 (kong et al. eds., 2008; and moe singapore, 2016). most future teachers enter the nie after grade 12. teachers are trained in four concurrent and four consecutive program types at the nie. the concurrent programs are: two types of a general diploma program, each called option a and option c (two years each); a bachelor’s of arts in education; and a bachelor’s of science in education (four years each). the a diploma students are trained to teach two subjects, while those studying under the c option are trained to teach three subjects. these diploma graduates’ coursework takes place at the nie, just like the bachelor’s degree students, and they walk away qualified to teach, but © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 9 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 their degree is not considered a university level degree. furthermore, singapore intends to phase out the two-year diploma option and have 30 percent of the teaching force to have a master’s degree by 2020. all four of these concurrent programs are to teach at the primary level (kong et al. eds., 2008; ingvarson et al., 2013:99 and 108-109; and moe singapore, 2016). the four consecutive programs at the nie are all postgraduate: one is a postgraduate diploma in education to teach secondary; the second is a diploma to teach lower secondary; and the third and fourth are to teach primary, but labeled options a and c, which mean the same specialties as they did for the concurrent programs mentioned above. these postgraduate programs are one year, but could be considered five years if you consider the pre-requisite bachelor’s degree needed to enroll in them. within the school system, about 75 percent of teachers are graduates, and the other 25 percent are nongraduates (ingvarson et al., 2013:99 and 108109; and moe singapore, 2016). in terms of entrance to these programs, then, they are very competitive as the government has implemented vast reforms since 1996, raising starting salaries to the point that they are now similar to starting salaries for fields that require equivalent years of study, such as engineering, business, and law. all student teachers become moe (ministry of education) employees from the beginning of their ted programs, with guaranteed employment upon completion, and receive a full salary for up to two years will all the typical benefits of a civil servant in singapore (cf kong et al. eds., 2008; reid & kleinhenz, 2015; and moe singapore, 2016). this is aside from their tuition being paid and receiving various stipends to cover their educational expenses. in return, graduates must complete a bond of service after graduation lasting three to five years, depending on the type of program they graduate from. those who drop out or don’t complete their program are responsible for paying back money received prorated. this career-based approach to ted is not only compelling for students, but also appealing to governments who can centrally control for teacher shortages or oversupply (ingersoll et al., n.y.:71-83; goodwin, 2012; and moe singapore, 2016). entrance to the programs has varying qualifiers, but revolve around typical educational background certificates, applications, and interviews, but also mandatory proficiency in the english language. upon acceptance, students are assigned to schools as temporary full-time contract teachers, so that they live the life of a teacher from day one and ensure that they have made the right career choice, an appealing setup to be imitated. students accepted are often from the top third of the student population (ingersoll et al., n.y.:71-83; goodwin, 2012; and reid & kleinhenz, 2015). once within the program, standards are no less stringent. a grade of a c is acceptable and challenging to achieve, as there is little grade inflation. in terms of coursework, courses are counted in the aus (academic units); an au is about one hour per week of lecture or tutorial plus three hours of laboratory or fieldwork. each course is about two or three aus. field experiences are 10-12 aus. curricula vary among the eight various paths to graduation; however, all students must specialize in a subject even at the primary level (koedel, 2009; goodwin, 2012; and moe singapore, 2016). ba (bachelor of arts) degree seekers must specialize in an art and bs (bachelor of science) degree seekers must specialize in a science. all programs have a course in communication skills regarding how to use english for various topics, and most programs require about 20 hours of direct community service leadership and participation (ingersoll et al., n.y.:71-83; goodwin, 2012; and moe singapore, 2016). teaching practicums are required of all students, but emphasis on the practicum varies by program types: for the bachelor’s degree, it is 16 percent; for the diploma, it is 23 percent of total pre-service education; and for the postgraduate diploma, it is 25 percent. students often teach at the schools the government plans to appoint them to later, and cooperating teachers are, although © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 10 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis assigned by the schools, advised to have 2-3 years experience and be specialized in the same subject as the student (ingersoll et al., n.y.:71-83; kong et al. eds., 2008; goodwin, 2012; and moe singapore, 2016). induction is mandatory and typically involves four core in-service courses, like classroom management, basic counseling, working with parents, and reflective practice. additionally, new teachers are assigned a “team” of educators similar to japan—a “buddy” who is a teacher specialized in the same subject, a mentor who is a more experienced teacher teaching a similar subject, and a supervisor who is usually the head of the department he/she works in (ingersoll et al., n.y.:71-83; and goodwin, 2012). in regards to professional development, all teachers are entitled to 100 hours of paid pd (professional development) annually, which can be utilized for courses or even towards their pursuit of entire degrees. there is a also a career ladder where one can achieve levels of master teacher, the leadership track to achieve moe positions, or senior specialist for the more research inclined. singapore’s career ladder is said to probably be the best globally (darling-hammond & lieberman, 2012; goodwin, 2012; and bautista, wong & gopinathan, 2015). as has been seen, singapore offers a wide array of ted options for a country that is only half a million with about 27,000 teachers in 354 schools as of 2006; however, it makes sense for a country with the diversity that singapore has (ingvarson et al., 2013:81). on the micro level, something that is rarely seen globally is that in singapore, there is the concept of “white space” introduced in 2005, which is extra time given to teachers for interdisciplinary and more engaging lesson planning during their school work-day, from 7:30 am to 2 pm (cf parsons & beauchamp, 2012; ingvarson et al., 2013:123; and bautista, wong & gopinathan, 2015). a comparative look. coming full circle, we have seen that south korea is probably the strongest in teacher education, as measured by the timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) results of its students, among the three asian territories analyzed. although, it starts behind singapore at second place at the fourth grade level, it surpasses it by 8th grade. as for science, south korea starts off strong at first place at fourth grade, but drops to third (behind singapore at number two) by eighth grade. such a pattern seems expected given the focus on intensity in the south korean ted (teacher education) program, often associated with success in math, as opposed to the more avenues for creativity in the singaporean ted program. japan generally fell behind both of these countries in the timss rankings (appeid, 1990; kim, 2002; deng & gopinathan, 2016; jho, hong & song, 2016; and lee & tan eds., 2018). japan followed the concurrent model for its elementary ted programs, and the consecutive model for its secondary ted programs. it was also seen that similar to their european counterparts, the japanese have drifted toward graduate studies for ted, but as of this writing are not requiring it for employment like many european countries (shimizutani, 2011; tanaka, 2011; and sabrin, 2018b). japan also maintains minimalist control over curriculum, since they only provide a framework, while individual faculty at universities create their own curriculum. this is an approach well known about the infamous finnish ted system (maruyama & ueno, 2010; shimizutani, 2011; and tanaka, 2011). once in the field, japanese teachers not only have to periodically change the grade level they teach, but even schools, to diversify their teaching skills. teachers wishing to pursue graduate studies are even paid their normal teacher salary while doing so as long as they are full time or part time students, in the latter case of course they’d be teaching part time. although there was no direct evidence found regarding the nature of the university-school collaboration for field experiences, we can infer that given their disjointed nature and the fact that they merely took place based on who the university faculty had contacts with at the schools, that these experiences are somewhere between a network and training school model on the © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 11 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 buitink and wouda scale. japanese teachers had career-based positions. an idiosyncratic strength of japanese ted was the use of collaborative “learning study”, something that could possibly be duplicated successfully in similarly “cooperative” cultures, such as saudi arabia (sabrin, 2013; seker & maehara, 2014; and lee & tan eds., 2018). the primary weaknesses of japanese ted were found to be weak research skills inculcated in students and theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom not being well connected to field experiences. this latter point probably has to do with the fact that school mentors were merely chosen on the basis of university faculty networks, and neither the matching of educational philosophies between student and mentor, nor the matching of university philosophy to school philosophy (bracey, 1997; redecker et al., 2010; and shimizutani, 2011). as for singapore, then, it was our second best in timss, and offered concurrent options not only at the primary, like japan, but even secondary levels. needless to say, consecutive was offered at both levels of education as well. singapore is the most versatile of our three countries, and allows (rather requires) students to specialize in a subject matter, even if they are seeking primary level certification. singapore teachers are in career-based positions and participate in what seem to be partner model field experiences according to the buitink and wouda scale, given the harmony between coursework and field experiences (nie singapore, 2009; deng & gopinathan, 2016; and clement, 2017). singaporean future teachers have to handle rigorous admission requirements for ted, but end up in very well paying positions, to the extent that their starting salaries equate those of starting lawyers and engineers. interesting idiosyncrasies of the singaporean experience is that students are moe (ministry of education) employees from the time they enter their ted program. students receive a free education, with additional stipends, and are even guaranteed employment after graduation (nie singapore, 2009; goodwin, 2012; bautista, wong & gopinathan, 2015; and moe singapore, 2016). this career based approach, similar to japan, allows government to implement policy that avoids shortages and oversupply in teachers. also worthy of note is that their field experiences start from day one of their ted program, and not just near the end as occurs in even some concurrent programs globally, like some institutions in the usa (united states of america). similar to japan, students are assigned an entire team of mentors, not just one, and induction is mandatory; however, teachers are not required to change teaching grades or schools after entering the field as was the case in japan. similar to japan, singapore offers paid professional development, albeit more generous as it is annually permanent, but both can be used towards graduate studies or traditional forms of professional development (arimoto, 2002; bautista, wong & gopinathan, 2015; moe singapore, 2016; and sabrin, 2018a and 2018c). as for our last country, south korea, highlights include that ted is concurrent, there’s extensive mandatory induction, and ends up in a career based position, like the other two countries of the study. south korean ted has rigorous admissions criteria and a commensurate salary upon employment. it was noted that particularly in the case of south korea, secondary teachers can often teach primary level students, which confounds attempts to draw inferences about the structure of their ted programs being the primary reason for the results they achieve. the only weakness seems to have been that in-service education after graduation was just like pre-service education and not adapted to an employed teacher’s needs (kim, 2004; yeom & ginsburg, 2007; and lee & tan eds., 2018). more important than all of this, however, is that it seems that despite the fact that all three of these countries have no problem offering concurrent options for ted, they still outperform their european counterparts and everyone else for that matter in the timss rankings, even those purposely using consecutive programs to produce teachers with higher content knowledge. it seems that the secret behind this seems to be the fact that asian countries, such as those in this study, © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 12 mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis have students that by default outperform their peers in academic subject matter in other countries in the top ten timss list (kim, 2004; zhao, 2015; and lee & tan eds., 2018). the top performing asian countries only admit the top academically achieving students to their ted programs to begin with. a recent study regarding the top performing countries on pisa (programme for international student assessment) found that the top asian countries recruit their future teachers from the top third of each cohort: top five percent in south korea, and the top 30 percent in singapore (ingvarson et al., 2013:156 and 169). furthermore, as has been explicated elsewhere, despite the fact that the ratio of pedagogical knowledge to subject content knowledge in the top achieving timss countries is similar to those performing much worse on timss, the secret to success of the former is that they simply have quantitatively more hours of academic study overall for university students, cover more topics, and are more rigorous in their study of the subject matter (musset, 2010; jones & moreland, 2015; and sabrin, 2018a, 2018b and 2018c). conclusion we can say after looking at the ted (teacher education) systems of the aforementioned countries that it seems the top performing asian timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) countries usually have the following in common in their elementary ted programs: they usually have consecutive and concurrent options; attract the top academic achievers into their programs; have strict filters for admission; provide very intensive ted experiences to their students focusing on diverse and practical field experiences; place more emphasis on academic subject expertise than pedagogy; enforce students to major in at least one academic subject; have challenging criteria for graduation from the program; have national accreditation institutes for unifying standards; their sponsor countries enforce various types of induction and professional development once in the field; and, lastly, these countries offer salaries competitive with other professions that require the same amount of years and training since they are usually career-based positions. since saudi arabia’s educational system is also career-based, it seems higher selection criteria is the most important practice of this discussion that should be encouraged in saudi arabia and be worth the investment to attract and keep the most qualified teacher candidates. also, since saudi arabia has also just initiated “vision 2030”, a sort of privatization schema for the entire economy, it seems higher selection criteria will be critical to ted in line with this national vision.3 references appeid [asia and the pacific programme of educational innovation for development]. 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(2) resolution of united nation general assembly didin saripudin, m.si., andi suwirta, m.hum., and kokom komalasari, m.pd. are lecturers at the faculty of social studies education (fpips), indonesia university of education (upi) in bandung. they could be contacted at: saripudinupi@yahoo.com, atriwusidna@gmail.com and komsari36@yahoo.co.id didin saripudin, andi suwirta & kokom komalasari, re-socialization of street children at open house 92 1985: the use of children in the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs; (3) resolution of united nation general assembly 1988: convention on the right of the child; (4) resolution of united nation general assembly 1989: the effects of armed conflict on children lives; (5) resolution of united nation human right commission 1991: the special rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and (6) resolution of united nation human right commission 1994 (unicef, 1997a). one of children problem that is continually increasing is the problem of street children. the world report of children situation states that there are 30 million children living and taking care of themselves on the street. while in asia, recently there are approximately 20 million street children (tauran, 2004; and bakrie, 2006). the effect of economic crisis in indonesia, in the early 1997, makes the population of street children increase rapidly. its total number increases every year, therefore the last number recorded is 150,000 street children living in big cities throughout the republic of indonesia (suara karya, 27/11/2006). the increase of street children population due to economic crisis is getting worse. the street children face situation in which their rights as children are not fully fulfilled, starting from educational aspect, life survival, growth and protection (undp & depsos ri, 1997). they are susceptible from negative influences of their environment on the street. therefore, most of them present social deviant behavior. they are frequently identified as free, wild children who do not want to be regulated, involve in negative activities such as theft, fighting, drinking, drug user, free sex life and so forth (ertanto, 2003). meanwhile t.l. silva (1996) and undp & depsos ri (1997) state that the effort to restore their attitude and behavior into social norm is very important to do through re-socialization activity. street children in indonesia the cause of street children phenomena in big cities, according to macro view, is development strategy more directed to industrialization economic development centered on cities. it causes economic imbalance, either among regional agents or even economic agents. the striking difference between cities and villages, or even between small and big cities, has caused many rural people come to cities to earn for living. big cities are assumed more promising for their future and their family life. with insufficient education and skill they have, their dream is hard to reach. finally, after arriving at cities, they live in slump area, illegal hut and so on. if such condition continues until they make a family, it will have very important role in creating street children (parsons & bales, 1955; ballantine, 1983; soetarso, 2001; and saripudin, 2007). meanwhile a. raksanagara (1999) and soetarso (2001) also add that generally there are 3 factors causing the problem of street children, such as: (1) micro level, which is factor related to children and their family; (2) mezzo level, which is factor in group environment such as peer groups and school mates; and (3) macro level, which is factor related to macro structure such as wider social environment including social policy related to street children. in educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 93 micro level, the factors can be identified from related children and family, and special factor such as running off their family, being asked to work part-time because they are still studying or they have already dropped-out, wandering, playing or being asked by friends. in mezzo level, the factors are derived from the family such as being neglected, parents’ disability in providing basic needs, being rejected by their parents, wrong nursing or violence at home, difficulty in communicating with family or neighbor, being separated from parents, wrong treatment on children, limitation in taking care of children which is consequently causing children experience physical, psychological and social problems. while in macro level, the factor that can be identified includes poor society. children are asset to help family improvement. they are taught to work that leads to school drop-out. in other society, urbanization becomes a habit and children follow it. people reject and assume that street children are prospective criminal (hakiki, 2000). their choice to go through street life which is full of violence is based on the fact that living on the street is the only thing that can accept and give them earn, especially for most of them who do not have formal education and sufficient skill. on such condition, they can still peek at various economic opportunities existing on the street life. it makes their work choice as their means of livelihood become various, such as singing beggar, boot polisher, newspaper boys, street vendor, beggar, pellets roller (roll into pellets to resell), and even selling themselves (ishak, 2000). to get sufficient earn, they need long work hours. therefore, their existence for long time on the street is an inescapable thing. consequently, some social problems will occur, as following here: (1) there are a lot of children that are forced to leave their school or even do not study at all. this condition will be worsened by their parents’ attitude, which intends to exploit their children to get some money; and (2) continually the children will experience behavior changing toward norm and law violation (silva, 1996). unicef (united nations on international children and educational fund) defines street children are “those who have abandoned their home, schools and immediate communities before they are sixteen years of age have drifted into a nomadic street life” (unicef, 1997a). while undp (united nations on development program) & depsos ri (departemen sosial republik indonesia) defines street children as children who spend most of their time on the street or other public places to earn some money, drifting from one place to another (undp & depsos ri, 1997). study result of yayasan kesejahteraan anak indonesia (ykai) and childhope of philipina in 1995, divides two categories of street children based in time spending and activities they do. first is children working on the street (children of the street). children of this category spend most of their time on the street or in other public places to work and their earnings are used to support their family life. most of street children belong to this category are still communicated with their parents because most of them are still living with their parents. second is children living on the street (children on the street). the street children belong to this category spend most of their time on the street or other public places, but didin saripudin, andi suwirta & kokom komalasari, re-socialization of street children at open house 94 only a little time is spent for working. they are seldom communicated with their family and have tendency to conduct criminal action and drug use. some of them are homeless, they live and stay somewhere on the street (ykai, 1995; and ertanto, 2003). then undp & depsos ri (1997) add one more category, which is children who are vulnerable to be street children. this category includes children who are still living and communicating with their parents, and most of them are still studying. in their spare time (after going home from school), they work on the street and their earnings are used to pay school fee or support their family. street children live in social situation which has various setting. the first setting is social environment consisting of family, school and community where the family of street children live. it is the first environment for a child before he or she experiences some changes that make her or him get out of his social environment and become street children. those changes are economic difficulty of family or parent divorce, higher school fee, or rejection by surrounding neighbor that make them become victims and cannot live properly to grow normally. the second setting is street environment that is assumed as the second environment for street children. on the street, children interact with different people, even as personal or on behalf of department. some of them are the officer of dllajr (dinas lalu-lintas dan angkutan jalan raya), head of station, head of terminal, police, security officer, community social institution officer and so forth. this interaction process can create certain personality forms. for example, street children who have just been raid by the police will feel traumatic, but those who have been familiar about it will think that it is ordinary thing. polices protect street children who have been close to them from hoodlums exploitation. in this street environment, children also interact with various norms of street authority officer and some resistance forms toward them (durkheim, 1961; berman, 1996; and saripudin, 2007). the more specific setting of street children is marginal group life. street is an open place in which everyone can enter in and seek their fortune. these street children with limited competence feel difficult in differentiating positive and negative things, consequently there are internalized behavior in their behavior pattern triggered by survival. marginal group also becomes comparable situation for street children, so that although there is a force from street authority officer, they will always have a place in which their existence can be accepted and as if authenticating attitude and values they hold (mifflen & mifflen, 1986; and samin & ipec, 1998). meanwhile e.a.s. dewi (2004) states that the more specific from marginal group is peer group living among street children. most of them live in a group established due to similarity of regional origin, fate, hobby and etc. in their group, they develop strategy to make them be able to survive on the street, able to compete and master their work area. sometimes they create sub-culture adopted from street culture such wearing earrings, tattoo, creating their own language, looking for special place, and safe way if they sleep on the tree and so educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 95 on (ertanto, 2003). so e.a.s. dewi’s research (2004) observes that street economic activities can be analyzed from groups’ point of view in which most of street children do their job in group or even they do it by themselves, their peers do the same job in leuwipanjang terminal, bandung, such as street children coming from indramayu work to mop or wash bus in group and there is time division for them, for example in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. the other group coming from indramayu polish boot in intercity bus station. singing beggar, newspaper boy, and street vendor seems to be in group when they are working, and even they work alone, their peer who do the same job are near to them. their gross earnings are between rp. 5,000 up to rp. 20,000 per day, not included their meals and snack. some of them must remit their earnings to the older people or their parents every day or every week. generally the jobs of street children are divided into the jobs requiring capital and service. the job requiring capital is boot polisher, newspaper boys, street vendors and other jobs requiring material. service jobs include singing beggar, beggar, parking boys, “illegal” police (polisi cepek), moppe and bus washer, and other jobs requiring power. the second type has exploitation. at first type of exploitation, children are given or lent some capital by their boss and they remit to their boss, then the portion of them is arbitrarily managed by their boss in which their boss still has bigger profit. the second type of exploitation is the boss controls a certain area and job type, and children sell their service to him such as beggar and pellets roller or bus moppe and washer (hakiki, 2000; and dewi 2004). the existence of children in the street shows disturbed children’s social functioning. the concept of social functioning refers to the children’s situation and relation creating some role and tasks. children should have been in house situation, school and playing environment in which they relate with people on that situation and have special role such as studying, obeying their parent, playing and so on. the condition of earning for living and wandering by spending most of their time on the street absolutely deviates from social functioning. therefore, depsos ri (social department of the republic of indonesia) thinks street children as problem children. there are some situation, relationship and role that they can proceed. based on that assumption, street children need special and serious handling (sudrajat, 1998; depsos ri, 1999a; irwanto ed., 1999; and bksn, 2000). the handling of street children generally, the ways to handle these children are categorized as problem category such as waif, street children and children in special situation. it is done through 2 social services which are inside institution (panti) system and outside institution system. social services means that: “all effort devoted to prevent, handle and rehabilitate various trouble to secure life survival and children’s normal growth spiritually, physically and socially” (dinsosprov jabar, 2001:4). didin saripudin, andi suwirta & kokom komalasari, re-socialization of street children at open house 96 firstly, inside institution system. this social service is done through government institution or private agency to fulfill all children’ basic needs physically or psychologically including food, clothes, housing, education, recreation, health and so forth. the service through institution system is directed to the occurrence or learning process as the suitable education in the intact family because this institution is an institution whose role is as substitution family. secondly, outside institution system. this service emphasizes in social serviced based on society for children outside the institution system which functions to substitute, enhance and complete institution system service. especially for street children, institution service type has developed open house service and mobil sahabat anak (patilima, 2001; and hazmirullah & yudiawan, 2006). there are 3 service models given by central government in handling street children in indonesia, which are service through boarding house, open house and mobil sahabat anak (msa). besides the efforts from government, community social institution and islamic school have also conducted training. for example, in west java pesantren daarut tauhid cooperates with ri social department through the model of pemulihan fitrah insani anak jalanan dalam keluarga berkah, sanggar mitra keluarga and pondok anak mandiri, or even training given by pesantren al-muchlasin, babakan peuteuy kampong, ciluncat village, bandung regency that specializes in donating and educating street children and orphans. some community social institutions have also conducted street children handling through open house model as conducted by yayasan bahtera, yayasan limas, matahariku, yayasan garis, akatiga, and etc (arief, 2004; and moeliono & dananto, 2004). the development of open house the application of open house concept for street children in indonesia began with the pilot project in 1994 by open house for street children (ohsc) by yayasan kesejahteraan anak indonesia (ykai) located in pulogadung, east jakarta. ohsc is a semi-institutional agency with centre simple and open form function as facilitator between children and their family. the main purpose of ohsc is to return the children to their family with another alternative such as: living with their parent, living with their relatives, getting into boarding house, renting house by themselves or following their substitution (kompas, 12/9/1996). ykai (1995) reports the result of the program that it is known that open house can be well accepted by children because they feel that they are not treated formally, and they still have freedom to do their work on the street or terminal, it can be a place for them to express their mind and feeling and with the existence of open house they feel it as their own home and they know the term of “return or go home”. the result of ohsc pilot project is sent to ri social department, then in 1997 pioneering test in 7 big ports (jakarta, bandung, semarang, yogyakarta, surabaya, medan and ujung pandang) cooperated with united nations on development program [undp] (undp & depsos ri, 1997). in 1997, there was a leap of street children population along with the economic crisis hit indonesia. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 97 therefore, to do the acceleration in handling street children in 1998/1999 in indonesia, anggaran biaya tambahan (abt) or additional budget was provided, cooperated with asian development bank (adb). in handling those street children, some open houses in indonesia were established, especially in big ports. some of the open houses were managed by government, and the rest are managed by local ngo (non-governmental organization) cooperated with international ngo (berman, 1996; depsos ri, 1999a; depsos ri & adb, 1999; irwanto, 1999; and ishak, 2000). open house is defined as a place which is prepared as an agent between street children and people or parties who will help them (undp & depsos ri, 1997:2). meanwhile t.l. silva (1996) and soetarso (2001) define that open house is not a means to solve all problems, but rather an informal process which gives resocialization situation for street children toward value and norm system prevailed society. open house is the initial step for a child to get further service, so that it is important to build open house as comfortable, safe and enjoyable place for them. open house is a special service model for street children that gives possible situation to perform learning process and as the initial step for the next steps. the efforts in handling street children are conducted through 5 steps: step i: reaching out. reaching out is done by social agent to the central of street children activities intended to establish introductory contact and trust of children on the agent and also to socialize semi-institutional alternative education to make street children willing to follow learning activity in open house. step ii: assessment. assessment is done after the children get into open house to find out their problems (problem assessment) and to know their learning needs (learning need) experienced by them including their motivation to follow the study. problem assessment and learning needs can be reference in formulating learning strategy and process which will be done in open house. step iii: learning preparation. from the result of learning needs assessment, children, with open house officer (social worker, tutor and the head of open house) participation formulate the intention, time, material, method, strategy, facilities, media and learning evaluation based on pleasing situation. it can be supported by the rule prevailed in open house through working agreement between officer and children and among children. step iv: learning performance. in learning performance, social workers or tutors function as facilitators who facilitate the children in achieving their needs, either the needs of knowledge acquisition or competence achievement, and give guidance in solving the cases experienced through children’s potency enhancement. step v: termination. termination of learning is performed after all the intended needs have been reached, with productive and independent indicator, returning to their parents, substitution family, getting into islamic boarding school (pesantren) or children getting better job. those steps can be described as follow here: didin saripudin, andi suwirta & kokom komalasari, re-socialization of street children at open house 98 table 1 service steps source: modification of depsos ri (1999a:39) the purpose of open house is to assist street children in handling their problems and finding out the alternative to fulfill their living needs (undp & depsos ri, 1997:3). while its specific purposes are: (1) to re-establish children’s attitude and behavior suitable with value and norm prevailed in society; (2) to strive to return them to their home, if possible, or to the institution or other substitution agents, if educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 99 needed; and (3) to give various alternative service to fulfill children’s needs and prepare their future to be citizen. re-socialization of street children at open house street children are frequently identified as wild, free children who do not want to be regulated and do some negative activities such as fighting, drinking, drug using, free sex, etc. this condition happens due to the estranged or sometimes broken relationship with their parents. they live on the street without control and attention, moreover some of them are dissipated by their parents or consciously leave their family. living without parent make them possible to do whatever they want. the influence of street and their peer on the street makes their personality gradually adapt with the life of people on the street. the longer they live on the street, the stronger the influence on their attitude and behavior (ishak, 2000; and riehm, 2000). according to undp & depsos ri (1997), t. sudrajat (1998) and m. ishak (2000), the effort to restore their attitude and behavior toward social norm is very important to do through re-socialization activity. re-socialization emphasizes in children’s attitude and behavior changing. it should be done before the enhancement program is applied on them. re-socialization gives them knowledge, resuscitation and strength for their own competence in facing their daily life and solving their problems. therefore, the purpose of street children re-socialization in open house is to make street children have good and positive attitude and philosophy of life, perform good social behavior, the competence to manage themselves and the competence to handle their life obstacle. in re-socialization of street children, tutors apply friendship and equality principle. although they are still young, their experience on the street has made them more mature. re-socialization avoids instruction pattern and gives continual suggestions in which children are objects. street children are placed as subject for change that will be made on them. the prevailed principle is that tutors cooperate with street children, not work for street children. tutors and street children discuss to formulate activities, give consideration and motivate selected effort. in the last re-socialization, street children are hoped to be able to help themselves (undp & depsos ri, 1997; and unicef, 1997b and 2000). some activities in street children re-socialization are general or daily social assistance consisting of the first, daily attitude and behavior such as self-health, selecting and eating rule, taking care of health, speech courtesy, literacy, religion, house cleanliness, relationship with parent, peer and neighbor, work security, role induction, recreation and teaching of social norms. the second is case assistance, which is a guidance to handle obstacle in street children life consisting of avoiding, reducing and stopping of smoking, drinking alcohol, drug, cocaine, free sex, cut class, fighting, stealing, hating or compete against their parents and hostile with their friends (depsos ri, 1999c). street children re-socialization is conducted especially when there is a problem or case that needs assistance. general or daily didin saripudin, andi suwirta & kokom komalasari, re-socialization of street children at open house 100 assistance is done continually. case assistance is performed when the problem occurs and its handling time depends on the problem experienced by children. it may need short or long time if the case has been big problem (depsos ri, 1999a). methods used in street children re-socialization are: (1) personal social assistance, which is assistance for children personally or one by one, either for guidance or cases; (2) group social assistance, which is assistance done in group in giving material or information to all children or assistance for children who have similar problem; and (3) home visit, which is visiting and guiding children and their family and involving their parent or other family members (depsos ri & ykai, 1999; and bksn, 2000). these assistance and learning use discussion technique, advice giving, socio drama, role playing, quiz, test, reward and punishment giving, writing, story telling, motivation giving, advocacy, information giving, experience exchanging and feeling expressing (depsos ri, 1999a; 1999b; 1999c; and 1999d). conclusion and recommendation the performance of street children re-socialization program (open house) by government, or even ngo, has been quite successful. the evaluation result shows some findings such as: firstly, perception of street children, parent of street children, facilitator of open house and social perception about open house appreciate positively because open house can give advantages physically or non-physically; and secondly, the concept of open house implemented is a response toward some of children’s needs and situation experienced on the street (sugiarta, 2002; and saripudin, 2007). while e.a.s. dewi’s study finding (2004) presents that there are still some weaknesses in the program of street children re-socialization in open house, such as: (1) the number of street children is not significantly decreased since this program conducted from 1999 to 2004; (2) the limited open house number makes not all street children can follow this program; and (3) the given service is not suitable with their needs, the problem of street children and the growth level of street children age. street children are complex social problem phenomena. the factor causing this problem is very multi dimensional, either internal or external. therefore, the approach toward them should be integrated; it means that it is not intended only for individual children but also for the people surrounding them such as family, friends, peers, schoolmate or close society. moreover, if we understand that the problem of street children are related to wider macro issue such as poverty elimination, it will cause closed access to human resources in society and social service including health and education, and even will relate to the government policy in providing service for society. the approach toward street children should be packaged based on their needs, problems and growth level of children age. besides that system approach is also done considering that children’s problem is a product of environment, either the smallest environment of family, community or national and even international. the pattern of approach for children re-socialization and its educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 101 environment is designed in the form of curriculum in line with the problem and needs experienced by street children. thus, the whole component on the curriculum must be prepared such as material, method, media, purpose, process and output or result. references arief, r. 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(1995). profil rumah singgah anak jalanan (open house for street children). jakarta: ykai. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 55© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com neha sharma a study of the impact of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession abstract: the education at the primary level is the platform, where we prepare the knowledge base in the mind of the students; so, it is essential that the instructions given to them should be such which help them to internalize the concept to the optimum level possible, and the teacher is the one who can do this task efficiently. this study examined the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. the sample was drawn with the help of simple random sampling and incidental sampling. firstly, the 14 primary schools were selected with the help of simple random sampling and 201 teachers from these schools were selected with the help of incidental sampling from aligarh city, uttar pradesh, india. the sample consisted of 201 primary school teachers selected from 14 primary schools of aligarh city. out of total sampled teachers 117 were trained and 84 were untrained. the distribution of total sampled teachers according to their salaries, 92 were found above inr (rupee india) 5,000; and 109 were found below inr 5,000. the investigator used attitude scale developed by m.r. verma (1972) to assess the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. the obtained data were analyzed by calculating mean, standard deviation, and two-way anova (analysis of variance). the result indicated that salary have a significant impact on the attitude of teachers towards teaching profession, whereas the qualification does not bring any impact on the same and the interaction effect of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers found to be non-significant. key words: attitude, primary level, aims of education, teaching profession, teaching practice, salary, qualification, and significant and non-significant impact. about the author: neha sharma is a research scholar at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. for academic purposes, the author are able to be contacted via phone at: 91-9456242258 or via e-mail at: nehaasharma123@gmail.com how to cite this article? sharma, neha. (2015). “a study of the impact of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.5562. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes. com/06-a-study-of-the-impact-of-qualification-and-salary/ chronicle of the article: accepted (june 21, 2015); revised (july 23, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction kothari commission (1964-1966) emphasize the role of teachers in india. teachers build the future citizens of the country. an educational institution performs a significant function of providing learning experiences to lead their students from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. the key personnel in this transformation are teachers (day, 2000; and ellis & mcnicholl, 2015). the education at the primary level is the neha sharma, a study of the impact of qualification and salary 56 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com platform where we prepare the knowledge base in the mind of the students, so it is essential that the instructions given to them should be such which help them to internalize the concept to the optimum level possible; and the teacher is the one who can do this task efficiently. teacher education has a central role in the improvement of educational systems around the world. when system outcomes are measured in economic terms and teachers and teaching are conceived of as variables, it is also clear that the concept of improvement is underpinned by a particular system of values (ellis & mcnicholl, 2015). education has been regarded as a matter of national importance, and an indispensable agency on difficult task of building a nation (belagali, 2011). the whole process of education is shaped and molded by the human personality called the teacher who plays a pivotal role in any system of education (maliki, 2013). there are three basic tenets in the discipline of education: aims of education, curriculum, and methodology; and teachers plays the key role to maintain the balance among the three. aims of education does not meet to their means until unless the teacher internalize aims of education in their teachings so to impart the knowledge to their pupils which is the necessary aspect of the teaching. the teacher’s attitude is an important variable in classroom application of new ideas and novel approaches to instruction (reinke & moseley, 2002). s. hussain et al. (2011) defined “attitude” as a response which can be positive or negative to any situation, events or objects. individual’s attitudes towards their profession have an effect on their performance. it is also acceptable for the teaching profession, because the attitudes and perceptions of a profession affects the perception of professional competence and achievement; teachers attitude towards their profession have a great importance in fulfilling the requirements of the profession (terzi & tezci, 2007; and dumusoglu, yanik & akkoyunlu, 2009). factors that affecting the teacher’s attitude were as follows: (1) administration. (2) working conditions, (3) monetary benefits, (4) occupation level, (5) the work group, (6) age, (7) race and sex, (8) education level, and (9) personal adjustments (rajeswari, 2008). the teacher is expected to not only master the subject and various methods of teaching, but also to show that he is capable of selecting the various study materials according to the teaching goals and varied group of pupils. he also possesses the potentials to create learning environment for the students (vermunt and verschaffel, 2000). d.m. smith (1993) and s. hussain et al. (2011) summarized the relationship between teacher’s attitude and teaching as shown in figure 1. when the cycle is examined, it can be obviously understood that teachers attitudes towards profession have an effect not only on teaching practice but also on their students. primary education, or basic education as mahatma gandhi suggested, caters to the most fundamental need of all men and is something that men cannot do without. it is right to such education that universal declaration of human rights mention as a human rights (cited in singh, 2010). primary school teachers have a significant role in their students in shaping their attitudes and achievement in their classroom; so, it is essential on the part of the teachers that they should have a favourable attitude towards the profession only then they can inculcate good academic skills in their students. signifi cance of the study. the present study is mainly concerned with the attitude of school teachers towards the teaching profession at primary level. many studies have been done keeping in view the attitude of teachers at secondary level in relation to different psychological variables; and some studies have been done on prospective teachers if primary teachers were taken then they are from different ethnic origins, so the investigator found a research gap, because very small number of studies is performed at the primary level which is the base of all upper levels of education. if the teacher is not satisfied with their profession, then, it is very difficult for them to perform their duties efficiently. in this study, investigator studies the impact of qualification educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 57© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. review of the related literature s.e.r. kauffman & b.e. sawyer (2004) conducted a study on the primary grade teachers self-efficacy, beliefs, attitude towards teaching and discipline and teaching practice in relation to the rc (response classroom)’s approach revealed that teachers, who reported using more rc practices, reported greater self-efficiency, beliefs and teaching practice priorities that were consistent with those of the rc approach. teachers at rc schools were also more likely to report positive attitude towards teaching as a profession and to hold disciplinary and teaching practice priorities that were aligned with the goals of rc approach. a. duatepe & o. akkus (2004) investigated the attitude of in-service and pre-service primary school teachers towards teaching profession and found that the pre-service and in-service teachers in this study yielded positive attitude towards teaching profession; and there was a significant difference between pre-service and in-service teachers attitudes towards the teaching profession. a.u. osunde & t.i. izevbigie (2006) made a study an assessment of teacher’s attitude towards teaching profession. the study attempted to obtain empirical evidence teachers attitude towards the teaching profession in midwestern nigeria. to execute this study, 400 post primary school teachers randomly drawn from 40 post primary schools in the area under study. the teachers’ attitude questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. the result of the study indicated among others that the teachers are not well financially remunerated and that they are worked upon because of delay in payment of salaries and allowances, thereby having a lot of sense of belonging. this situation has resulted in the low esteem and status of the teachers and the teaching profession in the society. findings have also revealed that poor conditions of service, wider negative influence and teachers negative personal; and professional behavior are critical factors responsible for teachers low status (osunde & izevbigie, 2006). s. ghosh & s. bairagaya (2010) investigated the attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession in relation to some demographic variables. the result showed that there was no significant difference in attitude of secondary school teacher towards teaching profession in relation to their educational qualification, but they found significant difference in relation to sex, caste, and teaching experience (ghosh & bairagaya, 2010). s. hussain et al. (2011) found that secondary school teachers do not possess a positive attitude towards the teaching profession. a.v. bagmagond & c. hirolli (2011) studied professional attitude of women teachers on the basis of their qualification and marital status. the findings revealed that there was no significant difference between teacher’s attitude towards profession teaching practice student’s attitude & academic achievement figure 1: the relationship between teacher’s attitude and teaching (source: d.m. smith, 1993; and s. hussain et al., 2011) neha sharma, a study of the impact of qualification and salary 58 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com graduate and post graduate women teachers of secondary school with respect to their attitude towards teaching profession (bagmagond & hirolli, 2011). a.e. maliki (2013) investigated the attitude of teachers towards the teaching profession. the study utilized descriptive survey research design. a total number of 150 teachers were randomly selected from secondary schools in the study area. the result indicated that teachers’ have a negative attitude towards the teaching profession (maliki, 2013). objectives of the study and hypotheses the present study has the following objectives: (1) to study the impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; (2) to study the impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; and (3) to study the interaction effect of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. null hypothesis are framed which are as follows: (1) there is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; (2) there is no significant impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; and (3) there is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. method sample. in the present study, the sample was drawn with the help of simple random sampling and incidental sampling. firstly, the 14 primary schools were selected with the help of simple random sampling and 201 teachers from these schools were selected with the help of incidental sampling from aligarh district in uttar pradesh, india. the sample consisted of 201 primary school teachers selected from 14 primary schools of aligarh district. out of total sampled teachers, 117 were trained and 84 were untrained. the distribution of total sampled teachers, according to their salaries, 92 were found above inr (rupee india) 5,000; and 109 were found below inr 5,000. see table 1. description of the tool used. the investigator used attitude scale developed by m.r. verma (1972) at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india, to measure attitude towards teaching profession. this attitude scale consists of 23 statements of likert type representing attitude towards various aspects of teaching job, such as economic rewards, freedom in planning and execution of work, teacher-pupil relationship, and working conditions. the reliability coefficient of the attitude scale is 0.91 as reported by its author and as calculated by test – retest method. the range of scores on this tool extends from 23 to 115 with the mean of 69. responses are made on a 5 point scale and the response category are assigned weights from 1 to 5. the scoring scheme used was to given a score of 5 to each responses marked by under “strongly agree”; a score of 4 to each response marked under “agree”; a score of 3 to each response marked under “undecided”; a score of 2 to each response marked under “disagree”; and a score of 1 to each response marked under “strongly disagree”. this was done for positive statements; in case of negative statements, the scoring method was reversed. the total score indicates favorableness or unfavorableness of the attitude of the teacher towards the teaching profession. table1: distribution of the sample by qualification and salary total number of selected schools total number of primary school teachers qualification salary trained untrained above inr 5,000 below inr 5,000 14 201 117 84 92 109 educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 59© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 2: mean scores and sd for the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession by qualification and salary descriptive statistics dependent variable: attitude qualification salary mean std. deviation n trained above inr 5,000 85.17 9.574 71 below inr 5,000 81.39 12.328 46 total 83.68 10.849 117 untrained above inr 5,000 86.24 8.814 21 below inr 5,000 80.92 10.544 63 total 82.25 10.350 84 total above inr 5,000 85.41 9.369 92 below inr 5,000 81.12 11.278 109 total 83.08 10.641 201 table 3: summary of two way anova of primary school teachers towards teaching profession source sum of squares degree of freedom mean squares f sig. qualification 3.606 1 3.606 .033 .857 salary 832.921 1 832.921 7.561 .007** qualification*salary 23.872 1 23.872 .271 .642 ** significant at 0.01 level statistical techniques used. the obtained data were analyzed by calculating mean, standard deviation, and two-way anova (analysis of variance) with the help of spss (statistical package for social sciences) version 16.0. the analysis and interpretation has been done objective wise. results and interpretations table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession by qualification and salary. with the mean score of 83.68 and a standard deviation of 10.85, trained teachers appeared to be superior to untrained teachers who recorded mean score of 82.25 and a standard deviation of 10.35. with respect to salary, teachers who draw salaries above inr (rupee india) 5,000 had a mean score of 85.41 with a standard deviation of 9.37 appeared to have higher attitude scores than the teachers who draw salaries below inr 5,000 had a mean score of 81.12 with a standard deviation of 11.27. the result of the table 3 revealed that qualification has no significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. hence, the mentioned null hypothesis, i.e. “there is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. the result also reported that salary has a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. hence, the mentioned null hypothesis, i.e. “there is no significant impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is rejected. the mean scores showed that teachers having salary above inr (rupee india) 5,000 (85.41) were found to have more favourable attitude than the teachers having salary below inr 5,000 (81.12). there is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. further, the results reported that, as indicated in the figure 2, the interaction of variables, i.e. qualification and salary is not neha sharma, a study of the impact of qualification and salary 60 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com significant as the f-ratio is .271, which is not significant at 0.01 levels. hence, it is concluded that the interaction of qualification and salary does not have effect on attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. hence, the null hypothesis, i.e. “there is no significant impact of interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted; which means salary have a significant impact on attitude of teachers towards teaching profession, but when it was combined with qualification than their interaction does not bring a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. major findings and discussion. the first finding of the study showed that the “there is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. a.v. bagmagond & c. hirolli (2011) study support the above finding as they found no significant difference between graduate and post graduate women teachers of secondary schools with respect to their attitude towards teaching profession (bagmagond & hirolli, 2011). in the same line, s. ghosh & s. bairagaya (2010) revealed that there was no significant difference in attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession. the second finding of the study reported that salary has a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. the finding is in harmony with the study of a.u. osunde & t.i. izevbigie (2006) indicated that teachers were not well financially remunerated and that they are worked upon because of delay in payment of salaries and allowances, thereby having a lot of sense of belonging. this situation has resulted in the low esteem and status of the teachers and the teaching profession in the society (osunde & izevbigie, 2006). the third finding revealed that there is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. this is relevance with the studies that be conducted by c. day (2000); a.e. maliki (2013); and v.k. sabharwal (2004). conclusion 1 the teacher has an important role in the field of education and have remarkable impact on the minds of the students. the teacher’s roles being multiple and prone to change with change in stakeholders’ expectations of education, teacher education would be failing in its duty if it did not prepare teachers who can perform professionally in keeping with “professional” norms and standards. teaching is a complex and demanding profession. to sustain their energy and enthusiasm for teaching, teachers need to maintain personal commitment to the job. at the end of the study, it was found that the attitude of teachers significantly affected by their salary, also supported that finding and 1acknowledgments: the author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors. in addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge the information provided by the primary school teachers. however, the author declares no conflict of interest. figure 2: showing interaction effect of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 61© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com recommended that the government should increase the salaries of teachers and take matters concerning teachers as high priority, so that they do their profession willingly. but, qualification of the teachers does not make any difference between the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession, because now a day’s training might be given to the teachers was not appropriate, it does not affect the cognitive and affective domain so that it brings some difference between those who are trained and untrained. so, administration should pay attention to their training and economic profile also which provide them an opportunity to build a better attitude towards the teaching profession. some of the research problems related to this area are given follow, which may be taken in the future: (1) this study is confined to only aligarh city and its finding cannot be applied to all the levels of education as it mainly concerned with the primary education, so the study will be performed after taking samples from the other city or bifurcating the sample on the basis of location, caste, community etc. on the different level of education; (2) a comparative study will be conducted between government and private secondary school students; and (3) the impact of organizational climate on the attitude of teachers towards teaching profession will also be studied.2 references bagmagond, a.v. & c. hirolli. (2011). “a study of professional attitude of women teachers on the basis of their qualification and marital status” in edusearch, 2(1), pp.74-78. belagali, h.v. (2011). “a study of teachers attitude towards teaching profession of secondary school in relation to gender and locality” in international referred research journal, 3(32), pp.18-19. day, c. (2000). “stories of change and professional development: the costs of commitment” in c. day et al. [eds]. the life and work of teachers: international perspectives in changing times. london: falmerpress, pp.109-129. duatepe, a. & o. akkus. (2004). “the attitude towards teaching profession of in-service and pre-service 2statement: herewith, i have declared that this paper is my original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. primary school teachers” in pedagogika: pedagogy studies, 70, pp.61-65. dumusoglu, c., c. yanik & b. akkoyunlu. (2009). “turkish and azari student teachers attitudes towards the teaching profession” in hacettape university journal of education, 36, pp.76-86. ellis, v. & j. mcnicholl. (2015). transforming teacher education: reconfiguring the academic work: new delhi: bloomsbury publishing house. ghosh, s. & s. bairagaya. (2010). “attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession in relation to some demographic variables” in edusearch, 1(1), pp.55-58. hussain, s. et al. (2011). “attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession” in international journal of academic research, 3(1), pp.985-990. kauffman, s.e.r. & b.e. sawyer. (2004). “primarygrade teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes toward teaching, and discipline and teaching practice priorities in relation to the responsive classroom approach” in the elementary school journal, 104(4), pp.321-341. maliki, a.e. (2013). “attitude of teachers’ in yenagoa local government area bayelsa state nigeria towards the teaching profession: counseling implications” in international journal of research in social sciences, 2(2). available online also at: http://www.ijsk.org/uploads/3/1/1/7/3117743/ education_10.pdf [accessed in aligarh, india: march 2, 2015]. osunde, a.u. & t.i. izevbigie. (2006). “an assessment of teachers attitude towards teaching profession in midwestern nigeria” in the elementary school journal, 126(3), pp.462-467. rajeswari, s.m. (2008). stress and attitude of women teachers. new delhi: discovery publishing house pvt. ltd. reinke, k. & c. moseley. (2002). “the effects of teacher education on elementary and secondary pre-service teacher’s belief about integration: a longitudinal study” in action in teacher education, 24, pp.31-39. sabharwal, v.k. (2004). “can teacher education professionalize itself ?” in anweshika: indian journal of teacher education, 1(2), pp.45-55. singh, v.k. (2010). teaching competency of primary school teachers. new delhi: gyan publishing house. smith, d.m. (1993). “pre-service elementary teachers’ attitude toward mathematics and the teaching of the mathematics in a constructivist classroom”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. usa [united states of america]: oklahoma state university. terzi, a.r. & e. tezci. (2007). “necatibey faculty of education students’ attitudes to teaching profession” in theory & practice of educational administration, 52, pp.593-604. verma, m.r. (1972). “job adjustmen and its relationship with teacher efficiency” in journal of education and psychology, 30(3), pp.198-203. vermunt, j. & l. verschaffel. (2000). “process-oriented teaching” in r. simons, j.j. van der linden & j. duff [eds]. new learning. netherlands: kulwer academic publishers, pp.209-225. neha sharma, a study of the impact of qualification and salary 62 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com teachers of india (source: http://www.curriculum-magazine.com, 15/4/2015) teaching is a complex and demanding profession. to sustain their energy and enthusiasm for teaching, teachers need to maintain personal commitment to the job. at the end of the study, it was found that the attitude of teachers significantly affected by their salary, also supported that finding and recommended that the government should increase the salaries of teachers and take matters concerning teachers as high priority, so that they do their profession willingly. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 109 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare syarifah setiana ardiati effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness abstract: happiness is one of the important aspects that need to be exploited and developed by individuals in various professions. one of the professions to develop happiness is the teacher. teachers are professions that are vulnerable to stress that can rot on unhappiness. attention centered care can be a necessary alternative for teachers, who have an indispensable awareness on the internal individual. effective teaching training to increase happiness in senior high school teachers. the research method used quasi non-equivalent experiments pre-test and post-test control group design. subjects in the study were 25 senior high school teachers. the instrument in this study is ohq (oxford happiness questionnare). the results showed an increase in training before and after training. training based on mindfulness can be developed as an alternative treatment for happiness for teachers. mindfulness is a state that can be achieved by using the potential of internal resources, so the practice of mindful teaching is actually very possible by teachers through structured exercises. through mindful teaching training, teachers have positive feelings through positive emotions, feel good about the present, and have an optimistic attitude toward the future and to achieve happiness. happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as positive activities favored by the individual. lastly, the researchers can further test the effectiveness of mindful teaching training with the number of samples more; and can, then, test the effectiveness of mindful training with comparing mindful teaching images at different school levels, such as in kindergarten, elementary, or high school teachers. key words: mindful; mindful teaching; teacher happiness. about the author: syarifah setiana ardiati, s.psi. is a student of educational psychology at the sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail at: syarifahsetianaardiati@gmail.com suggested citation: ardiati, syarifah setiana. (2019). “effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february, pp.109-126. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (december 14, 2018); revised (january 15, 2019); and published (february 28, 2019). introduction every individual, whether children, teenagers or parents, want happiness. happiness is important, because it can have a positive impact on the functioning of human beings themselves in various aspects of life, such as work, education, social relations, and health. happiness is an important need for human beings in every function and everyday activities (oishi & koo, 2008; charles & carstensen, 2010; and umberson & montez, 2010). happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as the positive activities favored by the individual (seligman, 2011; desmet & pohlmeyer, 2013; and jackson, 2013). having individual happiness can be more productive to life and a barrier to stress. the existence of unhappiness is possible starting from the expectations and needs that are not met that result in stress (mauss et al., 2011; and bhui et al., 2016). education and happiness are closely © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 110 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching related, where happiness is the primary goal of education. the responsibility of teachers in schools is not only as an academic educator, but also as a figure that also direct the development of student personality. it is also reinforced by the view that education is the main route to direct competent, characteristic, and resourceful individuals, who are ready to contribute to the development of the world. teachers have an important role in creating a fun and quality school climate (skinner & belmont, 1993; suharsaputra, 2013; and zosh et al., 2017). arvan pradiansyah (2008), as cited in r. aziz (2011), said that the happiness of teachers will determine the effectiveness of transferring knowledge to students, which means that when a teacher is happy, he/she can adapt him/ her-self to the identity and integrity he/she possesses, so that easily follow the way and speed of thinking of his/her students; therefore, students can obtain a complete knowledge (pradiansyah, 2008; and aziz, 2011). such a complex role, on the other hand, faced with the fact that the teacher is one of the professions that have a high enough pressure level, so susceptible to stress. according to research conducted by syamsul rizal (2015), and other scholars, suggested the result that job stress affects the performance of teachers, the worse a teacher’s behavior as an indication of symptoms of work stress, the lower the performance of the teacher (sprenger, 2011; rizal, 2015; and schonfeld, bianchi & luehring-jones, 2017). this stressful condition is due to the high targets that teachers must fulfill either from parents, institutions to work, to government, but not accompanied by adequate welfare. the high pressure ultimately brings other logical consequences that teachers have difficulty applying effective learning, disruption of psychological well-being, to academic achievement that is not as expected (mulford, 2003; williams, 2010; and zahedani et al., 2016). individual, who work with happiness, is an individual who has feelings positive at any time, because the individual the most know how to manage and affect the world of work so as to maximize performance and give satisfaction in work (pryce, 2010; and litchfield et al., 2016). ed diener (2000) uses the term welfare subjective, or subjective wellbeing, to describe happiness (diener, 2000). jati ariati (2010), and other scholars, who examine the relationship between subjective well-being with job satisfaction finding, there is a positive relationship between subjective wellbeing with job satisfaction. therefore, there is a relationship between happiness with job satisfaction (ariati, 2010; bowling, eschleman & wang, 2011; and unanue et al., 2017). based on preliminary data obtained through interviews of several teachers in one school, there are some problems that cause pressure for teachers, such as changing curriculum matters; the attitude of students who are sometimes passive in the classroom; and there are some teachers who teach in certain subjects but not with a background in the subject area. the difficulties faced make some teachers have to adapt to students and work climate in school environment (cf fry, ketteridge & marshall eds., 2009; mansour, 2009; interview with respondent a, 2/5/2018; and interview with respondent b, 9/5/2018). these various pressures were later recognized to affect the quality of teaching teachers in schools. in this context, l. flook et al. (2013) and other scholars stated that teachers who persist with their work, but are under constant stress, can affect the teacher’s responsiveness to students and will have an impact on how to teach teachers in the classroom (hughes & kwok, 2007; flook et al., 2013; and han & yin, 2016). in response to this, teachers should have the ability to control themselves more qualified, so that any problems related to the learning process and personal mental health can be overcome independently. according to k.w. brown, r.m. ryan & j.d. creswell (2007), as cited also in ega anastasi maharani (2015), philosophers, spiritual, until psychology have agreed to underline the importance of consciousness factor, or self-consciousness, to the welfare of self and the achievement of optimal human function (brown, ryan & creswell, 2007; and maharani, 2015). one attribute of consciousness that has received much attention for discussion and © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 111 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 research is mindfulness, where the basic concept of mindfulness itself is the stage where the individual is able to pay attention and realize what is happening right now without being reactive to the situation. in the context of learning, the basic concept of mindfulness can be applied in the teacherstudent relationship in the form of mindful teaching (brown, ryan & creswell, 2007; maharani, 2015; and lyddy & good, 2016). with mindful teaching, teachers can apply learning more effectively and able to cope with various stressful situations related to the teacher profession, through 5 main components, namely: (1) listen attentively; (2) acceptance without self-assessment of the child; (3) awareness of the emotional state of the self and of the child; (4) self-regulation in the teacher-student relationship; and (5) alone and children, teachers can further improve the quality of relationships with students and use learning strategies more effectively (skinner & beers, 2014; kwon, 2015; and tyng et al., 2017). having individual happiness can be more productive to life and a barrier to stress. skills in problem solving are indispensable in promoting happiness. the use of mindful teaching strategy is expected to be one effective way for teachers in improving happiness in the learning process (burns ed., 2010; min, lee & lee, 2013; and bristow ed., 2016). therefore, this research is conducted to see the effectiveness of mindful teaching training to improve the happiness of teachers in the learning process. history of mindfulness. the concept of mindfulness is rooted in buddhist philosophy, but today it has developed both practically and theoretically in the realm of modern psychology. the term “mindfulness” has existed since 2,500 years ago, initially mindfulness is a meditation practice in buddhism to know the cause of suffering, and as a way to overcome anxiety, sadness, pain, and realize happiness (virtbauer, 2012; aich, 2013; and black, 2014). mindfulness teaches people to face life to be more patient, and enjoy life from time to time; and to rise again if we are in a state of decline (collard, 2014; and paller et al., 2015). the term “mindfulness” developed into a study in the discipline of science published by ellen langer (1989), then mindfulness began to be used in the field of psychotherapy by jon kabat-zinn (2017), with mbsr (mindfulness based stress reduction) technique, is a way to help people who are sick in conditions chronic, like a very bad back pain, or who have hiv (human immunodeficiency viruses) disease to stay alive and avoid the feeling of depression and fear (langer, 1989; and kabat-zinn, 2017). in this mbsr technique, mindfulness is done by sitting and body scan, yoga, or with meditation that brings people to consciousness in life, that is in live. j.m.g. williams et al. (2000), then, developed mbsr into mbct (mindfulness based cognitive therapy), a special therapy for depression sufferers, such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and addiction (cf williams et al., 2000; ramel et al., 2004; and black, 2014). pathah pajar mubarok (2016) and jon kabat-zinn (2017) defined mindfulness as the consciousness that arises from giving attention to a present experience deliberately and without judgment in order to be able to respond with acceptance, to the experience experienced over time. the word “mindfulness” itself can be defined as psychological constructs, psychological processes or being mindful, forms of psychotherapy, or forms of exercise that can shape the condition of mindfulness, such as meditation practice (mubarok, 2016; and kabat-zinn, 2017). according to r.a. baer (2006), as cited also in ega anastasi maharani (2015), mindfulness is the capacity to: (1) observing, the ability to observe and be aware of the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and sensations; (2) describing, describe with words; (3) acting, act with awareness; (4) non-reactivity, being non-reactive to personal experience; and (5) non-judge, attitude without judgment on personal experience (baer, 2006; and maharani, 2015). the ability of observation, or observing, represents the condition in which the individual is able to consciously be aware of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations of the body without getting dragged into the © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 112 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching stream of thought. then, at the same time, the individual can describe the thoughts, feelings, and sensations of the body and label it, such as anger, depression, happiness, trembling, etc. the process of observing and labeling must proceed without reactivity and non-judgmental, so it is expected that the individual can accept every experience that happens with a neutral attitude and ultimately can respond to the event with full awareness (charlton, 2000; davis & hayes, 2011; and maharani, 2015). as f.a. hupert & d.m. johnson (2010), and other scholars, explained that maintaining conscious awareness of what is happening right now gives individuals an opportunity to see and experience events as they are and choose how to respond (zacks et al., 2007; hupert & johnson, 2010; and earl, 2014). in fact, we as human beings pay little attention to the experience we are experiencing, while the awareness of thoughts and feelings are distracted from other external experiences, interactions with others, thoughts of the past, or fear of the future. most of the time, we walk in an autopilot mode, where we get caught up in experience and react automatically, especially when we’re in a stressful situation (hooker & fodor, 2008; siegel, germer & olendzki, 2008; and vago & silbersweig, 2012). again, according to f.a. hupert & d.m. johnson (2010) and other scholars, it requires three characteristics in mindfulness practices: (1) deliberately giving attention to the present and here; (2) receive the present experience calmly, clearly, and sincerely; and (3) experiencing each event as it is, without being refracted by reactive attitude and judgment (baer et al., 2006; hupert & johnson, 2010; and norris et al., 2018). various studies have shown that mindfulness correlates with stress and emotional well-being (weinstein, brown & ryan, 2009); improvement of emotional regulatory ability, selfwelfare, and problem solving (hupert & johnson, 2010); as well as parent-child communication (duncan, coatsworth & greenberg, 2009). based on the results of these studies, today’s mindfulness has been widely developed in various settings of life: mindful parenting, mindful birthing, and mindful learning to mindful teaching. all these practices of mindfulness elaborate the basic principles of mindfulness into more specific forms. the concept of mindful teaching. in the realm of education, the practice of mindfulness can be developed in the context of teacher-student relationships through mindful teaching. mindfullness is a state, in which we are aware of what is being done as well as being aware of the experiences around us. mindfulness helps teachers in emotional management, reduces stress, and focuses the mind. these skills are essential for success and career satisfaction. when a teacher, who enters the class, is fully aware of his/her role and circumstances as a teacher who is able and ready to provide learning to his/her students, it will help students focus attention, improve academic performance, and increase enthusiasm for learning (schoeberlein, 2009; davidson & kaszniak, 2015; and janssen et al., 2018). combining mindfulness into teacher and student interaction provides an opportunity for teachers to view current experiences with students as a form of long-term relationships, in which there is an understanding of the child’s needs, the development of selfregulation, and child-oriented decision making. in the experimental level, through the mindful teaching model, teachers can: avoid reactive attitudes; prioritize the needs of the child over their own needs; accept all students as they are without good judgment; and be able to overcome the distress that may be experienced in the learning process (gouda et al., 2016; maharani, 2016; and townsend, 2017). through mindfulness, teachers can overcome the stress that may be experienced, when dealing with students, parents, and colleagues. the results of research conducted by syamsul rizal (2015), and other scholars, suggested that job stress significantly influence the performance of teachers, the worse symptoms of a teacher’s behavior as an indication of job stress, and the lower the performance of the teacher (mulford, 2003; nyambongi, 2013; and rizal, 2015). mindfulness is our way of being aware of what is happening around us. this particular © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 113 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 approach is to hone awareness and improve empathy, compassion, and emotional balance. mindfulness is important for a teacher, because in school they interact with students to create an interactive classroom environment. to do so, teachers need to understand their own inner experiences, recognize the needs of their students, and implement learning strategies according to the age of the students (schoeberlein, 2009; gouda et al., 2016; and wamsler et al., 2018). research conducted by ega anastasi maharani (2016), and other scholars, about training using mindfulness based technique proved to be applied to overcome stress of early childhood teacher. active and dynamic work conditions can make the teacher feel that they are losing control of themselves and their environment. mindfulness-based therapy helps participants restore this control to themselves, so teachers can play an active role deciding what to do without having to wait for external help/resources (neff & dahm, 2015; maharani, 2016; and emerson et al., 2017). arvan pradiansyah (2008), as cited also in r. aziz (2011), said that the happiness of teachers will determine the effectiveness of transferring knowledge to students, which means that when a teacher is happy, he/ she can adapt him/her-self to the identity and integrity he/she possesses, so that easily follow the way and speed of thinking of his/ her students; therefore, students can obtain a complete knowledge (pradiansyah, 2008; and aziz, 2011). in the perspectives of ega anastasi maharani (2016), and other scholars, concept of mindful teaching that will be developed is based on theoretical and practical mindfulness (baer et al., 2006; and brown, ryan & creswell, 2007); mindfulness-based intervention (cullen, 2011; and kabat-zinn, 2017); and then combined with the theoretical and practical concept of learning process between teacher-students (wrenn & wrenn, 2009; and maharani, 2016). the five dimensions of mindful teaching are: firstly, listen attentively. full attention to the current experience is a key aspect of mindfulness (baer et al., 2006; and brown, ryan & creswell, 2007). mindful teaching combines the attention factor with the ability to listen, because in this way the teacher can really understand the child. listening with great care is different from just listening, because the focus is really on the words spoken by the child, and not the behavioral signals the child shows (baer et al., 2006; brown, ryan & creswell, 2007; and maharani, 2016). in the context of teacher-child relationships, behaviors shown by children, e.g. crying or shouting, often take the focus of the teacher’s attention rather than what words the child actually wants to convey. mindful teachers will be able to be sensitive to the context of conversation with the child as well as sensitive to tone of voice, facial expressions, to body language. this kind of focus will provide a deep understanding of the child’s needs and their implicit meanings (wrenn & wrenn, 2009; alvarado, 2011; and maharani, 2016). secondly, self-acceptance and students without judgment. the human mind tends to always make unconscious judgments, and perceptions of others will influence expectations, values, and behavior toward others (bandura, 1999; snyder & lopez, 2008; and lerner et al., 2014). mindful teaching involves acceptance without judgment on attitudes, attributes, behaviors of children, or to themselves. acceptance here does not eliminate the responsibility of giving direction and discipline, but rather the acceptance of what is happening right now with full awareness. for example, in the event of a conflict between teacher-students, the teacher will be able to accept that being a teacher indeed and accepting that being a child also has his/her own challenge factor. “acceptance” here means realizing whatever challenges are faced, and that any mistakes that occur as a result of those challenges are part of the learning process (bandura, 1999; snyder & lopez, 2008; and xiao et al., 2017). thirdly, emotional awareness of self and students. strong emotions can automatically trigger the evaluation process, and ultimately lead someone to behave according to the evaluation results. in order for the teacher to listen attentively and receive without © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 114 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching judgment, the teacher must be able to accurately identify the emotions that are felt by themselves and the emotions of the learners. when teachers are able to fully realize the emotions of themselves and students, the teacher will then be able to make conscious choices about how to respond to students, be responsive, rather than being reactive to the experience (brookfield, 1995; weinstein, brown & ryan, 2009; and kuldas et al., 2013). fourthly, self-regulation in the relationship of teachers and students. mindful teaching greatly emphasizes the importance of teachers’ ability to regulate their behavior (self-regulation) in relationships with students. mindful teaching does not mean the teacher should not feel any unpleasant emotions, such as anger, sadness, or disappointment. mindful teaching actually provides space for teachers before reacting, through better self-regulation, by providing choices on how to respond to the unpleasant situation (gross, 2002; zembylas, 2005; and seligman, 2011). fifthly, compassion towards self and students. one of the posiftive qualities that comes with mindfulness is affection. through love for the child, the teacher will be able to meet the basic needs of the child and ease the unpleasant feelings that the child may experience. students, who have teachers with mindful teaching ability, will be able to feel positive affection and a warm support from teachers. meanwhile, self-love will help the teacher to give forgiveness and not drag on self-blame, if there is a goal in learning that has not been achieved (davidson & kaszniak, 2015; rogers, 2015; and albrecht, 2016). happiness and education are two things that are interconnected; in a school environment, happiness is needed by teachers to build a pleasant state away from the saturation of all demands. education is a very important thing, because education is a preparation for children to love learning, as well as to help children develop future development. positive education is what drives teachers and students to continue to experience positive emotions, develop more skills, and seek meaning in larger learning. the key to positive education is not to cause anxiety in children, the appropriateness of learning strategies used, and not always high value (bormans, 2011; and leisterer & jekauc, 2019). according to m. seligman (2011), and other scholars, happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as positive activities favored by the individual. happiness is also influenced by several aspects, such as the establishment of positive relationships with others, full involvement, the discovery of meaning in daily life, and realistic optimism. m. seligman (2011), and other scholars, affirmed also that to realize happiness, one must have positive feelings through positive emotions, feel good about the present, and have an optimistic attitude toward the future and to achieve authentic happiness (seligman, 2011; scorsolini-comin et al., 2013; and ciarrochi et al., 2016). aspects of happiness. m. seligman (2011), and other scholars, described happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as the positive activities favored by the individual. happiness is a construct of fulfilling life as a combination of the five components of: positive emotion, engagement, positive social relations, meaning of life, and accomplishment. happiness is an individual positive condition characterized by positive emotions, involvement in preferred activities, positively related social relationships, sense of meaningfulness of life, and achievement (durayappah, 2010; seligman, 2011; and jackson, 2013). there are five main aspects that can be a source of true happiness, according to m. seligman (2011) and other scholars, namely: firstly, positive emotion. it is an essential part of well being, which includes fun, joy, happiness, and others that are part of positive emotions. individuals who are optimistic about the future feel happier and more satisfied with their lives. individuals, who evaluate themselves in a positive way, will have good control over their lives, so have positive dreams and expectations about the future. this will be created if the optimistic attitude of the individual is realistic © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 115 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 (seligman, 2011; and walsh, boehm & lyubomirsky, 2018). secondly, engagement. it is a focus on something that is done and really feels pleasure in full engagement with what is being done. full engagement is not just a career, but also in other activities, such as hobbies and family activities. engaging in full is not just physical activity, but the heart and mind also participate in the activity (seligman, 2011; and mcquoid, 2017). thirdly, relationship/positive relationship. everyone needs others and improves his or her well-being by building strong relationships with family, friends, or neighbors. positive relationships not just have friends, spouses, or children, but with a positive relationship with the individuals around. positive relationships are created when there is social support that enables individuals to develop self-esteem, minimize psychological problems, adaptive problem-solving skills, and make individuals physically fit (seligman, 2011; and rozer, mollenhorst & poortman, 2016). fourthly, meaning. life is best if it can dedicate more to the wider that affects others, not just oneself, so that life becomes more meaningful. in full engagement and positive relationships with others, there is another way to be happy to find meaning in whatever is done. a happy individual will find meaning in everything he/she does (brackett, rivers & salovey, 2011; and seligman, 2011). fifthly, accomplishment/achievement. it is the objectives that can be obtained, whether small, medium, or large. prosperity develops, when humans can grow better with their goals achieved (seligman, 2011; and connors, 2018). methods research design. this research is an experimental research. a quasi-experimental method was conducted to examine the effect of mindful teaching training to improve the happiness of high school teachers. the design used in this research is non-equivalent pretest and post-test control group design. in this design, the experimental group (a) and the control group (b) are selected without a random assignment procedure. in both groups, both pre-test and post-test, and only experimental group a, were treated (cook & campbell, 1979; creswell, 2012; and franz, 2017). see table 1. research subject. subjects in this study amounted to 25 teachers, who came from sman (sekolah menengah atas negeri or public senior high school) x in the city of bandung, west java, indonesia. subjects were divided into groups of experiments and control groups by dividing both groups of treated experimental groups and untreated control groups. the number of each participant in a group was 13 for the experimental group, and table 1: experimental research design group pre-test training post-test eksperimen o1 x o2 control o1 -o2 information: x = mindful teaching program. o1 = measurements before-training (pre-test). o2 = after-training measurement (post-test). table 2: activity table and time of study implementation time of execution activity description february 2018 preparation of research instruments. april 2018 conducting instrument trials and group sharing for the subject. may 2018 conducts pre-test, intervention, and post-test on the subject. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 116 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching 12 for the control group. in the experimental group and control group, pre-test was done first. the control group did not receive treatment as long as the experimental group was treated (cook & campbell, 1979; derue, 2012; and franz, 2017). implementation of research. this research was conducted from february to may 2018. the research was conducted by arranging the research instrument, experimenting on the research instrument, dividing the participants into the experimental group and the control group, pre-operative on the subject, giving intervention to the experimental group, and doing the post-test (cook & campbell, 1979; harris et al., 2006; and creswell, 2012). here are the details of the implementation of this research, as shown in table 2. the implementation procedure of mindful teaching training to increase happiness in sman (sekolah menengah atas negeri or public senior high school) teachers is done by the following steps: session 1, that is explaining about mindful teaching. in this session, teachers are given an explanation of the skills needed in mindful teaching, the advantages of having mindful teaching skills, and how to develop mindful teaching skills. session 2, that is focused group discuss about sharing in experience as teacher and problems experienced by teacher when teaching. in this session, the teacher discusses the problems and obstacles that are generally felt when teaching. session 3, that is role play about mindful teaching. in this session, the teacher tries to show the mindful teaching skills in the form of role play. in this session will be introduced with meditation detection and body sensation, and meditation release desire. session 4, that is reflection in this session, in which the teacher watches the film/video footage of the teacher’s various attitudes in dealing with the students and the teacher’s view of his/her-self in teaching the students. after finishing the movie, the teacher guided by the facilitator reflects the meaning of the movie/video in daily life. session 5, that is review of mindful teaching skill. in this session, the teacher recounts the teaching experience that has been done and connected with the skills of mindful teaching. data analysis. analysis of data used to see the effect of independent variables on dependent variables can perform data analysis through the analysis of changes in the score, or the difference between pre-test and post-test score (gain score), by using mann-whitney test (hart, 2001; azwar, 2013; and milenovic, 2011). results and discussion the experimental group consisted of 13 subjects and a control group of 12 subjects, with a total of 25 subjects. in the experimental group, there was an increase in the gain score. this could be seen in table 3, in which the experimental group (m = 6.6923) had a higher change than the control group (m = 0.8333). see table 3. normality test. to see whether both pretest and post-test groups were from a normally distributed population, a normality test was performed using the kolmogorov-smirnov test statistic on spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 20 software, with a signification level used as a rule to accept and reject testing of normality, or whether or not one distribution of data is α = 0.05. if sign > α then the data is normally distributed (landau & everitt, 2004; andy, 2009; and vrbik, 2018). test results can be seen in table 4 that be obtained a picture, in which the value of both sig experimental group and control group > α, then the distribution of data can be concluded table 3: descriptive statistics table group n mean std. deviation std. error mean gain score experiment 13 6.6923 2.32324 .64435 control 12 .8333 .57735 .16667 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 117 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 normal distributed. the normality criteria of data received ho if significant value > α, because significant value > 0.05 for all variables; hence, ho accepted. this means that the control group’s happiness and experimental scores are normally distributed. see table 4. test homogeneity. after doing the normality test, then, the next step is to calculate the homogeneity. to test the homogeneity of the variance of pre-test data gain and the happiness test-post, the homogenity of variance test was used with the help of spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 20 software (landau & everitt, 2004; andy, 2009; and vrbik, 2018). see table 5. from the table 5 to test the homogeneity of variance visible significance value of 0.000, the value of significance is smaller than the level of significance α = 0.05, that is the two experimental and control groups of happiness have an un homogeneous variance. from the above results in the table 5, it can be seen that the experimental group data and the control group came from the population that is normally distributed and not homogeneous, the hypothesis test used is mann-whitney test (hart, 2001; azwar, 2013; and milenovic, 2011). mann-whitney test. the mann-whitney test is used to determine whether there is a significant, or persuasive, difference from the mean pre-test and post-test of experimental group happiness and control groups. mannwhitney test is calculated by using spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 20 software (hart, 2001; landau & everitt, 2004; andy, 2009; milenovic, 2011; azwar, 2013; and vrbik, 2018). the calculation result is presented in table 6. from table 6, it is seen that the significance value (sig.) of 0.000 is smaller than α = 0.05, so the statistical conclusion taken is ha accepted; meaning that effective mindful teaching training to increase happiness in senior high school’s teachers in the learning process. effectiveness test. the effectiveness test is done by viewing the size effect through cohen-d calculation (cohen, 1988; landau & everitt, 2004; and andy, 2009). obtained results of 0.864 (86.4%), this shows that training mindful teaching has a high influence for increased happiness in the senior high school’s teachers. the results of the significance test analysis showed that mindful teaching training could increase the happiness of senior high school’s teachers. measurement results show table 4: one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test unstandardized residual n 25 normal mean .0000000 parameters a, b std. deviation 2.16175688 most extreme differences: absolute .231 positive .231 negative -.207 kolmogorov-smirnov z 1.156 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .138 a. test distribution is normal. b. calculated from data. table 5: homogeneity test table test of homogeneity of variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 3.164e16 4 12 .000 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 118 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching that the experiment group’s average happiness score at the time of pre-test is greater than the control group score. the average score of pretest of the experimental group was 93.46 and the mean score at the post-test time of 100.15, there was an average increase of 6.69 points of happiness in the senior high school’s teachers experimental group. while for the control group, the average score of pre-test of 95.25 and the average score at post-test of 96.08, there is an increase but not too big that is 0.83 points. based on the quantitative analysis, the participants experienced a significant increase in happiness score at post-test compared to the pre-test time indicated by z = -4.324 and p = 0.000 (p < 0.05). a description of the happiness score of each participant obtained at the time of pre-test and post-test measurements is presented further through the following histogram 1. the success of this research is shown by data analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. all participants admitted to practicing mindful teaching can provide them with comfort, new choices, and how to respond positively to the events they are experiencing, rather than reacting automatically as before. mindful teaching training provides an opportunity for participants to be able to explore internal resources that have not previously realized its existence becomes more optimal (didonna, 2008; kabat-zinn, 2017; and wamsler et al., 2018). the results of this study show that all aspects of mindfulness training significantly increase the happiness of senior high school’s teachers. the results of testing the significance of each aspect of mindful teaching skills are presented in the table 7. the table 7 shows that all aspects are significant, since the sig value (1-tailed) is smaller than the value α = 0.05. the above results can be interpreted that training mindful teaching effective to improve the five aspects in mindful teaching. mindful teaching is the development of the concept of mindfulness in the realm of education and can be used as an alternative approach in improving the quality of learning for teachers (didonna, 2008; kabat-zinn, 2017; and wamsler et al., 2018). through the five aspects of mindful teaching are: (1) listening attentively; (2) acceptance without self-assessment and students; (3) awareness of the emotional condition of self and students; (4) selfregulation in teacher-student relationships; and (5) affection to self and students, teachers can improve psychological welltable 6: table mann-whitney test results score gain pre-test and post-test experiment group and control group happiness in senior high school teachers test statisticsb gaint mann-whitney u .000 wilcoxon w 78.000 z -4.324 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .000 exact sig. [2*(1-tailed sig.)] .000a a. not corrected for ties. b. grouping variable: group. histogram 1: score pre-test and post-test © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 119 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 being, overcome job stress, build positive relationships with students, and be able to carry out learning more effectively (cf meiklejohn et al., 2012; rix & bernay, 2014; and giovanni, 2016). mindfulness is a state that can be achieved by using the potential of internal resources, so the practice of mindful teaching is actually very possible by teachers through structured exercises. through mindful teaching training, teachers have positive feelings through positive emotions, feel good about the present, and have an optimistic attitude toward the future and to achieve happiness. according to m. seligman (2011), and other scholars, happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as positive activities favored by the individual (burns ed., 2010; seligman, 2011; and desmet & pohlmeyer, 2013). conclusion 1 based on the results of the study showed that the training of mindful teaching proved effective to increase happiness in the senior high school’s teachers. several recommendations submitted based on research findings addressed to several parties, namely: school parties, with a description of the mindful teaching skills that have been described, are important for the school to provide training that can increase 1acknowledgement: i’d like to express my thanks to dr. rahayu ginintasasi, whose supervised and guided me in writing the magister thesis in education at the sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. however, all contens and interpretations in this article are solely rested to my responsibility academically. the happiness of teachers, considering it will be able to prevent and overcome the problems that occur. therefore, the mindful teaching training that the researcher tested in this research is expected to be used by the school as one of the efforts in improving the happiness of the teacher. the next researcher, based on the results of research that has been done, some recommendations that can be done by further researchers, namely: (1) researchers can further test the effectiveness of mindful teaching training with the number of samples more; and (2) researchers can, then, test the effectiveness of mindful training with comparing mindful teaching images at different school levels, such as in kindergarten, elementary, or high school teachers.2 references aich, tapas kumar. 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(2017). learning through play: a review of the evidence. usa [united states of america]: the lego foundation. available online also at: https://www.legofoundation.com/ media/1063/learning-through-play_web.pdf [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: may 2, 2018]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 126 syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching teachers at the sman x in bandung, west java, indonesia (source: https://www.ayobandung.com/read, 15/1/2019) school parties, with a description of the mindful teaching skills that have been described, are important for the school to provide training that can increase the happiness of teachers, considering it will be able to prevent and overcome the problems that occur. therefore, the mindful teaching training that the researcher tested in this research is expected to be used by the school as one of the efforts in improving the happiness of the teacher. 3 yuki.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 25 dr. yuki nakata is a lecturer at the faculty of law tu (toyo university), 5-28-20, hakusan, bunkyo-ku, tokyo 112-8606, japan. she has been conducting the research on islamic education in indonesia and malaysia. for academic purposes, she can be reached at: yuki.nakata@tuba.ocn.ne.jp or nakatayuki9@gmail.com constructing new stages of education for muslim children: impacts of the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook on islamic education in indonesia and malaysia yuki nakata abstract: the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook through qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools in indonesia has encouraged the public’s interest in reconsidering teaching methods and the skill of reading and reciting the qur’an. moreover, it has provided a chance to reconsider pre-school education for muslims in indonesia from the grass-roots level. in malaysia, both the elementary schools under the ministry of education and private schools are also recommended to use iqro’ method. however, there are several private organizations in malaysia that have attempted to maintain their originality by using alternatives to iqro’, such as qira’ati and al-barqy from indonesia, and by trying to develop original educational services. this paper tries to explore the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook in which it has been revitalized and enriched educational services for muslims in both indonesia and malaysia, by both the government sector and grass-roots efforts across the border. key words: the iqro’ method textbook, qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools, and muslims in both indonesia and malaysia. introduction as well as formal school education and literacy programs in one’s mother tongue and national language, learning to read and recite (read aloud) the qur’an is also considered part of a muslim child’s fundamental education. in indonesia, qur’anic learning was carried out by people in the community before the modern school system was introduced (steenbrink, 1987). yuki nakata, constructing new stages of education for muslim children 26 a recent significant change in qur’anic learning in indonesia is the widespread access to methods for easy and rapid learning of reading and reciting the qur’an. the most widely used textbook is the iqro’ method textbook, which is now familiar in the pengajian qur’an (learning activities for reciting the qur’an and the basics of islam) for kindergarten and elementary school children. moreover, the iqro’ method textbook was introduced to muslims in malaysia and other neighboring countries (lpptka & bkprmi, 1996:21). this development in the method of learning to recite the qur’an is not simply a matter of educational methodology. in this paper, i examine how the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook has played an important role in improving and revitalizing education for muslims in both indonesia and malaysia. i intend to interpret this theme from a non-muslim point of view. the islamic revival or islamization in indonesia has been a major topic of academic research. various studies about madrasah (islamic schools) and pesantren (islamic boarding schools) in indonesia have been conducted (dhofier, 1985; steenbrink, 1987; and rahardjo ed., 1988). however, the more recent pengajian al-qur’an have been paid little attention. most of the pengajian al-qur’an have been set up at each community’s mosque, mostly without joining the formal school system. muslim children come to the mosque every evening after learning at general pre--schools and elementary schools that have adopted the national curriculum. although a non-formal school, the activities of pengajian al-qur’an have an important role in fostering muslim children. iqro’ method textbooks have been disseminated through the establishment of qur’anic schools in mosques for kindergarten and elementary school children by people in the community as replacements for the traditional-style pengajian al--qur’an. in conducting this study in indonesia, i mainly collected data from both the government and private organizations and interviewed several organizations who managed kindergartens and used the iqro’ method textbook or alternatives to the iqro’ method textbook. i collected data mainly in yogyakarta and other cities in indonesia for four months; and spent a further three months in kuala lumpur, malaysia. in malaysia, i interviewed several key persons at the ministry of education, islamic organizations, kindergartens and the publishing companies that publish the textbooks for rapid learning in reading and reciting the qur’an.1 what is the iqro’ book? the iqro’ method textbook is one of the most popular textbooks for easy practice in reading and reciting the qur’an, not only in indonesia but also in other southeast asian 1i am grateful to have received an api fellowships in 2005-2006, which enabled me to do this research and provided kind support during my research in indonesia and malaysia. i would like to express my gratitude to all the people who generously provided me with various information concerning the recent condition of qur’anic learning and pre-school education in indonesia and malaysia. this article is my working paper of api fellowships (the work of the 2005/2006 api fellow the nippon foundation, pp.206-211). the views of the author do not reflect those of the api fellowships program, the nippon foundation and the lipi, or any institutions involved in the program. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 27 countries. a local religious teacher of pengajian al-qur’an in kotagede, yogyakarta in central java invented the iqro’ method textbook around the end of the 1980s and founded qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools for pre-school and elementary school children. traditionally, the first step in learning how to recite the qur’an is to learn the names of the arabic letters and the vowel marks. the second step is to learn how to pronounce the arabic letters. after that, the learners can practice the methods of pronunciation and the recitation of arabic phrases where the words already contain the vowel marks and also recite the qur’an with the teacher. one of the peculiarities of arabic letters is that the form of each letter changes depending on its position in the word. the arabic language system is quite complicated for children and they need a few years to master reading and recitation of the qur’an fluently. however, the iqro’ method textbook makes drastic changes to this way of learning. the textbook starts with the pronunciation of arabic letters and simple words that already contain the vowel marks so that learners can easily learn the recitation of the phrases of the qur’an. the tools in this textbook enable children to learn how to read and recite the qur’an more easily than they could with previous methods, such as the bagdadiyah method. many children who were around five years old took only about six months to master reading the qur’an by using the iqro’ textbook. the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook has promoted peoples’ interests and needs in learning to read and recite the qur’an. f i g u r e 1 : textbook for the traditional method of learning to read and recite the qur’an. this is usually called the bagdadiyah method (metode bagdadiyah) in indonesia or kaedah muqaddam in malaysia. yuki nakata, constructing new stages of education for muslim children 28 impacts of the iqro’ method book on education in indonesia flourishing development of various alternative methods to the iqro’ method textbook muslim students and intellectuals were key players in the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook to almost all parts of indonesia through non-formal qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools, known as tka/tpa (taman kanak-kanak alqur’an/taman pendidikan al-qur’an). around the beginning of the 1990s, concerned about political conditions, the soeharto regime shifted its stance to become tolerant of the social activities of muslim intellectuals (hefner, 1997 and 2002). therefore, the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook and the spread non-formal qur’anic kindergartens and schools was smoothly supported by government personnel. after the iqro’ method textbook was disseminated through the non-formal qur’anic schools during the 1990s, many muslims in indonesia had the opportunity to consider more effective ways of learning to read and recite qur’an. iqro’ method textbooks are sold at bookstores and daily bazaars or markets, so it is easy for qur’anic teachers to obtain the textbook and analyze both the advantages and disadvantages of the iqro’ method. this textbook has been always open to anyone to use and criticize and some teachers invented other textbooks according to their own perspectives and viewpoints on the practice of qur’an recitation. even before the iqro’ method, several methods existed. the qira’ati method textbook, organized by guru ngaji (qur’anic teachers) in semarang, central java during figure 2: one of the pages of the first book of the iqro’ method textbook series. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 29 the 1960s was invented before the iqro’ proliferation.2 the qira’ati method textbook was one of the references for inventing the iqro’ method. the inventors of both the iqro’ method textbook and the qira’ati method textbook operate their own businesses and the qira’ati method was introduced to the local religious teacher in kotagede, yogyakarta through their business relationship, who afterward became the inventor of the iqro’ method textbook (budiyanto, 1999:44).3 the qira’ati method inspired the teacher to invent a more effective method for children’s learning. the iqro’ method textbook was introduced to the public through the broad muslim university students’ networks that extend throughout indonesia, because the inventor of the iqro’ method was involved in qur’anic education in yogyakarta communities in cooperation with university students. most of the students were active in student organizations at their campuses in yogyakarta. at first, the iqro’ book began to be used mainly at non-formal kindergarten and elementary schools (tka/tpa) that had been set up at mosques and other prayer places by university student promoters. on the other hand, the qira’ati method and other methods chose not only the mosque but also private kindergartens in which to promote the use of their own textbooks through their family and specific organization networks. recently, several textbooks for methods of learning to recite the qur’an that are made in indonesia have been used in malaysia, singapore and other countries. growing competition among islamic educational services why did the inventors of alternative textbooks to the iqro’ method textbook choose preschools to promote their textbooks? this issue is related to the situation of the preschool education in indonesia. around 98% of kindergartens in indonesia are private schools, and the attendance rate in 2003 was less than 20% (hattori, 2006:185). along with the expansion of the middle class muslim population, the numbers of expensive, formal pre-schools managed by islamic foundations have been increasing since the mid1990s and are expected to provide better quality education to muslim children. even though they are non-formal schools, the qur’anic kindergartens (tka/tpa) using the iqro’ method at community mosques also have an important role in providing pre-school education for children from various social classes.4 both urban and rural community members have had a chance to reconsider their own pre--school education through the education at the qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools. some of people who used to be teachers at the qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools began to look for better quality, formal pre-school education for muslim children, as well as alternative methods to the iqro’ method.5 2interview with mr. bunyamin, son of the inventor of the qira’ati method, mr. dahran salim, in semarang, central java, indonesia, on 12 september 2005. 3interview with also mr. budiyanto in kotagede, yogyakarta, indonesia, on 18 august 2005. 4the total number of qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools registered with bkprmi (badan komunikasi pemuda remaja masjid indonesia) in 2000 were 56 and 156, respectively. 5according to interviews with the school teachers of several kindergartens at bandung in west java and at yogyakarta in central java from august to december 2005. yuki nakata, constructing new stages of education for muslim children 30 inventors of alternatives to the iqro’ method had an opportunity to meet these demands. some of them began to run their own formal kindergartens and use their own original methods and textbooks for practicing to read and recite the qur’an as one of the teaching materials. as well as producing textbooks and other educational materials, muslims in indonesia have competitively explored better education for their children in various aspects. some kindergartens, like the kindergarten at the istiqlal (independence) mosque organization in jakarta, have tried using puzzles and toys concerning basic knowledge of islam and arabic characters in order to teach threeto five-years-old children more effectively in their daily schooling. they adopted the teaching model of the creative pre-school in tallahassee, florida, usa (united states of america) as the reference for developing their educational model.6 one japanese educational model is also popular among muslims who have engaged in education in kindergartens and elementary schools. the model is the story of tottochan by tetsuko kuroyanagi. totto-chan: a little girl at the window (in indonesian, totto-chan: si gadis kecil di tepi jendela) introduces tomoe--gakuen, a private kindergarten and elementary school in tokyo that was closed because of the air raid on tokyo in 1945. this non-fiction story tells about totto-chan (tetsuko kuroyanagi)’s experiences at tomoe-gakuen through the eyes of totto-chan and explains how mr. kobayashi, the principal, was always creative in having the children enjoy their school life. the story provided a chance for the japanese to reconsider their education system in the 1980s. the book was translated into various languages and the indonesian version was published in 1985. in indonesia, university students who were engaged in educational activities at mosques and prayer places had a chance to read this book. they were impressed by the story, especially mr. kobayashi’s flexible and greathearted attitude to the children’s needs and feelings, and his creativity in daily education. several principals of preschools whom i met in yogyakarta tried to adopt mr. kobayashi’s ideas, such as making a used train car into a class room (kuroyanagi, 1984:41-43), and inviting farmers to tell the children how to grow rice (kuroyanagi, 1984:202-206). they are now aiming at developing their own schools as muslim adaptations of the tomoe-gakuen model described in totto-chan. from the above conditions, i can consider that the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook in indonesia has had an important role in encouraging the development of alternative methods for the rapid learning of qur’an recitation. besides this, the textbook’s dissemination has induced a competitive atmosphere among people who are engaged in education to discuss and explore more actively how to provide better education for muslim children in the present society. 6interview with the principal of the kindergarten in the istiqlal mosque (ms. nibras), who attended the teacher training program of the creative pre-school in florida, usa, on 13 october 2005. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 31 evolution of the iqro’ method textbook movement in malaysia the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook in indonesia has affected muslims in malaysia through government-to-government communication. in indonesia, the government considers the iqro’ method textbook as the most recommended method for learning to read and recite the qur’an; however, whether the schools use it or not depends on the principal’s opinion, in both government and private schools. the malaysian case is different because of the national system there. generally in malaysia, religious affairs – including religious education – are dependant on each state’s religious laws. however, recently the federal government is also attempting to control and reinforce islamic education through the national schools (hasim, 2004:226). the government has used the iqro’ method textbook at national elementary schools (sekolah rendah kebangsaan) since 1994.7 moreover, since 2005 the government began the j-qaf program, which provides special islamic education including the teaching of jawi (writing the malay language using arabic letters with five additional letters to allow for malay phonemes, the qur’an (reading and recitation of the qur’an), the arabic language and basic islamic rules and morals, the purpose of which is to reinforce islamic education through the national schools (hasim, 2004:130). especially after 9th november 2001 event, the government of malaysia has reinforced its control of islam in the country, which has affected the educational scene. for these conditions, the government uses the iqro’ method textbook as a tool to reinforce the practice of reciting the qur’an. since the j-qaf program began, the government has introduced the iqro’ method textbook as the free, standard text to be used by all first grade students at national elementary schools.8 as in government schools, private schools also are encouraged to adopt the national curriculum. even though the malaysian government exercises stronger control over private schools than in indonesia, the schools still have chance to freely choose their methods and textbooks for practicing to read and recite the qur’an. as well as the iqro’ method textbooks, other methods have also been introduced to muslims in malaysia. a notable point is that the most of the popular methods of rapid learning in reading and reciting the qur’an in malaysia were invented by indonesian qur’anic teachers. for instance, the qira’ati method from semarang, central java, was introduced in 1989 by an indonesian who had finished study in the middle east in 1988 and moved to malaysia.9 he introduced the qira’ati method textbook to the schools of one of the islamic organizations, abim (angkatan belia 7in malaysia, there have been discussions about the lack of effective teaching methods for qur’an recitation (hasim, 2004:195). 8interview with mr. muhammad haji syafie at kuala lumpur, malaysia, on february 2006. 9interview with mr. muhammad masruh ahmad at kajang, selangor darul ehsan in malaysia, on 16 february 2006. yuki nakata, constructing new stages of education for muslim children 32 islam malaysia or islamic youth movement of malaysia). since then, the abim kindergarten and elementary schools have adapted the qira’ati method textbook for practicing the recitation of the qur’an. recently, the abim schools began to use an alternative method, which was also invented by an indonesian muslim in bukit tinggi, west sumatera of indonesia.10 another famous method from indonesia is the al-barqy method; the al-ameen publishing company has been printing a malaysian version since 2002. the company had a relationship with the inventor of the al-barqy method, mr. muhadjir surthon in surabaya, east java of indonesia. the director of al-ameen came across the method when he looked for some alternatives to iqro’.11 the textbooks are used at elementary schools under the al-ameen group and several private kindergartens. recently, the company has developed original textbooks of easy and rapid learning of malay, english and arabic. these textbooks also successfully sold same as the al-barqy method textbook and distributed to private schools, including schools for non-muslims. this encounter with the al-barqy method textbook in indonesia gave the al-ameen publishing company the opportunity to use and sell this textbook in malaysia, and moreover encouraged the company to develop textbooks for learning other languages and broadened their share of educational services.12 both the malaysian iqro’ method books and other textbooks for learning qur’an recitation that are originally from indonesia are published in malaysia with a different design from that in indonesia. they are modified to fit the malaysian style by, for example, using jawi instead of using the latin alphabet, following the general practice in islamic studies in malaysia. even though the books have a different design from those in indonesia, the right to publish them in malaysia is based on a contractual relationship between the publisher and the indonesian inventors of the textbooks. the malaysian publishers pay royalties from the sales of the textbooks to the indonesian organizations and foundations who invented the original method textbook.13 if there is no agreement with the indonesian side, malaysian organizations or publishing companies have no official right to publish and sell the textbooks in malaysia. these business relationships maintain an equal partnership between the indonesians and malaysians involved. there have been problems concerning labor relations between today’s indonesia and malaysia; however, as is the case in the method textbooks for reading and reciting 10interview with mr. zainal abidin b. abd. latiff at seremban, negeri sembilan in malaysia, on 11 january 2006. 11since the 1990s, the al-ameen publishng company has created cross-national muslim networks in southeast asia and every aidul adha/idul adha (islamic festival of sacrifice) has conducted charity activities for muslims in cambodia. interview with mr. che mazlan saad, the director of alameen service holdings sdn. bhd. in kuala lumpur, malaysia, on 11 february 2006. 12various teacher training courses using original textbooks from al-ameen are held there every year. interview with mr. che mazlan saad, the director of al-ameen service holdings sdn. bhd. in kuala lumpur, malaysia, on 11 february 2006. 13interview with ms. erweesbee maimanati, the daughter of mr. asad humam, in yogyakarta, indonesia, on 15 november 2005. interview also with the inventor of the al-barqy method textbook, mr. muhadjir surthon, in surabaya, east java of indonesia, on 9 march 2006. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 33 the qur’an, there are also equal relations between the two countries. in other words, indonesian methods of reading and reciting the qur’an have recently had a significant role in improving islamic education in both the government and private sectors in malaysia. conclusion the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook through qur’anic kindergartens and qur’anic schools in indonesia has encouraged the public’s interest in reconsidering teaching methods and the skill of reading and reciting the qur’an. moreover, it has provided a chance to reconsider pre-school education for muslims in indonesia from the grass-roots level. actually, the government’s intentions to follow the global trend of promoting pre-school education must also have greatly affected the recent development of private kindergartens for muslim children in indonesia. however, the spread of access to non-formal qur’anic kindergartens that use the iqro’ method textbook has also played an important role in promoting the grass-roots need for better quality pre-school education. the process was not closed but opened to various perspectives to improve educational services for muslims. besides this, it promoted the building of educational business partnerships beyond the border. in malaysia, both the elementary schools under the ministry of education and private schools are also recommended to use iqro’. however, there are several private organizations that have attempted to maintain their originality by using alternatives to iqro’, such as qira’ati and al-barqy from indonesia, and by trying to develop original educational services. throughout my research project, it could be seen that the dissemination of the iqro’ method textbook has revitalized and enriched educational services for muslims in both indonesia and malaysia, by both the government sector and grass-roots efforts across the border. references budiyanto. (1999). “k.h. as’ad humam, tokoh pebaharu sistem pengajaran baca tulis al-qur’an di indonesia: riwayat hidup, ide--ide dan perjuangannya”. laporan hasil penelitian individual, tidak diterbitkan. yogyakarta: fakultas tarbiyah iain sunan kalijaga. departmen pendidikan nasional. (2001). pedoman penyelenggaraan tk alternatif: model tk alqur’an. jakarta: depdiknas ri. dhofier, zamakhsyari. (1985). tradisi pesantren: studi tentang pandangan hidup kyai di jawa. translation. jakarta: lp3es. hasbullah, mueflich. (2000). “cultural presentation of the muslim middle class in contemporary indonesia” in studia islamica, 7(2), pp.1-58. hasim, rosnani. (2004). educational dualism in malaysia: implications for theory and practice. kuala lumpur: the other press, second edition. yuki nakata, constructing new stages of education for muslim children 34 hattori, mina. (2006). “indonesia: doutokuteki kachi to chisikisyutoku no chouwa wo mezasite” in mitsuhiro ikeda & chiaki yamada [eds]. azia no syugakuzen kyouiku. tokyo: n.p. hefner, robert w. (1997). “islamization and democratization in indonesia” in robert w. hefner & patricia harvatich [eds]. islam in an era of nation-state. honolulu, usa: university of hawaii press, pp.75-127. hefner, robert w. (2002). civil islam. princeton, usa: princeton university press. interview with mr. budiyanto in kotagede, yogyakarta, indonesia, on 18 august 2005. interview with mr. bunyamin, son of the inventor of the qira’ati method, mr. dahran salim, in semarang, central java, indonesia, on 12 september 2005. interview with mr. che mazlan saad, the director of al-ameen service holdings sdn. bhd. in kuala lumpur, malaysia, on 11 february 2006. interview with mr. muhammad haji syafie at kuala lumpur, malaysia, on february 2006. interview with mr. muhammad masruh ahmad at kajang, selangor darul ehsan in malaysia, on 16 february 2006. interview with mr. zainal abidin b. abd. latiff at seremban, negeri sembilan in malaysia, on 11 january 2006. interview with ms. erweesbee maimanati, the daughter of mr. asad humam, in yogyakarta, indonesia, on 15 november 2005. interview with the inventor of the al-barqy method textbook, mr. muhadjir surthon, in surabaya, east java in indonesia, on 9 march 2006. interview with the principal of the kindergarten in the istiqlal mosque (ms.nibras) in jakarta, indonesia, who attended the teacher training program of the creative pre-school in florida, usa, on 13 october 2005. interviews with the school teachers of several kindergartens in bandung in west java and yogyakarta in central java, indonesia, from august to december 2005. kuroyanagi, tetsuko. (1984). madogiwa no totto-chan. tokyo: koudansya bunko. lpptka & bkprmi. (1996). sekilas catatan perjalanan lpptka. jakarta: lpptka [lembaga pendidikan dan pengajaran taman kanak-kanak al-qur’an] dan bkprmi [badan komunikasi pemuda remaja masjid indonesia]. rahardjo, dawam ed. (1988). pesantren dan perubahan sosial. jakarta: lp2m. steenbrink, karel a. (1987). pesantren, madrasah dan sekolah. translation. jakarta: lp3es. 6 rosita.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 67 influence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia: a qualitative study mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee abstract: exercise is a beneficial and efficient way to improve one’s health status. numerous studies have looked at both the physiological and psychological health benefits of physical exercise, however, studies that examine the relationship between exercise and psychological health, specifically on anxiety, report ambiguous findings. this paper, a qualitative study, diminishes the ambiguity by explaining the relationship between aerobic exercise, trait anxiety, and state anxiety. four female participants engaged in an aerobics exercise class in bandar baru bangi, selangor, malaysia, they were all employed women working within the town. the participants ranged from 25 to 55 years of age, with an average age of 40. it was found that trait anxiety moderated the effect aerobic exercise had on a woman’s state anxiety level following aerobic exercise. women with a higher level of trait anxiety reported a lower level of state anxiety following exercise when they participated in more hours of aerobic exercise per week. on the other hand, aerobic exercise had little effect on state anxiety levels in women with low trait anxiety levels. key words: psychological health, state anxiety, trait anxiety, aerobic exercise, and women at work. introduction physical exercise produces a wide variety of health benefits. people who are physically active substantially lower their risk for coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type ii diabetes, overweight and obesity, osteoporosis, and deterioration of their functional capacity (vuori, 2000; waburton, nicol & bredin, 2006; and zoeller jr., 2008). these health benefits are highly mastura johar, m.a. is a lecturer of uniten (universiti tenaga nasional); rozita abdul latif, m.a. is a lecturer of uitm (universiti teknologi mara); and prof. madya dr. mohd sofian omar fauzee is a lecturer of upm (universiti putra malaysia). one of them could be contacted at: mastura@uniten.edu.my mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 68 predictable, dose-dependent, and generalize to a wide range of population groups (vuori, 2000). aerobic exercise, or endurance exercise, is a subdivision of physical exercise that improves cardiovascular and respiratory health. additionally, it is generally assumed to increase well-being and reduce negative mood states such as anxiety and depression (byrne & byrne, 1993; and pitsavos et al., 2005). during aerobic exercise, a person rhythmically contracts his large muscle groups to move his body against gravity (morgan & goldston, 1987). at the moderate level, a person will produce a slight increase in his breathing and heart rate. at the vigorous level, a person will produce a large increase in his breathing and heart rate. the amount of exercise required to produce health benefits according to w.l. haskell (1987) has to do with a dose response relationship. according to this theory, it is necessary to expend approximately 300 calories per exercise session every two to three days at a moderate level of intensity to receive substantial benefits from exercise. exercise of a lesser dose will provide fewer to no benefits, and exercise of a greater dose will provide additional benefits. the effects that different levels of aerobic exercise have on psychological wellbeing are less clear. the majority of research demonstrates that aerobic activity produces similar psychological effects in people who participate in aerobic activity at either moderate levels, vigorous levels, or moderate and vigorous levels combined (taylor et al., 2004). researchers interested in the effects that aerobic exercise has on psychological wellbeing often study anxiety. anxiety detracts from one’s overall psychological wellbeing and is defined as the surfacing of a negative form of cognition characterized by worry, self-doubt, and apprehension (landers, 1999). when measuring a person’s level of anxiety, one must consider both trait anxiety and state anxiety. state anxiety is dependent on very specific situations and changes on a regular basis. trait anxiety is independent of specific situations and measures a person’s general level of anxiety that persists on a regular basis (landers, 1999). research has focused on how exercise affects levels of state anxiety. anxiety is generally defined as a psychobiological emotional state or reaction that can be distinguished most clearly from other emotions such as anger or sadness by its experiential qualities. an anxiety state consists of unpleasant feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry, and activation of the autonomic nervous system. the physiological manifestations in anxiety generally include increased blood pressure; rapid heart rate (palpitations or tachycardia); sweating; dryness of mouth; nausea; vertigo; irregularities in breathing; muscle tension; and muscularskeletal disturbances such as restlessness, tremors, and feelings of weakness (spielberger, 1983). anxiety also refers to relatively stable individual differences in anxietyproneness as a personality trait. people who have high trait anxiety are most likely to perceive stressful situations as being personally dangerous or threatening and to respond to such situations with elevations in state anxiety. the stronger the anxiety trait, the more often the individual has experienced state anxiety in the past, and the educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 69 greater the probability that intense elevations in state anxiety will be experienced in threatening situations in the future (spielberger, 1983). findings have reported an overall decrease in state anxiety following moderate and vigorous aerobic exercise (u.s. department of health and services, 1996). however, w.p. morgan (1987) found a decrease in state anxiety following only vigorous aerobic exercise. on the other hand, a. steptoe et al. (1989) focused on members of the population with high trait anxiety levels and found that this population showed a decrease in anxiety following only a moderate level of aerobic exercise. other research has shown that moderate, vigorous, and the combination of the two levels of aerobic exercise will result in anxiety reduction following exercise (taylor et al., 2004). contrary to all this research, w.p. morgan (1985) found cases where an individual’s anxiety was not reduced following exercise, mainly in those individuals with initially lower levels of anxiety. trait anxiety may play a role in the different findings. w.p. morgan (1987) reported that those individuals who had normal levels of anxiety to begin with did not receive the anxiolytic effects following exercise that those with higher levels of initial anxiety did. it is also evident from steptoe et al.’s (1989) study that people with high trait anxiety receive anxiolytic benefits from aerobic exercising. for this reason i predict that it is a person’s trait anxiety that will moderate the effect that his or her level of aerobic exercise will have on state anxiety. to study this assumption it is necessary to study a population where some participants exercised enough to receive psychological benefits from the exercise. g. firebaugh (1989) has shown that women are significantly more likely to walk, participate in aerobic activity, and participate in aerobic dance compared to men. given that trait anxiety should moderate the effect that aerobic exercise has on state anxiety in women, it is predicted that more aerobic exercise should be associated with a reduced state anxiety in women with high trait anxiety. in contrast, aerobic exercise should have very little effect on women with low trait anxiety. research question some questions in this research are following: (1) does aerobic exercise influence trait anxiety moderates the effect that the aerobic exercise has on state anxiety in women?; (2) does woman with low trait anxiety improve their trait anxiety with aerobic exercise?; (3) does aerobic exercise influence women’s trait anxiety levels?; and (4) does aerobic exercise influence women’s state anxiety levels? methodology: a. design/participants four (4) female participants engaged in an aerobics class in bandar baru bangi, selangor, malaysia. they were all employed mothers working within the town. the participants ranged from 25 to 55 years of age, with an average age of 40. two of the subjects were single, being malay and indian and the other two subjects are mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 70 married. total subjects were two malay, one indian and one chinese. subjects were categorized as belonging to either professional group or managerial group. the professional group included 2 lecturers, both are master holders. the managerial groups consist of one chief clerk and one assistant manager. the rationale behind such dual-part division of the sample was a potential comparison of women’s anxiety level. subjects were told that they have been selected as part of a qualitative research project and so far their attitude was open without any requirement for confidentiality or anonymity. b. data interview held immediately following a one hour aerobics class. the phase of data collection pursued in the form of semi-structured interviews. the interview included questions on the participant’s demographic background, semi-structured interview question, and an aerobic exercise inventory. each interview lasted between 45 minutes to one hour. a tape recorder was used with the consensus of the subjects. at the outset, the subjects were approached for personal information such as name, age, job position. the session followed by open ended questions whereby the subjects were allowed and encouraged to express fully their feelings and opinions. there were no difficulties whatsoever during communication or as far as the content of questions was concerned. in between the state anxiety and trait anxiety questions, i included an aerobic exercise question. participants reported the number of hours of each type of aerobic exercise they participated in, as well as the intensity level of each type of aerobic exercise that they participated in during an average week. c. analysis techniques after the tape recording and transcribing interviews has been done, the next steps to follow consisted of studying, reducing and analyzing the transcribed text. in approaching this, we have followed the guideline of w.p. morgan & s.e. gordon (1987) that the researcher must come to transcripts with an open attitude, without being led by any hypothesis and being focused solely on emerging themes and concepts from the text. i have used three basic steps while reducing and displaying the data interview: firstly, i have read and reread the transcribed text and marked and labeled the passages that are of special interest to the research objective. off course, since this is a semi-structured type of interview whereby the interviewees were addressed mainly through open-ended questions, different participants were focused on different points. thus, their elaborations offered a wider range with larger scope for potentially interesting themes. secondly, i have developed profiles of individual subjects and grouped them in categories that made sense. and thirdly, the marked individual passages were accordingly grouped in these categories. using the words processing, marked passages throughout all data interviews, were cut and pasted under the corresponding common educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 71 labels or categorized data was used to analyzed, interpret and build a narrative based on them by identifying the common emerging themes (speilberger, 1983). findings: a. trait anxiety each point represents one of the following four groups: women who participated in fewer hours of exercise with low trait anxiety, women who participated in more hours of exercise with low trait anxiety, women who participated in fewer hours of exercise with high trait anxiety level, and women who participated in more hours of exercise with high trait anxiety. one of my questions asked to know weather subjects have low or high trait anxiety was, “do you always worry and stressed out about something?”, and one of the subject answered: “selalu jugak, a lot of things yang merisaukan saya dan every time saya stress, saya akan runsing thinking about the matters and sometime feel like nak berhenti kerja je dan saya selalu sakit kepala”. the interaction showed that more aerobic exercise reduced state anxiety in women with high trait anxiety. in contrast, aerobic exercise had very little effects on women with low trait anxiety. subject a responded: “best! i felt really good after the workout. whole body and mine felt fresh and strong. i was so down with a lot of worries about datelines before i start the exercise workout just now”. women with low trait anxiety reported lower state anxiety following exercise compared to those with high trait anxiety; however, the level of state anxiety between the women was not much different when they participated in more hours of aerobic exercise. b. state anxiety this certainly corresponds with c.d. spielberger’s (1968) theory that stated that in comparison to individuals with low trait-anxiety, individuals with high trait-anxiety would be more likely to perceive situations as threatening, and so respond with a more intense state-anxious reaction. whereby, repeatedly encountering the same or similar, stressful situations may lead to the development of specific psychological defend mechanisms with the sole purpose of reducing the state-anxiety. some personalities are more prone to experiencing anxiety. the type a characteristic, a sense of urgency, of thinking that any obstacle can be overcome by working harder and longer, works against the ability to develop psychological hardiness. when stressors are encountered, arousal levels increase, and the tendency is to combat them by increasing arousal levels or effort even further. however, at high arousal levels coping responses become more primitive (taylor et al., 2004). patterns of response that were learned more recently are the first ones to disappear, which means that the responses that are most finely tuned to the current stressful situation are the first to go. the ability to distinguish between fine-grained stimuli deteriorates, so the extra energy expended by individuals trying to cope becomes less and less effective. mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 72 research has shown that highly stressed individuals find it difficult to learn new responses, to concentrate, to resist from relying on old non-adaptive behavior patterns, and to perform complex responses (williams & lord, 1997). subject a who exercise few hours a week and who have high trait anxiety reflects the behavior patterns when she could felt the influenced of aerobic exercise moderate her state anxiety levels. “bertenaga, seronok, gembira dan relax. saya akan lupa semua resah dan my worries hilang sekejap ... say until the next day. every time after the exercise program, i rasa more relax even though i have to handle more serious and urgent work by my office compared before i started my workout”. c. aerobic exercise and anxiety anxiety level increases when you first begin to work out. as subject continue to exercise, the anxiety stabilizes. 5 to 30 minutes after they finish exercise, like most people, they will feel less anxious than they were before. exercise is only a shortterm fix for anxiety. the relaxation induced by the exercise lasts for only four hours or so. the anxiety returns to its previous level within 24 hours after a workout. people who are suffering from chronic anxiety, will have to exercise every day to see an effect. if an individual become anxious during the day such as the experience job stress, we should exercise first thing in the morning. on the other hand, those who suffer from insomnia, should exercise in the late afternoon. (note: exercising too late in the day may make it difficult for you to fall asleep.) studies are inconclusive when looking at whether you need a vigorous exercise to reduce anxiety. some studies suggest that exercise should be fairly intense, but not exhausting, to best elicit the tranquilizer effect of exercise. other researchers have found that light exercise, such as walking or swimming, decreases anxiety just as effectively as vigorous jogging does. exercises such as golf, tennis, handball, biking, and other sports have shown to help people relax. choose an exercise (the type and the level of exercise) that work best for you. holistic online reported that if we suffer from physical symptoms of anxiety such as gastrointestinal problems, sweating, palpitations, pacing back and forth, etc. we are very likely to benefit from physical exercise. on the other hand, if our anxiety is caused by psychological causes such as worrying, difficulty concentrating, or intrusive thoughts, you may find more relief from mental exercises such as meditation, imagery, prayer or other form of mental relaxation. according to subject a: “best! i felt really good after the workout. whole body and mine felt fresh and strong. i was so down with a lot of worries about datelines before i start the exercise workout just now”. subject b also supported this view: “if i did not join the exercise class and at home with my family, i will still thinking of work in the office but with aerobic workout, i can forget for a while and less worries”. most subjects responded that they felt relax and had lower anxiety level at least after 1 hour of performing aerobic exercise program. most of the subjects were able to highlight some of the positive aspects of aerobic exercise influence their anxiety level. trait anxiety is a personality factor educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 73 that predisposes to view competition and social evaluation as more or less threatening. a highly trait-anxious person perceives competition as trait-anxious person does (warburton, nicol & bredin, 2006). subject c says: “i always suffer both my lower and upper back pain but recently ... after exercise i didn’t feel the pain at least till the next day”. subject d supported and add that: “my tense muscle feel relax after the aerobic dancing class workout”. anxiety is also multidimensional in the sense that it is believed that there are both cognitive and somatic components to anxiety. cognitive anxiety is the mental components of anxiety caused by such things as fear of negative social evaluation, fear of failure, and lose of self esteem. somatic anxiety is the physical component of anxiety and reflects the perception of such physiological responses, increase heart rate, respiration, and muscle tension (cox, 2002). both trait and state anxiety are believed to have cognitive and somatic components is referred as multidimensional anxiety theory (morgan & goldston, 1987). i weighted aerobic exercise, assigning high intensity aerobic exercise the most points, followed by moderate exercise with fewer points, and lastly low intensity exercise with the least amount of point the interaction of trait anxiety and moderate aerobic exercise was added to the model. more weighted aerobic exercise reduces state anxiety in women with high trait anxiety. in contrast, weighted aerobic exercise had very little effect on women with low trait anxiety concluding remarks: a. discussion results indicate that trait anxiety moderates the relationship that aerobic exercise has on state anxiety. consistent with a. steptoe et al.’s study (1989), we found that women with high levels of trait anxiety report lower state anxieties with more aerobic exercise throughout the week. furthermore, women with low levels of trait anxiety do not differ in their state anxieties following exercise regardless of the number of hours of exercise they participate in each week. women with low trait anxiety levels have lower state anxiety levels than those with high trait anxiety levels at any amount of exercise. however, those women who have high trait anxiety levels and aerobically work more hours per week report state anxiety levels closer to those women with low trait anxieties. these results support w.p. morgan’s (1987) findings that those individuals with normal levels of anxiety to begin with do not receive the anxiolytic effects following exercise that those with higher levels of initial anxiety do. b. implication of results these results explain why there is variation among what researchers have found when studying the effects of exercise on state anxiety. it makes sense that a. steptoe et al. (1989) produced significant results reporting that aerobic exercise did in fact produce anxiolytic benefits because their study only looked at people with high mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 74 trait anxiety levels. these results also support w.p. morgan (1987), who found some cases that did not report any reduction in anxiety following exercise, specifically those cases with lower levels of anxiety in general. previously, these two studies and many other studies have been thought of as providing a mixed message on the effects of aerobic exercise on state anxiety. with an interaction present, one can make sense of the range of different findings. additionally, regular aerobic exercise may be a good therapeutic tool that could be used to reduce anxiety in a stressful situation for women with high levels of trait anxiety. following exercise, women with high trait anxiety levels who exercise a greater number of hours per week reported state anxiety similar to that of low trait anxiety women. however, like many studies on anxiety and exercise, this study uses a nonclinical population. consistent with other research (simons & birkimer, 1988; and williams & lord, 1997), there are indications in this study that there would be greater effects of aerobic exercise in a more disturbed and anxious population, however, because this population was not studied, it cannot be concluded. c. limitations of study & future implications a limitation of this study is its external validity. all women in the study participated in at least 3 hours of aerobic exercise per week. it cannot be determined from this study how or if trait anxiety moderates the relationship that aerobic exercise has on people who participate in no exercise compared to people participating in small amounts of aerobic exercise per week. future studies must examine this relationship to see whether people with low levels of trait anxiety report lower levels of state anxiety following exercise compared to those who do not exercise at all. one must also realize that although women with low trait anxiety did not receive further benefits in state anxiety relief as they participated in more exercise throughout the week, it does not mean that they will not benefit from exercise in other ways. secondly, there are limits in the size and sample of this study. the sample comprised of a non random group of only 4 women. in the future, one can overcome these limitations by taking a larger sample of women at different age, education background and states randomly assigning them to various levels of exercise before measuring their anxiety levels. it should also be noted that this study was only a qualitative study. one cannot infer that exercise causes a reduction in state anxiety in individuals with high trait anxiety levels. people who participate in exercise may be people who find exercise relaxing, and therefore participate in it. to determine cause and effect, future experimental studies must be conducted in which groups of women are randomly assigned to exercise groups and a control group. women who do not normally exercise should be included in the sampling population to find out if results persist among non-exercisers as well as exercisers. furthermore, the study was done with only women. whether or not these results will generalize to an entire population of both men and women is unknown; however, aerobic exercise has similar effects on both men and women, and both educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 75 men and women experience trait and state anxiety. therefore, i predict that this interaction could be generalized to the entire population. the study must be replicated using both men and women to see if this is the case. i also predict that the anxiolytic effects after exercising in those with high trait anxiety are not long lasting. future studies could test state anxiety immediately following aerobic exercise and then do another follow up state anxiety test several hours later to see if the levels have changed. additionally, future research needs to investigate the correlation between age and trait anxiety. by definition trait anxiety does not change. however, results indicated that older women tended to have lower levels of trait anxieties than the younger female population. the reasoning behind this correlation should be determined. finally, considering the findings in this study, future research should examine how effective aerobic exercise is in reducing anxiety in people with high trait anxiety levels compared to or in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, relaxation training, and other forms of therapy. aerobic exercise has the potential of becoming an important therapeutic intervention because it is inexpensive and reduces anxiety in people with high trait anxiety levels. however, before comparing aerobic exercise to other forms of treatments for anxiety, one must determine what type and intensity level of aerobic exercise will most effectively reduce anxiety. in conclusion, this study provides preliminary data that trait anxiety moderates the effect that the aerobic exercise has on state anxiety in women. more aerobic exercise was associated with reduced state anxiety in women with high trait anxiety levels. in contrast, aerobic exercise had very little effect on women with low trait anxiety levels. references byrne, a. & d.g. byrne. 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(2000). health benefits of physical activity with special reference to interaction with diet. tampere, finland: ukk institute for health promotion research. warburton, d.e.r., c.w. nicol & s.s.d. bredin. (2006). “health benefits of physical activity: the evidence” in canada’s leading medical journal, 174(6), p.801-809. williams, p. & s.r. lord. (1997). “effects of group exercise on cognitive functioning and mood in older women” in australian and new zealand journal of public health, 21, p.45-52. zoeller jr., r.f. (2008). “lifestyle and risk of cardiovascular disease in women: is physical activity an equal opportunity benetactor?” in american journal of lifestyle and medical, 2(3), p.219-226. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 77 appendix a table 1.0. raw data on trait anxiety level first interview : subject a date : 1.3.2008 duration : 45 minutes subject : a race : malay age : 25 status : single position : clerk group : managerial – few hours exercise, high trait anxiety, personality factor – debilitative anxiety occurs (can’t cope). question : do you worry continually almost every day about both big and small problems, situations, events, and/or activities? answer : i always worry about what people say about me … kadang-kadang tu bila kat office banyak kerja yang boss kasi last minute, mula lah saya resah … bukan apa, takut tak sempat siap dan apa pulak anggapan kawan dan boss pada saya. question : do you have an intense fear that you will do or say something that will embarrass you in front of other people? answer : yes, i do. i am afraid and this matters does fear me if i do or say whatever matters that will memalukan saya di depan orang atau kawan-kawan. saya akan rasa tangan saya berpeluh dan tak sedap hati. susah la .... question : do you often worried about things that turn out to be unimportant? answer : always … by the end of the day, tak ada apa pun perkara yang saya runsingkan itu worth fikirkan sepanjang hari (sambil ketawa kecil). question : do you always worry stressed out about something? answer : selalu jugak. a lot of things yang merisaukan saya dan every time saya stress, saya akan runsing thinking about the matters and sometime feel like nak berhenti kerja je dan saya selalu sakit kepala. question : do you tend to get upset by unpleasant thoughts that come into your mind? answer : always … bila dah rasa macam tu, saya akan cuba relax kan my mind dengan pergi exercise atau jumpa kawan-kawan. question : do you feel depressed and easily bothered by things? answer : well!!!! i will feel down and murung ... walaupun cuba nak buat lupa, still bersrang dalam fikiran dan kalau macam tu kerja saya juga terganggu. question : continue to worry about things after they have already happened? answer : sure … mana boleh lupa. question : how do you feel right after your aerobic exercise class over? answer : best! i felt really good after the workout. whole body and mine felt fresh and strong. i was so down with a lot of worries about datelines before i start the exercise workout just now. question : what feelings did you experience while participating in the aerobic exercise class? mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 78 answer : bertenaga, seronok, gembira dan relax. saya akan lupa semua resah dan my worries hilang sekejap ... say until the next day. every time after the exercise program, i rasa more relax even though i have to handle more serious and urgent work by my office compared before i stated my workout. question : did you ever experience the same kind of feelings you had in the class while doing any other activity? answer : every time after my aerobic workout. feeling of confidence and satisfied. lega giler … question : do you experience unpleasant feeling states such as nervousness and tension after your exercise? answer : most of the time rasa tension, may be my boss expectation regarding work is high and he is a workaholic person dan suka nak cepat saja. question : what did you gain from participating in this aerobic exercise class? answer : i have many new friends, tapi yang paling terasa setiap kali lepas exercise fikiran saya rasa relax dan gembira. lupa dah kerja-kerja yang banyak dan hal-hal lain. table 2.0. theme on anxiety level educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 79 appendix b: aerobic exercise inventory to be aerobic, an exercise must simply be continuous (generally for at least 15-20 minutes), rhythmical and involve the larger muscles of your body. in the last three months on average how many hours a week did you participate in the following aerobic activities regularly? at what intensity? low intensity exercise is exercise equivalent to walking casually. moderate aerobic exercise is exercise that uses your large muscle groups and results in slight increases in breathing. your heart rate is equivalent to “brisk walking.” vigorous aerobic exercise is exercise that rhythmically uses large muscle groups and results in large increases in breathing. your heart rate is equivalent to jogging or running. 1. brisk walking/running/jogging/treadmill how many hours per week at low intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at moderate intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at vigorous intensity? ___________________ 2. aerobic dance/calisthenics/floor exercise how many hours per week at low intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at moderate intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at vigorous intensity? ___________________ 3. cycling how many hours per week at low intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at moderate intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at vigorous intensity? ___________________ 4. vigorous sports (e.g. racquetball, tennis, soccer, basketball) how many hours per week at low intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at moderate intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at vigorous intensity? ___________________ 5. other how many hours per week at low intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at moderate intensity? ___________________ how many hours per week at vigorous intensity? ___________________ mastura johar, rozita abdul latif & mohd sofian omar fauzee, inf luence of aerobic exercise on state and trait anxiety among working women in malaysia 80 a er o b ic e xe rc is e, o r en d u ra n ce e x er ci se , is a s u b d iv is io n o f p h y si ca l ex er ci se t h at i m p ro ve s ca rd io va sc u la r an d r es p ir at o ry h ea lt h . a d d it io n al ly , it i s ge n er al ly a ss u m ed t o i n cr ea se w el lb ei n g an d r ed u ce n eg at iv e m o o d s ta te s su ch a s an x ie ty a n d d ep re ss io n . © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 139 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare min shen examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research abstract: despite the promising potentials of using the flipped learning model, there are challenges lie in the practical aspects of implementing it. this study aims to provide implications to this problem, by investigating students’ engagements in self-study materials and to explore the causal conditions of an adequate engagement. adopting a qualitative driven mixed method research approach, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected concurrently. qualitative data were collected using three instruments during and after a 14-weeks flipped classroom conducted from early january to end of april 2018 with a total enrolment of 65 university students in the required course, mandarin i. quantitative data were extracted from a lms (learning management system) applied to support the flipped classroom. both kinds of data were analyzed separately followed by meta-inference being made. in which, interpretations stemming from both qualitative and quantitative findings were integrated into a coherent whole. findings revealed that the core phenomenon in this flipped classroom was students’ diminishing access to self-study materials prior to face-to-face interactions in classes. major causal conditions for this phenomenon were in bruneian students’ beliefs in learning, teachers play a dominant role in the learning process, and this belief tends to persevere. on the other hand, students’ perceptions toward foreign language learning had changed through the study course, and their motivation in foreign language learning had changed consequently. when watching videos and other online activities transformed from fun activities into work or obligations, they felt less-motivated. based on the findings, it is reasonable to suggest that establishing a positive rapport with students as an immediate and effective approach to motivate students’ self-learning, hence to improve the effectiveness of a flipped design. key words: flipped learning; foreign language chinese; motivation to learn. about the author: min shen is a lecturer, and currently also as ph.d. student, at the ubd (university of brunei darussalam), p.o. box 414, gadong be3978, negara brunei darussalam. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: min.shen@ubd.edu.bn suggested citation: shen, min. (2019). “examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february, pp.139156. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (december 25, 2018); revised (january 30, 2019); and published (february 28, 2019). introduction the flipped learning design is defined as a pedagogical approach, in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space; and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic interactive learning environment, where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter (fln, 2014; mackinnon, 2015; and fauzan & ngabut, 2018). in ideal cases, students enrolled in a flipped classroom © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 140 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom study new materials individually prior to class and then discuss, and interact with the teacher and their peers in classes to get deep insights of the learning material (arnold-garza, 2014; jensen, kummer & godoy, 2015; and mclean et al., 2016). the flipped design model is especially welcomed in foreign language contexts since students enrolled in foreign language classes get few opportunities to actually apply the target language outside of the classroom. in some traditional classrooms, a big portion of the limited class time is mainly dedicated to introduce vocabulary, explain grammar, and other forms of content knowledge, while students are passively listening (littlewood, 1999; lee, 2009; and shyamlee, 2012). this meant that students received insufficient input, output, and interaction during class, particularly given the time constraints of a language class (zhang, 2009; gilakjani & ahmadi, 2011; and spino & trego, 2015). thus, using the flipped teaching approach has the potential to allow more time for students to study the language both inside and outside the classroom, because of the inverted learning process (bergmann & sams, 2012; fauzan & ngabut, 2018; and santikarn & wichadee, 2018). despite the promising potentials of flipped learning, there are challenges in applying it. at the initial stage of implementing the flipped classroom, students need to develop the readiness to accept, such model of education. e. simon & c. fell (2013), and other scholars, reported that resistance from students can be felt, when implementing the flipped model of teaching (simon & fell, 2013; jensen, kummer & godoy, 2015; and baker & hill, 2016). low self-regulated learners may procrastinate to review learning materials prior to the class (steel, 2007; klassen, krawchuk & rajani, 2008; and filiz & kurt, 2015). in addition, it is reported that some students prefer lectures instead of online lessons, as they miss the opportunity to ask questions when the information is initially presented (gysbers et al., 2011; lom, 2012; and mazur, brown & jacobsen, 2015). this suggest that motivating students to devote extensive time to self-study with videos and other materials provided is a challenging factor hurdling the implementation of flipped learning (nouri, 2016; lo & hew, 2017; and nguyen, 2018). to provide implications to this problem, it is necessary to investigate students’ engagements in self-study materials to explore the causal conditions behind. to date, many studies have paid attention to how individual’s characteristics, such as belief, motivation, and self-efficacy, relate to foreign language success. most of these studies were in english as a foreign language contexts, which inevitably influenced by particular language learning beliefs and motivations. besides, empirical studies on university students’ adaptation to a flipped class design in a brunei darussalam context are very scarce (cf booth & gerard, 2011; toshalis & nakkula, 2012; and paradewari, 2017). this study contributes to the literature by reporting a flipped attempt in a foreign language chinese classroom in brunei darussalam; and exploring what is the key factor(s) promoting or hindering students’ adaptation to the flipped design. hence, the research question guiding this study was: “what are the key factors promoting or hindering the success of the flipped attempt?”. the flipped design. advanced to flip a beginner-level foreign language chinese (mandarin) module, the teaching staff had trailed videos and e-text books for the module on a lms (learning management system), which was applied across every module offered in the university. the videos were made with microsoft power point and voiceover in english. english is the major academic language in brunei darussalam and is served as the medium of instruction in beginnerlevel foreign language modules offered in the university (cf moe et al., 2012; cobo et al., 2016; and chen, 2018). language learning topics, such as vocabulary, sentence and text comprehensions, and grammar features, were included in the learning material. afterwards, the videos produced were uploaded to www. youtube.com and links to the videos were shared on the lms. to provide precise © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 141 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 pronunciations of the chinese phonology, e-text books with click-to-sound features were produced and uploaded to a website developed by the teaching staff http://lm1403sem11718.ml. the link to this website were then shared on the lms. in these e-text books, each new words and texts taught in the module were loaded with mp3 (moving picture 3)’s files. by clicking a word or a phrase, students can listen to its sounds. the teaching staff also prepared pages on the lms according to the teaching progress and module syllabus. every week’s learning objectives and the learning content were listed on the canvas page, where links to the relevant videos and e-text book web pages were also embedded (cf dahlstrom, brooks & bichsel, 2014; damsa & fremstad, 2018; and harnish et al. eds., 2018). by the end of 2016, the chinese module was yet to flip, all lectures were delivered in the classroom. the purpose of sharing the videos and e-text books was to collect feedback from the students on the accessibility and quality of these self-study materials. students were encouraged to use these materials to assist their studies in the module (cf goria, speicher & stollhans eds., 2016; khalil, 2017; and giannakos krogstie & sampson, 2018). after one semester trailing time, the teaching staff collected feedbacks regarding the videos, the e-text books, and the lms from students in an informal fashion. in general, students were satisfied with the accessibility of the module materials. most of them give positive comments on the flexibilities of time and location to review module contents with the online materials (cf herrington, schrape & singh eds., 2012; and lamb, 2015). some improvements were made according to students’ feedbacks. firstly, english subtitles were added to the videos to boost better comprehension among students. secondly, longer videos were separated into short clips around 5 minutes’ long. then, all these videos were embedded in e-text books alongside the notes on chinese vocabulary, grammar, and phonetic rules. besides, videos of situational conversations were added to the e-text book next to the relevant texts. the teaching staff also prepared quizzes on the lms pages incorporating the use of new words and sentence structures to let students reflect on their learning progresses (cf liou, katchen & wang, 2003; ermawati, 2013; and sung, chang & liu, 2016). in semester ii of 2017/2018 (january 8 to may 13, 2018), an attempt to flip a beginnerlevel foreign language mandarin module was made with another group of the university students. of the 4 contact hours each week, about 2 hours’ lectures were flipped by presenting the content on the lms with soft copies of texts, notes, videos, e-text books, and quizzes. the other 2 hours’ lectures were conducted in the classroom for activities, such as role play, presentation, group discussion, and translation to promote the higher level of knowledge and skills among students, while encouraging them to actually apply and practice the chinese language in situational contexts (cf tomlinson & whittaker eds., 2013; tseng, broadstock & chen, 2016; and chen, 2018). lecturers were followed by drills, practices, assignments, and other forms of workload to consolidate students’ learning of the target language. in the first 2 weeks, the teaching staff prepared students to adapt to the flipped design by direct introductions in the classroom and providing videos and quizzes on the lms. throughout the 14-weeks lecturing period, students had been constantly reminded to access to the lms pages and to complete the quizzes on each page (cf embi ed., 2014; demirel, 2016; and stelovsky et al., 2018). methods the current study. this study was carried out to examine the implementation of a flipped design, to explore the explanation of the phenomena. therefore, a qualitative driven concurrent mixed method approach was adopted (creswell et al., 2011; bentahar & cameron, 2015; and matsaganis, 2016). in this study, as b. johnson & l.b. christensen (2017) and other scholars suggested, qualitative components which collected concurrently with the quantitative components had the primary emphasis. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 142 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom quantitative components were collected based on the rationale of complementarity for a mixed study, which is to improve understanding the overlapping and different facets of a phenomenon (creswell et al., 2011; yilmaz, 2013; and johnson & christensen, 2017:497). the participants. the research took place in the semester ii of the 2017/2018 academic year. the study participants were level-1 mandarin students (65) and the teaching staff (1). based on students’ preferences with the class timetable, they were divided into 3 groups (20, 20, and 25 in each group), and one group attend a class at a time with one teaching staff. all of the students had the same accesses to the module pages on the lms (learning management system). data collection. data were collected using various instruments during and two weeks after the 14-weeks semester. four instruments we used were: (1) teachers’ diaries; (2) a group interview; (3) an online survey; and (4) analytics extracted from the lms. data collection timeline through the study course is demonstrated in table 1. from week 2, the teaching staff kept teachers’ diaries to record what happened during the classes in terms of students’ adaptation to the flipped design. one teacher observed students’ actions in the classes and recorded down her perceptions of students’ engagement in classroom activities and reactions to teachers’ questions. the dairy was also used to refine the flipped approach. the observation was semi-structured and therefore hypothesis-generating, which would allow for subsequent clarification in the course of the study, by means of the other data collection methods (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007; duke, 2012; and canals, 2017). we were relying on an online survey to provide richer data than would be possible to gain from the observation. the major purpose of such procedures was, same to what r.k. yin (2009) had argued, “to corroborate certain facts that you already think have been established” (yin, 2009). the open-ended questions in the survey questions were, then, designed to check our findings from the observation, for purposes of trustworthiness (yin, 2009; creswell et al., 2011; and harzing, reiche & pudelko, 2012). the survey was conducted online in week 14, the last week of the lecturing period of the semester on students’ perceptions of the flipped design. the link to this online survey was distributed to all of the students via a module announcement. students participated in the survey on a voluntary basis. since all students had equal accesses to the survey, we believed the survey data was collected through an equal probability of selection method; thus, represent the population of student participants in this study. among 65 students, a total of 35 valid responses were collected. data collected from the open-ended questions were, then, transcribed by the same observer who recorded the teachers’ diary (cf jacelon & imperio, 2005; and duke, 2012). the same survey also provided quantitative data for this study with likert-scale questions. these questions gathered information on students’ demographics, such as their age, major, native language, as well as information concerning their online learning experience and computer literacy, especially with regard to the purposes they have when using a computer or a smart tablet (mathers, fox & hunn, 2009; yin, 2009; and harzing, reiche & pudelko, 2012). all the student participants were university students aged from 17 to 25 years old. female to male ratio is 7.1 : 2.9. the majority (91.4%) of them were unemployed. among 35 student participants, the biggest group of 14 students table 1: data collection timeline in the semester ii 2017/2018 academic year week 1 week 2–week 13 week 14 week 15 (1 week after lecturing period) week 16 (2 weeks after lecturing period) no data collection teachers’ dairies distribute the survey extract analytics form the lms and collect survey data group interview © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 143 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 were major in arts and social sciences. students major in science and business-related subjects were 10 and 8 respectively. the rest of the student participants were from the nursing program (2) and brunei studies program (1). their ethnical backgrounds differed as 68.6% was malay, 22.9% was chinese, and the other 8.6% was other ethnics. the students were similar in terms of experience and comfort with technology and access to computers and smart tablets. they use their computers mostly for entertainments, social contacts, collecting online information, processing documents, and educational purposes. more than half of them were familiar with social media applications, websites, and the microsoft tools (dogruer, eyyam & menevis, 2011; and alsufi, 2014). however, only a minimum of them (5.7%) were familiar with online learning websites and tools. besides, they all have sufficient access to the internet, computers, and smart tablets. it can be argued that the flipped classroom method can be sufficiently accommodated by the cohort of students being surveyed (yin, 2009; harzing, reiche & pudelko, 2012; and alsufi, 2014). beside the survey, the analytics on students’ online activities and accesses available to teachers’ account holders on the lms (learning management system) were extracted one week after the lecturing period to analyze students’ engagement in online activities (dogruer, eyyam & menevis, 2011; harzing, reiche & pudelko, 2012; and alsufi, 2014). toward the end of the course, the teaching staff also conducted a group interview with 9 module students to examine their perceptions and attitudes toward the flipped approach. these 9 module students were selected randomly. the interviews lasted about 45 minutes at the interviewer’s office. comparing to the survey, the group interview allowed instant informant feedbacks during the session. the teacher-researcher also shared her observation findings with the students during the session to “clear up areas of miscommunication”, thus helped to improve the creditability of the data (johnson & christensen, 2017). data analysis. data was analyzed using multidata-multianalysis in the mixed analysis matrix as proposed by a.j. onwuegbuzie et al. (2007) and other scholars. both data types, i.e. quantitative and qualitative, were analyzed using both analysis types, i.e. quantitative and qualitative, separately and concurrently (onwuegbuzie et al., 2007; creswell et al., 2011; bentahar & cameron, 2015; and matsaganis, 2016). in this study, the analysis of the qualitative data adopted a grounded approach, where findings were grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed (strauss & corbin, 1994:273; khan, 2014; and matsaganis, 2016). the constant comparative method was employed to analyze the data collected in the teachers’ diary in the manner summarized by b. johnson & l.b. christensen (2017), and other scholars, that involves constant interplay among the researchers, the data, and the developing theory (jacelon & imperio, 2005; duke, 2012; and johnson & christensen, 2017:46). the teachers’ diary was coded in three stages: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding proposed by a.l. strauss & j. corbin (1994) and other scholars. firstly, every week’s diary were read and coded to identify categories of elements in the data. terms found in this stage include “selfmotivated”, “time management”, “teacher-driven model”, “instant feedback” among others. in the next stage, during the axial coding, these terms were developed into more abstract themes and were organized to explore the possible relationship among these themes in the data (strauss & corbin, 1994; duke, 2012; gallicano, 2013; and bulawa, 2014). by then, an initial model for students’ adaptation and engagement in a flipped classroom was made. this model was, then, rechecked with the data until the theoretical saturation was achieved in the last selective coding stage. additional qualities data collected from the other instruments were, then, analyzed in the same fashion to clarify, develop, and validate the findings developed (bentahar & cameron, 2015; matsaganis, 2016; and uzunboylu & karagozlu, 2017). on the other hand, quantitative data collected was served to provide a better © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 144 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom description of the phenomenon in a flipped classroom. descriptive statistics were, then, employed to analyze numeric data in this study. the findings were then compared and integrated to the findings from the qualitative analysis to achieve a coherent result (creswell et al., 2011; bentahar & cameron, 2015; and matsaganis, 2016). adopting a qualitative driven mixed method research approach, this study collected both qualitative and quantitative data concurrently. both kinds of data were analyzed separately followed by metainference being made, in which interpretations stemming from both findings were integrated into a coherent whole (tashakkori & teddlie, 2003; creswell et al., 2011; bentahar & cameron, 2015; and matsaganis, 2016). results and discussion the first experience of flipping a foreign language mandarin (chinese) module for an entire semester achieved some success and provided valuable data on how to improve the future incarnations of the subject. the core phenomenon. the study examined an experience in implementing the flipped design in a foreign language chinese classroom. teacher’s diaries recorded that the core phenomenon of this experience was students’ adaptation to the flipped approach in terms of their accesses to the self-study materials outside the classroom. in this context, n.b. milman (2012) and other scholars argued that the flipped classroom activities serve a function of consolidating learners’ content knowledge, which they shall have built up some understandings of in advance (ellis, 2008; milman, 2012; jensen, kummer & godoy, 2015; and shih & tsai, 2017). this repurposing of class time enables learners to inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities (educause, 2012; zhang, wang & chen, 2015; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). the data from the teachers’ diary showed that students’ accesses to self-study materials and their participation in class activities had been dropping. in the first 2 weeks of the study course, most students demonstrated fair understandings of the content knowledge delivered prior to classes. most of them participated in class activities with confidence and frequently contributed to class discussions (cf jacelon & imperio, 2005; duke, 2012; zhang, wang & chen, 2015; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). however, the group size of these students gradually reduced toward the end of the semester. it appeared that though most students understood the importance of mastering the content knowledge to build up communication skills in classes, they intended to have a brief look at the content knowledge in classes instead of studying in advance or reviewing previous learnt texts after classes. this tendency resulted in hindering the progress of classes. at times, the teacher had to surrender class time to deliver content knowledge to the whole class (cf zhang, wang & chen, 2015; serdyukov, 2017; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). this observation was supported by the analytics extracted from the lms (learning management system). figure 1 shows the statistic of students’ online activities by date. the activities include both page views and quiz participation on the lms. the total access was the largest in the week 2 of the module’s teaching period, with 4,594 page views and 70 quiz participation recorded. the access number dropped gradually in the following weeks, until to less than onefourth of the largest access in the week of mid-semester break. the accesses in the following weeks appeared to fluctuate, but still remained at a low level. toward the end of the semester, the access increased dramatically with doubled the page-views and quiz participation. the teachers’ diary did not record this access increase. we predicted this increase happened, because students were studying for the final examination (cf jacelon & imperio, 2005; duke, 2012; zhang, wang & chen, 2015; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). the analytic also showed that each student’s accesses to the online materials were diverse. individuals’ total pageviews ranged from 66 to 1,585; and quiz participation ranged from 2 to 26. in figure 2, student page views arranged in a bigger to © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 145 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 smaller order were compared to each one’s quiz participation. it showed that students conducted more page views intend to make more quiz attempts and vice versa. beside page-views and quiz-participation, we also examined each student’s total access time. figure 3 demonstrates that individual student’s total access time ranged from only 2 hours to more than 400 hours. however, the majority of the students had a total access time of less than 60 hours. the online materials were designed with 2 hours’ worth of time per week and 28 hours in total for a 14-week semester. there were about 30% students full-filled this designed time. based on the data, we concluded that students’ engagement in online materials were not satisfactory. at the beginning of the semester, they were active with self-study materials probably because they were curious about the new teaching method and without that much workload from other subjects. toward the end of the semester, the access increased indicated that they had built up the idea that studying with the online materials can help them to achieve a better result. but, during the study course, they decided to leave without viewing the pages and doing the quizzes for various reasons (cf schwartz, 2012; serdyukov, 2017; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). strategies. data from the teachers’ diary also showed that students demonstrated a variety of strategies to adapt to the flipped design. according to educational psychologist, n.j. entwistle & p. ramsden (1982), undergraduate students need to be supported to move away from surface learning approaches characterized by the mere memorization of content for the purpose of scoring well on examinations toward deeper figure 1: student online activity by date figure 2: comparison of student page views and quiz attempts © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 146 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom learning strategies (cf entwistle & ramsden, 1982; mclean et al., 2016; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). in ideal cases, deep and active learnings are supported in the flipped classroom during face-to-face interactions (roehl, reddy & shannon, 2013; mclean et al., 2016; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). but the success of these interactions relies on the extent to which students have prepared themselves before engaging in class activities (hurst, wallace & nixon, 2013; kim et al., 2014; and mclean et al., 2016). y.l. chen et al. (2014), and other scholars, also reported that some of their observed students struggled to adapt to flipped learning and fell behind in class discussions or handson activities because they had not watched any videos before class (chen et al., 2014; leeuwen, 2017; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). data from the teachers’ diary, the online survey, and the group interview all showed that most students were aware that access to self-study materials was the key to a good performance in the module. however, their strategies to improve their engagements in self-studying were two-faced (cf jacelon & imperio, 2005; duke, 2012; zhang, wang & chen, 2015; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). it is recorded in the teachers’ diary that there were a few students reflected on their own learning situations and strategies, and sought solutions to solve language learning problems proactively. data from the survey and the group interview supported this observation and showed that students were aware that they need to reflect on their learners’ autonomy and to improve time management skills, independent learning skills, and skills with the internet and computers, to adapt to a flipped learning process. during the interview session, student a mentioned that: […] i think i could have learnt more and better if i did checking out all the pages on time, but when i had a lot of assignments to do, i just did not have time to study. (pause) but, when i am free, i really did watch the videos (interview with student a, 2/3/2018). student b supported student a and shared his strategy as following here: actually this module was a good experience. i had practised self-study in this module. but, i need to be strict with myself and stick to the schedule to study the language. it’s hard (laughter). so, i made a deal with my friend to watch each other (interview with student b, 2/3/2018). on the other hand, some students would seek solutions in a teacher-centered model, when they felt that they were struggling with the language learning. actually, it is very common among foreign language students, especially bruneian students, to struggle with the chinese language (ellis, 2008; 闵申,2014; 闵申,2016; and shen, 2017). the online survey showed that though most students cherish the flexibilities in a flipped classroom, a big group of them would like the teacher to take actions in a way to “force” them to study. they requested the teacher to give more homework and tests, figure 3: individual total access time to the lms (learning management system) © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 147 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 deliver most of the content knowledge in classes, and prolong face-to-face interactions. besides, quite a few of them suggested the teacher embed cartoon and animation into the videos (cf harzing, reiche & pudelko, 2012; graziano, huion & gilfillan eds., 2014; and chen, 2018). we argued that some students’ learning styles are passive, and they have an attitude in common that the teacher shall be responsible for students’ motivation. it is also apparent that they were relying on motivations to study the mandarin module, and extrinsic motivation played a dominant role in this process (cf sysoyev, 2014b; tseng, broadstock & chen, 2016; and kwok, 2017). outcome. initially, we had considered using preand post-study language tests as a measure of the effectiveness of teaching. but, it would be impossible to control each students’ motivation level, learning methods, and other inevitable variables determining learning performances in mandarin language module. in this context, n. mcbeath (2006) and other scholars argued that test results are not particularly revealing in explaining the reasons behind student progress (baker et al., 2010; mcbeath, 2006; and tseng, broadstock & chen, 2016). we, then, decided to take participants’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the flipped design. a large portion of research has shown increased student satisfaction with the flipped learning approach (critz & wright, 2013; davies, dean & ball, 2013; mason, shuman & cook, 2013; zhang, wang & chen, 2015; demirel, 2016; tseng, broadstock & chen, 2016; lo & hew, 2017; uzunboylu & karagozlu, 2017; and chen, 2018). in this study, 28 (80%) students found the flipped design to be more engaging than lectures only teaching model; 30 (88.5%) confirmed that the flipped design was introduced to them clearly; same number of students expressed their favorable comments on the accessibilities and flexibilities in the flipped classroom. more than 60% of the responses showed that students were satisfied with the self-study materials, though their preferences for each item were varied. almost all of the valid responses reported that they had gained deep insights into communication and foreign language learning through in-class activities (33), and had improved self-studying skills (30). in the group interview, data also showed that students gain some higher level skills in general, such as compare, analyze, and critical thinking (cf baker & hill, 2016; wang & seepho, 2017; interview with student c, 7/3/2018; and interview with student d, 7/3/2018). on the other hand, data from the teachers’ diaries also revealed that outcomes of the flipped experiences varied. as mentioned above, students were in general satisfied with the learning experiences, but their adaptation to the study model was hierarchical. from the observations, we found that some students demonstrated active learning skills. they had shown deeper understandings and higher level skills in class activities (cf jacelon & imperio, 2005; duke, 2012; and leeuwen, 2017). data from the group interview supported this observation. some students claimed that the learning experiences in a flipped chinese language classroom also helped with their learnings in other subjects. a range of gain reported including analysis skills, resources selection skills, and critical thinking skills (cf wang & seepho, 2017; yang, yin & wang, 2018; interview with student e, 11/3/2018; and interview with student f, 11/3/2018). on the bottom of this hierarchy were students who failed to participate in class discussion and activities. their development in chinese language proficiency was minimum. though our data did not show whether the students had developed higherlevel learning skills after participating in the flipped learning model; however, it is reasonable to assume it was very limited (cf xiao & wong, 2014; wang & seepho, 2017; and yang, yin & wang, 2018). middle-level students in this hierarchy did not notice significant improvement from the flipped learning experiences. we argued that this study was limited in terms of scale and time. student participants in this study had no foreign language chinese learning experiences advanced to the study period. therefore, they did not have opportunities to compare the flipped learning with previous © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 148 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom learning experiences in foreign language contexts. further comparative studies could be conducted to gain deeper insights in this matter (chang, 2011; tseng, broadstock & chen, 2016; and tseng, lin & chen, 2018). causal conditions. we argued that one of the core phenomena of this flipped experience was students’ diminishing accesses to the self-study materials outside the classroom. we, then, analyze the data to identify causal conditions determining students’ accesses to self-study materials (cf chen, 2015; banka, 2017; and wang & seepho, 2017). research had revealed that beliefs in language learning may have a profound influence on learning behavior (cotterall, 1995; and xu, 2012) and on learning outcomes (weinert & kluwe, 1987; and hosseini & pourmandnia, 2013). in our study, the teacher’s observation reported that students’ beliefs and perceptions of foreign language learning changed throughout the study course. however, their beliefs in the teacherstudent relationship had never been challenged in the flipped classroom. most of the students would not take the teachers as a facilitator to help them unpack new concept and meanings in the learning process as intended in flipped methodology. they intend to see the teacher as an information presenter or a content deliver. and, teachers shall be responsible for their learning behaviors (kwok, 2017; wang & seepho, 2017; and tseng, lin & chen, 2018). both survey and interview data showed that students believed a good teacher shall be sensitive to problems students have in learning and be able to motivate her students. they perceived that the self-learning material online was an extension of the teaching, but could not replace the teacher in delivering content knowledge (cf huang, 2016; banka, 2017; kwok, 2017; interview with student a, 2/3/2018; interview with student c, 7/3/2018; and interview with student e, 11/3/2018). the data also revealed that students’ beliefs and perceptions of the difficulty of language learning, foreign-language aptitude, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, and motivation and expectations were diverse and had changed. we supposed that these changes lead to the changes in the students’ access to online material although not confirmed in the analysis of this study (cf zhong, 2015; kwok, 2017; burns & garcia, 2018; and tseng, lin & chen, 2018). another causal condition we identified was the students’ motivation. similar to students’ beliefs, teachers’ diary showed that students’ motivation levels have been changing through the whole semester. at the beginning of the semester, students demonstrated a higher level of intrinsic motivation; they were in general very interested in the chinese language and culture, and also the module design. toward the end of the semester, they were less motivated to learn. this probably because learners’ personal epistemological beliefs are significantly related to the learning strategies they use, their academic performance, and their motivation. when their beliefs changes, their motivation could be diminished (jacelon & imperio, 2005; chen & pajares, 2010; duke, 2012; metallidou, 2013; and wang & seepho, 2017). survey and interview showed that toward the end of the semester, students were relying mostly on extrinsic motivations to improve their access to self-study materials. though they suggested more external rewards shall be given by the teacher, we argued that the disinterest was caused by students’ perception change. offering more rewards can actually lead to the over-justification effect. online learning activities that initially felt fun for students transformed into work or obligations, when tied to in-class performance and overall grades in the module was probably the main reason caused the disinterest (cf chang, 2011; kwok, 2017; wang & seepho, 2017; interview with student b, 2/3/2018; interview with student d, 7/3/2018; and interview with student f, 11/3/2018). accordingly, e. ushioda & z. dornyei (2014), and other scholars, very recently suggested that motivation is determined by how learners relate learning and experience; in another word, to what they live in life (dailey, 2009; ushioda & dornyei, 2014; kwok, 2017; and tseng, lin & chen, 2018). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 149 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 figure 4 demonstrates the model we drew up based on the findings in this study. it was not confirmed in this study if students related the learning of chinese to any practical benefits in life, such as better job prospects that language proficiency might bring about, but we can argue that a supportive teacher-student relationship in their experiences with the flipped classroom can greatly motivate them with the learning process (cf kuhl, 2011; sysoyev, 2014a; kwok, 2017; and tseng, lin & chen, 2018). conclusion 1 learning a foreign language at the university from beginner’s level is never easy, particularly when one is simultaneously studying other subjects. this study focused on the first attempt to flip a one semester’s teaching of a foreign language chinese module, examining pedagogical practice and learner adaptation to the flipped design. adopting a qualitative driven concurrent mixed method research approach, with the teaching staff and learners as coparticipants, this study reported that core phenomena in this flipped experience were students’ diminishing accesses to self-study materials prior to face-to-face interactions in classes. students’ strategies toward the core 1acknowledgements: i would like to thanks to enago (www. enago.com) for the english language review. however, all contents and its interpretations pertaining to this article are solely rested to my own responsibility academically. phenomenon were two-faced. though they were able to reflect on their self-learning skills and attitude, they would rely on the teacher to solve their problems in learning. when most of them were satisfied with the outcomes and flexibilities in the flipped classroom, they still believed the teacher should be the content knowledge presenter as they mostly prefer passive learning style. one of the causal conditions for these phenomena was in students’ beliefs of learning, teachers play a dominant role in the learning process. on the other hand, students’ perceptions toward foreign language learning had changed through the study course. consequently, this change resulted in motivating the students. when their perception toward watching videos and reading e-text books and other online activities transformed from fun activities into work or obligations, they felt less-motivated. based on this findings, we would not suggest more external awards to motivate students, but to review the student-teacher relationship in the flipped approach. it is incumbent to take account of students’ individual learning trajectories by making use of a wide range of foreign language learning activities. bearing in mind that students’ perceptions toward foreign language learning in terms of the difficulty of language learning, foreignlanguage aptitude, the nature of language learning, learning and communication figure 4: model for a flipped foreign language chinese classroom © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 150 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom strategies, motivation, and expectations were diverse and had been changing, we would suggest establishing a positive rapport with students as an immediate and effective approach to motivate students’ self-learning; 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(2015). “flipped classroom model based instruction of college english in ict environment” in icadce: international conference on arts, design and contemporary education, published by atlantis press, pp.810-814. zhong, q.m. (2015). “the nature of language learners’ beliefs: a half-told story” in ijes: international journal of english studies, volume 15(2), pp.41-60. available online also at: https://files.eric. ed.gov/fulltext/ej1085733.pdf [accessed in bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam: august 25, 2018]. 闵申. (2014). “马来学生的汉字习得以及在教学中对 于运用字源学的尝试” in applied chinese language studies v, volume 120. 闵申. (2016). “开展海外专业汉语 (华语) 教育之探讨” in 文莱个案研究. 海外华文教育动态, volume 8, pp.91-93. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 156 min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom learning the mandarin (chinese) language in brunei darussalam (source: http://lc.ubd.edu.bn/news, 5/1/2019) adopting a qualitative driven concurrent mixed method research approach, with the teaching staff and learners as coparticipants, this study reported that core phenomena in this flipped experience were students’ diminishing accesses to self-study materials prior to face-to-face interactions in classes. students’ strategies toward the core phenomenon were two-faced. though they were able to reflect on their self-learning skills and attitude, they would rely on the teacher to solve their problems in learning. when most of them were satisfied with the outcomes and flexibilities in the flipped classroom, they still believed the teacher should be the content knowledge presenter as they mostly prefer passive learning style. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 181 info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social sciences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. since editions of may 2016 to may 2018, the sosiohumanika journal was organized by the lecturers of unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/ sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 182 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 tawarikh: journal of historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since editions of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since editions of april 2016 to october 2017, the tawarikh journal was organized by the lecturers of the faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 183 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since editions of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since editions of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals. mindamas.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 184 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since editions of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/susurgalur and www. aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur.jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 185 it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal was firstly published on february 5, 2016. since editioj of february 2016 to date, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (himpunan mahasiswa islam or association of islamic university students), who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index. php/insancita e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 186 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 187 one of the important things about the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agenda is to organize the national and/or southeast asia regional conference. as shown in the picture, aspensi committee has conducted the round table conference on the history education and historical studies in bandung, west java, indonesia, on december 27, 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is the core-business of aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 188 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 invitation letter to become the authors number : x/red.edu/ii/2021 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021, can be published. we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mails address at: mindamas.journals@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu as we know that the educare journal was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: february 27, 2021 best regards, sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 189 list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13, number 1 (august 2020) and number 2 (february 2021) no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 01. ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia; and esa unggul university, jalan arjuna utara no.9, kebon jeruk, jakarta 11510, indonesia the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth volume 13(1), august 2020, pp.27-48. 02. hidayat & asep r. rukmana unnur (nurtanio university), campus ii, jalan casa no.2 sulaiman, bandung 40229, west java, indonesia the quadruple helix strategy for tourism development: case study at mekar rahayu village, marga asih district, bandung regency volume 13(2), february 2021, pp.117-130. 03. ifeoma p. okafor unilorin (university of ilorin) in ilorin, nigeria influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria volume 13(1), august 2020, pp.49-60. 04. intan puspitasari upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia volume 13(1), august 2020, pp.17-26. 05. kania nandika upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year volume 13(1), august 2020, pp.61-80. 06. nugraha & indri ayu lestari upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market: evidence from indonesia volume 13(2), february 2021, pp.93-116. 07. portia roxassoriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, the philippines profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions volume 13(1), august 2020, pp.1-16. 08. sahroni upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia the development of human resources capacity of legal entity state university volume 13(2), february 2021, pp.153-164. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 190 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 09. saripudin, as’ari djohar & dedi rohendi upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia typical oer (open educational resources) development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in indonesia volume 13(2), february 2021, pp. 131-152. 10. warlim, encep syarief nurdin & supriyono upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia character development based on national values for basic school teachers volume 13(2), february 2021, pp.165-180. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 1 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga exploring disaster mitigation and preparedness of rural communities abstract: over the past few decades, the discussion of disaster mitigation and preparedness has largely focused on the urban communities, due to the concentration of the general population in those centers. this presents a gap in our current knowledge base particularly for vulnerable places with huge rural communities. this study focused on the level of knowledge on disaster mitigation and preparedness among rural communities in cadiz city, philippines. it was conducted to increase the understanding of drr (disaster risk reduction) done in rural communities and explore a method to come up with a suitable program that can enhance the awareness of drr in cadiz city. data were gathered from 198 respondents of the 6 rural communities in cadiz city via a researcher-developed questionnaire survey and in-depth face-to-face interviews. the results show that the general response in terms of the level of disaster mitigation and preparedness is “in the process”. most of the respondents have acquired information on general emergency preparedness with tv reports as the most common source of information and television as the most effective means of receiving information. in general, the residents in the rural communities of cadiz city manifest readiness and interest in their safety from disaster and in reducing their exposure and vulnerabilities to typhoons, fires, and earthquakes. based on the results of the study, the researchers highly recommend the development of a comprehensive and operational module to guide at-risk rural communities in mitigating and preparing for disasters. key words: disaster mitigation; preparedness; rural communities; natural hazards. about the authors: marites c. geronimo, ph.d. is a professor vi at the faculty of teacher development pnu (philippine normal university) north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines. meah l. gonzaga, ph.d. is an assistant professor iii at the faculty of teacher development pnu (philippine normal university) visayas, boy albert st., zone 1, cadiz city, negros occidental 6126, philippines. authors corresponding: geronimo.mc@pnu.edu.ph and gonzaga.ml@pnu.edu.ph suggested citation: geronimo, marites c. & meah l. gonzaga. (2021). “exploring disaster mitigation and preparedness of rural communities” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august, pp.1-18. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi suci and aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 22, 2021); revised (july 25, 2021); and published (august 30, 2021). introduction over the past several years, the philippines has gained momentum in disaster risk reduction and preparedness. various stakeholders across many fields have worked together to initiate programs and legislate policies in © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 2 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation the effort to amplify the demand for the people to properly prepare before a disaster strikes and improve the manner by which filipinos handle the aftermath of disasters. for example, republic act 10121, or the philippine disaster risk reduction and management act, was enacted in 2010 to “strengthen the philippines’ disaster risk reduction and management system by providing a framework and institutionalizing the national risk reduction and management plans” (sudmeier-rieux et al. eds., 2006; benson, 2009; and pog, 2010). the enactment of republic act 10121 has laid the basis for a paradigm shift from just disaster preparedness and response to disaster risk reduction and management. the national disaster risk reduction management plan serves as the national guide on how sustainable development can be achieved through inclusive growth, while building the adaptive capacities of communities; increasing the resilience of vulnerable sectors; and optimizing disaster mitigation opportunities with the end in view of promoting people’s welfare and security towards gender-responsive and rights-based sustainable development (unisdr, 2018; valencia, 2018; and adrc, n.y.).1 this kind of inclusive and holistic approach to disaster risk reduction and management is particularly crucial in the philippine conditions. the philippines was battered by an inexhaustible number of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural hazards (wingard & brandlin, 2013; doroteo, 2015; and valencia, 2018). perhaps the most notable disaster that ever hit the country was the category 5 typhoon haiyan, which made its devastating landfall in the central part of the philippines on november 8, 2013. this typhoon was record-breaking in its sheer strength as it was touted as the strongest typhoon to ever make a landfall in history. it also wreaked havoc with over 6,000 deaths and multi-billion peso worth of destruction in properties and infrastructure. the unhcr (united nations high commissioner for refugees) agency reported that 20,000 of the 4.1 million people displaced by the disaster still live in 56 displacement sites across typhoon-affected areas a year since the onslaught (viana, 2014; cas, 2016; and jha et al., 2018). j. salceda (2013) also noted that according to the philippine red cross, at least 31,835 filipinos have reportedly been killed and 94,369,462 have been affected by natural disasters and calamities in the past 20 years (salceda, 2013). 1see also, for example, ““ndrrmp (the national disaster risk reduction and management plan) in 2011”. available online at: http://www.dilg.gov.ph/pdf_file/reports_resources/dilg-resources-2012116-420ac59e31.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: october 21, 2019]. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 3 the national disaster plan could have contributed somewhat of a positive impact throughout the years after it was first laid out. but since then, the philippines still lags behind in terms of disaster preparedness. the philippines consistently placed in the top three or within the highest risk category among 170+ countries with the most risk of disaster in consequence of extreme natural events. the wri (world risk index) is measured based on the country’s exposure or risk and the country’s man-made attribution including level of preparedness and responsiveness, adaptation, and susceptibility (field et al. eds., 2012; who, 2015; and behlert et al., 2020). this shows that although efforts have been made, policies put in place, and implementation ongoing, there clearly exists a gap in understanding the factors why the philippines’ disaster framework is not producing good results. a comprehensive report published by the philippines’ commission on audit emphasizes the significant gaps in the country’s response and management system. it underscores gaps in public spending which focused largely on reactive rather than proactive approach. in addition, the report also strongly indicates the need for better management of information as well as in raising significant awareness not only on baseline, real-time data on the nature, effect and impact of disasters, but also includes financial information (beck et al., 2012; coa, n.y.; and behlert et al., 2020). this shows that there is still a lot to improve in understanding the underlying causes of people’s vulnerability that have yet to be fully recognized and addressed. it is in this context that the researchers deemed it vital to assess the level of disaster mitigation and preparedness, in the event of typhoon, fire, or earthquake, of the residents of rural communities in cadiz city. cadiz city is a coastal and low-lying community of around 52,447 hectares. of this, 87% or 45,102.45 hectares are considered rural. due to its geography, cadiz city enjoy the advantage of being the premiere center of agro-fishery resources in the island. at the same time, it puts the city at a high risk for typhoons such as typhoon haiyan, which heavily damaged the city. in one small island within its territory, only 10 out of 250 homes were left standing after the onslaught of typhoon haiyan. earlier in 2008, typhoon fengshen capsized an entire fishing fleet from cadiz city, drowning more than a hundred of its crew (ndcc, 2008).2 according to kapucu et al. (2014), and other scholars, rural communities have different experiences after a disaster than their urban counterparts. in particular, physical isolation, limited economic diversity, and higher 2see also, for example, “philippine statistics authority, 2020”. available online at: https://psa.gov.ph/classification/ psgc/?q=psgc/barangays/06450400000 [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: october 19, 2020]. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 4 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation poverty rates combined with an aging population, increase the vulnerability of rural communities. rural communities are highly dependent on natural resources, which are affected by climate change. hence, their awareness and knowledge on disaster mitigation and preparedness is crucial in determining the success of formulating and implementing a holistic disaster plan aimed at reducing risks of disasters, particularly in a city with a relatively large rural expanse (mathur, 2013; kapucu et al., 2014; and nca, 2014). hence, the findings of this study will be significant in establishing research-based disaster management plan, which can serve as a guide to recommend policies or local legislative measures in the city of cadiz, negros occidental, philippines. figure 1 shows the research paradigm, which guided the flow of the study. in essence, this study sought answers to the following questions: (1) what is the level of disaster mitigation of the rural communities in cadiz city, philippines?; (2) what is the level of disaster preparedness of the rural communities in cadiz city, philippines?; and (3) what are the challenges encountered in mitigating and preparing for disasters as perceived by the respondents? methods research design. this study used descriptive research applying several methodological approaches (quantitative and qualitative). specifically, the research followed concurrent triangulation design, wherein quantitative and qualitative data cross-validated, confirmed, or corroborated the survey findings. the survey determined the level of dmp (disaster mitigation and figure 1: the research paradigm educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 5 preparedness) of the respondents in the event of an emergency situation. in-depth interviews highlighted the respondent’s feelings or perceptions toward dmp (rr, 2009; creswell & clark, 2011; and schoonenboom & johnson, 2017). respondents. the respondents of this study were determined by twostage sampling. a margin of 5% is used as error tolerance. using the slovin’s formula n=n÷(1+ne2) on 29,715 households in the 12 rural communities or barangays, the computation yielded 395 households. considering difficulty in traveling to or reaching the clusters, convenience, and the sample size that can be handled, 50% of this size was considered for the final stage. hence, using proportional allocation, the sample size of 198 respondents was distributed among randomly selected six out of twelve rural communities (ellen, 2020).3 the final list of respondents was selected randomly and proportionally from the chosen communities. they were chosen from as diverse backgrounds as possible including fisher folks, sugarcane plantation workers, teachers, community health workers, store owners, household workers, homeowners, local government officials, school personnel, drivers, carpenters, and the like. the next table shows the distribution of the sample size among the six rural communities of cadiz city. see table 1. instruments: questionnaire. the questionnaire consists of two parts. part i gathers information regarding the respondent’s community, type of house ownership, and length of residence. part ii-a is a four-item scale designed to determine the level of disaster mitigation of the respondent’s household and his/her community. part ii-b is also a four-item scale designed to measure the level of preparedness of the respondents in the event of an emergency situation. moreover, this part includes the types 3see also, for example, “slovin’s formula: what is it and when do i use it?”. available online at: https://www.statisticshowto. com/how-to-use-slovins-formula/ [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: march 24, 2020]. table 1: frequency distribution of the respondents rural community population size (no. of households) sample size burgos 924 28 cadiz viejo 1,104 33 caduha-an 1,819 54 andres bonifacio 1,080 32 jerusalem 667 20 sicaba 1,029 31 total 6,623 198 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 6 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation of preparedness and mitigation information the respondent has acquired or collected, information sources or channels, and manner in which the respondent would like to receive preparedness and mitigation information in the future. interview schedule. a set of questions was formulated by the researchers to gauge the respondent’s feelings or perceptions toward dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness). data gathering procedure. each respondent was given a questionnaire and an ample time to answer. in the case of respondents who were not capable of answering the questionnaire by themselves, the researchers took time to assist them by translating the items in the language best understood by them. most of the questionnaires were personally given to the respondents who were available, willing to participate, and within reasonable means of contact. the researchers met most of the respondents in their homes, some in community halls and health centers, and some others in schools during their free time. to broaden understanding of the respondents’ answers to the questionnaire, individual face-to-face interviews were conducted by the researchers and the respondents’ answers to the questions were recorded, and in some instances by assistants who were trained by the researchers. the questionnaires were fielded during the first to second weeks of june, 2018; while the interviews were conducted in july, 2018. data analysis. frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation were used to determine the level of dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness) of the respondents. results and discussion the level of disaster mitigation of the residents in the rural communities of cadiz city was evaluated and computed using mean and standard deviation. table 2 presents the responses on disaster mitigation of the residents of cadiz city in the rural communities comprising of burgos, cadiz viejo, caduha-an, andres bonifacio, jerusalem, and sicaba. it can be noted that the general response of the respondents is “in the process” (m=2.55 and sd=.500). see table 2. when the respondents were asked whether their houses are built on a hazard-prone area, specifically from typhoon, fire or earthquake, they do not have knowledge what it really means being in a hazard area, because they are used to living in such conditions that are frequently battered by typhoons (m=1.83). in addition, an overwhelming portion of the respondents indicated that they do not have an insurance for their house (m=1.34). in the discussion of the factors for their having no insurance, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 7 the respondents pointed out that they do not know about house or property insurance and if ever they knew about it, paying for it is beyond their budget. however, they expressed willingness to do so if the government or other institutions help them finance the costs. the residents were also not quite sure in having their house “boughtout”, elevated, or relocated (m=2.07) to a safer place because it would entail high costs, adjustment issues, inconvenience, and difficulty in accessing basic utilities such as water and electricity if they ever had to transfer to relocation sites. but if given the opportunity to transfer, the respondents would consider the occurrence of a hazard in planning and building their next house (m=3.37). the respondents also emphasized table 2: disaster mitigation of residents of rural communities of cadiz city items m sd interpretation 1. is your house located in a hazard area? 1.83 1.297 i don’t know 2. do you have insurance for your house in case of typhoon, fire or earthquake? if none, what are the factors that contribute to your having no insurance? 1.34 .876 no 3. have you considered elevating, relocating, or buy-out of your house? 2.07 1.405 i don’t know 4. when you buy property, will you consider the occurrence of a natural hazard? 3.37 1.164 yes 5. would you be willing to spend more to make your property more disaster-ready or disaster-resistant? if you, how much would you be willing to spend? give an estimate. 3.29 1.194 yes 6. has your government raised flood-prone highways or roadways? 2.03 1.378 i don’t know 7. does your community carry out periodic clearing of canals, esteros, ditches and waterways? 2.74 1.247 in the process 8. does your city perform city-wide tree pruning program? 3.01 1.327 in the process 9. does the city have a geographic information system (gis)? 2.89 1.277 in the process 10. does your city disaster risk reduction management council conduct public awareness and education programs about disaster preparedness? 2.48 1.143 i don’t know 11. to your knowledge, does pnu visayas offer programs to help the community in its hazard mitigation? if so, please provide details. 3.33 1.137 yes 12. does the city maintain potable water well fields, treatment plants and/or distribution center? 2.42 1.161 i don’t know 13. does the city have portable or fixed generation able to sustain critical facilities for >72 hours? 2.93 1.227 in the process 14. have you made an inventory of facility, appliances, machines, or fixtures in your home/determined the actual cash value of every item in the house? 2.19 1.215 i don’t know 15. does your city adopt building codes, zoning or land use controls? if so, please provide details. 2.35 1.156 i don’t know as a whole 2.55 .500 in the process © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 8 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation that if only they had enough financial resources, they are willing to spend anywhere from php (philippines pesso) 50,000 to php 200,000, or 1,100 to 4,400 usd (dollar united states of america), to make their house disaster-ready (m=3.29). when asked whether they have knowledge or have participated in the citywide programs of cadiz on raising flood-prone highways or streets (m=2.03), periodic clearing of waterways (m=2.74), and tree-pruning (m=3.01), they said that to their knowledge, these are ongoing programs but some streets are yet to be worked on and clearing operations are not conducted regularly. in rural communities, tree pruning is conducted on a per request basis. however, the residents are observed to take it upon themselves to remove hazardous things like big branches of trees and hanging parts of their house before a typhoon hits. in terms of gis (geographic information systems), the residents have an initial background of what it is and how it works and indicated that to their knowledge, the city is in the process of creating a digital hazard map of cadiz city (m=2.89). on the item if the cdrrmc (city disaster risk reduction and management council) is conducting public awareness and education programs about hazard mitigation, they knew that the agency is doing some programs but are not carried out regularly (m=2.48). this is corroborated by the information given by the aforementioned office which maintains that it trains chw (community health workers), council members and peacekeepers as first responders in the event of disasters in far-flung communities once a year only. although some residents take part in the training, they are not prioritized for such kind of training. they know that pnu (philippine normal university) visayas has programs that helps cadiz city in being disaster-ready (m=3.33). on item 12, the respondents do not know if the city is working on potable water fields and treatment plants, but have still not utilized them (m=2.42). the cdrrmc acknowledged that the implementation of this project would be in 2016 as the program has already been allocated. the residents said the city government is “in the process” of putting up portable power generation (m=2.93). on item 14, the respondents suggested they cannot be certain as to the cash value of facilities, appliances, machines, or fixtures in their home so they do not know if their list is a real inventory (m=2.19). as stated by the cdrrmc, stand-by generators are assigned at the emergency clinics and city hall only. on item 15, the respondents were not aware if the city adopts building codes, zoning, or land use controls (m=2.35). in general, the rural dwellers are “in the process” of doing disaster mitigation on a regular basis (m=2.55). it can be deduced from these results that there are a lot of challenges educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 9 encountered by the respondents in their efforts of reducing their risks and vulnerabilities to disasters. in particular, seven out of fifteen items (47%) in disaster mitigation had the respondents answer “i don’t know” including their knowledge if their house is a hazard area. the isdr (international strategy for disaster reduction) of the united nations identified that: […] populations are often concentrated on natural flood plains or along known earthquake fault lines, or in cities and settlements where houses and infrastructures are not safely built and where land use is poorly planned, leading to disastrous effects in the event of an earthquake, even a slight one. what is not generally realized is that many disasters could have been greatly mitigated with adequate forethought and preparation and that the cost of this mitigation would have been small compared to the cost of relief and recovery efforts (unisdr, n.y.). on house insurance item, overwhelming percentage of the respondents did not have any and owed it partly to not knowing about insurance. this is all particularly important since: […] the un/isdr emphasizes risk awareness and assessment; knowledge development; public commitment and institutional frameworks; and early warning systems including forecasting, dissemination of warnings, preparedness measures and reaction capacities as important strategy for disaster reduction (unisdr, n.y.). the role of educational institutions cannot be understated in disaster risk reduction. the unesco (united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization), in 2014, identified two certain ways of helping vulnerable populations to cope with risk, raising public awareness and improving education about natural disasters. the united nations also: […] recommends that governments must integrate disaster risk reduction into their laws, programs and plans, and ensures the participation of local communities in planning. integrated risk reduction strategies and mitigation measures must be developed and strengthened planning, prevention, preparedness, awareness raising, education and emergency services for relief and recovery (unesco, 2014). educational institutions, like the pnu (philippine normal university) visayas, are significant partners to government in reducing disaster risks in communities. table 3 presents the responses on disaster preparedness of the residents in the rural communities of cadiz city. when asked if they have prepared a disaster supply kit with emergency supplies like food, water, and medicines in their home, respondents are “in the process” of doing it (m=3.05). they indicated “in the process” when asked whether they have prepared and discussed family emergency plan such as how they would communicate or establish a meeting place if separated (m=2.91). the respondents do not know if they have practiced or drilled on what to do during an emergency (m=2.44). on the question © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 10 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation whether they have volunteered to prepare or respond to a major emergency, respondents do not know if some of the meetings and orientations in their community centers are part of these emergency response trainings (m=2.35). however, they would consider attending meetings dealing with emergencies even if these are not conducted regularly (m=2.90). the respondents are not sure whether they have taken special training (first aid, cpr, cert, etc) for the past three years because they were only given the very basic training and may not be significant (m=2.05). interestingly, on the item if they have followed emergency information and alert systems, the respondents said yes (m=3.28). they have already informed and instructed family members on how to turn off utilities (m=3.64) and have kept family records and documents safe (m=3.84). lastly, the respondents are sure that they have obtained and collected information about dmp (m=3.43). overall, the respondents are “in the process” of fully preparing themselves to be disaster-ready at all times (m=2.99). table 4 reveals the frequency of the responses of the respondents regarding the type of information on dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness) they have acquired or collected in the past 3 years. it can be taken from the results that general emergency preparedness is the most frequent information gained by the respondents (61%). information on table 3: disaster preparedness of the residents of rural communities of cadiz city items m sd interpretation 1. made sure you had a disaster supply kit with emergency supplies like food, water, and medicines in your home. 3.05 1.352 in the process 2. prepared and discussed family emergency plan such as how you would communicate or established a meeting place if separated, emergency out of town contact, a place where you would live during that time you needed to leave your house. 2.91 1.377 in the process 3. practiced or drilled of what to do in an emergency at home. 2.44 1.465 i don’t know 4. volunteered to prepare or respond to a major emergency. 2.35 1.441 i don’t know 5. attended meetings dealing with emergencies. 2.90 1.420 in the process 6. have taken special training (first aid, cpr, cert, etc) for the past three years. 2.05 1.413 i don’t know 7. followed emergency information and alert systems. 3.28 1.215 yes 8. informed/instructed family members on how to turn off utilities. 3.64 .945 yes 9. kept my family records and other important documents safe. 3.84 .662 yes 10. collected preparedness and mitigation information. 3.43 1.152 yes as a whole 2.99 .745 in the process educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 11 organizing equipment and supplies is the second most frequent information gained (56%). thirty-three per cent (33%) of the rural dwellers gained information on making disaster plans while thirty-four percent (34%) have acquired trainings on emergency response. see table 4. the data in table 5 show that among the most common sources of information on dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness) of the respondents are friends and relatives (70%), tv anchors (69%), and radio hosts (67%). it can be gleaned from table 6 that approximately seven out of ten respondents chose television (71%) as the most common mode of receiving information on dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness). the table 4: type of information on disaster mitigation and preparedness collected or acquired in the past three (3) years types of information frequency percentage general emergency preparedness. 120 61% organizing equipment and supplies/formulating a disaster kit. 111 56% making disaster plans. 65 33% emergency response trainings. 68 34% structural and non-structural mitigation. 38 19% disaster insurance. 32 16% emergency information concerning seniors. 54 27% emergency information concerning pets. 31 16% emergency information concerning those with special needs. 56 28% emergency for business/organizations. 30 15% table 5: information channels or sources on disaster mitigation and preparedness information channels or sources frequency percentage radio hosts/reporters. 133 67% tv anchors/reporters. 136 69% schools. 128 65% friends/relatives. 138 70% pagasa. 103 52% local emergency management unit. 72 36% mayor’s office of emergency services. 75 38% volunteers. 71 36% cadiz city disaster risk reduction management council. 80 40% non-government organizations (ngos). 59 30% internet. 69 35% religious organizations. 68 34% civic organizations. 51 26% © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 12 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation other most frequent responses are radio (67%) and meetings/symposia/ briefings/orientations (62%). see table 6. during the interviews, the participants agreed that preparing for an incoming disaster will help lessen the impact even though their coastal location naturally exposes them to typhoons, storm surges, high tides, and even tsunamis. they shared that they are concerned about the safety of their families and community. they stressed that to be effectively prepared, there must be correct information conveyed to them, i.e. when and where typhoons are exactly going to hit, how strong they will be, etc. television and radio are the two most frequent and common sources of announcement of the participants about incoming typhoons. typhoon haiyan, locally known as yolanda, which hit the country in november 2013 and brought record high deaths and destruction is considered as the most destructive natural disaster that struck the participants.4 when asked what their preparations are before a typhoon, they relayed that they store an emergency supply bag loaded with food such as rice, noodles, and canned goods and other emergency devices such as flashlight, match, and/or lighter. when further probed if these supply bags always come in handy and ready-to-use, the participants emphasized that only when there are official announcements of incoming disasters do they put these together. otherwise, they do not prepare an emergency supply kit in advance and regularly. they also added that the local government provides relief goods but after a few weeks unlike non-government organizations which usually come to their aid right away.5 4see, for example, interview with respondent a, one of the fisher folks, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; interview with respondent b, one of the sugarcane plantation workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; and interview with respondent c, one of the teachers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018. 5see also, for example, interview with respondent d, one of the community health workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; interview with respondent e, one of the store owners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; and interview with respondent f, one of the household workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018. table 6: manner of receiving information on disaster mitigation and preparedness in the future mode or manner of receiving information frequency percentage fact sheet/brochure. 72 36% meetings/symposia/briefings/orientations. 122 62% radio. 133 67% television. 140 71% newspaper 79 40% internet (website/email, etc.). 75 38% social media. 92 46% outdoor advertisements (posters, billboards, fliers). 78 39% others (please specify). 11 5% educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 13 the participants also informed the researchers that families along coastal areas, including some of them, are given tags to occupy permanent houses provided by the national housing authority. when asked if they are willing to be relocated in order to be safer from storm surges, the participants were less enthusiastic. they said that the resettlement sites, although are “nice houses”, are located far from their source of livelihood.6 sand bags are piled along the breakwater as a barrier for high tides and storm surges. the practice of bayanihan is evident through collective efforts in putting up sand bags and in contributing financial assistance when their members become victims of calamities. when typhoon is approaching, the fishermen hide their pump boats at the mouths of the river where their devices are safely covered by trees. as regards the building of dikes to replace sand bags, there is already an ocular inspection conducted by the government for this specific project.7 although the barangay conducts practice drills for typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, and fires, these do not reach the smaller zones called puroks. on one hand, the participants recommended the creation of bantay-dagat (volunteers) to monitor the seas in their puroks and cities and to drive away fishermen from other cities and municipalities illegally encroaching their territories.8 the pkasfa (purok kakahuyan small fishermen association), a local people’s organization composed of 37 fisherman-members, took it upon themselves to reforest their stretch of coast with mangrove trees. as of january 2018, the group was able to plant 84,000 mangrove trees with the help of a civil society group. they also inform others to stop cutting down young and mature mangrove trees and use the old/felled ones instead. in addition, two members of the pecaspaa were sent to a two-day seminar-workshop to learn about basic search and rescue operations and first-aid treatment by the city rescue bureau.9 fish pens in the contributory rivers clog waterways but some participants contradicted this because the structures already existed even before there was flooding in their area. traditional knowledge including the movement of the northwest wind (locally termed kanaway) is used by fisher folk as an early warning sign of an incoming typhoon and how strong or weak 6see also, for example, interview with respondent g, one of the homeowners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018; interview with respondent h, one of the local government officials, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018; and interview with respondent i, one of the school personnel, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. 7see also, for example, interview with respondent j, one of the drivers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018; and interview with respondent k, one of the carpenters, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. 8see also, for example, interview with respondent a, one of the fisher folks, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; interview with respondent d, one of the community health workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; and interview with respondent g, one of the homeowners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. 9see also, for example, interview with respondent b, one of the sugarcane plantation workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; interview with respondent e, one of the store owners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; and interview with respondent j, one of the drivers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 14 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation it will be. the participants also highlighted that self-discipline is needed. whatever trash is thrown into the sea returns to cause humans damage.10 along this line, they inform and reprimand others about throwing trash into the seas. possibly because of their exposure to environmental education conducted by pnu (philippine normal university) visayas in the past years and tv news reports, the participants recognize that dumping thrash to the sea is disastrous as these will come back and obstruct narrow waterways leading to seas and choke up marine plants and animals especially those that take shelter in mangrove forests. they share information to other families in their neighborhood.11 lastly, it can be interpreted from the feelings and views of the rural population of cadiz city that they place importance upon disaster preparedness and management. the residents expressed strong concern about the effects of the hazards of typhoon, earthquake, or fire to their family and community. they also agreed that being prepared for emergencies can keep their family and properties safe. the residents also believed that community preparedness can make a difference in the ability of emergency officials to respond after a disaster.12 conclusion cadiz city is geographically exposed to threats posed by natural hazards such as typhoons, flood events, etc. as revealed in this study, the residents of the city in general exhibit readiness and interest in equipping themselves to be prepared for disaster and more importantly to reduce their exposure and vulnerabilities to various kinds of hazards most particularly to typhoons, fire, and earthquakes. further, the findings reveal that the residents are “in the process” both of mitigating and preparing for disasters. they are carrying out steps to prepare themselves and to reduce their risks and vulnerabilities from disasters. however, their efforts are without challenges. in general, it seems that the respondents’ lack of knowledge and awareness in terms of disaster risk management render them unable to equip themselves properly in reducing their risks and vulnerabilities. the residents’ reasons for their houses not being insured and for their apprehension in relocating to safer communities include absence of knowledge, costs and government’s lack of support. 10see also, for example, interview with respondent c, one of the teachers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; interview with respondent h, one of the local government officials, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018; and interview with respondent k, one of the carpenters, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. 11see also, for example, interview with respondent e, one of the store owners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; interview with respondent i, one of the school personnel, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018; and interview with respondent j, one of the drivers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. 12see also, for example, interview with respondent c, one of the teachers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018; interview with respondent f, one of the household workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018; and interview with respondent i, one of the school personnel, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 15 in addition, the city government performs some measures towards dmp (disaster mitigation and preparedness) like conducting public awareness and education programs, elevating flood-prone roadways, clearing of waterways, and tree pruning but are either not conducted on a regular basis, or are still not done systematically. some residents said that the city is well-prepared such that it recorded zero casualties at the onslaught of the strongest typhoon ever recorded which hit central philippines in november 2013. others were a bit skeptical and noted that even though lives were not lost, a lot of houses and properties were still brought down and flooded during typhoon haiyan; an indication that there are still things needed to be done in regard to disaster management. based on the foregoing, it is recommended that the local government, through the city disaster risk reduction management office, develop and implement a long-term and holistic disaster management plan which will highlight public awareness campaigns, early warning system, insurance, and the like. additionally, it is recommended that the city government shall coordinate all the efforts of the rural communities to establish an efficient, regular and systematic disaster management in the city. it shall continue to engage active participation from all sectors including education, business, industry, agriculture, and others to ensure the sustainability of the program. the periodic conduct of orientation and training on disaster risk reduction by government and non-government organizations will help the respondents brace themselves in the event of an incoming disaster and not only prepare when there are official announcements. practice drills may also involve far flung areas and volunteers may be organized to keep watch on vulnerable areas and encroachers. the local government may consider timely distribution of provisions to families affected by disasters. moreover, information dissemination on proper disposal of waste be conducted regularly to minimize the effects of these on humans and the environment. coastal clean-ups and mangrove growing should also be considered as top priorities of agencies and organizations as part of their social responsibilities. in cadiz city, pnu (philippine normal university) visayas has been involved in many extension programs related to the environment in its adopted community. it includes mangrove planting, coastal clean-up and the conduct of lectures to adults and homeowners about health and environment-related topics and issues. it is reasonable that the respondents “did not know” about the extension work that the university does as indicated in the results since the work is concentrated in only one barangay. thus, the current strategic development plan of the university © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 16 marites c. geronimo & meah l. gonzaga, exploring disaster mitigation should include expanding the scope of its community work. more importantly, in line with the philippine agenda on disaster risk reduction, the university should highlight the issue of disaster management in its community work through the conduct of seminars, workshops, and lectures to vulnerable communities in close partnership with the concerned government agencies such as the city disaster risk reduction management office and lgus (local government units). this is important because the work on disaster risk management should be done through a holistic and integrated approach. in relation to this, this study highly puts forward the development of a comprehensive and operational module that will serve as a guide to vulnerable communities in their dmp as part of the city’s disaster management plan. the module will cover general emergency preparedness, organizing equipment, making disaster plans, emergency response training, structural and non-structural mitigation, disaster insurance, and specific emergency training concerning seniors, pets, people with special needs, and for business/organizations. the university should closely coordinate with the cdrrmo and nongovernment organizations like create (cadiz city rescue emergency assistance team) in the conduct of training and drills. training of qualified faculty and volunteers will also become a top priority of the program. the close coordination between the university and government agency will ensure efficient and effective delivery of the program that will cover the entire city of cadiz. through this, it is hoped that a solid, systematic, and workable program of reducing the vulnerability of the rural communities of cadiz city can be implemented.13 references adrc [asian disaster reduction center]. (n.y.). “the national disaster management program”. available online at: http://www.adrc.asia/management/phl/philippines_disaster_plans.html [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: february 8, 2019]. beck, m. et al. (2012). “focus: environmental degradation and disasters” in world risk report. available online also at: http://www.worldriskreport.org/fileadmin/wrb/pdfs_und_ tabellen/wrr_2012_en_online_01.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: march 24, 2019]. behlert, i.f.h.v. benedikt et al. (2020). “world risk report 2020”. available online at: https:// weltrisikobericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/worldriskreport-2020.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: march 16, 2020]. 13statement: this is to certify that our research is a product of our collaborative effort. it is an original, with some literature review from other sources. our research is not plagiarized – relevant statements of authors in the literature review are properly cited. we certify further that our research has never been reviewed nor published in any other scholarly journal. this certification is issued on 26th july 2021 for whatever legal and official purposes it may serve. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 17 benson, c. (2009). mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development: challenges and experience in the philippines. geneva, switzerland: the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies / the pro-vention consortium. available online also at: https://www.preventionweb. net/files/8700_8700mainstreamingphilippines1.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: march 24, 2020]. cas, a. (2016). “typhoon aid and development: the effect of typhoon-resistant schools and instructional resources on educational attainment in the philippines” in asian development review, volume 33(1), pp.183-201. coa [commission on audit]. (n.y.). “disaster management practices in the philippines: an assessment”. available online at: https://www.coa.gov.ph/disaster_audit/doc/national.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: january 23, 2019]. creswell, j.w. & v.l.p. clark. 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(2012). managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. usa [united states of america]: cambridge university press. available online also at: https://www. ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/srex_full_report-1.pdf [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: april 1, 2020]. interview with respondent a, one of the fisher folks, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018. interview with respondent b, one of the sugarcane plantation workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018. interview with respondent c, one of the teachers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 5th july 2018. interview with respondent d, one of the community health workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018. interview with respondent e, one of the store owners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018. interview with respondent f, one of the household workers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 10th july 2018. interview with respondent g, one of the homeowners, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. interview with respondent h, one of the local government officials, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. interview with respondent i, one of the school personnel, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 17th july 2018. interview with respondent j, one of the drivers, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. interview with respondent k, one of the carpenters, in cadiz city, the philippines, on 25th july 2018. jha, s. et al. 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(2013). “philippines: a country prone to natural disasters”. available online at: http://www.dw.com/en/philippines-a-country-prone-to-natural-disasters/a-17217404 [accessed in north luzon, alicia, isabela, philippines: january 24, 2019]. 1 multie.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 119 reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom: a case study of malaysia mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng abstract: teaching reading comprehension in a classroom with multiethnic students needs teachers who understand the differences in cultural background that the students brought from home. teachers need to provide reading experiences that ref lect their student’s cultural beliefs, behaviors and experiences to enhance students’ comprehension ability of the texts that they read in classroom. this paper presents findings of a study on the effects of multiethnic literature toward students reading comprehension. using multiethnic literacy materials in english as a second language, classroom is a step in bridging the gap between the language and the students. at the same time, multiethnic literacy materials will give the student opportunity to foster appreciation of their culture and the culture of people from other ethnic who live in the country. comprehension of readers in the study to multiethnic literature were significantly effected by the cultural backgrounds from which they come. the study suggests that students should be provided with opportunity improve their reading comprehension by reading literacy materials that reflect their own ethnic background. key words: reading comprehension, multiethnic literature, multicultural education, ethnic background, and reading in english as a second language. introduction teaching reading comprehension in a classroom with multiethnic students needs teachers who understand the differences in cultural background that the students brought from home. teachers need to provide reading experiences that reflect their student’s cultural beliefs, behaviors and experiences to enhance students’ comprehension ability of the texts that they read in classroom. in other words, to facilitate learning to read and acquiring the skill of comprehension, teachers need associate professor dr. mahzan arshad, dr. abdul jalil othman and dr. chew fong peng are lecturers at the department of language and literacy education, faculty of education um (university of malaya) in kuala lumpur, malaysia. for academic purposes, they can be reached at: mahzanars@um.edu.my, jalil@um.edu.my and fpchew@um.edu.my mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng, reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom 120 to use reading materials that help students think and learn about their own culture and language learning experiences within their own homes and communities. this paper discusses the effects of reading materials to reading comprehension process of students who come from different ethnic in malaysia undergraduate english classroom. multiethnic education in malaysia and the teaching of english in multiethnic classroom education was seen as important for the nation in order to bring together the children who come from diverse cultural and ethnic background. in malaysia, children go to school under the national education system which was geared toward a common malaysian outlook through a common curriculum for all types of schools. from the time of its independence, the multiracial malay state declared that it would use the education system to foster national unity and bring about national development in the malaysia five year plans, 1966-1970 (puteh, 2006:23). the education ordinance of 1957 requires the system to introduce the study of national language (malay) in every type of school and all the major subjects such as science, mathematics, history and geography also have to be taught in this language after 1982 (ministry of education in malaysia, 1989). however, english still plays important roles in the educational system of this country. the ordinance decreed that english to be taught as a compulsory subject in schools at all primary and secondary levels and to be used as the medium of instruction in certain courses at the public higher learning institutions. however the turn around of the policy happened in 2001, when english was made the medium of instruction in the process of teaching and learning science and mathematics in malaysia. this situation has caused concern to many educationist, academics, politicians, leaders in the society and parents (asmah omar, 2002). back to the root cause of the sudden implementation policy was the deterioration of english among the young malaysian who have gone through national education curriculum for eleven years before they enter college. english language curriculums, classroom instructions and materials development at all levels of schooling are some of the important issues which need to be addressed by ministry of education’s officers who are involved in curriculum development, teachers who play the role of implementing the curriculum in the classroom, and school texts book authors who prepare materials for students in classroom. using multiethnic materials in english classroom is a step in bridging the gap between the language and the students (jacobson, 2002). at the same time multiethnic materials will give the student opportunity to foster appreciation of their culture and the culture of people from other ethnic who live in the country. while recognizing the importance of english as an international language, this issue becomes more complicated as people fear losing their culture and language. multiethnic literature that teachers bring into the classroom will somehow helps to eradicate this fear. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 121 reading multiethnic literature in english classrooms multiethnic literature can be defined as literary writing that reflects the customs, beliefs and experiences of people of differing ethnic or sub-ethnic in a country with population who comes from various cultural backgrounds. it can be the work of the author originally in the mainstream language or the translation of the work of the author who wrote in their own native language to the mainstream language (chew, 2007:10). in malaysia, quite a number of literary works from the malay, chinese and indian author being published and available in the book store. however, not many of these texts were being used in classroom as the text in reading comprehension classroom. literary texts were often being used in reading comprehension lesson, both primary and secondary school curricula. literary works contribute to students’ literary appreciation and language skills across the school years. the literary works that were often being used in teaching reading have been justified as a means of inculcating moral and social attitudes. however, the history of the teaching of english reports dissatisfactions with the lack of success in achieving the humanistic goals of literature teaching that schools profess. teachers also failed to understand that those aims are in conflict with the continuing emphasis on specific knowledge or content of the language (applebee, 1974). in teaching english, the emphasis on communicative skills is no doubt, the most suitable approach to meet the objectives to impart basic skills and knowledge with two specific aims. the first aim is to give opportunity to the students to use the language in their classroom tasks and in specific activities. the second is to enable them to improve their skills and increase their proficiency of the language to be used for specific needs. the body of literature regarding students’ cultural backgrounds and reading ability indicates significant relationships exist between a reader’s culture and the way he or she responds (baker, 1994). since reading is one of the effective ways to learn and acquire a language, teachers should put more emphasis on the reading materials that they use and the activities that they carry out in the classroom. using multiethnic literature, especially when accompanied by reacting and dialoging with the text, could provide a significant impact on readers’ interaction with texts. the use of literary texts from various cultures may act as a tool for enjoyment and motivate students to participate in classroom discussion, and help teachers to probe a particular cultural background of the authors whose works are examined. it also “pulls in” students’ cultural background and experiences (reissman, 1994). such an interactive reading activity will not only enhance literacy but also promote empathy and inter-group respect among students in a classroom. most studies on culture in reading and language education looked at the relationship between readers’ culture and interpretation of text or response to materials (walker-dalhouse, 1992; and sinha, 1996). while reynolds et al. (1982) in their study examined the relationship between a reader’s culture and comprehension of or recall of information from a literary text. r.c. reissman (1994) explored the awareness of cultural response to stimulate multiethnic mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng, reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom 122 understanding among ethnically diverse students. these studies support the relationship that exists between readers’ culture and comprehension and recall of information from literary texts. therefore, it is important for the english teacher to use multiethnic materials in the classroom to enhance students’ understanding and interest in reading and interest in learning the language. responding to multiethnic literature is one of the activities that can be practiced in the english language arts classroom. students could talk about the books that they have read, discussing with peers about the characters, the events and the settings of the story. they can express their ideas, whether they like the books or dislike certain parts of the story, and they can write to the author, share their feeling about characters and share their real life experience with the others in relation to the text that they have read. with such activity, students are given opportunities to develop a sense of ownership, pride and respect for learning (hansen, 1987). the purpose of this study was to discover how readers in learning of english as a second language respond to multiethnic literature. two questions are to be answered in this study. the questions are: (1) what are the reading comprehension scores of readers reading literary texts written by an author of their own ethnic and literary texts written by authors of other ethnics?; and (2) is there any significant difference in the reading comprehension scores among readers who read a literary text written by an author of their own ethnic and literary texts written by authors of other ethnic? methodology participants in this study were drawn from students who are enrolled in bachelor degree program at a public university in malaysia. specifically, they are enrolled in the bachelor of education program in the teaching of english as a second language at the faculty of education. there were 164 student teachers participated in this study. four texts were chosen for the study. these texts were taken from four novels by different authors: the kitchen god’s wife by amy tan’s (chinese); nectar in a sieve by kamala markandaya (indian); caught in the middle by shahnon ahmad (malay); and the wedding by grace lumpkin (european). these texts were chosen because they have a common theme, the wedding customs that are being practiced by the four different ethnic groups. the theme was chosen because weddings have a lot of significance in the customs and traditions of all the ethnic groups in this country. it is a common experience to every participant in this study regardless of gender or ethnic backgrounds. they might have experienced their own wedding day or they may have attended the wedding ceremony of families or friends. each text was followed by seven comprehension questions. the emphasis of the questions was on how readers will respond to the text that they have read and they were given opportunity to respond in any way they like. the questions were arranged in an order to elicit participants’ responses from general idea to texts’ specific. responses given by participants to the questions will provide the data to answer educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 123 research questions. the scoring of reading comprehension was given according to the depth of the response for each question. each response was given a scoring between 0 to 4 points. the analysis of data provides empirical evidences to answer each research question posed in this study. it provides the percentage of reading comprehension scores for each ethnic group. the chi-square tests were used to look at the relationship between the readers’ responses and their cultural background in regard to reading multicultural literature. one-way analysis of variance and the tukey hsd multiple comparison tests were used to look at the differences between the mean of readers scores and their cultural background in reading multicultural literary texts. findings: a. reading comprehension analysis of data in this section provides empirical evidence to test four null hypotheses, h : 1a, h : 1b, h : 1c, and h : 1d, each noted that there is no significant relationship between the reading comprehension scores of the readers and their ethnic backgrounds in reading multiethnic literature written by a malay, chinese, indian and european author. table 1 score levels of readers reading multiethnic literary text written by a malay, chinese, indian and european author mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng, reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom 124 table 1 depicted the summary of the scores of reader’s responses to four literary texts written by authors of different ethnic. the summary of the scores of readers’ responses to multiethnic literature written by a malay author shows that the largest percentage of malay readers scored at the good and excellent levels in reading multiethnic literature written by a malay author. the results from the chi-square test show that there is a significant relationship at p < .01 between the comprehension scores of the readers and their cultural background in reading a text written by a malay author. the comprehension scores levels of readers’ responses to multiethnic literature written by a chinese author shows that the greatest percentage of chinese readers scored at the good and excellent levels. the results from the chi-square test show that there is a significant relationship at p < .001 between the comprehension scores of the readers and their cultural background in reading a text written by a chinese author. the score levels of student teachers’ responses to multiethnic literature written by an indian author shows that the greatest percentage of the indian student teachers scored at the good and excellent levels. the results from the chi-square test show that there is a significant relationship at p < .001 between the scores of the readers and their cultural background in reading a text written by an indian author. the summary of the score levels of readers responses to multiethnic literature written by a european author shows that the greatest percentage of the indian readers scored at the satisfactory level. the results from the chi-square test show that there is a significant relationship at p < .05 between the scores of the readers and their cultural background in reading a text written by a european author. these findings provide enough evidence to reject h : 1a, h : 1b, h : 1c and h : 1d. b. mean of comprehension scoresb. mean of comprehension scoresb. mean of comprehension scoresb. mean of comprehension scoresb. mean of comprehension scores analysis of data in the second section provides empirical evidence to test four null hypotheses, h : 2a, h : 2b, h : 2c and h : 2d, each noted that there is no significant difference between the mean comprehension scores of the readers and their cultural background in reading multiethnic literature written by a malay, chinese, indian and european author. table 2 depicted a one-way anova to compare the mean of scores of three groups of readers in reading a multiethnic literature written by a malay, chinese, indian and european author. the table shows that there is a significant difference in the mean scores of the three groups at p < .05. it shows that the mean score of the malay readers is the highest in reading a text written by a malay author compared to the mean scores for the chinese and indian readers. the mean score of the chinese readers was the highest in reading a text written by a chinese author compared to the mean scores of the malay and indian readers. the mean score of the indian readers was the highest in reading a text written by an indian author compared to the mean scores of the malay and chinese readers. the mean score of the indian readers was the highest in reading a text written by a european author compared to the mean scores of the malay and chinese readers. the multiple educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 125 range tukey hsd test also shows that there is a significant difference between group means at p < .05 for all texts. these findings provide evidence to reject h : 2a, h : 2b, h : 2c and h : 2d. table 2 one-way anova for scores of readers responding to multiethnic literature written by a malay, chinese, indian and european author discussion the results of statistical analysis to test h : 1a, h : 1b, h : 1c and h : 1d answered research question 1 in this study. the results of chi-square test revealed that there is a significant relationship between the scores of readers and their cultural background in reading multiethnic literature. the malay readers scored significantly higher than the chinese and indian readers in reading multiethnic literature written by a malay author were. the chinese readers scored significantly higher than the malay and indian readers in reading a text written by a chinese author. the indian readers scored significantly higher than the malay and chinese in reading a multiethnic text written by an indian author. the scores of indian readers were also significantly higher than the malay and chinese in reading a text written by a european author. this is possibly due to the indian readers being more familiar with the christian wedding ceremony that was depicted in the “wedding” text. in their responses to this text, some of the indian readers were making connection between the wedding in the text and their own or their family wedding experience in the church. analysis of variance to test h : 2a, h : 2b, h : 2c and h : 2d also showed that there is a significant difference in the mean scores of comprehension and their cultural backgrounds in reading texts written by different authors. these findings answered mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng, reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom 126 research question 2 in this study. the mean score of malay readers was significantly higher than that of the chinese and indian readers in reading multiethnic literary text written by a malay author. the mean score of the chinese readers was also significantly higher than that of the malay and indian readers in reading multiethnic literature written by a chinese author. the mean score of indian readers responding to multiethnic literature written by an indian and a european author was also found to be significantly higher than that of the malay and the chinese readers. the results of the tukey hsd tests revealed a significant difference between the mean scores of readers and their cultural background in reading all the four texts. these findings confirmed the pervious findings that showed there is a significant relationship between the responses of readers in reading multiethnic literature written by author of their own ethnic and multiethnic literature written by authors of different cultural backgrounds. the results of analysis of data in this section confirmed the results of previous research that examined the relationship between readers’ culture and their interpretation of texts and responses to materials. studies in this area have examined the relationship between readers’ cultures and comprehension of or recall of information from literary texts (reynolds et al., 1982), and used the awareness of cultural response to stimulate multiethnic understanding among ethnically diverse students (reissman, 1994). these studies support the relationship that exists between readers’ culture and comprehension of /or recall of information from literary texts. this study also demonstrated that reading material portraying different cultural backgrounds significantly affects the pattern of level of responses of readers. reading material that is reflective of one’s cultural background enhances the likelihood or probability of a higher level of comprehension. those reader who read material about their own culture, demonstrated their ability to use synthesis of literal contents, their personal knowledge, their intuition and their imagination as the basis for conjectures or hypothesis. this study found that most readers scored at the inferential and evaluation levels when they interacted with text written by an author who came from their own ethnic backgrounds. this implied that reading materials that reflect readers’ background helped to stimulate more divergent and creative conjecture and demanded their thinking at a higher level of judgment. it also helped them to make comparisons between the content of the text and the internal criteria, their experiences, knowledge or values that they have. in many studies, students proved to be remarkably poor at reading between lines and drawing appropriate generalizations and extrapolations from what they read (perkins, 1992). they seem puzzled at the request to explain or defend their points of view. as a result, responses to assessment items requiring explanation of criteria, analysis of text or defending judgment or point of view in general disappointing (national assessment of education progress, 1981). therefore it is important for teachers to diversify the use of reading materials in the teaching of english as a second language. using multiethnic literature, especially when accompanied by reacting and dialoging with texts can have significant impact on readers’ interaction with texts. the recent study has shown that the reader response educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 127 approach may serve as a tool to enjoyment and motivate classroom discussion in the teaching of english as a second language. it also helps teachers to overcome the problems faced by readers in reading second language reading materials, especially when making inferences, evaluations and appreciation of literary texts. this study found that readers were making more intra textual link and extra textual link in their responses while reading text written by authors of their own culture compared to texts that were written by authors of other cultures. this finding provides a valuable indicator for understanding how readers process information that they gathered while reading different texts. this study also confirmed the role of readers in developing meaning from texts as an extension of their prior experience, past knowledge, past reading and listening, and more importantly their cultural pattern. this study suggests that to develop readers’ interaction with texts, more frequently at a higher level, teachers should provide students with texts that contain more cultural content that students are more familiar with. the art of remembering is the art of thinking. thinking is the ability to make connection between what we have in our mind and what is shown to us. the connection is thinking, and if we attend clearly to the connection, the connected thing will certainly be likely to remain within recall (james, 1983). generating questions for comprehension exercises, for example, should be more focused on developing student’s ability to analyze and criticize the contents of the materials, making connections between classroom texts and other texts that they have read, and making connection between texts and their own real life experiences. questions should be able to test student’s ability to draw inferences, make evaluations and demonstrate appreciation of literary texts used by teachers in classrooms. conclusion in conclusion, the comprehensions of readers to multiethnic literature in this study were significantly affected by the cultural backgrounds from which they come. this study suggests that students should be provided with opportunity to improve their reading comprehension by reading literary texts that reflects their own ethnic background. they will understand the text better if the content were closely related with their own experiences and practice. multiethnic literature provides readers with rich discussion of the nature of their own custom and everyday practice. by using multiethnic literature in the classroom, teachers may help students to respect the values of their own culture, raise their aspirations and expand their understanding of other people. as they begin to understand themselves, they begin to develop a feeling of self-esteem, and try to understand and appreciate their own culture and culture of others. at the same time these literary texts may develop students interest in reading and dialoging with the text that teacher used in classrooms. the need for english instr uction that emphasizes skills, know-how, reflectiveness, higher order questions and thinking are important, especially in a classroom with students who come from various ethnic groups. teachers need to provide these students with literary experiences that reflect the culture from which mahzan arshad, abdul jalil othman & chew fong peng, reading comprehension of multiethnic literature in a multiethnic classroom 128 they come. providing them with reading materials that act as a reflection of their culture may help to enhance their interest to learn english as a second language. it may help to bridge the gap between the language that they are not familiar with and the language that they are using in their everyday life. therefore this study suggests that multiethnic literature should not only be widely used but also wisely used in english classrooms. references applebee, a.n. 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(1992). “using african-american literature to increase ethnic understanding” in the reading teacher, 45, pp.416-422. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 45 adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school in northern tasmania derris wood abstract: this research examined risk taking with the main focus being negative risk taking and the main target adolescent females in a senior secondary school setting in tasmania, australia, using three varied methodologies and perspectives for the data collection. the first, and major method, used a questionnaire distributed to a year 11 group of females, aged sixteen to nineteen, who were just beginning their first year of non-compulsory, post secondary education. this questionnaire had the main focus of discovering their risk taking perceptions and participation rates regarding four main areas of negative risk taking, namely alcohol, and drug use and abuse, sexual activity, and the viewing of x-rated (pornographic) videos. the socio-demographic information concentrated on the females’ sense of self, their personal goals, and positive and negative risk taking activities within the context of social capital, psychological, social, educational, risk taking, and health background theory and in the three domains of family, school, and community. to provide a wider perspective on the topic of risk taking, interviews were also conducted with those professionals and carers of adolescent children, namely school administrators, teachers, and parents to provide information from the reality of adolescents’ lives. the third source of data involved a review of the australian and state policies impinging on aspects of the curricula suitable for these adolescents. the major findings from the questionnaire emphasised that the females’ sense of self, parental influence and, to a lesser extent, religious values will decrease negative risk taking. key words: negative risk taking, adolescent females, senior secondary school, parental influence, and religious values. introduction the focus for this study evolved during a search for a study, which would be useful for educators and counsellors, and those working with adolescents. the researcher was involved, in her professional life, with the teaching of adolescents, so her attention turned to this age group and the rapid changes in the world, in general, and in society in particular. it was then that questions formed as to the implications of these factors upon young adolescents, especially young women, as the twenty first century began to unfold. valuable background knowledge could be gained for this type of study from a select group of disciplinary views including psychology, sociology, education, counseling and health. derris wood, ph.d. is a lecturer at the school of education utas (university of tasmania), australia. she can be reached at: dwood@iinet.net.au derris wood, adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school 46 methodology the main methodology for this research was the use of an extensive questionnaire to study the socio-demographic factors impinging on the female participants. there was also an emphasis in the questionnaire on risk perception and risk participation rates of the adolescent females within the specified age group of sixteen to nineteen years (16-19), together with a specified set of negative risk taking activities, namely alcohol and drug use and sexual activity. the second stage consisted of interviews with those adults teaching or living with adolescents. the review of australian and state policies regarding the negative risk taking activities in the study formed the third and final stage of this study. background to the study and conceptual issues questions, researcher suggested, could be posed as to whether the unique stage of adolescence actually exists. however, palladino suggested that there is overwhelming evidence that teenagers do exist (in jaffe, 1998:3). this project also had its origins in a former study of women, women and educational leadership early life experiences of tasmanian women principals, where the sense of self and “self expectation” was a significant finding (wood, 1998:107). psychological researchers maintain that the central feature of female development included the tendency to seek out and maintain relationships with others (borman & schneider eds., 1998). sociologists focus primarily on the social, economic and political contexts in which young people grow up and live. these views concern the sociologists who in turn examine adult attitudes to youth, their expectations of them and their place in society (earle & fopp, 1999:404). the literature on family influences on adolescents emphasises the potential climate within the dynamics of family life for adolescents to progress to identity achievement and an increase of “self ” (booth, 2005; and corben, 2005). the peer group has both positive and negative effects on adolescents. the positive attributes of peer relationships improve their social and emotional identity, their independence and ability to relate to others, their levels of satisfaction and again the sense of identity (higbee, 1997; and timms ed., 2004). education professionals can view adolescents and their behaviours and needs as being more problematic, but adolescence can be a time of normal functioning. teachers should be aware that they are not social workers, yet they are very significant in the lives of their students. a. risk taking the literature is definite about risk taking in adolescence being, not only normal but an essential part of learning and personal development. caution is added in that, while risk-taking is exploratory, poor self-esteem, and lack of confidence will educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 47 motivate some adolescents. impulsive behaviours and recklessness are strategies used by some adolescents to gain the appeal of their peers. social rejection, or not being “cool”, is the suggested cause. the main problem is their seeming inability to evaluate the potential risks and consequences of everyday behaviour as 60 percent of adolescent deaths are caused by accidents-many of them being the result of risk taking (corben, 2005:1). this applies to the cases of alcohol and drug use and driving where adolescents do not perceive them to be as dangerous as do adults. “sensationseeking” individuals differ in their need for stimulation which underlies many risk taking behaviours. the peer group can provoke risktaking activities by providing models of risky behaviour and by competing for group dominance. parents and their parenting style, their lack of supervision, failure to set limits, modelling risk behaviours themselves, and even parental encouragement can influence risk taking. the relative dominance of peers over parents also increases these behaviours. there are also genetic factors and neuroendocrine processes and the timing of puberty which have to be considered in this debate. risk taking can also be a coping mechanism for dealing with anxiety, frustration, inadequacy, and failure (booth, 2005:6). it is important to remember that not all risk taking is bad: “risks pose very real dangers […] and tremendous benefits” (higbee, 1997:1). a change in the management of health-related, risk taking is advocated by c. cook (2005), whereby information is provided to students about the numbers who are not involved in these activities (cook, 2005:1). b. risk and health issues and social capital it has been recorded that many teenagers experiment with alcohol and illegal drug and a proportion of them are regular users. cannabis has been considered as harmless, but now there is good evidence that it can make mental health problems worse in adolescence and can double the risk of developing schizophrenia. alcohol, despite publicity to the contrary, is the most common drug. early sexual activity creates a greater risk of early pregnancy and health problems. sexually transmitted diseases are common as is hiv infection and aids is becoming more common (timms, 2004:3). adolescents, as with all other groups, operate within a social context and as such, there need to be an examination of the broader social influences on this group. accordingly, r. putman explains that “social capital is an important resource for individuals and it can greatly affect their ability to act and to perceive a quality of life” (putman, 2000:319). the dynamics of the family provide varying views of the characteristics of social capital. in one sense, social capital can be seen as existing within “a collectively with people acting selflessly” (coleman, 1990:310). this type of social capital assists “the development of nascent social movement, from a small group of dedicated, inward looking people who work on a common task”, this task being the raising of the children (coleman, 1990:310). derris wood, adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school 48 research question and objectives the former research of the writer and the literature review provided the bases for the following research question and research objectives. research question: “what is the level of negative risk taking amongst senior secondary female students?”. ro (research objectives) 1: to investigate the concept of “self ” in adolescent females, the adolescent females’ aspirations for the future and their risk taking attitudes. ro (research objectives) 2: to determine the amount of personal control, evident in the adolescent females’ lives in their younger years and their attitudes regarding the law, legal restrictions and adult authority. ro (research objectives) 3: to discover the amount of expectations placed on the adolescent females, by themselves, their families, their schools and their communities in their earlier years. ro (research objectives) 4: to ascertain whether adolescent females are resilient to adversity in their lives. ro (research objectives) 5: to analyses the need to “sensation seek” in the lives of adolescent girls and their perceptions of their risk taking activities. ro (research objectives) 6: to examine the views of adults with responsibility for teaching or caring for adolescents. ro (research objectives) 7: to examine the policies of education authorities in relation to the risk taking of adolescents; to examine the practicality of the policies in regard to economic, resource base, curricula and time considerations; to consider the implications for teachers; and to consider their coherence, noting similarities and differences. sample, design of questionnaire, and interview survey the senior secondary college, chosen as the setting for this survey, had a very suitable enrolment of over two hundred female students in the age group needed for this study. because many of these students travelled from outlying districts to attend this college, a postal questionnaire survey was used to gain the required information. each questionnaire was anonymous with no identification of the respondent indicated on the survey. from the participants’ answers (43% of the total distribution), a wide range of categories for analysis was compiled and coded for later recall and interpretation using a computer software programme named nvivo. to support this initial qualitative coding, a statistical approach was added by introducing spss to recode the data for quantitative results. the questions focused on obtaining general background information regarding the females’ ages, their residential location and family details such as the number of parents or guardians as well as siblings. to establish a socio-economic profile of the students, provisions were also made to record the educational levels of their parents. the accent then turned directly to the young women’s interests and attitudes to educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 49 religious beliefs, childhood experiences, school acceptance, enjoyment or rejection and the influences of parents other family members, significant others, and peer groups. questions about predicting the future involved the females in disclosing the goals they held for their future education, career, and family aspirations. the levels of authority and control from the three spheres of family, school, and community became the focus for the next set of questions. resilience after traumatic experiences was another area of focus as were their opinions of the negative risk involved in the risk taking activities selected for the study, their frequency of engagement in them as well as their reasons for undertaking these negative actions. the questions for this survey came from discussions with school administrators, teachers, and parents concerning adolescent, risky behaviours, especially those involving drugs, alcohol use and abuse and the introduction of new halluciagenic substances into the adolescent life style. an internet search yielded many documents about the risk taking activities in this study, namely drug and alcohol use and abuse, and sexual activity for adolescents. the total numbers of document collected consisted of twenty-three with three from the national government, with two more national policies written up as tasmanian reports on gender and sexism. all of the policy documents were analysed using the first five objectives and objective 7. qualitative and quantitative findings from the questionnaire first, objective 1 on the sense of self. the females from both town and country indicated a multitude of positive personal qualities about their sense of “self ” and their characteristics. being positive, caring and kind were the most prevalent traits. they also identified being outgoing, friendly, happy, and having a sense of fun. on the negative side there were only a few characteristics noted, these including being stubborn, shy, talkative, moody and a few with low self esteem. the participants’ educational aspirations demonstrated their very high motivation levels and the fact that they were mainly focused on careers and work. their educational endeavours were aimed at a wide range of professions. only five (5, 5.5%) town participants had their goals set on the more traditional careers associated with women – teaching and nursing with two (2, 2.2%) each, and child studies with one (1, 1.1%). it was quite alarming to discover that of the 74 percent of the students who offered responses to this question, only one mentioned the possibility of “death” being a result of her risk taking activities. there was no other reference to any of the health implications that their risk taking activities may cause. second, objective on the personal control. the participants wrote predominantly in favour of their parents’ level of authority over them. there was 63 percent of the total survey group, 35 percent from the town group, and 28 percent from the country, who offered very positive comments about their parents’ level of control derris wood, adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school 50 over their lives. many from both these groups, 65 percent, were consistent with comments indicating that their parents were understanding and fair, so that the students could reason with them. other controls on the participants in this survey included school restrictions with homework and school rules. there was 12 percent with school restrictions, 4 percent who indicated that work restricted the control on their lives, and only 2 percent who indicated that their boarding arrangements in either the school hostel or in a private home reduced their freedom. the two biggest factors affecting their compliance with the legal system were fear, nine (9, 9.9%) from the town, four (4, 4.4%) from the country, and the possibility of extenuating consequences with eight (8, 8.8%) from the town, and four (4, 4.4%) from the country. another sixteen nine (9, 9.9%) from the town and seven (7, 7.7%) from the country, indicated that the law and the legal system were sometimes a consideration, depending on the context. only five indicated that they did not consider the law or the legal system and knew immediately that they would engage in the activities. third, objective 3 on the expectations. life long values were mentioned by both groups who expected that education and money would set them up for life. the town respondents remarked that they “would have achieved something”. marriage and family were important for some, but children was not always the aim. parents had missed the opportunity to give very specific information to their daughters regarding careers and marriage and family. fourth, objective 4 on the resilience. the problems experienced by the respondents involved parental cancer, death of grandparents, parents and friends, attempted suicides, broken relationships and divorce, remarriage of parents and personal illness and depression. there was 32 percent of the total survey group, seventeen (17, 19.7%) participants from the town group, and twelve (12, 13.2%) from the country who indicated that they had coped well with the traumas in their lives. on the negative side of facing trauma with resilience, 24 percent, seventeen (17, 18.7%) participants from the town and five (5, 5.5%) from the country, experienced problems. these occurred because there was no one to trust with their difficulties or to talk to, so they kept to themselves, suffering depression, nervous breakdowns and suicidal attempts and becoming anorexic. fifth, objective 5 on the sensation seeking. the responses made by the participants, regarding their participation in risk taking, indicated that “sensation seeking” in the form of fun and excitement was the major reason for choosing these activities. of the fifty-eight students (58, 63.7%) who replied to this aspect, thirty-three (33, 57.9%) indicated that these factors were the only reason for their participation. some hated what they were doing, but still continued, even when they felt the activity was wrong, because they liked experimenting. a few females felt they knew the consequences or risk levels of their activities and therefore were confident with their decisions. sixth, objective 6 on the findings from the interviews. the survey of personnel working or living with adolescents, suggests that the approach to the educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 51 education of this group, about risk in society, is very diverse. administrators, teachers, and parents rely on an array of school and community based curriculum initiatives, health forums, outdoor education programme, the use of experts and “storytelling”. all adults, especially parents, should be receptive listeners to adolescents and discussions should be frank, honest and non-judgmental. with the decline of interest in religion, there is little emphasis on morals and always listening to a conscience. seventh, objective 7 on the findings from the analysis of the policies. it has been interesting to note that whilst commonwealth and state policy have both common and diverse components, the overarching characteristics have been to promote philosophical policies which stress mainly the holistic aspects of gender, well-being and health, and control of the students’ behaviours, as opposed to more detailed curricula which addresses the specific problems in this study concerning drug, alcohol and sexually related negative risk taking activities. all the national documents do provide generic approaches to all the issues, but they leave the states to implement the more specific educational programmes to inform and to curb the participation in risky behaviours. risk taking findings and further quantitative results the females’ perception of the risk factor in each category was compared to the females’ actual risk taking activities with some surprising results. table 1: risk taking rating compared to risk participation rating activity risk rating 1-7 mode risk participation 1-4 mode binge drinking 4 3 (38) 1 (4) 2 (26) 4 (10) drinking alcohol 2 3 (45) 1 (8) 2 (8) 4 (28) drink driving 7 1 (85) 2 (2) 3 (1) 4 (1) sex – no condom 7 1 (60) 2 (12) 3 (14) 4 (4) sex – no pill 7 1 (63) 2 (7) 3 (14) 4 (5) sex – strangers 7 1 (81) 2 (8) 3 (1) 4 (1) sharing needles 7 2 (2) smoking hash 7 1 (38) 2 (25) 3 (24) 4 (4) sniffing glue 7 1 (84) 2 (5) 3 (2) cocaine use 7 1 (89) 2 (1) 3 (1) heroin use 7 1 (85) 2 (1) 4 (2) speeding 7 1 (72) 2 (14) 3 (6) taking speed 7 1 (83) 2 (5) 4 (1) x-rated videos 1 1 (39) 2 (31) 3 (19) 4 (3) (1=not risky to 7= very risky); and (1=never, 2=once, 3=occasionally, and 4= regularly) derris wood, adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school 52 whilst the risk ratings were high – at seven for eleven out of fourteen of the risk activities – risk participation has still occurred. where the risk ratings are high and the risk participation is at one, the adolescents do recognise the need for no participation. however, there are still young females participating in dangerous risk activities at the three (occasionally) and four rating level (regularly) e.g. ten binge drinking and twenty-eight drink driving on a regular basis. it was alarming to see that one participant had used cocaine occasionally and two were regular users of heroin (or was this over reporting)? first, analysis of specific t tests. it was interesting to note for objective 1 (a sense of self) that the participants’ enjoyment of their college education was significant in decreasing their involvement with drinking alcohol. the enjoyment factor could have decreased the stress of their more challenging studies at the college. for objective 2 (controls in their live), the participants recorded many family variables as being significant in decreasing their involvement in the risky activities relating to drug and alcohol use, drink driving, and sexual activity including use of the contraceptive pill. the mothers’ education was also an important factor in the attitudes to alcohol and drug use. objective 3 (expectations) recorded strong relationships between expectations for education and career and reducing drug use and dangerous driving. second, analysis of group t tests. the first group of results relates to the participants’ personal qualities and aspirations being influential in preventing the smoking of hash, dangerous driving, binge drinking, viewing x-rated videos, but favouring the use of the contraceptive pill. on the family level, the presence of siblings favoured the use of contraception, but diminished the use of the more dangerous drugs and the viewing of x-rated videos. religious affiliation curbed only one drug use in sniffing glue, but assisted with sexuality and the use of condoms. school influence was only significant in the levene’s result for preventing the use of cocaine. third, results from anova tests. again, with these results, definite categories of influence were noted. these included personal concerns, school influences, family controls, and trauma reaction. on the personal level, club importance and past interests were significant for moderating alcohol use, but influencing the use of contraception methods. the participants’ goals and educational expectations prevented dangerous driving and alcohol and drug use. their school and college interests prevented the viewing of x-rated videos, alcohol, and extreme binge drinking activities. family controls were again influential for alcohol and binge drinking, whilst trauma reactions affected the use of x-rated videos. conclusion there were many positive factors within this study. the young females were notable in that they had a strong sense of self and personal identity. their aspirations were high for education, careers, and other opportunities. they were very resilient and educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 53 coped with a wide variety of traumas in their lives. mothers had a very positive affect on them and there was a good response to parental control and authority, but only a limited response to having families of their own. on the negative side, there was a surprising lack of social capital and a definite participation in dangerous, risk taking activities. health issues were not considered and risk prevention was driven by fear, rather than knowledge. attitudes towards fathers were not positive and religious influences were diminished. references booth, m. (2005). “young people and risk taking” in youthsafe. available also at http://www.youthsafe. org/forum/f3.htm [accessed in launceston, tasmania, australia: 20 june 2009]. borman, k. & b. schneider [eds]. (1998). the adolescent years: social influences and educational changes. illinois: university of chicago press. coleman, j. (1990). foundations of social theory. usa: harvard university press. cook, c. (2005). “the end of health terrorism” in department of rural health. launceston: university of tasmania. corben, m. (2005). “risk taking in adolescence” in reporter risk seminars. available also at http:// www.abc.net.au/nothcoast/stories/s419571.htm [accessed in launceston, tasmania, australia: 20 june 2009]. earle, l. & r. fopp. (1999). introduction to australian society. australia: harcourt brace. higbee, r.. (1997). “program to tackle issues affecting adolescent girls”. retrieved june 6 2000 from http://www.ucsf.edu/daybreak/1997/05/01 girls.htm . jaffe, m.l. (1998). adolescence. new york: john wiley. putman, r. (2000). bowling alone. new york: simon and schuster. timms, p. [ed]. (2004). “surviving adolescence: toolkit for parents”. available also at http://www. rcpsych.ac.uk./info/help/ado/index.asp [accessed in u.k., royal college of psychiatrists: 4 june 2009]. wood, d. (1998). “women and leadership: early life experiences of women principals”. unpublished master of education thesis. hobart, tasmania, australia: university of tasmania. derris wood, adolescence, sense of identity, and female risk taking in a senior secondary school 54 mothers had a very positive affect on the young females (and also males) and there was a good response to parental control and authority, but only a limited response to having families of their own. 4 ubud.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 39 the implementation of classnetwork. net in teaching and learning in the university of brunei darussalam abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon abstract: teaching and learning in higher education is an issue for educators in various fields to look into. the rapid growth of online teaching is the mode of instruction increasingly being used by educators today. the present study investigated the implementation of classnetwork.net by undergraduates enrolled in various teacher education programmes. the sample consisted of 102 teacher education students and they were given opportunities to make use of classnetwork.net (an online tool for uploading and downloading lecture notes and teaching materials). the implementation of classnetwork.net as an alternative mode of knowledge delivery to student teachers was made available to students recently. instead of using traditional lecture method this online mode of delivery is an innovation in university of brunei darussalam. a survey method was used to elicited answers to researched questions. this study analyzes online skills (certain aspects) such as numbers of hours using computer and frequency of access the content in classnetwork.net. an effective communication is judged through correlation between online skills and numbers of hours and online skills and frequency of access. the study reports on the effective implementation of this tool as an innovative mode to teaching that will effect learning among students. key words: online learning, online learning skills, instructional design, and e-learning. introduction in the era of information technology today, a great deal of efforts has been put into improving the teaching learning process. the use of computers as an innovation in education is the case to be highlighted here. many efforts to integrate computers into education or teaching and learning have not advanced to a great distance in higher education. much has been written about factors affecting the success of educational change particularly pedagogical change. in the case of computer use in the classrooms, particularly in schools, there have been many comprehensive and the authors are lecturers at the university of brunei darussalam. they could be reached at: abdull@shbie.ubd.edu.bn, azhar@shbie.ubd.edu.bn and zham@shbie.ubd.edu.bn abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 40 systematic studies done. but at the university level, the use of computers, particularly using internet, much have to be seen. teachers nowadays are exposed to varieties of ways in imparting knowledge to their students because of emergence of new technologies. internet technology has given ways to teachers and students to interact and communicate effectively regardless of their time and location. m. ally (2004:5) stated that online learning has given benefits to students and teachers in accessing up-to-date and relevant learning materials, opportunities to communicate effectively through real-time interaction and directing students to appropriate information based on their needs. browsing internet for information needs specific skills or else the student might be lost in the cyberspace or might end up with irrelevant information for their learning needs. r.m. pallof & k. pratt (2001) stated that using technology effectively in the classroom requires more than basic computer skills because computers should fit into the larger context: learning environment. the learning environment is determined by the kinds of task student complete, the way teachers and students interact and how students are exposed to information. teachers should creatively think of various ways to deliver their lesson effectively. they have to create a dynamic learning environment through the integration of technology in teaching and learning. the use of internet technology in teaching and learning provide several challenges to teachers. t. anderson (2004:35) stated that online learning can present challenges to educators, because the tools and opportunities for discovering students’ preconceptions and cultural perspective are often limited by bandwidth constraints. the primary purpose of this article is to share with readers the integration of internet technology in teacher education programs. the study involves the use of world wide web (www) as student’s resource tool. classnetwork.net was introduced to them in their learning activities. notes and learning materials were placed and given to the students in the classnetwork.net. review of literature m. ally (2004:3), who cited carliner (1999), defined online learning as educational material that is presented on the computer. online learning involves the use of web as a medium to disseminate information and knowledge. delivering materials through world wide web can be difficult if the students are not ready. r.m. pallof & k. pratt (2001:110) stated that the online classroom can provide an alternative that may be quite useful for some students. however, all students must not be forced into online classroom because it is not effective at all. understanding different learning styles can help to illustrate the reasons why that was the case. they added (p.113) that instructors in the online classroom serves only as a gentle guide in the educational process. consequently, the “recipient” of that guidance, the learner has a responsibility to use that guidance in a meaningful way. what and how internet helps teaching and learning? internet provides wide learning opportunities for students and teachers (mohamed amin embi, 1998; educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 41 mohd sharif abd manaf et al., 1998; and abdul halim mohamed, hisham dzakiria & azilah kasim, 2000). internet access gives maximum input for teaching and learning particularly in communication, searching for information and creatively interacts among users. in teaching english as a second language, mohamed amin embi (1998) mentioned about “smart net” can be good model for learning english language. while kyong-jee kim & curtis j. bonk (2008) mentioned on the use of computers has a positive effect on the achievement levels of second language learners, with limitations and weaknesses, such as financial, isolated, and knowledge required issues. educators recognize that utilizing computer technology and its attached language learning programs can be convenient to create both independent and collaborative learning environments. abdul halim mohamed, hisham dzakiria & azilah kasim (2000) mentioned that the web-based classroom taught students to collaborate and participate in classroom discussions. it was also noticed that more students tended to take part in their discussions over the net than in the normal classrooms. learners who have been exposed to the internet technologies could certainly be more comfortable in future learning that involve technology. in her study on “using webct to facilitate student-centred learning in a large commerce mathematics class”, crystal lau chun yun (2007) mentioned “through webct, the students could feel closer to the learning materials and lecture. they found it particularly efficient and helpful in which they could save, print, reprint, or access to from any computer at any time, from anywhere” (p.37). on the other hand ng poh yen & goi chai lee (2007) in their study on “elearning in malaysia for lifelong learning: motivation and hindrances” mentioned that respondents were highly motivated by e-learning flexibility and cost and time saving features. these factors help respondents learn independently and without much hassle of travelling and moving (p.46). the use of technology at the university greatly assists those who want to access the e-learning materials. online teaching and learning is a powerful medium to deliver academic content. online learning reduces the dependence of printed and traditional means of communications (norizan abdul razak, 2007). the integration of e-learning and the conventional methods of teaching have been implemented in 1990’s in some universities. the e-learning medium seemed to cater for the needs of different learners (rosnah abdul karim & mohd izham mohd hamzah, 2007). online learning is an e-learning and university education has started to recognize the importance of e-learning in encouraging student learning (mohd fadzli ali & joyes, 2007). as mentioned in kyong-jee kim & curtis j. bonk (2008) that technology has played and continues to play an important role in the development and expansion of online education. with regards to online education they listed four things as follows: firstly, effective pedagogical strategies for online teaching (online courses should be relevant, interactive, project-based, and collaborative, while providing learners with some choice or control over their learning); secondly, effectiveness of online instructional strategies make use of strategies that “create an environment that supports and encourages inquiry, broaden the learner’s experience of the subject abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 42 matter, and elicit active and critical reflection by learners on their growing experience base”; thirdly, online activities related to critical and creative thinking, hands-on performances, interactive labs, data analysis, and scientific simulations – those activities were highly important in online learning environments; and fourthly, among the factors for the success of online education is “online instructors’ readiness”. they should have the pedagogical, technical competencies and improvements in online technologies. pedagogical techniques to be used more widely online in the coming decade would include group problem solving/collaborative tasks, problem-based learning, discussion case-based strategies, simulations or role play, student-generated content, coaching/mentoring, guided learning, exploratory or discovery, lecturing or teacherdirected activities, modeling of solution process, and socratic questioning. welldesigned and maintained web courses have the potential to: (1) provide an interactive and challenging learning environment for the learner; (2) expose learners to realworld learning experiences involving meaningful and purposeful learning; (3) allow learners to reflect before responding; and (4) promote collaborative learning (kyongjee kim & bonk, 2008). research shows that web-based learning is just as effective as face-to-face learning which highlights hundreds of studies showing that when comparing different media types (computer, classroom, correspondence, interactive video, radio, television, web-based), there is no significant difference in effectiveness. the advantages to the learners are longer time for discussion; pace and schedule can be set by the learner; better access to the instructor; and ability to share work with peers and more immediate feedback. the advantages for the instructors are the instructors can teach from anywhere; no travelling needed; more dynamic; and save time of web-based instruction (childress, n.d.). what are the advantages & disadvantages of the internet? according to pondered.org (2006) that the internet or the world wide web is indeed a wonderful and amazing addition in our lives. the internet can be known as a kind of global meeting place where people from all parts of the world can come together. it is a service available on the computer, through which everything under the sun is now at the fingertips of anyone who has access to the internet. anyone needs to have a computer and internet service provider to get “online” (connect to the internet). the internet provides opportunities galore, and can be used for a variety of things such as e-mail, access information, shopping, online chat, downloading software and others. there are certain dangers relating to the use of internet such as personal information, pornography, and spamming. but the advantages of the internet far outweigh the disadvantages and millions of people each day benefit from using the internet for work and for pleasure. impediments to online teaching and learning can be situational, epistemological, philosophical, psychological, pedagogical, technical, social, and/or cultural and include among others are “faceless” teaching, lack of an adequate time-frame to implement online courses, many distance learners who lack independent learning skills and local library resources, resistance to change and lack of technological educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 43 assistance. barriers to online education are cited in the works of t. fetherston (2001) and m. childress (n.d.). in this context, t. fetherston (2001) mentioned that the challenges facing the use of the web in universities are: (1) to use the web to encourage good learning behaviors in students; (2) most good learning behaviors rely on metacognition – universally regarded as an essential attribute of good learning; (3) encouraging metacognition develops students’ knowledge of the nature of their learning, of their effective learning strategies, and of their learning strengths and weakness; (4) the web has potential in this area to meet this challenge if appropriate instructional design strategies are employed in the development of material for the web; (5) it is unlikely to occur if lecturers just mount their printed course material and use the web as a convenient delivery medium; and (6) if the design of courses allows individual exploration coupled with reflection and the comparison of a student’s views with others, as well as the encouragement of good learning behaviors, then metacognition can be enhanced and good learning can result. from the reviews of literature it is found out that there are at least two types of online learning: fully online learning and partly online learning. classnetwork.net is partly online teaching and learning. methodology the sample consists of 102 undergraduates who registered in 3 education courses at the sultan hassanal bolkiah institute of education, university of brunei darussalam. they were from various teacher education programs namely art, physical education, science and the bahasa melayu. these students were provided with a learning website at http://www.classnetwork.net/. in most of their learning activities, they are required to use classnetwork.net as their resource page and as their online learning tool for downloading lecture notes and teaching materials. a survey method was used to elicit answers on the effectiveness of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning and problems students and lecturers faced in implementing this online tool. after 14 weeks a set of questionnaire was given to the students for their feedbacks. the questionnaire was then collected and the data were analyzed by using spss version 11.0. descriptive analysis and cross tabulation tables are used in most of the analyses to reveal the findings for both research questions. findings: a. accessing the internet at home and university before the main findings are analyzed it is wise to give background features of the respondents or sample in this study. respondents were from various teacher education students from various program consisting of 25 males and 77 females. this is normal sample in the teacher education programs where female outnumbered the males. out of 77 females, majority of the samples are in science (n = 38, 50%); followed by art (n = 15, 19.7%); bahasa melayu (n = 12, 15.8%); other subjects abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 44 with n = 6 in (7.9%); physical education (n = 3, 3.9%); and geography (n=2, 2.6%). this is clearly shown in table 1. table 1: background of the sample table 2 shows numbers of hours spent by the students in using computers at home. majority of the students took 20 hours above (n = 37, 36.6%) in using computers at home; 35 (34.7%) used 4-6 hours; followed by 9 students used 1-3 hrs (8.9%). most of the students are likely to access internet at home more than 4 hours. table 2: internet usage at home table 3 shows number of hours spent by the students in using computers at the university. majority of the students took 1-3 hours (n = 51, 50.5%) using computer at the university; 22 (21.8%) took 4-6 hours; followed by 6 respondents using computers around 10-13 hours (5.9%). most of the students are likely to access internet at home more than the number of hours spent at the university. educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 45 table 3: internet usage at the university table 4 shows the number of hours in using computers at home and the purpose of using the computers by the users. at the university students are using computers for various purposes such as games/pleasure, teaching/learning, research, and analyzing information. the number of hours spent on these activities also differs. most students spent 1-3 hours in the four areas under study. table 4: crosstabulation of number of hours in using computers at the university and the purpose of using computers by the users table 5 shows the number of hours in using computers at home and the purpose of using computer by the users. at home students are using computers/internet for the purposes of games and pleasure, teaching and learning, doing research, and analyzing information. the number of hours spent on these activities greatly differs. abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 46 for example in games and pleasure, 35 (out of 92 students) spent more than 20 hours; teaching and learning, 28 students spent more than 20 hours on the internet at home; doing research, 34 students out of 94 of them spent more than 20 hours on the internet at home; and analyzing information, 22 students spent more than 20 hours per week in using the computer at home. table 5: crosstabulation of numbers of hours using computers at home and the purpose of using computers by the users table 6 shows the number of hours a week in the use of computers at the university with the number of access to classnetwork.net in semester 2, 2007. students are accessing the classnetwork.net once a week, twice a week or at any time according to their needs. but most of the students, 46 out of 51 students, are table 6: crosstabulation table of hours a week in using of computers at the university with the number of access to classnetwork.net in semester 2, 2007 educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 47 accessing the classnetwork.net between 1-3 hours a week according to their needs. some spent more hours in surfing the classnetwork.net according to their needs. the rest might go for once or twice a week. what about accessing the classnetwork.net at home? table 7 shows the number of hours a week in the use of computers at home with the numbers of access to classnetwork.net, in semester 2, 2007. firstly, more students (34 out of 35) spent 46 hours to access classnetwork.net according to their needs. secondly, 29 out of 37 students spent more than 20 hours a week in accessing the classnetwork.net according to their needs. the rest spent a variety of hours in accessing classnetwork.net either once a week or twice a week. table 7: crosstabulation table showing the number of hours a week at home in accessing classnetwork.net in semester 2, 2007 from table 2 to table 7, a summary of the effectiveness of the classnetwork.net is made possible as follows: (1) the students have more time of accessing the internet at home as compared to the time used at the university; (2) most of the students accessed internet at home and university for games and pleasure; (3) most of the students have not denied the purpose of using internet to help them in their teaching and learning. the students are most likely to use computers at home and at the university for their teaching and learning purposes; and (4) the students have benefited most of the facilities in classnetwork.net especially in downloading and seeking for relevant information to support their learning activities. what problems students and lecturers faced in implementing of this online tool in delivery of knowledge among students? problems faced by the students in teaching and learning are: (1) focusing on several areas not in teaching and learning, researching but game and pleasure; (2) not analyzing/synthesizing materials abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 48 downloaded; (3) not using time management well; and (4) technical – university’s server has a problem, cannot download, upload, save and print, and cannot access classnetwork.net. table 8 shows the number of access to classnetwork.net with the use of computers in teaching and learning. the data shows that majority of the students used classnetwork.net in their learning activities whenever there is a need. in other words, the students were likely to access classnetwork.net at their own pace and time either at home or at the university. table 8: crosstabulation table for numbers of access to classnetwork.net with the use of computers in teaching and learning the findings in table 9 shows that the students are competent at skills in searching information through the internet, downloading sources from the internet, communication and note taking from classnetwork.net. they have potential in table 9: distribution of mean and standard deviation for online and learner success skills educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(1) 2008 49 learning skill, information skill, information processing skill, time management and critical thinking. the students lacked analyzing and synthesizing skills. the problem faced by the lecturer is when dealing with student’s who failed to understand the material downloaded by their students before discussing it in tutorials and lecture. this is can be proved in table 4 and 5 where students are likely not analyzing the information especially when accessing information at home. other problems are: (1) technical when server failed, cannot upload updates on lectures and learning materials; and (2) updating skills – skills in technical areas, e.g. new version and old version of the windows, compatibility, when asked by students, e.g. file cannot open from one version to another. discussion and conclusion delivering materials through world wide web can be difficult if the students are not ready. r.m. pallof & k. pratt (2001:110) stated that the online classroom can provide an alternative that may be quite useful for some students, “broaden the learner’s experience of the subject matter, and elicit active and critical reflection by learners on their growing experience base”. meanwhile crystal lau chun yun (2007) mentioned “through webct, the students could feel closer to the learning materials and lecture. they found it particularly efficient and helpful in which they could save, print, reprint, or access to from any computer at any time, from anywhere” (p.37). online teaching and learning is a powerful medium to deliver academic content. online learning reduces the dependence of printed and traditional means of communications (norizan abdul razak, 2007). internet provides wide learning opportunities for students and teachers (mohd sharif abd manaf et al., 1998; mohamed amin embi, 2000; abdul halim mohamed, hisham dzakiria & azilah kasim, 2000; and fulton et al., 2002). internet access gives maximum input for teaching and learning particularly in communication, searching for information and creatively interacts among users. the internet for work and for pleasure can be convenient to create both independent and collaborative learning environments. abdul halim mohamed, hisham dzakiria & azilah kasim (2000) mentioned that the web-based classroom taught students to collaborate and participate in classroom discussions. while t. fetherston (2001) mentioned that the challenges facing the use of the web in universities are: (1) to use the web to encourage good learning behaviors in students; (2) most good learning behaviors rely on metacognition – universally regarded as an essential attribute of good learning; and (3) encouraging metacognition develops students’ knowledge of the nature of their learning, of their effective learning strategies, and of their learning strengths and weakness. the study on classnetwork.net involves the activities of undergraduates in university learning. online learning is a fairly new phenomenon in education and is often new to university academic staff. since online learning research involves lecturers and students, the findings can be translated into practice even though the abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 50 findings of online learning study vary depending on which methodology is being adopted and which specific area is being looked into. the impact of technology in education namely online learning has changed the role of lecturers and students drastically (fulton, glenn & valdez, 2003). previously, the role of lecturers was seen solely from the perspective of an academician and the undergraduates as active learners in taking or writing notes during lectures. at present, greater emphasis has been given more attention on the managerial works. academics can not only view themselves as researchers, but they are expected to undertake a multi-functional role with an emphasis on research, teaching and consultations. in view of the online learning, the role of the academics is to work more closely with staff in support services. the proportion of online activities to offline activities is highly depending on pedagogical and the operational preferences of the higher institutions. pedagogical refers to the types of activities that best used in the course and for the particular group of undergraduates, in this case teacher education students (watkins, 2005). the use of classnetwork.net in this case is more inclination towards blended learning where online learning is only part of the whole course management. references abdul halim mohamed, hisham dzakiria & azilah kasim. (2000). “computer-mediated communication (cmc): a learning tool to improve students’ english as a second language (esl) writing at universiti utara malaysia” in proceeding on strategising and learning in the 21st. century. bangi: faculty of education, universiti kebangsaan malaysia. ally, m. (2004). “foundations of educational theory for online learning” in a. terry & f. elloumi [eds.]. theor y and practice of online learning. athabasca, canada: athabasca university. anderson, t. (2004). “toward a theory of online learning” in a. terry & f. elloumi [eds.]. theory and practice of online learning. athabasca, canada: athabasca university. childress, m. (n.d.). “advantages and disadvantages of web-based instruction retrieved from www”. available at http://idt.emporia.edu/childress/it820/advdis.htm [accessed in bandar seri begawan: may 2nd, 2008]. crystal lau chun yun. 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(2003). three pre-service programs preparing tomorrow’s teachers to use technology: a study in partnerships. naperville, il: north central regional educational laboratory. retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/tech/preservice/ [accessed in bandar seri begawan: may 14, 2004]. kyong-jee kim & curtis j. bonk. (2008). “the future of online teaching and learning in higher education: the survey says … a survey substantiates some ideas about online learning and refutes others”. retrieved from ttp://connect.educause.edu/librar y / educause+quarterly/thefutureofonlineteaching/40000?time=1216430552 [accessed in bandar seri begawan: may 2nd, 2008]. mohamed amin embi. (1998). “pengajaran dan pembelajaran bestari bahasa inggeris melalui smart-net: satu model belajar cara belajar bahasa inggeris berbantukan internet” in prosiding seminar isu-isu pendidikan negara. kuala lumpur: 26-27 november. mohd fadzli ali & gordon joyes. (2007). “online technology and tutor’s roles in a blended classroom setting” in proceeding international conference on lifelong learning (icll). bangi: universiti kebangsaan malaysia. mohd sharif abd manap et al. (1998). “internet dalam pengajaran di sekolah: isu dan harapan” in prosiding seminar isu-isu pendidikan negara. kuala lumpur: 26-27 november. norizan abdul razak. (2007). “online lifelong learning in malaysia: research and practices” in proceeding international conference on lifelong learning (icll). bangi: universiti kebangsaan malaysia. ng poh yen & goi chai lee. (2007). “e-learning in malaysia for lifelong leraning: motivation and hindrances” in abdul wahab bin abdul ghani et al. [eds.]. proceedings on changing contours of education: future trends, 12th. bangi: ukm, international conference on education, 21-24 may, pp.39-49. pallof, r.m. & k. pratt. (2001). lesson from the cyberspace classroom: realities of online teaching. san francisco, ca: jossey bass. a wiley co. pondered.org. (2006). “the advantages & disadvantages of the internet”. retrieved from http:/ /www.pondered.org/the_internet.html [accessed in bandar seri begawan: may 2nd, 2008]. rosnah abdul karim & mohd izham mohd hamzah. (2007). “a blended learning approach towards lifelong learning among adult learners” in proceeding international conference on lifelong learning (icll). bangi: universiti kebangsaan malaysia. watkins, r. (2005). “preparing e-learners for online success”. article retrieved from http:// www.learningcircuits.org/2005/sep2005/watkins.htm [accessed in bandar seri begawan: november 10th, 2007]. abdullah mohd noor, andy azhar sura & zahari hamidon, the implementation of classnetwork.net in teaching and learning 52 t h e im p lem en tatio n o f classn etw o rk .n et b y u n d ergrad u ates en ro lled in vario u s teach er ed u catio n p ro gram m es in th e u n iversity o f b ru n ei d aru ssalam . educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 73© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com nabi ahmad & b. razia study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender among muslim adolescents abstract: students’ educational outcome is greatly influenced by number of factors. study habits of students and their parental socio-economic status are two such correlates of academic achievement, which have been studied repeatedly during the past five decades. according to d.p. smith (1961) study, habits included student’s habits of concentration, note taking, time budgeting, and study method. research studies indicate that academic achievement of muslim adolescents in india at secondary level is far behind than their non-muslim counter parts and poor academic performance is one of the reasons of school dropouts. the present research is a humble attempt to examine the study habits of muslim adolescents belonging to different socio-economic strata of the society. the study is descriptive and statistical in nature. standardized scales have been used to collect the data from a sample of 208 muslim students. the data was subjected to statistical analysis by applying mean (m), standard deviation (sd), product moment correlation (r), and t-test. findings of the study indicate that significant difference exists in the study habits of muslim adolescents in relation to gender, significant and positive relationship exists between study habits and socio-economic status. high ses (socio-economic status) and low ses muslim adolescents and similarly middle ses and low ses muslim adolescents differed significantly with regard to their study habits where in both the cases going in favour of the upper ses groups. key words: study habits, socio-economic status, muslim, adolescents, gender, academic achievement, secondary level, and significant difference exist. about the authors: dr. nabi ahmad and b. razia are professor and research scholar at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india. for academic purposes, the authors can be contacted via e-mails at: nabiahmad@rediffmail.com and razianaushad.amu@gmail.com how to cite this article? ahmad, nabi & b. razia. (2015). “study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender among muslim adolescents” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.73-80. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/08-study-habits-in-relation-tosocio-economics-status-and-gender/ chronicle of the article: accepted (july 6, 2015); revised (august 6, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction secondary education prepares students for vocational, technical, professional, and higher education, which in turn prepares required human resource for development and prosperity of a country. quality of performance is the key factor for personal progress and in turn development of a nation. student’s educational outcome is greatly influenced by number of factors. study habits of students and their parental socio-economic status are two such correlates of academic achievement, which have been studied repeatedly during the past five decades. study implies investigation for the mastery of facts, ideas or procedures that as yet are unknown or only partially known to the individual (crow & crow, 1963). nabi ahmad & b. razia, study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender 74 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com study habits include students’ habits of concentration, note taking, time budgeting, and study method (smith, 1961). u. azikiwe (1998) defined study habits as the adopted way and manner a student plans his private readings, after classroom learning so as to attain mastery of the subject. it covers all the related aspects of study procedure, which includes notes taking, distribution of time of study, doing sessional and home work, and genuine preparation for examination etc. proper study habits inculcated during academic years have lasting value that is carried over to their latter life. the healthy habits so developed help the individual to surpass the limits circumscribed by intelligence and thus brings into the category of good achiever. studies conducted by s.k. jain (1967); d. shivappa (1980); and r. aisha, a. kiran & n.h. malik (2002) indicated that study habits is positively and significantly related with students academic achievement. moreover, over achievers were found possessing better, study habits as per the conclusions drawn by a. bhaduri (1971); t.r. laxminarayanan et al. (2006); and m. sarwar et al. (2009). v.n. kale (2010) observed that significant difference exists in study habits of secondary and higher secondary school students; but, no difference was found in their study habits in relation to gender but studies conducted by a.k. kalia et al. (2008); s. sutherman & a. vasanthi (2011); m. fazal et al. (2012); and a. promila (2014) showed that female students were better in study habits when compared to their male counterparts. a. perveen (2013) found also that study habits as the most potential predictor of academic achievement, which accounted for 5% variance in academic achievement when compared with other predictor variables, like personality traits and educational aspirations. adolescents belonging to low ses (socioeconomic status) suffer, due to deficient and disadvantaged circumstances. the ses is determined to an extent by the type of occupation one holds. it may also be based upon differences of birth, wealth, occupation, political power, race, and intellectual attainment (good, 1959). thus, a family’s ses is based on parental education, parental occupation, family income, and social status in the community. the relationship between ses and academic achievement among adolescents were studied by several investigators, such as m. khanna (1980); s.j. caldas & c.l. bankston (1997); m. ali (1998); and m.m. alam (2006), who concluded that significant relation exists between ses and academic achievement. j. barry (2006), through least square analysis, concluded also that ses is the strongest predictor of students test scores. q. suleman et al. (2012) found that parental ses (scio-economic status), parent’s educational, occupational, and income level affect the academic achievement of students at secondary level. p. singh & g. choudhary (2015) observed that academic achievement was influenced by ses; and those who belong to high and middle ses showed better performance than adolescents having low socioeconomic status. h.k. nalini & g.h.s. bhatta (2009) found significant relationship between study habits and students’ achievement in relation to ses, learning environment, school adjustment, and intelligence; while s. sahu (2012) examined significant effect of ses on most of the dimensions of study habits. high ses adolescents were found with better study habits than low ses adolescents. on the basis of researches quoted, it can be confidently said that there is a strong relationship of study habits and ses with academic achievement. there is a research gap that very few studies have been conducted on correlation of study habits and ses of adolescents. as reported by scr (sachar committee report) in 2006, a high level committee set up by the government of india to look into the educational and ses (socio-economic status) of muslim minority community in the country that: [...] one-fourth of muslim children in the age group of 6-14 years have either never attended school or are drop-outs […]. for children above the age of 17 years, the educational attainment of muslims at matriculation is 17%, as against national average at 26%. […] about 50% of educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 75© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com muslim and sc/st children who have completed middle school are likely to complete secondary school as well, which is lower than the “all other” group at 62% (scr, 2006). the scr (sachar committee report), in 2006, explicitly recognizes that attainment of muslims in school education is lower than average and the gap between muslims and other communities increases as the level of education increases. the overall, educational status of muslims in india is appalling thus urgent measures should be taken by the government and all the stake holders to raise the educational status of the community (scr, 2006). student’s study habits and their parental ses (socio-economic status) being important correlates of achievement led the investigators to conduct a study on muslim adolescents based on study habits, ses, and gender differences, if any. the study was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (1) to examine the study habits of muslim adolescents studying in secondary schools of aligarh city; (2) to study the ses level of muslim adolescents in secondary schools; (3) to ascertain the study habits and ses of muslim adolescents in relation to gender; (4) to examine the relationship between study habits and ses of adolescents; (5) to compare the study habits of muslim adolescents in relation to the level of their parental education; and (6) to compare the study habits of muslim adolescents among different ses groups. following null hypotheses were framed synchronized with the objectives of the study: (1) “muslim male and muslim female adolescents of secondary schools will not differ in their study habits”; (2) “muslim male and muslim female adolescents of secondary schools will not differ in their ses”; (3) “muslim male and muslim female adolescents belonging to different ses groups will not differ in their study habits”; (4) “there will be no significant relationship between study habits and ses of muslim adolescents studying in secondary schools”; (5) “there will be no significant difference in the study habits of muslim adolescents in relation to the level of their parental education”; and (6) “there will be no significant difference in the study habits of muslim adolescents among different ses groups”. research method keeping in view of the nature of the study, survey method was adopted that falls under descriptive research. population of the present study includes all the muslim adolescents studying at secondary school level in the aligarh district of up (uttar pradesh) in india. the sample comprised of 208 muslim students of class ix selected through incidental sampling method from 6 secondary schools of aligarh city. out of these, 105 were muslim male and 103 were muslim female students. the variables studied in this research were: the independent variables – ses (socioeconomic status and gender; and dependent variable – study habits. following standardized scales were administered to collect data from the students. study habit inventory scale: the shi (study habit inventory) scale constructed and validated by b.v. patel (1974), widely used in india consists of statements that fall into seven dimensions. there are 27 statements depicting good study habits and 18 statements depicting poor study habits. the reliability of the tool as given by the author determined by test-retest method was .79; and split half method was .82 respectively. the validity had been established by using external criteria and was found to be .82; and intrinsic validity was found to be 0.85 (patel, 1974). socio-economic status scale: the original ses (socio-economic status) scale of g.p. srivastava (1997) slightly modified and standardized by m. sharma (2009) for research work, consists of 10 items representing the various aspects of ses. according to the author, the reliability of the scale was found to be 0.92 as determined by test-retest method. it possesses content validity. concurrent validity was established by testing identifiable groups. construct validity was tested by applying the test of normal probability (sharma, 2009). statistical techniques used. in the light of the objectives and hypotheses framed for the study, the collected data was classified, tabulated, and subjected to statistical analysis nabi ahmad & b. razia, study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender 76 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: study habit score distribution number of students n mean s d male 105 157.39 17.54 female 103 166.45 17.29 total 208 161.86 18.14 table 2: socio-economic status score distribution number of students n mean sd male 105 56.49 27.45 female 103 71.26 23.65 total 208 63.80 26.69 table 3: relationship between study habits and socio-economic status n x y sx sy r value 208 161.86 63.80 18.14 26.69 0.37** ** significant at .01 level. table 4: mean scores of study habits for different ses (socio-economic status) groups high ses middle ses low ses n mean sd n mean sd n mean sd male 12 158.33 15.00 45 158.02 18.95 48 156.56 16.75 female 12 173.33 15.11 63 168.19 18.14 28 159.57 13.86 table 5: mean study habit scores in relation to parental education level parental education level n mean sd study habits high school. 58 154.38 18.03 poor senior secondary school. 38 160.37 13.60 satisfactory graduation and above, including technical/ professional education. 112 164.61 18.56 satisfactory table 6: study habits in relation to parental education level parental education level n mean sd t-value high school. 58 154.38 18.03 3.43**graduation and above, including technical/ professional education. 112 164.61 18.56 ** significant at 0.01 level. by applying mean (m), standard deviation (sd), product moment correlation (r), and t-test. data analysis and interpretation the data collected from the sample was analysed to make inferences and generalizations about the population under study. study habit score distribution. it is evident from the table 1 that total number of muslim adolescents surveyed were 208 and their mean study habit score was 161.86 that lies between 160 and 179 score limits, which fall in the category of normal study habits. this indicates educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 77© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com that study habits of secondary school muslim adolescents were satisfactory. it is also clear from the table 1 that total number of muslim male adolescents were 105 and 103 were female students. the mean study habit score of male adolescents was 157.39 and mean study habit score of muslim female adolescents was 166.45. socio-economic status score distribution. the table 2 indicates that muslim adolescents had a mean ses (socio-economic status) score of 63.80 that lies in the range of middle ses. mean ses score of muslim male students was 56.49; and mean ses score of muslim female students was 71.26, indicating that female adolescents were having better ses than their male counterparts. relationship between study habits and socio-economic status. the result of product moment correlation applied in the study as evident from the table 3 shows that a positive relationship exists between study habits and ses (socio-economic status) r = 0.37, and it was significant at .01 level; and, hence, null hypothesis was rejected. study habits score distribution for different ses group in relation to gender. a glance at table 4 shows that there was a large difference in the mean study habit score between muslim male and muslim female students in high ses (socio-economic status) and middle ses groups. muslim females had a mean study habit score of 173.33 and muslim male students had a mean score of 158.33 under high ses group; similarly muslim females had a mean study habit score of 168.19 and muslim male students had a mean study habit score of 158.02 under middle ses group. very slight difference was noticed in the mean study habit score in low ses group as far as gender is concerned. study habits in relation to parental education level. table 5 shows that mean study habit scores of muslim adolescents whose parents are educated up to high school was found to be 154.38 that falls in the range of poor study habits, whereas it was found satisfactory for the students whose parents are educated up to senior secondary school, graduation and above, including technical/ professional education with a mean score of 160.37 and 164.61 respectively. further t-test was applied to find the significance of difference between means of adolescents with parent’s education level up to high school and for parents who are educated till graduation and above, including technical/ professional education. the t-value was found to be 3.43, significant at .01 level as shown in the table 6. table 7: mean study habits scores of high ses and middle ses students group n mean sd t value high ses students 24 165.83 16.81 0.44 ns middle ses students 108 163.95 19.15 note: ns = not significant. table 8: mean study habit scores of middle ses and low ses students group n mean sd t-value middle ses students 108 163.95 19.15 2.42* low ses students 76 157.67 15.80 * significant at 0.05 level. table 9: mean study habit scores of high ses and low ses students group n mean sd t-value high ses students 24 165.83 16.81 3.63* low ses students 76 157.67 15.80 * significant at 0.05 level. nabi ahmad & b. razia, study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender 78 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com study habits score distribution for different ses groups. study habits of high ses (socioeconomic status), middle ses, and low ses groups were compared by applying t-test. the calculated t-value (0.44), as shown in the table 7, was found to be insignificant at 0.05 level of confidence. this indicates that high ses muslim adolescents and middle ses muslim adolescents do not differ in their study habits; and, hence, null hypothesis was accepted. an examination of table 8 reveals that computed t value was 2.42, which was significant at 0.05 level, indicating that middle ses (socio-economic status) adolescents and low ses adolescents differ in their study habits and hence null hypothesis was rejected. the table 9 shows the mean difference of high ses (socio-economic status) and low ses muslim adolescents on the measure of study habits. high ses muslim adolescents had mean score 165.83, low ses muslim adolescents had 157.67, and observed t-value was 3.63, which was found to be significant at 0.05 level. it can be said that there exists significant difference between the two groups on study habits measure and hence null hypothesis was rejected. results and discussion the results obtained indicate that study habits of muslim adolescents of aligarh fall in the satisfactory range and their ses (socio-economic status) lies in the range of middle ses category. the study revealed that male and female muslim adolescents differed significantly as far as their study habits were concerned; moreover, female adolescents had better study habits when compared to male adolescents, and this is similar to the findings of a.k. kalia et al. (2008); s. sutherman & a. vasanthi (2011); m. fazal et al. (2012); and a. promila (2014), but contradicted with the findings of v.n. kale (2010). further, it was observed that study habits of muslim adolescents were significantly related with ses of their parents as observed by h.k. nalini & g.h.s. bhatta (2009). females students had better study habit scores in all the three ses groups (high ses groups, middle ses groups, and low ses groups) when compared to male students. females were deprived of educational opportunities for a longer time. sanguine sign that female students have good study habits which ultimately correlates with good academic achievement. differences were observed in study habits of adolescents in relation to their parental education level. the study depicts that higher the level of education of parents better the study habits of students. significant difference was found between students with parents’ education level up to high school and parents who are educated up to graduation and above, including technical/professional education, indicating that highly educated parents are left with better study strategies and techniques with which they help their ward in studies. it was also found that high ses muslim students had better study habits than low ses muslim students, and this is similar to the findings of s. sahu (201). similarly, middle ses muslim students had better study habits than their low ses muslim counterparts, but significant difference was not observed between high ses and middle ses muslim students. higher education of parents and better facilities at home are contributing factors to study habits. from review of prior studies, it is clear that study habits and ses are important correlates of students’ academic achievement (jain, 1967; shivappa, 1980; aisha, kiran & malik, 2002; anton & angel, 2004; alam, 2006; and suleman et al., 2012). the present study, further, proved that study habit is correlated to ses of adolescents; and, hence, it can be inferred that higher the ses of adolescents means better the study habits which inturn leads to higher academic achievement. conclusion the present study is an attempt to bridge the knowledge gap of understanding the association between study habits and ses (socio-economic status) of muslim students. on the basis of findings of the study, it can be inferred that there exists significant and positive relationship between study habits and ses of adolescents, difference exists in relation to gender on both the variables. moreover, the study also proved that higher the level of education and ses of parents educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 79© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com then better the study habits of their wards. if study habits are satisfactory, it can be said confidently that academic achievement of adolescents will also be on higher side, as reported in the studies of a. bhaduri (1971); t.r. laxminarayanan et al. (2006); and m. sarwar et al. (2009). the research findings have following implications: firstly, role of teacher is pivotal in the classroom and should create a more affectionate, harmonious, democratic, and emotional atmosphere, so that proper guidance and training may be given to adolescents accordingly. while planning, teachers must pay special attention to ensure the participation of all, so that a policy of inclusion can be followed. teachers should motivate students for adopting good study habits. students must be taught sophisticated learning strategies and study skills, which are seldom taught in indian classrooms. in contrast, students especially from low ses background, usually discover rote learning on their own. students must be cognitively engaged in order to focus attention on important aspects. secondly, schools need to continue to bring parents into the educational process and encourage them to activate their concerns about child’s way of learning through parents active participation in parent teachers meetings and parent teachers associations. teachers should help parents letting them know about the best ways of communication with their child, to help them in their home work, to motivate them etc. thirdly, guidance programme is the need of the hour in the case of muslim adolescents to develop effective study skills, since in most cases parents are not professionally trained and they have to work in extended hours to support modern lifestyle and thereby cannot help their wards in studies. the cbse (central board of secondary education) in new delhi, india, with which most of the english medium schools are affiliated, has already made it mandatory to appoint a professionally trained counselor to help the students to solve their academic and personal problems. fourthly, government agencies are providing financial assistance at secondary level in the form of scholarships, which is very meager both in terms of amount and number which must be enhanced for encouraging the minority community. fifthly, the findings of the present study can help all the stake holders in improving the study habits of students at secondary school level, which shall ultimately result in satisfactory academic performance.1 references aisha, r., a. kiran & n.h. malik. 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(2011). “study habits and academic achievement of xi-standard students in palani educational district” in edutracks, vol.10(11), pp.39-42. 4 tanto.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 157 dr. tanto sukardi, m.hum. is a lecturer at the department of history education, faculty of education and teacher training (fkip) muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump) in central java, indonesia. he can be reached at: tanto_sukardi@yahoo.com a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era: the context of indonesia tanto sukardi abstract: in the current globalization era, we witness quick changes in all sectors of life, and for the society which is conscious of these changes the mastery of science and technology has become a must. the areas of science and technology chosen are certainly the ones commonly perceived to provide real contribution to the struggle with the changes. with reference to the science of history, the big question which arises is: is the science of history still needed in this globalization era considering most of its objects belong to the past? one of the answers to the question is in order to contextualize the values of history education an alternative in the teaching of history should be generated in the hope that future generation will be aware of the social values for the basis of predicting the future. hence, learning history means understanding the past for better understanding of the current so that the future can be grabbed much better. key words: current globalization, science and technology, science of history, future generation and understanding the past for better understanding of the current. introduction today, indonesian people are required to be sensitive over the quick changes in almost all aspects of life. many believe that it is the only way for them to survive the changes. as a matter of fact, globalization calls for every member of the society to always quickly and correctly respond the changes they encounter. besides, selfreliance and dignity as well as deep religious faith will lead society members to be more independent, resilient and competitive, both locally and globally (kartasasmita, 1991:18-19). tanto sukardi, a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era 158 globalization itself is basically triggered by three main factors, which are usually called three engines of globalization. they comprise technology mastery, capital ownership and managerial competence. the three are interconnected demands. the development of new technology will facilitate the transfer and expansion of capital from one country to another. at the same time, with the mastery of modern management and the strong support of large capital and sophisticated technology, the economists and businessmen are able to prepare their companies and select the right cooperation strategies to win the competition (micklethwait & wooldridge, 2000:29). in the globalization era, an enormous shift of paradigm has occurred in how people view productivity in relation to a country’s natural resources. in the past, a country’s resources are viewed from the perspective of the natural resources a country possesses. at present, a country’s resources hinge upon the ability of human resources to process the natural resources into value added products or services which make the best use of science, investment, ideas and innovation (harrison & huntington, 2000:5). in such a situation, the mastery of science and technology plays a central role in helping a nation anticipate changes, so that it will not be left behind by other nations. and in fact many nations are now racing toward the highest achievement in science and technology. this is also in accordance with what k.j. hatten & a. rosentahl (2000:5) say that a certain degree of science and technology mastery can boost creativity of a nation. in order to master science and technology, education plays an important role and governments should prioritize it. for the reason, education can hopefully nurture every aspect of human beings, ranging from physical and mental health, intelligence, social sensitivity, responsibility and spiritual life. therefore, through education a government can shape its people into independent, critical and creative individuals. this is especially significant in the changing world in which educational and economic innovation prevails. in this case, education also serves a driving power to improve the quality of creativity and imagination as an expression of freedom and personal standards. more opportunities must be given to the young generation to explore and innovate (unesco, 1996:94). moreover k. ohmae (1990:195) states that every responsible government has the obligation to prepare its people to confidently enter the era of globalization. one of the possible ways to take is providing education which enables the people to obtain as much knowledge as possible. a good control over information and technology will enable a nation to successfully compete in this constantly changing world. with respect to the history, the questions now are, “is history still useful for the young generation to face this changing world?”, “what kind of teaching method can we devise in order to ‘present’ the past in today’s world?”, and “what kind of teaching orientation do we need to anticipate the quick changes of the world?”. if we take a close look at the questions, we can see that the underlying problems are all related to the educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 159 understanding of values which in turn will make history a science serving to clarify today’s perspective and future’s vision (lapian, 1976:3). the general functions of history teaching people commonly perceive history as identical to family tree or even to folklore. such a perception leads people to study the history of kings and their descendents, the origins of kingdoms, or great people of the past, which occasionally mix it with some irrational elements. in such a perception, history does not reflect a comprehensive past experience of a community. a number of varied factors are indeed involved in the making of history (abdoelgani, 1963:53). if history taught at school is the one viewed that way, the curricular contents and its material development will evolve around dates and years of historical events, king biographies, stories of great people and battles. the logical consequence of that kind of perception is that history will not bring about understanding of the underlying values to students. history teaching will be of trivial benefits. besides as the teaching contents, it will not enhance learning creativity among students. history is not more than a boring lecture. and worst of all, students fail to see the values and uses of learning history. ideally, though history is mostly concerned with the past, whose actual objects are the totality of past experience of a society; learning history must not be perceived merely in terms of the past for the sake of the past. learning history should certainly be aimed at exploring and identifying past experience of the predecessors for the sake of the current and the future and thus at making the future generation wise in facing their lives (abdoelgani, 1963:68). there are three main functions of studying history, namely: (1) recreational function. historical events which are conveyed in a narrative, descriptive and informative forms can be interesting to the youth, especially if reported in a fascinating language. in this sense, history has artistic and literary values which serve recreation function; (2) scientific function. when the past facts and events are written on interpretive judgment of facts using a multidimensional approach and involve critical investigation, then history meets the requirements of a science. for a reconstruction of history which meets the scientific standards, satisfactory understanding of method is required; and (3) didactic function. history may bear a didactic value when it contains past facts and events which give rise to certain effects on the youth, such as the rise of patriotism or nationalism. through history as well old values can be passed on to the young generation (su’ud, 1990:27-30). in this respect, we need to notice albert hyma’s conviction that history is principally a branch of science which discusses the development of human beings’ society, covering political system, social structure, economy, ideas, arts and their entire experience (hyma, 1981:24). history in this sense refers to all past experience, both physically and spiritually. in order to comprehend this multifaceted life, a holistic approach needs to be applied. therefore, the complexity of life can easily tanto sukardi, a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era 160 be analyzed into its componential parts and its parts scrutinized to perceive their intricate relationships (kartodirdjo, 1990b:32). for the reason, instructional materials comprise among other things the changes occurring in the complex society of the past. given that history deals with a complicated past events and needs a very careful and painstaking analysis, teacher and pupil will get involved in an interesting learning process. as far as learning is concerned, it is very imperative for us to mention the benjamin s. bloom’s taxonomy, a schematic classification of hierarchical competence or skills. the two important domains in the field of history teaching are cognitive and affective. of the two, cognitive domain is considered to play more important role, as it leads to the actual development of intellectual capacity. besides, cognitive domain is the best rational indicator of general intellectual competence. six components of cognitive domain are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation (bloom, 1956:3). knowledge is the ability to know, with observable elements, like the ability to memorize and to recall. comprehension is equal to understanding with the components of ability to translate, interpret and conclude. application is the ability to use concept, principles and procedures to solve a problem. analysis includes the ability to break down a concept into its parts and spot the relations among the parts. synthesis is the ability to put the parts into a (new) entity. and evaluation refers the ability to compare values, ideas, methods and so on to reach a judgment (bloom, 1956:3). an ideal teaching of history at school facilitates learners to know how to study history well. in practice, the teaching of history may commence from introducing facts and data, giving definitions clearly and then developing concepts related to the societal aspects of the past. as a result, the teaching of history equals the activity carried out to boost intellectual capacity which is characterized by the ability to recognize facts specifically, to construct concepts and finally to determine conclusions and generalization (garvey & krug, 1977:15). in indonesia, the teaching of history begins at the elementary education which seeks the rise of pride of their society’s achievement. through the teaching, the experience of their ancestors – which is full of educative values – can be understood and owned. at the junior high, history teaching is projected more to enable students to know understand the development of their society. as for the level of senior high, the teaching is designed to nurture the critical attitude towards any past events in order to aptly react to the current social phenomena (depdikbud ri, 1993:151152). the instructional objectives are formulated upon the ideal assumptions about the process of understanding history. in other words, the objectives should reflect students’ temporal and spatial awareness about any past events which in turn will lead to national pride and identity (kartodirdjo, 1990a:17). a wrong understanding of history will result in inability of the young generation to give appropriate response to the changes, so that they will not be able to cope with the problems they face. if this was the case the teaching of history does not benefit the young. history instruction is not more than just a burden to school educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 161 children. in consequence, we need to seek a teaching strategy capable of creating creative and critical generation. this is especially true when considering the fact that we are now faced with problems requiring a number of responses at once (soedjatmoko, 1991:87). the main goals of history teaching to maintain the cultural character and values of a nation, the understanding of history is needed at whatever level of civilization. the more advanced a nation is, the more necessary it is to comprehend and realize its normative history, as an important component of educational objectives. the teaching of history is indeed the application of history as a science for a pragmatic purpose. for the reason, its realization needs to be selected and adjusted with reference to the values and meanings of the existing educational goals. in other words, the outcomes of the history instruction should be in line with the overall objectives of the national education (sasyardi, 1990:54). specifically, the objectives of the national education can be found in the act number 20/2003 on national education system (undang-undang no. 20 tahun 2003 tentang sistem pendidikan nasional). in one of its chapter, it says: national education serves the function of developing the competence and shaping the character and civilization of a dignified nation, in the framework of educating the nation’s life, and directed towards the development of the learners’ potential in order to make them pious believers of the sole god, have respectable behavior, be healthy, well informed, responsive, creative, independent, and become responsible and democratic citizens (chapter 3 indonesian act number 20/2003 or uu no. 20 tahun 2003). to achieve the objectives, every element inside any educational organizations is called forth to show good quality competence. school as one of the elements has also the obligation to carry out its duty in a quality manner. this holds true for the history teachers in doing their instructional function. they must perform their jobs professionally, especially in the teaching process. this processional undertaking is characterized by satisfactory mastery of the teaching materials, teaching strategies and motivating power. by so doing, history teachers can materialize the ideal history teaching process toward the ideal outcomes (supardan, 2005). to answer global challenges through educational efforts, unesco (united nations for economic, social and cultural organization) has set foundations as the stepping stones for every nation in the world. in its document entitled learning: treasure within, unesco established the four pillars of education, namely: (1) learning to know, which goes to the extent of understanding the how to and communicating it to others; (2) learning to do, which also includes boosting creativity, productivity, resilience, controlling professional ability and being ready for any changes; (3) learning to be, which covers developing self-potential like independence, rational capacity, imaginative power, aesthetic awareness, discipline and responsibility; and (4) learning to live together, which encompasses understanding tanto sukardi, a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era 162 the reasons of living in harmony in plural community, appreciating differences in spiritual life and showing respect to other ethnic or political group members (unesco, 1996:85-89). in response to this multilateral policy, indonesian government has taken any necessary measures, like passing the act number 14 year 2005 on teachers and lecturers (undang-undang no.14 tahun 2005 tentang guru dan dosen). this act is devised to enhance the teachers and lecturers quality. this is done on the fact that teachers are required to possess certain traits which enable them to help learners attain the four pillars. according to widayati’s analysis, in her paper “elementary education reform”, the crucial characteristics of teachers in this era are: (1) perceiving profession of teacher as a genuine life call [genuineness]; (2) always trying to give positive reward in order that learners are able to give self-reward; (3) trying not only to be sympathetic but also empathic; and (4) realizing that as teachers, they need to have the ability to be a learner (widayati, 2002:29). in short, teachers should fully realize that teacher is a profession, not merely a job. history teachers are also required to realize that they are responsible to facilitate their pupil to attain the outlined instructional potentials of history, namely: (1) history teaching and intellectual education; and (2) history teaching and education of nation’s moral. referring to the first potential, the teaching of history does not only present facts and collective experience of the society in the past, but also provides intellectual exercises to generate creative thinking over the causes and effects of the past events. interpreting historical events of course plays a strategic role in providing intellectual exercise to the learners. critical thinking over historical events may embrace training to formulate, to conclude and to analyze social symptoms appearing during a critical period in the history of a nation. hence this potential emphasizes intellectual teaching and reasoning (suryo, 1990:5). as for the second potential, the teaching of history should be aimed at humanistic education. understanding historical facts and events must lead to the effort to foster and develop the character of a nation (nation building). through understanding and implanting historical values, it is hoped that there will evolve the spirit to love their country and even the will to self-sacrifice for the sake of a nation’s interests. the important thing to consider when teaching historical values is that, since history learning can be a means of humanistic education, teaching process needs an appropriate strategy so that the intended messages can be delivered in a natural and easy manner. this is especially true, since the main and ultimate objective of history teaching is not the mastery of historical facts and events by the pupil, but the shaping of attitude by means of its inherent values. the outcomes should not be measured only with the ability of the pupil to correctly mention dates, facts and events in the history, but also with the understanding of values which influence their behavior as good and responsible citizens (sasyardi, 1990:12). therefore the ultimate goal of history teaching activities is generating good citizens. good citizens can be defined as citizens who are dutiful and responsible as educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 163 called for by laws and social norms as citizens of a country, like conforming the regulations, paying taxes, defending their country and so on. emphasis is given to the acceptance of certain values living in a society. observing local norms and appreciating local values and beliefs can be the goal of history learning. through understanding the social changes in the past, students are expected to be able to predict changes in the future. with the ability at hand, future changes can hopefully be prevented or attempted as wished. a number of teaching strategies can be tried in the hope that student learning process will run well. an example of teaching strategy that can be attempted is constructive strategy. this strategy is derived from critical theory and postmodernist paradigm which offer modified instruction emphasizing on the ability of the students to solve real current problems of the society. in the view of critical theory, the teaching of history seek the achievement of knowledge interest, taking the form of control over social issues like information, facts, concepts and social theories (banks, 1990:187). further step may then be taken to understand the underlying meaning of knowledge interest, namely the process of knowing and the agent of knowing. the latest two interests can be achieved by means of history teaching process which involves actual participation of learners to do the action and reflection, in a constructive process, of contemporary social issues. through this constructive learning strategy, self-reflection will occur critically, so it is hoped that the process of comprehensive understanding of social issues will take place. thus power is no more dominated by dominant groups like teachers, lecturers and curriculum developers, but hopefully spread out even to the pupil as the knower (supriatna, 2005). it is hoped too that the teaching process in the class will bring about behavioral effects on the pupils, both instructional and nurturant ones. these effects are related to the students’ mastery of the teaching materials and their sensitivity over social issues. students’ social sensitivity here theoretically refers to scott’s concepts concerning empathy, pro-social or morality (in budimansyah, 2007; and winataputra, 2007). empathy can be seen from the perspectives of affective, cognitive and communicative. affective element is related to a person’s capacity to feel what other is feeling or experiencing. cognitive element refers to a person’s capacity to recognize other’s affective state and his/her viewpoint in order to understand the reasons of the viewpoint. finally, the communicative element of empathy refers to a person’s ability to pass on or communicate his feeling to others. in our current social life, a great number of contemporary social issues need to be addressed by all components of the nation. this of course demands strong sense of social empathy on the part of the people, including the students. for the purpose, the teaching of history must enable students to put oneself in someone else’s shoes or, in other words, to reciprocate positions of others (zainul, 2008). if the capacity of empathy, either in the affective, cognitive or communicative sense, becomes an integral part of the pupil’s personality, we can expect the emergence of a new generation having social and moral sensitivity. in due time, the two types of capacity tanto sukardi, a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era 164 can guide them to the power of making sensible moral judgment, moral decision making and moral action in their daily life (wiriaatmadja, 2002). the teaching of history is consequently obliged to inculcate moral values to the students. referring to scott’s opinion, moral education must eventually result in moral capacity of the students, which, according to him, comprises four important domains, namely moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral decision making and moral action (in budimansyah, 2007; and winataputra, 2007). to assure the achievement of the result, the teaching of history may make use of actual social issues as the core material of instruction. social issues are generally viewed from the perspectives of social identity, social solidarity, nationalism, patriotism, democracy and the ideal type of a society which results from the process of history learning. individual and social morality, which closely relate to the actual social reality in the era (time) and place (spatial) where the people live, may be intermingled to form comprehensive instructional materials. these can even be attached to the universal issues and values. this follows that the discussion of moral sensitivity may traverse geographical and time borders, such as the discussion on the readiness to keep a distance with prejudice about people from different countries and/or of different ages. moral action relates more to the actual behavior of an individual or a group in daily life which reflects mutual understanding. these are the intended instructional and nurturant outcomes of the teaching of history (razaq ahmad & suwirta, 2007). the future oriented history teaching one big question to be addressed here is which perspective or orientation of historical value understanding that needs to be developed in the education of a nation? as we all know, in line with the arrival of globalization era, indonesian people are encouraged to undergo social transformation as a result of information rush from every part of the world. these transformations take place in all aspects of life. these phenomena should of course be anticipated with the improvement of human resources, in terms of both intellectual capacity and character of a nation. this is done in order to avoid the gap between the quality of human resources and the challenges they are facing. this task is indeed very demanding for those involved in the world of education, including the education of history. in this respect, the history education should work out a new perspective in the process of interpreting history which of course affects the teaching outcomes. a change also needs to be attempted in the perspective orientation of the teaching of historical values, form the currently adopted pastoriented to the future-oriented (kartodirdjo, 1990b:215). inaccurate interpretation of historical facts can undermine the function of history as a means to clarify today and to predict the future. in such a situation, history loses the ability to clearly reflect the self, but in the opposite biases the picture of the self. the glorious past is depicted in such a way just to divert people from the current bitter life, not to identify values, wisdom and facts beneficial in educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 165 coping with problems. with that kind of treatment, history has the potential of losing its dynamics. the glorious past loses its functional value as an inspiring power. instead it discourages and leads the young generation to be passive and apathetic. experience tells us that generation of that kind prefers to retreat to romanticism and get themselves into oblivion (kartodirdjo, 1990b; and wiriaatmadja, 2002). in an attempt to infuse spirit to the young generation, national identity and awareness as the foundation of national development should continuously be strengthened to assure its achievement. in other words, once the young generation is spirited national development can attain its objectives. this is the significance of history instruction: infusing spirit and inspiring breakthroughs (soedjatmoko, 1976:14). a new alternative to the orientation is very important to take in view of the fact that education is principally designed to prepare a better future for the new generation. the education of history as a part of national education must be in line with that vision. the conviction that the past is the best guide to the future is relevant with the perspective of history teaching which sees life process as a continuous linier flowing from the past to the future. perspective of this kind also strengthens the assumption that the future is very close to the present and the present is very close to the past (abdoelgani, 1980:2). on the very ground can the formulation of the image of the future be established and placed in understanding the value of history. in attempt to place the image of the future polak’s concept of yesterday’s tomorrow can in this respect be explored. in his concept, an image of the future can be explored from historical events (in suryo, 1990:8). in other words, the teaching materials of history can be carefully selected in order to assure the future oriented ones. with the future oriented materials at hand, we can correlate the historical events relevant with the current actual issues. efforts to use the future oriented perspective have done by the ancient nations like the greece, jewish and also by intellectuals, philosophers and writers of the past. in the domestic literature, the poet josodipuro with his jangka jayabaya is very well-known. his study explains that logical and critical observation and contemplation may bring about great effects on the actual reality of the future (in kartodirdjo, 1990b). from the historical point of view, globalization has made borders of time and space blur and contemporary perspective strong. it is very understandable then that the feeling and the perspective of the past has no ample room for consideration, in contradiction with the future perspective which receives much attention. it is quite natural when sartono kartodirdjo asserts that today there exist a trend to put aside historical vista or optic which produces present-mindedness and cause futurologist orientation in human realm metahistoric and speculative (kartodirdjo, 1997:122). in order to yield better effectiveness, the teaching materials of history must portray more detailed events and provide the details with wider future perspective and orientation. it means that a comprehensive perspective is integrated with the understanding of cultural ideas of the historical process which encompasses the tanto sukardi, a future-oriented perspective and history teaching alternative in globalization era 166 present angles of image, expectation, projection and trends, and prediction of future civilization of a nation (abdoelgani, 1980:11). as a matter of fact, we have limitless materials to support the purpose, either for the history of indonesia and of the world. the emphasis on the future orientation and perspective is expected to contribute to the construction of future of the nation which prepare it for a globalized life. for the reason, history teaching is still needed as an endeavor to set a robust ground to encounter the future (wiriaatmadja, 2002; and razaq ahmad & suwirta, 2007). one important thing to reiterate here is that the present history teaching promises the formation of attitude and behavior of ideal citizens as expected by the community. to achieve the goal, the focus of its teaching program should be on provision of learning experience useful to help pupil to understand time perspective. this will lead pupil realize that: (1) physical environment determines when and how people live; (2) people have to try to wisely adjust, use, and control energy and natural resources around them; (3) change is an inevitable part of the society; (4) it is a must to involve themselves in the power generating changes to the society and civilization; (5) the change leads to interdependence among people and among nations in the world so that people need to appreciate and respect different values, have responsibility for others and cooperate with other people or nations in all aspects of life; and (6) people need to appreciate and respect the equality of race, religion and culture (hyma, 1981; penyarikan, 1986; wiriaatmadja, 2002; supriatna, 2005; and razaq ahmad & suwirta, 2007). conclusion the globalization era, which is characterized by the rapid flow of information crossing the borders of countries, has brought about considerable and fundamental changes in all aspects of society. this condition must be anticipated by equipping the new generation with satisfactory intellectual capacity, as well as strong character and personality (ohmae, 1990). these are compulsory in order not to be left behind in this very competitive world. the teaching of history may play significant role especially in shaping the strong character and personality of a nation. in pedagogical level, we should work out a new alternative in the teaching method which is expected to contribute to the achievement of the ultimate goal aforementioned. a future-oriented perspective deserves consideration. what is meant future-oriented perspective here is that the teaching of history must be put in a multidimensional perspective: of time and space. in the dimension of time, history teaching must not only discuss the past but also its relation with the present and its possible implication for the future. in the dimension of space, the teaching of history must not only concentrate on the events or facts of one specific region or country separately, but also in relation to those of other region or country. by so doing, the pupil will evolve analytical, critical and creative thinking capacity which will enable them to see the world comprehensively. this way history teaching will be much more fruitful. for the reason, improvement educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 167 and revision in some aspects of the curriculum, textbooks, teaching method, as well as the teacher need to be attempted. however, the search for the alternative in the teaching of historical value has to meet the following basic conditions: first, the availability of historian teacher (teacher and lecturer of history). up to now the teachers of history have been using conventional method. their instructional activities are focused on the transformation of knowledge about historical events and facts. this practice does not only cause boredom but also bears trivial value. to reach a maximum result, better teacher preparation is a must. second, the development of new curriculum and textbooks. in anticipation of the globalization era, the current curriculum and textbooks must be revisited and adjusted. the curriculum and textbooks of history have so far been based on conventional outlook of history. in such a case, history teaching does not have much to offer to successfully cope with the changes which emerge especially from the advent of globalization era. the revisited curriculum should of course be the one which can generate creativity on the part of the pupil. third, the devising of comprehensive teaching method. under today’s circumstances the teaching of history requires the use of method which promotes reasoning and analytical competence over the historical events and facts. with the competence at hand, pupil will have the ability to view historical events and facts in relation to the contemporary issues for a better prediction of the future of both his own nation and of others’. on the above ground, the improvement of history teaching becomes compelling and needs integrative effort by the writers, researchers, teachers and curriculum designers. this is especially true because the stream of social changes is now flowing very fast. an appropriate endeavor for the right solution must be done. otherwise, the “destiny” of the teaching of history in this era of globalization will be miserable. references abdoelgani, ruslan. 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(1991). “beberapa pokok pikiran mengenai martabat dan manusia di dalam persaingan global” in analisis csis. jakarta: csis, edisi januari-pebruari. kartodirdjo, sartono. (1990a). “fungsi sejarah dalam pengembangan bangsa: kesadaran sejarah, identitas dan kepribadian nasional”. paper presented in seminar sejarah nasional v in semarang. kartodirdjo, sartono. (1990b). kebudayaan dan pembangunan dalam perspektif sejarah. yogyakarta: gadjah mada university press. kartodirdjo, sartono. (1997). “ideologi bangsa dan pendidikan sejarah”. paper presented in kongres nasional sejarah in jakarta. lapian, a.b. (1976). “sejarah, sejarawan dan masa depan” in prisma. jakarta: lp3es, edisi agustus. micklethwait, j. & a. wooldridge. (2000). a future perfect. new york: crown publishing. ohmae, k. (1990). the borderless world: power and strategy in the interlinked economy. osaka: mc. kinsey & company inc. penyarikan, ktut sudiri. 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(1990). “pengajaran sejarah pada masa transisi”. paper presented in seminar sejarah nasional v in semarang. su’ud, abu. (1990). “pengajaran sejarah”. paper presented in seminar sejarah nasional v in semarang. unesco [united nations for economic, social and cultural organization]. (1996). learning: the treasure within. new york: unesco publishing. wibisono, k. (1988). beberapa hal tentang filsafat ilmu. yogyakarta: ikip pgri yogyakarta. widayati. (2002). “elementary education reform”. paper presented in upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia] in bandung. winataputra, udin s. (2007). “pendidikan kewarganegaraan dalam perspektif internasional” in acta civicus: jurnal pendidikan kewarganegaraan, vol.1, no.1 [oktober]. bandung: program studi pendidikan kewarganegaraan sps upi, pp.1-25. wiriaatmadja, rochiati. (2002). pendidikan sejarah di indonesia: perspektif lokal, nasional dan global. bandung: historia utama press. zainul, asmawi. (2008). “beberapa permasalahan pengukuran keberhasilan belajar mahasiswa dalam bidang studi sejarah” in historia: journal of historical studies, special edition i. bandung: jurusan pendidikan sejarah fpips upi, pp.13-16. zamroni. (1992). “demokratisasi pendidikan untuk meningkatkan kreativitas civitas akademika guna mengantisipasi perkembangan di masa depan” in warta ptm. yogyakarta: edisi januari. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 27 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth abstract: community empowerment is an effort to provide power or strength for the community to be independent and get away from problems they have been through. community empowerment is a concept of economic development encapsulating social values. a cooperative is one of the institutions that is suitable for rural community development in an effort to empower their economic level. this is because cooperatives have the principle of mutual cooperation, a sense of togetherness, and a sense of family. this research is motivated by various empowerment strategies implemented in each community empowerment agency. heterogeneous environmental conditions become consideration in implementing empowerment strategies for communities. empowerment strategy becomes the main capital to attract the attention of communities to seriously support this empowerment program. the purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of the empowerment strategies used at this institution, namely the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia. this research is conducted to analyze the social compass applied. this study uses qualitative methods of observation, interviews, and documentation studies. the applied social compasses are: resources, technology, knowledge, values, goals and felt needs, norms, positions and roles, power leadership and influence, sanctions, and space relations. the conclusion obtained from this study is that the applied social compasses can create an independent community in looking for family livelihood, prosperity, and good character. the study, then, gives the following suggestion: for the progress of this institution, the program of curriculum has to be more organized and clarified, so that the learning achievements of the community can be clearly seen. key words: strategy; social compass; empowering community; cooperative institution. about the authors: dr. ade sadikin akhyadi is a senior lecturer at the department of community education fip upi (faculty of education, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. dr. irma savitri sadikin is a lecturer at the department of english education, faculty of education and teacher training, esa unggul university, jalan arjuna utara no.9, kebon jeruk, jakarta 11510, indonesia. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mails address at: ades.akhyadi@upi.edu and irma.savitri@esaunggul.ac.id suggested citation: akhyadi, ade sadikin & irma savitri sadikin. (2020). “the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august, pp.27-48. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 19797877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 1, 2020); revised (july 3, 2020); and published (august 30, 2020). introduction poverty is a major problem of development, and it is complex and multidimensional. problems related to poverty do not only deal with economic dimensions, but also social, cultural, political, and even ideological ones (cf bradshaw, 2006; basuki & prasetyo, 2007; and dhakal, 2015). © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 28 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment poverty is still a problem, that threatens the indonesian nation. the number of poor people in indonesia, in march 2019, totaled 25,144 million people or 9.41%. in west java, it reaches 3.40 million or 6.91% (bps, 2019; jati, 2019; and sunarta, 2019). in this context, lukman soetrisno (1995); robert chambers (2006); and other scholars, argued that the core of the problem of poverty lies in deprivation traps. it consists of five disadvantages that are wrapped around family life, namely: poverty, physical weakness, alienation, vulnerability, and helplessness (chambers, 2006; soetrisno, 1995; tsomo, 2015; and saepudin & acuviarta, 2016). poverty occurs usually because individuals are not able to empower their full potential to achieve prosperity in life independently. poverty suffered by the people of indonesia is not only related to a financial problem, but also a matter of life skills. they can make people survive in life and achieve what they want. without expertise, people’s lives will not get a chance to win increasingly fierce competition in life (machendrawaty & syafe’i, 2001; hadi et al., 2015; and keeley, 2015). for alleviating poverty, the development of community potential requires some strategies. firstly, creating opportunities related to the targets of macro-economic recovery, the realization of good governance, and the improvement of public services. secondly, increasing the ability to improve education, health, food, and housing services, so that the community has productivity. thirdly, community empowerment is related to providing community access in developing resources and their involvement in decision making (ames et al., 2001; martaja, 2005; and singh & chudasama, 2020). community empowerment does not make the society to be dependent on various charity and compassion programs, because everything that is enjoyed must be produced by one’s own efforts basically. in this context, m. kathryn yount (2018), and other scholars, said that community empowerment became a public concern and was considered as an appropriate approach in overcoming social problems, especially poverty (bradshaw, 2006; kembarawati & mahyudin, 2014; and yount, 2018). community empowerment is an effort to provide power or strength for the community to be independent and get away from problems they have been through. according to ginanjar kartasasmita (1997); robert chambers (2006); and other scholars, community empowerment is a concept of economic development encapsulating social values. it reflects the new development paradigm, which is people centered, participatory, empowering, and sustainable (kartasasmita, 1997; chambers, 2006; saepudin & acuviarta, 2016; and badaruddin et al., 2017). a cooperative is one of the institutions that is suitable for rural community development in an effort to empower their economic level. this is because cooperatives have the principle of mutual cooperation, a sense of togetherness, and a sense of family (cf putra et al., 2016; mhembwe & dube, 2017; and murdani & hadromi, 2019). according to ginandjar kartasasmita (1997), and other scholars, a cooperative is an effective forum for community empowerment based on kinship and mutual cooperation. cooperatives, that are needed by the community, are honest and dynamic ones, so that the potential of the members can be realized to the maximum (kartasasmita, 1997; badaruddin & nasution, 2005; and mhembwe & dube, 2017). furthermore, mubyarto (2003), and other scholars, revealed that the development of cooperatives is identic with overcoming poverty. according to uu (undang-undang or law) no.25 of 1992, article 3, it is explained that cooperatives aim at increasing welfare of the members and community, helping to develop the national economic system, in order to create a developed, righteous, and prosperous society based on pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) and the 1945 constitution in indonesia (mubyarto, 2003; dunggio & yasa, 2016; and ica & ilo, 2018). since 2009, kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together) has developed empowerment program for citarum river waste scavenger in west java, © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 29 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 indonesia. this program has been proven to be able to reduce the volume of waste in citarum river; while at the same time, it is able to create new jobs and increase community income in the saguling reservoir area. by building a positive correlation between the two problems, it turns out to produce a solution that has positive effects on environmental conditions and community welfare, where by utilizing waste, water hyacinth weeds, and critical land becomes more productive not only can they preserve the environment of the saguling reservoir, but also it can prosper the people living in around the reservoir (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). kbb is a community empowerment institution that has a vision of “becoming an open and transparent community economic institution that is able to increase the dignity and life of the community at large, while it is still based on environmental preservation”. this empowerment agency is focused on empowering waste scavengers and housewives living in around saguling dam, citarum river, west bandung regency, west java, indonesia. empowerment activities at this institution are by managing waste and processing water hyacinth weeds that expand on the surface of citarum river (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). empowerment carried out by kbb received various scrutiny from the government, because of its success in empowering the community in 2016, the cooperative was awarded the west java community empowerment innovation award. the empowerment strategy used is summarized as a whole in the social compass, which is applied in the empowerment process (anwas, 2013; dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). desmond m. connor (1969), and other scholars, argues that the social compasses applied to the community are: resources; technology; knowledge and beliefs; values and sentiments; goals and felt needs; norms; position and roles; power, leadership, and influence; social rank; sanctions; history; and space relations (connor, 1969; hickman, 1990; gurevitch et al. eds., 2005; and steinmann, klug & maier, 2018). based on field data, it is found that kbb applies most of the social compasses described above. how are social compasses applied in the kbb in accordance with the conditions of the community and the environment around citarum river? the purpose of this research is that the formation of the empowerment construct that is found in the kbb can be adopted by other empowerment institutions, so that a civil society that is independent, moral, disciplined, creative, and wants-to-get-advance is ready to compete and be prosperous. conceptual review. conceptually, empowerment comes from the word “power”. for this reason, its main idea is in contact with the concept of power. this concept of power is often associated with the ability of individuals to make others do what they want to do, regardless of their interests and desires (suharto, 2005; nanang, 2011; and ayundari, 2015). according to j. rappaport (1984), an other scholars, empowerment is defined as a psychological understanding of the individual control effect on social conditions, political power, and rights according to the law (rappaport, 1984; febriana, 2011; ghoni, 2016; and bosc, 2018). community empowerment is a series of systematic actions and involves various components of formal and informal organization. community empowerment is a movement to gather the strengths and abilities of the community and its environment (prasojo, 2004; orgambídez-ramos & borrego-alés, 2014; and kehik, kolne & atanus, 2016). jim ife & frank tesoriero (2008), as cited also in martono nanang (2011), defined community empowerment as the process of preparing the community with various resources, opportunities, knowledge, and expertise to improve the capacity of their own (ife & tesoriero, 2008; nanang, 2011; and thompson et al., 2016). empowerment includes one’s own © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 30 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment strength, independence, self-choice, sovereignty in life, capacity to fight for rights, independence, self-decision making, freedom, awakening, and capability. these definitions are basically embedded in local values and belief systems (binswanger-mkhize, de regt & spector eds., 2010; hategekimana, 2011; and zubaedi, 2013). meanwhile, the term “strategy” comes from the greek word “staregia”, with the meaning of stratus which is “military” and “lead” which means art or science. desmond m. connor (1969), and other scholars, added that strategies are often used to describe aspects of military operations; strategies are used to describe specific and structured approaches in carrying out a structured development process towards a group or community (connor, 1969; allison & kaye, 2005; and olsen, 2012). james a.f. stoner, edward r. freeman & daniel r. gilbert, jr. (1995), and other scholars, suggested that the concept of strategy can be defined based on two different perspectives, namely: (1) from the perspective of what an organization wants to do; and (2) from the perspective of what the organization ultimately does (stoner, freeman & gilbert, jr., 1995; olsen, 2012; and kaehler & grundei, 2019). based on the first perspective, strategy can be defined as a program to determine and achieve organizational goals and implement its mission. whereas based on the second one, the strategy is defined as the pattern of response or organizational response to their environment over time (stoner, freeman & gilbert, jr., 1995; tjiptono, 2009; and kaehler & grundei, 2019). see figure 1. michael e. porter (1990), and other scholars, explained that strategy is unique and its position is valuable, involving a different set of activities. when we have given or offered things in a way that is different figure 1: social compass strategy (source: desmond m. connor, 1969). © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 31 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 from what we have done before, it is called strategy. it can also be said as the core of management in general, which includes describing company’s position, making some pulls, and forging each activity appropriately. also, strategy can be interpreted as creating reciprocity in competence, combining activities, and creating conformity between activities carried out by the company. it can be concluded that strategy is a plan, technique, method, or steps used to achieve the stated goals (cf porter, 1990; stonehouse & snowdon, 2007; and islami, mustafa & latkovikj, 2020). in this context, again, desmond m. connor (1969), and other scholars, argued that the social compasses applied to the community are: resources; technology; knowledge and beliefs; values and sentiments; goals and felt needs; norms; position and roles; power, leadership, and influence; social rank; sanctions; history; and space relations (connor, 1969; hickman, 1990; gurevitch et al. eds., 2005; and steinmann, klug & maier, 2018). resources, for example, in the community covers all aspects of the environment. communities can use them to meet their individual and group needs. support from government and private sectors are also included in this proposal. the existence of resources will not be meaningful until it is recognized and utilized by the community (connor, 1969; steinmann, klug & maier, 2018; and mensah, 2019). technology, literally, comes from greek, technologia, which means a systematic discussion of all arts and crafts. the term has the root word “techne” in ancient greek, meaning art or craft. from this literal meaning, “technology” in ancient greek can be interpreted as the art of producing means of production and using them. the definition, then, develops into the use of science according to human needs. it can also be interpreted as “knowledge of how to make things (know-how of making things)” or “how to do things (know-how of doing things)”, in the sense of the ability to do something with high value, both the value of benefits and the sale value (connor, 1969; nanang, 2011; ngafifi, 2014). this was also added by desmond m. connor (1969), and other scholars, that technology consists of tools, skills, and techniques used by the members of a community to exploit their environment (connor, 1969; ngafifi, 2014; and mensah, 2019). according to muhamad ngafifi (2014) and james m. henslin (2019), technology covers two things. firstly, it refers to equipment, which is the element used to complete tasks. it refers to equipment so simple, like a comb, and that is very complicated, like a computer. secondly, the skills or procedures needed to make and use the equipment (cf connor, 1969; ngafifi, 2014; and henslin, 2019). knowledge and belief, particularly knowledge is the result of knowing, and this happens after people sensing a certain object. this is in accordance with the opinion of waini rasyidin et al. (2017), and other scholars, that knowledge is the result of knowing objects in the real world according to reason by observation. every time, the observed object belongs to consciousness, it is known, and in the sense of the form that exists in our soul is called “understanding” (connor, 1969; pandya, 2011; and rasyidin et al., 2017). knowledge is nothing, but a set of information that is structured and directed about certain phenomena that occur in experience. by knowledge is meant all that is known about the world and life in it; in beliefs, there is an element of personal conviction, making beliefs more resistant to change than knowledge (pandya, 2011; bennet, bennet & lewis, 2015; and rasyidin et al., 2017). waini rasyidin et al. (2017), and other scholars, revealed that there are four types of knowledge or truth, that can be obtained and possessed by humans. firstly, ordinary or lay knowledge, which is often called common sense knowledge. secondly, scientific knowledge or that people called it as science. thirdly, philosophical knowledge or simply called philosophy. fourthly, religious knowledge or knowledge originating from religion, which includes knowledge of the nature of behavior as a supernatural expression through revelations received by the chosen messenger (koulaidis, 1987; rasyidin © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 32 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment et al., 2017; and titus, 2018). ordinary or common knowledge is the knowledge gained from the experiences and habits of daily life, for example: everyone calls something yellow, because it is yellow. water is needed for human life; indeed, it is needed for, as an example, drinking. it is known to many people as a sign of rain and such. common knowledge, or common sense knowledge, has the characteristics: common sense tends to be ordinary and permanent or to imitate and inheritance from the past. its sense of meaning is often vague or vague and has double understandings (ambiguity). common sense is a truth or belief that has not been tested or has never been tested for truth (koulaidis, 1987; rasyidin et al., 2017; and glattfelder, 2019). scientific knowledge is a translation of the word science, which is a set of scientific knowledge that is systematically arranged about phenomena, including how to organize and expand, and how to test them according to objective criteria and recognized by the scientific community, which are often referred to or named science (rasyidin et al., 2017; aspers & corte, 2019; and glattfelder, 2019). values and sentiments, particularly values are the ideas that people have their concepts of the good, true, and beautiful. meanwhile, the sentiments are their pervading feelings about core issues. as both are at a subconscious level, few people can identify and discuss their values and sentiments, yet these are at the heart of human motivation and social dynamics. values have been described as a conception, explicit, or implicit of what an individual or a group regards as desirable (guth & taguri, 1965; connor, 1969; and ramanathan, 2018). value is understood as that which is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct, or end state of existence is personally, or socially preferable to an opposite, or converse mode of code, or endstate of existence; and a value system is an enduring organization of beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct, or end-states of existence along a continuum of relative importance (connor, 1969; rokeach, 1985; and farcane, deliu & bureană, 2019). goals and felt needs. people’s goals and felt need are the specific targets they have set for themselves and want to achieve. while some are unique to the individual, others may be shared with other members of a family group or community (connor, 1969; thomson, 1998; and sharma, lanum & saurezbalcazar, 2000). norms, in a community or group, are the accepted standards of conduct for given situations; they form the “rules of the games” for the players in local social activities (connor, 1969; farnsworth, 1989; and alesina & giuliano, 2015). research methods this research was designed using qualitative methods with a case study approach. the case study approach is carried out, because the issues discussed in this study can only be applied to this institution. this type of research is a descriptive study, in which the researchers try to describe the research activities carried out on a particular object clearly and systematically. researchers try also to deepen understanding of social meaning that arises in the environment of the research object, find patterns, and hypotheses by using theory to study the research object (baxter & jack, 2008; sugiyono, 2011; and aspers & corte, 2019). this research uses descriptive qualitative method with purposive sampling. the participants of this study were 6 people from kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together) in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia. the participants are, initially, id as the chairperson of kkb; ww as the head of waste recycling; ed as the head of the water hyacinth craft; rk and bw as scavengers; and hn as the water hyacinth craftsman in the kbb. it is also important to note here that id, ww, and ed are used as primary data and interviewed in december 2019. while rk, bw, and hn participation are used as secondary data and interviewed in february 2020 (baxter & jack, 2008; mohajan, 2018; and aspers & corte, 2019).1 1see, for example, interview with respondent a, initially id, as the chairperson of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 33 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 data was collected and extracted through interviews and observations since december 2019 to february 2020. data in this study were collected through several tools, namely interview guides, observation sheets, and documents, taking notes on the results of interviews, observations, and document analysis results. the qualitative analysis process in this study has 4 important components, including: data collection, data reduction, withdrawal, and making data conclusions (austin & sutton, 2015; mohajan, 2018; and aspers & corte, 2019). results and discussion kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together). starting from the concern, because of environmental damage in the saguling reservoir in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, caused by a pile of plastic waste, water hyacinth weeds; and it is getting shallow, due to the continuous sedimentation rate entering the saguling inlate which results in siltation of the reservoir, and the social conditions of the people living around the reservoir (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). there are still many who are poor, so an idea was born to build a symbiosis of mutualism between community empowerment around the reservoir with efforts to preserve the environment of the saguling reservoir; so that in 2009, a cooperative called the kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 7 december 2019; interview with respondent b, initially ww, as the head of waste recycling of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 14 december 2019; interview with respondent c, initially ed, as the head of the water hyacinth craft of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 22 december 2019; interview with respondent d, initially rk, as scavengers of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 10 december 2019; interview with respondent e, initially bw, as scavengers of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 19 december 2019; and interview with respondent f, initially hn, as the water hyacinth craftsman of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, on 27 december 2019. together) was born, where the members were community members, who are scavengers and those living around the saguling reservoir (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent b, 14/12/2019). since 2009, kbb has developed citarum river scavenger waste empowerment program. it has been proven to be able to reduce the volume of waste in citarum river; while at the same time, creating new jobs and increasing community income in the saguling reservoir area. by building a positive correlation between the two problems, it turns out to produce a solution that has a positive effect on environmental conditions and community welfare, where by utilizing waste, water hyacinth weeds, and critical land becomes more productive not only can they preserve the environment of the saguling reservoir, but they can also prosper the people who live in around the reservoir (dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent c, 22/12/2019). kbb is a community empowerment institution that has a vision of “becoming an open and transparent community economic institution that is able to increase the dignity and life of the community at large by remaining grounded in environmental preservation”. also, it has the mission of “becoming a locomotive of economic change in society; advocating for socio-economic and environmental communities by grounding in existing local wisdom; and helping preserve the environment around the saguling reservoir in particular and the citarum river in general” (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the aims of kbb are as follows: (1) the realization of people, who are aware and care about the environment, especially for citarum river; (2) the realization of a prosperous society by utilizing local wisdom in citarum river as a potential to develop the economic wheel of society; (3) the realization of collective awareness throughout the stakeholders to move together and be organized in preserving the citarum river; and © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 34 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment (4) the realization of community economic network around the citarum river as a pillar in building an economic locomotive and preservation of the citarum river (dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent b, 14/12/2019). community empowerment in kbb refers to environmental preservation. the principle of empowerment program in this institution is “self-sustaining environmentally sustainable society”, which means that every empowerment program implemented in this institution leads to community independence, both economically, socially, politically, and spiritually; and this is juxtaposed with environmental preservation. the community must be able to maintain and care for the environment, in which they live and make a living (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent c, 22/12/2019). the characteristics of cooperative empowerment in “bangkit bersama” (rise up together). the empowerment program carried out by kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together) includes: the garbage scavenger empowerment program and the women’s empowerment program in making handicrafts made from water hyacinth waste. this waste and water hyacinth are found on the surface of the saguling reservoir, precisely on citarum river (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent d, 10/12/2019). in the garbage scavenger empowerment program, kbb provides the community with knowledge and skills in waste management; and starting from recognizing the types of waste, separation, conditioning, to waste recycling. after going through this stage, the waste will be of economic value to the community. the processed waste can be collected or sold in the cooperative. the income from the sale of waste is used by scavengers to increase their income to meet their daily needs and family (dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent e, 19/12/2019). it is explained, further, by respondent a, initially id as chairman of kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, as following here: people here are taught about how to manage and process waste, from the introduction to the recycling stage. well, they can sell the results of recycling waste in the cooperative. the cooperative collects processed products from the community that we empower. from the sale of waste, the scavengers here increase their income (interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). this was also added in an interview with respondent b, initially ww, as the head of waste recycling of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, as following here: the scavengers here before being given skills in processing waste, their garbage is bought cheaply by the agents. alhamdulillah, after the community was given an understanding of how to recognize waste until it was recycled, the waste was bought at a relatively high price (interview with respondent b, 14/12/2019). the same thing also applies to the women’s empowerment program in the saguling reservoir, which is through the processing of water hyacinth weeds. housewives are given skills in processing water hyacinth weeds into various forms of crafts, such as bags of various variants, vases, tissue boxes, calligraphy, furniture, and so forth. the results of this craft are accommodated by cooperatives and cooperatives that market domestically and abroad (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent f, 27/12/2019). it is also explained, further, in an interview with respondent c, initially ed, as the head of the water hyacinth craft of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, as following here: the mothers here are trained to process water hyacinth into various kinds of handicrafts such as bags, furniture, and others. after completion, we © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 35 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 will help you with the marketing (interview with respondent c, 22/12/2019). this was added by respondent f, initially hn, as the water hyacinth craftsman of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, in an interview on 27 december 2019, as following here: the results of selling water hyacinth to the cooperative can add money to buy rice given by the husband. economic empowerment, in this institution, provides positive contributions to the people’s lives. this institution also implements a system of “savings and loans paid rubbish”. the community is helped by the current system. the social empowerment/development carried out by this institution to the surrounding community is in the form of boat provision and community center activation (interview with respondent f, 27/12/2019). the boat is given to scavengers, who really work in this field. it was actually given to the initial capital for the community to search for garbage on the surface of the citarum river. so, the people who are scavenging garbage from the river are provided with a boat to get garbage by this empowerment agency (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent c, 22/12/2019). this was also confirmed by respondent a, initially id, as the chairperson of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, in an interview on 7 december 2019, as following here: to collect rubbish in the river, our community provides boat, after we collect garbage, we help to recycle it in the cooperative (interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). in addition to the boats, kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, also provides a community hall that is open and can be shared by the surrounding community. according to the bbppk (balai besar pengembangan dan perluasan kerja or center for development and expansion of work) in lembang, bandung barat, west java, indonesia, the community has always been an important component in community development. the kbb utilized this hall for meetings with scavengers/ craftsmen; sometimes in this hall, there is also counseling to the community, training, and development skills. in this hall, there is also information needed, group discussions, and so forth (cf dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ginanjar & ratmoko, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). as said by respondent a, initially id, as the chairperson of kkb in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, in an interview on 7 december 2019, as following here: this hall or hall is open 24 hours for the community, during the day we use it for skills training, discussions, meetings, and other activities. at night, there are people who sleep here. so, this room is never empty, there is always something to enliven (interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). social development carried out by this institution provides enormous benefits for the surrounding community. likewise, the development/empowerment of the environment carried out by this institution is to spark the principle of “a self-sustaining environmentally sustainable community” and “a fragrant citarum program”. this institution has a big contribution in reducing the volume of waste and water hyacinth weeds that cover citarum river that is contained in the saguling reservoir. citarum which used to spread the stench because the garbage piles are now slowly disappearing, because people turn the sprouts into a blessing, which can be of economic value (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent b, 14/12/2019). spiritual community empowerment carried out by this institution is to hold routine recitation for empowered people, who are members of the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, as well as the general public around these empowerment institutions. this regular remuneration took the form of a colossal lecture given by an ustadz (clerics), who was deliberately invited to give religious knowledge to the public (dachlan, 2014; © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 36 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent d, 10/12/2019). again, as explained by respondent a, initially id, as the chairperson of kkb in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, in an interview on 7 december 2019, as following here: in addition to improving the community’s economy, we are also trying to provide understanding and strengthening of religious and spiritual knowledge to the community. this routine study is carried out every saturday night, once a week (interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). this was also added by respondent f, initially hn, as the water hyacinth craftsman of kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, in an interview, on 27 december 2019, as following here: here we also study tea religion, one week busy looking for fortune. alhamdulillah, that night we are given a spiritual splash, it feels calmer and more eager to fight (interview with respondent f, 27/12/2019). the empowerment that has been done by kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia, reflected the holistic development of the community. holistic development, that is applied to the community, has been seen directly so that it can improve the people’s lives. the empowerment program carried out at the empowerment agency is accepted by the community, because this program does not only rely on one point/dimension of life, but it also presents a unified dimension/ point of that life. so, the holistic development developed by kkb is empowering economically, socially, environmentally, and spiritually (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). figure 2 is a description of the characteristics of community empowerment carried out in the kkb in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia. empowerment model using pla (participatory learning and action). the kbb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia is an empowerment institution developed by the concept of non-formal education. the curriculum at the empowerment agency emphasizes the practice of skills needed by the people around or flexible (cf mason, bangkit bersama cooperative as the center of empowerment for the scavengers and the water hyacinth craftmen community empowerment uses holistic development approach autonomous and prosperous society economic empowerment economic empowerment economic empowerment economic empowerment figure 2: the characteristics of community empowerment © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 37 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 mcnulty & aubel, 2001; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ginanjar & ratmoko, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). educational models developed are already in accordance with the needs of the people around there. this social assistance model is packaged with pla (participatory learning and action) learning methods. this is a new form of community empowerment method formerly known as “learning by doing” or “learning while working” (mason, mcnulty & aubel, 2001; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and silmi, 2017). so, the participants are not merely presented by the theory, but they are rather emphasized the practice of good skills in the empowerment of scavengers, such as waste management, waste recycling, and others. this is also applied to the participants, who become water hyacinth craftsmen; taught how to produce various kinds of water hyacinth handicrafts, both selection, processing, crafts, and marketing (silmi, 2017; amir & anto, 2018; and septianawati, 2019). that is because in fact they are adults who are always in the field, so direct practice is the right way. however, in its implementation, of course, the facilitator still provides classical guidance during the fgd (focus group disscusion) in order to increase knowledge to the community (silmi, 2017; amir & anto, 2018; and muijsenbergh et al., 2020). pla (participatory learning and action) waste management program. waste processed in this program is collected from citarum river, especially in the saguling reservoir and household waste collected from their respective homes. in general, the subjects empowered in this program are the fathers. activities in this program include: the stage of garbage collection, the stage of waste separation, and the stage of waste processing (amir & anto, 2018; valentina, 2018; and anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019). firstly, starting from garbage collection, the community is divided into small groups according to the family members of the target group. secondly, after the garbage collection is completed by each group, the facilitator provides assistance related to the separation of types of waste, the facilitator directly educates the target group and gives a detailed explanation. thirdly, mentoring and learning solid waste management techniques, this is done every day by the managers in the cooperative environment, and plastic waste that has been separated by the community is treated together in the cooperative to join with other fostered groups (cf baker, 1997; valentina, 2018; and anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019). pla (participatory learning and action) water hyacinth craft program. the water hyacinth craft program has more enthusiasts than the waste treatment program and most of the participants are housewives. in addition, this program is a new program in their area. therefore, the community has high enthusiasm for this program. pla learning is carried out in a number of ways: firstly, the empowered community is given the opportunity by the manager to see the work or craft from water hyacinth in various types, such as bags, vases, furniture, calligraphy, and others; this is done with the aim to provide motivation, so that the community is more confident and eager to participate in this program. secondly, make a direct approach to the craft that has been freely chosen by the community; in contrast to the waste processing program that is done in groups, the water hyacinth craft program is carried out individually (chandra et al., 2018; valentina, 2018; and anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019). however, the learning process is still done in groups. this water hyacinth craft training is centered in a cooperative environment. housewives, who are fostered in this program, are welcomed to come to the cooperative and learn firsthand about making craft creations from water hyacinth into a variety of products. the activity starts after all the tools and materials needed are readily available for the facilitators to give direction; and, at the same time, be put into practice by each group (chandra et al., 2018; tarahita & rakhmat, 2018; and anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019). thirdly is assistance from managers and facilitators to each group of water hyacinth craftsmen in the process of making high quality handicrafts that have high selling © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 38 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment points. direct assistance and learning systems, such as those conducted are considered to be more effective in the empowerment process. especially if the purpose of the empowerment program is none other than community welfare (adb, 2014; chandra et al., 2018; and anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019). analysis of the social compass strategy in bangkit bersama cooperative. it is consisted of nine aspects that will be analysied, namely: (1) through resources; (2) through technology; (3) through knowledge; (4) through values; (5) through objectives and needs; (6) through norms; (7) through position and role; (8) through power, leadership, and influence; and (9) through sanctions. the explanations on each aspect are following here: through resources. firstly, carrying out a process of public awareness. this activity is carried out by means of dialogue to get the aspirations of the people. according to anwar (2007), and other scholars, the process of empowerment through awareness means bringing people to the gate of awakening and helping them move from transitive-naive awareness to transitive-critical awareness, and arouse their ability to participate in handling historical processes that move towards the process of progress (anwar, 2007; wicaksana & rusfian, 2017; chandra et al., 2018; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). managers try to stimulate public awareness of the resources available, in this case the garbage and water hyacinth that already exists in the waters of citarum. these natural resources can be taken by the community for free. the awareness process is also carried out through a family economic approach. public awareness is encouraged to ensure that these resources have economic value (anwar, 2007; chandra et al., 2018; nurdjaman, 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, adding resources in running the program. managers bring in facilitators who are experts in the field of waste. they are deliberately invited to educate the community about the empowerment program that is being carried out. in addition, managers also add capital/money resources needed to run the program. capital resources used by institutions are obtained through partnerships established with outside parties, both private and government institutions (cf thomson, 1998; chandra et al., 2018; anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). from the first stand up to now, the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia already has many partners. among them are: baznas (badan zakat nasional or national zakat agency); west bandung district health department; bappeda (badan perencanaan dan pembangunan daerah or regional planning and development agency) of bandung barat district; bpmpd (badan pemberdayaan masyarakat dan pemerintahan desa or community empowerment agency and village government) of bandung barat district; and pkbm (pusat kegiatan belajarmengajar or teaching and learning activity center) of bandung barat district in west java, indonesia (kurniadi, 2014; mulqi, 2016; indrayani, 2018; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). department of industry, trade, cooperatives, and small and medium enterprises in bandung barat regency are as follows: rumah amal salman (salman charity house) itb (institut teknologi bandung or bandung institute of technology); pt waste for change alam indonesia wolrd; district government of anambas kepulauan riau; ecolink non-governmental organization; bank sampah amanah (trust garbage bank) in ciwidey, bandung district; sekolah perempuan kota bandung (female school of bandung city); and forum on creative economy of bandung barat district (cf alexandri & arifianti, 2017; fachrurozi, 2018; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and wiryomartono, 2020). through technology. firstly, the empowerment process carried out by this institution is by utilizing appropriate technology with the aim of the product production process can be done effectively and efficiently as well as quality. in waste processing, the institution utilizes composter, recycling, plastic washing machines, plastic chopping machines, plastic chopping © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 39 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 machines, plastic waste press machines, and plastic press machines; these tools are available at the institution as a whole (chandra et al., 2018; simangunsong & fajarwati, 2018; anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). in addition to utilizing machine technology, the institution also provides wooden boats for the target groups, so that they can be used to collect rubbish and water hyacinth that develops in the upper reaches of the river (pjb, 2015; simangunsong & fajarwati, 2018; anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, this institution provides an opportunity for the community to train their problem-solving skills, both individually and in groups. it is the ability of the community to control the situation, determine achievements, and to choose more effective combinations of goals; and practices to achieve those goals (perveen, 2010; simangunsong & fajarwati, 2018; anwar, sjoraida & rahman, 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through knowledge. firstly, increasing public knowledge. this business is run through the addition of public knowledge related to waste processing, water hyacinth processing, and product marketing. the institution facilitates and bridges the community in finding partners. institutions provide this knowledge, so that people can apply it in everyday life (valipour, raman & ahn, 2015; hendriana et al., 2018; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, changing beliefs, it is important that the community used to believe that garbage is an object that must be discarded, because it is useless/valuable and water hyacinth is only a weed that lives in water. however, after knowledge is given, the community is aware that waste and water hyacinth can be used for economic value. this kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia also applies the principle of “zero waste and all about water hyacinth” that water hyacinth plants can be utilized as a whole without anyone being thrown away (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). the water hyacinth root as a planting medium or aqua-phonic replaces soil, roofs, and room partitions. this is different from craftsmen outside that they only make crafts from bags. apart from the remnants of processed water hyacinth/remnants of production are not thrown away, but processed into liquid briquettes and smoke. liquid smoke that comes from the remnants of the production will be processed later will emit smoke, the smoke is processed into water. well, the water is used as a vegetable pesticide and as an organic food preservative (hendriana et al., 2018; permana et al., 2019; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through values. the value of family and mutual cooperation can be felt directly by desa (village) of cihampelas people. the application of this value can be seen based on their togetherness in the implementation of a celebration event, agricultural issues, and so forth. the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia is trying to strengthen and cooperate with the values that have been built for a long time. therefore, the empowerment program carried out both in the processing of garbage and the water hyacinth handicraft with a family nuance. the target communities are grouped according to their families: small or extended families (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through objectives and needs. firstly, the institution cooperates with local goals and needs felt by the community. the local goal imposed by the provincial government in bandung regarding the resolution of citarum problem is “citarum harum” (fragrant citarum), which initiates the waste management program among other programs. seeing this opportunity, the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia established good synergy with existing local goals (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 40 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, the institution introduced a new goal in improving the community’s environment, namely “independent community sustainable environment”, meaning that the waste management program can contribute to community income (desa, 2008; dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through norms. in empowering people, the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia does not conflict with the norms prevailing in society, namely: norms of religion, decency, legal, and other norms that already apply. the kkb tried to strengthen the norms that apply in this society. norms are used as a standard for the operationalization of activities by the target community (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through position and role. firstly, the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia established good partnership with people who work in certain positions, such as educators, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, and environmental analysts/environmental educators. this is done so that the empowerment activities carried out are more qualified and effective. examples of application in activities are inviting presenters and ustadz (clerics), especially in routine studies who presented the materials based on the society needs every week, as well as in the waste management and water hyacinth program (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, the kkb formed or added new positions with the responsibilities assumed. these new positions, such as: the head of the waste recycling business; the head of the water hyacinth handicraft business; the head of the community forest business sector; the head of the savings and loan business sector; the head of the partnership and investment business sector; and the empowerment group coordinator (dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). all of these positions were summarized in the organizational structure of kkb, as shown in figure 3. from the figure 3, the main tasks and authority of each field or section in the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia are as follows: the board of supervisors: supervising the implementation of policies and management of the kkb; making a written report about the results of supervision; keeping the results of supervision in secret from a third party confidential; examining existing records on the kkb; and obtaining all the information needed for his duties as a supervisor (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the chairman: leading the kkb and coordinating all members’ activities; and representing the kkb internally and externally, by carrying out all actions in accordance with the resolutions of member meetings and management meetings, and being accountable to the members’ meetings (dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the secretary: responsible for administrative and office activities; ensuring organizational completeness; managing the course of offices; collecting and compiling reports of activities with the treasurer and supervisor; and developing drafts and plan for the organization’s work program (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the treasurer: responsible for the kkb financial problems; arranging the course of financial accounting; preparing budget every month; overseeing the receipt and expenditure of money; preparing the kkb budget and revenue plan; preparing financial reports; and controlling budget (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the head of plastic waste recycling © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 41 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 the head of investment & partnership sector the community the board of supervisors: mochamad usman, masyur, tati mulyati, deni hadiani the chairman: indra darmawan the secretary: wandi harisman the treasurer: salimudin the head of plastic waste recycle business sector: wawan the head of water hyacinth craft sector the head of community forest business sector the head of saving & loans sector the group coordinator figure 3: the organizational structure of kkb business sector: helping the chairman of the kkb to make a policy on plastic waste recycling business; coordinating members in the plastic waste recycling business; responsible for the development of plastic waste recycling business; carrying out activities related to waste recycling business; reporting the development of the plastic waste recycling business to the chairman of the kkb; and conducting field evaluations (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the head of the water hyacinth craft business: helping the chairman of the kkb to make a water hyacinth handicraft business policy; coordinating members of the water hyacinth handicraft business; responsible for the development of the water hyacinth handicraft business; conducting activities related to water hyacinth handicraft business; reporting the development of the water hyacinth handicraft business to the chairman of the cooperative; and conducting field evaluations (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the head of community forest business sector: assisting the kkb chairman in making community forest policy; conducting activities related to forest and environmental conservation; responsible for the development of community forests; managing © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 42 ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment the environment around the kkb together with all members of the organization; and conducting field evaluations (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the head of savings and loan business sector: assisting the chairman of the kkb in making a savings and loan business policy; conducting savings and loan business activities; and conducting field evaluations (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). the partnership and investment sector: carrying out socialization programs in kkb; establishing partnerships with institutions that can potentially provide more benefits to the sustainability of existing programs in kkb; and evaluate the partnership and investment process that has been carried out (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020; and interview with respondent a, 7/12/2019). through power, leadership, and influence. firstly, the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia worked together with people who have power and influence in the environment. the collaboration established by this institution involves the head of the rt (rukun tetangga or neighborhood association) and the head of the rw (rukun warga or community association) as leaders, who have influence and power on the people of cihampelas in bandung regency, west java, indonesia (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). secondly, the kkb focused on leadership that has power and influence in the community. this leadership is explicitly recorded in the kkb management structure, namely the various head of departments mandated to lead the way of this empowerment program (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). thirdly, the kkb spread leadership that has power and influences society. this effort was done by forming the community into small groups and each small group is led by a leader. leadership is not only centered on the management of kkb, but is spread throughout the lower strata of society. in this case, this small group is composed of family members or a sense of family, one group is led by one family head who is also the group leader (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). through sanctions. the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat regency, west java, indonesia applied sanctions that have been mutually agreed upon in carrying out this empowerment program. for example, the kkb will take back the boats that have been given or, more extreme, the kkb removes certain groups that violate the agreement from the list of target groups after being given a warning once (dachlan, 2014; darmawan & dachlan, 2014; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). on the other hand, if the group carries out an empowerment program well, the kkb will reward the group, for example increasing the quantity of group boats to pick up trash in the river (darmawan & dachlan, 2014; syauqi, 2016; and ramadani, akhyadi & heryanto, 2020). conclusion this research provides some reinforcement that community empowerment remains the most relevant process in community education. the empowerment process will be stronger if it is supported by the right strategy, which will later make the community steady in the empowerment process. social compass is a simple and efficient form of strategy, but can have a significant impact on society. the presence of this strategy, in the process of community empowerment, can give a picture that the manager can maximize the potential or resources contained in the community. so that all the potential and opportunities contained in society can be built and developed properly and optimally. the study, that the writers conducted in the kkb (koperasi bangkit bersama or cooperative of rise up together), in bandung barat © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 43 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 regency, west java, indonesia, gives the following suggestion: for the progress of this institution, the program of curriculum has to be more organized and clarified, so that the learning achievements of the community can be clearly seen.2 references adb [asian development bank]. 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(2013). pengembangan masyarakat: wacana dan praktik. jakarta: kencana prenada media group. 9 hadi.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 219 *)dr. hadi siswanto, s.k.m., m.p.h. is a lecturer and dean of the faculty of health science urindo (university of respati indonesia), jalan bambu apus i no.3 east jakarta, indonesia. he can be reached at: hadisis_viva@yahoo.com informal health education for early childhood in indonesia hadi siswanto abstract: the spurting growth and development of early childhood are usually identified as a golden time, the window of opportunity and critical period as well. it needs appropriate and optimum method of caring for loving and teaching in informal education. this informal health educational program is accomplished by parenting method, primary health care, adequate nutrition intake and healthy environment. breastfeeding, including early breastfeeding program as well as exclusive breastfeeding, adequate nutrition intake, healthy environment, disease prevention, healthy house and utilization of sanitation as healthy and clean life behavior are contents of informal health education for early childhood. stimulation and embrace from mother provide satisfaction and secure feeling to baby. mother’s instinct to educate through learning-bydoing method, supported by knowledge and skill to maintain health, disease and nutrition control, healthy house and environment, healthy life behavior and nutrition awareness will complete the education in concrete situation. healthy and clean life behavior are vice versa healthy environment. family members and parents, especially mother, have roles, functions and responsibilities in informal health education. this article purposes to provide information and present materials and how informal health education is implemented as well as the role and importance of parenting in growth and development of early childhood in indonesia. key words: informal education, early childhood, growth spurt and development, nutrition, healthy environment and healthy life. introduction both education and health are parts of human rights, according to the constitution of the republic of indonesia (see uud, undang-undang dasar or constitution of 1945, article 28h). early age is a period which is sensitive to environment. it is called as the golden period and critical period. these periods are a sensitive time as well as important growth burst and development. therefore, it needs adequate nourishment in both quality and quantity. a newborn has brain size only 25% of hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 220 adult. about 50% of the brain is developed during the first year of his life and 20% is during his second year (pediatrics, 2005). on the contrary, it is also called as critical period since when problems occur during this period, the problems will give serious and continuous effect in the next life cycle. brain growth in the first year is very fast, and it needs balance fat acid and protein (pediatrics, 2005). the growth burst and development of early childhood are influenced by “three main pillars” that are health care, nutrition and psychosocial stimulation. a child must get primary health care (immunization), adequate and balance nutrition, and healthy environment as a psychosocial stimulation. this early childhood education is a study subject of effective ways to support early childhood students to grow in accordance to the growth phases (supriadi, 2004). juridically, early childhood education is a building effort for children from newborn to six years. it consists of educative stimulations for physical and spiritual growth and development in order to prepare them for entering further education (see undang-undang no.20/2003 tentang sistem pendidikan nasional or regulation number 20/2003 concerning on national education system, article 1 number 4). early education can be categorized as formal, non formal and informal education (in article 28). formal education is conducted by kindergarten institution; non formal education is by study group, playgroup, day care, etc; while informal education is conducted by and in the family and the environment. formal health education can be effective when parents or society have knowledge of health and how to educate children. this kind of education is a part and fundament of education and establishment of next attitude and behavior. the method and substance must be adjusted to age, local resources, culture and social. this article purposes to provide information and present materials and how informal health education is implemented as well as the role and importance of parenting in growth and development of early childhood. healthy versus sick health concept, by knowledge and technology development, tends to dynamic and relative. the previous, health definition has not included productive health as formulated by who (world health organization) in 1948 which adopted definition of winslow in 1920 as follows: “health is state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity” (in hanlon & pickett, 1984). in 1988, who renewed and completed definition of health, based on recommendation of who assembly at ottawa in 1986, which was: “health is a source of everyday life, not merely the objective of living” (who, 1986 and 1988). this definition was then quoted and included in regulation number 23/1992 about health (article 1 number 1) that health is condition of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing which enable everyone to live productive socially and economically (see undang-undang no.23/1992 tentang kesehatan or regulation number 23/1992 about health). implication of the concept is paradigm changing educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 221 from health program for survival to health program for human development (sampurno, 2003). the four aspects i.e. physic, mental, social and economic, indicate that health is holistic and comprehensive. holistic and comprehensive are fundaments to provide child health care and education as included in undang-undang no.23/1992 tentang kesehatan or regulation number 23 about health that child health is implemented to realize the building of child’s growth and development (article 17 number 1). what is mentioned as healthy or health in that definition has four meanings. first, condition of physical health which is not sick/free of any diseases, physically defect and weak, but all parts of body are in good condition and function normally/ no disorders. second, condition of healthy mental, at least covering 3 aspects: (a) healthy mind, which is indicated by positive, logic and well-organized way of thinking; (b) healthy emotion, which is shown by capability to express happiness and disappointment, fear, worries, etc, and take the second chance to fix something failed; and (c) healthy mental, which is having secure feeling and certainty of a protection. third, in social meaning, capable to interact or communicate to individuals and family members, and tolerate and communicate in certain limitations. fourth, in economic meaning, having capable of taking advise to be thrifty, keep the belongings and productive in the activity. healthy is not similar to not sick. health is a beginning process of life and growth process of every individual life. child health care purposes children having normal growth and development. growth means increasing size and number of cell and tissue. it is indicated with bigger body structure in a whole or only in some parts that the body becomes higher and heavier. development means body function and structure becoming more complex in capabilities of hard motion, soft motion, speech and language as well as socialization, creativity and self-motivation, such as hard motion or hard motoric, to sit, to crawl on hands and knees, to stand up, to walk, to drink, to eat using spoon, etc (sutjiningsih, 1995). soft motion or soft motoric: child is able to observe something, pinch, write, etc. speech or language: giving response to sound, following the instruction, etc. in socialization or self-motivation: child is able to untidy the toys, to keep and to arrange, and to interact with the surrounding. characteristic of child’s growth and development are: (1) simultaneous and correlate; (2) the early phase of growth and development determine the next phase; (3) every child has different speed of growth and development; and (4) child’s growth and development have gradual and fixed patterns (sutjiningsih, 1995). determinant factors to health status health status is influenced by 4 determinant factors, starting from the most to the smallest influential, that are environment, behavior, health service and heredity (blum, 1974). interaction between child and environment has been begun since in the mother’s womb. growth and development process from fertilization to delivery are called as passive phase, while after the delivery it is called as active phase. it is hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 222 active because it involves experience in interaction to be grown and developed individual. prenatal factor is shown by pregnancy condition of mother. health condition of mother is very determinative. mother with undernutrition often bears baby with birth weight less than 2,500 gram (usually called as low birth weight). low birth weight condition will destruct brain development and make baby is easily infected by disease. after birth, environment factor could be both positive and negative (risk) factors. positive factor leads to life quality improvement, while risk factor is a media of disorder and source of disease. behavior includes attitude, action and perception of mother/parents to herself during pregnancy and to her baby, how mother’s reaction to breastfeeding, love feeling to baby, etc. primary health care given to prenatal consists of prenatal health care focusing on pregnant woman health. in antenatal care, health service is given to newborn, including immunization, monitoring growth and development, medical check up and treatment during sickness. hereditary factor is a congenital factor either normal or pathologic. every child is born with their own hereditary factor. environmental factors that are influential to child’s growth and development are usually called as bio-physiopsycho-social environment. healthy environments are very crucial to meet the needs based on phases of child’s growth and development. first, biomedical-physics, consisting of primary health care such as immunization, breast-feeding and complementary feeding or mp-asi (makanan pendamping – air susu ibu), nutritious food, growth monitoring, personal hygiene and sanitation, physical fitness and recreation, clothing, etc (care for). second, love and emotional environment (love). third, psychosocial environment as a child education process to improve intelligence, skill, selfmotivation, creativity and personality (teach). in every disease, there are three interacted elements. those are the cause/ agent, individual/person and environment (almatsier, 2004). the disease cause can be divided into exogenous and endogenous. exogenous is a type of disease cause which comes from outside human body, such as: (1) biologic, micro-organism: bacteria, virus, germ, worm, protozoa, etc.; (2) nutrient, deficiency of nutritive substance: lack of protein, vitamin, etc.; (3) chemical: poison, metal, etc.; (4) physical: dust, heat, light, etc.; (5) mechanical: collided by blunt and sharp things; and (6) psychosocial/psychological pressure. endogenous is a type of disease cause which comes from inside human body, such as hereditary diseases e.g. asthma, color-blind and hemophilia. body immunity factors, such as nutritious food, immunized body, and healthy and clean life behavior, are included also as endogenous factor. from transmission factors, there are many types of transmission. it can be through physical contact, such as direct or indirectly contact to patient body. skin disease is one example of disease which is transmitted by direct contact. in indirect contact, disease seed is transmitted through patient cloths or things, for example, towel, handkerchief, shirt, pant and bed. another transmission is through foods, drinks, water, insect bites and air or respiratory. to protect from infection, baby is educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 223 immunized completely before age of one year. the immunizations are bcg, hepatitis b (yellow disease), diphteri-pertussis-tetanus/dpt, polio and measles. slight sickness, such as cough, common influenza, diarrhea and skin disease, is not an obstacle for baby to get immunization. therefore, the baby should still be immunized. nutrition nutrition or gizi comes from arabic language, al-gizzai, which means foods and its benefit to health. well-chosen daily foods will provide all nutrients that are very important for the function of normal human body. the purpose of food consumption is to provide adequate nutrient to meet health needs as well as to maintain health, for recovery during illness, energy of activities, and for psychomotor and physical growth and development. therefore, people should be accustomed of consuming various and balance foods regularly. human body needs nutrients contained in foodstuff, such as carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamin and mineral (almatsier, 2004). since carbohydrate is main energy source and heat source for body system, it is needed in bigger quantity. one gram of carbohydrate produces 4 calories. inside the body, one part of carbohydrate is in blood circulation as glucose for immediate energy needs, one part is in lever and muscle tissue as glicogen and one part is produced into fat and then kept as energy reserve (1 gr = 9 cal) in fat tissue and has function to protect body organs. sources of carbohydrate are grains, kinds of tuber, legumes and sugar, not to mention products of noodle, thin rice noodle, flour bread, fruit syrup concentrate for drink, etc. fruits and vegetables contain not much carbohydrate, while food made from animal only contains a little carbohidrate. another energy source is fat. it is important to consume fat since it has function to supply calorie and solubilize vitamin. protein is very important nutritive substance because it has close relation to life process. protein comes from the word protebos, which means “the first” or “the most important”. based on the sources, protein is classified into: (1) animal protein which is protein in food made from animal, such as meat, chicken, fish, egg, shrimp, mollusk, crab, milk, etc.; and (2) vegetable protein which is protein in foodstuff of vegetables, such as tofu, fermented soybean or tempe, legumes, etc. protein is the third energy source (1 gr = 4 cal). function of protein is to develop cells of body tissue, renew the old body cell, produce enzym, hormone and blood protein, keep the balance of acid and bases, and as calorie source. vitamins are complex organic substances needed by body in very small number and usually can not be produced by body. these substances are found in food. firstly these substances called as vitamin was found in mixture of rice and bran that could heal beriberi disease. it is important for life (vita) and contains nitrogen (amine) element. therefore, it is called then as vitamin. vitamin is included in substance group for controlling growth and sustaining life. it is classified into vitamin soluble in fat (vitamin a, d, e and k) and vitamin soluble in water (vitamin b and c). hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 224 mineral has big roles in sustaining the function of human body starting from cell, tissue, organ to the whole parts of body. mineral is divided into macro mineral and micro mineral. human body needs macro mineral in a big number, which is 100 mg, everyday. substances included as mineral macro are: sodium (na), chloride (cl), potassium (k), calcium (ca), phosphor (p), magnesium (mg) and sulfur (s). on the other side, human body everyday needs micro mineral less than 100 mg, and number of it is only 15 in everyday. although there is only a very little number of micro mineral in body, it is very essential for life, health and reproduction. the content of micro mineral in foodstuff depends on mineral concentrate of the ground where the vegetables are planted. micro mineral consists of iron (fe), zinc (zn), iodine (i), selenium (se), copper (cu), manganese (mn), fluorine (f), chromium (cr) and molybdenum (mo). liquid is a main part of body. in the body, it is about 55-60% of total weight or 70% of body parts, excluding fat. children have more liquid in their body, while newborn has liquid approximately 75% of its total weight. body liquid closely relates to number of solubilized mineral in it. body can survive for weeks without any food, but only a few days without water. number of water in every individual is different one to another. every time body loses liquid, it must be substituted, and composition on every compartment has to be kept always in homeostasis condition. the liquid has functions as: (1) dissolver and transporter of nutritive substances to whole parts of body, and carrier of the rest of metabolism, including carbon dioxide and ureum; (2) catalyst of any biological reaction in digestion tract and hydrolysis of complex nutrients into simple form; (3) smoother in liquid of body joints; (4) growth facilitator and parts of body tissue, therefore, water also has function as builder substance; (5) controller of body temperature, so it has capability to distribute heat throughout the body, since body always produces heat during the metabolism process, the excess of heat is removed through the sweat; and (6) impact reducer, such as liquid in eyes, fetal membrane water and backbone nerve system. child nutrition status is indicated not only by changes of weight and height or other parts of body, but also by description about the balance of nutrition needs and intake. when quantity of nutrition intake meets the need, this condition is called as balance or adequate nutrition. on the contrary, when the nutrition intake is less than the needs, it is called as undernutrition, but when the intake is more than the needs, it is called as overnutrition. growth disruption in short term affect changes of body weight, while growth disruption in long term causes slow development of body height. balance nutrition is crucial for normal growth, intelligence, health sustainability and doing daily activity. it comes from consuming various foods because not all foodstuffs contain complete nutrient. every kind of foodstuff has certain special quality and weakness. some have high calorie but less protein, vitamin or mineral, and vice versa. balance and various menu model have been known since 1950 and deeply rooted in society as empat sehat lima sempurna or 4-healths 5-completes slogan. in 1985, this slogan was then developed into balance nutrition (almatsier, 2004). each child needs 5 nutrient groups (carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamin and mineral) educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 225 in proper number. in addition to those 5 nutrient groups, water is needed to speed up psychological processes inside body. that various foodstuffs will meet the body needs, which is in study of nutrition known as three food functions: (1) food as source of energy; (2) food as source of regulator; and (3) food as source of builder substance. for baby, breast milk is natural and the best food. it must be fed to baby immediately, at least 30 minutes after baby is born. the initial secreted breast milk, called as colostrums, contains high quality nutrient and antibody (pudjiadi, 2003). breast milk has 7 advantages as follows: first, high nutrition: (a) where colostrums contains high vitamin a and protein, low fat and carbohydrate, antibody to protect baby from infections, especially diarrhea; (b) absorbable, containing enzymes to dissolve nutrients, high quality nutrient for growth and development of baby/child’s intelligence; (c) having adequate ratio of whey and casein for baby. breast milk has more whey than casein, which is 65:35. this composition makes protein of breast milk is more absorbable than cow milk. the composition ratio in cow milk is 20:80. it means cow milk has more casein, which is difficult to absorb; (d) containing taurine, a kind of amino acid and it is not found in cow milk. taurine has function as neurotransmitter and has big roles in maturation process of brain cells; and (e) containing docosahexaenoic acid or dha and arachidonic acid or aa. these are poly unsaturated fatty acids that are important for optimal brain cells development. breast milk contains very enough number of dha and aa for child’s growth and intelligence in the future. second, immunological aspect means: (a) clean and free of contamination though it is possible being contaminated through the nipple; (b) having anti infection substance, especially immunoglobulin or ig a, killing pathogen bacteria, e. coli and many viruses in digestion tract; (c) containing lysozyme, an enzyme to protect baby from harm virus and bacteria; (d) containing leukocyte, during the first two week, breast milk has more than 4,000 cells per ml. it consists of three types: bronchus associated lymphocyte tissue (balt), producing antibody to respiratory infection, gut associated lymphocyte tissue (galt), producing antibody to digestion tract, and mammary associated lymphocyte tissue (malt), distributing antibody through tissue of mother’s breast. cells produce ig a, lactiferous, lysozyme and interferon. interferon destructs certain virus activity; and (e) having bifidus factor, a kind of carbohydrate containing nitrogen, and supporting growth of bifidus lactobacterus bacteria. this bacteria maintains acidity of baby intestine flora that is useful to destruct growth of harm bacteria. third, psychological aspect of breastfeeding: (a) improving mother’s selfconfident that she is able to breastfeed and believes she can produce sufficient milk. it is very important to success of breastfeeding and increasing hormone production, especially oxytocin, which then finally will increase production of breast milk; (b) mother-to-baby interaction affects baby psychological growth and development. mother and baby interact during the first 30 minutes through early breastfeeding; and (c) mother-baby direct contact. baby feels secure, hears mother’s heart beat, hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 226 which has been heard since in the womb or skin to skin contact and smells motherbaby special aroma. fourth, intelligence. studies show that breastfed babies have iq 4.3 point higher in age of 18 months, 4-6 point higher in age of 3 years, 8.3 point higher in age of 8 years 6 months than babies that are not breastfed. fifth, neurological aspect. nerve coordination of newborn to swallow, suck and breathe is not good and complete. but, this incompleteness could be developed into better and perfect coordination through sucking process during breastfeeding. sixth, economic aspect. during exclusive breastfeeding, mother does not need to pay for baby’s food for six months. exclusive breastfeeding means feeding baby only with breast milk, since baby is born until aged 6 months, without any food and drink. breast milk is given to newborn starting from, at least, 30 minutes after baby is born. nutrient in breast milk is almost perfect, and it can fulfill baby’s needs from 0-6 months. seventh, exclusive breastfeeding can delay menstruation and pregnancy, so it might be used as natural contraception. after 6 months, breast milk is not enough for baby. baby aged > 6 months needs other food or complementary foods or makanan pendamping – air susu ibu (mpasi). purposes of this complementary feeding are for optimum growth and development as well as protecting and controlling baby from malnutrition and undernutrition. it is given until baby aged 12 months. some requirements of complementary are: (1) easy to find; (2) easy to make; (3) not expensive; (4) wellaccepted by targets; (5) nutritive substances meet the nutrition needs; (6) type of food is adjusted to age of baby; (7) free of bacteria, preservative, dye and poison; and (8) in accordance to social, economic, culture and religion values. complementary foods are based on the age of baby/child. baby aged six to seven months might be fed with milk porridge or very tender rice, and introduced to egg yolk and chopped lever. eight month baby shall be fed with soft steamed rice and chopped vegetables, though having had no teeth, but baby can chew with gum. appearing one year old, a child wants to eat by him/herself either using hand or spoon. starting from age of one year, a child can be introduced with family menu, such as soft steamed rice, vegetables and side dish. in sick condition, baby needs more nutrition, but has less appetite. breastfeeding can be made more frequent and complementary foods is given still in accordance to baby’s age but softer than usual. food should be in warm temperature and fed to baby little by little. when baby has recovered, the portion might be added. the composition of food and complementary foods must contain balance nutrient for energy, building and regulation. this balance nutrition comes from staple foodstuff, side dish, vegetables and fruits. the composition of healthy food serving includes various foodstuffs, that are easy to get and available in local place. it is still based on the purchasing power. various are because there is no foodstuff having complete nutrient. staple foodstuff is not always rice, side dish must be alternated between animal and vegetable, and both fruit and vegetable have to be more and various. sukirman (2001) believes this educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 227 new paradigm is able to tackle nutrition problems by emphasizing how important the outcome of child’s growth and nutritional status. nutritional problem could happen in poor and moderate society. it includes lack of and overnutrition. this condition is usually called as malnutrition. today, there are 4 kinds of undernutrition: (1) protein energy deficiency; (2) vitamin a deficiency; (3) iron or fe deficiency; and (4) iodine deficiency disorder. these conditions are caused by many things, for example, family incapability to provide food, less information about healthy food and disadvantage traditions and eating habit that are opposite with health, such as breastfeeding is only until baby aged 2 years, eating too much can cause intestinal worms. in addition, infection diseases e.g. intestinal worms and diarrhea can lead to undernutrition. this protein and energy deficiency disease are caused by deficit of carbohydrate and protein intake, usually called as kwashiorkor and marasmus. kwashiorkor is protein energy deficiency with protein as the dominant cause, while marasmus is protein energy deficiency where energy deficiency is the dominant cause. how to control protein energy deficiency on baby: (a) continuing breastfeeding until age of six months at least 8 times in a day and every time baby needs or as much as possible; and (b) starting to fed complementary foods when baby is six months? three ways to control protein energy deficiency on children under five years: (1) continuing breastfeeding until age of two years; (2) continuing complementary foods until age of twelve months and other age-appropriate foods; and (3) breastfeeding first, before complementary foods. vitamin a deficiency occurs on children suffering of protein energy deficiency or severe malnutrition. disorder caused bay vitamin a deficiency is called as xeroftalmia. one of initial symptoms of it is night blindness (nyctalopia), which is a disability to adjust the eyesight from bright to dim light. at dusk, eyesight becomes dark, and it causes to collide with anything. this disease is called night blindness. it can be controled by vitamin a supplementation and consuming many green vegetables, colored fruits and foods made from animal. iron (fe) deficiency is the most common type of nutrition deficiency. it can be avoid by consuming foods made from animal, green vegetables, legumes and colored fruits. the continuous iodine deficiency disorder can affect baby born in cretin condition, suffering of two or more disorders that can lead to mental retardation, hearing problem/deaf, slow progress of normal physical growth and speaking problem. it is marked with enlargement of thyroid gland on the neck. iodine deficiency disorder in serious level will cause child to be dumb, deaf, stupid and dwarf. it can be prevented by always using iodized salt for foods. overnutrition, this condition comes from unbalance calorie intake with energy needs. it is commonly marked with fat or overweight performance. it might be controled by: (1) lessening number of carbohydrate source food such as rice, bread, noodle, tuber and sugar; (2) lessening fatty foods or coconut milk; (3) lessening snacks; (4) consuming many vegetables; (5) consuming many fruits; and (6) increasing activities. hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 228 in individual level, nutrient intake and infection are always connected each other. child with less nutrient intake will suffer of undernutrition and be infected easily, and vice versa. in family and society level, nutrition problems are affected by: (1) family capability to supply foodstuff for whole family members in number and type, which is based on the needs; and (2) knowledge, bahavior and skills to (a) choose, process and manage foods for family members appropriately based on their needs; (b) care and love for children; and (c) make use of accessable and proper health care facility. nutrition improvement is focused on improvement of nutritional status through nutriotion knowledge and family empowerment for nutirion-aware family or kadarsi (keluarga sadar nutrisi). nutrition-aware family is a family which can apply all good and appropriate nutrition behavior and be capable of monitoring child’s growth and development regularly in every month by ascertaining the heaviness of child, exclusively breastfeeding baby until age of six months, consuming variety of foodstuff for balance nutrition, using iodized salt for daily food, supplementing vitamin a capsule to baby and under five year child and feeding chil with complementary foods until age of one year. the important thing is how to recognize and solve the nutritional problems in the family. some basic nutritional problems in family are not only caused by poverty and foodstuff unavailability. factor of deciding what kind of food will be consumed that day is in family level. resources, foodstuff availability and how it is utilized as well as close relationship among family members make it easier to recognize if there is nutritional problem and to mobilize society to tackle and solve it. in every family, there should be, at least, one member who is aware of and ready for any changes leading to a family with good and right nutrition behavior. it might be father, mother, son, daughter or anyone in the family. health and clean life behavior vice versa informal health education healthy and clean life behavior are the collection of behaviors that are implemented based on self-awareness. it is a training for someone or a family to help their ownselves in health and a study as well as a result of health science. the real application in household becomes responsibility of each family member. there are 10 indicators, consisting of 7 indicators in household and 3 indicators of healthy lifestyle. indicators in household are: (1) every delivery is assisted by health personnel; (2) providing exclusive breastfeeding; (3) weighing children under five years; (4) washing hands before having any meals; (5) using clean water; (6) defecating in proper latrine; and (7) having free-larvae house. meanwhile, indicators for healthy lifestyle are: (1) not smoking; (2) physical activity every day; and (3) consuming fruits and vegetables. healthy and clean life behavior are introduced since newborn, starting with early breastfeeding initiation (putting a 30 minutes baby on mother’s breast, and instinctively the baby will search mother’s nipple), breastfeeding correctly, weighing educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 229 baby regularly, always washing hands before having meals and after playing, defecating and urinating, throwing garbage away in the right place, adjusting and loving to eat vegetables, fruits, consuming variety of food and avoiding smoke of cigarette. many approaches and instructions how to do it, for example: providing model to keep clean living place and clean water source, placing things to take water, such as pail and water dipper, in the right and safe place and not in floor or ground so that the water inside will not be contaminated with any materials, making drinking cooked water as habit, closing water container to avoid vectors, such as fly, cockroach, ant, mosquito and rat, defecating in proper latrine and not in any places, putting feces of baby and patient in latrine and always keeping and cleaning it, washing hands with soap after defecating, fulfilling requirement of healthy privy, such as good ventilation, enough light, unslick floor that it will be safe, and teaching child always to throw garbage away to garbage dispossal or hole in the ground. nutrition aware family, personal hygiene and mantaining healthy environment are parts of healthy and clean life behavior. this healthy and clean life bahavior also include: placing foodstuffs in protected, safe and clean place, washing vegetables before cooked or eaten (freshly eaten) to avoid muck, worm egg or peticide substance which might be still on it, washing hands with soap before processing and serving foods and drinks, keeping eating and cooking implements alway clean and never using dirty towel to wipe the implements, washing eating equipments and foodstuff not in pool or river, placing clean eating and cooking implements in safe place from any pollution, consuming variety of foods, not eating snack from everywhere, not consuming foods with preservative, not sharing the same eating implements in same time and avoiding every smoke, especially smoke of cigarette. the description above explains that healthy and clean life behavior lead to healthy environment, and vice versa of health education. health education purposes to change into and create healthy and clean behavior. meanwhile, healthy and clean life behavior are a media and an education way. informal health education education is generally defined as all situations in life which affect someone’s growth and development, shaping, forming, molding activity than a shaping into the standard form (dewey, 1964). in other words, education is all studying experiences in the whole life (life long education) since born (even the early life in the womb) until dead. parents have responsibilities for transformation of values and norms (carol & barbour, 1990). parents must have knowledge and skill in order to be able to educate their children, to care for and to love (joan, 1995). in informal health education, however, mother has the vital and the most important role. why mother has vital and important role? health is one of human rights. mother is first teacher, security symbol and source of love (hainstock, 2002). pregnant woman has rights to save herself and baby in her womb and after the delivery process, she gets gift to breastfeed the baby. mother does everything based on her nature, role and function. health behavior is affected by 3 factors those are: hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 230 predisposing factors, enabling factors and reinforcing factors (green at al., 1980). predisposing factors include knowledge, attitude, belief, trust, values, traditions, etc. a mother, who has knowledge and belief that a baby needs breastfed immediately and that colostrums is very useful and has high quality nutrient, will early breastfed 30 minutes after her baby was born. caring model, protection, providing secure feeling and self-confident depend on parent’s environment, especially on mother-child and father-child relationship, not to mention on other surrounding family. enabling factors are factors that enable or facilitate the actions or attitudes, for example the health service facilities such as health center, hospital, etc. reinforcing factors are factors that support or reinforce action or attitude to appear, for example public leaders or figures that support an attitude to be done. the purposes of education domains are domains of daily knowledge, attitude and practice (bloom, 1956). early childhood education is a part of process in a human life cycle where early age is one unit of the cycle series. child education process is started when child is still in mother’s womb, where mother always cares of her own health and regularly checks her pregnancy. coverage of education is established from informal things as experiences unlimitedly on time and place in the living place (mudyahardjo, 2004). providing health information, especially to mothers having child on early ages, is very important. health sector provides it through integrated health center or posyandu (pos pelayanan kesehatan penduduk), village maternal hut or polindes (pos bersalin desa), village health post or poskesdes (pos kesehatan desa), mother and child clinic or bkia (balai kesehatan ibu dan anak) and health center or puskes (pusat kesehatan). f i g u r e : basic capital of informal health education for early childhood in indonesia a child, who feels safe and loved, will be motivated to explore his/her world as if this child is invited to come to the world (semiawan, 1977). in this situation, based on the knowledge, father, especially mother, and other surrounding family will support the child’s stimulus to creative response and intellectual development. therefore, parents must be supplied with and have knowledge of health and nutrition, healthy house and environment, healthy eating habit and nutrition, self-cleanliness, disease factor and symptoms, diseases transmission and immunization, since parents, educare: international journal for educational studies, 1(2) 2009 231 especially mother have strategic roles in informal education of child on early ages because of both their biological position and their roles in the caring model. the appropriate information with adequate strategic to fulfill child’s needs and edutainment learning process is fundament of informal health education for early childhood to develop daily health attitude and behavior. family in healthy house and environment will provide condition supporting to healthy and clean life behavior as well as health status improvement. conclusion informal education, included in regulation number 30/2003 about national educational system, is one step ahead and one chance for informal health education for early childhood in indonesia. this will take many concerns and be carried on to mainstream of preparing healthy child entering school with daily health behavior and optimal growth and development. health education is not only responsibility of health sector, usually known as health informer, but also responsibility of education sector. informal health education is implemented with approaches and cooperation of parents, especially mother, through caring model, available playing facilities and sanitation, not to mention network of integrated health center or posyandu (pos pelayanan kesehatan penduduk), village health post or poskesdes (pos kesehatan desa), village maternal hut or polindes (pos bersalin desa), pkk (program kesejahteraan keluarga or program to educate women on aspects of family welfare), foremost health service unit such as health center and hospital, as one of primary health care, and regular weighing. these are entirely model of caring for loving and teaching. informal health education for early childhood is a strategic way to apply health concept starting from early childhood through concrete and direct experience, not to mention developing and preparing human resources as health concept progress which is not only free of diseases, physical defects and other weaknesses but also having daily healthy behavior and character as well as safety condition of body, mind and social. these will enable everyone to live productive socially and economically in the future. recent method and technique of education are providing appropriate breastfeeding, basic health service and care, health and clean life behavior as well as nutrition aware behavior. local environment and natural resources can be used as education content by making advantages of it as food sources and edutainment facility. healthy and clean life behavior are implemented in integrative ways during edutainment, story telling, singing, physical exercising, eating time together and study tour. this happens also with introduction to nutrient, its source and benefits, as well as consuming balance nutrient that are also implemented in the same ways. these integrative ways include edutainment about various sources of food substances and the benefits for human health as well as how important physical exercise is. hadi siswanto, informal health education for early childhood in indonesia 232 informal health education for early childhood with direct and concrete experience as well as by maintaining health, adequate nutrition intake and healthy house and environment are a fundament and part of long-lived education in indonesia. references almatsier, sunita. (2004). prinsip dasar ilmu gizi. jakarta: pt sun, cetakan ke empat. bloom, benyamin s. (1956). taxonomi of educational objective, book i: cognitive domain. new york: longman inc. blum, hendrik l. (1974). planning for health, development and aplication of social changes theory. new york: human sciences press. carol, seefeldt & nita barbour. (1990). early childhood education: an introduction. colombo: meril publishing company. dewey, john. (1964). democracy and education. new york: the macmillan company. green, lauwrenc et al. (1980). health education planning: a diagnostics approach. john hopkins: myfields publishing co. hainstock, elisabet. (2002). montessori untuk prasekolah. jakarta: pt pustaka delapratasa, translation. hanlon, john j. & george pickett. (1984). public health and practice. santa clara: time miror/ mosby college publishig. joan, freeman. (1995). how to raise a bright child. london: vermilion. mudyahardjo, redjo. (2004). filsafat ilmu pendidikan. bandung: pt remaja rosdakarya, edisi ketiga. pediatrics. (2005). kesehatan anak, jilid i. jakarta: ui [universitas indonesia] press, translation. pudjiadi, solihin. (2003). ilmu gizi klinis pada anak. jakarta: fakultas kedokteran ui [universitas indonesia], edisi ke empat. sampoerno, does. (2003). kesehatan dan pembangunan bangsa. jakarta: konsorsium ilmu kesehatan indonesia. semiawan, conny. (1997). perspektif pendidikan anak berbakat. jakarta: grasindo. sukirman. (2001). “perlu paradigma baru untuk menanggulangi masalah gizi makro di indonesia” dalam jurnal data dan informasi kesehatan. jakarta: depkes ri [departemen kesehatan republik indonesia]. supriadi, dedi. (2004). membangun bangsa melalui pendidikan. bandung: pt remaja rosdakarya. sutjiningsih. (1995). tumbuh-kembang anak. denpasar, bali: egc. undang-undang dasar 1945. jakarta: setneg ri [sekretariat negara republik indonesia], 2002. undang-undang nomor 20 tahun 2003 tentang sisdiknas [sistem pendidikan nasional]. jakarta: depdiknas ri [departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. undang-undang nomor 23 tahun 1992 tentang kesehatan. jakarta: depkes ri [departemen kesehatan republik indonesia]. who [world health organization]. (1986). ottawa charter for health promotion. ottawa, canada: who. who [world health organization]. (1988). healthy public policy: adelaide recommendation. geneva: who. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 35 susanti online class discussion and social presence to boost academic performance of english subject amid covid-19 outbreak abstract: online learning is the indispensable option amidts covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019) pandemic, which infects people around the world. like or dislike the advanced of technology or the use of interactive communication technology in teaching learning process is at staked, for the sake of education. all schools around the world have implemented this online learning activity and intends for the success in teaching learning. some learning strategies have been implementing to arouse students learning interaction which effect to their academic performance. in this inquiry, i investigate that online class discussion is the learning strategy recommended and implemented and the social presence interaction in this inquiry of english subject at stmik (college of informatics and computer management) pontianak class in west kalimantan, indonesia. qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this study. questionaire then simple regression spss (statistical package for the social sciences) statistical program is applied to figure out the significant academic performance obtained. definitely, online class discussion and social presence are valuable learning strategies which boost learners’s academic attainment. the continous and longer allocated time of online class discussion in learning english is recommended for the significant learning outcomes. having online class discussion may drive social presence of interactions between the participants. further studies concerning online discussion and social presence is recommended also to be learned for the good of learning. key words: online learning; interactive communication technology; learning strategy; online class discussion; social presence. introduction the outbreak of pandemi covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019) has altered many life aspects, particularly in educational sector, which its crucial about the author: susanti, m.pd. is a lecturer of information system program at the stmik (sekolah tinggi management informatika dan komputer or college of informatics and computer management) pontianak, jalan merdeka barat no.372 pontianak, west kalimantan, indonesia. e-mail address: santy.mayfoura@gmail.com suggested citation: susanti. (2021). “online class discussion and social presence to boost academic performance of english subject amid covid-19 outbreak” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august, pp.35-48. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 28, 2021); revised (july 27, 2021); and published (august 30, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare36 susanti, online class discussion impact to learners and instructors, also the educational organizations around the world. this unconvinient atmosphere of pandemi covid-19 has caused all schools and campuses closed, then learners have online learning to follow the social distancing (abidah et al., 2020; adnan & kainat, 2020:45; and alghamdi, 2021). the indonesian government completely the minister of education, nadiem makarim, immediately do an action to replace the face to face teaching learning process to all schools institutions and having online learning at home through its circular notes to schools to get the social distancing (setiamarga, 2020; djalante et al., 2020; and lestari & wantini, 2021). some of various platforms are offered, such as ruang guru (teacher room), rumah belajar (learning house), quipper school, google classroom, zoom, wa (whatsapp), etc. online learning becomes popular and used widespread all globe, since it is integrated in learning; and because of this unconvinient pandemi atmosphere (abidah et al., 2020; bayu, 2020; and setiamarga, 2020). as its popularity in learning necessity, online learning is not merely becomes a trendy learning tool; however, it is a primary tool of educational circumstances. besides, it affords the advanced education with broaden insightful and try to reach students who cannot come to class or campus recurrently, and simultaneously keeps flexibility and support chance to accomplish the courses and grade (valentine, 2002; coman et al., 2020; and park & kim, 2020:1-2). online learning is classified as a suite of learning endeavours of subjects presented through network as the interchange of learning. this online phase offers students to access the knowledge and materials also to engage and cooperate amongs the course contributors. online learning also defined as the deployment of internet of gaining materials, the engagement with the materials, with teachers and others also the guidance and assistance preserved to gain the knowledge and learning experiences (atmojo & nugroho, 2020:53; abidah et al., 2020; and coman et al., 2020). regardless of passion and assurance showned by the educational practitioners, there is still the doubt, uncertainty, and skepticism to e-learning from the learners. though many identify e-learning has the prospective to arouse learning and learning practise at vary levels, but the recent shortcomings are still many to be handled (ayu, 2020:48; coman et al., 2020; and zalat, hamed & bolbol, 2021). can the online learning as effective as the face to face atmosphere. a latest inquiry reported that learners in online courses present essentially educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 37 worse than learners in face to face courses, especially for the least well prepared students. learners have limited interaction with instructors, thus may effects students’performance (khalil et al., 2020; park & kim, 2020:2; and zalat, hamed & bolbol, 2021). in line with chong w. park & d. gook kim (2020), muhammad adnan & anwar kainat (2020) agree that the limited communication with their instructor is another hindrances in online learning. students’ interaction of face to face and the real-time sharing of ideas, knowledge and information is partly missing from digital world (cf park & kim, 2020; adnan & kainat, 2020:46; and zalat, hamed & bolbol, 2021). moreover, the inadequate access and accessibility of the internet and the shortage of newest technology modified organizational responsiveness and students’ part to take part in digital learning. other obstacle cited by online learners are learners are feeling isolated from other participants and instructor (junk, deringer & junk, 2011:4; efriana, 2021; and zalat, hamed & bolbol, 2021). considering the latest situation arise above, then, the research questions are formed as followed: (1) how does online class discussion arouse learners’ academic performance?; (2) how does social presence arouse learners’ academic performance?; and (3) how do online class discussion and social presence arouse learners’ academic performance? literature review. social presence and online class discussion are the variables to be implemented in this inquiry to figure it out to learning outcomes. firstly, about the social presence. y.a.w. de kort, w.a. ijsselsteijn & k. poels (2007), and his colleagues, classified presence into 2 main groups: physical and social. similarly, some researchers, such as c. heeter (1992); f. biocca, c. harms & j. burgoon (2001); and others, explained presence as the interdependent of two events – telepresence and social presence. telepresence defined as “being there” and “being together with another” as social presence mean (heeter, 1992; biocca, harms & burgoon, 2001; de kort, ijsselsteijn & poels, 2007; and park & kim, 2020:4). interactivity, social context and online communication definitely have effect on social presence, otherwise the passive interaction lessen social presence (tu & mcisaac, 2002; de kort, ijsselsteijn & poels, 2007; and park & kim, 2020:4). social presence is a crucial constituent in online learning and takes a straight effect in several conditions on the growth of learning society and collaboration in e-learning atmosphere. aligned with this, d.r. garrison, t. anderson & w. archer (2000), as cited also in a. sun & x. chen (2016), defined social presence as: © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare38 susanti, online class discussion […] the capability of participants in a society of query to envisage themselves publicly and sensitively as “real” populations through the medium of communication being used (garrison, anderson & archer, 2000:94; and sun & chen, 2016:167-168). then, in that kind of situation, social interaction and communication can grow and be sustained around the common goal and purpose among students themselves and between students and their instructors (garrison, anderson & archer, 2000; sun & chen, 2016:167; and park & kim, 2020). secondly, about the online class discussion. most significantly, discussion forum as an educational trend of computer conferencing usage for higher education conveyance. highly admitted the amount of peer to peer collaboration in boosting involvement to material and increasing learning, leads and encourages learners in online practise and participate actively as needed (harris & sandor, 2007:384; cavanagh, 2011; and tan, small & lewis, 2020). discussion forum of online course through internet can enable the communication amongs students and create them involve actively in discussion. online discussion is an indispensable part in the online atmosphere. online discussion as the unique assistance assured a stage to aid students learning. it is broadly integrated into universities with the goal to boost learners learning meaningfully (sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017:10; wang, 2019:113; and tan, small & lewis, 2020). referring to its magnitude of online discussion in learners acquiring of knowledge, w.j. fear & a. erikson-brown (2014), as cited also in y.m. wang (2019), detailed as follows: we suggest that discussion is a key factor in asynchronous learning, perhaps the key factor in producing high level pedagogical outcomes (fear & erikson-brown, 2014:6; and wang, 2019:114). next, online class discussion forum are supposed to allow adaptable and self-governing learning and intelligence assembly and improve analytical thinking capable. s.j. levine (2007), and other scholars, arranged the circumstances to keep online discussion can be run successfully, namely: (1) construct a condusif learning atmosphere; (2) put the rules and instruction at the beginning; (3) administeres deep inquiry and issues; (4) concentrate on three highest ranks of the cognitive scope; (5) control the consistency of class discussion; (6) deliver guided point of view; (7) value personally without denied the isulation; (8) always active to participate in discussion; (9) inspire for involvement; and (10) make conclusion of the main topic (levine, 2007; ryan, 2013; seethamraju, 2014:1; and sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017). today, online settings are broadly consumed to relate individuals who discusses the relevance topics to let them assign and interchange educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 39 knowledge and ideas. furthermore, discussion medium already been used for pedagogical goal as aid for enhancing diverse types of learning which lead to satisfied learning attainment. it is also as a learning aid for learners to interact and to get feedback of learning (nor, razak & aziz, 2010:53). some advantages of online discussion forum are: (1) this forum let the learners and intructor share ideas and interact asynchronously; (2) construction of new knowledge is created in discussion practise since they share and interact through discussion; (3) this online forum encourages the discussion quality and collaborative learning for the deepest discussion of the material; (4) it offers the flexibility, suitability, and availability; (5) it provides more interaction between courses participants and instructor; and (6) the data of discussion is save as it is recorded virtual space and can be replayed or reviewed, etc. (levine, 2007; ryan, 2013; and de lima et al., 2019:9). the foregoing study of learners’ insight of studying through online discussion display that physic education students of unnes (universitas negeri semarang or state university of semarang) in central java’s experience worthy view of acquiring through online class discussion forum. other preceding study claimed a notion of discussion settings as scholars centred peer e-learning settings and as an novel method that gets the learners into the online learning practise by encouraging them to actively in learning also as the central role in learning (harris & sandor, 2007:383; sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017:1; and de lima et al., 2019). so, some advantages of online discussion are concluded as follow: […] it offers the chance for passive students in class to be active engage in online discussion; online class discussion gives chance and enough time to discuss the topic; an online situation may allow you at least to create small discussion within a large group; it is a suitable step and may maintain your online course discussion; and the last, online class gives feedback to be considered for further clarification (biriyai & thomas, 2014:5). method this is a research and development approach, where it is managed to construct a specific product and assess the value of the result. online class discussion and social presence are the specific product to be practised in online learning, then it is assessed to figure out their benefits in online teaching learning practise (purnama, 2013; sugiyono, 2013; and sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017:10). in this inquiry, questionaire is delivered to participants to figure out their perception of using online class discussion to boost social presence of interaction between learner-learner and learner-instructor. questionaire is a method of information gathering is conducted by administering a series of questions to participants to be responded, then be portrayed using © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare40 susanti, online class discussion likert scale 1-5 (gall, gall & borg, 2003; sugiyono, 2013; and sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017:11). the questionaire aspects embrace the ease of application (zoom) used in learning, the level of interactivity, learners feel comfort in learning, the advance used, and the advantages of this application in learning for learners (asim, 2001; gall, gall & borg, 2003; and sudarwati, khanafiyah & sugiyanto, 2017:11). the learners of stmik (sekolah tinggi management informatika dan komputer or college of informatics and computer management) pontianak, west kalimantan, indonesia, technique informatic program becomes the participant in this study, consisted of 30 students. furthermore, the spss (statistical package for the social sciences) point of 25 simple regression is applied to hold information of the significant correlation of academic performance gained in using online class discussion in online learning (riadi, 2016:156-168). the formula is as follows:  =  ʃ − (ʃ)(ʃ) {. ʃ − (ʃ)}{.  − ʃ }  =  ʃ − (ʃ) {. ʃ − ʃ  {. ʃ − ʃ } then for doubled correlation regression the formula as follows:  = + +... − findings and discussion this segment converses the qualitative and quantitative methods of gaining research information, while having online class discussion and social presence in online learning amid covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019). the online class disussion and social presence as the variables to be investigated in this study to boost participants academic performance of english subject. this is a technique informatic class consisted of 30 learners. this class then divided into 6 small groups of 5 learners. they are classified based on the students list presented from university. each group have one leader to guide and control each group. from the beginning of the semester the lecturer already informed them about this class project to have online discussion for english subject. they are recommanded to prepare the topic already provided by lecturer. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 41 the topics discussed are as followed: “people in computing” for 1st group; “data security” for 2nd group; “software engineering” for 3rd group; “network” for 4th group; “communication system and computing support” for 5th group; and “websites” topic for 6th group. the 1st discussion conducted on 22nd september 2020; the 2nd discussion on 1st october 2020; the 3rd discussion conducted on 6th october 2020; 4th discussion on 13th october 2020; the 5th discussion on the 24th october 2020; and the 6th discussion on the 31st october 2020. some weaknesses occurred when the first group (group a) presented the material. of course, these are the challenges for this online class table 1: speaking aspects from online discussion no nama pro gram voc idea coh total 01. ronny 5 5 5 5 5 25 02. m.kallis 3 2 2 2 2 11 03. cindy 2 2 2 1 1 8 04. indra 1 1 1 1 1 5 05. natasha 3 3 2 2 2 12 06. fadli z. 4 3 4 3 3 17 07. nico 4 3 3 3 3 16 08. hiasintus 5 4 4 4 4 21 09. separianus 2 2 2 2 2 10 10. alvaro 5 4 4 5 4 22 11. michelle 5 5 4 4 5 23 12. nurul e. 2 3 3 3 3 14 13. lili t. 4 3 3 3 3 16 14. tanu 3 3 2 3 2 13 15. riyan f. 3 3 3 3 3 15 16. andi i. 3 3 3 4 3 16 17. titin 3 2 2 3 3 13 18. sabto h. 5 4 4 5 5 23 19. septiningrum 2 2 2 2 2 10 20. rezky f. 3 2 2 2 2 11 21. m.fikri 4 4 4 5 5 22 22. noviyanti 4 3 3 3 2 15 23. adelia 5 4 4 4 4 21 24. petrus 3 3 3 3 2 14 25. vinsensius 4 3 2 3 3 15 26. vincent zf. 5 3 4 4 4 20 27. septian i. 4 3 3 3 3 16 28. leonardo d. 5 4 3 4 3 19 29. bagus 4 3 4 3 4 18 30. yosse 4 3 4 3 3 17 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare42 susanti, online class discussion discussion. the participants of the course just keep silence, while the the first group presented the material via zoom. they looked passive, feel shy, and a bit afraid to discussed or to talked. so, the first discussion is an unsatisfied discussion happened. the researcher guides the discussion by giving some instructions, advices, motivation, and feedback to the participants to be active to engage in the discussion. and all that attempts done fruitful for the next groups presentation. they started to get involved for the next discussion by asking some questions of the material presented, more active and involve and the discussion run dynamically. the discussion practised is observed and assessed to see its effect to their academic attainment of english subject. they are assessed of their speaking performance aspects, such as the pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, idea, and coherency. students’s scores then delineated into the table 1 and table 2. the scores of online class discussion for each participant then accumulated with their total of all english scores gained to ascertain its effect to their academic attainment using simple regression of spss (statistical package for the social sciences) of 25. from anova (analysis of variance) table the regression test result, f is 15.487 and sig. 0.00. since sig. 0.00 is smaller than 0.05 then can be explained that the coefficients linear of the regression is significant. it means online class discussion effect significantly to learners’ academic performance of english subject. the result gained then is the answer for the 1st research question above. furthermore, the qualitative data is earned through the questionaire administered to learners to get their view or perception of the effect of table 2: anova and coefficients anovaa model sum of squares df mean quare f sig. 1 regression 553.668 1 553.668 15.487 .000b residual 1000.999 28 35.750 total 1554.667 29 a. dependent variable: y b. predictors: (constant), x coefficientsa model b unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. std. error beta 1 (constant) 57.330 3.803 15.075 .000 x .900 .229 .597 3.935 .000 a. dependent variable: y educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 43 social presence to their academic’s performance. learners perception of the effect of social presence to their english is assessed with simple regression of spss.25. the results then percentaged based on likert scales category as “very good”, “good”, “good enough”, “less good”, “not good”, which envisaged into 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. online class discussion as the strategy applied in online techinglearning process using zoom application to arouse learners interaction in online learning. zoom is an application used for video conference, while online teaching learning practising, with some features offered, such as the face to face interfal, audio, video, chat forum, recorder, and learners data of participanting. the learners or the groups that already performed the discussion they are asked to give response to the questionaire. the aspects embraced of questionaires portrayed belows is delineated in table 3. the total scores of questionaire for each participant then accumulated to the all academic attainment of english subject to figure out its effect of academic performance using simple regression spss (statistical package for the social sciences) of 25. the regression test refered to the anova (analysis of variance) table above displays f is 0.267 with sig. 0.610. since 0.610 is greater than 0.05, then the coeffients linear is unsignificant. it means the participants’s perception of social presence have no effect to their academic performance of english subject. then it is as the second research answer. see table 4. the doubled regression with 3 variables is applying to figure out the meaning of online class discussion and social presence to learners’ academic attainment of english subject. the anova (analysis of variance) and coefficients are delineated in the table 5. table 3: questionaires of learners perception of social presence no aspects very good (5) good (4) good enough (3) less good (2) not good (1) 1. this zoom (online class discussion ) is easy to use. 2. the level of interactivity. 3. comfort in learning english. 4. the advanced use. 5. overall the use of this application contributes many advantages for learning english. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare44 susanti, online class discussion the results displayed on anova (analysis of variance) table that is f 0.6122 and sig. 0.006. since sig. 0.006 is lessen than 0.05 then can be inferred that the coefficients linear is significant. it means the online class discussion and social presence have effect to participants’ academic attainment of english subject, technique informatic program learners of stmik (sekolah tinggi management informatika dan komputer or college of informatics and computer management) pontianak, west kalimantan, indonesia (cf biriyai & thomas, 2014; susanti, 2018 and 2020; de lima et al., 2019; and agung, surtikanti & quinones, 2020). conclusion online learning is an inevitable option to be practised in teaching learning while covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019) pandemic. to generate participants engagement in learning then online class discussion is recommended to be implemented. by having online class discussion, it may cause both individual and groups responsibility to their subjects or topics to be presented in learning process. which direct individual and groups interaction then create social presence of the participants in learning process. discussion process must run together or simultenously with social presence to achieve significant learning result. it is proven by the accumulation gained of doubled regression linear f 0.6122 and sig. 0.006. since sig. 0.006 lessen than 0.05, then it means the strategies applied those are online class discussion and social presence significantly effect learning outcomes of english performance in online learning. the present of social presence in online class discussion together table 4: anova and coefficients anovaa model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 14.674 1 14.674 .267 .610b residual 1539.993 28 55.000 total 1554.667 29 a. dependent variable: y b. predictors: (constant), coefficientsa model b unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. std. error beta 1 (constant) 76.105 8.699 8.749 .000 x -.218 .422 -.097 -.517 .610 a. dependent variable: y educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 45 both support learning english process for better outcomes. the continous and longer allocated time of online class discussion in learning english is recommended for the significant learning outcomes. having online class discussion may drive social presence of interactions between the participants. they may collaborate and interact to the topics 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(2021). “the experiences, challenges, and acceptance of e-learning as a tool for teaching during the covid-19 pandemic among university medical staff ” in plos one, volume 16(3):e0248758. available online also at: https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0248758 [accessed in pontianak, west kalimantan, indonesia: 20 may 2021]. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare48 susanti, online class discussion online learning at stmik pontianak (source: https://www.stmikpontianak.ac.id, 27/07/2020) online learning is an inevitable option to be practised in teaching learning while covid-19 (corona virus disease-2019) pandemi. to generate participants engagement in learning then online class discussion is recommended to be implemented. by having online class discussion, it may cause both individual and groups responsibility to their subjects or topics to be presented in learning process. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 61 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath developing effective communication in education perspective based on religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology: an analysis study at tkit al-fitrah abstract: educational communication is very necessary for the continuity of education. the communication process can take place between superiors to subordinates, fellow colleagues, in teaching and learning or even communication between the school and parents. here, it is necessary to deliver an effective message. the purpose of this study was to examine the development of effective communication in the perspective of education based on the basis of religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, by taking the research location at tkit (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) alfitrah in bandung, west java, indonesia. the research method used is a qualitative approach with a case study method to explore certain characters and social aspects. the essence of the philosophical foundation is that it reflects the interaction according to the rules and norms of human relations but still lacks understanding of rhetoric and other communication approaches. the essence of the psychological basis is that it reflects communication at the level of touching psychological factors in a humanistic and persuasive manner. the essence of the social basis is that communication between individuals or groups involves intensity, motivation, and the ability to make communication complex, dynamic, and continuously changing. the recommendations are communication process will be effective if the communicator performs its role, so that a good and expected communication process occurs, where ideas or ideas are discussed in a deliberation between the communicator and the communicant, to lead to agreement and unity in opinion. key words: effective communication; educational communication; religious foundation; philosophical foundation; psychological foundation; sociology foundation. introduction communication is part of everyday human life, because without communication, it is impossible to process social interaction, both about the authors: rini susilowati is a lecturer at the polytechnic of piksi ganesha, jalan gatot subroto no.301 bandung, west java, indonesia. erni furwanti is a teacher at the early childhood education programs of adinda, jalan puri asih v no.25 bandung. panji nurul fath is a human resource performance analyst of upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung. e-mails correspondence: rinisusilo.ppg@gmail.com, erni.furwanti02@gmail.com, and panji_nf@upi.edu suggested citation: susilowati, rini, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath. (2021). “developing effective communication in education perspective based on religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology: an analysis study at tkit al-fitrah” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august, pp.61-74. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi suci and aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 27, 2021); revised (july 27, 2021); and published (august 30, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare62 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective individually and in groups. as social beings, humans are required to interact with each other, perform actions and reactions both verbally, oral and/or written words; and non-verbally, signs, attitudes, and behaviour (mulyana, 2007; rabiah, 2012; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). everyone must have done communication activities. communication is an activity that must be done, because basically humans are individuals and social beings, who always want to socialize or relate to other people. as individual beings, humans want to stand out; while as social beings, humans cannot live alone, always depend on and want to be considered or taken into account in groups. so, humans always need other people in their lives. the process of human interaction with other humans is what requires communication activities (mangkunegara, 2005; mulyana, 2007; rabiah, 2012). according to a.w. wijaya (2000), and other scholars, communication is the delivery of information and understanding from one person to another. communication will be successful, if there is mutual understanding, that is if both parties, the sender and the recipient of the information can understand it. this does not mean that both parties have to agree on an idea, but what is important is that both parties understand the idea. in these circumstances, it can be said that communication has been successful or communicative (wijaya, 2000:15; rabiah, 2012; and ruler, 2018). in education, communication is a means for teachers to organize the learning and learning process, where the teacher will build students’ understanding of the material being taught. through teacher communication as a source of conveying information, in this case learning materials to recipients, namely students by using symbols both spoken, written, and non-verbal language. on the other hand, students will convey various messages in response to the teacher, so that two-way communication occurs in order to increase the success of communication to achieve learning objectives, namely the occurrence of behavioral changes in students (wisman, 2017; sutarto, sari & fathurrochman, 2020; and yusuf, 2020). according to chusnul chotimah (2015), and other scholars, educators must also be good at using and choosing sentences that are easily understood by their students. thus, the message to be conveyed can be well received by students and communication can run smoothly (rabiah, 2012; chotimah, 2015:112; and suwandi, 2016). the authors concluded that educational communication is the process of delivering messages from the communicator to the communicant. the message conveyed is in the form of material or teachings, both verbally and non-verbally. then communication here is controlled and conditioned for educational purposes. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 63 research methods the methodology used is descriptive qualitative in the form of case studies. a case study, according to nursalam (2016), is a research that includes an assessment aimed at providing a detailed description of the background, nature, and character of a case, in other words that a case study focuses attention on a case intensively and in detail. research in the method is carried out in depth on a situation or condition in a systematic way starting from making observations, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting results (cf creswell, 2013; nursalam, 2016; and yin, 2017). this research uses literature study techniques and documentation, observation, and interviews. r. bogdan & s. taylor (1982), as cited also in lexy j. moleong (2010), define qualitative research as a research procedure that produces descriptive data in the form of written or spoken words from people or observed behaviour. this means that the emphasis is on trying to answer questions through formal ways of thinking and argument (bogdan & taylor, 1982; moleong, 2010:4; and creswell, 2013). meanwhile, according to sugiono (2010) and other scholars, stated that qualitative research is research where the researcher is placed as a key instrument; and data collection techniques are carried out by combining and data analysis is inductive (williams, 2007; sugiono, 2010:29; and creswell, 2013). findings and discussion this research was conducted at tkit (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) al-fitrah, which is located at jalan east mercury no.1 margahayu raya, bandung, west java, indonesia. researchers conducted interviews with the head of the kindergarten, class teachers, and accompanying teachers as well as parents of students, compiled observation guidelines in the form of check lists, documentation, and field notes. based on the results of interviews, communication in learning has a very important role. communication is carried out every time the learning begins, from the results of observations made to the kindergarten principal, teachers, and parents of students, who were carried out for 7 meetings in each learning communication was very interactive. information is sometimes from the teacher to the child and sometimes also from the child to the teacher, so that the learning process in the classroom becomes active. furthermore, from the results of the documentation study conducted for 6 meetings, the researchers obtained information about varied child responses, some children responded happily and some children were less responsive; children are not focused, because they are busy with their own activities. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare64 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective in order to communicate well, tkit al-fitrah teachers need to have good language skills. he needs to have a wealth of language and vocabulary that is quite a lot, because by using certain words students cannot understand their meaning, they need other words or terms. teachers need to master sentence structure and correct spelling. incorrect sentence structure and spelling from the teacher will be imitated incorrectly, and can be confusing. it is also quite important in this language, the teacher needs to master the right and good speech and variety of language. everyone has their own voice and accent. even so, teachers who have different accents must try to use the correct indonesian accent (cf widiastuti & setiawan, 2016; wijayanti, 2016; and putri & listyani, 2020).1 paud (pendidikan anak usia dini or early childhood education) communication patterns that take place in kindergartens aim to help lay the foundation for the development of attitudes, behavior, knowledge, skills, and creativity that children need in adjusting to their environment and for their growth and development. the success of education has to do with the skills of teachers in managing learning. learning is a core behavior in the educational process that allows students and educators to interact. teaching and learning interactions are supported by several factors, including: educational objectives, educators, students, educational tools and facilities, teaching methods, subject matter, and the environment (cf khamidun, 2012; putri & listyani, 2020; and ratnasih & garnasih, 2020).2 in education, communication is a means for teachers to organize the learning and learning process, where the teacher will build students’ understanding of the material being taught. through teacher communication as a source of conveying information in this case learning materials to recipients, namely students by using symbols both spoken, written, and non-verbal language. on the other hand, students will convey various messages in response to the teacher so that two-way communication occurs in order to increase the success of communication to achieve learning objectives, namely the occurrence of behavioral changes in students (cf bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017; baroona, 2020; and ratnasih & garnasih, 2020).3 communication has several elements. according to a.w. wijaya (2000), there are as follows: (1) source, it is the basis used in delivering the 1see also, for example, interview with a teacher of tkip (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) al-fitrah in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 2nd march 2020. 2see also, for example, interview with a kindergarten principal of tkip (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) al-fitrah in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 9th march 2020. 3see also, for comparison, interview with a teacher of tkip (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) al-fitrah in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 2nd march 2020; and interview with a parent of kindergarten student of tkip (taman kanak-kanak islam terpadu or integrated islamic kindergarten) al-fitrah in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 15th march 2020. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 65 message and is used in order to strengthen the message itself, it can also be people, institutions, books, documents, and others; (2) communicator, it is any person or group who conveys communication messages as a process, and it can also be communicants and vice versa, communicants can be communicators; (3) order, the message is the whole of what is conveyed by the communicator, the core of the message becomes a guide in trying to change the attitude and behavior of the communicant; (4) channels, it is a medium for delivering messages, and communication media can be in the form of mass media, print media, radio, television, films, and others; and (5) effect/result, it is the end result of communication, namely the attitudes and behavior of people, according to or not as desired (wijaya, 2000:30). according to anton m. moeliono (2005), effective communication is related to the ability of communicators and communicants. ability is the strength in which we try with ourselves. in addition, according to tutut handayani (2011), the most important aspects in effective communication skills consist of communicators, communicants, media, namely tools to convey and message something conveyed. because apart from these three aspects, all of them have referred to the applicable curriculum (core competencies and basic competencies) in the form of messages/subject materials or communication effects, which are usually in the form of learning achievement scores (moeliono, 2005:707; and handayani, 2011). effective educational communication in learning is largely determined by the activeness of learners and learners in the form of reciprocity in the form of questions, answers to questions or in the form of actions both physically and mentally. the existence of this feedback allows learners to make improvements to the way of communication that has been done. the effectiveness of learning is largely determined by the attention and interest of the learner. this is in accordance with the model “aida stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. it means that in order for activities to occur in the learner’s self as a communicant, attention and interest must first be raised and then continued with the presentation of the material. clear communication in learning is one of the conditions for effective learning to take place (hadiyati, 2016; wisman, 2017; and budimansyah et al., 2018). the nature and relationship of religious foundations in developing effective communication. in the islamic perspective, communication is an inseparable part of human life, because all our steps are always accompanied by communication. the communication in question is islamic communication, namely communication with al-karimah or © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare66 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective ethical character. communication with al-karimah character means communication that originates from the al-qur’an or holy book in islam and al-hadith or words, attitudes, and actions of prophet muhammad. communication in islam emphasizes the message element, namely the treatise or islamic values, and the way (how), in this case the style of speech and the use of language (rhetoric). islamic messages conveyed in islamic communication cover all islamic teachings, namely aqidah or faith, sharia or law, and ihsan or morals. to find out how people should communicate properly (qaulan sadidan), it is necessary to trace the key concepts used by the al-qur’an for communication. in addition to al-bayan, the key word for communication that is widely mentioned in the al-qur’an is “al-qaul” in the context of the command (amr), there are 6 (six) principles of speech or speech style (qaulan), namely: first, qaulan sadidan (true, straight, and honest words). the word of “qaulan sadidan” is mentioned twice in the al-qur’an. firstly, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala or praise be unto thee the almighty) commands humans to convey qaulan sadidan (true words) in the affairs of orphans and descendants, as allah swt says in the al-qur’an, an-nisa verse 9. secondly, allah swt commands qaulan after piety, as allah swt says in the al-qur’an, al-ahzab verse 70. second, qaulan balighan (words that imprint on the soul, right on target, communicative, and easy to understand). as the word of allah swt in the al-qur’an, an-nisa verse 63, the word “baligh” in arabic means to arrive, hit the target or achieve the goal. when associated with qaul (speech or communication), “baligh” means fluent, clear meaning, clear, appropriate to use what is desired. therefore, the principle of qaulan balighan can be translated as the principle of effective communication. third, qaulan maisuran (light words). in communication, both oral and written, use language that is easy, concise, and precise, so that it is easy to digest and understand. in the al-qur’an found the term qaulan maisuran, which is one of the guidelines for communicating using language that is easy to understand and relieves feelings. as the word of god in the alqur’an, al-isra verse 28. fourth, qaulan layyinan (gentle words). the command to use gentle words is contained in the al-qur’an, taha verse 44. from this verse, it can be concluded that qaulan layyinan means gentle speech, with a pleasant voice, and full of friendliness, so that it can touch the heart meaning not to raise the voice, such as yelling, raising one’s voice. nobody likes talking to rude people. fifth, qaulan kariman (noble words). islam teaches to use noble words educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 67 in communicating to anyone. this noble word as the word of allah in the al-qur’an, al-isra verse 23. qaulan kariman is a noble word, accompanied by respect and exaltation, pleasant to hear, gentle, and well mannered. in the context of journalism and broadcasting, qaulan kariman means using polite words, not rude, not vulgar, and avoiding “bad taste”, such as disgust, disgust, horror, and sadism. sixth, qaulan ma’rufan (kind words). qaulan ma’rufan can be translated with appropriate expressions. one of the meanings of ma’rufa etymologically is al-khair or al-ihsan, which means good. qaulan ma’rufan also means conversation that is useful and causes goodness (maslahat). the word qaulan ma’rufan is mentioned by allah swt in the al-qur’an, al-ahzab verse 32. to realize good communication, one must always be careful, think, and ponder what will be said. emphasis on this aspect because often the words that come out of one’s mouth result in disaster and great calamity for the person who utters it and even for others. the command to be careful and selective in issuing words as the word of god in the al-qur’an, al-maidah verse 101. the verses above provide an affirmation of the essence and principles of islamic communication to the stage of its implementation. in the islamic perspective, the process of delivering messages from the communicator to the communicant must be delivered honestly and in accordance with the principles contained in the values of the al-qur’an and al-sunnah, because that is considered part of worship. so, in its application the principle of islamic, communication takes place between humans and their god. this is the basic foundation of islamic communication (pakeeza & chishti, 2012; khalil, 2016; and hasmawati, 2017). the nature and relationship of the philosophical foundations in developing effective communication. philosophy as the parent of various scientific studies is inseparable from the study itself. various disciplines always need philosophy as an analytical knife in dissecting the epistemological side. considering the importance of philosophy, communication makes philosophy a vital part that helps the process of developing the study of communication science. from this process, we recognize the term philosophy of communication, which is a scientific discipline that examines understanding (verstehen) fundamentally, methodologically, systematically, analytically, critically, and holistically, the theory and process of communication covering all fields, its nature, its structure, its objectives, its technical functions, and the method (mulyana, 2007; effendy, 2009; and mufid, 2012:83-84). in the context of communication science, there are three types of pillars of communication science in the context of philosophy, namely: © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare68 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective ethos, pathos, and logos. ethos is an element of philosophy that explains the normative rules that are in the process of developing communication science. the results achieved from this ethos will be the determinant between public relations and communication science. then pathos is an element of philosophy that explains various aspects of emotion. the emotional aspect is very closely related to the sense possessed by humans, where ethos and pathos help humans to have great opportunities in the development of communication science, for example the use of various communication theories in studying various problems. meanwhile, logos guides scholars in making the right decisions by using a logical and rational approach to thinking (mulyana, 2007; effendy, 2009; and bigirimana, 2011). from the explanation above, we can see that in general philosophy is a science that is more likely to be related to human life. everything in human life can be included in the problems of philosophy. then whether communication has a connection to philosophy? of course, there is a connection. as b.a. fisher (1985) explained, as cited also in nina w. syam (2013), that: the philosophy of science cannot provide any assistance in understanding the scientific theory of a particular field of study until the scientific discipline has developed a sufficiently valuable set of information in the form of empirical generalizations and the underlying principles, which are concerned with generalizable observations. whatever the circumstances, as is the case with the term communication, the term theory is difficult to define (fisher, 1985; and syam, 2013). from what is expressed by b.a. fisher (1985) and nina w. syam (2013), it can be concluded that philosophy cannot stand alone without a set of information that can be developed. in the theory of communication science itself explains that communication is a message conveyed by the communicator to the communicant. so, philosophy itself requires a discipline of communication in conveying messages or information which then the information can be studied into a problem which eventually gave birth to another philosophical science (cf fisher, 1985; bigirimana, 2011; and syam, 2013). the nature and relationship of psychological foundations in developing effective communication. raymond s. ross (1965), as cited also in jalaluddin rakhmat (2011), defined communication as a transactional process involving cognitive sorting, selecting, and sharing of symbols in such away as to help another elicit from his own experiences a meaning or responses similar to that intended by the source; or a transactional process involving the cognitive separation and co-selection of symbols, in such a way as to help others to extract from their own experience the same meaning or response as the source intended (ross, 1965; bryant & oliver educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 69 eds., 2009; and rakhmat, 2011). psychology tries to analyse all the components involved in the communication process. in the communicant, psychology analyses the characteristics of the communicant and the internal and external factors that influence his/her communication behavior. in communicators, psychology traces their traits and asks: what causes one source of communication to succeed in influencing others, while another source of communication does not. when the message reaches the communicator, psychology looks into the process of receiving the message, analyses the personal and situational factors that influence it, and explains the various styles of communicators when alone or in groups (ha & longnecker, 2010; bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017; and ruler, 2018). in psychology, communication has a broad meaning that includes the transmission of energy, sound waves, signs between places, systems or organisms. communication plays a role in shaping our personality. relationships with other people will affect the quality of our lives. if the message we convey is not well understood by others, it can be said that the communication we are doing has failed or is ineffective (ha & longnecker, 2010; sehfudin, 2011; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). stewart l. tubbs & sylvia moss (2008), as cited also in jalaluddin rakhmat (2011), state that effective communication creates at least 5 things, namely: understanding, pleasure, influence on attitudes, better relationships, and action. this is where it is important for a teacher to have smooth, good communication and be able to move students to interact. make the learning atmosphere fun, comfortable, and not pressured. teachers are not only people who teach, but more than that, namely as parents, colleagues, and friends (tubbs & moss, 2008; rakhmat, 2011:13; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). because there are students who don’t want to be open to their parents, but to the teacher they can be open related to the problems or problems they are facing, so the love from a teacher to students will make their own motivation. then the teacher who acts as a friend must be able to make students mix freely in the sense that there are limits. obviously this will increase students’ confidence in learning. because in essence the purpose of communication is how to be able to change an attitude, opinion, behavior, or social change (rakhmat, 2011; sehfudin, 2011; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). the psychology of communication has a very broad definition of meaning, including all transmissions of energy, sound waves, signs between places, systems or organisms. the word communication itself is used as a process, as a message, as an influence or specifically as a patient © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare70 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective message in psychotherapy. so the psychology of communication is a science that seeks to describe, predict and control mental and behavioral events in communication. mental events are internal mediation of stimuli as a result of ongoing communication; while behavioral events are what appear when people communicate (fisher, 1985; bryant & oliver eds., 2009; and rakhmat, 2011). the nature and relationship of sociological foundations in developing effective communication. in essence, the development of social communication means an act of communication between individuals or groups that involves intensity, motivation, and ability that continues without end. this makes communication complex, dynamic and changing continuously. when communication is viewed socially, communication always involves two people interacting with various intentions, motivations, and abilities to build a shared cultural identity. this communication process has been the means and tools for humans to convey messages, manage problems and various social problems, build bonds of togetherness, and at the same time solve various problems caused by communication gaps (sehfudin, 2011; rabiah, 2012; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). in relation to social processes, communication becomes a way of making social change. communication plays a role in bridging differences in society, because it is able to re-glue the social system of society in its efforts to make changes. however, communication cannot be separated from its social context. this means that it will be colored by the attitudes, behaviors, patterns, norms, and institutions of the community. so, the two influence each other and complement each other, as does the relationship between humans and society (sehfudin, 2011; dijck & poell, 2013; and bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017). the relationship between social change and communication, or communication media, has been observed by goran hedebro (1982), as cited also in nurudin (2004), as follows: firstly, communication theory implies the exchange of messages. there is no change in society without the role of communication. thus, it can be said that communication is present in all efforts aimed at bringing about change. secondly, although it is said that communication exists with the aim of bringing about change, it is not the only tool in bringing about social change. in other words, communication is only one of many factors that lead to societal change. thirdly, the media used in communication plays a role in legitimizing the existing social structures. it is the shaper of consciousness that ultimately determines people’s perceptions of the world and society in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 14(1), august 2021 © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 71 which they live. fourthly, communication is a wonderful tool for monitoring one of society’s most important forces; mental conceptions that shape people’s insights about life. in other words, those in positions of control over the media can exert decisive influence in the direction of social change (hedebro, 1982; nurudin, 2004; and sulistiani et al., 2017). the function of communication as social communication implies that communication is important for building our self-concept, selfactualization, for survival, for obtaining happiness, and avoiding pressure and tension. this condition can be achieved, among others, through entertaining communication and fostering positive relationships with others. through this communication, we work together with community members (families, study groups, universities, neighbourhoods, villages, and the country as a whole) to achieve a common goal, namely changes to all parties who communicate with each other or also known as social change (sehfudin, 2011; nurudin, 2004; and sulistiani et al., 2017). conclusion islamic communication is communication that has al-karimah or ethical character. communication with the character of al-karimah means communication that is sourced from the al-qur’an and al-hadith or alsunnah of the prophet muhammad saw (salallahu alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him). while communication in philosophy is one thing that cannot be separated, the use of philosophy in communication will lead to a must attitude that needs to be considered, namely ethos, pathos, and logos. psychology in communication is related to various components of communication in the communication process, which include the communicant or communicant, communicators, message production, relationships, connections, and interactions, message delivery processes, message reception processes, message processing processes, communication media, memory, signals, signs and symbols, nonverbal messages, language, stimulation, communication objectives, cultural influence, communication technology, and similarity of meaning. in the sociology of communication in relation to communication, which is identical to communication interaction, sociology also has the term, namely social interaction where all humans can communicate with each other, both individually and in groups.4 4statement: this is to certify that our research is a product of our collaborative effort. it is an original, with some literature review from other sources. our research is not plagiarized – relevant statements of authors in the literature review are properly cited. we certify further that our research has never been reviewed nor published in any other scholarly journal. this certification is issued on 9th february 2021 for whatever legal and official purposes it may serve. © 2021 minda masagi suci and aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare72 rini susilowati, erni furwanti & panji nurul fath, developing effective communication in education perspective references bambaeeroo, fatemeh & nasrin shokrpour. 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(2020). “teaching efl students using selected media: offline video taken from youtube” in the journal of ultimate research and trends in education, vol.2, no.1 [march], pp.2933. available online also at: https://journal.unilak.ac.id/index.php/utamax/ [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: february 21, 2021]. 9 noerhasmi.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 93 assoc. prof. dr. norhasni zainal abiddin is a lecturer at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies upm (university of putra malaysia); and prof. dr. turiman suandi is also a lecturer at the same department of upm, serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. they can be reached at: nonie@ace.upm.edu.my and tj@putra.upm.edu.my enhancing professional development through mentoring norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi abstract: mentoring is a part of educational training to develop people in the professions. mentoring is related to self-development, professional growth and career development of the mentee. not only do mentors have to play their role but the mentees too, and all this must be placed within the specific institutional context. the mentoring relationship has been described as an invaluable learning activity for beginners as well as experienced practitioners such as teachers, administrators, managers and other professionals. this article is designed to summarize existing literature on mentoring in order to assist mentors-mentees in enhancing the best practices for effective mentoring. thus, it focuses on mentoring theories, the role of mentor and the nature of the mentor-mentee and its relationship. there are many views of the role of a mentor, but all include verbs like support, guide and facilitate. there are many models of mentoring. the selection of the best suited model should be based on the student’s needs and organisational contexts. the models discussed in this article includes: (1) the counselling model for effective helping; (2) the competence-based model and the mentor as trainer; (3) the furlong and maynard model of mentoring; (4) the reflective practitioner model; and (5) the true and pseudo mentoring relationship. key words: mentoring, mentor, mentee, professional development, relationship and models of mentoring. introduction the relationship between the teacher and student plays an important role in promoting the student’s objectives. many authors have mentioned the importance of the relationship between a student and a supervisor in this context (phillipsjones, 1982; acker, hill & black, 1994; graves & varma, 1999; and cryer, 2000), norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 94 particularly where the two work closely over a number of years. however, sometimes a problem of compatibility occurs between them and therefore m. wilkin (1992) and j. hockey (1997) suggest that they both need to know their roles in order to ensure a good relationship. generally, learning involves two parties, the teacher (also known as the supervisor, mentor, coach) and the student (known as the trainee, mentee, mentoree, coachee, protégé). this article discusses the supervisory approach commonly adopted towards student/trainee in order to help them achieve their objectives. in this, roles and practices of mentor-mentee are described. both parties, either a mentor or mentee, should play their roles effectively. hence, this paper explores a review of the literature on mentoring. it focuses on the nature of the mentor-mentee relationship. literature review and discussion: a. the mentoring model there are many models of mentoring. the selection of the best suited model should be based on the student’s needs and organisational contexts. this section aims to provide an overview of the different theoretically and empirically derived models. the models discussed here are: (1) the counselling model for effective helping; (2) the competence-based model and the mentor as trainer; (3) the furlong and maynard model of mentoring; (4) the reflective practitioner model; and (5) the true and pseudo mentoring relationship. the first model is the counselling model for effective helping. effective mentors will use counselling skills to enhance the achievements of students. hence, g. egan (1998) describes the three stages of counselling as: (1) identifying and clarifying problem situations and unused opportunities; (2) goal setting with the developing of a more desirable scenario; and (3) action and moving towards the preferred scenario. these three steps can be used when giving students guidance and support in working out their own action plans. integral to the process is the concept of client self-responsibility, which is strengthened by success, modelling, encouragement and reducing fear or anxiety. in the context of teacher training, mentoring is essentially about classroom craft and articulating the knowledge, theory, skills and experience which make trainees into good teachers. successful counselling by the mentor will both depend on and enhance the ability of the trainee to be selfaware and engage in constructive self-appraisal of his or her practice. besides, this model also underlines the importance of negotiation and problemsolving in sorting out conflict. it is important that all parties involved are able to maintain their self-esteem at all stages in the negotiation. the basic skills of good negotiation are anticipating and avoiding possible conflict, non-confrontational verbal or body language, good verbal and non-verbal communication, choosing appropriate settings for the negotiation to take place, clearly identifying and separating issues, the ability to review and summarises the other person’s points, acknowledging the value of the other person’s point of view and identifying issues of agreement (egan, 1998). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 95 the second model is the competence-based model and the mentor as trainer. as stated by v. brooks and p. sikes (1997), this model is based on the view that teaching involves the acquisition of a specific set of competencies. in this approach, the mentor’s role is fundamentally to act as a systematic trainer who observes the trainee with a pre-defined observation schedule and who provides regular feedback upon the progress made by the trainee in mastering the required skills. this is in effect the role of a mentor. this approach has the advantage that standards and expectations are clear to both mentor and trainee. certainly, the mentee will benefit from knowing about the standards as learning goals from the beginning of their course and using the standard statements regularly with mentors to chart their progress. nonetheless, critics of competence training in education have argued that teaching cannot easily be broken down into a series of tasks. the fact that the “standards” are currently under revision is an indication of the level of debate which has been generated in the education world about how to describe the complex act of teaching. in summary, the competence model, in which the mentor performs the role of a trainer, is central to government thinking and provides the basis for the regulations with which all initial teacher education courses must comply. the third model is the furlong and maynard model of mentoring, which is empirically based on j. furlong and t. maynard research (1995). they propose that good-quality mentoring is a complex, sophisticated and multifaceted activity incorporating different strategies and requiring high-level skills. furlong and maynard’s model is a staged one which depicts learning to teach as a series of overlapping phases in which mentoring strategies need to be carefully matched to students’ developmental needs as stated in table 1. therefore, the stages need to be interpreted flexibly and with sensitivity. the model is grounded in the conviction that: like any form of teaching, mentoring must be built on a clear understanding of the learning processes it is intended to support students. mentoring cannot be developed in a vacuum, it must be built on an informed understanding of how students develop (furlong & maynard, 1995). table 1: the furlong and maynard model of mentoring norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 96 if the points stated in furlong and maynard’s model are accepted: (1) effective mentoring is based not on a single generic model but is a collection of strategies used flexibly and sensitively in response to changing needs; (2) different stages in the mentoring process are likely to be cumulative rather than sequential. as the course progresses, the range of strategies employed is likely to expand and the balance between them is likely to shift; (3) mentoring is an individualised form of training, often conducted on a one-to-one-basis, which needs to be tailored to the needs of the individual; and (4) mentoring is a dynamic process, aimed at propelling students forward, which needs to combine support with challenge. the fourth model is the reflective practitioner model. hence, j. arthur, j. davison and j. moss (1997) argue that teaching involves values and attitudes, which are largely ignored in the competence models. they note that the terms reflection and critical reflection are used in many descriptions of approaches to teacher education. it should, however, be noted that there is no one specific set of strategies constituting the reflective practitioner approach. some writers stress that the reflective practitioner should be concerned with the moral and ethical dimensions of teaching as well as the pedagogical and practical ones. hence, the term reflective practitioner has been used in different ways. also, it is worth noting that research by s. tann (1994) suggests that many students want mentors to just give them their opinions on their teaching, rather than to question them and encourage them to reflect. however, it has also been argued that by reflecting on practice students can derive “personal theory” from experience and may relate this to formal theory which they have acquired from reading and other sources. in doing so, a. pollard (2001) says that reflective action involves a willingness to engage in constant self-appraisal and development. he identifies six characteristics of reflective teaching: (1) aims and consequences, which means that teachers should consider their goals and intended outcomes, not only within the classroom, but also within the wider context of society; (2) competence in classroom enquiry which means that reflective teachers give consideration, at all times, to the effectiveness of their teaching skills; (3) attitudes towards teaching which means reflective teachers regularly review new information and research topics concerning issues in the classroom; (4) teacher judgment which means that reflective teachers not only reflect on their teaching styles but also adjust them according to their interpretation of new evidence and research; (5) learning with colleagues, which means that a reflective teacher is prepared to listen, discuss and consider issues with other professionals; and (6) reflective teaching which is an ongoing process whereby teachers review and adapt their classroom practice. in doing so, a. pollard (2001) also comments on the benefits of mentoring with regard to reflective teaching. he states that mentoring and being guided by a mentor, provide excellent opportunities for the development of both practical skills and reflective understanding. d.a. schon (1987) identifies reflection-on-action (after the event) and reflectionin-action (during the event) as essential characteristics of this professional artistry, which is distinguished by its reference to a store of relevant previous experiences educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 97 and detailed contextual knowledge, rather than relying simply on the knowledge and skills acquired during initial training. however, j. elliot (1991) contrasts this model with the new professional images which are similar in many aspects to d.a. schon’s characterisation of the reflective practitioner in that they involve: (1) collaboration with clients, who may be individuals, groups or communities, in identifying, clarifying and resolving their problems; (2) the importance of communication and empathy with clients as a means of understanding situations from their point of view; (3) a new emphasis on the holistic understanding of situations as the basis for professional practice, rather than on understanding them exclusively in terms of a particular set of specialist categories; and (4) self-reflection as a means of overcoming stereotypical judgments and responses. the fifth model is the true and pseudo mentoring relationship. classical mentoring and contract mentoring can be considered as true mentoring, as both contain the vital elements essential to mentoring, namely the helper functions, mutuality and sharing, and identified stages and duration. pseudo-mentoring or quasi-mentoring approaches have probably occurred due to the initial lack of understanding of the roles, purposes, processes and formal applications of mentoring (cooper & palmer, 1993). in business, the emphasis is for the mentor to function as a sponsor, guide or net-worker within a competitive culture that is often maledominated. the main focus has been on career guidance, executive nurturing and managerial support, with informal or formal, planned programmes of contract or facilitated mentoring (murray & owen, 1991). in this context, a.m. cooper and a. palmer elaborate the relationship as follows: jointly attracted by each other’s qualities and attributes, in classical mentoring the mentor and mentoree are free to develop the relationship in the manner of their choosing. the emphasis is on informality. in classical mentoring the nature and terms of the relationship are set informally by the people involved. contact mentoring concerns the adaptation of classical mentoring and its resulting application within structured programmes. the people involved are obliged to achieve the identified aims, purposes and outcomes of a recognised programme of development and support (cooper & palmer, 1993). in classical mentoring, the central focus of the partnership is on the mutual trust of two adult individuals attracted by the possibility of what has been described as a “mentor signal” (george & kummerow, 1981). in the early stages of the relationship, the mentee may appear dependent or reliant on the mentor in terms of the intensity of the support offered. as the relationship develops, this intensity will change as the needs and priorities of the mentee change. the aspects of mentoring that set it apart from other, more specific relationships and give it its multidimensional and dynamic nature are: (1) the repertoire of helper functions; (2) mutuality and reciprocal sharing; and (3) the fact that duration identifies the stages and transitional nature of the relationship. these required elements match those of l.a.w. darling (1984), who maintains that the vital ingredients for mentoring are attraction, action and effect. norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 98 the role of an effective mentor there are many views and definitions of the role of a mentor, but all include verbs like support, guide and facilitate. the important aspects have to do with listening, questioning (brown & krager, 1985; carter & lewis, 1994; and fisher, 1994), and enabling, as distinct from telling, directing and restricting (parsloe, 1999). in other words, most authors highlight that the most important role of the mentor is giving guidance, advice and counsel (schon, 1987; claxton, 1989; shaw, 1992; and wilkin, 1992). these roles can help all mentees to review and identify their own strengths and areas for further development, to develop skills and understanding and to plan and implement their own professional development (brown & krager, 1985; and mountford, 1993). this statement also reflects the views of many authors, since most mentoring involves someone older than the learner, it cannot escape from an advising and counselling environment (tomlinson, 1995; mawer, 1996; and brooks & sikes, 1997). the general role of a mentor involves providing resources and opportunities for development, helping learners to set high but achievable goals, making realistic plans, monitoring progress, providing feedback (nasser & maglitta, 1989; and smith, 1989), providing a role model (brown & krager, 1985; anderson & shannon, 1988; and carter & lewis, 1994) passing on skills, assisting the learner in solving problems and providing personal support and motivation (shaw, 1992; carter & lewis, 1994; and tomlinson, 1995). in the context of training a student to be a teacher, the following are leading roles: (1) training students to teach their particular subjects; (2) developing their understanding of how pupils learn; (3) training them to manage classes and assess pupils; (4) supervising them in relation to school-based elements of the course; and (5) assessing their competence in subject application and classroom skills (wilkin, 1992; and kirkham, 1993). therefore, to develop the student, a mentor needs preparation to fulfil these roles. accordingly, r. smith (1989) states that the success of school-based training and staff development can be highly dependent on the knowledge, skill and personal qualities of the mentor. how a mentor reacts probably depends on which organisation he/she is in and what role he/she wants to play. the literature indicates that a mentor can have various roles. table 2 presents the basic mentor’s role and what seems to represent successful mentoring behaviours. in simple terms, successful mentoring involves the responsibility or the ability to respond to what is needed. there are various views about what a good or effective mentor is. however, they all incorporate the idea that a good mentor as usually has positive attitudes, while the opposite is true of a bad mentor. to be successful, mentors need to possess certain qualities and skills that will help them meet the expectations of the mentoring role. a precise definition is difficult to provide, but the common characteristics of a good mentor include intelligence and integrity, ability, professional attitude, high personal standards, enthusiasm and a willingness to share accumulated knowledge (fisher, 1994). mentors must be educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 99 flexible and willing to accept any decision made by the protégé, whatever the consequences (cooper & palmer, 1993; mcintyre, hagger & wilkin, 1993; and carter & lewis, 1994). more specifically, r. shaw (1992) states that generic mentoring skills include needs analysis, negotiation and conflict solving, giving and receiving positive and negative feedback, observation and assessment, report writing and target setting. in order to be successful and effective, the mentor must have confidence in his or her communication skills (schon, 1987; and wilkin, 1992). meanwhile, e. parsloe (1999) proposes that besides clear role-definition, high quality mentoring is concerned with competence and experience, but it also crucially depends upon the right balance of personal qualities. a mentor will need an understanding, which may be partly intuitive, of what a learner is trying to achieve. related to this is the fact that mentors also ideally need experience or knowledge of the organisation in which the mentoring relationship takes place (brankin & bailey, 1992). furthermore, they need to understand through this experience how things get done and should be able to mobilise organisational support and opportunities to help a learner’s development (clutterbuck, 1991; and conway, 2001). according to e. parsloe, good mentors are: (1) good motivators, who are perceptive and able to support the objectives of programmes and fulfil their responsibilities to the candidate; (2) high performers, secure in their owner occupied position within the organisation and unlikely to feel threatened by, or resentful of, the candidate’s opportunity; (3) able to show that a responsibility for mentoring is part of their owner occupied job description; (4) able to establish a good and professional relationship, sympathetic, accessible and knowledgeable about the table 2: basic roles of a good mentor norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 100 candidate’s area of interest; (5) sufficiently senior to be in touch with the corporate structure, sharing the company’s values and able to give the candidate access to resources and information; (6) good teachers, able to advise and instruct without interfering, and (7) good negotiators (parsloe, 1992). for s. carter and g. lewis, a mentor should be credible to a learner and demonstrate an open approach, accessibility and many of the key behaviours that a learner might be trying to develop, such as personal organisation or a managerial style. s. carter and g. lewis to refer these skills as excellent interpersonal skills (carter & lewis, 1994). meanwhile, j. nias (1989) argues that interpersonal skills like questioning and observation are extremely important. in addition, being a good mentor requires analytical skills like interpretation (fisher, 1994) and creative thinking (edwards & collison, 1996; and brooks & sikes, 1997). good mentors will, it seems reasonable to assume, keep to their commitment and want to become even better at their job. although the qualities and skills that a mentor possesses are vital to the effectiveness of the relationship, the qualities of a mentee are also influenced by the qualities, skills and characteristics of the linked mentor (carter & lewis, 1994). it is interesting to note that successful mentoring could be defined by reference to evaluation by the mentee. accordingly, s. carter and g. lewis take the view that a mentor needs to be able to support a learner having regard to his/her particular strengths and weaknesses in the process of development (carter & lewis, 1994). whatever the specific functional or technical skills, at the end of the process or relationship, a learner will probably need to employ some of the following: (1) learning skills; (2) setting goals; (3) identifying own learning needs; (4) planning own learning; (5) listening; (6) accepting help and feedback; and (7) risk taking. it is worth emphasising that mentoring is not an additional management task. its main function is to enhance performance and to support people in their natural development. for l. aldisert (2001), when someone mentors, one of the best ways one can pay back the favour is to mentor someone oneself. the cycle of mentoring is about learning from someone and passing the wisdom along to someone else. the role of mentees and their relationship with their mentor as the relationship involves two parties, the mentee too should play a role in achieving the objectives. as already mentioned, the main objective of mentoring is to encourage and assist in the development and growth of a learner, and to provide the mentee with a resource regarding career aspirations (danziger, 2001). each mentoring relationship will be different due to the mentee’s needs, his or her personal interests, and the unique nature of the mentoring relationship that develops with the mentor. accordingly, a. lee states that mentors can provide glimpses into the occupations students are drawn to and a clearer vision of the day-to-day reality of working. a mentor can also provide a wide variety of assistance to students, and it educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 101 is critical that the mentee communicates to the mentor about the areas in which he or she needs the most guidance (lee, 2003). among other things, the mentees need to be: eager to learn and willing to take on new challenges (orland, 2001; and robinson, 2001); receptive, be open to feedback, viewing it as an opportunity to improve his/herself (maynard, 1997; and saul, 2004); open to new ideas and able to see things from other perspectives (lee, 2003); loyal, not violating confidences or trust (mcintyre, hagger & wilkin, 1993); and appreciative of the help the mentor is giving (lee, 2003). meanwhile, h.j. heinz refers to the mentee’s role in a school perspective, pointing out that mentee should manage the relationship by establishing first contact and by continuing the relationship through e-mail, telephone or in person communication (heinz, 2003). the mentee should also be willing to attend mentor programme events and/or to plan activities, which may enhance the mentoring relationship. the mentee should bear in mind that he or she has to have a sincere interest in developing a personal and professional relationship that supports development towards graduation and securing the job that he or she desires (stephens, 1996). in order to ensure that the relationship is rewarding, mentees should talk to their mentors about what they hope to gain from the experience (richo, 1991). they should also learn about the mentor’s experience and how he/she acquired his/her current position (furlong & maynard, 1995). however, a. robbins (1991) adds that, to enhance the effectiveness of the relationship, both parties should be ontime. the mentee should accept the mentor’s advice (phillips-jones, 1982), be honest, inform the mentor of his or her relevant training and employment experience, ask clarifying questions and then listen carefully (flaxman, ascher & harrington, 1968). training for effective mentoring needs to be seen as a process rather than an event, with scheduled and regular meetings between partners within a partnership on a regular basis to discuss and develop the course, which will be dynamic since contexts (time, schools, mentors) are in constant flux (mountford, 1993). the mentee should make an attempt to contact the mentor at least every three to four weeks so that the relationship can be built and maintained (davis, 2004). others give different views about the frequency of meeting stating that they should maintain informal contact at least twice per week or that the mentor should complete at least three structured academic activities per semester with the mentee (greenbay, 2004). meanwhile, j. whiteside and j. lies (2004) give their views on the mentoring of psychologists. they point out that the mentor and mentee should meet at least once to determine whether enough interest and commonality exists to warrant the establishment of a continued relationship. beyond that, the frequency of meeting and length of association should be mutually decided upon too. commitments vary widely, in terms of frequency and overall length. the meetings can take place anywhere (welford, 2004). however, there are various views on this matter. it can be seen differentially depending upon many factors such as the mentor-mentee expectations, the organisation of the mentee and how well the relationship has developed. norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 102 the focus in the meetings depends on the topics agreed by both parties. however, the way the mentor asks questions can decide or encourage the student to think about and support change in their developing and professional repertoire (weiss, 2001). for example, in the context of the student becoming a teacher, the questions from the mentor can develop an idea of the learner’s overall goal. nevertheless, m. wilkin (1992) highlights conversation, and points out that there are five things that need to do in it. the mentor should: negotiate the mentee role, taking care with the evaluation dimension; and if the mentee ask questions, give the rationale for asking them, which is also supported by s.o. strohmeier, b. bonnstetter and d.k. wentworth (1993). the mentee should: ask the mentor what he/she wants to report on and discuss; and should not make judgments without clarifying their basis, in detail. also, both mentor and mentee should: beware of regarding the discussion as an opportunity to control, which is also supported by d.i. mitstifer, b.g. wenberg and p.e. schatz (1992). a mentoring relationship may end because the project for which the relationship was begun ends, or, one or the other of the participants no longer has the time or energy for the commitment, or the partners just are not clicking with one another. however, a structured mentoring programme should give benefits in at least three ways, the mentee, the mentor and the agency. as an example a mentee can increase his/her skills and knowledge for professional development, a mentor should have the opportunity to test new ideas and an agency can improve delivery of service by having more informed and skilled staff (saul, 2004). summary and conclusion there are many models of mentoring. the selection of the best suited model should be based on the student’s needs and organisational contexts. the models discussed in this article are: (1) the counselling model for effective helping; (2) the competence-based model and the mentor as trainer; (3) the furlong and maynard model of mentoring; (4) the reflective practitioner model; and (5) the true and pseudo mentoring relationship. mentoring is related to self-development, professional growth and career development of the mentees. the mentor’s role is to help learners to achieve their goals by acting as counsellor, facilitator and advisor. counselling is an important function in relation to the mentoring because it can lead to an improved relationship between the mentor and mentee. it consists of support, feedback, providing counsel, consultation, teaching, evaluation, motivation and the monitoring of professional issues. one of the important functions of a mentor is to be a role model for the mentee. this view is supported by many authors who have mentioned that the mentor is someone who has greater experience and helps less skilled or less experiences practitioners to achieve professional abilities. in order to react effectively, a mentor must: (1) have certain goals and plans; (2) be a good communicator; (3) have the knowledge and relevant skills about the candidate’s area of interest; (4) be able to establish a good and professional educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 103 relationship; and (5) be flexible in supervision strategies depending on the individual requirements. in maintaining a good relationship, the mentor and mentee must have certain goals or objectives. the relationship will focus on these and both parties must trust, respect, empathise and be honest with each other. an effective mentor will have access to a range of teaching and learning methods, and will be able to adapt to individual supervisees and to provide clear and focused feedback to facilitate learning. a good relationship can make both parties comfortable with meeting regularly and sharing ideas or knowledge with a view to mentee development. as a student, one must be eager to learn, enhance ones self-awareness, learn from mistakes and successes, develop and apply new skills and design action plans or timetables. in addition, he/she must be diligent, conscientious and hardworking, open to criticism, willing to listen to others and to talk openly. assigning experienced mentors to guide and support mentee provides valuable professional development for both parties. mentoring helps mentees face their new challenges; 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(2004). “minnesota women in psychology”. available at http:// www.womenpsychologists.org/newsletter%204-03.htm (accessed in serdang, selangor d.e., malaysia: march 12, 2008). wilkin, m. (1992). mentoring in schools. london: kogan page. norhasni zainal abiddin & turiman suandi, enhancing professional development through mentoring 106 mentoring is related to self-development, professional growth and career development of the mentees. the mentor’s role is to help learners to achieve their goals by acting as counsellor, facilitator and advisor. counselling is an important function in relation to the mentoring because it can lead to an improved relationship between the mentor and mentee. 6 abdulah.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 55 dr. abdullah mohd noor is a senior lecturer at the sultan hassanal bolkiah institute of education ubd (university of brunei darussalam), jalan tungku link, gadong be 1410, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. he can be contacted at: abdullahmohdnoor@yahoo.com pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom abdullah mohd noor abstract: the importance of thinking skills in education and in the world of work cannot be denied nowadays. the present issues concerning students not be able to think systematically, less capabilities in active learning, less independent, learning through memorization are issues in this century. some teachers and parents are worried concerning the situation. what are the views of trainee teachers concerning this matter? what are the hindrances faced by teachers in integrating thinking skills in their classrooms? is teacher centered methodology to be blamed in not integrating thinking skills in their classroom? what are the relevant teaching strategies that can help in integrating culture of thinking in the classroom? for this study, the methodology in collecting data can be categorized into three phases: exposing trainee teachers with thinking culture in the classroom, using questionnaire to elicit necessary information such as data on trainees’ reactions concerning the research questions, and lastly conducted interviews to consolidate information and data collected through the questionnaire. results of the study showed that difficulties in integrating thinking skills in the classrooms, thinking skills do not limit to student-centered strategies but also on teacher-centered strategies, and lastly cooperation with many sectors in schools in integrating thinking skills successfully. key words: thinking skills, active learning, teaching strategies, and integrating thinking skills successfully. introduction teaching and learning process involves teachers, students and the curriculum. generally, the teaching approaches in the classroom around the world are teachercentered and student-centered approaches. teacher-centered approach is often termed as traditional deductive approach; and student-centered approach is called a process-oriented approach. the most popularly or commonly practiced method or approach of teaching in southeast asia is the teacher-centered approach or traditional deductive approach. student-centered approach or process-oriented approach is abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 56 seldom practiced particularly in the teaching of english as a second language (bourke, 2004). student-centeredness needs creative teaching, creative learning and a studentcentered curriculum. concerning thinking skills, there is no consensus as to what should be included in the category of thinking skills. most writers assume that the term includes “higher-level” activities such as problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, logical reasoning and creative thinking (nickerson, 1988; rajendram, 2000; and wilson, 2000). there are two types of thinking skills i.e. creative and critical thinking skills (abdul shukor, 2001). while k. cotton, however, suggests another name for the thinking skills that is higher order thinking skills (cotton, 2003). the needs for a thinking culture there are several reasons as to why there is a need to create a thinking culture in the society. among others are to cope with the fast changing world where new knowledge is being produced daily, while old knowledge is being reorganized and redefined. in time of rapid change, the first priority of an education system is to teach the children how to learn and how to think (abdul shukor, 2001). some of the characteristics of this millennium are: (1) life, society and economics are becoming more complex; (2) jobs are disappearing at an unprecedented rate; and (3) knowledge and information has upstaged land, labor and capital as the most important input in modern productive system (abdul razaq ahmad ed., 2005). some thoughtful reasons for the needs of “higher order thinking skills” are: (1) knowledge based upon rote learning has been discredited, individuals cannot store sufficient knowledge in their memories for future use; (2) information is expanding at such a rate that individuals require transferable skills to allow them to address different problems in different contexts at different times throughout their lives; (3) the complexity of modern jobs requires thinking staffs who demonstrate comprehension and judgment on world of work; and (4) modern society requires individuals to assimilate information from multiple sources and make judgments (wilson, 2000). in other words, workers entering the workplace of the future must come fully equipped with the skills that enable them to be system thinkers and continuous learners (abdul shukor, 2001:3). the other reason for the needs of a thinking culture is the corporate world who expressed their concern on the interest in teaching thinking skills because they detected the inability of university graduates to make decisions independently (phillips, 2001:164). since the wealth of a nation lies in its people, then it is wise and logical that the brain (thinking) should be the focus of any educational development (abdul shukor, 2001:3). according to s. tishman et al., a thinking culture is about how to transform the culture of a particular classroom into a culture of thinking with the purpose of teaching thinking to prepare students for a future of effective problem-solving, thoughtful decision making and lifelong learning. the thinking classroom is referred educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 57 to learning and teaching in the environment of a culture of thinking. in the classroom environment, there are forces that work together such as language, values, expectations and habits, to express and reinforce the enterprise of good thinking (tishman et al., 1995:2). culture of thinking includes the language of thinking, thinking dispositions, mental management, strategic spirit, higher order knowledge and teaching for transfer. these are the six dimensions of good thinking. interestingly, in the last decade or so, many countries have been attempting to reengineer their education systems in an effort to produce thinking students for the future. for example in 1990’s, singapore embarked on “thinking schools, learning nation”; malaysia on “smart schools” and brunei darussalam on “thoughtful schools” (abdul shukor, 2001; chang, 2001; and sim, 2001). the importance of thinking skills in education there is a lack of higher-order thinking ability among students and there is a need to prepare students for future effective problem-solver, thoughtful decision-maker and lifelong learning. there is a necessity for students to be independent thinkers as an increasingly wide range of jobs in future requires capable workers/employees who have the ability to think. further more, thinking skills are not yet widespread among students as to function successfully in a highly technical society. a report on malaysian’s experience mentioned that teaching higher-order cognition help students to become independent learners and developing their ability to think are more and more becoming commonly stated educational aims. n. rajendran found that there is the lack of ability among students to apply knowledge transmitted through schools and classrooms to real world problems. he stresses that: […] many students are unable to give evidence of a more than superficial understanding of concepts and relationships that are fundamental to the subjects they have studied, or an ability to apply the content knowledge they have acquired to real world problems (rajendran, 2000:123). as a result of this, there is a need to teach thinking skills as an integral part of the school curriculum. most countries are concerned with raising educational standards through the compulsory schooling. according to k. cotton, in a highly technical society, teaching children to become effective thinkers is a recognized goal of education. this is to equip the children with lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to acquire facts and process information in an ever-changing world. as one of the functions of schooling is to supply thoughtful labors to society, it is important that thinking should be integrated in the school curriculum (cotton, 2003). other than the concern on mastery of the basics such as reading, writing, science and mathematics etc., equal concern is also on thinking abilities. basic knowledge alone or mastery of it alone is not sufficient to meet the demands of the labor market in the future. abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 58 some related literatures on pedagogy that contributed to develop thinking skills are seen in the works of k.h. see (1998), lee su yin (1999), m. skolnik (1999), c.p. chelliah (2001), a. taylor (2001), tchoshasnov (2001), k.s. tan (2002), h.s. dhindsa and v. shanmuganathan (2002), k.h. see and s.b. lim (2003), c.s. yong (2003), c.s. chai and s.c. tan (2003), and j.m. bourke (2004). in teaching science subjects, the works of k.h. see (1998), h.s. dhindsa and v. shanmuganathan (2002), and c.s. yong (2003) are worth mentioning. computer-assisted learning and child centered learning can help students in problem solving, creativity, innovation and progressivism in mathematics (see, 1998). accordingly, k.h. see and s.b. lim (2003) also suggest the use of analogy in teaching mathematics and science. while m. skolnik (1999), in “creative problem solving”, once mentioned that there are four analogies in creative thinking. these are personal, direct, symbolic and fantasy analogies. in teaching science and mathematics, direct analogy may be used. in teaching chemistry, “the rich cultural backgrounds of teachers and their students can be used to develop new culture sensitive pedagogies”; and teachers have to “cope with students from dif ferent cultures to produce optimum lear ning” (dhindsa & shanmuganathan, 2002:15). the traditional teaching style and examination oriented teaching at the secondary schools appear to contribute towards students who are more teacher dependent learners. but when teacher is not highly authoritarian, students are willing to give their opinions. in designing a problem-solving programme of instruction for teaching of english grammar, j.m. bourke observed that “[...] problem-solving strategies are the tools one uses and the same tools can be modified to fit a variety of language teaching situations” in a classroom (bourke, 2004:105). language proficiency is important in effective learning and thinking. for example in learning biology, “writing their own notes and asking questions during the biology lessons” is necessary as to avoid the prevalence of rote learning among esl (english as second language) students (yong, 2003:102). further he also stated that as these students are esl learners, it is important that teachers be sensitive and takes into account of the discourse during instruction to suit the linguistic ability of the students (yong 2003:100). in relation to rote learning, a. taylor mentions that: […] in education systems that rely on rote learning as a measure of successful scholarship, students are rarely called upon to question or think. thinking can be stimulated by asking questions which gradually increase in complexity – not difficulty (taylor, 2001:1092). in this context, bloom taxonomy is useful in enhancing higher order thinking among students in schools. as far as an independent learner is concerned, “teachers may like to consider adopting ref lection as a classroom pedagogical approach” to help students to be reflective learners (tan, 2002:101). he continues to say as follows: […] one of the reasons why school may fail to produce independent learners is the lack of opportunities for students to reflect. […] it is probably true to say that explicit reflection is seldom used as a conscious learning strategy in the classroom. teacher-led drilling has helped students to perform effectively in national public examinations; in the same way, educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 59 teacher facilitated reflective learning can help students enhance and deepen their learning, both now and on leaving school (tan, 2002:104-106). other researchers like c.s. chai and s.c. tan suggest an approach known as knowledge building community (kbc) for developing thinking skills among students. they mention that this approach can “change the knowledge telling discourse structure of traditional classrooms” to develop learner’s ideas and thinking skills. the sequence of teacher initiates questions, students answer and then teacher evaluates and elaborates on students’ answer, is typical in the traditional classrooms (chai & tan, 2003:91). what is needed is a hospitable social context for learners to bring in ideas into the classrooms. meanwhile in teaching history, lee su yin mentioned as follows: […] given the proper materials, right guidance and teaching environment, children of all age groups will be able to think, in a variety of ways and can even reach a relatively sophisticated level of thinking. after all, everyone including children has the ability to think and we all think (lee su yin, 1999). the researcher gave the following examples to enhance thinking. first, to develop empathy and heighten awareness of the connection between the past and the present, the teacher can choose a topic on singapore early settlers then questions about people in the past and the present. second, to develop skills in making judgments by comparing differing interpretations, two accounts on stamford raffles – one by john bastin and the other syed hussein al-atas can be given to students. third, to resolve dilemmas and develop an appreciation for the actions of adults, the “dilemma of hang tuah” may be chosen for various interpretations (abdul razaq ahmad ed., 2005). john k. gilbert, in a workshop, gave a thinking activity on venus flytrap (a plant) by asking questions “what” and “how”. in a group of three students were made to discuss “what causes rapid movement for the flytrap to catch the flies?”; and then the second question was “how does a plant (venus f lytrap) know when to close the trap?”. two students discussed the problem and the third student observed and records the “two-way” discussion and made a report later on (gilbert, 2005). what happened in the process of solving problems? so many things happened such as looked at the questions again, looked at information given, discussed and eliminate process, compare and contrast, review and improve, simulation and finally made a conclusion. this is not teaching about facts alone, but is teaching “how to teach explanation”. this is an application of ideas to form explanation. what practical measures would you like to take in order to improve the quality of the explanations provided by your students? what problems will you meet in making these changes? how would you overcome these problems? see table 1 for the summary on measures, problems and solutions on thinking process as follows: table 1: summary of measures, problems and solutions on thinking abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 60 problem, purpose and method of the study according to k. cotton (2003), in a highly technical society, teaching children to become effective thinkers is a recognized goal of education. za’im zaini and aemy azlena wrote on “a generation of thinkers” in borneo bulletin (28.10.2007), mentioning that the sultan of brunei darussalam had emphasized on the role of teachers in moulding “a generation of thinkers”. meanwhile in 2005, the chief minister of the state of selangor in malaysia mentioned that youths have to think about good things 30 minutes in a day and search for new wise ideas. if youths do not think about good things, then they are thinking about bad things and lacking of sense of directions in life (cited by mingguan malaysia, 15.5.2005). there are four living skills necessary to be good citizens viz: intellectual skills (ability to generate new ideas), technical skills (tools to do a job), interpersonal skills (ability to communicate with others and accepted personality), and sociocultural skills (understanding of living environment and make adjustments). youths are the product of the school system, and a. taylor in his article on thinking mentioned that “in education systems that rely on rote learning as a measure of successful scholarship, students are rarely called upon to question or think” (taylor, 2001:1092). what are needed in enhancing higher order thinking among students in schools? the main purpose of the study is to see the reactions of teacher education students on applying the knowledge of thinking culture into the local classroom setting. specifically, the study seeks to elicit answers on students’ current state of thinking, the constraints a teacher faces in integrating thinking skills among students and practical approaches in teaching thinking skills within the constraints. a group of 40 respondents (final year teacher education students) were exposed to a course on culture of thinking in the classroom. the content includes the language of thinking, idea of the culture of thinking, thinking dispositions, mental management, the strategic spirit, higher order knowledge and teaching for transfer. besides that students were exposed to the use of bloom taxonomy in enhancing higher order thinking among students in schools. then, they were made to respond to a simple survey questionnaire on the topic concerning the culture of thinking. questions were related in the current classroom setting, constraints a teacher faces in integrating thinking skills among students and how to redesign pedagogy for teaching thinking skills in the classroom. results and discussion table 2 (see below) shows the overall results in analyzing the 15 items concerning students thinking and rote learning (item 1-5), constraints a teacher faces in implementing thinking skills (item 6-10) and changes necessary in teaching approaches (item 11-15). overall mean score for the 15 items is 3.51. in terms of ranking, the top three ranks, falls in each category, where “teaching strategies are constraints” (ranked 1); “change from memory-based to thinking-based learning” (ranked educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 61 2) and 2 items ranked 3rd such as “assessment is a constraint” and “emphasis is on memory-based learning”. from graph 1, clearly it can be seen that the lowest mean score is item 3 (students in schools are dependent learners). it means that some of the respondents agree and some do not agree on students in schools are dependent learners in a formal classroom setting. highest mean score is item 8 (teaching strategies are constraints). many perceived that teaching strategies are constraints to teachers in teaching thinking skills. item 12 is another big constraint in teaching thinking skills in the classroom that is “change from memory-based to thinking-based learning”. the whole process in going to take time and it should start at the primary school level. the mission of the school should be in this direction. table 2: overall mean scores and ranks on all items (15) according to the respondents, the current classroom situation is teachercentered where students are less active in classroom activities. the classroom setting is formal and memory-based learning is being emphasized. the results, particularly in table 3, show mean scores and ranking of the statements concerning the current setting in the classroom. the respondents “strongly agree” and “agree” on all the five statements with mean scores ranging from 2.33 to 3.80. the highest mean score is 3.80 that is the classroom is focusing on memory-based learning and the lowest is abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 62 a mean score of 2.33 where student teachers felt that students in schools are dependent learners. graph 1: mean score on the 15 items five main changes (table 3) and five main constraints (table 4) are highlighted in the following analysis. table 3: current situation on students thinking table 3 shows the mean score of respondents on changes to be made in the current situation on students thinking. most respondents “strongly agree” and “agree” on all statements except statement on “students are dependent learners” in the classroom which is ranked 5. this means that some students are dependent and some are not dependent learners. things to be changed according to ranks are: (1) teachers are worried on the emphasis of rote learning in schools; (2) schools are practicing educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 63 rote learning; (3) students nowadays are not thinking; (4) students are not active in the classroom; and (5) students in schools are dependent learners. the mean scores of these statements are 3.80 (teachers are worried on the emphasis of rote learning in schools); 3.53 (schools are practicing rote learning); 3.28 (students nowadays are not thinking); 3.10 (students are not active in the classroom); and 2.33 (students in schools are dependent learners). although teacher-centered learning dominates the classroom setting and student cannot be active when the classroom is too formal, h.s. dhindsa and v. shanmuganathan said that “student’s traditional thoughts, can influence their learning practices” but they were willing, to some extent, to give their own opinions in their classes (dhindsa & shanmuganathan, 2002). it is natural for students to give their opinions when the teacher is not highly authoritarian. teachers can make the setting more of student-centered and attempt to integrate thinking culture with student active participation. accordingly, v. wilson (2000) argues that “higher order thinking skills” need be integrated in the individuals so it will be useful in future. student-centered learning is limited (mean 3.53, ranked 2) is not only due to students are passive but language appears to be another barrier that may hinder students from expressing their own views. english was students’ second or third language and students’ fear a loss of identity when they are unable to communicate effectively (dhinsa & shanmuganathan, 2002:23). in learning biology, “many students resorted to rote learning” (yong, 2003:97) because of inability to understand what the teachers are teaching. he also added as follows: […] many secondary school teachers believed that students’ performance in biology would be much improved if they had a better proficiency in english. they argued that it is the language that is problematic rather than the biology subject matter (yong, 2003:98). table 4: constraints in integrating thinking skills among students table 4 shows the mean scores on constraints a teacher faces in integrating thinking skills among students. all the statements have the mean scores of 3.50 and above. statement “exam-oriented educational system is a constraint” obtained a mean score slightly below 3.50 (3.33). so most of the respondents agree and strongly agree on time (mean 3.53, ranked 4); preplanning lesson (mean 3.75, ranked 3); teaching strategies (mean 3.95, ranked 1); assessment (mean 3.80, ranked 2); and exam-oriented system (mean 3.33, ranked 5) are constraints for teachers to implement thinking skills in the present classroom situation or environments. abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 64 teaching strategies are constraints to teachers in integrating thinking skills among students (mean 3.95, ranked 1). the most dominant method of teaching in most classrooms is the expository method or teacher-centered method. for example, in such classes, it is the teachers, who usually dominate the lesson, where students tend to passively involve in the lesson. for instance, there would be hardly any active interaction between students and teachers. in order to implement a culture of thinking in the classroom, the methods/styles of teaching may be changed from traditional teacher-centered to student-centered or constructive learning, whereby students’ active involvement in the lesson such as questioning and doing activities are encouraged. hence, in short, students’ engagement in the classroom must be encouraged so that in the long run, they would be able to think creatively and critically, understand a particular concept and able to solve problems. although students are influenced by the traditional thoughts, teachers have to be creative and developed “new culture sensitive pedagogies” for teaching and learning science subjects (dhindsa & shanmuganathan, 2002). they have to understand the cultural diversity in their classes and to be equipped with methodologies to cope with students from different cultures to produce optimum learning. according to t.l. koay, w.k. sim and j. elkins, in a thoughtful school paradigm, teachers could be encouraged to develop more thoughtful (not thoughtless) teaching/learning strategies such as creative strategies, reflective strategies, responsible strategies and reciprocal strategies (koay, sim & elkins, 2004). what are these strategies? examples of creative strategies are attempts to use divergent, diverse, novel, innovative ways to enhance teaching/learning. examples of reflective strategies are attempts to regularly reflect on teacher’s possible or actual actions aimed at improving teaching/learning. reflect from time to time on the effectiveness, efficiency, equity of the pedagogical processes, rather than to mechanically implement what has been decided upon. under responsible strategies, teachers should always be aware and concerned about the possible impact of what they do with a group of pupils, the school, the homes and the community. they have to monitor the outcomes or effects of teaching/learning on various students and teachers themselves. in reciprocal strategies, teachers need to collaborate or network with others rather than working alone. there should be attempts to promote collaboration and sharing of mutual benefits in improving teaching/learning (koay, sim & elkins, 2004:52). assessment is a constraint in implementing thinking culture in the classroom (mean 3.80, ranked 2). at the moment the educational system is much examinationoriented, where most teachers and students are mainly concerned with passing of the examinations at the end of their academic year. in other words, teachers are more concerned in giving/feeding students with voluminous facts in order to cover the whole syllabus for examination purposes. hence, thinking is less practiced. table 5 shows the statements considered necessary in redesigning pedagogy for teaching thinking skills in the classroom. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 65 table 5: redesigning pedagogy for teaching thinking skills in the classroom there is a need to redesign the pedagogy such as changing from memory-based to thinking-based learning (mean 3.93, ranked 1); changing exam-oriented curriculum to thoughtful curriculum (mean 3.70, ranked 2); needs teacher’s creativity in imposing culture of thinking (mean 3.60, ranked 3); integrating thinking skills in lesson planning (mean 3.50, ranked 4); and teaching thinking skills across curriculum (mean 3.50, ranked 4). all the statements have the mean scores of 3.50 and above. the respondents strongly agree with all of the statements but the strongest of all is “changing from memory-based to thinking-based learning” (mean 3.93, ranked 1). the mean score is 3.93. in order to implement a culture of thinking, where students are likely to engage themselves in problem-solving, thinking actively in classes, it is important to orientate the current type of students assessment or evaluation from testing students’ ability in memorizing voluminous facts into assessments that would test their thinking abilities and creativities. a change in exam-oriented curriculum to thoughtful curriculum (mean 3.70, ranked 2) is highly agreed by these student teachers. in other words, teachers must be more concerned with thinking related assessment and curriculum. this is in line with “teaching children to become effective thinkers to function successfully in a highly technical society and they must be equipped with lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to acquire and process information in an everchanging world” (cotton, 2003). further, a. abdul shukor (2001) reiterated that in order to cope with the fast changing world where new knowledge is being produced daily while old knowledge is being reorganized and redefined, to teach the children how to learn and how to think is highly appropriate. implications in redesigning pedagogy in integrating thinking culture in the classroom, the followings are considered: lesson planning, thinking-based learning, teacher’s creativity, thoughtful curriculum and teaching thinking skills across curriculum. as life is becoming more complex, jobs are disappearing fast, and knowledge and information are the most important input in modern productive system, thinking skills are much needed in the educational system. so in agreeing with the ideas of v. wilson where “higher order thinking skills” need be integrated in teaching due to insufficient knowledge storage in student’s memory, rote learning has its limitations. individual students require transferable skills to allow them to address different problems in different contexts at different times throughout their lives (wilson, 2000). abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 66 changing the approaches progressively, from teacher-centered to studentcentered in the classroom setting, is possible. the implementation is progressive in nature with 80% teacher-centeredness at the beginning of the year and ends up with 80% student-centeredness at the end of the year. there are four implications here: (1) teachers must be well equipped with the various approaches and methods of teaching; (2) teachers must be well trained in the culture of thinking in the classroom; (3) schools must have goals in developing independent learners and thinkers; and (4) schools must encourage the implementation of teaching approaches that develop thinking students and thinking culture in a progressive manner. conclusion in integrating thinking skills in the classroom teaching, there are changes and constraints teachers have to face. teachers and teaching in the classroom need reorientation for the integration of teaching thinking skills. most teachers came to conclude that thinking culture is difficult to implement because the students were used to the traditional approaches of teaching. constant attempts have to be made in all teaching activities with thinking culture environment. implementing thinking skills takes time. teachers have to be familiarized with the thinking culture before thinking skills culture could be successfully implemented in the classroom. this study is preliminary and more to be developed in the area. further research on other aspects, such as language of thinking, thinking dispositions, mental management, strategic spirit, higher order knowledge and teaching for transfer, could be carried out in the near future. references article “majlis penutup konvensyen belia kebangsaan 2005: belia malas berfikir” in newspaper of mingguan malaysia. kuala lumpur: ahad, 15hb mei, p.5. abdul razaq ahmad [ed]. 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(2001). “creative teaching and learning through the use of learning modules in the 21st century schools”. paper presented in an international conference on teaching and learning in ukm [national university of malaysia], bangi, selangor darul ehsan. cotton, k. (2003). “teaching thinking skills”. available at http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/ cu11 [accessed on january 15, 2009]. dhindsa, h.s. & v. shanmuganathan. (2002). “cultural learning environment of upper secondary science students” in journal of applied research in education, 6(1). gadong: shbie, ubd, pp.14-26. eggen, p.d. & d.p. kauchak. (2001). strategies for teachers: teaching contents and thinking skills. boston: allyn and bacon. gilbert, john k. (2005). “helping students give better explanations in school science”. paper presented in future directions in science, mathematics and technical education conference in the university of brunei darussalam on 23-26 may. koay, t.l., w.k. sim & j. elkins. (2004). “teacher education initiatives on inclusive education in brunei darussalam” in collaborative agenda for research in education review. lee su yin. (1999). “actions of adults and learning by children: implication for thinking and teacher-training in history” in kecemerlangan berfikir. kuala lumpur: dewan bahasa & pustaka, pp.199-204. nickerson, j. (1988). “on improving thinking through instruction” in review of research in education, vol.15, pp.1-15. phillips, j.a. (2001). “enhancing thinking skills”. paper presented in an international conference on teaching and learning in ukm [national university of malaysia], bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. rajendran, n. (2000). “teaching higher-order thinking skills in classroom”. available at http:/ /www.hongkongforum/2000.htm [accessed on january 15, 2009]. see, k.h. (1998). “peningkatan daya kreativiti matematik melalui pembelajaran berbantuan komputer” in journal of applied research in education, vol.2, no.1. gadong: shbie, ubd, pp.105-114. see, k.h. & s.b. lim. (2003). “peningkatan pemahaman pelajar dalam matematik dan sains melalui penggunaan analogi” in journal of applied research in education, 7(1). gadong: shbie, ubd, pp.78-88. sim, w.k. (2001). “some thoughts on ‘thoughtful schools’ in brunei darussalam” in journal of southeast asian education, 2(1), pp.66-84. skolnik, m. (1999). “creative problem solving” in kecemerlangan berfikir. kuala lumpur: dewan bahasa & pustaka. tan, k.s. (2002). “reflective learning in the classroom” in react, vol.21, no.2 [december]. singapore: nanyang technological university & national institute of education, pp.101109. taylor, a. (2001). “the use of questioning in raising higher order thinking”. paper presented in an international conference in teaching and learning in ukm [national university of malaysia], bangi, selangor darul ehsan, pp.1092-1102. tchoshanov. (2001). “conception of constructive activity: doing, visualizing, communicating and thinking”. paper presented in an international conference on teaching and learning in ukm [national university of malaysia], bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. tishman, s. et al. (1995). the thinking classroom: learning and teaching in a culture of thinking. boston: allyn and bacon. udall, a.j. & j.e. daniels. (1991). creating thoughtful classroom: strategies to promote student thinking. tucson, arizona: zephyr press. weiderhold, c. (1997). the q-matrix/cooperative learning and higher level thinking. california: kagan cooperative learning ltd. wilson, v. (2000). “can thinking skills be taught?” in scottish council for research in education. also available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/ftts-11asp [accessed in bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam: january 15, 2009]. abdullah mohd noor, pedagogical issues in integrating thinking skills in the classroom 68 yong, c.s. (2003). “language problems in the learning of biology through the medium of english” in journal of applied research in education, 7(1). gadong: shbie, ubd, pp.97104. za’im zaini & aemy azlena. (2007). “a generation of thinkers” in borneo bulletin [28 october]. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 93 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare nugraha & indri ayu lestari corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market: evidence from indonesia abstract: the purpose of this study is to find out the influence of corporate governance on cash holdings in non-financial companies that are listed in the indonesian stock exchange for the period 2010-2017. the method used in this study is a quantitative method equipped with purposive sampling, the list used is time-series data obtained from the indonesian stock exchange. the data analysis technique used in this study, which was based on the result of the research model test, is the fixed effect model. companies that have poor corporate governance tend to accumulate cash (cash holdings) compared to companies that have good corporate governance. the result of this study supports the flexibility hypothesis that companies in indonesia tend to hoard cash as in singapore and malaysia, even though they do not have a single ownership structure. this possibility is influenced by a weak legal system, where the legal system in indonesia does not act as a supervisor of corporate management practices, so that the company without control from the regulator. the government as the regulator only has the role of providing a legal umbrella and full corporate governance submitted to each company. in this sense, there are no standards used as references by the companies in corporate governance. it implies that the company with the poorer implementation of corporate governance tends to hold the cash compared to the company with the better corporate governance. this study may contribute more to the comprehensive review and the development of financial management discipline. key words: flexibility hypothesis; corporate governance; cash holdings; family pyramid; sales growth; capital expenditure. introduction companies worldwide have considerably increased their cash holdings over the past two decades. a recent report by deloitte review, in 2014, stated that the top 1,000 non-financial companies globally are holding about the authors: prof. dr. nugraha is a lecturer at the fpeb upi (faculty of economic and business education, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. indri ayu lestari is a student at the sps (school of postgraduate studies) upi in bandung, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mail address at: nugraha@upi.edu and indri.ayu@student.upi.edu suggested citation: nugraha & indri ayu lestari. (2021). “corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market: evidence from indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february, pp.93-116. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (december 27, 2020); revised (january 25, 2021); and published (february 28, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 94 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market usa$ (dollar united states of america) 2.8 trillion in cash. the sum of cash holdings by all usa firms alone is estimated by forbes to be usa$ 5 trillion. from the 1990s to 2000s, the cash holdings of usa firms more than doubled to about 13% of firms’ total assets, amounting to 10% of annual usa gross domestic product (cf dittmar & mahrt-smith, 2007; macmillan, prakash & shoult, 2014; and magerakis et al., 2020). in addition, t.w. bates, k.m. kahle & r.m. stulz (2009), and other scholars, reported that cash holdings increasing by 0.46% per annum over the 1980-2006 period. large corporate cash holdings are not confined to the usa. for example, japanese firms hold usa$ 2.1 trillion in cash, which accounts for 44% of their gdp (gross domestic product). similar figures for korean firms are respectively usa$ 440 billion and 34%. three continental european firms at the beginning of the 2000s held 15% of their total assets in cash, while it is more than 20% for chinese listed firms (ferreira & vilela, 2004; bates, kahle & stulz, 2009; chen, li & lei, 2012; and alves, 2018). cash is a needed asset in exchange for values between economic parties. hence, any firm can’t survive without generating positive cash inflow in the long-run. cash holding is cash in hand or readily available for investment in physical assets and to distribute to investors (gill et al., 2012; joshi, 2019; and sitorus, simbolon & hajanirina, 2020). accordingly, excessive cash holding increases its opportunity cost, if firms trade-off their profitable projects to hold it; whereas, less cash holding may let investment opportunities to pass and make firm prone to financial distress. in the case of unexpected economic hardships, firms with fewer cash amounts need to bear additional costs as transaction costs of asset liquidation and security issuance, interest expenses of borrowing. moreover, hoarding cash leads to agency problems, since conflicts of interests between shareholders and managers over payout policies are especially severe when the organization generates substantial free cash flow, since shareholders are on the side of investing free cash and receiving more dividends; where managers as agents have incentives to increase the resources under their control (jensen, 1986; al-najjar, 2013; and joshi, 2019). recent studies have documented that cash and cash equivalents, along with constituting a significant percentage of total assets, change across countries and across industries. cash holding level represents in average 10% in the usa; 8% in the uk (united kingdom); 5% in russia; 3.5% in china; 3% in india; 2% in brazil; 9.1% of total assets in turkish firms; and 10% of total assets in italian private firms. those mentioned consequences of certain cash holding levels and its differences across countries are what deserve investigations to find its determinants (bigelli & sánchez-vidal, 2012; al-najjar, 2013; and uyar & kuzey, 2014). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 95 cash is one asset that is ready to be converted into another type of asset. cash is a very liquid asset, so it’s very easy to hide and move. because of these characteristics, cash is the most likely asset to be used and spent by management inappropriately. cash is also the most vulnerable asset to management’s careless behavior in determining cash policy (cash holdings). establishing a good cash policy will be very beneficial for a company. the existence of management errors in determining cash policies will harm the company, both in the short and long term. these cash holdings are the main indicators that describe the movement of a company’s cash finance; cash holdings are the most important part of the company (bates, kahle & stulz, 2009; isshaq, bokpin & onumah, 2009; and weygandt, kimmel & kieso, 2009). cash holdings are an important thing in the balance sheet that gets a lot of attention from both companies and investors. cash becomes something very important, especially during times of recession. companies in determining the cash holdings policy will consider the level of profits and expenses of these cash holdings. companies that hold more cash usually can stay afloat and continue their investment at the level of expected growth and growth of the company. this happens because companies tend to have the opportunity to enjoy lower cost of capital, compared to using cash from outside the company (harford, mikkelson & partch, 2003; joseph et al., 2019; and wang, 2019). however, when the company holds a lot of cash, of course it will cause other problems, namely agency problems between management and company owners. there are unequal interests in the cash holdings policy between management, as an agent, and shareholders, as the owner of the company. retaining cash that is not utilized will bear no fewer burdens and this burden will be a value that reduces the profit of the company, whose costs have implications for the profit values that should be enjoyed by shareholders. as a result, the principal differences in interests can cause managers to fail to maximize the welfare of principals as shareholders. this failure is the agency cost of agency problems between principals and managers (jensen, 1986; chen, 2010; and paterson, 2016). research in the usa (united states of america) shows an increase in cash holdings in usa companies since 1980-2006. the existence of a comprehensive review of the determinants of corporate cash holdings in a number of companies found that the exchange between the costs and benefits of hoarding cash holdings was to establish a balance of cash. in the case of indonesia, the movement of corporate cash holdings from various sectors on the idx (indonesia stock exchange) during 2010-2017 indicates a rising trend. cash holdings until 2017 reached the highest value © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 96 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market of 10.95, which equaled the value of cash holdings in 2012. cash holdings in 2010 were cash with the lowest score of 10.57. in 2011, the cash value increased to 10.64; and increased very sharply in 2012 with a value of 10.94. however, in 2013-2014, each value decreased by 10.69; and 10.69 after that in 2015-2017, each increased by 10.80, 10.90, and 10.95 respectively. this shows that the cash holdings of companies listed on the idx over the past 8 years tend to accumulate cash. this phenomenon is influenced by corporate governance. these companies prefer to hoard cash rather than spend it. in fact, cash holdings in indonesia are very volatile with the trend tending to increase in the sense that they save more cash. the phenomenon of cash holdings refers to policies that are influenced by corporate governance, with the interests of management that are not necessarily linear or the same as the interests of holders. this policy is related to agency conflict. in this research, corporate governance is considered as a tool that can control management in all matters, including the policy of holding cash or unrelated matters at the general meeting of shareholders. the corporate governance itself is a percentage of board size, board independent, managerial ownership, in which relationships and agency problems have been suspected, which have led to agency costs (harford, mansi & maxwell, 2008; kuan, li & chu, 2011; and kusnadi, 2011). basically, corporate governance is one of the important things in determining the company’s cash policy. the latest study concludes the relationship between agency cost and cash holdings into three hypotheses: flexibility hypothesis, spending hypothesis, and shareholder power hypothesis. several studies have examined the role of corporate governance in regulating cash holdings policies for both the united states of america and other international companies, testing the explanation of costs for cash holdings. the studies analyzed the importance of corporate governance at the state level in determining cash holdings as an international sample (kim, mauer & sherman, 1998; opler et al., 1999; dittmar & mahrt-smith, 2007; and harford, mansi & maxwell, 2008). referring to the anti-management rights variables developed, they found that companies in countries with weak legal protection tend to hold cash more than companies in countries that have stronger legal protection. the results support a flexibility hypothesis, where when a company produces excess cash flow, the manager does not invest everything. instead they chose to save large amounts of cash compared to returning excess funds to a minority of shareholders. meanwhile, shareholder power hypothesis is where shareholders who have more effective oversight of the manager will allow the manager to save excess internal funds to avoid the lack of educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 97 investment caused by external funds that have the potential to cause great losses due to capital market friction such as information asymmetry. in short, flexibility and spending hypothesis predict the opposite relationship between agency problem and cash reserves. the flexibility hypothesis predicts that controlled managers will have larger cash reserves and the spending hypothesis predicts that they will have smaller cash reserves. the shareholders power hypothesis show that there will be a negative relationship between agency problems with cash reserves, the same as the spending hypothesis but the predictions are driven by controlled managers who have greater cash reserves than uncontrolled managers who have smaller reserves. this study will examine board attributes and also how much ownership concentration represents the company’s internal management habits and try to explain the role of the board better. the proxies tested were: board of directors, independent commissioners, and managerial ownership. with the sample of non-financial companies listing on the indonesia stock exchange, the researchers tested whether the variable is associated significantly with the company’s cash policy. the company’s annual report is available on the stock exchange site and has enough board attribute data to be analyzed. this situation is ideal for testing significant relationships between agency conflicts and cash holdings. this study was designed to examine the effect of corporate governance on cash holdings to continue the results of research by y. kusnadi (2011), and other scholars, who examined the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and cash assets of companies in singapore and malaysia. this study, then, focuses in indonesia. while previous research has extensively tested the consequences of large controls on firm value, few studies have examined the interactions between ownership control and board character. there have been many studies conducted with the discussion of corporate governance issues as described above. most of the research attempts to link corporate governance to company performance, earnings management, or shares (cf kusnadi, 2011; arifin, 2017; and putra, 2018). this study examines the effect of corporate governance on cash holdings on companies listed on the indonesia stock exchange for the period 2010-2017. literature review. the company is an organization that combines and regulates all available resources to produce goods and services that are ready for sale. the company is in the middle of the community, because of its benefit in the process of distributing goods and services that are difficult for individuals to do separately. in the long run, the existence of © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 98 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market a company is not only beneficial for the owners or shareholders, but also will bring benefits to the broader community and government through the process of the flow of economic activity. the separation of ownership and control functions within a company is often discussed. this is the beginning of forming the main problem in writing company theory. in short, h. demsetz (1983), and other scholars, described the separation of ownership and supervision which results in conditions where the interests of owners and managers are often found to be different or distorted, where initially limiting the use of power is lost. in forming this new relationship, the company worked enough to make a revolution. corporate ownership is divided into nominal ownership and those with power also join, so the company changes its nature to be profitable. the company’s shareholders incur losses due to too much ownership by shareholders who cannot use their power to carry out managerial oversight of the company. management has the freedom to use company resources than if the company is managed by the owner, or at least if the interests of the company’s owners are more concentrated (demsetz, 1983; laiho, 2011; and rasiah, 2012). because management and company owners have different interests, h. demsetz (1983), and other scholars, saw a conflict of interest between company owners and management. there are two corporate concepts that motivate the level of inefficiency in modern companies. first, company theory is seen as a good approach for real company’s precursors, and this theory is without managerial facilities. the second concept is a company that is largely controlled by management with a significant interest in the profitability of the company’s activities (demsetz, 1983; laiho, 2011; and rasiah, 2012). firstly, agency theory. agency theory, according to m.c. jensen & w.h. meckling (1976), and other scholars, originated from the separation between ownership and control in modern companies that issue shares. this separation, when combined with a truly inability to determine contracts, will give agents or managers the opportunity to pursue activities that will benefit themselves at the expense of their principal or owner (jensen & meckling, 1976; laiho, 2011; and hussain et al., 2015). m.c. jensen & w.h. meckling (1976), and other scholars, state that the principal differences of interest cause managers to fail to maximize the welfare of principals. this failure is the most important cost that results from principal and manager conflicts and is known as the agency problem. agency theory views corporate management as an agent for shareholders who will act with awareness for their interests, not as a wise and prudent and fair party to shareholders as assumed in the previous theory (jensen & educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 99 meckling, 1976; laiho, 2011; and hussain et al., 2015). this agency theory considers that management cannot be trusted to act as well as possible for the public interest in general and shareholders in particular. agency theory emerged based on the phenomenon of separation between company owners (shareholders) and managers who manage companies. according to e.f. brigham & l.c. gapenski (1991), and other scholars, agency problems stem from three things, namely: (1) the interests of management require resources and interests of the company for personal interests; (2) so, there is no purpose to advance the company; and (3) the presence where the manager just want to play it safe in making decisions, managers do not want to take risks when a profitable investment. agency problems lead to the need for supervision of management actions and have oversight for the benefit of the company owner or the principal (brigham & gapenski, 1991; rensburg, 2001; and atia, 2016). however, such supervision may not require a fee. the cost of the agency itself will be borne by the owner of the company as the owner of capital. the company owner must reimburse costs and utilize the oversight that has been chosen for management purposes. in overcoming conflicts that occur within the company or more resolved to overcome this agency problem various systems can be done, one of which is by implementing corporate governance. secondly, stewardship theory. according to the 2004 oecd (organization for economic co-operation and development) principles study team in bapepam (badan pengawas pasar modal dan lembaga keuangan or capital market and financial institutions supervisory boards), regulations regarding corporate governance; there is a theory that can be used to explain the concept of corporate governance, the stewardship theory. this theory assumes that human nature is inherently trustworthy, capable of acting responsibly, and has integrity and honesty with others. if the assumptions in this theory are applied in company management, stewardship theory views management as a party that can be trusted to act as well as possible for the public interest in general and shareholders in particular (oecd, 2004; caldwell, karri & vollmar, 2006; and jones, felps & bigley, 2007).1 thirdly, good corporate governance. for many business actors, the concept of good corporate governance must be applied to ensure business continuity, because basically good corporate governance is a system and structure to manage the company with the aim of increasing shareholder value and various other interested parties such as creditors, suppliers, 1see also, for example, www.bapepam.co.id [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: october 17, 2020]. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 100 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market business associations, consumers, workers, government and the wider community. good corporate governance is closely related to business ethics, which means how a business should be run properly. the term corporate governance comes from an analogy between the government of a country or city with the government in a company (becht, bolton & roëll, 2002; bates, kahle & stulz, 2009; and bottenberg, tuschke1 & flickinger, 2017). corporate governance also deals with the alignment of the problem of collective action that involves a variety of different interests from stakeholders. without good corporate governance, there will be a conflict of interest that can harm company performance. corporate governance is a concept proposed for the sake of improving company performance through supervision or monitoring of management performance and ensuring management accountability to stakeholders by basing it on the regulatory framework. oecd (2004) defines corporate governance as a system for directing and controlling companies. the corporate governance structure determines the distribution of rights and obligations among various parties involved in a corporation such as the board of directors, managers, shareholders, and other stakeholders (oecd, 2004; solihin, 2009; and rubino & napoli, 2020). according to s. nuryanah (2004), and other scholars, corporate governance is the standard rules and organizational standards in the economy that govern the behavior of company owners, directors, and managers as well as their accountability to investors (shareholders and creditors). in short, corporate governance is a system where companies are directed and controlled (nuryanah, 2004; zelenyuk & zheka, 2006; and banda, 2019). s. claessens (2006), and other scholars, suggested two definitions of corporate governance. first, corporate governance is defined as a system that measures performance, efficiency, growth rates, financial structure, and management actions in managing company understanding. the second is the rules that are used as a reference for companies in managing their business. the implementation of good corporate governance can be successful if it has some principles (claessens, 2006; ahmed et al., 2008; and rubino & napoli, 2020). according to the indonesian good corporate governance guidelines, corporate governance has the following principles: (1) transparency: to maintain objectivity in conducting business, companies must provide relevant information in ways that are easily accessible and can be understood by stakeholders; (2) accountability: the company must be able to account for its performance transparently and fairly so that the company must be managed properly, measured and following the interests educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 101 of the company while taking into account the interests of shareholders and other parties; (3) responsibility: companies must understand the legislation and carry out responsibilities to society and the environment so that business sustainability can be maintained in the long term and be recognized as a good corporate citizen; (4) independence: to implement good corporate governance, companies must be managed independently so that each element of the company does not dominate each other and cannot be intervened by other parties; and (5) fairness: in carrying out its activities, the company must always pay attention to the interests of major shareholders and other stakeholders based on fairness and equality. corporate governance seeks to assist companies in improving the welfare of shareholders. the company will get many benefits and benefits from implementing good corporate governance. the benefits of corporate governance are to help reduce transaction costs and capital costs, help develop capital markets, help overcome financial crises, and help overcome relationships between stakeholders to increase company value. in addition, the oecd (2004) concluded that the benefits of corporate governance are improving the decision-making process for shareholders. with corporate governance, management can better control elements in the corporate environment, align the company’s survival, help overcome market pressures, reduce capital players, increase stock prices, attract investors, to invest, liquidity and portfolio portfolios from investors. corporate governance is very important for the company. by implementing good corporate governance, companies can improve performance, share prices, share returns for shareholders, and firm value (oecd, 2004; solihin, 2009; and rubino & napoli, 2020). the corporate governance system in a company is divided into two parts, namely the internal governance mechanism and the external governance mechanism. the second indicator of the mechanism is the number of boards of directors, the proportion of independent commissioners, and ownership structure. the board of directors is an economic institution that helps solve agency problems, which are inherent in public companies. directors are company organs for the benefit of the company, following the aims and objectives of the company and represent the company, both inside and outside the court following the provisions of the articles of association (beiner et al., 2004; weir et al., 2008; and samasta, muharam & haryanto, 2018). according to law no.40 of 2007 concerning limited liability companies, the board of commissioners is the organ of the company that is tasked with conducting supervision in general and/or specifically following the articles of association and giving advice to directors. egon © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 102 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market zehnder (2011), and other scholars, stated that the board of commissioners who is the core of corporate governance ensuring the implementation of corporate strategy, overseeing management in managing the company, and requiring the implementation of accountability. while the independent board of commissioners themselves is members of the board of commissioners who are not from the company’s internal environment or do not have a direct relationship with the company (hermawan, 2011; zehnder, 2011; and lasnita & utama, 2020). the separation of ownership and control causes agency problems between the owner and the manager. by having the authority to manage the owner’s funds and decision making, a manager may not act in the best interests of the owner. corporate governance is a mechanism that can limit the manager’s authority so that what is done and decided by the manager is solely in the interests of the owner. two important aspects of ownership structure are ownership concentration and ownership composition. the more concentrated an ownership, the shareholders will represent themselves which may be different from the interests of other investors, workers, and managers so that it can reduce the company’s performance. in this case, there are three types of ownership structures: managerial ownership structure, foreign ownership structure, and family ownership structure (isshaq, bokpin & onumah, 2009; zhang et al., 2016; and setiawana et al., 2019). fourthly, cash holding. cash is one of the assets that are ready to be converted into other types of assets. cash is very easy to hide and move, and very desirable. because of these characteristics, cash is an asset that is most likely to be used and spent inappropriately. cash is also the most vulnerable asset to careless management behavior (isshaq, bokpin & onumah, 2009; weygandt, kimmel & kieso, 2009; and o’sullivan & sheffrin, 2020). in general, companies that are financially weaker with corporate governance, tend to invest more cash and spend available cash more quickly. therefore, weaker corporate governance has consequences for cash management, namely to expand managers in weak corporate governance that have smaller cash reserves. managers under weak supervision prefer external investment through cash acquisition rather than internal investment, through r&d (research & development) and capital. investments in acquisitions, r&d, and capital expenditure by companies with poor corporate governance will reduce future profitability and firm value (harford, mansi & maxwell, 2008; john, litov & yeung, 2008; and safarova, 2010). in previous studies, many researchers found evidence that in general companies determine the level of company cash holder policies by educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 103 considering the benefits and costs of holding cash. cash holdings are very beneficial for companies because holding cash companies can reduce the problem of underinvestment in companies that have expensive external funding costs and have great opportunities to develop their business. companies with a lot of cash during and after a crisis can usually stay afloat and continue their investment opportunities to increase company growth. holding too much cash for the company can be an indication of agency problems between management and company shareholders (jensen, 1986; kim, mauer & sherman, 1998; opler et al., 1999; harford, mikkelson & partch, 2003; and mikkelson & partch, 2008). fifthly, theoretical framework. this study looks at whether corporate governance has a positive effect on cash holdings. in accordance with the background of the problem that has been described in detail, this study focuses more on the influence of corporate governance on cash holdings. this study also sees the effect of several control variables. this study has one independent variable, corporate governance proxied by the size of the board of directors, independent commissioners, managerial ownership and dummy variables as supporters. the dependent variable of this study is cash holdings. family pyramid is a moderator variable, while the control variables consist of four proxies namely leverage, net working capital, sales growth, and capital expenditure. the hypotheses tested in this study are: corporate governance has a significant influence on cash holdings. the equation models of this research are: ch = cg+ fp + cg*fp + lev + nwc +salesg + capex. ch = bsize + bindep + insider + fp + bsize*fp + bindep*fp + insider* fp + lev + nwc +salesg + capex. research method this research method uses a quantitative approach. based on the time dimension, this study is a pooled cross section and time series (data panel) study. this research uses quantitative data collection techniques with existing statistics. this research uses the dependent variable, namely ch (cash holdings); independent variables, namely corporate governance that are proxied by the size of the bsize (board of directors), bindep (independent commissioners), and insider (managerial ownership); moderating variable, namely fp (family pyramid); and control variables consists of lev (leverage), nwc (net working capital), salesg (sales growth), and capex (capital expenditure). the population in this study consisted of companies listed on the idx (indonesia stock exchange) for the period 2010-2017. in this study, the sample © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 104 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market selection technique used was non-probability purposive sampling. the sample selection is done by purposive sampling method, which is the selection of samples with certain criteria set beforehand in order to obtain samples that are suitable with the purpose of the study. of the 608 populations, there are 219 companies that fulfill the requirements to be sampled. the dependent variable in this study is ch. total cash is used as a proxy for ch. so, chs are measured by the natural logarithm of the total year-end cash balance (ch) as of december 31 held by the company. ch variables can be formulated as follows: ch = log (year-end balance sheet cash balance). the independent variable is a variable that influences or is the cause of changes or the emergence of the dependent variable. the independent variable in this study is corporate governance. in this study corporate governance is proxied by using: bsize (board size) is the number of members of the board of directors in each company; bindep (board independence) is the proportion of independent directors on the board of commissioners in the company; and insider (managerial ownership structure) is the percentage of share ownership owned by insiders consisting of directors or board of commissioners of the total number of shares outstanding. in the model, the fp (family pyramid) is the moderating variable. it is a dummy variable of the companies that have insider ownership of more than 20%. control variables are those that are made constant so that they do not affect the main variables studied (ghozali, 2005; pearl & mackenzie, 2018; and lenz & sahn, 2020). the control variables in this study are as follows: lev (leverage), defined as how much the company is financed with debt; nwc (net working capital), the proxy of this variable is current assets minus current liabilities, and this variable describes the availability of liquid assets in lieu of cash in the company; salesg (sales growth), can be calculated by comparing the difference between current year’s sales and last year’s sales, and sales growth data can be obtained directly from the financial base provided on the idx official website; and capex (capital expenditure), defined as the ratio of capital expenditure to total assets. the research model used was adapted from y. kusnadi (2011) and other scholars. this study was tested using multiple linear regression analysis to examine the relationship between independent variables, corporate governance and the dependent variable, cash holdings, with family pyramid as a moderating variable (cf kusnadi, 2011; safitri & kamil, 2020; and setiawan & adelisa, 2020). this research model can be formulated as follows: educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 105 ch it = α + β 1 bsize it + β 2 bindep it + β 3 insider it + β 4 fp it + β 1 bsize it *β 4 fp it + β 2 bindep it *β 4 fp it + β 3 insider it *β 4 fp it + β 5 lev it + β 6 nwc it + β 7 salesg it + β 8 capexit + ε it secondary data management for this study uses several programs and for descriptive analysis, classic assumption test, and panel data analysis using e-views 10 as data processing. descriptive statistical analysis aims to obtain a general description of the study sample, namely the mean, median, mode, max value, min value, variance, and standard deviation of each variable used in the test model. the classic assumption test follows the blue (best linear unlimited estimate), by conducting a normality test, an autocorrelation test, and a heteroscedasticity test (faraway, 2002; siagian, 2006; and mishra et al., 2019). in the ols (ordinary least squares) model, each individual of the variables is considered to have a constant intercept and slope and it is assumed that there are no differences in the characteristics of both the time and space of each individual data. all data will be grouped together for each data cross section and regressed with the ols method. but this ols method has a weakness where it is difficult to see changes between individuals because this method considers all individuals to be the same (homogeneous). fem (finite element method) is done to overcome the weaknesses that exist in the ols method, where the ols method produces a constant α for each individual and the time is considered less realistic. this fem method allows changes in α on each i and t. in the rem (random effects method), differences in characteristics between individuals and/or time are accommodated through errors. individuals have common mean values for intercepts, while individual differences in intercept values are reflected in error terms. to choose the approach between fem and rem, the formal statistical tests used are the chow test and the hausman test. chow test aims to choose between ols and fem methods. this test is done by comparing the value of chow with f-stat. if the chow is greater than the f-stat then the method chosen is fem. the hausman test aims to choose between fem and rem. this test tests whether the coefficient estimated by random effect is the same as the coefficient estimated by fixed effect. if the probability of p-value is greater than the level of significance (5%) then it is not significant, which means that rem can be used as a technique in the parameters of the panel data. significance tests were carried out to test the independent variables in the research model. this test can help see how well the independent variables are used in the model to explain the dependent variable. some © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 106 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market significance tests conducted in this study are the f-test, t-test, and the coefficient of determination (r2 and adjusted r2). see table 1. f-test is a hypothesis testing the regression coefficient (slope) simultaneously. this test is to test the significance of the independent variable on the dependent variable as a whole. if the slope coefficient is zero, it means that there is not enough evidence to say the independent variable (corporate governance) has an influence on the dependent variable (cash holdings). this f-test is based on criteria: firstly, comparison of f-stat and f-table: if f-stat > fα (k, n-k-l) then h 0 is rejected; if f-stat < fα (k, n-k-l) then h 0 is not rejected. secondly, probability: prob (p-value) > significance level, then h 0 is not rejected; prob (p-value) < significance level, then h 0 is rejected. the t-test is to calculate the regression coefficient individually. from the results of the t-test can be known whether the hypothesis is accepted or rejected, so it can be seen whether the independent variable has a significant effect on the dependent variable or not. this t-test is based on criteria: firstly, comparison of t-stat and t-table: if t-stat > t-table then h 0 is rejected; if t-stat < then h 0 is not rejected. secondly, probability: prob (p-value) > significance level, then h 0 is not rejected; prob (p-value) < significance level, then h 0 is rejected. determination coefficient test is conducted to see the magnitude of the ability of all independent variables (corporate governance) in the regression model in explaining the dependent variable (cash holdings). the greater r2 is, the stronger the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent. the value of r2 is in the range of 0 < r2 < 1. the value of r2 close to 0 indicates that the dependent variable is table 1: descriptive statistics cg variable mean median maximum minimum std. dev. probability observations ch* 8.381558 8.792944 12.71397 0.010187 2.239975 0.000000 1744 bsize 0.614828 0.602060 1.041393 0.100000 0.167398 0.000000 1744 bindep 1.130318 1.000000 5.000000 0.250000 0.545431 0.000000 1744 insider 27.78764 24.93000 94.15000 0.050000 19.07020 0.000000 1744 fp 0.912271 1.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.282982 0.000000 1744 lev 6.947973 0.869356 926.6731 0.001247 53.31460 0.000000 1744 nwc 1.15e+11 4075120. 1.60e+13 -7.08e+12 8.51e+11 0.000000 1744 salesg 5.06e+10 345869.0 2.14e+13 -2.72e+13 1.04e+12 0.000000 1744 capex 2.559029 0.530860 561.0304 3.46e-10 30.45266 0.000000 1744 notes: cash (natural cash holdings logarithm), bsize (board size), bindep (proportion of independent directors), insider (percentage of managerial stock ownership), fp (companies with insider more than 20% family ownership), lev (total liabilities divided by total equity), nwc (current asset less current liabilities), salesg (difference in current year’s sales with the previous year), capex (ratio of capital expenditure to total assets). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 107 increasingly unable to be explained by the independent variable, while the value of r2 which is close to 1 shows a good regression model, meaning that the independent variable can explain the dependent variable. adjusted r2 functions to measure the independent variable, corporate governance, in explaining the dependent variable, namely cash holdings. the greater adjusted r2 shows that the effect of the independent variable is greater on the dependent variable. results and discussion descriptive statistics. descriptive statistics aim to summarize the size of centralization and dissemination of data used so that the characteristics of the sample used in the study are seen. the results of a descriptive statistical analysis of the influence of cg (corporate governance) on ch (cash holdings) on companies listed on the indonesia stock exchange in the period 2010-2017. descriptive statistics in this study refer to the average value (mean) and standard deviation, the minimum and maximum values of all variables in this study. see again the table 1. the descriptive statistics regarding the variables used in this study. cash holdings have an average value of 8.381558, this indicates that companies listed on the indonesia stock exchange for the period 2010-2017 have an average cash or cash equivalent of 8.381558 (in million) with a minimum cash holdings value of 0.010187 (in millions) and maximum cash holding value of 12.71397 (million), with a standard deviation of 2.239975 this means that the data distribution of cash holding is low, because the standard deviation is smaller than the mean, this shows that the average cash holding of the companies in this study is relatively homogeneous. the average size of the board of directors of companies listed on the idx (indonesia stock exchange) is 0.614828, the size of the board of directors is measured in units of numbers, and this indicates that the companies sampled in this study have an average of more than one board of directors. with a standard deviation of 0.167398, this shows that the companies in this study had more than one board of directors that was very instrumental in providing control over the company, especially maintaining the running of the cg mechanism in these companies. bindep (board independence) or proportion of independent directors is measured using a ratio that is the number of independent directors to the number of commissioners of companies, the average number of independent directors in companies listed on the idx is 1.130318, based on capital market regulations the number of independent directors is 30%. based on the data, the average company listed on the idx has more than one independent board of commissioners, with the lowest number being 0.25 and the highest 5, with a standard deviation of 0.545, meaning that the proportion of independent board of commissioners in the companies © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 108 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market in this study is heterogeneous or the proportion exceeds provisions set by regulations regarding the capital market. insider (managerial ownership structure) is the number of shares owned by the board of directors and the board of commissioners as measured by presentation, the average managerial ownership of companies listed on the idx is 27.78%, this shows that 27.78% of company ownership is controlled by insiders, with a minimum ownership of 0.05 and a maximum ownership of 94.15%, with a standard deviation of 19.07020 meaning that the average managerial ownership of companies listed on the idx is very small, this can be seen from the standard deviation values that are smaller than the mean. fp (family pyramid) describes the number of company ownership owned by insiders more than 20%, the average family ownership is 0.91, this indicates that the family controls 91% of companies listed on the idx, the lowest family ownership is 0.00% and the highest ownership is 100 %, the percentage of family ownership is very high because on average companies listed on the idx have managerial share ownership of more than 20%. the standard deviation of family ownership is 0.282982, which is smaller than the mean of 0.91; this indicates that the average companies listed on the idx majority of the shares are owned by the family. the control variables used in this study are leverage, net working capital, sales growth, and capital expenditure. leverage is a comparison between total liabilities to total equity, the average value of leverage is 6.947973, this shows that companies listed on the idx have a leverage or debt value of 6,947 of the company’s equity value, with the lowest leverage value of 0.001247 and the value of leverage the highest is 926.6731, which indicates that the company has the lowest deb to equity 0 and the highest debt to equity is 926.6731. the average annual sales growth of the company is 5.06% with an average working capital used by the company every year is 1.15 (in million) and the company spends an average budget of 2.559029 (in millions) for capital expenditure with a standard deviation of 30.45, standard deviation capital expenditure of companies listed on the idx is greater than the mean value, this shows that capital expenditure is very high. firstly, classic assumption test. the classic assumption test is conducted to fulfill the blue (best linear unlimited estimation) assumption, to fulfill these assumptions, the classic assumption tests in this study include: normality test, multicollinearity test, autocorrelation test, and heteroscedasticity test. the calculation results show: the data in this study are normally distributed; the model is free from multicollinearity problems; the model is free from the autocorrelation problem; and the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 109 model is free from the problem of heteroscedasticity. secondly, panel data test and best model selection. panel data regression in this study uses three approaches namely the common effect model approach, the fixed effect model, and the random effect model. to determine the most suitable model approach for panel data regression three tests were used. the f-test (chow test) is to choose between the common effect model and the fixed effect model. then, the hausman test to choose between the fixed effect model and the random effect model. next is the lm (lagrange multiplier) test to select the common effect model and the random effect model. the lm test is performed, if there is a difference in the results between the chow test and the hausman test, if the results of the two tests are the same, then the lm test does not need to be done, because the appropriate panel data model in this study has been found. all of these tests indicate that the best model according to the hausman test is the fixed effect model, according to the results of the chow test and the hausman test, the best model used in this study is the fixed effect model. because the results of the chow test and the hausman test show a fixed effect model that is more appropriate to choose, then the lm test is not necessary. thirdly, the effect of corporate governance on cash holdings in nonfinancial companies listed on the indonesia stock exchange in the 20102017 period. after a series of tests conducted previously to determine, which model is the most appropriate to be used to test the effect of cg (corporate governance) on ch (cash holdings), then based on the best model selection test, the most appropriate model used in the research is the fixed effect model. individuals differ because the slope between times is constant. in this model, each individual has fixed constants for various periods of time, as well as slope between fixed times. this technique uses a dummy variable to capture the intercept differences between companies. this estimation model is often also called the lsdv (least squares dummy variable) technique. table 2 shows the effect or research variables on gc with family pyramid as moderating variable. based on the results of the regression with the fixed effect model, the regression equation is obtained as follows: ch = 8.0345751351 + 1.76905283298 *bsize + 0.0336522687874 *bindep 0.0224659367883 *insider + 0.860663743563 *fp 2.02050061991 *bsize*fp 0.43230183633 *bindep*fp + 0.0255483121517 *insider*fp 0.00115721091635 *lev + 1.21624055864e-13 *nwc + 9.14316230815e-14 *salsg 0.00143271474911 *capex based on the results of the f-test together the independent variables, namely cg (corporate governance) are proxied by the bsize (size of © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 110 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market the board of directors), bindep (independent commissioners), and insider (managerial ownership), family pyramid (moderating variables) and control variables consisting of lev (leverage), nwc (net working capital), salesg (sales growth), and capex (capital expenditure) have a significant effect on the dependent variable which is proxied by ch (cash holdings). so, it can be concluded that the h 1 research hypothesis is accepted, that corporate governance has a significant influence on cash holdings. the cgm (corporate governance mechanism) is basically the implementation of corporate governance based on the principles of openness, accountability, accountability, professionalism, and fairness that are realized in the mechanism regulated by the regulator. the cgm aims at how management as a trusted party acts as well as possible for the benefit of the public and shareholders. stewardship theory views that human beings are essentially trustworthy, able to act responsibly, and have integrity and honesty towards others, these qualities are needed by managers in an effort to realize the achievement of corporate governance in the company. this research, in indonesia, has the aim of knowing whether the cgm can affect the company’s cash holdings. the results of this study table 2: effect of research variables on cg with family pyramid as moderating variable variable coefficient std. error t-statistic prob. c 8.034575 0.790768 10.160470 0.000 bsize 1.769053 1.086152 1.628734 0.104 bindep 0.033652 0.524413 0.064171 0.949 insider -0.022466 0.008315 -2.702011 0.007 fp 0.860664 0.801687 1.073566 0.283 bsize*fp -2.020501 1.090415 -1.852965 0.064 bindep*fp -0.432302 0.533175 -0.810806 0.418 insider*fp 0.025548 0.008574 2.979730 0.003 lev -0.001157 0.000437 -2.647492 0.008 nwc 1.22e-13 3.14e-14 3.872985 0.000 salesg 9.14e-14 2.09e-14 4.365490 0.000 capex -0.001433 0.000731 -1.960315 0.050 effects specification cross-section fixed (dummy variables) r-squared 0.88169 mean dependent var 8.381558 adjusted r-squared 0.863253 s.d. dependent var 2.239975 s.e. of regression 0.828327 akaike info criterion 2.586427 sum squared resid 1034.677 schwarz criterion 3.325813 log likelihood -2019.365 hannan-quinn criter. 2.859799 f-statistic 47.82206 durbin-watson stat 1.051122 prob(f-statistic) 0.00000 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 111 provide empirical evidence that corporate governance has an impact on corporate cash holdings, from three proxies to measure cg (corporate governance) only managerial ownership that affects cash holdings while size the independent board and commissioners do not exert influence on cash holdings, as well as family pyramid has no effect on cash holdings, while the control variables namely leverage, net working capital, sales growth and capital expenditure all affect cash holdings. these findings support the results of studies previously, including the results of research that be conducted by: t. opler et al. (1999); j. harford, w. mikkelson & m.m. partch (2003); a. dittmar & j. mahrt-smith (2007); y. guney, a. ozkan & n. ozkan (2007); j. harford, s.a. mansi & w.f. maxwell (2008); t.w. bates, k.m. kahle & r.m. stulz (2009); and y. kusnadi (2011). cg implementation is to improve the protection of the interests of investors, especially shareholders in public companies. cg encourages the growth of a check and balance mechanism at the management level in giving attention to the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders, related to the rights and responsibilities of shareholders to appoint boards of commissioners and directors who can influence fundamental corporate policies. the size of the board of directors describes the strength in determining and taking policies related to the company’s strategic decisions. the number of board of directors plays an important role in increasing effectiveness and efficiency in the company, the greater the board of directors can improve control and supervision so as to minimize agency problems. agency problems in the company arise, due to differences in interests between managers as agents with company owners, these differences in objectives will ultimately have an impact on the company’s objectives, especially cash holdings (cf jerzemowska, 2006; hussain et al., 2015; and acero & alcalde, 2016). conclusion 2 the results of this study support flexibility hypothesis, where companies in indonesia tend to hoard cash like in singapore and malaysia, even though they do not have a single ownership structure; possibly this is influenced by the legal system that is still weak, where the legal system in indonesia does not act as a supervisor of corporate management practices, so the company de facto has extensive autonomy in determining company 2acknowledgment: the authors would like to thank to the study program of accounting education sps upi (school of graduate studies, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, for supporting this research. also high appreciation was given to prof. dr. norhasni zainal abiddin, a lecturer at the faculty of education upm (putra university of malaysia) in serdang, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia; assoc. prof. dr. haji awang asbol bin haji mail, a lecturer at fass ubd (faculty of art and socian sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and andi suwirta, m.hum., a lecturer at fpips (faculty of social studies education) upi in bandung, west java, indonesia, for their suggestions, improvements, and good and thorough reading of this paper before it is published in its current form. however, all contents and interpretations of this article are the responsibility of both our academics, as authors, and have nothing to do with any assistance that has been provided by other parties. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 112 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market policy without any control from regulators. the government as a regulator only has the role of providing a legal umbrella and cg (corporate governance) is entirely left to the respective companies, so that there are no standards that have been put forward by companies in their cg practices.3 references acero, i. & n. alcalde. 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(2016). “ownership structure, diversification, and corporate performance based on structural equation modeling” in journal of real estate portfolio management, volume 22, pp.63-73. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 116 nugraha & indri ayu lestari, corporate governance and cash holdings in emerging market the indonesia stock exchange (source: https://arthagraha.net/project/indonesia-stock-exchange-building, 09/10/2020) the existence of a comprehensive review of the determinants of corporate cash holdings in a number of companies found that the exchange between the costs and benefits of hoarding cash holdings was to establish a balance of cash. in the case of indonesia, the movement of corporate cash holdings from various sectors on the idx (indonesia stock exchange) during 2010-2017 indicates a rising trend. cash holdings until 2017 reached the highest value of 10.95, which equaled the value of cash holdings in 2012. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 31© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com christina andin @ nur qistina, abdul said ambotang & musirin mosin teaching thinking skills in teacher education abstract: the thinking skills policy in malaysia is motivated by the aspiration of the 2020 vision that was published in 1991. the vision states explicitly that malaysia will become a fully developed nation by the year 2020. so, teaching the thinking skills has also been given a high priority in educational policy. however, many teachers are ill-equipped with the ability to teach thinking skills. therefore, as the producer of current and future teacher, teacher education programme should emphasize thinking skills teaching. this study aimed at identifying the extent to which teacher educators provide an exemplary practice of thinking skills teaching to student teachers. specifically, this study investigates whether teacher educators provide the opportunity to student teachers to engage in teaching and learning that emphasized the integration of thinking skills. this study was conducted at one teacher education programme in malaysia. all final year student teacher (60) were selected as the samples. a set of questionnaire used as an instrument. data were analyzed using statistical package for the social science and the findings were reported in the form of frequency and percentage. the findings indicate the lack integration of various forms of thinking skills in teaching and learning activities. the traditional approach of a one-way communication technique was more dominant compare to the teaching technique that promotes thinking skills. hence, this study has several practical implications for teacher education programme for producing future teachers with the ability to implement thinking skills policy in schools. key words: thinking skills, educational policy, teacher education, teacher educator, student-teacher, teaching and learning activities, and ability to implement thinking skills policy. about the authors: christina andin @ nur qistina, abdul said ambotang and musirin mosin are the lecturers at the faculty of psychology and education ums (malaysia university of sabah), 88400 kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia. for academic interests, the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: christina@ums.edu.my, said@ums.edu.my, and m_musirin@yahoo.com how to cite this article? nur qistina, christina andin @, abdul said ambotang & musirin mosin. (2015). “teaching thinking skills in teacher education” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.31-44. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/04-teaching-thinking-skills/ chronicle of the article: accepted (may 14, 2015); revised (june 29, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction present technological advances and the need to stay competitive in the globalisation era require skilled workers, who are able to think critically, to evaluate alternatives, and to meet complex challenges intelligently (pithers, 2000). these fundamental changes in employment imply a rise in the demand for non-routine cognitive and interpersonal skills and a decline in the demand for routine cognitive and craft skills, physical labour, and repetitive physical tasks (oecd, 2012). therefore, policy-makers around the world strive to include the development of cognitive ability or thinking skills as an important education goal. according to a. craft (2007), by the late 1990s, policy-makers in several countries, such as australia, canada, england, hong kong, china, singapore, and the middle east had announced policy initiatives focused c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 32 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com on fostering students’ thinking. in malaysia, which is the focus of this study, teaching thinking skills has been mandatory since 1993. the thinking skills policy in malaysia is motivated by the aspiration of the 2020 vision that was published in 1991. the vision states explicitly that malaysia will become a fully developed nation by the year 2020. in order to achieve the vision, the country needs to develop a manpower with the capacity to solve problems, make decisions, think both creatively and critically, and be able to adapt and adjust to present or future situations (mohamad, 1991). in relation to this, all teachers are required to teach thinking skills across the curriculum (cdc, 2002). the successful implementation of thinking skills policy in education requires the thoughtful consideration of current instructional techniques and the commitment to an active student-centered learning environment (limbach & waugh, 2010). however, h. rosnani & h. suhailah (2003), who reviewed some studies related to thinking skills teaching in malaysia, concluded that in most of the studies teachers were not prepared to teach thinking, and had a low sense of selfefficacy and little knowledge and skills in the area of thinking skills (rosnani & suhailah, 2003:56). teaching and learning in the classroom are still dominated by one-way communication teacher centered approach. similarly, m. rahil et al. (2004) argue that it is realised that many teachers are not fully capable of incorporating thinking skills in their teaching strategies (rahil et al., 2004:24). the extent to which higher-order thinking skills are taught and assessed continues to be an area of debate, with many teachers and employers expressing concern that young people “cannot think” (collin, 2014). the issue of teachers ill-equipped for implementing teaching thinking skills policy has led to the questioning of the effectiveness of teacher education programmes. m. lunenberg & f. korthagen (2003) argue that one of the reasons is maybe their teacher educators taught them according to traditional methods (lunenberg & korthagen, 2003:30). this is based on the idea that “teachers teach as they are taught” (blume, 1971). teacher educators should model teaching approaches that are consistent with those we expect for teachers in school (russell, 1997; hoban, 2005; and korthagen, loughran & lunenberg, 2005). therefore, in the context of teaching thinking skills policy, teacher educators should provide an exemplary practice of thinking skills teaching to the student teachers. k. guilfoyle, m.l. hamilton & s. pinnegar (1997) claim that in teaching future teachers, teacher educators are committed to model the kind of work we expected from them (guilfoyle, hamilton & pinnegar, 1997:183). it is important to provide student teachers with the opportunity to gain relevant experience, because it could help the student teachers to become familiar with the new ways of educational innovation (griffin, 1999; stromquist, 2002; and russell, 2005). highlighting the role of teacher educators in preparing future teacher for the implementation of thinking skills policy extends the research in this area from school into teacher education. very little research focusing on teacher education so far. many studies in this area focused on teachers’ conception of thinking skills and the extent to which they were able to develop students’ thinking. this is particularly important, because teacher education has an important role in the preparation of future teachers who being able to implement thinking skills teaching across the curriculum. the objectives of this study are: (1) to identify the extent to which teacher educators providing an exemplary practice of thinking skills teaching; and (2) to identify the extent to which teacher educators infusing various forms of thinking skills in their teaching. thinking skills defi ning thinking skills. there is no unified and agreed-upon definition of thinking skills. as k. cotton (1991) stated that those who take an interest in this field of study soon realise that they cannot go tossing around these terms in a casual manner, since there are no universal agreements as to their meanings (cotton, 1991:2). similarly, l. cuban (1984) asserts educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 33© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com that defining thinking skills, reasoning, critical thought, and problem solving is troublesome for both social scientists and practitioners. troublesome is a polite word: the area is a conceptual swamp (cuban, 1984:676). therefore, l.b. resnick (1987) suggests that it is easy to list the key features associated with the term. as such, a number of researchers provide lists, taxonomies, and descriptions about types of thinking skills that should be subject to instruction. these include problem solving, decision-making, creative thinking, and critical thinking (siegal, 1984; presseisen, 1986; beyer, 1987; and marzano et al., 2000). these thinking skills are included in the “way of thinking” as one of the four categories in the 21st century skills frameworks (binkley et al., 2010). obviously, there are three main components of thinking skills that can be identified in the literature: micro-thinking skills, macro-thinking skills, and thinking quality. the first and the second are differentiated in terms of their complexity. micro thinking skill. this is used to refer to thinking skills that are less complex than overarching problem-solving and decisionmaking strategies (beyer, 1987; and marzano et al., 2000). as b.k. beyer (1987) notes that each micro-thinking (core skill) operation consists of only a limited number of steps, procedures, and rules. these skills are relatively simple and straightforward (beyer, 1987:31). b.k. beyer (1987) referred to the cognitive domain of bloom’s taxonomy as the best and most clearly defined list of micro-thinking skills. the progressive levels of bloom’s revised taxonomy include remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating (krathwohl, 2002). these basic skills are components of more complex strategies, such as problem solving and decision-making. in her three-stage model of cognition, b.z. presseisen (1986) uses the term “essential skills” to explain a range of basic thinking skills. the essential skills include qualifications, clarifications, relationships, transformations, and causation. similar to b.k. beyer (1987), b.z. presseisen (1986) treats the essential skills as prerequisite tools for more complex strategies in problem solving and decision-making. r.j. marzano et al. (2000) identify 21 “core thinking skills”. core thinking skills, when employed in certain arrays, will lead to the formation and use of more complex thinking skills such as problem solving and decisionmaking (cf marzano et al., 2000; and beresford & sloper, 2008). macro thinking skills. macro-thinking skills are sometimes explained as thinking processes, are broader, greater in depth and breadth, and more complex. they may include a range of core skills, and evolve and adapt with other complex strategies. these include two common thinking terms in the literature: problem solving and decision-making. problem solving, as it is largely described in the psychological literature, refers to certain mental operations or processes that are needed to reach a specific goal (cf skinner, 1953; polya, 1957; and newell & simon, 1972). r.e. mayer (1990) defines problem solving as cognitive processing directed at transforming a given situation when no obvious method of solution is available. this definition is widely accepted in the problem solving community (cf mayer & wittrock, 2006). grounded in these accepted meaning of problem solving, the pisa (programme international student assessment), in 2012, definition of problem solving competency is an individual’s capacity to engage in cognitive processing to understand and resolve problem situations, where a method of solution is not immediately obvious. it includes the willingness to engage with such situations in order to achieve one’s potential as a constructive and reflective citizen (oecd, 2010). a number of prescriptive strategies have been developed for problem solving (cf newell & simon, 1972; gagne, 1985; bransford & steain, 1986; gick, 1986; and klieme, 2004); and although these are numerous, many share a basic similarity in structure. perhaps foremost is the ideal problem solver model proposed by j.d. bransford & b.s. steain (1986). it is this that is employed in malaysia. the model emphasies five components of thinking that are applicable to a wide variety of situations. these ideal include: i = identify the problem; c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 34 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com d = define the problem; e = explore strategies; a = act on ideas; and l = look for effect. decision-making, typically, involves selecting a single option from a set of alternatives based on a set of criteria (greenbank, 2010). decisionmakers must choose from a set of alternatives, each of which has one or more consequences (halpern, 1984). in the context of uncertainty condition, effective decision making involves the ability to recognize risk, formulate strategies for action, and coordinate with others in an effort to bring an incident under control quickly (comfort & wukich, 2013). in earlier work, l.k. comfort (2007) identified four skills as essential to decision making under uncertainty: cognition, communication, coordination, and control. these skills are cumulative and each skill depends upon the preceding skill. many decision-making models have been proposed in the literature (cf cassidy & kurfman, 1977; and ehrenberg, ehrenberg & durfee, 1979). all the models seem to share the same notion that decision-making consists of sub-processes; and although there are some differences in suggested steps, these models generally include the determination of goals, the search for alternatives, evaluation of alternatives, selection, and implementation. thinking quality: critical and creative thinking. s. bailin (1998) stresses that thinking is not merely a description of how we think, but more importantly is how to think well. although most individuals think, the problem lies in how effectively, efficiently, critically, and creatively one thinks (schuable & glaser, 1990). according to r. paul & l. elder (2008), creativity masters a process of making or producing and criticality a process of assessing or judging. the very definition of the word “creative” implies a critical component (e.g. “having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness”). when engaged in high-quality thought, the mind must simultaneously produce and assess, both generate and judge the products it fabricates (paul & elder, 2008). therefore, it is important to note that critical and creative thinking are not two contrasting thinking processes, but complementary between each other (ruggiero, 1994; brophy, 1998; dineen, samuel & livesey, 2005; and facione, 2010). r. dineen, e. samuel & k. livesey (2005), for example, pointed out that creativity requires both divergent/productive thinking, to ensure novelty, and convergent/reproductive thinking, to ensure appropriateness. critical thinking saves creative thinking from pursuing novelty for its own sake and creative thinking prevents critical thinking from being merely reactive and negative (ruggiero, 1994). d.h. cropley & a.j. cropley (2005), who reviewed the importance of critical thinking, commented that without convergent thinking, the product of creativity may cause “surprise” in the beholder, but this is not enough, since surprise can be produced through “blind” variability: mere unregulated self-expression or doing things differently from the usual regardless of accuracy, meaning, sense, significance, or interestingness (cropley & cropley, 2005:4). critical and creative thinking are different from thinking strategies, because neither of the concepts is associated with any process such as problem solving or decision-making. rather, critical and creative thinking have some sort of special characteristic that determines the quality of thinking. critical and creative thinking are employed at various points of problem solving and decision-making. for example, osborn’s creative problem solving model, in 1952, proposes a process that is directed toward the solution of a problem in unusual or unique ways. in relation to this, r.j. marzano et al. (2000) refer the term “critical and creative thinking” to the quality of thinking. they note that as we solve problem or make decisions, we do it more or less creatively, more or less critically (marzano et al., 2000:17). furthermore, creative and critical thinking are major tools in problem solving (cf facione, 1990; lewis & smith, 1993; and paul, elder & bartell, 1997). r.b. cattell & h.j. butcher (1968) used the term “pseudo-creativity” to refer to creative thinking as a product that derives from nonconformity and blind rejection of what already exists. r.a. finke, t.b. ward & s.m. smith (1992) argued that two broad processes, educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 35© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the creative (generating novelty) and critical (exploring/evaluating the novelty) working together, lead to the production of what j.s. bruner (1986) called as “effective surprise”. the evaluation of the novelty from the point of view of criteria such as “workability” is now seen as an important part of the creative process (csikszentmihalyi, 1999). as such, both of the concepts are employed in problem solving and decision-making. the creative element in problem solving, for example, distinguishes the solution of a problem in a routine manner and in more unusual ways. as mentioned earlier in the attempt to clarify thinking skills, the utilisation of critical and creative thinking in problem solving and decision-making will create the product of high order thinking rather than low order thinking. teaching thinking skills literature indicates that there are three common approaches to teaching thinking skills: (1) direct instruction on thinking skills in non-curricular contexts; (2) indirect approaches which promote thinking skills in content lessons; and (3) the infusion approach. r. swartz & s. parks (1994) illustrate the approaches in figure 1. the teaching of thinking by direct instruction means that, in a time period designed for thinking instruction, students learn how to use explicit thinking strategies, commonly guided by the teacher (swartz & parks, 1994:8). usually, the teaching of thinking occurs in separate, self-contained courses or programmes with specially designed materials, and is taught outside the standard curriculum. examples of this approach include martin lipman’s philosophy for children (lipman, 1985); feuerstein’s ie or instrumental enrichment (feuerstein, hoffman & miller, 1980); and edward de bono’s cort programme (de bono, 1991). alternatively, the teaching for thinking involves employing methods to promote students’ deep understanding of content (swartz & parks, 1994). while this approach enhances content-domain learning (resnick, 1987) and eliminates the problem of scheduling extra courses (martin, 1983), it has not been widely successful in transferring cognitive skills across the curriculum (resnick, 1987; and nickerson, perkins & smith, 1985). an innovative curriculum development project called thinking through geography (leat, 1998) is an example of this approach, and is approaches to teaching thinking teaching of thinking teaching for thinking direct instruction in thinking in non-curricular context use of methods which promote thinking in curricular contexts infusion restructuring content lessons for direct instruction in thinking infusion integrates direct instruction in specific thinking skills into content area lessons. lessons improve student thinking and enhance content learning figure 1: approaches to teaching thinking (source: swartz & parks, 1994:9) c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 36 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com considered to be a rare success. the approach adopted in malaysia is a synthesis of both teaching of thinking and teaching for thinking (swartz & parks, 1994). this approach is closely linked with the national philosophy of education, which emphasises the development of knowledge, skills, and values in an integrated manner. infusion lessons are taught across the curriculum. infusion lessons comprise conventional subject teaching adapted to bring explicit emphasis on skilful thinking into this broader learning context. classroom time is spent on both thinking skills and content. the teaching and learning activities are characterised by the new view of learning (simon, van der linden & duffy, 2000), which differs from the traditional approach. r. swartz & s. parks (1994) propose that in infusing thinking skills educators should involve students in four main activities, which involve the introduction, thinking actively, metacognition, and transfer. the first requirement in the infusion lesson is to “introduce thinking skills”. here, teachers introduce students to the thinking skills to be used and developed in the class. this is achieved by a discussion designed explicitly to demonstrate to the students themselves what they already know about the thinking skill being taught; show the students why this type of thinking is important; help them to understand the importance of the skills in their own experience; introduce the significance of engaging in this kind of skillful thinking; and help them reflect on the content they are learning (swartz & parks, 1994). the second activity is the one centred on the infusion lesson, namely “thinking actively”. this demands that the teacher uses a variety of teaching techniques to guide students through the practice of thinking. this is to be done as they learn concepts, facts, and skills in the appropriate subject. in this part of the lesson, teaching the content and teaching the thinking skills are combined. the primary role of the teachers/teacher educator in this phase of the infusion lesson is as a learning facilitator. there are various techniques that are suggested for the effective teaching of thinking skills. in a critique of the traditional approach to teaching, r.j. marzano et al. (2000) and a. costa (2001) note that educators commonly provide so much information that students can comply with the learning objectives only by failing to think for themselves. they argue that transmission models of education compel teachers to instruct students what to do, when to do it, and even how to behave when they do it (marzano et al., 2000; and costa, 2001). the infusion model is designed as a specific measure to free education from this instructorled approach and to develop thinking skills by independent and individual learning, in which facilitation rather than instruction is a priority. specific tools and methods designed to underpin this approach include thinking map and graphic organiser (swartz & parks, 1994); high-order questioning (dillon, 1984; and gall, 1984); cooperative learning (slavin, 1981; johnson & johnson, 1982; and hokaday, 1984); and scaffolding (palinscar & brown, 1989; and rosenshine & meister, 1992). the third activity is focused on metacognitive or reflective thinking. this activity requires teachers to ask reflective questions designed to help students distance themselves from what they are thinking about, so that they can become aware of how they are thinking. students map out their own thinking process explicitly, commenting on how easy or hard it was, how they might improve it, and whether this was a productive way to think about such issues. they are also encouraged to plan how they will do the same kind of thinking in the future. there are three basic questions that can be used to structure this phase of the programme: (1) what kind of thinking did you engage in?; (2) how did you carry out this kind of thinking?; and (3) is this an effective way to engage in this kind of thinking? however, during this third phase of the infusion lesson, teachers are also encouraged to think themselves about the thinking that the students have been doing. the teacher might also ask students how the thinking strategy developed in the lesson compares to their usual way of thinking. the fourth activity in the final stage of the infusion lesson is application. here, the teacher reinforces the thinking strategies by providing additional opportunities for students educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 37© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com to engage in similar, but independent, thinking. r. swartz & s. parks (1994) stress that these processes emphasise thinking skill transfer and should be employed soon after the other three parts of the lesson. they should also be reinforced in other activities throughout the school year. they suggest two kinds of transfer that should be emphasised in practice: near and far transfer. near transfer is described as the application of thinking activities to similar and related topics. far transfer involves the application of thinking activities from other disciplines or in other forms of personal experience. method the purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which teacher. this study employed a survey method using a set of questionnaire as an instrument. the questionnaire focuses on the student teachers’ views concerning: (1) the type of thinking skills infused in teaching; and (2) the extent to which teacher educators practicing thinking skills teaching. the questionnaire items for the types of thinking skills were constructed based on the taxonomy of thinking skills found in literature. these include macro-thinking skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, decisionmaking, problem solving); micro-thinking skills (six cognitive skills in bloom’s taxonomy); and metacognition. the questionnaire items regarding teacher educators’ teaching practices consist of two different approaches. the first approach is the one-way communication or lecture, which is under the category of a teacher-centred approach. the second approach is based on a student-centred approach with a focus on the infusion of thinking skills teaching. there are four components: first, the infusion lesson approach – based on the infusion approach by r. swartz & s. parks (1994); second, teaching techniques; third, classroom environment; and fourth, assessment of thinking skills acquisition. the samples were drawn from the final year student teachers at one teacher education programme in malaysia. there were a total of 63 student teachers in semester seven and all of them were selected as samples. only 60 questionnaires were returned to the researchers. the data from the questionnaire were analysed by using descriptive statistics to obtain the frequency and percentage. the demographic information of the respondents is shown in table 1. results and discussion firts, teacher educators practice in teaching thinking skills. theory classes: table 2 shows that the most frequently applied strategy during theory classes was one way communication (76.7%). the other remaining strategies that focused on thinking skills, namely the infusion approach, teaching techniques, and the assessment, were below satisfactory in practice. this is evident when a table 1: the demographics (n = 60) demographics % (f) sex: male female 36.7 (22) 63.3 (38) age range: 20-23 24-27 28-31 40.0 (24) 51.6 (31) 8.4 (5) educational background: malaysia higher education certificate diploma science matriculation 21.7 (13) 18.3 (11) 58.3 (35) attended programme related to thinking skills: yes no 20.0 (12) 80.0 (48) c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 38 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 2: teacher educators’ teaching practice that promote thinking in theory classes please read each statement carefully, reflect upon the teacher educators’ practice in their teaching s and n sts f and a used one-way communication – lecture * 0.0 (0) 23.3 (14) 76.7 (46) infusion lesson approach: introduced thinking skill in lesson 73.3 (44) 20.0 (12) 6.7 (4) collaborative engagement in thinking tasks 18.3 (11) 53.3 (32) 28.3 (17) demanded student teachers to plan their thinking 56.7 (34) 38.3 (23) 5.0 (3) demanded student teachers to describe their thinking processes 80.0 (48) 20.0 (12) 0.0 (0) demanded student teachers to evaluate their thinking 36.7 (22) 50.0 (30) 13.3 (8) applied thinking skills on taught topic 61.7 (37) 28.3 (17) 10.0 (6) applied thinking skills beyond taught topic 71.7 (43) 21.7 (13) 6.6 (4) mean percentage 57.0 33.0 10.0 teaching techniques: asked high-order questioning – go beyond simple recall 21.7 (13) 65.0 (39) 13.3 (8) used probing techniques to help student teachers think more deeply about their answer 61.7 (37) 25.0 (15) 13.3 (8) allowed waiting time for students response 48.3 (29) 31.7 (19) 20.0 (12) encouraged active participation from students 20.0 (12) 55.0 (33) 25.0 (15) used thinking map to clarify and organise skilful thinking 85.0 (51) 15.0 (9) 0.0 (0) required students work together in group 13.3 (8) 60.0 (36) 26.7 (16) used variety of teaching aids that encouraging thinking 78.3 (47) 15.0 (9) 6.7 (4) lecturer acted as a facilitator of learning 68.3 (41) 26.7 (16) 5.0 (3) mean percentage 49.5 36.7 13.8 managing classroom environment that motivating student thinking: accepted ‘odd’ response given by student teachers 11.7 (7) 28.3 (17) 60.0 (36) open minded and student teachers are treated fairly 10.0 (6) 26.7 (16) 63.3 (38) student teachers free to express opinion 13.3 (8) 25.0 (15) 61.7 (37) promoted intrinsic motivation for thinking 86.7 (52) 6.7 (4) 6.7 (4) promoted extrinsic motivation for thinking 81.7 (49) 10.0 (6) 8.3 (5) mean percentage 40.7 19.3 40.0 evaluated students improvement in thinking skills 76.7 (46) 13.3 (8) 10.0 (6) overall mean percentage 52.3 29.9 17.8 notes: s and n = seldom and never; sts = sometimes; f and a = frequent and always. low mean percentage of the student teachers (10%) experienced an infusion lesson approach employed by their teacher educators. similarly, a mean percentage of 13.8% indicated that the teacher educators did not practise the teaching technique that is important for thinking skills teaching. the student teachers also felt that teacher educators were not concerned with assessing the improvement of thinking skills, with low mean percentage of 10%. however, the efforts to provide a classroom environment that could enhance thinking is higher than the rest of the variables, with 40% of student teachers identifying this as frequent practice. the overall percentage of 17.8% indicates that very low concern was placed on the teaching of thinking skills in theory classes. practical classes. the concern about thinking skills was found to be more dominant in the workshops. this is evident from table 3, which illustrates that when the student teachers observed their lecturers employing an infusion lesson approach, the mean percentage was 58% compared to only 10% in theory classes. the student teachers also felt the management of the environment during the teaching and learning process encouraged student teachers’ thinking, with the mean percentage of 65. however, in terms of teaching techniques, the student teachers appeared to have different views, with almost an equal mean percentage indicating that these techniques were seldom (30.5%), sometimes (33.7%), and frequently educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 39© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 3: teacher educators’ teaching practice that promote thinking in practical classes please read each statement carefully, reflect upon your lecturers’ practice during theory classes and circle your response. s and n sts f and a one-way communication* 71.7 (43) 25.0 (15) 3.3 (2) infusion lesson approach: introduced thinking skill in lesson 65.0 (39) 20.0 (12) 15.0 (9) collaborative engagement in thinking tasks 3.3 (2) 28.3 (17) 68.3 (41) demanded student teachers to plan their thinking 31.7 (19) 41.7 (25) 26.6 (16) demanded student teachers to describe their thinking processes 6.7 (4) 21.7 (13) 71.7 (43) demanded student teachers to evaluate their thinking 5.0 (3) 18.3 (11) 76.7 (46) applied thinking skills on taught topic 6.7 (4) 13.3 (8) 80.0 (48) applied thinking skills beyond taught topic 13.3 (8) 18.3 (11) 68.3 (41) mean percentage 17.9 23.1 58.0 teaching teachniques: asked high-order questioning – go beyond simple recall 35.0 (21) 48.3 (29) 16.7 (10) used probing techniques to help student teachers think more deeply about their answer 38.3 (23) 50.0 (30) 11.7 (7) allowed waiting time for students response 38.3 (23) 51.7 (31) 10.0 (6) encouraged active participation from students 0.0 (0) 10.0 (6) 90.0 (54) used thinking map to clarify and organise skilful thinking 86.7 (52) 13.3 (8) 0.0 (0) required students work together in group 0.0 (0) 6.7 (4) 93.3 (56) used variety of teaching aids that encouraging thinking 15.0 (9) 56.7 (34) 28.3 (17) mean percentage 30.5 33.7 35.8 managing classroom environment that motivating student thinking: lecturer acted as a facilitator of learning 6.7 (4) 16.7 (10) 76.7 (46) accepted ‘odd’ response given by student teachers 6.7 (4) 11.7 (7) 81.7 (49) open minded and student teachers are treated fairly 3.3 (2) 13.3 (8) 83.4 (50) student teachers free to express opinion 1.7 (1) 11.7 (7) 86.7 (52) promoted intrinsic motivation for thinking 28.3 (17) 65.0 (39) 6.7 (4) promoted extrinsic motivation for thinking 5.0 (3) 40.0 (24) 55.0 (33) mean percentage 8.6 26.4 65.0 evaluated students improvement in thinking skills 78.3 (47) 13.3 (8) 8.3 (5) overall mean percentage 21.8 27.0 51.2 notes: s and n = seldom and never; sts = sometimes; f and a = frequent and always. (35.8%) applied. similar to theory classes, a high percentage (78.3%) of student teachers felt the improvement of thinking was not given serious attention. second, integrating the various form of thinking skills. theory classes. very low percentages of student teachers admitted that the teaching and learning activities emphasised macro thinking skills, as shown in table 4. the focus on critical thinking recorded the lowest percentage (5.0%). this was followed by creative thinking (6.6%), decision making (13.3%), and problem solving (20.0%). for micro thinking skills, the focus was limited to the lowest cognitive level, such as recall of information (75.0%) and comprehension level (53.3%). in contrast, low percentages were recorded for evaluation skills (11.7%), synthesis skills (15.0%), analysis skills (21.7%), and application skills (43.4%). the mean percentage of 36% of frequent practice indicates that micro thinking skills were not given serious attention. similarly, the focus on metacognition or reflective thinking was not encouraging. a high percentage of student teachers (85%) observed that teaching and learning activities “seldom and never” emphasised reflective thinking during theory classes. practical classes. table 5 indicates better practice of thinking skills during workshop activities. for macro thinking skills, the student teachers were required to a make decision (81.7%), solve a problem (80.0%), and think creatively (75.0%). the respondents also c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 40 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 4: frequency of integrating the various form of thinking skills (theory) thinking skills to what extent do you think your lecturers emphasised the following thinking skills in their teaching? seldom & never sometimes frequent & always m ac ro t h in ki n g sk il ls required students solve problem by considering all possible solution (problem solving skills ) 31.7 (19) 48.3 (29) (20.0) 12 require students to make decision by considering all possible alternatives and their consequences (decision making) 36.7 (22) 50.0 (30) 13.3 (8) require students to generate new ideas (creative thinking) 66.7 (40) 26.7 (16) 6.6 (4) require students to judge the accuracy and validity information. (critical thinking) 65.0 (39) 30.0 (18) 5 (3) mean percentage 50.0 38.8 11.2 m ic ro t h in ki n g sk il ls require student to recall or recognises information (recall) 15.0 (9) 10.0 (6) 75.0 (45) required students to translate and comprehends, or interprets information (comprehension) 20.0 (12) 26.7 (16) 53.3 (32) require student to select, transfers, and uses data and principles to complete a problem or task with a minimum of direction (application) 18.3 (11) 38.3 (23) 43.3 (26) require student to distinguish, classifies, and relates the assumptions, hypotheses, evidence, or structure of a statement or question (analysis) 56.7 (34) 21.7 (13) 21.6 (13) require student to originate, integrate, and combine ideas into a product, plan or proposal (synthesis) 65.0 (39) 20.0 (12) 15.0 (9) require student to appraise, assess, or critique on a basis of specific standards and criteria (evaluation) 73.3 (44) 15.0 (9) 11.7 (7) mean percentage 41.3 22.0 36.7 meta cognition require students to make reflection 68.3 (41) 18.3 (11) 13.3 (8) overall mean percentage 47.0 27.7 25.3 always engaged in tasks that required them to synthesise (70.0%), apply (66.7%), evaluate (65.0%), and analyse information (61.7%). they were also required to reflect on their thinking processes (66.7%). however, the focus on critical thinking was limited as 68.5% of respondents selected “seldom and never”. overall, the student teachers’ perceived that the integration of thinking skills was more dominant in practical classes compared to theory classes. this is evident when majority of the student teachers’ felt that one-way communication was frequently adopted by teacher educators during theory classes. in an one-way communication approach, the teacher educator role is more as knowledge transmitters and facilitators. as knowledge transmitters, the teacher educators focused on imparting knowledge with minimal student participation (caine & caine, 1995). this is in line with the result of studies on the implementation of thinking policy in schools, where teaching and learning are dominated by teachers (baharun, 1998; rajendran, 1998; and rahil et al., 2004). in the context of teacher education, l. darlinghammond et al. (2005) argues that teacher education is still dominated by the knowledge transmission approach. in contrast to the knowledge transmission approach, teacher educators’ roles as facilitators of learning provide an environment that is conducive to thinking activities. through a variety of student-centred teaching methods, such as higher-order questioning, problem-based learning, and discussion, students engaged actively in thinking activities (dillon, 1984; and palinscar & brown, 1989). however, the results of this study indicate only a small percentage of teacher educators employed teaching techniques that promote students’ thinking. the absence of the educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 41© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 5: frequency of integrating the various form of thinking skills (practical classes) thinking skills to what extent do you think your lecturers emphasised the following thinking skills in their teaching? s and n sts f and a m ac ro t h in ki n g sk il ls required students solve problem by considering all possible solution (problem solving) 5.0 (3) 15.0 (9) 80.0 (48) require students to make decision by considering all possible alternatives and their consequences (decision making) 3.3 (2) 15.0 (9) 81.7 (49) require students to generate new ideas (creative thinking) 5.0 (9) 10.0 (6) 75.0 (45) require students to judge the accuracy and validity information. (critical thinking) 68.3 (41) 21.7 (13) 10.0 (6) mean percentage 22.9 15.4 61.7 m ic ro t h in ki n g sk il ls require student to recall or recognises information (recall) 20.0 (12) 28.3 (17) 51.7 (31) required students to translate and comprehends, or interprets information (comprehension) 20.0 (12) 48.3 (29) 31.7 (19) require student to select, transfers, and uses data and principles to complete a problem or task with a minimum of direction (application) 15.0 (9) 18.3 (11) 66.7 (40) require student to distinguish, classifies, and relates the assumptions, hypotheses, evidence, or structure of a statement or question (analysis) 15.0 (9) 23.3 (14) 61.7 (37) require student to originate, integrate, and combine ideas into a product, plan or proposal (synthesis) 10.0 (6) 20.0 (12) 70.0 (42) require student to appraise, assess, or critique on a basis of specific standards and criteria (evaluation) 10.0 (6) 25.0 (15) 65.0 (39) mean percentage 15.0 27.2 57.8 meta cognition require students to make reflection (metacognition) 5.0 (3) 28.3 (17) 66.7 (40) overall mean percentage 17.0 24.0 59.0 notes: s and n = seldom and never; sts = sometimes; f and a = frequent and always. exemplary practice in teaching thinking skills will prevent the student teachers opportunity to experience thinking activity in teaching and learning. as a consequence, the student teachers may not familiar with the teaching strategies for thinking skills (parker & hess, 2001). this study also indicate that there were very limited emphasised given to infuse various form of thinking skills in teaching and learning activities. this is particularly true in theory classes. as a consequence, student teachers may not expose to the various types of thinking skills that can be integrated in teaching. according to a. lieberman & d.r. wood (2003), it is important for teacher to be given a relevant opportunity to engage in activities that relevant to what they need to be practised in school. therefore, the missing of various forms of thinking skills not only prevented them to expose to the various different types of thinking, but also show that thinking skills as not compulsory or important. conclusion thinking skills policy demands the teacher educators to provide an exemplary practice of thinking skills teaching to their student teachers. this new vision of teaching differs significantly from views framing conventional teaching approaches. in order to move toward this new vision, teacher educators need to change their teaching approaches from traditional into constructivist approaches with an emphasised on students’ thinking development. however, the results of this study clearly indicate that teaching thinking skills has not spread yet into teacher education. this should be given serious attention since teacher education is the provider of current and future teachers. such lacking of focus on current education needs would continue the problem related to the illequipped teacher to implement thinking policy.1 1statement: herewith, we have declared that this paper is our original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. c. andin @ nur qistina, a.s. ambotang & m. mosin, teaching thinking skills 42 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com references baharun, kartini. 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(1994). infusing critical and creative thinking into content instruction. california: critical thinking press. educare 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 11© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com siti maryam scheme implementation as an effort to build originality in writing abstract: both on the objective and subjective writing, charts/schemes can be used as a means for the (potential) authors to deliver originality. loading sources and a list of questions on the data chart useful to preserve the objectivity in scientific writing. materials contained in the scheme need to be processed and lexicalized through varied language. with its potential, if a person continues to practice, he/she will gain the skills , such as writing. humans can create meanings in the new contexts and situations that can bring something new that commonly called originality. this study was motivated by the importance of originality in writing. originality is the crown of the creative process; and as a creative product, writing requires creative process. how to build originality in objective and subjective nature of writing? both of scientific work as an objective writing and writing essays as subjective writing require specific strategies to maintain its originality. the strategies are implemented in different way, because of the natural difference of those writings. the finding of the strategies are based on the results of experimental study carried out on students of indonesian language and literature department, faculty of education and teacher training unsur (university of suryakancana) in cianjur, west java, indonesia in different time. this study is expected to provide reference to the author, the writing training instructors, teachers, and lecturers, who develop writing skills. key words: academic writing, essay, originality, objective and subjective writing, schemes, create meanings, creative process, creative product, and develop writing skills. about the author: dr. siti maryam is a senior lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training unsur (university of suryakancana) cianjur, jalan dr. muwardi, komp pasirgede raya, belakang rs sayang, cianjur, west java, indonesia. e-mail: yams1964@yahoo.com how to cite this article? maryam, siti. (2015). “scheme implementation as an effort to build originality in writing” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(1) august, pp.11-22. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/02-scheme-implementation/ chronicle of the article: accepted (july 6, 2015); revised (august 6, 2015); and published (august 25, 2015). introduction ideally, everyone can write by their own purposes. with the proliferation of gadgets, almost everyone consider writing as an important activity, although only for sms (short messaging service) purpose. this activity is so close to daily life, but it’s not applied for academic purposes. according to sudiati & nurhidayah (2008), who conducted a study of scientific writing skills improvement on uii (universitas islam indonesia or indonesia islamic university) high school students in yogyakarta, by using process skills approach. in the introduction, this study explains that writing skills are the most difficult and disliked by the most of pupils and students. moreover, even among educators, writing activities, especially scientific writing, is still an issue. on the other hand, as stated in the minister of rb (reformasi birokrasi or bureaucracy reform) regulation number 16 year 2009, career proficiency for teacher siti maryam, scheme implementation 12 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com determined by scientific publications. the regulation states that to get a promotion, the iii/a level until iv/e level should take continuous professional development activities that include: self-development, scientific publications, and/or innovative works (kemendikbud ri, 2013). lecturers are also required scientific publications, as stated in permenpan ri (peraturan menteri pendayagunaan aparatur negara republik indonesia or minister regulation of state apparatus empowerment of the republic of indonesia) number 46 year 2013, article 26, with regard to get increasement in functional lecturer and credit figures. “teacher of the heart education quality” phrase implies that teachers and lecturers will continuously prosecute to improve their professionalism. generating a scientific publications need sufficient skills in preparing scientific papers. the processes towards scientific skills are different with natural skills. in general, skills require programmes that have a clear direction, well-ordered, and wellorganized. the quality of the direction and the order of programmes will be seen in training or learning. one of the efforts of the ministry of national education is realized through the curriculum of 2013. even though the curriculum of 2013 has not been smoothly implemented, the essences which can be taken from this effort are the concept that uses the texts as the basis of learning and scientific approach. it’s implementation require adequate teachers or lecturers literacy.1 by considering the texts as the study basis, it indicates the commitment to improve the indonesian literacy skills, which still not encouraging nowadays. in the reading literacy area, the skill of 15 year age students in our nation is still very low. see, for example, the results of education assessment 1see, for example, “peraturan menteri pendayagunaan aparatur negara dan reformasi birokrasi republik indonesia nomor 46 tahun 2013 tentang perubahan atas peraturan menteri pendayagunaan aparatur negara dan reformasi birokrasi nomor 17 tahun 2013 tentang jabatan fungsional dosen dan angka kreditnya”. available online also at: http:// www.kopertis4.or.id/download.php?download=peraturan [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 1 january 2015]. center or puspendik (pusat penilaian pendidikan) studies through pirls (progress in international reading literacy study), timss (trends in international mathematics and science study), and pisa (programme international student assessment) in 2000 and 2003. jack parmin (2014) describes the concept of literacy in pisa include the format of reading materials, the type of reading tasks or the aspect of reading, and the situation of when the reading used. text formats are distinguished to continuous and uncontinuous text. reading tasks is divided into finding information, interpreting text, and reflecting and evaluating text. the situation is a text categorization based on the purpose of written text. furthermore, jack parmin (2014) explains that for indonesia, one of the benefit of pisa, is as an input in the policy formulation to enhance the quality of education. efforts to improve the ability of scientific writing has been done, both high school and college levels. siti maryam (1995) work on improving scientific writing through the chart (schema) of data and endosentris phrases. in addition, siti maryam (2007) carried out a study regarding the development of language creativity in essay writing. those studies related to sylvan barnet (1985), who asked as follows: is the writing true (do you have a point that you state accurately), and is the writing good (do your words and your organization clearly and effectively convey your meaning)? (barnet, 1985:76). starting from reading ditjen dikti (direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi or directorate-general of higher education) in indonesia explained that the quality of higher education outcomes are expressed by their competitiveness to get the recognition at the international knowledge. these qualities, one of which characterized by the ability to penetrate publications to international journals, the ability of the graduates to compete in the global arena, and the ability to win international academic awards such as the nobel prize, and others (kemendikbud ri, 2013). educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 13© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the graduates are expected not only mastering the knowledge, technology or art in a particular field, but also mastering additional skills, such as the ability to communicate effectively, logical thinking ability, learning ability, and others. these additional capabilities are called “soft-skills”. one of the effort to build and develop communication skills and logical thinking is with developing literacy skills. until now, the weakness in literacy is still not resolved comprehensively. this is reflected in the findings of the study of siti maryam (2013) on the literature literacy of the students at the department of indonesian language and literature education fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java, indonesia. in general, the literacy of students, especially for reading literature, is still worrying. most students do not know the books and literature, especially classic literature as their mandatory reading (maryam, 2013). yet according to a. chaedar alwasilah (2014), strengthening the culture of literacy can be done through loving the literature. according to the study, the teachers who don’t like the literature would find difficulty to teach writing, especially in having an idea or inspiration to teach writing (alwasilah, 2014). the message are noteworthy. moreover, it is confirmed by the results of the research of literature by taufik ismail (2014) about the mandatory reading of literature books on high school students in 13 countries, the position of indonesia is still left behind. clearly, the data can be seen in the table 1. the table 1 is worrying. obviously, these data should be the basis for a commitment that literacy is something that is absolute, not negotiable. regarding that writing can through space and time, and a valuable legacy for future generations. this issue needs to be followed up and looked for alternative solutions to solve the problem. hopefully, these efforts can improve human resources, especially educators (teachers and lecturers). educators proficiency have broad impact. in every semester, educators have the responsibility to foster tens or even hundreds of students. a literacyproficiented educators will have career boost, and the students will be nurtured well. as revealed by ahmad slamet harjasujana & a.r. syamsuddin (1989) that the teachers will always be demanded the professionalism, not the tools or methods. “many roads lead to the rome” idiom can be applied to address the literacy problem. for a nation that literati, many ways can table 1: mandatory literature books read at the high school in 13 countries no school textbooks name of school/city year 1. high school in south thailand 5 titles narathiwat 1986-1991 2. high school in malaysia 6 titles kuala kangsar 1976-1980 3. high school in singapura 6 titles stamford college 1982-1983 4. high school in brunei darussalam 7 titles high school in melayu 1 1966-1969 5. high school in sovyet union 12 titles uva 1980s 6. high school in canada 13 titles canterbury 1992-1994 7. high school in japan 15 titles urawa 1969-1972 8. high school in internasional, swiss 15 titles jenewa 1991-1994 9. high school in west germany 22 titles wanne-eickel 1966-1975 10. high school in france 30 titles pontoise 1967-1970 11. high school in netherlands 30 title middleburg 1970-1973 12. high school in united states of america 32 titles forest hills 1987-1989 13. ams (algement of middlebare school) in netherlands-indie or indonesia past) – a 25 titles yogyakarta 1939-1942 14. ams (algement of middlebare school) in netherlands-indie indonesia past) – b 15 titles malang 1929-1932 15. high school in indonesia now 0 title anywhere 1943-2008 siti maryam, scheme implementation 14 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com be empowered. in late august 2014, the author visited the rpti (rumah puisi taufik islamil or taufik ismail house of poetry) in padang panjang, west sumatera, indonesia. all around the yard and the room looked banner discussion neatly. some banners can be perpetuated by the author as shown in figure 1. by citing carl sagan, in 1994, the banner said, “the terrific gift of an adult family man/women is reading children’s stories to his/her descendants”. besides these, there are many banners that contained the information that challenges for literacy learning activities in indonesia. for example, usa (united states of america) high school students have a duty to read 44 pages per week; 1,584 pages per year; and 6,336 pages for 4 years. for writing activities, malaysia high school students have the task of writing a 14 page-per-week type; type 504 pages per year; and 2,016 pages for 4 years. other information, in russia or soviet union, the high school level grammar is not taught anymore, grammar checked in the essay. in language and literature class assignments only two: (1) reading, reading, reading; and (2) writing, writing, writing. some other words that fill the banner will be able to trigger and stimulate literacy activities, including: the greatest book is the book that has its first word with command “read” (taufik ismail). reading good book is like having conversations with the great people of the past centuries (rene descartes, 1617). the vowels rule the world (john selden). the pen is stronger than the sword (edward george bulwer-lytton, 1839) the words could shake the authority. the words is proven more powerful than ten army divisions (vaclac havel, 1989). there is no home furniture as beautiful as book (sydney smith, 1855). if i have a little money, i will buy books. if it still remains, then buy foods and clothes (vincent starret). book think for me (charles lamb). figure 1: banner of poetry in taufik ismail house of poetry (source: author documentation) book is the most silence friend, and always there, easiest advisors to meet and is very wise, also an outstanding patient teacher (charles w. eliot, 1896). book inhale air and exhale perfume (eugene field). the books have to be the axe to break the frozen sea inside us (oliver wendell holmes). the book is not that we read actually, but the book which reads us (w.h. auden). the book is a window. our soul see the world outside through this window. house without books is like a windowless room (henry ward beecher). an author spend the most of his/her time to read books. the author might read a half of library to write a single book (samuel johnson, 1775). the terrific gift of an adult family man/women is reading children’s stories to his/her descendants (carl sagan, 1994). a person who hold the power do not have time to read a book. a person who do not read books is not proper to hold the power (voltaire). if we wait for the right time to write, then it would never appeared (james russell lowell, 1883). tips of imagination couldn’t be taught, writing skills can (andrew motlop). looking at the years in the sentences above, it showed that the recognition of the importance of literacy activities has been existing since a few centuries ago. similarly, the holy book of the al-qur’an contains verses educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 15© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com which ruled for literacy, iqra or to read. proficient literacy is the capital to stay exist and compete in the global world. the expressions of hasan alwi et al. (1993) and ratna sarumpaet (2012) about the human world is a world of discourses, it force humans to read continuously. in other words, first and foremost activity that needs to be done is to read. other thing that obtained from rpti (rumah puisi taufik islamil or taufik ismail house of poetry) are two banners which contains poems, written by w.s. rendra and budi darma, as shown in figure 2. for clarity so that it can be used as a motivator arrays of poems by budi darma is copied below: ...... i want to write. so i write. the events in the story. appeared at the time i wrote and altogether not occur intent. because i believe that when someone writes, he found something. ....... the last lines of the poem should be noted for writers and aspiring them. find something closely associated with creativity and originality. the author tried to convey information from rpti (rumah puisi taufik islamil or taufik ismail house of poetry) on several occasions, such as the activities of student; socialization credit score calculation for teachers in cianjur, west java, indonesia; training scientific writing, or lectures that are the responsibility of the author. scheme as builders originality in scientific writing how to build originality in objective writing as a scientific paper? guidelines for scientific writing in upi (indonesia university of education), in 2014, contains some explanations regarding the originality of scientific works, in particular thesis, or dissertation, as much as possible should show originality side.2 a thesis, or dissertation, can be stated original if it meets several criterias as proposed by e.m. phillips & d.s. pugh (1994) and also r. murray (2005), as follows: (1) the author says something that has not been said by others; (2) the author conducted empirical work that has not been done before; (3) the author synthesizes things that have not been previously synthesized; (4) the author make a new interpretation of the idea or the work of others; (5) the author do something has been done in other countries, but has not been done in his/her country; (6) the author take an existing technique to be applied in a new field or area; (7) the author conduct research in various disciplines by using a various methodologies; (8) the author examines a topic that has not been studied by people in his/her field; (9) the author examines the existing knowledge by original way; (10) the author adds knowledge in a way that has not been done before; (11) the author write a new 2see, for example, “pedoman penulisan karya ilmiah upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia) tahun 2014”. available online also at: http://www.upi.edu/main/file/akademik/ pedoman%20penulisan%20karya%20ilmiah%20upi%20 tahun%202014.pdf [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 3 january 2015]. figure 2: poems written by w.s. rendra and budi darma (source: author documentation) siti maryam, scheme implementation 16 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com information for the first time; (12) the author give an exposition of other ideas; and (13) the author continue the result of an original work (phillips & pugh, 1994:61-62; and murray, 2005:53). the thirteen items can be used as a guidance in writing a scientific paper that produces original work. the importance of originality in an article has also published in the book entitled panduan deskripsi instrumen penilaian buku nonteks pelajaran or description guidance of the instrument rating of nontext lessons (puskurbuk, 2014). the score of originality aspect are 1 and 10. it will get 1 if the originality aspects is violated, whether it is not original work or the results of plagiarism, contains racial, and gender discrimination. in contrast, the 10 score will be given if the material is an original work (not the result of plagiarism), does not violate the sara (suku, agama, ras, dan antargolongan or ethnic, religion, race, and interest group), and does not discriminate against gender. furthermore, the guide explains that the material must be original work is not a clone, not plagiarizing the work of others, either partially or wholly. citations of parts that not the author ideas has to be done by using common citation rules (puskurbuk, 2014:12). the conclusion is if the writing ethics are violated, then the scores obtained one, and book directly declared not qualify. the score is valid for six kinds of books: (1) the book of knowledge enrichment; (2) books of skills enrichment; (3) books of personalitydevelopment enrichment; (4) reference books; (5) educators manual; and (6) guide book for children with special needs. these six types of this book are not all classified as scientific papers. there are some books of personality enrichment which are classified as fictions: short stories, novels, poems, plays, and essays (tarigan & tarigan, 1989). therefore, the originality factor needs to be built so that the quality and quantity of skilled writer can be increased. recently, there are a lot of writing textbooks, nonteks lessons, classroom action research reports, papers, articles, and others that were made for assessment of the credit figures, scientific publications, mass media publications, and assessment in puskurbuk (pusat kurikulum dan perbukuan or center for book and curriculum) are rejected. the rejection was due to nonfulfillment of predetermined criteria, especially stumble problem of authenticity or originality. relevant to this discussion, siti maryam (1995) developed the scientific writing skills through chart data and phrases endocentris modificative. data chart adopted from ahem & gallo (cited in maryam, 1995). utilization of this chart is also based on the theory of schemata. hasan alwi et al. (1993) explains that the schemata theory is a theory of knowledge, of how knowledge about how knowledge was served, and it provides an easy to understand a knowledge (alwi et al., 1993:499). according to this theory, all the knowledge packed in units. units are called schemata. in packs of knowledge, it contained information about how knowledge is used. thus, a schema is a data structure that represents the generic concepts stored in memory. it means that the schemata represent one’s knowledge of all concepts related to objects, situations, events, and sequence of events, as well as action, action sequences, and cultural values. as part of schemata, a chart is viewed as a blueprint that can be used as guidelines in writing (cf alwi et al., 1993; and samsuri, 1994). all concepts are relevant to the topic can be collected at the same time, so that it can be seen as a common thread binding the meaning of a scientific paper. the research proves that the chart (schema) of data can improve scientific writing skills, especially in the aspect of writing the substance. substance or material collected through chart paper or scheme. the number of charts that were adjusted according to the number of topics or subtopics to be written. clearly, these data chart form as follows: chart created at the time of preparation when going to write. preparation in the form of collected material (data or information) to be written. for the scientific writing purpose, which should be based on theory, chart data can be used as an instrument so that the author has a material to be processed into paper. it can overcome the difficulties faced by the average novice writer, who expressed difficulty in obtaining materials to be written. this chart is very simple shape, such educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 17© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com as a box, the contents of the inquiry, and referral sources. form of questions adapted to the shape and purpose of writing (maryam, 1995). a scientific work, which is written as explanatory writing, commonly called exposition. if the writer want to write about indonesian sentences in curriculum 2013’s student books, the necessary theory of sentence and the student book. chart that must be made at least two, namely sentences and student books. see the table 2. to fill the empty boxes are required adequate books reading. in the table 2, there are only four books used as sources. for the first question, all of them contains data or information that is required. furthermore, to answer the second question then read the reading of the four books are needed to be continued. actually, more resources would be better. why? because, to build the originality, the author will compare every aspect of overall data. from the comparisons could be found problems that arise from such theories. similarly, to the second variable (the books). do the same steps, create the box, list the number of questions, and find answers by referring to some theories. see the table 3. the theories that has successfully cited, compared, analyzed the advantages and disadvantages, discussed, and applied to the phenomena or facts that are being developed in the community. from that comparison might be derive theories or any problems. naturally, when people read something (theory, information, opinions, etc.), certainly will have an internalization in him/her. there is a process that occurs, might be acceptance or rejection of the opinion (krech, crutchfield & ballachey, 1962; and abdurachman, 1988). moreover, maman abdurachman (1988:28) explained that there will be a stability or resistance to the change on the structure of knowledge, also depends on the consistency and internal arrangement. in relation with the internalization process of reading that usually associated with interpretation, sugono et al. (2008:543) defines interpretation as in giving impressions, opinions, or theoretical view of something. a completely, henry guntur tarigan & djago tarigan (1989) discuss the interpretation (interpreting) as a part of the process skills. table 2: sentence theory questions sources what is the sentence definition? in reference to clauses, how many classification do sentences have? in reference to category, how many classification do the sentences have? etc. sintaksis ilmu bahasa indonesia or syntax in indonesian language by m. ramlan (1987). the sentence is a grammatical unit that is limited by the presence of long pauses that accompanied the end tone down or up (ramlan, 1987:27). pengantar sintaksis indonesia or introduction to indonesian syntax by a.a. fokker (1983). sentence is a speech language has the full meaning and limits determined by the decrease in the overall sound (fokker, 1983:11). tata kalimat bahasa indonesia or sentence structure in the indonesian language by samsuri (1985b). the sentence is structured strand of the words (1985b:54). tata bahasa indonesia or grammar in indonesian language by gorys keraf (1984). the sentence is a part of speech that preceded and followed by silence while the intonation indicates that part of the speech was already complete (keraf, 1984:141). siti maryam, scheme implementation 18 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com interpreting activities described as follows: (1) interpreting – searching for or finding a meaning, according to conclusion pattern and grouping of discourses, sentences, and vocabularies; (2) searching for the classification bases – grouping by the rules, can be basic word, word formation, types of sentences, sentence patterns or discourses; (3) giving the meaning – searching for the meaning of words or seek for understanding a discourse, then reiterated, both oral and written; (4) stealing relationship situation – locating or determining/guess the time of occurrence of a discourse/poetry, and linking between one situation to another situation of various discourses; (5) finding patterns – find or guess a pattern in the form of prose story or sentence patterns; (6) taking conclusions – conclusions inductively or deductively; (7) generalization – infer inductively, but broader in scope; and (8) analyzing – based on a discourse based on paragraphs, sentences, words, and word elements (tarigan & tarigan, 1989:73). description from henry guntur tarigan & djago tarigan (1989) can also be confirmed with 5-m on scientific approach, namely: mengamati (observe), menanya (ask), mengumpulkan data (collect data), menghubungkan data (associate data), and mengkomunikasikan (communicate). writing activity using the data chart also was done by observing the reading, asking questions, collect data from the source book, associate/ interpret readings, and communicate in writing (cf samsuri, 1985a; tarigan & tarigan, 1989; and maryam, 1998). siti maryam (1998) also found the problem in the use of the term indonesian language’s phrase, after collecting phrases definitions from twelve following sources: (1) syntax by m. ramlan; (2) introduction to general linguistics: syntax field by jos daniel parera; (3) indonesian sentence structure by samsuri; (4) dictionary of linguistics by harimurti kridalaksana; (5) indonesian dictionary by pusat pengembangan dan pembinaan bahasa or language guidance and development center; (6) indonesian fixed grammar by ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia; (7) encyclopedia indonesia by hasan sadili et al.; (8) the basic principles of syntax by henry guntur tarigan; (9) guidelines for writing indonesian structure by yus rusyana & samsuri eds.; (10) indonesian language for writing by poerwadarminta; (11) indonesian grammar by soekono wirjosoedarmo; and (12) introduction to linguistics and grammar indonesian by gustaf sitindoan (cited in maryam, 1998). a comparison between the theory and grouped, from the sources above were classified into four groups, those groups are each argue that the phrase: (1) the smallest unit of alloying sentence, alloying can be only one word table 3: text book questions sources what is a student (text) book? what conditions need to be considered in preparing the student (text) book? what are the components that must be present in the student (text) book? etc. kamus besar bahasa indonesia or the big indonesian language dictionary by sugono et al. (2008). sheets of paper bound, containing the text or blank; and textbook is the reference certain subjects in school (sugono et al., 2008:218). pedoman penilaian buku pelajaran bahasa dan sastra indonesia sekolah dasar or guidelines for assessment of language and literature textbook indonesian elementary school by pusbuk (2004). textbooks are books that hold on students at a particular level as a medium of learning (instructional), related to the particular study (pusbuk, 2004:4). quantum writing by hernowo (2006). anatomi buku sekolah di indonesia or anatomy of textbooks in indonesia’s schools by dedi supriadi (2001). educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 19© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com sentences; (2) grammatical unit, consisting of two or more words that are nonpredictive; (3) grammatical unit, consisting of two or more words, do not exceed the limit function/occupy a function in the sentence; and (4) grammatical unit consisting of two or more words, ignoring the limit function, sentence and clause coud also be called phrase (maryam, 1998). with the results, it could be seen that in the theory of language, the phrase was still a problem. the term refers to a phrase is not refer to the same reference. what were the consequences if the difference was applied to analyze the discourse? how to package it, if it would be used as teaching materials at high school or in college? for the purposes of the development of science, what steps should be taken? if used as a lecture or learning materials will be presented in which model of learning? if on making a chart of data as an article draft, there were twenty boxes that were filled, then if they were cultivated, developed into a good paragraph, would have produced a number of pages of writing. to improve the writing, it can be added with examples or illustrations which are better if they were contextual. potential areas, where the writing is made, can be used as a writing material. this areas will have a different particularities of the region or other regions. the activity of human resources, natural resources, socio-political dynamics, religious reverence, and so on can be told, described, discussed, as the result, the data or facts that presented are completely original (abdurachman, 1988). previously, siti maryam (1991) has compared the term konfics and simulfix from various sources. comparison was also found the difference of expert opinions. some of them stated that konfics is a combination of affixes which are attached simultaneously. the others said that the combination of affixes were attached sequentially (maryam, 1991). furthermore, the theory referred to and must be written comply to the ethics of scientific writing. both systematic and the use of language, also procedures of citations should be considered, so would not entangled plagiarism. in addition, the data chart is also indirectly can be used as a media to organize systematic scientific literature. when the question was made, basically, the systematics are composed. so, the writing objectivity was protected, because the accuracy of the reference sources can be trusted. also the fulfillment of the relevance between the book used with the bibliography or references. indeed, the data chart is not the only media to build their originality, but can be used as an alternative in writing scientific papers. scheme as originality builders in subjective writing the description above is implicitly stated that originality will be shown, when the writer is mastering the principles of his writing. r.p. o’shea (2000) describes that the originality usually related to the sense of careful, and critical thought about the topic (careful and critical thinking about the topic). it allows a person to find new ideas, unusual, unique, and or able to make combinations of parts of the resulting new modification (o’shea, 2000). crystallization expressed by the writer of banner in rpti (rumah puisi taufik islamil or taufik ismail house of poetry) in padang panjang, west sumatera, indonesia has shown its originality. series of words arranged the famous writers and poets reflects his/her deep mind. exploration of the aspects of life very intensively, so that is true that language shows self-identity. the commitment shown by the writers are subjective. disclosure of subjectivity in authorship is seen as the birth of the capital originality. subjective means according to the view or feeling alone (sugono et al., 2008:1345). posts subjective nature of which can be found in the form of short stories, novels, poetry, drama, biography, opinions, and essays (non-formal). many successful biographer. for beginner, to be able to write one’s life journey takes guide (lattice) to explore the data validity of the object. in general, the biography is written to motivate the reader. factors that considered as good models usually will get attention. here are presented some examples of student work biography scheme. see the schema 1. both in objective and subjective writing, the originality disclosure is important. the authors siti maryam, scheme implementation 20 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com can choose the alternatives that is given manual scientific writing from upi (indonesia university of indonesia) in bandung, west java, indonesia.3 in relation to the disclosure of in subjective writing originality, siti maryam (2007) developed a language creativity in essay writing. it is also developed by h.b. jassin (1980). according to h.b. jassin, essay is a vehicle to discuss issues of human and living, lived by the subjectivity of the author, in the search for the meaning of life and its incarnation (jassin, 1980:94). r. mcrobert (1981:34-35) also explained that the strength of the essay depends on the style. besides that, ramji lall (2000) said that we have to pay particular attention to his style which, on account of strong personal element in the essay, will be found of great importance (lall, 2000:iii). while in the data chart, the effort is on the substance or material aspects of writing, the essays tend to be pursued on aspects 3see again “pedoman penulisan karya ilmiah upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia) tahun 2014”. available online also at: http://www.upi.edu/main/file/akademik/pedoman%20 penulisan%20karya%20ilmiah%20upi%20tahun%202014.pdf [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 3 january 2015]. of language and writing style. r.p. o’shea (2000) discussed stylish and stylish writting of writting. the person’s typical writing will look as a stylish writting. the detail of stylish writing, according to r.p. o’shea (2000), included aspects of: (1) suppression of positive aspects; (2) coherence; (3) the use of variations; (4) the use of parallel buildion; (5) the formal tone or consistent; (6) the use of simple language; (7) accuracy; (8) conciseness; and (9) prudence (o’shea, 2000:110-114). fans of gunawan mohamad, ignas kleden, h.b. jassin, yusuf mansur, buya hamka, ahmad tohari, taufik ismail, ajip rosidi, and others will be able to feel the style of writing, of course there are with each particularity. it can be the variations of sentence structure, diction, metaphor, analogy, style, and others. the development of creative language, based on the previous studies of the behavior of endosentris modifikative phrases that can hold the idea of the authors, also by applying the concept of “competence in performance” from n. chomsky (1972). n. chomsky’s theory about language competency, the creative capacity of the speakers with the theoretical performance of the actual use of language, such schema 1: baharuddin jusuf habibie educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(1) august 2015 21© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com as listening, speaking, remembering, thinking, and writing. according to n. chomsky, humans had a system of language use. this system could be explained as how humans can express thoughts in words (language production) and how humans can understand “the content of the mind” or the meaning of a sentence that expresses (chomsky, 1972). siti maryam (2007) also found that regarding to the disclosure of originality in writing essays is including through the use of variation paragraph, sentence variation, variations of words, diction, style, and a unit of language that expresses. writing an essay can be done by using a variation of the paragraph, a mix between paragraphs of exposition, narration, argumentation, persuasion, and description (maryam, 2007). in addition, the opening paragraph can be filled with things that are contradictions, proverbs, motto, analogies, anecdotes, questions, problematic situations, hope, quotes, and so on. good writers will attempt to explore originality in his/her various alternatives. the experience of reading a variety of texts will color the use of language variation option. in addition, the elaboration of aspects of the substance, process, event, experience, data, facts, examples, concepts, and context were also found. conclusion the contents of banner at rpti ((rumah puisi taufik islamil or taufik ismail house of poetry) in padang panjang, west sumatera, indonesia can be interpreted as a motivator for literacy activities, particularly literacy. proficiency in reading is the initial capital for the realization of the writing skills. reading and writing can not be separated, because the great writer will only be born from a great reader, such as samuel johnson described above, as cited by taufik ismail (2014). although the implementation of curriculum 2013 in most schools in indonesia were delayed, but scientific approach still can be implemented in any field of study, including learning or writing lectures. originality can be built through a scientific approach. writing assissted by a chart or scheme basically use the scientific approach. both on the objective and subjective writing, charts/schemes can be used as a means for the (potential) authors to deliver originality. loading sources and a list of questions on the data chart useful to preserve the objectivity in scientific writing. materials contained in the scheme need to be processed and leksicalized through varied language. with its potential, if a person continues to practice, he/she will gain the skills, such as writing. humans can create meanings in the new contexts and situations that can bring something new that commonly called originality. the logical implication, language learning, especially writing, must be able to mature a man/woman, and evoke his/her feeling and original thinking. text, as a cultural product, realized in various types of writing. attitudes, understanding, and assessment of 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(2014). “literasi” in widyaswara, th.xxix, no.3. surabaya: jurusan pendidikan bahasa dan sastra indonesia unesa [universitas negeri surabaya]. “peraturan menteri pendayagunaan aparatur negara dan reformasi birokrasi republik indonesia nomor 46 tahun 2013 tentang perubahan atas peraturan menteri pendayagunaan aparatur negara dan reformasi birokrasi nomor 17 tahun 2013 tentang jabatan fungsional dosen dan angka kreditnya”. available online also at: http://www.kopertis4.or.id/ download.php?download=peraturan [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 1 january 2015]. “pedoman penulisan karya ilmiah upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia) tahun 2014”. available online also at: http://www.upi.edu/main/file/akademik/ pedoman%20penulisan%20karya%20ilmiah%20 upi%20tahun%202014.pdf [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 3 january 2015]. phillips, e.m. & d.s. pugh. (1994). how to get a ph.d.: a handbook for students and supervisors. buckingham: open university press. pusbuk [pusat perbukuan]. (2004). pedoman penilaian buku pelajaran bahasa dan sastra indonesia sekolah dasar. jakarta: depdiknas ri [departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. puskurbuk [pusat kurikulum dan perbukuan]. (2014). panduan deskripsi instrumen penilaian buku nonteks pelajaran. jakarta: balitbang kemendikbud ri [badan penelitian dan pengembangan, kementrian pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. ramlan, m. (1987). sintaksis ilmu bahasa indonesia. yogyakarta: penerbit karyono. samsuri. (1985a). analisis bahasa. jakarta: penerbit erlangga, second edition. samsuri. (1985b). tata kalimat bahasa indonesia. jakarta: pt sastra hudaya. samsuri. (1994). analisis bahasa: memahami bahasa secara ilmiah. jakarta: penerbit airlangga. sarumpaet, ratna. (2012). “journey” in www. ratnasarumpaet.com [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: april 3, 2015). sudiati & nurhidayah. (2008). “peningkatan keterampilan menulis ilmiah siswa kelas ii sma uii yogyakarta” in jurnal litera, vol.7, no.2. available online also at: http://staff.uny.ac.id/sites/ default/files/penelitian/nurhidayah%20m.hum./ peningktn%20ketr.%20menulis%20k%20i%20sma. pdf [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 1 january 2015]. sugono et al. (2008). kamus besar bahasa indonesia. jakarta: pn balai pustaka. supriadi, dedi. (2001). anatomi buku sekolah di indonesia: problematik penilaian, penyebaran, dan penggunaan buku pelajaran, buku bacaan, dan buku sumber. bandung: penerbit alfabeta. tarigan, henry guntur & djago tarigan. (1989). telaah buku teks bahasa indonesia. bandung: penerbit angkasa. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 69 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare aini yurisa correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior abstract: the purpose of this study is to find out about the correlation between spiritual competence, selfexpression with students’ learning behavior in the context of teaching and learning in junior high school, so that the problem can be formulated, “how is the correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior in learning?”. this study uses correlational design and quantitative approach methods with primary data as data sources. the population of this study were 308 students of istiqamah bandung middle school, class vii, viii, and ix in west java, indonesia, with the study sample selected using the proportional stratified random sampling technique. there are three variables in this study, namely: spiritual competence, selfexpression, and learning behavior. the results showed that there was a strong positive relationship between spiritual competence, self-expression, and student learning behavior based on statistical calculation. the implications of spiritual competence for learning behavior in the learning process of students are so that students can get closer to god and make god the main foundation for learning, while worshiping so that they become more directed and behave properly as students in general. while the implications of the ability of students’ self-expression for learning behavior of course so that students are able to express various ideas, thoughts, feelings, and actions in a positive way so as not to trigger the emergence of negative expressions. key words: spiritual competence; self-expression; learning behavior. introduction based on the research findings, experts acknowledge that religion has an important role in the lives of individuals, so the concepts of religiosity and spiritualit y develop along with studies on their impact on various aspects of life (borges, santos & pinheiro, 2015; amir & lesmawati, 2016:1; and malone & dadswell, 2018). departing from religion, then, emerging concepts about spirituality which in essence already exist in every human being. the religion here certainly means islam. in addition, there are many concepts and definitions expressed by experts in spiritual descriptions. in this study, two views were drawn from both islam and the west. in the view of islam, it seems spiritual is not only about physical problems or spirit, but the spiritual is divided into four parts, including thoughts, feelings, soul, and spirit. the four components are interrelated with each other about the author: aini yurisa, s.kom.i. is a master student at the educational psychology study program, school of post graduate upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: aini.yurisa@gmail.com suggested citation: yurisa, aini. (2019). “correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august, pp.69-76. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 22, 2019); revised (july 27, 2019); and published (august 31, 2019). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 70 aini yurisa, correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression and lead to something that is non-material and believed to be the creator of all creatures that exist in the world and also all the creations that exist in the universe. the creator referred to here is god (isgandarova, 2011; ubale & abdullah, 2015:2; and groff & smoker, 2017). as a human being born in a muslim environment, they should have high spiritual competence. the skills referred to in this study are a person’s ability to solve problems thoroughly and efficiently (ubale & abdullah, 2015; huda et al., 2016; and swihart & martin, 2019). thus, if it is associated with the spiritual, spiritual competence are the ability or competence of a person in solving good problems in the form of thoughts, feelings, spirit, and soul that are always connected with god, so that they are lighter and even afraid to face and find solutions to these problems (puchalski, 2001; pargament, 2007; and rudolfsson, berggren & da silva, 2014). however, in reality in the field, it turns out that not all students have high spiritual competence. there are some students who overcome the problem do not think about or associate with god, such as cheating behavior at the time of the test or doing daily tasks. in addition, there are still relationships between friends of the opposite sex that do not link to the existence of god, which in the end is manifested by dating behavior, even though this is not prohibited by allah (giyoto, 2006; mulyasa, 2011; and hadjar, 2017). as is well known, religion or specifically in the formation of spiritual competence is an expression of human needs. as for every individual or human being, of course, has a dominant tendency among modern society to make ordinary people express not only their views, but also their identities (said & funk, 2001; whitley, 2012; and hadjar, 2017). they do it in different ways, such as: publishing their life stories and their personal history online through social media, such as facebook or instagram for example (granger, 2014; piskorski, 2014; and burger, 2015:1); describes into the planning stage the development of the project by the social development facilitator using a participatory approach (mohan, 2007; guijt, 2014; and burger, 2015); express their identity into the reality of television and radio programs (west, 2010; grindstaff, 2011; and burger, 2015); and raise it into digital stories and express their individual and group identities in the community they have (burger, 2015; robin, 2016; and o’byrne et al., 2018). learning to find yourself and express yourself in life is a lifelong job, not only for yourself but also for those who guide themselves (yilmaz, 2008; grindstaff, 2011; and applegate, 2013:2). children, who are better able to produce a prototype of expression, obtain high ratings from teachers in academic competencies (browne, 2010:3; soland, hamilton & stecher, 2013; and herbein et al., 2018). thus, if a student has the ability to express themselves positively at each learning activity takes place, it can achieve high academic values. however, in reality in the field, not all students have the ability to be able to express positively, both to themselves and to other people, such as friends or even teachers (bambaeeroo & shokrpour, 2017; willis, 2017; and darling-hammond et al., 2019).1 therefore, this study was conducted to reveal the relationship between self-expression and student learning behavior. methods the research design used in this study is correlational design. correlational design is a procedure in quantitative research, in which researchers measure the level of relationship between two or more variables using statistical procedures or correlational analysis (creswell, 2003; williams, 2007; and chiang, jhangiani & price, 2017). the population in this study is all students of bandung istiqamah middle school for academic year of 2018/2019 in west java, indonesia. the study sample was selected using the proportional stratified random sampling technique. this selection of this sample is based on the sample size divided by the overall proportion of students (williams, 2007; arifin, 2017:8; and hayes, 2019). the number of students in class vii, viii, and ix were 308 people. thus, the number or size of samples for each class is as shown in the table 1. 1see also, for example, “apa dictionary of psycology”. available online at: https://dictionary.apa.org/competence [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: january 2, 2019]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 71 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 in this study, the researcher wanted to examine the correlation of spirituality skills (x1), self expression (x2), and student behavior (y). it could be seen through the scheme below: x1 y x2 spiritual competence variables will be revealed by using spiritual characteristics proposed by philip brownell (2015), namely: god-oriented, world-oriented, and the humanistic (brownell, 2015:44). the variables of self-expression will be revealed using the self-expression scale modified by mikyung jang & yun-hee kim (2012), which is positive self-expression and negative selfexpression (jang & kim, 2012:39). learning behavior variables will be revealed using the characteristics of learning behavior according to muhibbin syah (2014), namely: intentional changes, positive and active changes, and effective and functional changes (shah, 2014:113-116). results and discussion spiritual competence. from the results of these studies, obtained an average value on variable x1 (spiritual competence) of 59.84 with an interval class value of 16.8. so, this spiritual skill questionnaire is categorized as quite good, because it is included in the interval (54.7 – 71.4). it can be interpreted that as many as 30 out of 104 respondents, or a percentage of 28.84%, belong to the category of sb (sangat baik or very good) in terms of spiritual competence; and as many as 60 respondents, or 57.70%, have spiritual competence included in category b (baik or good); while 14 respondents, or 13.46% of the total sample, have a level of spiritual proficiency which is cb (cukup baik or good enough). these results can be seen through the table 2. self-expression. then, obtained an average value on variable x2 (self expression), which is divided into two, namely: the mean positive self-expression of 62.44 with an interval class of 14.4 and mean negative self-expression of 42.29 with a class interval of 8.8. so, a positive self-expression questionnaire belongs to a good category, because it is included in the interval (61.3 – 75.6). likewise, the negative self-expression questionnaire belongs to the good category, because it is included in the interval (37.5 – 46.2). based on the results of data processing, a number of 16 out of 104 respondents, or the percentage of 15.38%, had the ability to express themselves positively in the sb table 1: the number or size of samples class number of samples vii 121/308 = 39 students viii 103/308 = 33 students ix 84/308 = 27 students total 104 students table 2: results of study on spiritual competence category respondent percentage (%) very poor 0 00.00% not good 0 00.00% pretty good 14 13.46% well 60 57.70% very good 30 28.84% total 104 100% y © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 72 aini yurisa, correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression (sangat baik or very good) category; then 66 respondents, or 63.64% of respondents, included in the b (baik or good) category; around 19 respondents, or 18.26%, included in the cb (cukup baik or good enough) category; and around 3 respondents, or 2.90%, included in the kb (kurang baik or poor) category. to be clearer, can be seen through the table 3. as for negative self-expression abilities, 8 out of 104 respondents or 7.70% had moderate negative self-expression tendencies; then, 76 respondents or 73.07% had high negative self-expression abilities; and as many as 20 respondents or 19.23% have a very high tendency. this can be known based on the table 4. learning behavior. the acquisition of the average value of the variable y (learning behavior) is 91.59 with an interval class of 20.8. then, the learning behavior questionnaire belongs to the good category, because it is in the interval class (88.5 – 109.2). as for learning behavior, based on the calculation of the data obtained, there are as many as 4 out of 104, or 4% of respondents, have very good learning behavior; as many as 37% of respondents have fairly good learning behavior; and 59% of respondents belong to students, who have good learning behavior. these results can be clarified through the table 5. based on the data processing that has been carried out, the data shows that the percentage of the determinants of the success of the learning process that appears on aspects of spiritual competence is 29.10% and selfexpression is 37.82%. while student learning behavior is 33.08%. correlation between of spiritual competence and self-expression with learning behavior. furthermore, from the calculation results, it is known that spiritual competence and selfexpression have a correlation with student learning behavior in learning amounting to 42.3% from the results of spss (statistical package for the social sciences) 18, from the determination coefficient, as evidenced by comparing f-count with f-table with the provisions f-count > f-table; then, h0 is rejected meaning that “there is a correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior in learning at school” (cf williams, 2007; arifin, 2017:8; and hayes, 2019). analysis of the correlation test between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior in learning using the product moment correlation formula. so, the value obtained is 0.650, which means there is a “strong”. then, table 3: results of study on self-expression positively category respondent percentage (%) very poor 0 00.00% not good 3 2.90% pretty good 19 18.26% well 66 63.64% very good 16 15.38% total 104 100% table 4: results of study on self-expression negatively category respondent percentage (%) very high 20 19.23% high 76 73.07% medium 8 7.70% low 0 00.00% very low 0 00.00% total 104 100% © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 73 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 the results are compared with r-tabel at a significant level of 5% to test, whether or not the correlation is significant. because in this study n = 104, it is known that the r-table value at the significance level is 5% = 0.194. therefore, the results of rxy = 0.650 are greater than the r-table value at the 5% real level declared significant. see table 6. discussion and implications. based on the results of the research that has been done through the calculation of spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 18.0, it can be concluded that, in general, the description of respondents in terms of students’ spiritual competence (variable x1) in istiqamah middle school in bandung, west java, indonesia, based on 3 aspects, namely: association with allah; linkages with the world; and relation to self-belongs to a fairly good category (cf brownell, 2015; daulay, 2017; and na’imah, sukiman & nurdin, 2017). while the description of student selfexpression (variable x2) based on 2 aspects, namely: positive self-expression; and negative self-expression classified as a good category (cf jang & kim, 2012; prameshella, 2018; and sueb & hartanti, 2018). then, for the description of student learning behavior in learning based on 3 categories, namely: intentional change; there are positive and active changes; and overall effective and functional changes are categorized as good (cf shah, 2014; wahyudi, 2017; and abdullah, thalib & sinring, 2018). in addition, there is a strong positive relationship between spiritual competence and self-expression with student learning behavior in learning with a correlation coefficient of 0.650 and a coefficient of determination 42.3% (cf kimiyayi & daryaee, 2016; sadida & triman, 2018; and yurisa, 2019). conclusion 2 this study examines the correlation between spiritual competence and selfexpression with student learning behavior in learning. the implications of spiritual competence for learning behavior in the learning process of students are so that students can get closer to god and make god the main foundation for learning, while worshiping so that they become more directed and behave properly as students in general. while the implications of the ability of students’ self-expression for learning 2acknowledgement: i would like to thanks to dr. nandang budiman and dr. titin kartini, the lecturers at the study program of educational psychology sps upi (sekolah pascasarjana universitas pendidikan indonesia or school of post graduate indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, whose guided me in conducting the research and final study. however, all contents and its interpretations related to this article are solely rested to my own responsibility academically. table 5: results of study on learning behavior category respondent percentage (%) very poor 0 00.00% not good 0 00.00% pretty good 40 37.00% well 60 59.00% very good 4 4% total 104 100% table 6: results of study on the correlation between of spiritual competence and self-expression with learning behavior no. variables percentage 1. spiritual competence 29.10% 2. self-expression 37.82% 3. learning behavior 33.08% total 100% © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 74 aini yurisa, correlation between spiritual competence and self-expression behavior of course so that students are able to express various ideas, thoughts, feelings, and actions in a positive way so as not to trigger the emergence of negative expressions. the results of this study are recommended for educational staff, students, parents of students, government and educational institutions, and subsequent researchers with the following presentation: teachers. research on the correlation between spiritual competence and selfexpression with student learning behavior in learning is done to help improve spiritual competence, self-expression, and student learning behavior to be better, so that the education staff is expected to be able to facilitate and guide students to be more proficient in spiritual matters, expressing themselves in the form of better learning behavior. students. the implementation of the correlation study between spiritual competence and eelf-expression with learning behavior in learning in students is carried out in the hope that students can better recognize the level of spiritual competence and self-expression in learning, so that they can further try to improve it. students’ parents. this research is expected so that parents of students identify their spiritual development, self expression, and learning behavior. so that it can help provide real solutions and actions for the problems of their own children, because parents are the first school for students to learn. government and educational institutions. the existence of this research is expected to motivate the government in general, and specifically for the bandung city education office and also the religious department to contribute also in improving spiritual competence and self-expression with students’ learning behavior in islamic-based junior high school learning. this can be realized in several ways, such as providing religious and psychological counseling on various student problems in school or digital simulations that are of interest to students in the 21st century. next researcher. this research is expected to be an opening for new insights in terms of learning, especially spiritual competence, selfexpression, and learning behavior. for the next researcher can do research with different variables from this study or better yet can make a method or treatment that is structured and in accordance with the characteristics of students in overcoming spiritual problems and selfexpression of students.3 references abdullah, harun, syamsul bachri thalib & abdullah sinring. 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(2019). “korelasi antara kecakapan spiritual dan ekspresi diri dengan perilaku belajar siswa dalam proses pembelajaran: studi kasus pada smp istiqamah di bandung”. unpublished m.pd. thesis. bandung: program studi psikologi pendidikan, sps upi [sekolah pascasarjana, universitas pendidikan indonesia]. available online also at: http://repository.upi.edu/35285/2/t_ pp_1604801_title.pdf [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: june 22, 2019]. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issue of february 2009 to date, the educare journal has been organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board honorable patron: dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad (rector of ump, purwokerto, indonesia) editor-in-chief: prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) vice editor: dr. furqanul aziez (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) managing editor: haji ahmad, m.pd. (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) expert reviewer board for february issue: prof. dr. m. syaom barliana (upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia) prof. dr. ramlee mustapha (upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia) assist. prof. dr. abbas madandar arani (lu, lorestan university, khorramabad city, iran) prof. dr. gonzalo jover (ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain) prof. dr. mohd shakir (amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india) expert reviewer board for august issue: prof. dr. haji zamroni (uny, state university of yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia) prof. dr. haji udin s. saud (upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia) assoc. prof. dr. mina hattori (nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan) prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré (qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada) prof. dr. mohammad parvez (amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india) associate editors: haji joko purwanto, m.si (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. haji tanto sukardi (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. haji akhmad jazuli (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. suwartono (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) andi suwirta, m.hum. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) secretariat staffs: suwarno, m.si. (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) address: head office (for corresponding): minda masagi press, sekretariat aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com branch office: faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. e-mail: sekret_ump@yahoo.com and tukiranump@yahoo.com website: www.educare-ijes.com and www.aspensi.com cover disgn: “cartoon of education” cited from www.google.com (17 february 2015) copy right © 2015 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, in collaboration with fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. printed by rizqi offset bandung guideline/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction sub title sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (saripudin, 2004:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: • henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. • wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. • haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: • ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. • interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international academic journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published articles will require the author to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get the journal prints, journal off prints, and his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website at: www.educareijes.com authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print and off print, but his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except based on written requests from the authors. for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: http://educare-ijes.com/ category/guidelines/ articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 103 the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed abstract: teaching is an important process in order to produce a meaningful learning. as an intermediate program, every teacher in matriculation college should be able to produce an effective teaching process, particularly in teaching science which is full with abstract concepts. to achieve that, science teachers need the teaching profile as a guidance to develop a flexible, creative, and innovative teaching process. as a result, the learning process will meet the students’ need and the objectives of twenty-first century education. therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the teaching profile and sub-profile patterns of matriculation science teachers in malaysia. for this purpose, 344 science teachers from eight matriculation colleges were selected. data was collected by using questionnaire as a main instrument. the finding showed that the professional knowledge and the professional attitudes dominate the profile patterns. while the subprofile patterns dominated by pedagogical content knowledge and relationship among colleagues. it is also safe to say that the professionalism profile will be the ultimate key towards upgrading teachers’ quality, the quality of the teaching process as well as the quality of the product that is the students. this study suggests that the dominated profile and sub-profile show the matriculation teachers’ strength in teaching science. key words: teaching profile, science teacher, teacher’s knowledge, professional knowledge, professional practices, professional attitudes. introduction the higher learning institutions, such as teaching colleges or universities, play a significant role in producing excellent and efficient teachers. ample training and experience can ensure an effective teaching environment. moly lee (2002) notes that the quality of teacher education does not depend on the quality of students or the teacher trainers but more on the content and the methods of training received. the efficacies of the training given to the trainees determine the level of excellence a teacher possesses (yaakub yusuf, 1980; norani yaakub & nik noriah nik ibrahim, 1992; and ramlah mohammad, 2001). according to r. nacino-brown, f.e. dan oke and d.p. brown (1989), an intensive and comprehensive training is able to produce professional teachers in terms: (1) subject matter knowledge; (2) students’ development principles; (3) general knowledge; (4) pedagogical knowledge; (5) positive attitudes; and nooraidayakob and rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed are lecturers at the school of educational studies usm (universiti sains malaysia or science university of malaysia), pulau pinang, malaysia. they can be contacted via e-mails at: nooraidaya@hotmail.com and r_adawiah@usm.my nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed, the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia 104 (6) readiness in adapting teaching with the students’ needs, tools and classroom environment. therefore, after undergoing the training, it is hoped that the teachers are able to become professionals who are capable of handling the teaching and learning effectively and efficiently, as well as being responsible in every action they take regarding to the classroom environment. the teaching problems however, predicaments and problems regarding teaching have always been the most discussed agenda. these problems faced by both new teachers as well as experienced ones (bahagian pendidikan guru, 1997). this evidenced when experienced teachers are not able to master the suggested teaching methodologies (indra devi, 1997). according to tajul arifin noordin and nor’aini dan (1997), the teachers are still lacking in terms of teaching approaches and teaching strategies. often, the teachers act as knowledge disseminator, only distributing knowledge to a mass audience (students) in a controlled environment (nor azlan ahmad zanzali, 1995/1996). thus, they become a “flat profession” (myers & myers, 1995) whereby they only disseminate knowledge without taking into account the level of students’ development and abilities. moly lee (2002) has discussed similar scenario in her research where the findings show that teachers are incapable in catering various students’ needs in the classroom. for example: (1) lack of ability in determining whether students comprehend what is being taught; (2) unable to cater students with different abilities; (3) focused only on teaching students as a “whole class” rather than on individual student, resulting in weaker students lagging behind and stagnating outstanding students; (4) lack of skills in evaluating students and making diagnosis; (5) unable to detect students’ weaknesses; and (6) unable to rectify students’ mistakes or give prompt responses. because of those weaknesses, various problems will crop up, such as loss of control in the classroom, passive and unresponsive students (tan & lourdusamy, 1992). those weaknesses will affect the teaching performance. the same predicament even occurs in the matriculation level whereby students’ performance used as an indicator to measure the teachers’ efficiency in teaching. syed anwar aly mohd abdu bakar (2000) in his research states that the performance in the science subjects for the sijil pelajaran malaysia (high school examination) and matriculation levels is downright worrying. in addition, the ipptn (institut penyelidikan pendidikan tinggi negara or research institute of national high education) report (2004) also highlights that the academic performance of matriculation students are at the average level. because of this, once the students enter the higher educational institutions, their achievement is subsequently lower than those who enter the institutions after the stpm (sijil tinggi pelajaran malaysia). the situation is definitely challenges the credibility of educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 105 the matriculation teachers in dispersing knowledge and basic skills, especially those teaching in the science stream. the ipptn report (2004) also concludes that teachers who are less committed in teaching as well as teachers who do not vary their teaching methods are some of the factors that contribute to the students’ average performance. othman lebar (2000) cites that ineffective science teaching centered on memorizing and rewriting facts that simplified. this situation produces teachers who are unaware of the suitable teaching techniques and this affects their performance in teaching. as a result, students will eventually become bored and uninterested in learning science, which inevitably affect their performance. although the teachers have ample knowledge and experience in teaching, they seem inadequate in executing an effective teaching and learning process (tajul arifin noordin, 1990). it appears that they are lacking the capabilities of carrying out the teaching process. the failure to execute teaching efficiently will somehow affect students’ development and performance. the weaknesses in the pedagogical aspects and teaching knowledge are seen as the major factors as to why the teaching and learning process is sees as mundane and uninspiring (abd. rahim abd. rashid, 2000). therefore, a teaching profile is highly needed. the profile should be able to illustrate how far the teachers’ knowledge is, the extent to which they have the expertise in practicing the knowledge as well as the teachers’ attitudes in improving their teaching and learning. the profile can also act as an indicator of teachers’ nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed, the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia 106 performance in teaching. this profile also enable teachers always be aware of their own development and progress and at the same time able to develop students’ potential to the optimum level without ignoring the students’ abilities. the objective of this paper aims is identifying the patterns of the teaching profile and sub profile among the matriculation science teachers. teaching profiles teaching is an important activity in every class. an effective teaching will aid in students’ learning process. as a professional teacher, he/she needs to ensure that learning process to be inspiring and takes place in conducive surroundings. with the principle that each teaching could help and maximize learning outcomes as well as the students’ comprehension, teachers need a practical teaching guideline. this guideline will help teachers in building a conducive learning environment that will inevitably increase students’ motivation to learn. as h. mcber (2000:29) points out that they create environments which maximize opportunities to learn in which pupils are motivated to learn. thus, in making sure the teaching science process will optimize students’ learning, two teaching models have been utilized: pedagogical context knowledge by j. barnett and d. hodson (2001); and professional standard for highly accomplished teachers of science by the australian teacher association (asta, 2001). these models stress on how to be an excellent science teacher. based on these models, a teaching profile has been developed that consists of three profiles and each profile has its own sub profile. the table below illustrates the profiles and sub profiles. table 1: components of teaching profile and sub profiles profile components sub profile components professional knowledge students’ knowledge and development. pedagogical content knowledge. professional practice teaching strategies practice. assessment practice. professional attitudes attitudes towards the reflection process. relationship among colleagues. teachers’ commitment. source: adapted from asta (2001); and barnett & hodson (2001). the identified profiles and sub profiles will help the matriculation science teachers in self-development in terms of their knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards teaching. simultaneously, the profiles also will give a positive impact on the teaching performance and at the same time upgrading the college’s quality level as an excellent learning organization. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 107 methodology matriculation college is a pre-university college. the purpose of this college is to benefit the students when they further their studies in university. students with good result in sijil pelajaran malaysia (high school examination) will enter this college. it is one year program. eight matriculation colleges have been selected for this study. they are johor matriculation college, melaka matriculation college, negeri sembilan matriculation college, perak matriculation college, kedah matriculation college, pulau pinang matriculation college, pahang matriculation college, and perlis matriculation college. all these colleges situated in the peninsular malaysia and are under the ministry of education. the sample of this study consists of 344 science teachers. even though some of the questionnaires given out are not returned, the number of questionnaires obtained is ample enough in representing the population of the matriculation science teachers, as the total number of science teachers is 439. the sample taken represents 78.4% of the total population. this study utilizes the survey method by using questionnaires as the main research instrument. the questionnaire divided into two sections which are a and b. section b is further divided into three sub-sections, as detailed in table 1.2. table 1.2. questionnaires section sub section a teachers’ demographic data b 1. professional knowledge. 2. professional practices. 3. professional attitudes. section a allows the researcher to obtain background information on the respondents such as gender, age, experience, academic qualifications, and teaching specialization; while in section b consists of items used to measure profile such as: i. professional knowledge with two sub profiles: �� students’ knowledge and development. �� pedagogical content knowledge. ii. professional practices with two sub profiles: �� teaching strategies practice. �� assessment practices. iii. professional attitudes with three sub profiles: �� attitudes towards reflection process. �� relationships among colleagues. �� teachers’ commitment. nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed, the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia 108 the findings from the pilot study illustrates that each variable in this study achieves a high alpha cronbach value which is between 0.700 and 0.950. findings according to the data obtained, the mean score recorded for each profile is 4.0760 (professional knowledge); 3.8620 (professional practices); and 4.1093 (professional attitudes). in comparing these three mean scores, it is clear to see that the mean for the professional attitudes scores the highest and followed by the mean score for professional knowledge. on the other hand, the mean for professional practices shows the lowest score. by using the one-way anova test, the findings show significance difference at the 5% significant level. refer to table 1.3. as follows: table 1.3. one way anova test for teaching professionalism profile total of squares df mean squares f sig between group 12.245 2 6.122 47.154 0.000* within group 132.044 1017 0.130 total 144.289 1019 * significant at the 5% significant level. a post hoc test is done following the difference. findings show that the significant difference occurs between the professional knowledge and professional practice; and between the professional practices and professional attitudes at the 5% significant level. however, there is no significant difference found between professional knowledge and professional attitudes. refer to table 1.4. as follows: table 1.4. a post hoc test on profesionalism profile group (i) group (j) sig professional knowledge professional practices 0.000* professional practices professional attitudes 0.953 professional attitudes professional attitudes 0.000* *significant at the 5% significant level. therefore, the findings show that the matriculation science teachers’ profile is dominated by the professional knowledge and professional attitudes. both profiles shape the patterns of the profiles of the matriculation science teachers. although the professional practice does not dominate the profiles’ development, it is still valid, based on the mean score it obtained. the pattern of the professionalism profile of teaching is shown in figure 1.1. as follows: educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 109 figure 1.1. the pattern of teaching profile of matriculation science teacher professional knowledge professional practices professional attitude 3.7 3.75 3.8 3.85 3.9 3.95 4 4.05 4.1 4.15 mean score in identifying the patterns of the sub profiles for professional knowledge, students’ knowledge and development, the mean score obtained is 4.0062; while the pedagogical content knowledge is 4.1461. the high mean scores show the respondents agree that students’ knowledge and developments as well as the pedagogical content knowledge are vital in their teaching process. through the t-test, finding showed a significant difference between both sub profiles at the significant level of 5%. table 1.5. showed the differences. table 1.5. the t-test for professional knowledge sub profile for professional knowledge mean sig (2-tailed) students’ knowledge and development 4.0062 0.000* pedagogical content knowledge 4.1461 * significant at the 5% significant level. the result showed that the sub profile for the professional knowledge of these science teachers is dominated by the pedagogical content knowledge. sub profile for the professional practices showed a high mean score i.e. 3.8010 (teaching strategies practices) and 3.9222 (assessment practices). this illustrate that respondents practice the teaching strategies and assessment constantly, hence the high mean values. through the t-test, finding shows a significant difference between both elements at the significant level of 5%. table 1.6. showed the differences. nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed, the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia 110 table 1.6. the t-test for professional practice professional practice subprofile mean sig (2-tailed) teaching strategies practices 3.8010 0.001* assessment practices 3.9222 * significant at the 5% significant level. the findings showed that the pattern for sub profile was dominated by the assessment practices. while in the professional attitudes, the mean scores for each sub profile are as relatively high i.e. 4.0236 in reflection process, 4.1637 for relationships with colleagues, and 4.1106 for commitment. the findings clearly illustrate that the teachers agree upon the importance of reflection, relationships among colleagues, and commitment in upgrading their professionalism. the one-way anova test shows a significant difference in the 5% significant level. refer to table 1.7. as follows: table 1.7. one way anova test for professional attitudes total of squares df mean square f sig between group 3.903 2 1.952 9.603 0.000* within group 206.683 1017 0.203 total 210.586 1019 * significant at the 5% significant level. the post hoc test analysis illustrates that there is a significant difference between the reflection process and the relationships with colleagues at the 5% significant level. on the other hand, there is no significant difference found between the relationships with colleagues and commitments as can be seen in table 1.8. table 1.8. the post hoc analysis for professional attitudes group (i) group (j) sig attitudes toward the reflection process relationship among colleagues 0.000* teacher’s commitment commitments 0.051 the relationships among colleagues commitments 0.156 * significant at the 5% significant level. hence, the significant difference shows that the dominant sub-profile for teachers’ professional attitudes is the relationships with colleagues. by looking at the analysis of the findings, it can be summed up that the teaching sub profiles are dominated by the pedagogical content knowledge and the relationships with colleagues. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 111 discussions the dominance of the professional knowledge shows that the matriculation science teachers need this profile in executing their teachings. with a sound professional knowledge, the teachers are able to deliver their teachings with ease and confidence without compromising the students’ needs and abilities. they also can change the ritual teaching behaviors which assume students as empty vessels that needed to be filled with information and concepts to more responsive teaching behavior. this teaching practice will help teachers to become more conscious and alert towards their surroundings, especially in upgrading themselves as knowledge disseminators, the students as recipients, and the teaching resources as the main knowledge. they will definitely possess the survival concepts in executing the teaching and learning process in an interesting learning environment (salleh abd. rashid, 2003). that concept will help teachers to be more energetic and lively in the class. the dominance of the professional knowledge will also help the teachers to be more aware of their self-development. in addition, the teachers will be able to develop interactive teaching, focusing not only on substantive and syntactic knowledge but also in making sure that the knowledge is applicable and relevant in the students’ everyday life. according to juslimah jani (2000), interactive teaching will provide the appropriate motivation for the students to be more interested in their learning. as stated by l. abrahamson (2009:1), this interactive teaching “serves to jolt the students into action”. thus, this profile could definitely shape teachers into becoming more committed towards their teaching process so that the students will gain the optimum knowledge. in short, the teaching and learning of science will become more engaging and effective, and teachers become more creative in the classrooms (craft, 2002). findings show that the pedagogical content knowledge dominates the professional knowledge profile. the dominance illustrates that the teachers are aware of this knowledge in their teaching process. however, findings also show that teachers are still focusing in the use of concrete examples and students’ problems in their teaching representations; whereas according to d. quinn (1994), the list of other teaching representations such as mnemonic devices, body movements, story telling, and simulation among others are in exhaustive. this finding showed most of them knows about those two representations but didn’t know about others representation. without a doubt, these teachers are aware of and focus on the pedagogical content knowledge in their teachings. the awareness comes from the assumptions that the science subject is dry and difficult as it consists of many abstract concepts. as i.c. rovegno (1992) claims that the pedagogical content knowledge is vital in the teaching process. in addition, it is also a specific field for the teachers (turnerbisset, 2004). although the use of representations is quite limited for the teachers involved in this study, the teachers are indeed aware of its importance in the teaching process as an element that is beneficial to the learners. nooraidayakob & rabiatul adawiah ahmad rashed, the teaching profile of matriculation college science teachers in malaysia 112 the dominance of the professional attitude shows that teachers are concerned that their attitudes could give a positive impact on their ways of thinking and their actions. the teachers will continue striving for excellence and minimizing their weaknesses in teaching. thus, the professional attitude will help the teachers to appreciate in upgrading the students’ performance as well as the teachers’ professionalism. the relationship with colleagues dominates the sub-profile for professional attitudes. this illustrates that teachers possess admirable teamwork spirit. each teacher needs to view their colleagues as an interdependence community, collaborating to build a successful community. a positive interdependency can help to elevate and develop the potential of each individual in the community (othman lebar, 2000). positive interdependency allows teachers to help one another in solving teaching problems. collaboration helps teachers to overcome their own weaknesses. therefore, effective teaching would certainly help the learners achieve their learning targets in this globalization era. it can be summed up that the science teachers have amicable relationships with their colleagues. a good and sound relationship helps in developing a tight and closeknit collaborative nature. mohd. sahandri gani hj. hamzah (1998) opines that collaboration and understanding are vital in increasing teachers’ professionalism. the dominating sub-profile will motivate teachers to collaborate and work together in exchanging information and solving problems. these findings corroborate with the study by abdul rashid mohamad and zurida ismail (2000/2001) which show that good relationships among teachers equal good working environment whereby members help one another. the study by yeow kwai tam et al. (1999) illustrate that colleagues are able to influence teachers’ development through peer teaching, attention giving, excellent work ethics, and other. teachers working together will minimize each other’s weaknesses and maximize each other’s strengths. pertaining to that, an amicable relationship need to be nurtured so as to make sure a collaborative and cooperative environment is built. it seems that the teachers are not too concerned with the professional practices profile. however, in truth, the teachers need to give more focus on this profile as without it there will be gaps on how teaching processes are carried out, on the effectiveness of the processes as well as on the assessment processes of students’ understanding. therefore, looking at the findings of this study, it is vital for teachers to give more emphasis and attention to the professional practices’ profile to ensure that the quality of the teaching process can be enhanced. a high quality of teaching leads to an optimum level of students’ comprehension. both the professional knowledge and professional attitudes inevitably needed by the matriculation science teachers to ensure the best teaching process delivered. although the professional practices do not dominate the profile patterns, the importance of the practices in the teaching process cannot be taken lightly. teachers disseminate the knowledge through their own unique practices. if the practices neglected, the knowledge will just become dormant theories, without any practice at all. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 113 conclusion the professionalism profile is able to contribute positively towards increasing the quality of the educational institutions. it will definitely aid the teachers to be more proactive and highly motivated in improving and advancing themselves with latest knowledge and skills to be used in teaching effectively. this will also produce teachers who are more susceptible to their students’ developments and needs. the teachings produced should be geared towards enhancing and enriching the students’ potentials and not just “filling in” students with knowledge. in addition, a high quality teaching should be able to produce high quality students, especially those needed in the 21st century as knowledge workers. to sum it all up, it is safe to say that the professionalism profile will be the ultimate key towards upgrading teachers’ quality, the quality of the teaching process as well as the quality of the product that is the students. the success will reflect on the teachers’ professionalism whereby teachers are seen as a highly qualified teaching force that is capable in producing highly intellectual students. references abd. rahim abd. rashid. 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(1980). “kualiti guru: peranan dan harapan”. paper presented in the seminar penilaian kurikulum. kuala lumpur: bahagian pendidikan guru kpm [kementerian pelajaran malaysia], pp.50-67. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 177 dr. nabeel abedalaziz is a lecturer at the department of educational psychology and counseling, faculty of education um (university of malaya), 50603 kuala lumpur, malaysia. he can be reached at: nabeelabdelazeez@yahoo.com and nabilaziz@um.edu.my evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning nabeel abedalaziz abstract: the educators have been redefining the goals of instruction and learning to include increased attention to high-level thinking skill. mantel-haenszel methods comprise a highly flexible methodology for assessing the degree of association between two categorical variables, whether they are nominal or ordinal, while controlling for other variables. the versatility of mantel-haenszel analytical approaches has made them very popular in the assessment of the dif (differential item functioning) of both dichotomous and polytomous items. the mantel-haenszel (m-h) procedure was originally used to match subjects retrospectively on cancer risk factors in order to study current cancer rates (mantel & haenszel, 1959). the terminal objective of the study was to find out the impact of the number of score groups and the inclusion or exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups on estimating αs. results indicated that: (1) fourth or more score groups yields stable α estimates with mantel-haenszel approach; and (2) the inclusion of the studied item is convergent to result in fewer items with significant chi-square values than the exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups. these findings seem to be consistent with the previous researches. key words: differential item functioning, mantel-haenszel method, bias, estimating, and inclusion or exclusion of the studied item. introduction in recent years, educators have been redefining the goals of instruction and learning to include increased attention to high-level thinking skill (e.g. national council of teaching in mathematics, 1989). at the same time, educators and psychometricians have been reevaluating how best to assess students’ thinking and reasoning skills. consequently, there has been an increased interest in the use of performance assessments because they have the potential for allowing students to display their solution processes and reasoning. however, evidence is needed to ensure reliable and valid assessments of students’ high-level thinking skills. in particular, evidence is needed to ensure that inferences made from performance assessments are equally valid for different subgroups in the population, therefore, the detection of differential item functioning (dif) is important in addressing issues regarding the quality of the assessments instrument (wang & lane, 1996). nabeel abedalaziz, evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning 178 dif refers to differences in item functioning after groups have been matched with respect to the ability or attribute that the item purportedly measures. dif is an unexpected difference among groups of examinees who are supposed to be comparable with respect to the attribute measured by the item and the test on which it appears (dorans & holland, 1993). dif methods therefore assess the test-takers’ response patterns to specific test items. dif occurs when a statistically significant difference is evident in the probability that test-takers from the two distinct groups, who have the same underlying ability on the measured construct, demonstrate differing probabilities of correctly answering the item. as stated, examinees’ ability levels are based upon their total scores on the test. as such, the dif analysis of one specific test item is as independent as possible from the dif analyses of the other test items (zumbo, 1999). to reiterate, a test item is considered to be biased when a dimension on the test is deemed to be irrelevant to the construct that is being measured, placing one group of examinees at a disadvantage in taking a test (hambleton & rogers, 1989). thus, if dif is not evident for an item, then there is no item bias. conversely, dif is required but is not sufficient for item bias. that is, if dif is apparent, then its presence is not sufficient to declare item bias. an item might show dif, but not be considered biased if the difference is a result of the actual difference in the groups’ ability to respond to the item. if test-takers differed in knowledge, a difference in item responses would be expected. consequently, a difference in the performance of groups of examinees with different abilities on specific items is not indicative of test bias, but rather of item impact (schumacher, 2005). but it can be added, that in order to be able to determine whether an item that shows dif is biased or not, further analysis have to be done (camilli & shepard, 1994). it is then of interest to determine whether the differences deepened on differences of ability of the compared groups (not biased) or on the item measuring something else than intended (biased). on the mantel-haenszel (m-h) procedure one of the most popular procedures for assessing dif (differential item functioning) in dichotomous items is the mantel-haenszel (m-h) procedure. first developed for use in epidemiological research (mantel & haenszel, 1959), and later applied to the detection of dif by p.w. holland and d.t. thayer (1986). the mantel-haenszel method works with the item responses for the two groups (referred to in the psychometric literature as the reference group and the focal group). as described earlier, examinees are first stored into score groups according to total test score, resulting in up to (n + 1) score groups, where n is the number of items in the test. within the jth score groups, a 2 × 2 table of frequencies is set up: educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 179 item score 1 0 reference group a j b j n rj focal group c j d j n fj m 1j m 0j a j , b j , c j , and d j correspond to the number of examinees in the four cells of the 2 × 2 table; n rj , n fj , m 1j , and m 1j are the marginal’s. t j is the number of examinees in the jth score groups who attempted the item number investigation. the mantelhaenszel test statistic from p.w. holland and d.t. thayer (1986) has the form: where: is distributed approximately as a chi-square statistic with one degree of freedom. the term represents the discrepancy between the observed number of correct responses on the item by reference group and the expected number. when the observed number is higher than the expected, , this indicates the potential for dif in favor of the reference group, whereas the opposite is true if . the log odds ratio ( ) is a measure of association, and log ( ) is a signed index. a positive value signifies dif in favor of the reference group, and a negative value indicates dif in favor of the focal group. if the null hypothesis is true, this quantity is zero. this statistic has the chi-square distribution with one degree of freedom. mantelhaenszel statistics exceeding the tabulated value of the chi-square distribution at a specified level of alpha indicate that item performance in the reference and focal groups over the (n + 1) score groups is consistently different. two aspects of special concern to potential user of the m-h technique are: (a) how many score groups to use; and (b) whether or not to include the studied item in the total raw score used to form score groups. j.d. scheuneman (1979) recommended the use of three to six groups for her chi-square technique for assessing item bias. p.w. holland and d.t. thayer (1986) are recommending a two-step procedure that includes the studied item. this procedure, however, requires a preliminary dif analysis to purify the matching criterion. therefore, there is a need to experimental nabeel abedalaziz, evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning 180 assess how the α indices are affected by the inclusion and exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups. d.j. wright (1986) studied the effect of the number of score groups on the delta indices. he found that the fewer the score groups, the greater average of delta indices. also n.s. raju, r.k. bod and v.s. larsen (1989) determined the effect of number score groups and the inclusion or exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups on estimating αs. they found that four or more groups appear to provide stable α estimate, and the inclusion of the studied item seems to result in fewer items with significant chi-squares than the exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups. in the present study, the researcher applied the same technique. purpose and method: a. description of the test data and examinees samples the purpose of the study, therefore, is to empirically evaluate the effect on the α indices from the m-h technique of (a) the number of score groups; and (b) the inclusion or exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups. the samples used in the study were drawn from a data set containing the responses of approximately 1,500 tenth grade students (740 males and 760 females) to a standardized mathematical ability scale. the scale compressed of 60 dichotomous items. the scale was administered in 2009/2010 school year in malaysia. b. procedure the dif analysis using the m-h technique was conducted for the male-female comparison. in male-female comparison, males were treated as the reference group and females as the focal group. for the comparison, 12 different dif analyses were performed with the m-h technique to assess the effect of the number of score groups and the inclusion or exclusion of the studied item on α estimate. using the total raw score on the mathematical ability scale as the matching criterion, the male and female examinees were separately divided into two mutually exclusive score groups. the first score group was formed by including those examinees whose total raw scores were greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 30. the second score group was similarly formed by including examinees whose total raw scores fell in the closed interval extending from 31 to 60. the two resulting score groups formed the basis for the first dif analysis. the second dif analysis contained the same two score-group cutoffs except that the raw score used for classifying examinees into different score groups did not include the score from the studied item. that is, even though the same cutoff scores (0, 31, 60) were used for forming the two score groups (g 2 : two score groups), the total raw score was differently defined for each studied item. the first dif analysis educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 181 was performed with the studied item included (sii) in the definition of the total raw score and the second dif analysis was done with the studied item excluded (sie) the definition of the total raw score. the next two dif analyses (separately for sii and sie) were contained with four score groups using the following cutoffs in forming the score groups: 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 (g 4 ). similar but separate dif analysis were also conducted with g 6 , g 8 , g 10 , and g 12 score groups where: g 6 : (six score groups). g 8 : (eight score groups). g 10 : (ten score groups). g 12 : (twelve score groups). this procedure resulted in 12 different dif analyses, with 2 analyses for each of the 6 different numbers of score groups. finally, the 12 different sets of α estimate were intercorrelated. result and discussion table 1 shows the test-score summary for the male and female examinees. the mean of 36.75 for the male group is about 7 raw-score points higher than the mean for the female. the standard deviations are comparable for the two groups. the kuder-richardson formula 20 (kr-20) estimate of reliability is 0.89 for male group and 0.91for female group. table 1 summary statistic for the male and female examinees group mean standard deviation kr-20 number of examinees male 36.75 7.45 0.89 740 female 29.75 7.51 0.91 760 table 2 proportions (p) passing the item and point-biserial correlation (r) for the male and female examinees male female male female item p (r) p (r) item p (r) p (r) 1 .89 .32 .71 .41 31 .53 .47 .32 .43 2 .82 .42 .71 .45 32 .85 .51 .67 .50 3 .87 .47 .71 .46 33 .71 .50 .50 .44 4 .81 .40 .66 .35 34 .75 .47 .58 .46 5 .74 .52 .54 .48 35 .60 .54 .39 .46 6 .73 .42 .58 .43 36 .60 .61 .36 .45 nabeel abedalaziz, evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning 182 7 .65 .46 .49 .41 37 .63 .50 .47 .44 8 .65 .41 .40 .46 38 .64 .54 .43 .52 9 .75 .49 .56 .53 39 .47 .45 .28 .42 10 .60 .59 .41 .56 40 .53 .51 .30 .45 11 .72 .47 .48 .39 41 .67 .42 .73 .42 12 .60 .42 .43 .40 42 .56 .52 .70 .43 13 .51 .52 .30 .45 43 .69 .41 .73 .45 14 .43 .41 .32 .38 44 ..51 .41 .65 .39 15 .51 .41 .39 .41 45 .48 .46 .60 .37 16 .41 .46 .20 .32 46 .53 .52 .61 .40 17 .70 .52 .51 .45 47 .49 .36 55 .41 18 .71 .36 .61 .47 48 .53 .47 .57 .50 19 .71 .47 .54 .36 49 .50 .45 .64 .60 20 .69 .45 .52 .46 50 .53 .46 .67 .51 21 .60 .46 .45 .38 51 .60 .39 .59 .53 22 .65 .39 .57 .41 52 .46 .41 .64 49 23 .74 .41 .59 .47 53 .50 .51 .68 .53 24 .74 .50 .52 .53 54 .50 .52 .67 .51 25 .67 .47 .49 .44 55 .51 .49 .63 .54 26 .59 .44 .45 .40 56 .72 .43 .69 .49 27 .51 .37 .35 .31 57 .73 .39 .57 .51 28 .89 .46 .79 .47 58 .68 .47 .49 .50 29 .83 .53 .72 .50 59 .67 .51 .60 .50 30 .71 .56 .55 .57 60 .68 .50 .56 .45 table 2 shows the p values and point-biserial correlations for the two groups. the range of p-values for males is from 0.41 to 0.89, whereas the range of p-values for females is from 0.20 to 0.79. the summary data in tables 1 and 2 indicate that a mathematical ability scale is easier for the males group than it is for the females group. table 3 shows the correlation for the male-female comparison. also shown in this table are the means and standard deviation for the 12 different sets of α estimate. the values in the diagonal of table 3 are the correlation between the sii estimates of α for the six different numbers of score groups. in all six cases, the correlation between the sii (studied item included) and sie (studied item excluded) estimates of α is 0.998 indicating that the rank ordering of item α is almost the same whether one includes or excludes the studied item in forming the score group. in terms of the extremely high correlation noted in the diagonal of table 3, it appears that both sii and sie would yield almost identical results. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 183 table 3 means, standard deviation, and intercorrelations of αs across different numbers of score groups: male-female comparison numbers of score groups g 2 g 4 g 6 g 8 g 10 g 12 g 2 (.999) .983 .979 .980 .977 .966 .986 (.999) .998 .998 .998 .998 g 6 .986 .997 (.999) .998 .999 .997 g 8 .980 .998 .998 (.999) .999 .998 g 10 .980 .998 .998 .999 (.999) .998 g 12 .986 .998 .998 .998 .998 (.999) sii m 1.29 1.05 1.07 1.04 1.04 1.06 sd 0.24 0.23 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.20 sie m 1.35 1.17 1.15 1.13 1.12 1.18 sd 0.24 0.23 0.21 0.21 0.21 0.20 note: sii = studied item included. sie = studied item excluded. numbers in parentheses are correlation between sie and sii α estimates. m = mean. sd = standard deviation. the data in the upper right triangle of the matrix in table 3 (the data above the main diagonal) show the intercorrelations between α estimates from different numbers of score groups with the studied item included (sii) in the formation of score groups. these correlations are quite high, with the lowest correlation being 0.966 between g 2 score groups and g 12 score groups. it should be noted, however, that α estimates with g 2 score groups generally correlate somewhat lower with the α estimates based on g 4 , g 6 , g 8 , g 10 , and g 12 score groups. the intercorrelations among α estimate from g 4 g 6 , g 8 , g 10 , and g 12 score groups were 0.997 or better. these results seem to imply that having as few as g 2 score groups may not be “optimal” for estimates αs with sii; alternately, g 4, g 6 or more score groups appear to yield highly comparable α estimates. the means and standard deviations of α estimate with sii also appear to bear out this conclusion. the means α for g 2 score groups is 1.29 whereas the means for g 4 or more score groups vary between 1.10 and 1.04. the standard deviations of α estimates for g 2 score groups is 0.24, and it is only slightly higher than the standard deviations of the α estimates for g 4 or more score groups. the intercorrelations in the upper right triangle of the table 3, along with the means of the α estimates with sii seem to imply that g 4 or more score groups would yield stable α estimates with the m-h technique; setting number of score groups at g 2 does not appear to be “optimal” for the m-h technique with sii. the intercorrelations in the lower left triangle of the matrix in the table 3 are for the six different numbers of score groups examined with the studied item excluded (sie). again, the correlations are quite high, with the number of score groups set at g 2 doing slightly less well (in terms of the magnitude of the observed correlations) nabeel abedalaziz, evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning 184 than the score groups set at g 4, g 6 , g 8 , g 10 , and g 12 . the means of the α estimates with sii also confirm this trend. the means α for g 2 score groups is 1.29, whereas for g 4 or more score groups, the means vary between 1.04 and 1.07. this general trend for sie is very similar to the trend observed above for sie. table 4 shows the number of items with significant chi squares by number of score groups. the data in this table are presented separately by significance level (.05 and .01) and male-female comparison. two trends seem to characterize the data in this table. first, the number of items with significant chi-squares is greater in g 2 score groups. it appears that more items are likely to be identified as revealing dif in g 2 groups. for example, there are 44 items with significant chi-squares (at the .05 level of significance) for g 2 score groups and only 23 items with significant chi-squares for g 4 score groups and only 26 items for g 6 , g 8 , g 10 score groups with sii. this trend appears to be stable across the .05 and .01 levels of significance and across the male-female (gender) comparisons. second, including the studied item is likely to yield slightly fewer items with significant chi-squares than excluding the studied item in forming score groups. this trend also appears to be quite stable across significance levels and gender comparisons with one or two minor exceptions. it should be noted, however, that as the number of score group increases, the difference between sii and sie becomes less pronounced. table 4 numbers of item with significant chi–squares values number score groups male versus female .05 level .01 level sii sie sii sie g 2 44 48 40 45 g 4 23 27 23 24 g 6 26 27 27 22 g 8 26 25 15 28 g 10 26 26 17 20 g 12 15 16 18 19 note: sii = studied item included. sie = studied item excluded. table 5 shows the percentage overlap across score groups for items whose chi-squares are significant at the .05 level, separately for sii and sie and gender comparisons. for example, of the 44 items identified as revealing dif with g 2 score groups (see table 4), 22 items or 50% were also identified as revealing dif with g 4 in the comparisons with sii. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 185 table 5 percentage overlap across score group for significant item (p < .05) score-groups comparison male versus female sii sie g 2 versus g 4 .50 .50 g 4 versus g 6 .49 .48 g 6 versus g 8 .84 .99 g 8 versus g 10 .89 .96 g 10 versus g 12 .87 .90 the percentage overlap of statistically significant items for the g 2 versus g 4 comparison is .50 for both sii and sie. for other comparisons, the percentage overlap is .84 or better. in summary, there is substantially greater consistency in items of which items are being identified as revealing dif with g 4 or more score groups than with g 2 score groups. the percentage overlap is about the same for sii and sie, with a slightly higher percentage for sie. conclusion in conclusion, fourth or more score groups yields stable α estimate with mantelhaenszel approach. the inclusion of the studied item is convergent to result in fewer items with significant chi-square values than the exclusion of the studied item in forming score groups. these findings seem to be consistent with the previous researches (wright, 1986; and raju, bod & larsen, 1989). references camilli, g. & l. shepard. (1994). methods for identifying biased test items. california: sage publication. dorans, n.j. & p.w. holland. (1993). “dif detection and description: mantel-haenszel and standardization” in p.w. holland & h. wainer [eds]. differential item functioning. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc., pp.35-66. hambleton, r.k. & h.j. rogers. (1989). “detection potentially biased test items: comparison of irt areas and mantel-haenszel methods” in applied measurement in education, 2, pp.313-334. holland, p.w. & d.t. thayer. (1986). “differential item performance and the mantel-haenszel procedure”. paper presented at the meeting american educational research association. holland, p.w. & d.t. thayer. (1988). “differential item performance and mantel-haenszel procedure” in h. wainer & h.i. braum [eds]. test validity. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc., pp.129-145. mantel, n. & w. haenszel. (1959). “statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease” in journal of the national cancer institute, 22, pp.719-748. nabeel abedalaziz, evaluation of mantel-haenszel statistic for detecting differential item functioning 186 nrc [national research council]. (1989). every body counts. washington, dc: national academy of science. raju, n.s., r.k. bod & v.s. larsen. (1989). “an empirical assessment of the mantel-haenszel statistic for studying differential item performance” in applied measurement in education, 2(1), pp.1-13. scheuneman, j.d. (1979). “a method for assessing bias in test items” in journal of educational measurement, 16, pp.143-152. schumacher, r. (2005). “test bias and differential item functioning” in http://www. appliedmeasurementassociates.com.pdf [accessed at kuala lumpur, malaysia: 18 november 2010]. wang, n. & s. lane. (1996). “detection of gender-related differential item functioning in a mathematical performance assessment” in applied measurement, 12(2). wright, d.j. (1986). “an empirical comparison of the mantel-haenszel and standardization methods of detecting differential item performance” in statistical report, no.sr-86-99. zumbo, b.d. (1999). a handbook on the theory and methods of differential item functioning (dif): logistic regression modeling as a unitary framework for binary and likert-like(ordinal) item scores. ottawa, canada: directorate of human resources research and evaluation. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 153 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 volume 13(1), august 2020 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] portia roxas-soriano, marie paz e. morales & wilma s. reyes, profiling the research culture of philippine higher education institutions. [1-16] intan puspitasari, profile of early child empathy behavior at the ra iqra sabila in jambi, indonesia. [17-26] ade sadikin akhyadi & irma savitri sadikin, the construct of community empowerment through social compass strategy: case study of empowerment in processing waste and water hyacinth. [27-48] ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. [49-60] kania nandika, self-directed learning model to develop academic self-concepts of class xi students in 2019/2020 academic year. [61-80] info-edu-tainment. [81-92] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thoughtleadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since editions of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare sahroni the development of human resources capacity of legal entity state university abstract: indonesia is a country that has the most universities in southeast asia. however, its excellent and competitive universities in asia and the world are still limited. indonesian government strives to produce high-quality universities by forming legal entity state universities. to be an excellent and competitive university at the regional and global levels becomes the vision of every university. a strong competitive advantage of a university in the long term occurs, when the university can produce more competent people than is needed. the realization of the goals is determined by the success of developing the capacity of hr (human resources). ranking and accreditation are instruments to measure the adequacy of the quality and quantity of human resource capacity in university management. this article is conducted based on the results of a survey of 11 legal entity state universities. the results demonstrate that the competitive advantage of the legal entity state university is based on the success of developing competitive and excellent human resource capacity. human resource capacity development is performed at the system, institutional, and individual levels based on autonomy in academic and non-academic management. in maintaining the excellence of human resources, two pillars have been reinforced, namely: the mind-set of the hr as an organizational asset and the application of the merit system principle. key words: human resources; legal entity state university; competitive advantage. introduction indonesia is a country that has the most universities in southeast asia. however, its excellent and competitive universities in asia and the world are still limited. indonesian government strives to produce high-quality universities by forming legal entity state universities or known as ptn-bh (perguruan tinggi negeri-badan hukum) or legal entity state university (hanushek, 2004; setneg ri, 2012; and oecd/adb, 2015). the competitive advantage of a university is not due to the endowment about the author: dr. sahroni is a lecturer at the department of sociology education fpips upi (faculty of social studies education, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung, west java, indonesia. e-mail: syahroni.roni@ymail.com suggested citation: sahroni. (2021). “the development of human resources capacity of legal entity state university” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february, pp.153-164. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (november 10, 2020); revised (december 27, 2020); and published (february 28, 2021). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 154 sahroni, the development of human resources capacity factor, not because it is established earlier, or because it has already been well-known publicly. nonetheless, a strong and determined university in the long term occurs, when it can produce more talents than is needed (pella & inayati, 2018:7). an excellent and competitive university is determined by excellent and competitive human resources. the competitive advantage of a university is governed by the success of managing human resources as an important asset of a university. the indicators relate to the qualifications, competencies, and performance of human resources. the indicators are similar to those stated in wcu (world class university) assessment, which includes lecturers and students ratio as 20%, international lecturers as 5%, international students as 5%, academic reputation as 40%, graduates’ reputation as 10%, and scientific journal citations as 20% (wijaya, 2019). today's global competition has created opportunities and challenges for universities who aspire to build a strong role. the current global competition has made the university’s environment change radically in a relatively short time and the competition among university has become increasingly fierce. one of the key factors in determining the success of winning the competition is to produce excellent-quality hr (human resources). ways to respond to various unexpected events, especially on how to build the resilience of human resources individually and in groups, are continuously sought and selected to affect the health and resilience of university. in the current uncertainty and complexity of university management, the resilience of human resource development is in line with the organizational development strategy (mitsakis, 2020). the development of the university’s human resource capacity is vital to accomplish the goals of university; it is to produce graduates who master the branches of science and technology to meet national interests and increase national competitiveness. however, the management of the university’s human resources is currently facing a fundamental problem, which is an inability to produce more competent people than is needed (david, 2011; setneg ri, 2012; and oecd/adb, 2015). this article is intended to answer the question, how does a legal entity state university develop its human resource capacity to be able to provide a high-quality education? higher education in human resources. human resources are important assets of university that must be maintained and developed in quality and quantity, in addition to natural resources, financial resources, and material resources. the existence of sufficient natural resources, abundant financial resources, and complete material resources will not mean much educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 155 if not managed properly. meanwhile, whether or not the management of non-human resources is good, it is determined by the ability of human resources (sahroni, 2019). university in human resources, in the sense of university personnel, consist of lecturers and education personnel. lecturers are professional educators and scientists with the main task of transforming, developing, and disseminating science, technology, and arts through education, research, and community service. education personnel as members of society who are devoted and appointed with the main task of supporting the implementation of university, so that education personnel is not included in the academic community. the human resources for university in this article are lecturers (setneg ri, 2005 and 2012; and rafiei & davari, 2015). the roles, duties, and responsibilities of lecturers are very important in realizing the goals of university; it is to educate the nation's life and improve the quality of indonesian, including the quality of faith and piety, noble morals, and mastery of science, technology, and art, to create indonesian society who is advance, fair, prosperous, and civilized. to carry out a very strategic function, role, and position, so the professional lecturers are needed (setneg ri, 2003; and indonesia moec, 2016). professional lecturers are men/women who have the competencies needed by an educator, namely a set of knowledge, skills, and behaviours that must be owned, lived, and controlled by the lecturer in their professional duties. lecturer competence determines the quality of the implementation of the university’s tri dharma (three obligations) as shown in the lecturer’s professional activities. lecturers who are competent in their professional duties are those who have the necessary pedagogical, professional, personal, and social competences in education practices, research, and community service (setneg ri, 2005; and indonesia moec, 2016). pedagogical competence refers to the ability in the teaching and learning process; social competence refers to the ability to communicate both in writing and orally; professional competence refers to the ability of the field of study being practiced; and personality competence refers to the ability of attitudes and actions in various situations and conditions. the competence of the lecturers must be continuously adjusted to adapt to the development of science and technology (setneg ri, 2005; and indonesia moec, 2016). lecturer capacity development. human resource capacity can be defined as the ability of an individual, group, organization or system to carry out their functions and authority in achieving goals effectively and efficiently. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 156 sahroni, the development of human resources capacity in a broader sense, it can be interpreted as the space and capacity of the available human resources. human resource capacity development means the process of meeting needs in quality and quantity to achieve goals effectively and efficiently (kamaria, 2012; and rafiei & davari, 2015). university is a dynamic institution, which in its management continues to develop following the development of science and technology as well as the development of community needs. it requires the lecturers, organizations, and systems that can be used effectively and efficiently to achieve their goals. therefore, lecturer capacity development is done regularly. effective and sustainable lecturer capacity development can be carried out at 3 (three) levels, namely: the system level, the institutional level, and the individual level. at the system level, a framework is developed related to regulations, policies, and basic conditions that support the achievement of university’s policy and objectivity. at the institutional or organizational level, decision-making processes, procedures, and work mechanisms, arrangements of facilities and infrastructure, relationships, and networks are developed in university management. while at the individual level, it is directed towards increasing knowledge, skills, behaviour, job grouping, and work motivation (cf undp, 2009; and indonesia moec, 2016). literature review. global human resource management is the use of international human resources to achieve organizational goals regardless of geographical boundaries. the effectiveness of global hrm (human resource management), which depends on the ability to judge the extent of the organization, must implement similar practices around the world or adapt them by local conditions (brewster, sparrow & harris, 2005; and safri, 2019). although the concept of capacity building for human resources is interpreted differently – some mean capacity building, capacity development, or capacity strengthening – the essence is still the same: an initiative to improve quality and quantity according to the needs. the development of the university’s human resource capacity is a process of improving the professionalism of lecturers and students in a directed and planned manner, accompanied by good management for the efficiency and effectiveness in university management. when an organization can implement human resource management, which focuses on ability and motivation at high levels, then lp (lean production) is profitable. nevertheless, when organizations implement human resource management that focuses on ability and motivation at low levels, lp is negatively associated with performance. hence, the synergy educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 157 of lp and these two forms of human resource management is essential for performance, because without human resource management, lp might damage the organization (liao & han, 2019). to be an excellent and competitive university, the foundation starts by making decisions on policies to design superior and competitive human resources. the use of ineffective human resource management strategies has the potential to reduce university performance. to attract and maintain the value of human capital, an assumption that serves as a starting point is used, namely the competitive advantage that comes from the recruitment, development, and placement of human resources (brewster, sparrow & harris, 2005; and rodeiro, calvo & fernández, 2012). talent management is born from the belief that talent is what distinguishes excellent and poor organizational cultures. this condition can be categorized as a form of human investment. even though these development orientation programs are time and cost consuming, all organizations must implement them, and make the costs of the programs as investments in human resources. it attempts to close the gap between the current competencies and the expected competencies and to improve work efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the specified work goals (pella & inayati, 2018; and pawirosumarto & wahyudi, 2019). achieving this alignment of objectives must be pursued through long stages of a process starting from planning to managing and maintaining human resource potential. it is because, at the macro level, human resources development is a process of improving the quality or capability of humans, which includes planning, development, and management of human resources (notoatmodjo, 2003). in the capacity development, nine components must be considered to run systematically, i.e. performance capacity; personal capacity; workload capacity; supervisor capacity; facility capacity; support service capacity; system capacity; structural capacity; and role capacity (basnawi, 2017). in particular, in developing human resource capacity, which involves increasing all the internal potentials of human abilities, is based on the fact that a lecturer needs a developed set of knowledge, skills, and abilities to work well in a succession of positions encountered during a career. human resources are important assets that determine the health, existence, and competitive advantage of an organization. the main indicators are the use of the term human resources, human resource managers as strategic partners; and in the organizational structure, the human resource management unit is under the close supervision of the leaders of the organization (pella & inayati, 2018; and pawirosumarto & wahyudi, 2019). © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 158 sahroni, the development of human resources capacity many studies have been conducted focusing on human resource development in non-profit institutions. studies on the development of academic staff at a leading university in vietnam begin since the recruitment which welcomes ph.d. graduates, especially those who are graduating from developed countries. furthermore, academic staff development becomes a central program by offering greater opportunities for self-development (nguyen, 2015). the impact of an evidence-based approach in the professional development of the human resources field can strengthen credibility and better professional recognition. the practical implication for educators, policymakers, and employers is to broaden the understanding of valid evidence of learning to appreciate deeper reflection on practice-based work cases (chase, 2018). method this study investigates the policies and capacity development programs of lecturers in legal entity state universities, namely: ui (universitas indonesia or indonesia university) in jakarta; ugm (universitas gadjah mada or gadjah mada university) in yogyakarta; unair (universitas airlangga or airlangga university) in surabaya, east java; usu (universitas sumatera utara or north sumatera university) in medan; upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java; unhas (universitas hasanuddin or hasanuddin university) in makassar, south sulawesi; unpad (universitas padjadjaran or padjadjaran university) in bandung, west java; undip (universitas diponegoro or diponegoro university) in semarang, central java; itb (institut teknologi bandung or bandung institute of technology) in west java; ipb (institut pertanian bogor or bogor institute of agriculture) in west java; and its (institut teknologi sepuluh november or 10th november institute of technology) in surabaya, east java. this study employed a qualitative method. the data and information were collected by using surveys and then confirming them to 11 directors and heads of the human resource bureau of the legal entity state university (gay, mills & airasian, 2012). the focus of the study is on developing the capacity of lecturers by examining their vision and mission, policies and programs, as well as results and impacts. the contribution of this study is the construction of a structural model and measurement of strategic practice for lecturer development in universities and the provision of the facility for future research on human resource management in universities (laaksomanninen & viitala, 2007; and gay, mills & airasian, 2012). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 159 results and discussion positioning human resources, as an important asset in maintaining universities’ health and competitive advantage, has been demonstrated by legal entity state universities. the two main indicators found are all legal entity state universities have used human resource nomenclature and have positioned the human resource management unit under the close supervision of the leader of the organization, i.e. the rector. based on the organizational structure, there are eleven (100%) legal entity state universities that place the hrm (human resources management) unit two levels below the rector or equivalent to the position of the second echelon. meanwhile, based on its function, nine (81.82%) legal entity state universities place it as a directorate; and three (18.18%) others assign it as an executing administrative element by calling it a bureau. systemically, the legal entity state universities develop a framework related to regulations, policies, and basic conditions that support the achievement of policy objectivity in the field of human resources. the basis is academic and non-academic autonomy. in non-academic autonomy, there is an authority to appoint and dismiss employees by themselves and the authority to use its human resource management system. the autonomy of hrm is outlined in the vision, mission, and strategic plans that are regulated in the human resource management system regulations of each university (laakso-manninen & viitala, 2007; setneg ri, 2012; and rafiei & davari, 2015). a vision is a picture of a realistic future and intended to be manifested in a certain period. around 36.36% of universities list human resource capacity in the university vision. in the vision of the legal entity state universities, there are objectives to be achieved, obtained values and needs which are expressed through products and services. the vision mentioned above is also oriented towards the future, expressing creativity; it is not formulated based on current conditions and principles of values that contain appreciation (laakso-manninen & viitala, 2007; rafiei & davari, 2015; and machali & hidayat, 2016:253-254). the missions of the legal entity state universities reflect strategic actions, steps that must be taken, or implemented by the organization to achieve the vision. this strategic action is an overall approach that deals with the implementation of ideas, planning, and execution of activity within a certain period. it is a tool or action utilised by the management to achieve a consistent performance with the mission and goals of the organization. there are nine (81.82%) legal entity state universities that have a mission to develop human resource capacity as it has been outlined in the strategic plans. © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 160 sahroni, the development of human resources capacity the strategic plan or renstra (rencana strategis) of legal entity state universities contains policies and programs for developing human resource capacity, which is legalized by the board of trustees or mwa (majelis wali amanah). operational provisions are regulated by a regulation in the form of a rector's regulation. all legal entity state universities (100%) have their regulations regarding the human resource management system, such as the regulations concerning human resource management systems, the fulfilment of human resource needs, study permits and assignments, reward systems, and career development. the legal entity state universities develop decision-making processes, work procedures and mechanisms, reward and punishment, relationships, and networks in human resource management. human resource capacity development in the legal entity state universities has characteristics that match the characteristics of talent management. it has a development mind-set, implements a performance culture, has executive sponsorship, uses a good human resource information system, and applies the merit-principles, namely qualifications, competence, and performance (indonesia moec, 2016; pella & inayati, 2018; and pawirosumarto & wahyudi, 2019). it is reflected in all the universities that give rewards to those who are talented and accomplished and give punishments to those who are not talented and show poor performance. putting the right person in a suitable position is conducted through a competency assessment. in filling the number of qualified lecturers with a doctoral degree, nine (81.82%) legal entity state universities achieve it by establishing scholarship and fee assistance programs for those who continue their doctoral studies abroad or in the home country, monitoring, and providing sanctions for those who do not graduate. there are eleven (100%) legal entity state universities that give doctoral study permission/assignment to newly appointed non-civil servant lecturers. at the individual level, the legal entity state universities direct lecturers to increase knowledge, skills, work behaviour, job grouping, and work motivation. in filling the vacancy of human resources due to retirement or other causes, so that the ratio of lecturers to students is well-maintained, eleven (100%) legal entity state universities fill it through the formation of civil servant candidates or cpns (calon pegawai negeri sipil) and the procurement of non-civil servant lecturers. increasing the productivity of lecturers in producing scientific publications can be performed by carrying out training programs for writing scientific articles, providing incentives for scientific articles published in reputable international journals, and providing university educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 161 research grant schemes. the universities also require lecturers to have reputable international journal publications or accredited national journals in a certain number and period, otherwise, they will be subjected to sanctions. there are eleven legal entity state universities (100%) that have these programs and conditions. in the acceleration of proposing a professor's promotion, there are six (54.55%) legal entity state universities that carry out mentoring by professors; eleven (100%) others have a scientific article validation team; and nine (81.82%) others determine the requirements for reputable international journals which outnumber the requirements issued by the ministry. the capacity development of lecturers by the legal entity state universities has shown excellent results in the number of lecturers with doctoral degrees, the number of professors, and the number of lecturers who have been certified as professional educators. the average percentage of lecturers with doctoral degrees at the legal entity state universities is 49.94%. in detail, the percentage of lecturer with doctoral degrees in five universities is more than 50% and in six others is 34.16%, 39.92%, 40.08%, 45.33%, 45.61%, and 46.76%. in terms of academic positions, the percentage of lecturers holding positions as head rector is 23.40%; six universities’ percentage is above 25% and others’ is below 25%. on the other hand, the percentage of lecturers holding positions as professor is 11.48% averagely. in detail, seven universities have 10% lecturers holding positions as professor and four others have them below 10%. based on lecturers who have professional educator certificates, the average is around 72.11%. six universities’ percentage is above 75% and five others’ is 61.48%, 64.54%, 66.34%, 68.91%, and 73.48%. the excellence of the legal entity state universities is also displayed in the ranking of indonesian universities, the asia university ranking, and the world university rankings. in the 2019, ranking of indonesian universities, thirteen universities that are included in the first cluster, ten of them are legal entity state universities, namely: itb (institut teknologi bandung or bandung institute of technology) in west java; ugm (universitas gadjah mada or universitas gadjah mada) in yogyakarta; ipb (institut pertanian bogor or bogor institute of agriculture); its (institut teknologi sepuluh nopember or 10th november institute of technology) in surabaya, east java; ui (universitas indonesia or indonesia university) in jakarta; undip (universitas diponegoro or diponegoro university) in semarang, central java; unair (universitas airlangga or airlangga university) in surabaya, east java; unhas (universitas hasanuddin © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 162 sahroni, the development of human resources capacity or hasanuddin university) in makassar, south sulawesi; unpad (universitas padjadjaran or padjadjaran university) in bandung, west java; and usu (universitas sumatera utara or north sumatera university) in medan, north sumatera, indonesia (harususilo, 2019). in the asia university ranking, the world university rankings 2020, among six indonesian universities that are included in the 200 best asian university, five of them are legal entity state universities, namely: ui in jakarta, in 162; itb in bandung, west java, in 251-300; ugm in yogyakarta, in 301-350; its in surabaya, east java, in 301-350; and ipb in bogor, west java, in 351-400 (kemdikbud ri, 2020; and kasih, 2020a and 2020b). in the ranking of world university, among eight indonesian universities that are included in 1,000 best university in the world qs wur (quacquarelli symonds, world university rankings) of 2021 version, seven of them are legal entity state universities, namely: ugm in yogyakarta, in 254; ui in jakarta, in 305; itb in bandung, west java, in 313; unair in surabaya, east java, in 521-530; ipb in bogor, west java, in 531-540; its in surabaya, east java, in 751-800; and unpad in bandung, west java, in 801-1000 (kemdikbud ri, 2020; and kasih, 2020a and 2020b). the description above shows that the development of human resource capacity in the legal entity state university is carried out systematically and programmed at three levels, namely: the system level, the institutional level, and the individual level. meanwhile, concerning its implementation, it considers nine capacities to run systematically, namely: performance capacity, personal capacity, workload capacity, supervisor capacity, facility capacity, support service capacity, system capacity, structural capacity, and role capacity (potter & brough, 2004; purnomo, 2015; and basnawi, 2017). conclusion the excellent and competitive legal entity state universities have excellent human resources as well. in providing high-quality higher education, legal entity state universities place human resources as important assets that are required to be managed properly. in producing more excellent human resources than what is needed, a human resource capacity building system is developed through three levels, namely the system level, the institutional level, and the individual level based on the autonomy of academic and non-academic management. consistently, the legal entity state university pays attention to nine aspects so that human resource capacity development can run systematically. those aspects are performance capacity, personal capacity, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(2), february 2021 © 2021 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 163 workload capacity, supervisor capacity, facility capacity, support service capacity, system capacity, structural capacity, and role capacity. in maintaining the competitive advantage of human resources, two pillars are strengthened i.e. the hr (human resources) mindset as an organizational asset and human resource management system that applies the principles of a merit system, namely qualifications, competencies, and productive performance.1 references basnawi, choiriyah. 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(2019). “universitas singapura peringkat 1 asia: universitas di indonesia?”. available online at: https://www.abc.net.au/indonesian/2019-06-19/universitas [accessed in lembang, west java, indonesia: november 3, 2020]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 89 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. antecedents of teacher empowerment abstract: empowerment of teachers in the school setting is a vital instrument to meet the success in the attainment of the institution’s mission and vision. moreover, empowered teachers can do innovation to further develop the existing limitations of the school curriculum, uplift school standards, and transform students to be well-rounded individual in the society. in addition, teachers who are empowered increase their morale and become proud of the so called noblest profession. the main objective of this study was to describe the level of empowerment of teachers in terms of individual and institutional dimensions. it also attempted to identify the antecedents of teacher empowerment. the study utilized the descriptive method of research. the participants of the study were 90 teachers and 10 department heads in a public school in the division of makati in the philippines. the data were gathered using the teacher empowerment scale developed and validated by guillermo roman, jr. (2001). data were analyzed using the mean, t-test, and one-way anova (analysis of variance). findings reveal that teachers’ level of empowerment under individual dimension, which includes knowledge, value, and action, is strongly felt. likewise, the level of teacher empowerment in the institutional dimension, which includes clarity, attitude and behavior, recognition, communication, management in the workplace, and participation is strongly felt, with the exception on fairness, teachers’ level of empowerment is somewhat felt. it was also found out that length of service, educational attainment, and position are not antecedents of teachers’ individual empowerment. however, they are found to be antecedents of some components of teachers’ institutional empowerment. key words: teacher empowerment; individual empowerment; institutional empowerment. about the authors: ronald ganiban, m.ed. is a teacher at the general pio del pilar national high school in the philippines. rene r. belecina, ph.d. is a professor at the college of graduate studies and teacher education research in pnu (philippine normal university), manila, the philippines. jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. is a professor at the college of teacher development, faculty of education sciences pnu in manila, the philippines. corresponding authors: ronald.ganiban@yahoo.com, rrbelecina@yahoo.com, and juno_6970@yahoo.com suggested citation: ganiban, ronald, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. (2019). “antecedents of teacher empowerment” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february, pp.89-108. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (november 10, 2018); revised (december 27, 2018); and published (february 28, 2019). introduction empowerment is not a new concept that strikes in the different field nowadays, particularly in the world of education. it has been an issue for a couple of decades now. but still, the concept has not yet totally realizes nor exercises. in the field of education, power is always exercise by the top managers, while others remain to be followers. the teachers receive the end string of power from their superior and given less participation in terms of planning, monitoring, and executing. their authority is handcuff to the so called standards that limits the full potentials of the teachers to excel in their chosen field or career (ieab, 2008; cook, 2009; and gemr, 2018). “two heads are better than one”, an adage that could attest that sharing responsibility, sharing of powers bring a more goal oriented relationship in a group. empowering one © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 90 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment another in the institution to do the task will most likely resulted to the attainment of objectives and goals. moreover, empowering one another gives other the chance to impart their wisdom, knowledge, and skill that has been hidden due to less opportunity or waiting for the moment to share it with others. thus, empowerment brings smooth relationship among members in the group (longwell-mckean, 2012; ledesma & joyas, 2015; and alosaimi, 2016). some concerned individuals and groups in both education and non-educational sectors feel the increasing need for teachers’ empowerment. the concern seems not only to be justifiable, but also necessary in an effort to find a more workable; and lasting solution to the problem of deteriorating quality of education and lack of wide participation of teachers in the field. it is felt that the teachers should be given more opportunity to participate in decision making and in other activities that would give more freedom to think and act on matters that concern them personally and that of their job (ibrahim & alkire, 2007; wdr, 2013; and stromquist, 2018). another expectation in the empowerment process is the need to address the financial needs of the educators. it is sad to note that the while the 1987 philippine constitution, article xiv, section 3, paragraph 4, provides that: […] the state shall give the highest budget priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfilment (cited in vera, 2017). yet many teachers are forced by circumstances to borrow money from loan sharks, do moonlighting, and even work as domestic helper just to augment their meagre income. thus, the teachers cannot situate themselves in the education process. everybody tells them that they are important, but realities prove otherwise (ibrahim & alkire, 2007; wdr, 2013; and stromquist, 2018). empowerment of teachers in the school setting is a vital instrument to meet the success in the attainment of the institution’s mission and vision. moreover, empowered teachers can do innovation to further develop the existing limitations of the school curriculum, uplift school standards, and transform students to be well-rounded individual in the society. in addition, teachers who are empowered increase their morale and become proud of the so called noblest profession. on the other hand, less empowered teachers delivers low result, low students’ performance, and inactive in the participation of the school programs that could affect the overall standing or performance of the school (lazaro, 2011; perso, 2012; and greier & gouvea eds., 2017). the insight from these observations was the impetus to contemplate a study that looked into the antecedents of empowerment of teachers in the institution. the findings of this study may help educational managers to reflect on their management style and look up to the factors contributing to the full participation that lead to empowering of teachers in the field whether individual or institutional (cf bolden, 2010; ryan, 2010; and macbeath, 2012). conceptual framework. this study was anchored on r. kanter (1977)’s theory of structural empowerment, which focuses on the structures within the organization rather than the individuals’ own qualities (kanter, 1977). in this context, r. kanter (1977) and other scholars believed that leader’s power will grow by sharing the power through empowering others as a result; leaders will realize increased organizational performance. they identified two systematic sources of power that exist in organizations, these are formal and informal power. formal power accompanies high jobs and requires a primary focus on independent decision making. informal power comes from building relationships and alliances with peers and colleagues (kanter, 1977; o’brien, 2010; and mota, 2015). there are six conditions required for empowerment to that takes place according to r. kanter (1977) and other scholars, these are: opportunity for advancement; access to information; access to support; access to resources; formal power; and informal power (kanter, 1977; martin, 2010; and wong & laschinger, 2012). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 91 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 to further support r. kanter (1977)’s theory, contingency approaches to leadership of managers can be associated to increase the level of empowerment among members in the institution. such contingency models were: fred e. fieldler (1967)’s contingency model; victor h. vroom & arthur g. jago (1988)’s leader participation model; robert j. house (1996)’s path-goal leadership theory; and p. hersey, k. blanchard & d. johnson (2008)’s situational leadership model. these approaches to leadership can improve the management style of a leader depending on the situation or group of individual being manage or work with. it also suggested in the different contingency approaches the level of participation of the members to achieve specific objectives or goals (cf fieldler, 1967; kanter, 1977; vroom & jago, 1988; house, 1996; and hersey, blanchard & johnson, 2008). the study also banked on the behavioural management approaches, because empowerment is not only influenced by management style used by leaders, but also humanitarian purpose or good human relationship (frischer, 2006; and northouse, 2013). in m. parker follett (1918)’s approach, she describes organizations as communities within which people combined talents to work for a greater good (follett, 1918). the human resource theory of hawthorne, as cited in elton mayo (1949) and ozgur onday (2016), on the other hand, suggested that work behavior is influenced by social and psychological forces and that work performance may be improved by better human relations (mayo, 1949; and onday, 2016). likewise, abraham h. maslow (1943 and 1971) stated that self-fulfilment can be experienced by individual through fulfilment of the each level in hierarchy of needs (maslow, 1943 and 1971). moreover, d. mcgregor (1966) suggested that managers should shift into “theory y” thinking, which views individual as independent, responsible, and capable of self-direction (mcgregor, 1966). and also, c. argyris (1957)’s theory of personality pointed out that people in the work place are adults and may react when constrained by strict management practices and rigid organizational structures (cf argyris, 1957; and schermerhorn, jr., 2008). another theory that supports empowerment is the theory of motivation. a motivated individual has high sense of commitment, direction, and participation in the organization. according to j.s. adams (1965)’s equity theory, social comparisons take place when rewards are distributed in the workplace. people who feel inequitably treated are motivated to act in ways that reduce the sense of inequity; person conceived negative inequity may result in some working less hard in the future (cf adams, 1965; adams & freedman, 1976; and kabanoff, 1991). another is the law of effect, which states that the behavior followed by a pleasant consequence is likely to be repeated; behavior followed by an unpleasant consequence is unlikely to be repeated (berridge, 2001; and schunk, 2012). and lastly employing positive reinforcement will work best, when applied according to the law of contingent and immediate reinforcement (baron & galizio, 2005; and schermerhorn, jr., 2008). guillermo roman, jr. (2001), and other scholars, identified factors that could lead to empowerment of the academicians in the educational institution. they found out that teacher empowerment consists of two dimensions, these are: individual empowerment and institutional empowerment. individual empowerment consists of three components, which are: knowledge, value, and action. institutional dimension, on the other hand, consists of eight components, which are: clarity of purpose, attitude, behavior, recognition, fairness, communication, management in the workplace, and participation (roman, jr., 2001; calves, 2009; and kimwarey, chirure & omondi, 2014). in the field of education, empowering the teachers may result to their greater involvement in different programs or activities. in turn, this may produce or increase the level of productivity in terms of students’ performance in national achievement test, national career assessment examination, or other performance assessment of teachers and the school (mulford, 2003; and nicolas-victorino, 2011). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 92 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment the conceptual paradigm of the study is shown in figure 1. individual empowerment consists of three components, which are: knowledge, value, and action. institutional empowerment, on the other hand, consists of eight components, which are: clarity of purpose, attitude, behavior, recognition, fairness, communication, management in the workplace, and participation. experience, educational attainment, and position are hypothesized to be antecedents of teachers’ empowerment (boonyarit, chomphupart & arin, 2010; and seibert, wang & courtright, 2011). statement of the problem. this study attempted to identify the antecedents of teacher empowerment in a public secondary school in makati city, the philippines. moreover, it sought answers to the following questions: (1) what is the level of individual empowerment of teachers in terms of the following components: knowledge, value, and action; (2) are there significant differences in the level of individual empowerment among the teachers, when grouped according to the following variables: years of service, educational attainment, and position; (3) what is the level of institutional empowerment of teachers in terms of the following components: clarity of purpose, attitude and behavior, recognition, fairness, communication, management of workplace, material provisions, and participation; and (4) are there significant differences in the level of the institutional empowerment of teachers, when they are grouped according to the following variables: experience, educational attainment, and position. methods research design. this study used the descriptive survey research design, which involves the collection of data in order to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study. the descriptive method was utilized in this study, because it aimed to identify and describe the existing antecedents of teacher empowerment in a public secondary school (cronholm & hjalmarsson, 2011; smith, 2012; and al-kindy, shah & jusoh, 2016). participants of the study. the participants of this study were all teachers in a public high school in makati city, the philippines. one hundred faculty members participated in the study. table 1 shows the distribution of the participants according to departments. research instrument. the following research instrument was utilized in this length of service educational attainment position teacher empowerment individual:  knowledge  value  action institutional:  clarity of purpose  attitude and behavior  recognition  fairness  communication  management in the workplace  participation figure 1: conceptual paradigm of the study © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 93 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 study, namely techer empowermwnt scale. this instrument was developed and validated by guillermo roman, jr. (2001) measures the level of teacher empowerment. the questionnaire has three parts. the first part determines the personal profile of teachers, such as name, area of specialization, length of service, educational attainment, and position. the second part measures the level of teacher empowerment on institutional dimension. it consists of seven components with a total of 76 items. the third part of the instrument measures teacher empowerment on individual dimension. it has three components with a total of 25 items (roman, jr., 2001). table 2 shows the distribution of items in the questionnaire by components. as shown in the table 2, there were six questions for the personal profile of the teachers, seventy six questions on institutional dimension, and twenty five questions on individual empowerment. the empowerment levels were measured in terms of institutional and individual empowerment climate. each item in the questionnaire measures the level of teacher empowerment in a public secondary school. each item in the questionnaire is a four-point likert-scale item, wherein the teachers responded to it by indicating the empowerment they feel being described by the item (anastasi & urbina, 1997; roman, jr., 2001; and al-kindy, shah & jusoh, 2016). see table 3. data gathering procedure. the data gathering procedure followed two stages, namely: (1) preparation stage; and (2) administration stage. the procedures on each stage are presented as follows: preparation stage. a letter of permission to conduct the study was prepared and handed out personally to the schools division superintendent. after the superintendent table 1: distribution of the participants according to department department number of participants percent english 15 15% filipino 15 15% mathematics 15 15% science 15 15% araling panlipunan 12 12% t.l.e 12 12% mapeh 8 8% values 8 8% total 100 100% table 2: distribution of items in the teacher empowerment scale subtopics number of items a. teacher’s personal profile: 6 b. institutional empowerment climate: 1. clarity of purpose 9 2. attitude and behavior 17 3. fairness 7 4. recognition 5 5. communication 11 6. management in the work place 15 7. participation 12 c. individual empowerment climate: 1. knowledge 5 2. value 12 3. action 8 total 107 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 94 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment signed the letter, it was presented to the principal of the target institution. administration stage. after the permission was granted, the questionnaire was distributed to the teachers. the assistance of the heads of the departments of the different subject areas for the proper distribution of questionnaires was sought. the accomplished questionnaires were retrieved immediately as soon as they were completed. data analysis procedure. the following statistical tools were used to analyze the data. firstly, the means and the standard deviations were used to describe the level of teacher empowerment both in the individual and institutional dimensions. secondly, the one-way analysis of variance was used to determine if there is a significant difference among the levels of teacher empowerment, when the respondents are grouped according length of service and educational attainment. thirdly, the t-test of independent samples was used to determine if there is significant difference between the level of teacher empowerment, when the respondents are grouped according to position (cf creswell, 2009; yin, 2009; and jamie, 2012). results and discussion level individual empowerment of teachers. table 4 shows the level of teachers’ individual empowerment on action, knowledge, and value. as can be seen from the table, all indicators of individual empowerment are strongly felt by the teachers. this means that the teachers are aware of their rights and ready to fight for these if needed. teachers are empowered in the institution, because of their awareness and exercise of their rights. richard l. daft (2000), and other scholars, explained that empowerment means giving employee the power, freedom, knowledge, and skill to make decisions and perform effectively (daft, 2000; saremi, 2015; and paynevandy, 2016). in addition, gene i. maeroff (1988); bruce romanish (1993); and nafiseh rafiei & fereshte davari (2015) stated that increasing the knowledge and ability of the teachers will increase their power (maeroff, 1988; romanish, 1993; and rafiei & davari, 2015). this is also supported by the comment of one of the teachers in filipino department, as following here: i am empowered if all my rights are respected by my superiors and peers. my rights give me the power to do my task and duties; so, i can perform my job without thinking of what others will say (interview with respondent a, 3/7/2018). the result also implies that the teachers are willing to accept their shortcomings or mistakes, and they are willing to be corrected if necessary. on the other hand, teachers’ morale is affected by low recognition to their achievements and contributions in the institution (cf mulford, 2003; grossman, 2004; and robinson, 2010). milwida guevarra (2001), and other table 3: a four-point likert-scale item numerical description verbal description 4 very strongly felt 3 strongly felt 2 somewhat felt 1 not felt table 4: level of teachers’ individual empowerment indicators mean score verbal description rank 1. action 3.41 strongly felt 1 2. value 3.08 strongly felt 3 3. knowledge 3.35 strongly felt 2 overall 3.41 strongly felt © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 95 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 scholars, explained that when teachers are deprived of the opportunity to participate in decision-making and dissatisfied with some policies and programs of school managers at different levels, they lose their self-esteem and enthusiasm to perform their role the best they can (hayes, 1994; guevarra, 2001; and canaya, 2008). comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment when grouped according to length of service, educational attainment, and position. table 5 shows the result of the one-way anova (analysis of variance) for the comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment, when grouped according to length of service. the table shows that there is no significant difference among the levels of teachers’ individual empowerment on the three components: knowledge, value, and action. this means that length of service is not a factor to that affects teachers’ level of individual empowerment. moreover, experience is not a guarantee of how a teacher is empowered in the institution. according to guillermo roman, jr. (2001), and other scholars, empowerment is about participation and involvement. no participation, no empowerment. in addition, seniority is resented when an incompetent individual uses it as an excuse to ignore his/her responsibilities, resists change, and refuses to upgrade one’s skills (cf roman, jr., 2001; tremblay & gutberlet, 2010; and saremi, 2015). table 6 shows the one-way anova (analysis of variance) for the comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment, when grouped according to educational attainment. the table 6 clearly shows that there is no significant difference among the levels of teachers’ individual empowerment on the three components, when they are grouped according to educational attainment. this means that educational attainment is not a significant factor that affects teachers’ empowerment on knowledge, value, and action (cf mulford, 2003; guerriero et al., 2015; and aliakbari & amoli, 2016). table 7 shows the t-test for the table 5: one-way anova for the comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment when grouped according to length of service item source of variation sum of squares df mean square f p-value interpretation knowledge between groups within groups total 1.21 214.50 215.71 3 96 99 0.40 2.23 0.18 0.909 not significant value between groups within groups total 169.69 2 449.95 2619.64 3 96 99 56.56 25.52 2.22 0.091 not significant action between groups within groups total 24.41 597.30 621.71 3 96 99 8.14 6.22 1.31 0.276 not significant table 6: one-way anova for the comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment when grouped according to educational attainment item source of variation sum of squares df mean square f p-value interpretation knowledge between groups within groups total 1.75 213.96 215.71 2 97 99 0.87 2.21 0.40 0.674 not significant value between groups within groups total 35.92 2583.72 2619.64 2 97 99 17.96 26.64 0.67 0.512 not significant action between groups within groups total 9.16 612.55 621.71 2 97 99 4.58 6.32 0.73 0.487 not significant © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 96 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment comparison of the level teachers’ individual empowerment, when grouped according to position. it is evident from the table that there is no significant difference between the level of individual empowerment of the heads and teachers in terms of knowledge, value, and action. this implies that position is not a factor that affects teachers’ individual empowerment. level of teachers’ institutional empowerment. table 8 presents the summary of levels of teachers’ institutional empowerment on the different components. based on the overall mean rating institutional empowerment, climate is strongly felt by the teachers. this means that majority of the components’ indicators are essential to teachers’ empowerment. thus, these factors are important antecedents of empowerment in the institution. teachers gave the highest mean rating to clarity of purpose. this indicates that the purpose of the institution is clear enough for the faculty members. this means that the teachers are well oriented in the purpose of the institution; thus, knowledge on the mission and vision gives power to the faculty members to do their duties and responsibilities. moreover, roles and positions are clear to the members; so, everyone is aware of their specific duties to perform in the organization (mulford, 2003; guhao, jr., 2016; and lacks, 2016). teachers are willing to do their work beyond their scheduled time of work. it also reveals that the teachers are giving importance to the sworn statement under oath, which is willingness to render service in case of exigency of work. in addition, teachers have high regard to work commitment. teachers have high morale or values regarding their chosen craft. they can extend their precious time just to serve the needs of their students, but these qualities will turn into passiveness and then non-participation to the organization (up, 2003; and lawrence & deepa, 2008).1 thus, extrinsic motivation must be employed to eliminate the flame of inactiveness in the institution and strengthen their individual power through discovering new things that can contribute to the betterment of everybody. this agrees to the concept of empowerment, according to guillermo roman, jr. (2001) and other 1see also, for example, “improvement of working and employment conditions for teachers” in ilo (international labour organization): advancing social justice, promoting decent work. available online also at: https://www.ilo.org/ipec/partners/teachers/ improvementofworkingandemploymentconditionsforteachers/ lang--en/index.htm [accessed in manila, the philippines: december 7, 2018]. table 7: results of t-test for the comparison of the level of teachers’ individual empowerment when grouped according to position dimensions mean mean difference df t-value interpretation head faculty computed critical knowledge 3.35 3.36 0.01 98 .067 1.645 not significant value 3.09 2.99 0.10 98 .672 1.645 not significant action 3.40 3.50 0.10 98 .971 1.645 not significant table 8: level of teachers’ institutional empowerment components mean score description rank clarity of purpose 3.31 strongly felt 1 attitude and behavior 3.18 strongly felt 2 communication 3.11 strongly felt 3 management in workplace 2.98 strongly felt 4 participation 2.84 strongly felt 5 recognition 2.78 somewhat felt 6 fairness 2.54 somewhat felt 7 total 2.86 strongly felt © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 97 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 scholars, that a person who enjoys his/ her stay in the organization and is eager to contribute to the welfare of the organization (roman, jr., 2001; tsai, 2011; and stinglhamber et al., 2015). to highlight the professional agency’s manifestations within a temporal continuum, k. vahasantanen (2015), and other scholars, offered other perspectives of educational changes, both failure and success as well as transformation of identity. recognition as a component of institutional empowerment is somewhat felt by the teachers. this implies that result of assessment of performance is somewhat felt by the teachers in the institution. they feel that their performance is not recognized by the institution (zeichner, 2008; vahasantanen, 2015; and eckert, goldman & wenger, n.y.). this resulted to low performance and low level of trust to administration. the evaluation is sometimes based on kinship or relatedness of the rater to the one who is being evaluated; thus, it affects the real result of job evaluation (cf vahasantanen, 2015; binmad & li, 2018; and ombanda, 2018). this situation is affirmed by one of the teachers in physical education department, as following here: performance is not based on criteria, but it on how you are close to the administration or not. well, it’s their time we can’t do something unless we will go with the flow (interview with respondent b, 10/7/2018). on this matter, teachers will be more productive if their performance is evaluated objectively regardless of the relationship exists between the evaluator and the one being evaluated. it creates a constructive and professional relationship that aims to further develop one’s skills and abilities. as a result, teachers will become empowered on things concerning his/her professional growth and perform the task based on the standard followed by many institutions. whatever are the views of standards, both in schools and more importantly in teacher education’s accreditation, their implementation and promulgation persists (kusek & rist, 2004; ccsso, 2013; and bourke, ryan & ould, 2018). empowered teachers are those supported by the leaders and the whole organization in all activities to be undertaken. in this aspect, support (financial or moral) is one of the biggest factors for an individual to excel in his/her performance. in that sense, a person is able to push him/herself to the limit and make this as his/her driving force to bring honor not only to his/her name, but the whole organization that trusted him/ her whole heartedly. thus, empowerment is all about recognizing one’s need and wants (sternberg, 2009; bourke, ryan & ould, 2018; and oecd, 2018). according to f.b. soriano (2004), and other scholars, organization works best when teachers’ needs are met ample opportunities are provided for participation and shared decision-making. furthermore, they pointed out that no matter how strong the principal may be, he/she can be helpless under conditions where teachers lack of support and trust, suspicion, indecisiveness, and insecurity in the workplace is the rule rather than expectation (soriano, 2004; soriano et al., 2010; rouf & mohamed, 2017; and licorish et al., 2018). comparison of the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment of teachers when are grouped according to experience, educational attainment, and position. table 9 presents the one-way anova (analysis of variance) for the comparison of the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment, when the grouped according to length of service. the culture of institutions for teacher education can have its advancement through the in-house community of teacher educator’s learning. likewise, the individuals’ learning experience can be influenced by the norm of learning of the institution (soriano, 2004; soriano et al., 2010; tremblay & gutberlet, 2010; hadar & brody, 2018). the table 9 also shows that there is a significant difference on the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment on clarity, attitude and behavior, recognition, communication, management, and participation, when they are grouped according to experience. this means that length of service is a factor that affects teachers’ institutional empowerment. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 98 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment moreover, the longer of teacher in service more empowered is the teacher in the institution (soriano, 2004; soriano et al., 2010; lawson, 2011; and bidabadi et al., 2016). table 10 shows the one-way anova (analysis of variance) for the comparison of the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment, when grouped according to educational attainment. the table shows that there is significant difference among the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment on clarity of purpose, communication, management in the workplace, and participation, when the teachers are grouped according to educational attainment. this implies that educational attainment is a factor that affects teachers’ institutional empowerment on clarity of purpose, communication, management in the workplace, and participation (mulford, 2003; mansfield et al., 2016; kebritchi, lipschueatz & santiague, 2017). this goes along with the idea that from the very start, to develop graduates with high quality including indicators, such as maintaining enthusiasm for many years, motivation, and commitment as well as enjoying the work and having job satisfaction experience, are considered teacher education programs’ desired outcomes (mulford, 2003; han & yin, 2016; and mansfield et al., 2016). however, educational attainment is not a significant factor that affects teachers’ institutional empowerment on attitude, fairness, and recognition. table 11 presents the result of the t-test for the comparison of the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment, when they are grouped according to position. the table shows that there is significant difference between level of institutional empowerment of heads and teachers on attitude, communication, and participation. this implies that position is a factor that affects teachers’ institutional empowerment on attitude; while on clarity, fairness, and management, heads and teachers are not significantly different (cf brandao, 1995; henard & roseveare, 2012; and killingsworth & xue, 2015). attitude can be considered as antecedent of teacher empowerment in relation to position, because the hierarchy in the institution is a basis for personal and professional relationship. the higher position in the institution, the higher regards to be table 9: one-way anova for the comparison of the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment when grouped according to length of service components source of variation sum of squares df mean square f p-value interpretation clarity between within total 151.25 490.31 641.56 3 96 99 50.42 5.11 9.87 0.000 significant attitude between within total 437.96 4740.55 5178.51 3 96 99 145.99 49.39 2.96 0.036 significant fairness between within total 18.52 791.48 810.00 3 96 99 6.17 8.25 0.75 0.526 not significant recognition between within total 17.65 177.35 195.00 3 96 99 5.88 1.85 3.19 0.027 significant communication between within total 72.24 742.35 814.59 3 96 99 24.08 7.73 3.11 0.030 significant management between within total 164.7000 709.890 874.590 3 96 99 54.90 7.395 7.42 0.000 significant participation between within total 220.632 794.758 1015.390 3 96 99 73.54 8.27 8.88 0.000 significant © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 99 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 given. another is communication. it can be considered as antecedent of teacher empowerment, because communication affirms the role of one another in the institution by sharing ideas, insights, and opinions regarding the welfare of the group (mulford, 2003; myers & sadaghiani, 2010; and kraft & dougherty, 2013). moreover, transparency among members in the institution regardless of position will create a better working relationship; thus, a regular teacher feels they are part of the institution. lastly, involving every member of the institution in planning, monitoring, and implementing projects will result to greater participation in the future. in such way, teachers feel that they are important in the whole development of the institution. for the sake of a shared purpose, teachers have to be challenged to step beyond traditional roles and generalized assumptions (gleason et al., 2011; vaz-rebelo et al. eds., 2015; and brown & heck, 2018). while responsibility for failure events can be assumed personally, improved performance and greater persistence can be brought upon by feelings of hope (heskett, 2007; slavich & zimbardo, 2012; and wang, hall & rahimi, 2015). to sum it up, teachers’ individual empowerment is felt by the teachers in the institution. however, teachers’ institutional empowerment is something to be felt by the members of the institution. one thing that an individual will feel institutional empowerment is through leadership. leadership does not mean manipulating people with power and authority, but rather making them follow with respect and enthusiasm. a leader may not be highly intelligent. what matters most is the right attitude towards work and the people around him/her (kooper et al., 2007; singh, 2009; and kolzow, 2014). findings. based on the data gathered, the following findings are hereby summarized that the level of teachers’ individual empowerment in terms of knowledge, value, and action is strongly felt. awareness of their rights and responsibility makes them empowered. they are also empowered in doing things that benefited their social and personal concern. however, their value is affected by low recognition of their works and contributions in the institution (cf quisumbing, 2002; mulford, 2003; and fry, ketteridge & marshall eds., 2009). table 10: one-way anova for the comparison of the teachers’ level of institutional empowerment when grouped according to educational attainment components source of variation sum of squares df mean square f p-value interpretation clarity between within total 110.118 531.442 641.560 2 97 99 55.059 5.479 10.05 0.000 significant attitude between within total 161.765 5016.745 5178.510 2 97 99 80.882 51.719 1.56 0.215 not significant fairness between within total 5.645 804.355 810.00 2 97 99 2.823 8.292 0.34 0.712 not significant recognition between within total 7.774 187.226 195.000 2 97 99 3.887 1.930 2.01 0.139 not significant communication between within total 55.411 759.179 814.590 2 97 99 27.705 7.827 3.54 0.033 significant management between within total 86.354 788.236 874.590 2 97 99 43.177 8.126 5.31 0.006 significant participation between within total 63.096 952.294 1015.390 2 97 99 31.548 9.817 3.21 0.045 significant © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 100 r. ganiban, r.r. belecina & j.m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment there is no significant difference on the level of individual empowerment dimension, when the respondents are grouped according to years of service, educational attainment, and position. the level of teacher in the institutional dimensions in terms of clarity, attitude and behavior, recognition, communication, management in the workplace, and participation are strongly felt by the faculty members. however, fairness is somewhat felt by the teachers (cf williams, 2010; dehaloo, 2011; and sharifirad et al., 2012). there is significant difference on the level of institutional empowerment among respondents in terms of clarity, communication, management in the workplace, and participation, when teachers are grouped according to educational attainment. while teachers’ institutional empowerment on attitude and behavior, fairness, and recognition are not significant among respondents, when grouped according to educational attainment (cf thomson, 1998; dehaloo, 2011; and d’ortenzio, 2012). there is significant difference on the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment among respondents in attitude and behavior, communication, and participation, when the respondents are grouped according to position. however, there is no significant difference on the level of teachers’ institutional empowerment on clarity, fairness, and management in the workplace, when they are grouped according to position. length of service, educational attainment, and position are not significant predictors of teachers’ empowerment (cf theron, 2010; d’ortenzio, 2012; and eupena, 2012). conclusion in the light of the findings of the study, the following conclusions are made. teachers who have personal knowledge regarding their responsibilities and duties are empowered. teachers who have high morale and principles are empowered in the institution. however, it is affected by low recognition of their works and contributions in the fields. teachers who seek personal and professional improvement are empowered in their own chosen field. length of service, educational attainment, and position are not significant factors that affect level of teachers’ individual empowerment. the level of teacher empowerment in the institution in terms of clarity, attitude and behavior, fairness, recognition, communication, management in the workplace, and participation is at satisfactory level. while fairness is somewhat felt by the teachers. length of service and educational attainment are factors that affect teachers’ level of institutional empowerment on clarity of purpose, attitude, recognition, communication, management in the workplace, and participation. position is a factor that affects level teachers’ institutional empowerment on attitude and behavior, communication, and participation. in the light of the conclusions of this study, the following recommendations are given. the top managers and academic administrators should evaluate the existing leadership style being employed in their table 11: results of t-test for the comparison of level of institutional empowerment when the teachers are grouped according to position dimensions mean mean difference df t-value interpretation head faculty computed critical clarity 3.21 3.3 0.09 98 0.942 1.645 not significant attitude 2.89 3.14 0.25 98 1.804 1.645 significant fairness 2.39 2.56 0.17 98 1.286 1.645 not significant recognition 2.86 2.77 0.09 98 0.950 1.645 not significant communication 3.00 3.09 0.09 98 1.993 1.645 significant management 3.04 2.99 0.05 98 1.248 1.645 not significant participation 3.26 2.84 0.42 98 1.778 1.645 significant © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 101 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 institution, so that it will adapt the constant changing of environment in managing and dealing with teachers. school administrators should maximize the teachers’ participation in all institutional matters concerning teachers’ welfare and development. involve them in making decisions, planning programs, and giving them accountability in performing their task in the institution. the school administrators should also develop mechanism that would further recognize the role of teachers in the institution and in the whole organization. revise the existing policy of evaluation regarding teachers’ ranking and promotion. make financial assistance and scholarship program open to all, so that everybody has the change to further improve or develop their chosen field. the administrators should reiterate the purpose of the institution, especially to the new comers for them to fully understand the purpose and goal of the institution. during faculty meetings, administrators or school managers should give a concrete and comprehensive answer to queries, so that transparency will be established. for the top and middle managers, make sure that communications like memorandum, invitation letters, and the like will be disseminated to every member. the principal, as the mother or father in the institution, should be as much as possible treat everyone equally, assign task based on capabilities, assess performance objectively, and lead by example. a similar study on teacher empowerment should be conducted in order to evaluate and identify other factors affecting empowerment.2 references adams, j.s. 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3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 69 limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics: a case study norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad abstract: when mathematics is taught in english, students not only have to learn english but they must also learn english words used in mathematical context. this can lead to misconception again due to the lack of understanding of english. so, mathematics can be particularly challenging for limited english proficiency (lep) students. however, despite these challenges, the malaysian government’s policy to teach mathematics and science in english started eight years ago in 2002 with the intent to provide the citizens of the country with the scientific and technological competence to face the globalize world. thus, this study aimed to identify the approaches and strategies teachers integrate in their lessons to overcome the challenges faced by lep students. this qualitative case study was conducted in a rural primary school in pahang which has an enrolment of 1,800 students. the school’s excellent achievement in the upsr mathematics grade has been ranked among the top five schools in the state of pahang. other findings through classroom observations, interviews with teachers and students and document analyses proved that teacher’s strength, enthusiasm, and proficiency in english and creativity in their teaching strategies enable them to teach lep students, the subject most feared that is mathematics, in the english language. in addition to that, teachers teaching techniques encourage students to build confidence in learning mathematics and become less anxious to this fearful subject. key words: bilingual learners, homework assignment, limited english proficiency students, mathematics, and misconception. introduction mathematics has its own specialized language, grammatical patterns and rules, and it involves formulas, relationship, application, and explanation (short & spanos, 1989). due to this complexity, students create a certain kind of attitude and thinking about mathematics. as mentioned by m. macgregor and r. moore (1991) that language plays an important part in organizing knowledge, thinking logically, giving explanations, and presenting results. but how do you account for teaching mathematics in the students’ weaker language? these students are the group of limited english proficiency (lep) students who are learners of the english language. they learn english as a second language but now have to be in a mathematics class is taught in english. norlia t. goolamally is a lecturer at the faculty of science and technology oum (open university of malaysia), jalan tun ismail, 50480 kuala lumpur, malaysia; and jamil ahmad, ph.d. is a lecturer at the faculty of education ukm (national university of malaysia), bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. they can be reached at: nolee@oum.edu.my and jamil3191@yahoo.co.uk norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 70 teachers should not expect miracles to happen when teaching mathematics to lep students in a language other than their mother tongue. since mathematics has a language of its own, the nature of mathematics is itself a burden to students regardless of the language of instruction. teachers have to teach students to develop academic mathematics skill as well as learning english. as a matter of fact teachers should understand that learning a second language is as difficult for a child in their class as it is for the teachers as adults. it may be more difficult for a child, since they do not have the access to the memory techniques and other strategies that more experienced learners can use in acquiring vocabulary and learning the grammatical rules of the language. together with learning english as a second language, these lep students must also learn the unique meanings that some english words have in mathematical context. lep students need to pick up and learn many content-specific vocabulary words (e.g. quotient, equivalent, divisor, numerator, and denominator). besides that, they have to know the meaning of many complex phrases (e.g. least common factor and greatest common factor). many complex phrases are not found in bilingual dictionaries. what most lep students will do is that they will break apart the phrase (e.g. least common multiple) and look up each individual word in a bilingual dictionary to try to understand the meaning of the phrase. however, this strategy does not ensure accurate translation. they need to understand that many common english words have unique meanings in mathematics (i.e. bring down, face, plane, cone, net, positive, and negative). lep students have to understand that prepositions (i.e. by, with, to, into, from, etc.) are used in a variety of ways in word problems to highlight operations. they need to know the meaning of prefixes and suffixes (i.e. hept-, tri-, bi-, poly, -gon, and -lateral). there are other examples such as sentence constructions and statements that they have to understand and acquire before starting to think of solving the problem. table 1 shows some common english words that can be assigned to a single mathematical operation. table 1 multiple meanings of english words to single operation in mathematics operation common english words addition add, plus, and, combine, sum, total of, more than, increased by, greater than. subtraction subtract, minus, less, less than, fewer than, decreased by, difference, lower, take away, from, shorter. multiplication multiply, times, product, as a factor, twice, double, triple, groups of. division divide, divided by, quotient, separated into equal groups, shared equally, over, into, how many groups. equal is, are, result, make. teachers’ ability to provide an environment where the integration of the english language and academic skills development can be enhanced is necessary (tikunoff, 1985). however, one major problem that leads to serious learning in mathematics is the occurrence of misconceptions which results if students do not have proper or educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 71 adequate teaching, informal thinking process or poor remembrance. misconception is defined as a mistaken idea or view resulting from a misunderstanding of something. misconceptions are strongly held beliefs that students constructed based on limited understanding of a certain phenomena. an example of a misconception is a teacher might just describes the operation of multiplying by 10 as adding a 0. these misunderstanding will cause students unlimited trouble in grasping with mathematics from the most elementary concepts until they do calculus. students’ misconceptions cause teachers a lot of stress and frustration on why students cannot follow their teaching (resnick, 1983). misconception needs to be repaired and remedied and it can only be done by changing the conceptual framework of students (resnick, 1983). it is not enough to just merely inform or advise the student on the misconception that they have. neither does repeating a lesson or making it clearer help students who have already formed strong reasons for their misconceptions (champagne, gunstone & klopfer, 1983; resnick, 1983; and mcdermott, 1984). teachers have to explore and understand why these misconceptions arise and then plan a strategy on how to remedy the problem. teachers must help students to reconstruct correct conceptions (mestre, 1987). misconception results from students belief systems and also their thinking process and the only effective way to correct misconception is to change these misconceptions from the inside, which is from the students’ systems. statement of the problem in 2003, the malaysian government had implemented a national policy for the teaching of mathematics and science in english. this is in line with the increased importance of mathematics and science in the development of knowledge-based economies. mathematics and science teachers are required to use the english language for their instructional delivery. the moe (ministry of education) is very much dependent on the capability and the expertise of teachers to bring change to any policy brought about especially with regards to reform in education. teachers are direct agents of change for the mission and goals set by the moe. have the spirit and enthusiasm of our mathematics teachers declined ever since they started this mission? are they capable to overcome students’ problems in learning mathematics? mathematics is not an easy subject to teach. mathematics teachers have a growing concern about students’ misconceptions in mathematics (mestre, 1987). teachers understand that when students have misconceptions, students can become slow learners in mathematics and may even develop fear or anxiety toward mathematics. these problems if not solved early will interfere with students’ future learning of mathematics. teachers can easily make an easy explanation or excuse by saying that these students are not capable of understanding and should not take mathematics or class them as low intelligence students. but what teachers are most concerned with is, every child is not left behind and have the right to learn in class. knowing the fact that students have misconception in mathematics (students do not come to class as “blank slates” – l. resnick, 1983) and coupled with a few more norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 72 issues from the new policy, teachers are more stressed than ever. certain issues such as teachers inadequate proficiency in english and it has been observed that some mathematics teachers failed to plan effective measures to help students in overcome difficulties in learning mathematics in english (noraini idris et al., 2007). therefore, this study is conducted basically to look into the practices of the mathematics teachers on students’ misconceptions and also teaching mathematics in english. this study aimed to investigate teachers’ best practices in handling and overcoming misconceptions in the teaching of mathematics. in addition, this study also aimed to further explore the delivery methods teachers incorporate in their class in order to deliver mathematics instruction in english. objective of the study, research questions, and scope of the study the main objective of the study is to uncover the best practices of successful teachers in this school in their delivery method in order to minimize misconception among students in mathematics as well as to maintain the culture of teaching the subject in english. the main research questions investigated in this study were: (1) how do teachers manage to teach mathematics in english while at the same time trying to overcome students’ difficulty in learning mathematics?; and (2) what are the common misconceptions that teachers observed among their lep students? the scope of the study was limited to a primary school situated in the outskirt of kuantan, pahang. primarily, this school was selected because it has been ranked among the top five of all the primary schools in pahang according the upsr (ujian penilaian sekolah rendah or primary school assessment test) 2007 examination results. research methodology and data collection and management the methodology used mainly consisted that of a qualitative case study. data was collected mainly using interviews, class observation, and document analysis. context and background information of the school was collected through observation and document analysis. a case study design was conducted since it seems that it is the most appropriate method to look into the nature of how the teaching and learning of mathematics takes place in class. the school selected for the study was one of the top five schools in the state despite being located in the outskirts of kuantan, pahang, malaysia. the classes observed were from the year three and year five classes. the researchers also managed to gather data from the homework exercises done by students in their exercise books. these exercises were identified and collected according to the research questions. various procedures were followed before data were collected from the sample school. the principal provided the proper resources for the data collection. on the educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 73 first day of the research, the principal gathered some of the mathematics teachers for a short meeting. the mathematics teachers were explained of the purpose of the research and the welcome the objective of the research. they showed their support and were willing to be interviewed and also to be observed in class while they are teaching (crandall et al., 1985). the principal, the assistant principal, the mathematics expert teacher (guru pakar matematik), and the rest of the mathematics teachers were involved in the semi-structured interviews. interview questions were focused on the issues and challenges of teaching mathematics based on the new policy: the common misconceptions teachers observed among their students and also their teaching strategies to guide and help students in learning mathematics in the english language. the mathematics expert teacher collected students’ exercise books from various classes in different years for further analysis of the misconceptions that can be traced from the mathematics questions answered by students. focus group interviews explained the activities carried out by the mathematics panel in improving their teaching methods to ensure that students continue to learn even if they have to learn in english. presentation of results: results were discussed and presented in two sections. the first section presents findings of the study, whereas the second section will cover discussion, conclusions and implications of the study. a. findings of the study the overall findings reflect the research question which focuses on the issues related to the misconception due to language and the subject matter. findings will also reflect on the variation in teaching approaches to meet students’ requirements in understanding the concepts. there were altogether 17 mathematics teachers and all of them have more than five years teaching experience. the school has a male mathematics expert teacher who has more than 12 years teaching experience. first, data collected from classroom observation. in all the classes observed, the teachers were organized and efficient in their delivery of the subject content. teachers communicate clearly and slowly to ensure students followed their instructions. in some of the classes observed, teachers explained the concepts in malay before introducing the english term. in one of the classes observed almost 95 percent of the lesson was conducted in the malay language. this class is one of the end classes in year three. overall, classroom management in all the classes observed was good. this is so because students are actively involved over half the time of the lesson observed. students followed through the instruction conscientiously, paying attention, and looking at the teachers explaining in front of the class. students participated actively especially during the 5 minutes questioning session at the beginning of the class. norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 74 students were motivated and appear to be more interested when their teachers bring in some teaching aids for them. they appear to enjoy listening and look earnestly at their teacher’s explanation using the teaching aids. in almost all the classes observed, the teachers speak slowly and they came into class with their manipulative to increase students’ attention toward the subject. teachers continuously explain in detail although students responded in groups when answering questions. the mathematics teachers accepted students’ remark or students’ responses in malay. they do not penalize students who communicate with them other than the english language. however, in summary, what have been observed is that at the end of the class, almost all the teachers’ ask simple questions for example class: do you understand this example?; and/or do you think you can do some questions at home?. they tend to limit themselves to yes or no questions; or low level questions which is sentence completion type and almost invited chorused answers. throughout the classes observed, there were hardly questions to probe students’ ability to analyze the content discussed in the lesson. the results of the study indicate that the classroom interaction in the classes observed were total class instruction. teachers’ instruction made up about 70 percent of the time and approximately about 30 percent of the time students worked independently. almost 90 percent of the time students were observed doing seatwork. the following is an observation of one of the classes: teacher enters class and distributes questions for the day. students were given five minutes to do the questions. after five minutes teacher gives the answer and students mark their own paper. teacher then ask for the number of students who got all correct answers. students raised their hands to show the correct answers they have got. then students put away the paper and formal class teaching begins. teacher begins by saying, “hari ni cikgu akan mengajar pecahan. ingat, kita dah pernah belajar pecahan pada tahun lepas?” (today, i am going to teach you fractions. remember, we have done something on fractions last year?). and teacher explained the whole topic of “improper fraction” using the malay language. to start introducing the topic, she called two students (one being smaller than the other) to the front and showed the possibility of a smaller classmate carrying a bigger classmate and compared it if it is vice versa. and in malay, she explained that a smaller child cannot carry a bigger child, thus it is not proper. then only she introduced the term “improper fraction” to tell the class of some numbers which is bigger than the number at the bottom of a fraction and she uses the malay term “pecahan tak wajar”. she then used the teaching aid that she brought in and showed the class further examples of improper fractions. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 75 second, data collected from interview session. from the interview sessions, the mathematics teachers worked collaboratively in a team to teach the examination classes. the mathematics panel prepared questions that can be used during the first 5 minutes of class time. these questions were kept and sequenced according to the dates proposed by the panel. teachers used these questions as a drill before teaching starts. teachers admitted that they have very serious problems when teaching in english. they explained that almost 98% of the students are from families who do not use the english language at home. the other difficulty that they complained is that of their own deficiency in delivering the subject in english. although they have attended the etems (english teaching for mathematics and science) course conducted by the moe (ministry of education), yet they still feel that they have not acquired the skill to successfully deliver confidently in english. teachers also explained that they were unable to build the necessary conceptual foundation of mathematics due to the language barrier of the students. now that teaching is in english, they are worried that students will have double their misconceptions: misconception due to mathematics and misconception due the language. their concern is that this will cause serious problems later because students are taught only the lower mathematical skills and the reasoning skills are not focus in class. they explained that reasoning skills requires the ability to explain mathematical concepts and how students’ thinking is progressing. students find difficulty in expressing their reasoning power because they are not proficient in the language. some comments from the teachers in the interview are as follows: teacher a: “mathematics is not an easy subject to teach. even when we teach in malay, they are having problem what more if they have to learn in english”. teacher b: “all of us here, help each other in class. teachers who are not teaching the exam classes will teach math if they have to go in for relief […]”. teacher c: “students do not understand the question – many don’t understand the english terms teachers use in class. one operation, for example, to find the total, a question can be phrase as find the sum or how many altogether? head of the mathematics panel: “[…] students mark their own books and do the corrections themselves according to teachers’ example. we teachers are so busy, we simply don’t have time to check every book”. teacher d: “[…] misconception […] we don’t have time to trace students misconception”. teacher e: “sometimes i can see wrong answers repeated. but i cannot do much, i have to finish the syllabus and other school activities, and teaching in english makes us slower”. teacher f: “[…] sometimes i feel guilty because i cannot speak well in english, especially the end classes, students need more explanation”. however, despite these problems and constraints, the teachers from this school are always prepared with teaching aids and tried their very best to make the lessons norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 76 beneficial for the students. they attended to students weaknesses in the malay language, especially when introducing new concepts for the first time. third, data collected from students’ exercise books. two sets of students’ exercise books were taken from each of the classes in year three to year six. students maintain 2 mathematics exercise books. all exercises were either marked by themselves or by their partners in class. errors were corrected beside the appropriate question and the corrected answers were noted down. further analysis of the exercises showed that some common errors in a number of questions were repeated observed. a few examples from their exercises are attached as in appendix a. b. discussion findings from this research were specifically representative for this school that has been observed only. however, some aspects of this study can be used as a guide to help teachers to reflect on their own practice in their school. this research has shown that teachers played an active role during class instruction. teachers delivery of content and use of manipulative in their classroom helped to increase students attention and teachers keep students alert by calling out their names to answer teachers’ questions. although the language of instruction has to be in english, teachers continue to teach classes at the lower end using the malay. teachers feel more confident and comfortable to teach using the malay language to these students who are not proficient with the english language. it is not easy to explain mathematical ideas when students cannot follow or understand the language of instruction. this finding is in line with j. echevarria, m. vogt and d. short (2004), who placed great importance in communicating mathematical ideas as it is not a straight forward process since mathematics involve concepts, processes and applications, and the development of the english language should be done in a naturally. although teaching mathematics in malay is not recommended in the curriculum policy, teachers in this school felt that they were left with no choice. this is their last resort to ensure students come into class and learn mathematics. teachers pay less concern on the language skills but encourage students to be engaged in the mathematics content but in malay. looking back into literature, it seems that this method is similar to the instructional models for teaching lep students which is the sheltered instructional model. according to j. crandall et al. (1985), this method can be effective for lep students because they can learn mathematics better in their first language and also learn a second language successfully. in this study, teachers use of visual aids and hands-on activities helped to keep students focused to teachers’ instruction. as s.d. krashen (1982) asserted that language acquisition occurs when input is meaningful and understandable when lessons use concrete objects, graphics, manipulative, and hands-on activities to clarify and reinforce new concepts. it has also been reported that a child progresses if teacher explains and clarifies concepts in the child’s primary language which is their mother tongue (cummins, 1981; tikunoff, 1985; and wong & valadez, 1986). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 77 somehow or rather teachers delivering in malay can also be seen as the inadequate proficiency of themselves in the english language. this coordinates with the data collected from the interview session with teachers who feel that they themselves are not fully confident in delivering the content of mathematics to the students because of their limited proficiency in the language. teachers feel that facing students in the end classes requires more fluency of the language when compared to students in the first few classes. lower achievement students need more explanation and guidance. as suggested by noraini idris et al. (2007), teachers who believe that they do not have adequate professional development tends to teach mathematics in other languages interchangeably with english. these teachers feel that they are not competent to face students who have learning disabilities in mathematics who needs much more explanation and examples in class when compared to the students who are able to do mathematics. for lep students to succeed in the mathematics classroom, it is essential that teachers connect previous knowledge and experience to new concepts that are being taught and integrate academic vocabulary to build mathematical concepts. it is critical that teachers are able to integrate language and content instruction. the teacher is the heart of the lesson. the design and planning of the lesson to the questions asked at the end of the class is all dependent on the expertise of the teacher (ellerton, 2004). but, what seems to be forgotten in these classrooms is that the teachers failed to establish learning environments which nurture students’ mathematical problem solving skills and creativity. what has been observed is that students are called to answer only low level knowledge questions; teachers do not allow time for students to answer questions on their own. this is quite understandable since teachers still feel the dissatisfaction to teach mathematics in english. this is mainly due to their own personal reasons for not being competent in the language to give challenging questions to students and also probably understanding their own students’ ability to answer the questions. during the three days observation, teachers did not reach out to students with questions leading to higher order thinking skills even in the good classes. however, in one of the year five classes observed, the teacher start with asking a high level cognitive question but not allowing time for them to give their answers. but rather the teacher guided and structured the students thinking about the problem slowly by asking a sequence of low level questions. finally, both parties were satisfied on arriving at the answer but there is no guarantee that lessons has been learned. according to g. brousseau (1984), guided instructions to solve higher level mathematics tasks will only deny students the opportunity to formulate and apply their own strategies. this is observed when the teacher planned the question as well as the answering technique leading the students to the answer. this is a quick way to teach problem solving but do not ensure students understanding of concepts since we deny our students the opportunity to think creatively at their own pace. teachers also provided a substantial amount of work in mathematics for the students to do at home. analysis of the mathematics assignment clearly showed that students have been further reinforced at home with exercises according to the norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 78 topics taught in class. however, some remarks should be highlighted and discussed. exercises were given to reinforce and strengthen whatever is being learned in class but they were not checked by the teachers. research findings have shown that homework assignments are helpful to students if they were planned and have direct meaning to students as well as teachers (paulu, 1995). but the common practice in this school is that the individual student concern will mark their exercise book. so teachers are not actually aware of the errors or corrections that the students have undergone. unmarked exercises by teachers will lead to uncorrected errors by students. if teachers do not checked for errors in students’ assignment, these same errors will be repeated throughout the year. students will not understand why they make the same mistakes. mistakes or errors like this will become misconceptions unless corrected by teachers. according to h. cooper (1989), teachers have the responsibility to attend to the mistakes that students do and he even emphasized that homework assignments should be graded and given remarks either positive or negative in order to improve the child. conclusion and recommendation to summarize, perhaps the most effective lessons are when the teacher does the work beforehand in the planning, based on what has happened before and not at the time when teaching takes place. teachers are confronted with lots of challenges in teaching mathematics. having said that mathematics teachers should not make all these challenges as an escapist route for them just to satisfy themselves and put all the blame of failures to the students. teachers should have the enthusiasm and spirit to transform every challenge into an opportunity to improve students’ ability in mathematics. in order to promote mathematics learning in class, teachers need to encourage an environment where it is ok to be wrong. as teachers, we are expected to try to think together with our students, especially when new concepts are being introduced in class and we have to probe and identify the misconceptions that need to be corrected. in this particular study, the best practices observed was that teachers’ understanding of students limitation in english, made them proceed with their delivery in malay and introducing mathematical terms in english slowly to students. teachers kept class attention by using teaching aids and supporting students with prepared written questions to sustain their focus from the beginning of the class until lesson ends. they were flexible in the teaching approach and able to manipulate students’ strength and weaknesses in the language of instruction by introducing various teaching strategies according to students’ ability. there is not a doubt that these are best practices in this respective school. however, what is left to be of our concern is that when there is too much emphasis focused on the development of the english language, there are some aspects of the mathematics curriculum not being addressed. do we raise questions to challenge the cognitive development of the child in our daily teaching? are we looking into issues concerned with misconceptions and errors in mathematics, educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 79 either in our daily instruction or in homework assignments? to what extent do we know that by drawing students’ attention, they have cleared all their misconceptions and finally use the correct conceptual framework that is required for that particular topic? is it enough to prepare our next generation of youth who will have to face challenges in a more competitive world just by asking low level mathematics question just because of the inadequate proficiency of the teachers in the english language or the inability of our lep students? these are some painful yet truthful issues that we have to face. according to g. valdez, a. svedkauskaite and m. mcnabb (2002), when a teacher conducts quality teaching there will always be checking for understanding when new concepts are introduced and continuous checking for understanding in homework assignment, vocabulary, and writing activities to ensure students are engaged throughout the learning process. what seems to be the problem in mathematics classes now is that teachers work too hard, teachers solve all the problems but despite of teachers working hard, and the implementation of the discovery and inquiry teaching approach, students are still “cognitively” passive, uninvolved and not working hard enough. as teachers, it is always wise to look back and become reflective practitioners so that every action that we plan will not damage our children’s future. references brousseau, g. 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(2004). making content comprehensible for english language learners: the siop model. new york: center for research on education, diversity and excellence, second edition ellerton, n.f. (2004). “developing higher order thinking skills through problem solving in the secondary mathematics classroom” in proceedings of the seminar on best practices and innovations in teaching and learning of science and mathematics at the secondary school level. kuala lumpur, malaysia: eprd, moe, pp.23-35. khisty, l.l. (2005). “a naturalistic look at language factors in mathematics teaching in bilingual classroom”. paper presented in the third national research symposium on limited english proficient student issues: focus on middle and high school issues. krashen, s.d. (1982). principles and practices in second language acquisition. oxford: pergamon. norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 80 macgregor, m. & r. moore. (1991). teaching mathematics in the multicultural classroom. melbourne, australia: university of melbourne. mcdermott, l. (1984). “research on conceptual understanding of physics” in physics today, 37, pp.24-32. mestre, j. (1987). “why should mathematics and science teachers be interested in cognitive research findings?” in academic connections. new york: the college board. moschkovich, j. (2000). learning mathematics in two languages: moving from obstacles to resources. in w. g. secada (ed.), changing the faces of mathematics: perspectives on multicultural and gender equity. reston, va: national council of teachers of mathematics. noraini idris et al. (2007). “the professional preparation of malaysian teachers in the implementation of teaching and learning of mathematics and science in english” in eurasia journal of mathematics, science, and technology education, 3(2), pp.101-110. paulu, n. (1995). helping your child with homework. washington dc: u.s. g.p.o. also available online at: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/homework/title.html [accessed in kuala lumpur, malaysia: 21 april 2010]. resnick, l. (1983). “mathematics and science learning: a new conception” in science, 220, pp.477478. short, d.j. & g. spanos. (1989). “teaching mathematics to limited english proficient students” in eric digest. washington dc: eric clearinghouse on language and linguistics, eric document reproduction service no.ed317086, november. also available online at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ contentdelivery/servlet/ericservlet?accno=ed317086 [accessed in kuala lumpur, malaysia: 21 april 2010]. tikunoff, w. (1985). applying significant bilingual instruction in the classroom. rosslyn: national clearinghouse for bilingual education. valdez, g., a. svedkauskaite & m. mcnabb. (2002). “critical issue: mastering the mosaic-framing impact factors to aid limited-english-proficient students in mathematics and science”. also available online at: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/ma700.htm [accessed in kuala lumpur, malaysia: 21 april 2010]. wittrock, m. (1988). a constructive review of research on learning strategies. san diego: academic press. wong, f.l. & c. valadez. (1986). “teaching bilingual learners” in m.c. wittrock [ed]. handbook of research on teaching. new york: macmillan publishing company, third edition. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 81 appendix a examples of repeated errors in student exercise book student a: student b: norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 82 student a: educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 83 student b: norlia t. goolamally & jamil ahmad, limited english proficiency students and misconceptions in mathematics 84 learning a second language is a complex process that develops in sequential stages. during this learning process, students may experience various stages from a “silent period” to a oneor twoword responses, and later basic dialogue in simple sentences until finally into the advanced stage where they finally attained a grade level when they can converse fluently and understand grade level classroom activities. 4 esq.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 35 associate professor dr. che su mustaffa is a lecturer at the college of arts and sciences uum (university of utara malaysia) in sintok, kedah, malaysia. she can be reached at: chesu402@uum.edu.my the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient among malaysian students che su mustaffa abstract: communication skills and emotional spiritual quotient are important for employees to achieve organizational goals and mission. in order to achieve the organization’s objectives, the level of communication apprehension must be low and emotional spiritual quotient must be high. this research intends to find out the level of communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient of students, whether significant relationship exist between all the dimensions of communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient, and whether there exist any differences between the communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient based on demographic factors. a total of 340 respondents were selected using the stratified random sampling method. the results indicate that there exists a significant and positive relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient. there are no significant differences between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient based on demographic factors. key words: communication apprehension, emotional spiritual quotient, and malaysian students. introduction communication educators have long been concerned with helping students who experience high communication apprehension (ca) avoid negative academic consequences. although high ca has not been demonstrated to be related to intelligence, 50 years of research of ca research has shown that it is related to communication avoidance, negative perceptions by others and negative academic consequences. hence, j.c. mccroskey states that communication apprehension is an individual level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 36 communication with another person or persons (mccroskey, 1982). this fear or anxiety, also known as stage fright or nervousness, can cause shaking knees, a quivering voice, the inability to speak, nausea, or may lead to a person completely avoid communication situations. the price apprehensive individuals pay for their inability to communicate is significant. the consequences of apprehension are well established in the research providing evidence that apprehensive students have lower overall grade-point averages and score lower on college entrance examination (mccroskey & andersen, 1976); they considered less competent, composed and attractive that more outgoing individuals; apprehensive individuals are less likely to receive job interviews, and when they are hired, they are less likely to seek career advancements (mccroskey & leppard, 1975). review of literature following from j.c. mccroskey’s arguments that we need to identify factors, such as apprehension, that influence “positive or negative affect toward communication” (mccroskey, 1982:6); some researchers try to identify personality factors that might affect self-perceived communication competence. although a meta-analysis of the relationship between communication apprehension and cognitive determined that a small but stable relationship exist between communication apprehension and cognitive performance (r = -.12) as cited by j.c. mccroskey, and that communication apprehension is negatively related to college grade point average, little is known about the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient (mccroskey, 1982). the phrase “emotional intelligence” (ei) was coined by yale psychologist, peter salovey, and the university of new hampshire’s john mayer five years ago to describe qualities like understanding one’s own feelings, empathy for feelings of others and “the regulation of emotion in a way that enhances living”. their notion is about bound into conversation, handily shortened to eq (emotional quotient). a book, emotional intelligence, by daniel colemen who is a psychology ph.d. has brought together a decade’s worth of behavioral research into how mind processes feelings. his thesis: when it comes to predicting people’s success, brainpower as measured by iq and standardize achievement tests may actually matter less than the qualities of mind once thought of as “character” before the word began to sound quotient (in coleman, chalian & robinson, 1993). ei has roots in studies of “social intelligence” in the 1920s and perhaps earlier. it was “discovered” again by salovey and mayer in the 1990s who first called it “emotional intelligence” and represents two of the seven or multiple intelligence theorized by gardner: interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. accordingly, p.g. coleman, c.i. chalian and m. robinson popularized the concept in 1993, as well as the notion that ei might “matter more” than iq (which represents one of gardner’s seven intelligences). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 37 currently, there are several definitions of ei in use, and they don’t necessarily match well. ei is multifaceted construct and we don’t have a clear, simple definition of it. because of this, it has been difficult to develop a good paper-and-pencil test to measure ei. nonetheless, following are two ways of the more widely used definitions at present. coleman defines ei as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships” (coleman, chalian & robinson, 1993:317). meanwhile, l.j. tischler, j. biberman and r. mckeage refer to emotional intelligence as being “[…] an array of non-cognitive skills, capabilities and competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures” (tischler, biberman & mckeage, 2000). in the past two years, two writers i.e. emmons and zohar marshall have postulated the notion that spirituality could be an intelligence. in doing so, emmons, writing in the discipline of psychology of religion, argues that spirituality meets gardner’s criteria for an intelligence and should be included as an intelligence. he also postulates that at least five core abilities that define spiritual intelligence namely: (1) the capacity for transcendence; (2) the ability to enter into heightened spiritual states of consciousness; (3) the ability to invest everyday activities, events and relationships with a sense of the sacred: (4) the ability to utilize spiritual resources to solve problems in living; and (5) the capacity to engage in virtuous behaviors or to be virtuous or to show forgiveness, to express gratitude, to be humble, and to display compassion (in bootzin, 1975). zohar marshall proposes that in addition to iq and eq (ei), there is another type of intelligence they call “sq” or spiritual intelligence. furthermore, they propose that iq and eq are subsidiary to and supported by sq. so, sq is the highest intelligence (in bootzin, 1975; and baumgardarner, kaufman & levy, 1989). “spiritual” is used similarly, or in ways related to “emotional”, or to particular behaviors or attitudes of an individual. for example, being spiritual has been equated with being open. giving, compassionate, or what we imagine as “holy” in one’s behavior, and is usually has to do with personal experiences of god, allah, the transcendent, the beyond, the sacred. the focus is on the direct experience of something other than what is normally the focus of the daily, material, sensory, or even emotional reality. on the other hand, many of results in daily living of having such experiences appear to be similar to the results (behaviors, feeling states, etc.) or being more emotionally mature or intelligent. using the competency framework, higgs m. dulewicz studied 100 managers over a 7-years old period by looking at a variety of their competencies and at their climb in their organizations. he also measured iq, ei and potentially related personality traits. he used factor analysis and found six factors with cronbach alphas above 0.50. he found that competency based ei factors contributed 0.36 to predicting organizational advancement, vs iq contributing (dulewicz, 2000). combined they predict 0.52 of advancement. there is claim that, in spite of recent studies showing that most americans believe in a god or universal spirit, the academic literature is void of much research che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 38 in this area. mccormick cites a number of studies that offer evidence that believing managers claim their relationship with god influences their work more than any other variable. in doing so, mccormick cites themes that emerged from the literature on spirituality and the workplace: compassion, right livelihood, selfless service, meditative work, and the problem of pluralism (in emmons, 2000). as for islam, the evaluation of humankind is not only possible but is the main purpose and outcome of believing and practicing islam. the approach of islam to elevate the human self and get it closer to god is realistic, comprehensive, rational and direct. mankind is a complex creation of god. needless to say, it is only the creator who could know precisely the intricacies of the human soul, and how they elevate it far and beyond. divine messages are like “users’ manual” of this creation. islam is a comprehensive “manual” of life that combines basic aspects (faith and worship, moral teachings and law) to offer the most intensive and effective means to know god and love him, purify the soul and refine its human qualities, and establish a communal feeling of feeling of love, devotion and solidarity. reading, reciting and contemplating the qur’an provides the muslim with a clear vision of god and his universe and creatures, as well as keys to supreme morality. the text of the qur’an is inimitable in its meanings, structures and rhetoric. and rhyme that motivate both the intellectual and the uninitiated. reciting the qur’an or praying to god using its wonderful phraseology, as well as other as other supplications taught by the prophet of islam, is a permanent wealth of direct communication with god. muslim ritual prayers are preceded by physical purification through washing the face, arms, and feet and wiping the head. this purification physically refreshes the body and mind to concentrate on the direct communication with god that follows. obligatory prayers are performed five times around the clock, and there are also highly recommended prayers, especially late night prayers. in arabic, zakah or obligatory charity, literally means purification of the money of the owner as well as purification of his heart of both greed and selfishness, replacing them with content, thankfulness, love, and willingness to sacrifice for others. similarly, the needy recipients’ hearts are filled with satisfaction and warm wishes to the rich instead of class hatred and malicious envy. in the lunar month of ramadan, muslims abstain from food, drink and sexual activities from dawn to sunset during the whole month. there are also recommended fasts on certain days and occasions (or any other day) around the year. the fifth pillar of islam, hajj or the pilgrimage, also presents a unique opportunity of spiritual evolution. assembling in makkah together with millions of muslim, all in the simplest of garments, is a living unforgettable glorification of god by mankind and a reminder of the ultimate grand assembly of all generation in the hereafter. based on the above discussion, the purpose of the present study was to add empirical data to the body of research regarding apprehension among malaysian students. based on the description of previous findings, research that explores the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient, offers initial concerning communication apprehension and emotional spiritual educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 39 quotient among students, and gives empirical evidence as to the effects of communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient on the academic performance of the students. mememememettttthod: rhod: rhod: rhod: rhod: respondents and insespondents and insespondents and insespondents and insespondents and instrtrtrtrtrumentumentumentumentumentationationationationation this study utilized a survey approach to gather data. the organization was a public university in the northern part of malaysia. respondents for this study were 404 undergraduate students (359 female, 45 male) enrolled in communication courses refer figure 1 to figure 5. questionnaires were administered during regular class time in the second and third week of the second semester 2004/2005 session. participation was voluntary and students were assured of confidentiality. the instrumentation for this study is personal report of communication apprehension (prca). i used the prca-24 to assess levels of communication apprehension. the prca-24 contains 24 likert-type statements concerning feelings about communication with others in four contexts: dyad, group, meeting and public. besides an overall score across the 24 items, sub scores can be computed in the four contexts. the instruments have been used in many studies and has demonstrated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability (rubin & graham, 1988; and rubin et al., 1990). in this study, the prca-24 had a .86 cronbach alpha. for prca contexts were: dyad, a = .76, group, a =.72, meeting, a = .88, and public, a = .86. prca-24 scores have a potential range of 24 to 120. emotional spiritual quotient was measured using questionnaire proposed by r.a. emmons (2000). the questionnaire based on 99 characteristics of god believed by muslim. results students were categorized as having high or low ca using standard deviation criteria (bootzin, 1975). low ca was defined as a score more than one standard deviation below the mean on the prca-24 trait and context scores and high ca, a score one standard deviation above the mean. accordingly, for the trait score, 123 students (14 male and 109 female) and high ca, 278 students (30 male, 248 female). see figure 1 as follows: 1 4 1 0 9 3 0 2 4 8 0 5 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 2 0 0 2 5 0 l o w h i g h m a l e f e m a l e che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 40 table 1 provides detailed result of t-test, beginning with a comparison between results of the prca overall mean scores followed by group, meeting, interpersonal and public speaking. at = 0.05 the analysis shows no significant difference between the means of the two groups (male and female) on their overall self-reported setting of ca, group, meeting, interpersonal and public speaking. pearson product moment correlation was used to test the hypotheses advanced earlier. the correlation procedure applied to these data indicated the presence of a positive and weak relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient (r = .25, p [is less than] 0.01). similarly, the results indicated that there are significant and weak relationship between esq and group communication (r = .28, p [is less than] 0.01) and meeting (r = .21, p [is less than] 0.01). interpersonal communication and public speaking does not correlate significantly with esq. table 2: correlations among study variables discussion the findings of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between ca and esq. the findings indicate that even though the level of spirituality among malaysian students is high but they are still having communication apprehension. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 41 therefore, educator must continue to pursue ways to help all malaysian students in term of their communication problem. adapting teaching strategies to the learning style preferences may be one way instructors can further help them to overcome their communication anxiety. another important relationship examined in this study is the relationship between group and meeting with esq but no significant relationship was found between interpersonal and public speaking with esq. further examination is needed to explain why this two traits produced the increased apprehension among the students. perhaps it is in this context that the social and personality correlates of communication apprehension that have also associated with high academic achievers have their greatest situational impact. however, the result of this study advances the literature by indicating that emotionally intelligence students also facing communication apprehension. result of t-test revealed that there is no significant differences between male and female in term of their ca. this is probably due to level of education received by both genders. there are limitations in the present investigations that place restrictions on generalizations that can be drawn. in the main, these studies employ restricted samples, a limited number of settings, and limited data collection strategies, all of which limit the generalizability of these findings. research using a broader sample, in diverse settings and various data gathering strategies is in order. although i observed some clear relationships between communication apprehension (ca) and esq (emotional-spiritual quotient), salient factors might mediate these results. one factor that i did not consider is the length of time students are in the academic setting. in their longitudinal study, rubin et al. found that communication majors’ “communication competence decreased significantly during sophomore year, but then increased significantly during the junior and senior years” (in dulewicz, 2000). given these results, it would be useful to consider whether academic classification or academic longevity affects students’ communication apprehension. predicting college students success involves many measurable and salient factors; yet identifying all of them is almost impossible. this study adds additional information about the impact communication apprehension has on esq. furthermore, i now need to extend these research efforts to examine another important learning outcomes such as career success. conclusion employers and other external stakeholders have identified the needs for students to acquire effective communication skills. the research indicates that the extent to which ca affects individuals determines both effectiveness of their communication skills and the efficacy of efforts devoted to their development. thus, if progress is to be made in enhancing the communication skills of malaysian students, it is necessary to deal with ca, which from the available evidence would appear to be widespread. che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 42 references baumgardarner, a.h., c.m. kaufman & j.k. levy. (1989). “regulating affect interpersonal: when low esteem leads to greater enhancement” in journal of personality and social paychology, 56, pp.907-921. bootzin, r.r. (1975). behavior modification and therapy. winthdrop, usa: north wester n university. coleman, p.g., c.i. chalian & m. robinson. (1993). “self-esstem in later life” in ageing and society, 13, pp.171-192. dulewicz, higgs m. (2000). emotional intelligence: a review and evaluation study. henley-onthames, usa: henley management college. emmons, r.a. (2000). “is spirituality an intelligence? motivation, cognition and the psychology of ultimate concern” in the international journal for the psychology of religion, 110, pp.1326. mccroskey, j.c. (1982). “oral communication apprehension: a reconceptualization” in m. burgoon [ed]. communication yearbook. beverly hills, ca: sage publication, pp.136-170. mccroskey, j.c. & j. andersen. (1976). “the relationship between communication apprehension and academic achievement among college students” in human communication research, 3, pp.73-81. mccroskey, j.c. & t. leppard. (1975). “the effects of communication apprehension on nonverbal behavior”. paper presented to the eastern communication association annual meeting in new york, usa. tischler, l., j. biberman & r. mckeage. (2000). “linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance: definitions, models and ideas for research” in journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), pp.203-218. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 43 gender 88.9% 11.1% female male siblings 14.6% 19.6% 33.2% 25.7% 6.9% more 8 siblings 7-8 siblings 5-6 siblings 3-4 siblings 1-2 siblings che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 44 age 52.7% 46.8% .5% more than 21 years 19-21 years less than 16 years father's occupation 5.2% 7.2% 22.6% 13.2% 24.1% 27.8% no respond unemployed farmer private organization government servant self-employed educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 45 mother's occupation 5.7% 59.2% 3.7% 4.5% 11.1% 15.8% no respond unemployed/housewife farmer bprivate sector government servant self-employed che su mustaffa, the relationship between communication apprehension and emotional spiritual quotient 46 there is a significant relationship between ca and esq. the findings indicate that even though the level of spirituality among malaysian students is high but they are still having communication apprehension. therefore, educator must continue to pursue ways to help all malaysian students in term of their communication problem. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 1 new models and e-learning trends in teacher education and professional development hilal ahmad wani1 abstract: with the advent of the knowledge era, teacher education needs to prepare teachers to face the changing technological contexts and to model pedagogies and tools for better forms of learning. despite much enthusiasm about the roles of technology in education, its role in transforming teacher learning, in ways aligned with advances in the learning sciences and contemporary socio-cultural perspectives, few changes have occurred. while many teacher educators are turning away from technology after early attempts met with mitigated success, some are pushing the boundaries of teacher education and professional activity systems. this paper identifies and analyzes emerging trends and models in e-learning for teacher education and professional development from the developing research base, both international trends and current developments. as we know that globalization cannot be understood without including information and communication technology (ict). educational institutions and teaching staff have many benefits due to emergence of modern technology. teachers have their own networks through which they connect themselves with other teachers across the globe. institutions have web-supported classrooms. similarly, it also enhanced the responsibilities of schools, colleges, universities that should have such teachers who can produce such students who after receiving their education can adjust themselves at any platform. key words: teacher education, technology in education, models in e-learning, and teacher professional development. introduction with the advent of the knowledge era, teacher education needs to prepare teachers to face the changing technological contexts and to model pedagogies and tools for better forms of learning. despite much enthusiasm about the roles of technology in education, its role in transforming teacher learning in ways aligned with advances in the learning sciences and contemporary socio-cultural perspectives. darling-hammond and baratz-snowden acknowledge that while specifying what teachers need to know and be able to do is not a simple task, it is possible to develop a vision of professional teaching that connects teaching with student learning and requires that teachers be able to point to evidence of that learning (cited by berliner, 1994). hilal ahmad wani is research scholar at the department of political science amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, uttaraparadesh, india. he can be reached at: wanihilal@gmail.com hilal ahmad wani, new models and e-learning trends in teacher education 2 meanwhile, globalization and the increasing convergence of digital technologies were the defining characteristics of our world at the turn of the 21st century. as boundaries blurred due to the swiftness of information transfer, knowledge became power. with governments gearing up to prepare their citizens for the knowledgeeconomy, greater responsibility has been placed on education institutions to meet the challenges brought about by this new landscape. education is the main enabler for a nation with no natural resources and whose competitive edge lies in arming its people with skills and competencies needed for the 21st century (papastamatis, panitsidou & giavrimis, 2009:88). the objectives and connotation of e-learning this paper identifies and analyzes emerging trends and models in e-learning for teacher education and professional development from the developing research based, both international trends and current developments. i focus mainly on connotation of e-learning, teacher’s professional development, teacher’s responsibilities, proposals for effective teaching professionals and staff-development, research in teacher education and teacher practice consists on several aspects, and conclusions and suggestions. i have also highlighted the role of modern techniques in educational field and professional development. as we know that globalization cannot be understood without including information and communication technology (ict). modern technology created easiness in every field of human life. today, we can receive and send any information from any part of the world within seconds through internet. educational institutions and teaching staff have many benefits due to emergence of modern technology. today, distance education is also going through on line. teachers have their own networks through which they connect themselves with other teachers across the globe. institutions have web-supported classrooms. due to emergence of modern technology, world has changed its domain. similarly, it also enhanced the responsibilities of schools, colleges, and universities that should have such teachers who can produce such students, who after receiving their education can adjust themselves at any platform. therefore, as per the modern, trend educational institutions need those teachers and learners who must be professionals in their field and work. they should have the qualities to work for the nation building process and betterment for the entire society. e-learning is a technology which supports teaching and learning via a computer and the web technology. it bridges the gap between a teacher and a student in two different geographical locations. advancement in internet and multimedia technology is the basic enabler for e-learning. e-learning applications facilitate online access to learning content and administration. software applications built for planning, delivering, and managing learning events has become a crucial need for the corporate training departments of large organizations. our creative and technical abilities allow us to package the most complex material into a comprehensive and educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 3 an interactive e-learning application. we work with sophisticated technologies and produce e-learning applications for a variety of situations and deployment methods (nid, 2008/2009). educators’ professional development and teachers responsibilities in modern scenario in most cases, adult learners have somewhat different needs and characteristics as compared to children. they are more self-directed, more mature, more experienced, more problem-oriented, and live under different social circumstances and expectations. it is imperative, therefore, that educators should not equate and treat adult learners as children. reflective adult educators have come to realize that treating adults as though they were children results in ineffective teaching and unsuccessful learning (berliner, 1994). it is widely recognized that one of the most enduring issues with staff development programmes for professionals has been the tendency on part of staff developers to treat adult learners as children rather than as adults. some institutions and educators tend to maintain an authoritarian teaching style, relying upon the educator teaching from the front with very little interaction with the learners. such practice would seem unsuitable for teaching adults. if adult educators and their adult learners need to share in a positive and meaningful educational experience, it is important to acquire greater understanding of the process involved in adult learning and the methodologies that can enhance this process. staff development planners should take this fact into account and adapt their teaching strategies and techniques accordingly. the extent and quality of the professional education and training, received by professionals, influence both the quality and the style of their teaching. the more knowledge and skills, they have in planning and delivering instructions the better their students will learn. professionals without sufficient teaching knowledge tend to teach by instinct and are doomed to trial-and-error approaches (fuller, 1969). the 21st century has been characterized by knowledge driven economies, rapid information exchanges, and fast-moving communication technologies which have created new demands on education systems worldwide. in the 21st century landscape, education must focus on nurturing the whole child – morally, intellectually, physically, socially, and aesthetically. students need to acquire new knowledge, skills, and dispositions to ensure their survival and success as individuals, as members of the community, and as citizens of our nation (griffiths & tann, 1992). to achieve this, we must develop teachers who are able to undertake in content teaching, knowing how people learn best, and learning to design the best learning environment possible. teacher identity values refers to having high standards and a strong drive to learn in view of the rapid changes in the education milieu and being responsive to student needs. the values of service to the profession and community focuses on teachers’ commitment to their profession through active hilal ahmad wani, new models and e-learning trends in teacher education 4 collaborations with the fraternity and striving to become better practitioners to benefit the community (guskey, 2003). teacher identity can be acknowledged when he/she must have the following characteristics: (1) aims for high standards, (2) enquiring nature, (3) quest for learning, (4) strives to improve, (5) passion, (6) adaptive and resilient, (7) ethical, and (8) professionalism (berliner, 1994). proposals for effective staff development of teaching professionals the foregoing discussion describes a picture of the unique professional growth needs of teaching professionals, who have been characterized as adult learners going through stages of career development. if educational authorities are to use this information wisely, they must translate it into effective reshaping of staff development programmes. it is worth mentioning that the characteristics that influence the effectiveness of professional development are multiple and complex. it may be unreasonable, therefore, to assume that a single list of effective professional characteristics will ever emerge, regardless of the quality of professional development research (johnson, 1998). with this in mind, we believe that the following suggestions would seem essential for the development of such programmes. first, encouragement and experimentation. teaching professionals should be encouraged to try out new ideas, and even conduct their own classroom research on how well those ideas work with their learners and under what conditions they work best. they need to take time to reflect about what they are doing. educational authorities need to provide them with opportunities to do so. to use modern methods effectively, professionals need first to understand the research upon which those methods are based. considering that they have either not been taught or be experienced in these methods, they also need to practise them. they need to practise newer methods with guidance making necessary modifications so as to develop student learning (kagan, 1992). second, the teaching professional must be at the center of staff development. professionals must undertake the primary responsibility for their own professional growth. they must be given the responsibility for planning staff development in terms of diagnosing their own learning needs, designing, and identifying programmes to meet these needs and deciding when their needs have been adequately met. placing professionals at the center of the staff development process means that they will both determine the nature of programmes for their own professional growth and will assume a major responsibility for supporting each other in their efforts to grow. sharing knowledge and experience with their peers can improve teaching practice, progress learning, and foster true conceptual change (tuomi, 2004). third, staff development programmes must be characterized by mutual professional respect. professionals who take part in professional growth need to value and respect the professional skills and abilities of their colleagues. they should educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 5 honour learning, participation, and cooperation above prescription, production, and competition. this critical factor enables professionals to teach and learn from each other. in this kind of endeavour emerges the concept of the school as a learning community. all participants, teaching professionals, and learners engage in learning and teaching, and school becomes a place where students and professionals discover (rediscover) the difficulties and satisfaction of learning (wagner, hassanein & head, 2008). fourth, education and training is a lifelong process. teaching professionals need to think about education and staff development not merely in terms of initial courses but more fundamentally in terms of rhythms by which communities and individuals continually renew themselves. in this way, education becomes a mutual developmental process between community and individuals, one that goes beyond mere socialization. it is an investment of a community in its own future, not as a reproduction of the past through cultural transmission, but as the formation of new identities that could take its history of learning forward. fifth, learning must be related to the needs and expectancies of adult learners. adequacy provision must be made for teaching professionals to give and receive feedback in relation to the relevance of the staff development programme. the needs identified will help justify decisions by the educator and learners. the needs identified by learners and by others can be distinguished as felt needs and prescribed needs. felt needs are those desires and wishes of the learner, while prescribed needs are premised upon educators. it is inappropriate to plan a staff development programme for adult learners on a felt needs approach and it is equally unacceptable to plan a programme totally on needs prescribed by others. combining felt needs and prescribed needs would seem to be a more rational approach. in this way, a mutual collaborative teaching-learning environment can result that ensures greater participation and desire to persist and achieve in teaching and learning situation (sun, 2003). sixth, the primary focus of staff development programmes should be on sustained long-term growth. it is commonplace that one-shot quick-fix approaches to staff development have little to offer teaching professionals in terms of real professional growth. the reason, one-shot staff development has not been more growth enhancing for professionals, is the fact that instruction typically is delivered at the lower levels (knowledge and comprehension) of the cognitive domain. professionals, therefore, are not afforded needed opportunities to apply and practice new skills (application), much less to adapt them to their present teaching repertoires (synthesis) or to take judgments about how well they are working (evaluation) and then determine the reason why they work or do not work (analysis) (teo & gay, 2006). this approach to staff development overemphasizes narrowly defined, technical teaching models that minimize the complexities of teaching and encourage teaching professionals to function as technicians rather than professionals. only when professionals are encouraged to function at the higher levels of the cognitive domain can real growth be expected. hilal ahmad wani, new models and e-learning trends in teacher education 6 seventh, learning to teach requires that professionals come to understand teaching in different ways from what they have learned from their own experience. actually, they need not only to understand but also to perform a wide variety of things, many of them simultaneously. to achieve this requires much more than simply memorise facts and procedures, since there is a major difference between “knowing that” and “knowing why and how” (kinshuk et al., 2003). eighth, teaching professionals work with diverse students and have to achieve multiple educational aims requiring trade-offs from time to time. although, some aspects of teaching could be routinised, what professionals do will be influenced by changing student needs and unexpected classrooms events? many decisions in teaching are contingent upon student responses and the particular objectives sought at a given time. therefore, these decisions cannot be routinised. thus, helping professionals think systematically about this complexity is extremely important. they need to develop metacognitive abilities that guide decisions and reflection on practice (lee, cheung & chen, 2005). typically, however staff development programmes attempt to cope up with the complexities of teaching as if they could be understood at a single sitting. in doing so, the education profession has effectively devalued teaching and, at the same time, turned off professionals to the potential opportunities that exist for personal and professional growth through continuous staff development. modern professional development has a variety of purposes beyond skill training, including facilitation of teachers’ efficacy, cognitive development, and career development, as well as teacher collegiality and the improvement of school culture. an expanding body of literature has accompanied the broadening of professional development on effective development programmes. meanwhile on the research in teacher education and teacher practice, it consists of several aspects such as follows: first, research related to the subject content knowledge – meaning that teachers should understand how knowledge is generated in their specific academic disciplines and should have the knowledge of most recent research results in research in subjects they teach. they should develop critical scientific literacy and they should be able to teach their students how to critically read and evaluate scientific data. second, research related to the educational sciences – meaning that teachers should be able to understand and participate in research related to different variables in educational contexts. third, interdisciplinary – meaning that research is connecting between subject content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge (teaching methodologies). fourth, evaluation research – meaning that teacher education should prepare teachers in using research methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching. it also means that teachers should learn how to interpret the obtain data, how to communicate and how to make evidence based decisions. fifth, research-oriented attitude and value of lifelong learning – meaning that teacher education should support teachers in development of new aspects educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 7 of their professional role. they should perceive themselves as agents of change in changing society being analytical, open to new experiences, innovative and committed to lifelong learning. sixth, action research is also very important aspect – meaning that it is about teacher-practitioners studying real classroom or school situations and fostering reflective and inquiring education community committed to formulating actions that work. action research helps teachers to first reflect on their teaching practice, then systematically collect, and analyze classroom evidence in order to better understand their own practice. teachers in action research are focused on their students’ learning, well-being, and improving the quality of their practice (hezel, 2005). conclusion and suggestions e-learning is a large and growing market with great potential in higher education. in order to maximize this potential, e-learning implementations should endeavor to satisfy the needs and concerns of all groups as much as possible. the analysis undertaken in this paper and culminating step in that direction. as shown in our e-learning that each stakeholder group has an important role to play while working together towards the common goal of enhancing the overall learning experience. students and instructors should participate as proactively as possible; provide feedback to improve future experiences, and communicate the learning possibilities that e-learning create. institutions should provide the technical infrastructure and support needed to enable comprehensive solutions. content and technology providers should provide high quality, interoperable solutions that consider learning principles. accreditation bodies should provide and enforce clear guidelines for this new form of learning delivery. employers need to recognize the validity of this form of education and work with other stakeholders to ensure that graduates meet the needs of the job market. institutions of higher education could utilize the responsibility presented in this paper as a starting point when undertaking a new e-learning initiative. in addition, develop a set of expectations for each. since the presented framework involves the cooperation of each stakeholder group, its implementation would entail communication between groups to ensure that the responsibilities of each group are clear. to this effect, when institutions undertake a substantial e-learning initiative, they should strive to involve a cross-functional team with representation from each relevant stakeholder group. this will ensure their specific needs are addressed during development and will help to facilitate during implementation. successful implementation also requires a project champion, who will communicate the responsibilities and the importance of cooperation to each group. it is suggested that leadership from the highest level of the institution is needed to see the opportunities available and bring them to reality. through the effective dissemination of information, those involved in e-learning can be made aware of how they fit into the complete picture, and the importance of their specific roles in e-learning implementation success. hilal ahmad wani, new models and e-learning trends in teacher education 8 the framework presented in this paper is derived from the motivations/needs and concerns of stakeholder groups as noted in the literature. future research should be conducted to validate this framework across various institution types, educational programs, and cultural settings. since the application of the framework at an institution requires the coordination of many stakeholder groups, a case study methodology may be the most appropriate to study the application of the framework. this methodology would allow for in depth study of the success of a particular application in light of the levels of cooperation achieved according to the stakeholders. returning to the question posed in the title of this paper: “who is responsible for e-leaning success in higher education?”. i have shown the answer to be a shared responsibility between the various e-learning stakeholders. when all stakeholders fulfill their responsibilities to create effective and meaningful e-learning experiences, positive outcomes extend beyond success in specific courses and programs to facilitate lifelong learning and discovery. knowledge grows within those who discipline themselves to think about what is known and what still needs to be known. the design of effective learning opportunities needs to begin with a clear idea of what we want people to know and be able to do. in this way, we learn from one another and we develop new insights. teaching professionals are people, and their personal professional growth is as legitimate a concern of education as is the cognitive and affective development of students. learning to teach is a developmental progress from early concerns with “self ” to a gradual focus upon issues related to student learning and eventually to the school climate. if we can help educators understand where they stand, and if they can stand there with dignity, security, satisfaction and competence, then everyone will make improvements. taken theories and ideas, i have discussed in this paper that e-learning can have a significant influence on the culture of teaching professionals, since they contribute in unanticipated ways to the development of individual professionals. it is commonplace that leadership for improving staff development is the key to unlocking that potential. staff development offers many worthwhile benefits to teaching professionals. it can effectively provide the keys to improving professional performance, reducing isolation, providing support system, and generally improving the professional lives of teaching professionals by making them more productive. in line with the discussion of this paper, i identified a growing consensus of guiding principles as on going professional learning, professional development connected to the teaching practice, school communities that encourage shared e-learning and professional development that is integrated into the school plans. the major function of educational authorities is to build an educational culture that values professional development and involves teaching professionals in planning learning activities, which best support, their practice. the challenge remains in creating schedules that allow time for teaching professionals to participate in continuous development. it is therefore important to encourage professionals, namely educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 9 the most critical actors in the educational process, to learn and develop, realising that this goal is apt to be met when they all work together to make it happen. moreover, it is imperative for educational authorities to make staff development so worthwhile, so exciting, so effective, and so clearly adjusted to the growth needs of teaching professionals that every single of them will demand to be part of the programme. nonetheless, it has to be acknowledged that although serious steps have been taken towards this direction in other there is still a long way to go to build effective professional growth strategies for teaching professionals. until nowadays, professional development programmes have failed to reach professionals’ needs while they run randomly and uncoordinatedly, ignoring most rudimentary principles discussed in the present paper. thus, further action is required in order to make available to teaching professionals in developed and developing countries, a multitude of quality professional development alternatives are needed to be adapted, that can help to individual needs, meeting both quantitatively and qualitatively to professional growth programmes across the globe. references berliner, d.c. (1994). “teacher expertise” in t. hussen & t.n. postlethwaite [eds]. international encyclopedia of education. new york: pergamon, 2nd edition, pp.6020-6026. fuller, f. (1969). “concerns of teachers: a developmental conceptualization” in american educational research journal, 6, pp.207-226. griffiths, s. & s. tann. (1992). “using reflective practice to link personal and public theories” in journal of education for teaching, 18, pp.69-84. guskey, t. (2003). “analyzing lists of the characteristics of effective professional development to promote visionary leadership” in nassp bulletin, 87, pp.4-20. hezel, associates. (2005). “global e-learning opportunity for u.s. higher education” in http://www. hezel.com/globalreport/ [accessed in aligarh, uttaraparadesh, india: 1 july 2011]. johnson, j. (1998). “embracing change: a leadership model for the learning organization” in international journal of training and development, 2(2), pp.141-150. kagan, d.m. (1992). “professional growth among pre-service and beginning teachers” in review of educational research, 62(2), pp.129-169. kinshuk, suhonen et al. (2003). “mobile technologies in support of distance learning” in asian journal of distance education, 1(1), pp.60-68. lee, m.k.o., c.m.k. cheung & z. chen. (2005). “acceptance of internet-based learning medium: the role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation” in information & management, 42, pp.1095-1104. nid [national institute of education]. (2008/2009). a teacher education model for the 21st century. singapore: nid, pp.1-128. papastamatis, adamantios, eugenia panitsidou & panagiotis giavrimis. (2009). “facilitating teachers and educators effective professional development” in review of european studies, vol.1, no.2, pp.83-87, 88. sun, microsystems. (2003). “e-learning framework” in http://www.sun.com/productsnsolutions/edu/ whitepapers/pdf/framework.pdf [accessed in aligarh, uttaraparadesh, india: 1 july 2011]. hilal ahmad wani, new models and e-learning trends in teacher education 10 teo, c.b. & r.k.l. gay. (2006). “a knowledge-driven model to personalize e-learning” in acm journal of educational resources in computing, 6(1), pp.1-15. tuomi, m.t. (2004). “planning teachers’ professional development for global education” in intercultural education, 15(3), pp.295-306. wagner, n., k. hassanein & m. head. (2008). “who is responsible for e-learning success in higher education? a stakeholders’ analysis” in educational technology & society, 11(3), pp.26-36. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 145 siti maziha mustapha is an assistant professor at the school of communication and language studies kliucm (kuala lumpur infrastructure university college malaysia); and nik suryani nik abd rahman is an assistant professor at the institute of education iium (international islamic university of malaysia). they can be reached at: maziha@kliuc.edu.my and nsuryani@iium.edu.my classroom participation patterns: a case study of malaysian undergraduate students siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman abstract: this study aims to document undergraduate students’ patterns of participation in malaysian classrooms. interviews and observations were carried out. around 85 students from two communication classes were observed over the period of two semesters (28 weeks). most of the participants fell between the age of 18-19 years old (65.8%) and 66.7% of the participants were female, while 33.3% were male. around 24 students from the two classes were interviewed. four basic patterns of participation emerged from the data: (1) active participation, (2) selective participation, (3) minimal participation, and (4) passive participation. it was also found that students’ individual participation pattern could be influenced a myriad of factors, thus making their participation patterns flexible. this research demonstrated that the participatory roles students took in class could move along the participation continuum; from the most active to the least active. recommendations are offered to promote students’ participation in the context of higher learning. educators need to strive towards providing a more supportive, non-threatening, and open learning environment where students would feel comfortable in letting their voice be heard while knowing when to be quiet so they can reap benefits from both behaviours. key words: classroom participation, participation patterns, undergraduate students, open learning environment, and participative behaviours. introduction the benefits of participation have been researched quite extensively over the past years. active classroom participation played an important role in the success of education and students’ personal development in the future (tatar, 2005). students who are actively involved, reported higher satisfaction and higher persistence rates (astin, 1993). only 28.9% of the studies involved higher education. thus, there is a lacking in the literature that searched for evidence in university classrooms and from the perspective of students themselves. s. tatar (2005) commented that only few studies have investigated classroom participation from the perspective of students or attempted to discover the reasons why some students don’t participate even when participation is encouraged. many previous studies have taken the instructor’s perspective rather than collegesiti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 146 aged students. exploring classroom participation from students’ perspective is important because it provides a firsthand account and insight into their feelings and perceptions. thus, the students’ perception presents their own realities in experiencing classroom participation. to account for the role of classroom interaction in the form of participation, the theoretical work of l.s. vygotsky (1978) could be utilized to explain students’ learning through classroom participation. l.s. vygotsky emphasized that students learn through social interactions and their culture (in woolfolk, 2004). thus, classroom functions as social, historical, and cultural contexts in which students interact and learn via their participation in class activities. cultural tools and symbols like language are shared by students and used to structure their thinking. this theory explains that teacher-student and student-student interactions have become a medium of knowledge sharing and acquisition of understanding. l.s. vygotsky’s theory furnishes a way to explain how discourses and instructional tools utilized by teachers and students in a classroom create possibilities for students to participate in class. however, the theory is not able to account for the differences in participation patterns among students in the same social context with the same cultural tools. thus, a study that investigates why the differences in participation patterns occur in a social context where the same cultural tools are available to all students is crucial to provide further understanding to the participatory roles students take up in class. previous researches behaviours comprising participation vary greatly, ranging from breathing, and staying awake in class to giving oral presentations (fritschner, 2000). in l.m. fritschner’s study, “quiet students defined participation as including [...] attendance, active listening [...] and being prepared for class” (fritschner, 2000:342-343). p.a. fassinger (1995) described student participation as any comments or questions that students offer or raise in class. further, c. wambach and t. brothen (1997) defined participation in terms of specific behaviours, such as asking and answering questions, participating in class discussion, and refraining from negative behaviours. the definitions of classroom participation have been varied indicating differences in students’ patterns of classroom participation. the meaning of student participation in a college classroom was studied by d.a. karp and w.c. yoels in 1976. the study they carried out was one of the first studies that was done in a college classroom. questionnaires were used to find the factors that have effects on students’ participation or non-participation. many students were found to view their role in class as being respectful to instructors by listening attentively and taking notes. this dominant pattern of participation is referred to as the “consolidation of responsibility” by d.a. karp and w.c. yoels (1976). with the consolidation of responsibility, a few students assume the responsibility of being active participants in the classroom, while the rest of the class paid “civil educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 147 attention”. the majority of the students paid sufficient attention so they know when to respond by nodding, or laughing while being attentive. conversely, some students expressed annoyance over students who dominate or talk too much (karp & yoels, 1976). in an ethnographic study, l. morgenstern (1992) observed and interviewed four undergraduate students from a technological university. she found that regardless of the many opportunities for students to participate, only certain students seemed to take those opportunities. only a small proportion of students, four to six students accounted for seventy to eighty percent of all student speech throughout the fifteen week semester. she discovered that some students never uttered a single word in class for the whole semester. the data from the interviews suggested that there were rules for students to follow during class participation: (1) do not ask stupid questions; (2) do not waste teacher’s time; (3) do not waste class time; and (4) try to find the answers before asking the teacher. these unwritten rules may account for the students’ reticence in the classroom. j. liu (2001) carried out a multi-case ethnographic study involving 172 asian students to investigate issues pertinent to understanding asian students’ classroom communication patterns in a large midwest research university in the u.s. liu identified four classroom participation patterns: total integration, conditional participation, marginal interaction, and silent observation. students, who exhibit total integration pattern, are spontaneous and active participants in class discussions. they showed a high level of acculturation and adapted to the ways they were supposed to participate in the american culture. their total integration implies that these asian students have “high motivation to achieve adaptive culture” (liu, 2001:72). conditional participation refers to students whose participation is constrained by socio-cultural, cognitive, affective, linguistics or environmental factors. they may exhibit a high motivation, but their participation is inhibited due to language difficulties and fear of showing their weaknesses. they are unsure of what constitutes appropriate classroom behaviour. marginal interaction means that the asian students hardly speak up in class. they mainly listen, take note, and have group discussions after class. some students feel that participation is disruptive and disrespectful. when they speak up in class, they appear to be confident because they have put in a lot of thoughts and practice into it. silent observation is the most typical pattern showed by asian students. they used compensation strategies to help them understand the lessons. they are receptive and accept whatever that is discussed in class unconditionally. j. liu (2001) stresses that asian student’ participation modes gradually changed over time and the patterns could move from most active to the least active. this indicates the complexities of their communication patterns. liu’s study showed strengths as it presented the complicated interactions of various factors that come into play in shaping the asian students’ participative behaviours. siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 148 c. lam (1994), who looked at the turn-taking behaviour of eight esl (english as second language) taiwanese students in graduate classes at a university in the u.s., found three patterns of participation: active, passive verbal, and silent. c. lam concluded that students’ interaction in the classroom is heavily influenced by their native culture. d.l. cunningham (2004), in her doctoral research, found six major classifications of role behaviour patterns demonstrated by students in regular classroom settings. they were: (1) watchers: characterized by watching others participate but not participating themselves; (2) whisperers in the dark: those students who whisper to their neighbours during the discussion but don’t speak up; (3) cave dwellers: students who balance conversation with listening and participating but don’t dominate the discussion; (4) powerful story tellers of the cave: students who speak up a great deal and dominate the conversation; (5) occult cave artists: those who draw on paper while the discussion is going on; and (6) cave sleepers: students who doze off during the discussion. d.l. cunningham (2004) concluded that the roles students play would affect both their own participation and other students’ participation in the class and the roles may change. students take up roles that make them feel comfortable and ease the boredom they may be feeling in that educational environment. studies on classroom participation in malaysia have been scant. hui choo liew (2009) investigated factors affecting second language learners’ classroom participation. the study focuses mainly on the second language learning. zainal abidin sayadi (2007) carried out an investigation into malaysian students’ oral classroom participation with the participants being 146 first year engineering students. the study found that students who were more proficient in the english language showed more tendencies to dominate the discussions. five factors were found to influence students’ classroom participation: linguistic, pedagogical, cognitive, affective, and socio-cultural factors. these factors were inter-related. this study was limited due to a short duration of observation period (two weeks), a small number of interviewees, and only two groups were observed. therefore, the present study aims at discovering the undergraduate students’ patterns of participation. methodology: participants, data collection, and data analysis the study was conducted at a medium-sized private university in kuala lumpur, malaysia. participants of the study were recruited from undergraduate classes in the school of communication. the participants were students taking communication courses. the courses were selected because it requires a high level of student participation and focuses more on oral communication activities rather than writing skills. two intact classes of 84 students were selected to provide a heterogeneous population for the class observations which took place over the period of two semesters. twenty five of the students, 10 male and 15 female, were selected educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 149 for the interview, using maximum variation sampling. the participants were all malaysian students with similar education backgrounds and expressed agreement to take part in the study. during the first stage of the study, in-depth interviews were carried out with open-ended questions and as few prompts as possible to elicit rich descriptions of experiences. they were asked about their personal experiences in classroom participation and the ways they participate in class. for example, participants were asked, “can you tell me about some of your experiences of participating in classroom activities?” and “in what ways do you participate?”. each interview lasted for approximately 20 minutes. in the second stage, the observations were conducted by observing all potentially relevant occurrences of participation behaviours of students. the non-participant observation was appropriate because the observer remained inconspicuous so that the behaviour of the participants was not affected. field-note-taking and video tape recordings were also allowed during the observations in the two classes. one hundred and twenty minutes from each session were recorded on video. data from the interview were transcribed verbatim and data from the observation were coded. the data were analysed to identify patterns inherent in phenomenon. recurring patterns and themes of patterns of participation exhibited by the students in the classroom activities were identified through reading and re-reading the data and listening to the taped sessions. the final categories were derived from the identification of similarities or characteristics of the data within a category. descriptive statistics was also used to analyze the data. results analysis of the results revealed four emerging participation patterns. table 1 shows the characteristics of each pattern of participation. table 1 characteristics of each participation pattern patterns characteristics active participation: 17.9% initiated interaction whenever appropriate. natural desire to participate. spontaneous. enjoy contributing to class discussions. not afraid to challenge others’ ideas. able to defend own ideas. elaborate answers. show confidence. exhibit focus. exhibit consistency. siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 150 selective participation: 32.1% have the ability to participate. know the value of participation. participate when they want to. affected by influencing factors. give sufficient attention. exhibit inconsistency. high interaction with classmates. tend to participate to help classmates out. tend to mentally rehearse on what to say. focus on the content rather than on the language. minimal participation: 46.4% (a) students with minimal oral responses: (b) students with only non-verbal responses: participate when directly asked by lecturer: keep a low profile. quietly pay attention. wait for others to answer first. chimed in with one-word answers. use short answers to create a good impression. not confident. interact with lecturer or peers when they need help. fear making mistakes. use nonverbal gestures to respond. quietly pay attention. answer only when directly asked by lecturer. not confident to speak out. interact with lecturer or peers when they need help. fear making mistakes. passive participation: 3.6% (a) positively passive: (b) negatively passive: rarely participate. inactive. no initiative to participate. view participation as being present in class. keep quiet in order to concentrate on the lesson and show respect to the lecturer. learn more when they are silent. view participation as being present in class. not concerned about class activities. not interested in the lessons. in their own world. pattern 1: active participation it was observed that a small number of students, 17.9% fit into this category. these students participated 3 or more times in a one hour class. they initiated interaction with the lecturer and other classmates whenever appropriate. they took any opportunity presented to them to ask questions, answer questions, voice their opinion or share their ideas or stories. one of the students interviewed described her feelings about participating in class as: exciting, i really like to participate. i feel bored when i am not active in class. i don’t like to just sit in class and listen. i want to be able to ask questions, you know […] interact with the lecturers and my friends! (interviewee 8). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 151 for this active student, participating in class activities comes naturally to her. students who were active participants of class activities also exhibited joy and ease in carrying out activities in class. their questions or feedback seemed spontaneous and they looked happy when they were contributing their ideas and talking to the class. one student explained: i think being present physically and mentally in class shows that i am fully committed […] so i am actively participating and i enjoy every minute of it! (interviewee 11). this active student did seem to find classroom participation a daunting task, instead she revelled in it and along the way enjoyed herself and learned from her active involvement. in a class discussion, the active students showed their ability to be critical by challenging ideas given by their classmates. they were polite when they wanted to challenge the answers given by their classmates. for instance, one student was observed to have said as follows: i’m sorry […] but i think your answer is not quite relevant to the theory […]. i can’t agree with your opinion because i think we can also see it from another perspective [...]. their choice of words indicated that they tried not to ridicule or put down their classmates even though they had to challenge their classmates’ answers. there were occasions where the active students’ ideas were challenged by the lecturer and other classmates. they defended their ideas by explaining the logic behind their ideas and shared with the class their thought processes. they did not display any aggression though the discussion became animated. there was only one occasion when one of the active students challenged the lecturer’s opinion. he said as follows: sorry! i don’t think it is accurate to say that […] when there are studies which proved that […] i think it would be better to say that […]. the student disagreed with the lecturer’s opinion but phrased the disagreement to sound like a suggestion rather than a challenge. these active students also showed the ability to elaborate or explain their answers when needed. they seemed comfortable when explaining their answers and maintained eye-contact their lecturer and other classmates while doing so. they did not hesitate or rush to finish answering the question. this showed confidence and poise. the confidence exhibited by these students came from their beliefs that they have the abilities to be active in class. their classroom participation seemed also to be less affected by encouraging or discouraging factors. when asked whether there was anything that would make them less participative, one of them answered as follows: siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 152 um […] no. i don’t think it is enough for me to just sit there […]. i must listen, process the knowledge, apply and give feedback […] i know how to participate and i do believe that i have the abilities […] so i just carry on […] nothing can stop me from participating (interviewee 1). students who exhibited active participation exhibited focus and consistency in their contribution to the class activities throughout the semester. they appeared to have positive emotions and low anxiety. they perceived classroom participation as positive and their involvement in class activities would be academically rewarding. pattern 2: selective participation selective participation is characterized by students’ decision to be participative or less participative based on a variety of factors. this means that the students in this category were capable of participating but chose when to participate depending on factors personal to them. around 32.1% of the students fall into this category where they participated twice in a one hour class. students in this category displayed caution when participating and their participation depended on factors like: it depends on many things; if i like my lecturer, i will make a point to participate! sometimes i help my friend to answer the question; sometimes i keep quiet […] especially if the topic is difficult. but, i do know the value of participating (interviewee 24). in his explanation, this student selected the occasion when to participate and when not to participate. it was a conscious decision as he knew the value of participation. the class content was one of the influencing factors. many of the students chose to become more participative when the topic discussed by lecturer was interesting and relevant to them. they were observed to be very responsive when topics like organizing events or product branding because they said that they had knowledge about the topics. some of them said that they could relate to the topics as they had some experience regarding the topics. therefore, students who selected when to participate were influenced by the class content. student appeared to give sufficient attention to the lecturer, especially during the first hour of class. the attention given became lesser as the class progressed. however, if there was anything they found interesting in the class discussion, they would quickly revert to what was going on in class. this was explained by one student, as follows: i try to participate in class! there would be times when i drift off but when my friends say something interesting or my lecturer makes a joke, i quickly join in (interviewee 13). another behaviour exhibited by students who selected when to participate was helping their classmates out. there were many occasions that these students educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 153 were quietly attentive but became talkative when their classmates were not able to answer questions posed by the lecturer. they were willing to step in. in an effort to explain this behaviour, one student said as follows: i participate when i feel like participating. most of the time, i pay attention to what’s going on in class. when my friend does know how to answer, i will help out by giving my answer. there are times that i don’t say much as my english […] my vocabulary is not good enough to explain what i want to say (interviewee 19). besides choosing to participate to help out classmates who couldn’t answer the question, students also mentioned linguistic limitation as an influencing factor. further, these students were influenced by their lecturer and classmates. one student stated as follows: i try to participate […] coz i know as a communication student, i must practice to speak well. so, i force myself to speak more […] i am not that confident of myself. i worry about what people say. i only participate when i feel that my lecturer and classmates would support me and they won’t criticize (interviewee 14). students exhibited hesitation when they were worried about others’ response to their feedback so they selected to participate when they felt that their feedback would be well-received by the others in class. they reported that they had a tendency to mentally rehearse what to say in class and focus on the content. they were not so concerned about their grammatical mistakes. students who were selective participants exhibited inconsistency in their participation in the class activities throughout the semester because of their dependence on encouraging and discouraging factors. pattern 3: minimal participation the biggest proportion of the students exhibited minimal participation. around 46.4% of the students participated only once in one hour class. the student who participated minimally could be classified into 2 groups: first, students with minimal oral responses. they were observed to keep a low profile. they did not do anything to draw the lecturer’s attention to them. they appeared to be quietly paying attention. when the lecturer posed a question to the class, these students were prone to observe others first. when others started to answer, they quickly chimed in. “one-word” answers were also their favourite way of participating. they felt more comfortable when they did not have to explain their answers. this is explained by one student when he talked about his way of participating. he said as follows: not really […] i get nervous sometimes […] my english is not that good! so, i only participated when my lecturer asks me a direct question [...] or when i can answer “yes” or “no” [laughs] and “i agree” or “i disagree”. i am ok with short answers. i also answer when the others are siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 154 answering at the same time […] the lecturer won’t hear my answer, but will see that i open my mouth! (interviewee 10). the student wanted to create a good impression by appearing to answer a question but without drawing too much attention to himself. sometimes when the lecturer asked them to elaborate their answers, they began saying something but left it hanging. then they quickly turned to their classmates and made gestures to indicate to their classmates that they needed help. there was always another student who was ready to help respond to the lecturer’s question. second, students with only non-verbal responses. there were also students who participated by responding non-verbally only. they used their hands, head or facial expression to show agreement or disagreement with what was being discussed in class. they laughed and rolled their eyes whenever the lecturer or other classmates said something funny or told a joke. they also clapped their hands to show support to their classmates. these students nodded or shook their heads and smiled at the lecturer during lecture. they did not exchange any words with the lecturer openly. however, they would answer the question if it was directly asked. these students appeared to be involved in the class activities but they showed this by being very animated nonverbally and devoid of verbal interactions. these students perceived participation as being both verbal and non-verbal responses. to them, non-verbal responses showed that they were concentrating and responding to the lecturer and it was an important part of their classroom interaction. the only interaction students who minimally participated had with their lecturer was when the lecturer directly asked them a question or when these students needed help from the lecturer because they did not know how to carry out a certain task that needed to be finished within the class hours. they sought their lecturer’s attention when they knew that they had to submit their work and none of their classmates could help them. at other times, students appeared to be more interested to discretely discuss what they couldn’t understand with classmates seated adjacent to them. pattern 4: passive participation the students who were passive in class accounted for 3.6% of the total student number. the low percentage signifies a positive sign that only very few students in university classrooms are totally inactive. the few students who were the least active in class were those who perceived classroom participation as being physically present in class. one of them said as follows: i think students can also participate by being present in class […] it is good enough [...] at least i am in class not elsewhere! (interviewee 20). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 155 these students believed that being present showed that they were part of the class. there were two types of passive students: first, positively passive. positively passive students were those who chose to be quiet throughout the class because they felt that they learnt more by concentrating on what was going on in class. there was no need for them to spend time thinking about how to respond to their lecturer or classmates as one student stated as follows: i don’t mind participating but i prefer to keep quiet so i can concentrate. i don’t want to be busy thinking about what i want to say to the class […] i just want to listen (interviewee 20). another student expressed his nervousness about communicating in class and explained that: i am a bit nervous about participating […] i don’t like to communicate with others […] it has nothing to do with my english […] i just prefer to listen […] i learn more […] when i keep quiet and listen to others! (interviewee 16). this student believed that he would gain more knowledge by listening rather not by being participative. when the lecturer asked them a question, they attempted to answer second, negatively passive. negatively passive students were those who were very quiet because they were not concerned about their studies and were not interested in what went on in class. these were the isolated few who were observed to be in their own world. they looked outside the window, had a glazed look on their face, stared at the book, and appeared to be disconnected from the rest of the class. these students answered, “i don’t know” when the lecturer prompted them to answer the question or give feedback. they also did not engage in any conversation with the classmates seated next to them. their chosen isolation stemmed out of their need to be disconnected mentally but still be present in class to fulfil college’s attendance requirement. the patterns of participation that emerged from the observation and interviews showed that there were four basic patterns which ranged from active to passive participation. what was most significant to note was that it was observed that the students’ individual participation pattern was not confined to only one pattern; it was flexible for many of the students. in other words, it was possible for the students to move along the participation patterns continuum; meaning one student can be a selective participant in one class but be a minimum participant in another. students reported several factors that were influential in pushing them towards being more or less active in class. this finding supports the research carried out by j. liu (2001) who found that asian students’ classroom communication patterns were not static as students may be active in one class but less active in another. however, it is also important to note that the few students who were active participants siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 156 perceived themselves to be good at participating and exhibited fewer tendencies to be influenced by encouraging and discouraging factors. they were consistently active in all class sessions. the observation data showed that students’ expressed feelings towards participation coincided with how they participated in class, for instance: students who reported feeling happy about participation exhibited relaxed and open demeanours while participating in class. they were also active in class. those who expressed mixed feelings were sometimes active, sometimes less active. those who feared participation were spectators and refrained from participating. how student perceived classroom participation also affects their participative behaviour. students who saw classroom participation as contributing non-verbally to what went class, assigned importance to their non-verbal responses, thus displayed the behaviour in class. discussion and conclusion the multitude of views on classroom participation signifies the unseen complexity of how students perceive classroom participation could directly or indirectly influence their classroom participation patterns. four basic patterns active participation, selective participation, minimal participation, and passive participation emerged from the data. students who showed active participation pattern believed that they had the skills to participate in class activities. they showed confidence, eagerness, and took every opportunity to participate. students who showed selective participation pattern were moderately participative in class activities. however, their participation was observed to be inconsistent although they reported that they tried to be as active as they can. they showed more tendencies to be influenced by the encouraging and discouraging factors. they participated when they felt encouraged but remained silent when they were cautious or apprehensive. they consciously gauge whether the outcome of their participation would be positive. combining the two groups of students who are fully and selectively participative, the study found that 50% or half of the students observed did take part in class activities. the level of students’ involvement in class activities for this study was much higher in comparison c.e. nunn’s study where he found that approximately 25% of the college students took part in class discussions (nunn, 1996). this could be explained by the statements made by many of the participants during interviews. they said that they participated because they were communication students and therefore, they were supposed to be good at communicating with others in or outside the classroom. their lecturers also expected them to be more participative so they put in efforts to be participative in class. this confirms the study done by f. pawan (1995) where it was found that the professors’ expectations of the students have a way of influencing students’ behaviour in class. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 157 minimal participation patterns were exhibited by students who participated just enough times to create what they perceived as a positive impression. they did so by responding using short answers or non-verbal cues. when called by the lecturer, they would attempt a short answer. passive participation pattern was exhibited by two groups of students: (1) students who preferred to be silent because they felt that they learn better that way; and (2) students who were silent due to their desire to be disconnected from the learning environment. this group of negatively passive students could be likened to d.l. cunningham’s occult cave artists who draw on paper while the discussion is going on and cave sleepers who doze off during the discussion (cunningham, 2004). only 3.6% of the students rarely or never participated. this finding proves that the malaysian students are more participative in class compared to students investigated by a. caspi and his colleagues (2006). they reported that 55% of the students never or rarely participated in class. it was found that students’ individual participation pattern could be influenced by encouraging or discouraging factors that made their participation pattern flexible. in other words, given the encouraging factors, students could move along the participation continuum from being a passive participant to a selective participant or vice versa. however, one significant finding was the few students who were active participants perceived themselves as being good at participating and they exhibited less tendency to be influenced by encouraging and discouraging factors. they showed consistency in the frequency and length of their participation in all class sessions. they were also dependable in a sense that the lecturer and classmates could count on them to be actively contributing to class activities. this finding is consistent with the findings from the studies done by d.a. karp and w.c. yoels (1976) and c.g. krupnick (1985) that discovered a few students assumed the role of talkers as the beginning of the semester and consistently participate dominantly throughout the course. in summary, results of the current study suggest that the level of participation among malaysian undergraduate students is surprisingly encouraging. the participatory roles students took up in class were the result of complex interactions between many factors. findings indicate that students’ participation patterns can be flexible, thus devising appropriate interventions or pedagogical strategies may very well be motivators for students to achieve consistency in their participation pattern. educators need to strive towards providing a more supportive, non-threatening, and open learning environment where students would feel comfortable in letting their voice be heard while knowing when to be quiet so they can reap benefits from both behaviours. siti maziha mustapha & nik suryani nik abd rahman, classroom participation patterns 158 references astin, a. 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(2007). “an investigation into first year engineering students’ oral classroom participation: a case study”. unpublished master thesis. kuala lumpur, malaysia: utm [universiti teknologi malaysia]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 1 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare arthur s. abulencia lived experience of principals in the implementation of k to 12 program in the philippines abstract: the implementation of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program in 2012 was major education reform to address the challenges of the philippine society in the midst of globalization, asean (association of south east asian nations) integration, and changing education quality standards. after few years of implementation of k to 12 program, there were a number of researches and critical reviews of the k to 12 program that highlight its curricular dimension, its logistical nightmare, and its challenges and opportunities; but there is a dearth of study that delves into the lived experience of the school principals in the process of implementing the k to 12 program. the objective of the study unfolds the lived experience of six public school principals in manila as they implemented the k to 12 program. this paper explored the lived experience of principals in the implementation of the k to 12 program, which led to the identification of vision, creativity, passion for excellence, harnessing of stakeholders, strong commitment, and leadership as major drivers of k to 12 implementation. the principal as the key actor in the program implementation at lower level of education bureaucracy: (1) needs effective leadership qualities; (2) practices principal empowerment; (3) believes that political will as necessary component for effective implementation of education reform; (4) serves as effective communicator of change; (5) accepts that resistance as a feedback mechanism; (6) asserts that stakeholders’ participation in k to 12 program; and (7) needs support system. the study was conducted in manila, philippines, which employed a phenomenological approach with 6 participants in six public secondary schools. key words: k to 12 program; principal empowerment; education reform; leadership. introduction for a country to attain economic prosperity, “revolution in education” is vital according to former pm (prime minister) of the united kingdom, david cameron (in hocor, 2011; coughlan, 2013; and evans, 2015). different countries are constantly changing their national curricula to respond to the challenges of the global economy. in the philippines, k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school)’s curriculum was implemented last 2012 as a way to respond to the challenges of rapidly changing global village (cf jorgenson, 2006; about the author: prof. dr. arthur s. abulencia is a lecturer at the faculty of behavioral and social sciences pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, the philippines. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: abulencia.as@pnu.edu.ph suggested citation: abulencia, arthur s. (2019). “lived experience of principals in the implementation of k to 12 program in the philippines” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august, pp.1-24. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (may 20, 2019); revised (july 17, 2019); and published (august 31, 2019). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 2 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals icef monitor, 2013; and okabe, 2013). in 2000, a gathering of world leaders was held in dakar, senegal, a world education forum, which was held to recommit and attain the efa (education for all) goals by 2015. these efa goals as set by world community are one of the bases of the implementation of the k to 12 curriculum in the philippines; besra (basic education sector reform agenda); and edcom (congressional commission on education)’s report of 1991, among others (guzman, 2003; peters, 2007; and ainscow & miles, 2008). in 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders dubbed as millennium summit adopted the un (united nations) millennium declaration. the world leaders committed their governments to a new global partnership to reduce poverty and set out a series of time-bound targets to be attained by 2015. more specifically, the target for goal 2 is to ensure that by 2015, children all over the world will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling (rosenfield, maine & freedman, 2006; bajoria, 2011; and chopra & mason, 2015). after 2015, the un worked with all the governments, civil society, and other stakeholders to build on the accomplishments of mdgs (millennium development goals). after 2015, un embarked with the ambitious post-2015 development agenda, known as sdgs (sustainable development goals), which was conceptualized at the un conference on sustainable development, rio+20, in 2012. there are 17 sustainable development goals, but the goals related to education is no.4 (quality education) – ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (nrc, 2017; and chopra & mason, 2015).1 another important trend in the global stage of education is the development of the 21st century skills. the p21’s framework for 21st century learning was: 1see also, for comparison, “transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development”. available online at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/ transformingourworld [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. […] developed with input from teachers, education experts, and business leaders to define and illustrate the skills and knowledge students need to succeed in work, life, and citizenship, as well as the support systems necessary for 21st century learning outcomes. it has been used by thousands of educators and hundreds of schools in the u.s. and abroad to put 21st century skills at the center of learning (perez, 2017).2 the p21 framework is another pressure on the part of various national education institutions and agencies to calibrate their national curriculum, so that they will be aligned and at par with global standards. certainly, the p21 framework is one of the bases of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program in the philippines (trilling & fadel, 2009; reyes, 2014; and nga, 2017). the asean (association of south east asian nations) integration is another big reason for curricular innovation in the philippines, due to the challenges and opportunities that should be addressed and seized, respectively. the aec (asean economic community) blueprint 2025 aims to achieve the vision of having an aec by 2025, that is highly integrated and cohesive; competitive, innovative, and dynamic; with enhanced connectivity and sectoral cooperation; and a more resilient, inclusive, and people-oriented, peoplecentred community, integrated with the global economy (asean secretariat, 2015; and pitsuwan et al. eds., 2017).3 due to the challenging requirements of economic integration, including changes to domestic laws and in some cases constitutional changes, it missed its target. in the coming years, though, asean integration is inevitable; thus, this made our country adjust to the global education standards (bajoria, 2011; west, 2012a and 2012b; and pitsuwan et al. eds., 2017). 2see also, for comparison, “21st century skills” in the glossary of education reform, on august 2015. available online at: http://edglossary.org/21st-century-skills/ [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. 3see also “asean economic community”. available online at: http://asean.org/asean-economic-community/ [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 3 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 considering the fact that the philippines is a labor exporting country with more than 12% of its population as ofws (overseas filipino workers), the more reason for the national government to provide an education system that will respond to the need of the global labor market. in this context, pids (philippine institute for development studies), in 2012, stated as following here: the short duration of the basic education system is also a disadvantage for the overseas filipino workers (ofws), especially the professionals, and those who intend to study abroad. deped further claims that the filipino graduates are not automatically recognized as professionals abroad, because the ten-year curriculum is usually perceived as insufficient (pids, 2012). thus, another imperative for the philippines is to enact necessary laws and adjustments in order to be compliant with the demands and standards of the global labor market. in pursuit of quality education, the philippine government has undertaken various initiatives to address and arrest it perennial education problems. in 2005, for example, the deped (department of education), in consultation with various education stakeholders, formulated the besra (basic education sector reform agenda) with the primary aim of institutionally, systematically, and nationally improve the education outcomes. so, from 2006-2010, deped was guided by this major thrust of besra to improve the quality of education in the philippines (cf csfc-nc, 2009; deped, 2010; and abulencia, 2012). under the leadership of president benigno aquino, the national government spelled out its 10-point agenda on education, which are as follow: (1) the 12-year basic education cycle; (2) universal pre-schooling for all; (3) madaris education as a sub-system within the education system; (4) technical-vocational education as an alternative stream in senior high school; (5) every child a reader by grade 1; (6) science and math proficiency; (7) assistance to private schools as essential partners in basic education; (8) medium of instruction rationalized; (9) quality textbooks; and (10) covenant with local governments to build more schools (geronimo, 2016). these policy reforms introduced and put in place critical changes necessary to further accelerate, broaden, deepen, and sustain the department of education’s effort in improving the quality of basic education. with the implementation of k to 12 curriculum, since 2012, the philippine education is now in the midst of transition to a new global basic education curriculum. this k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program is one of the biggest education reforms that have been undertaken in the last 30 or so years (cf jorgenson, 2006; geronimo, 2016; and bmgf, 2017).4 whenever there is a new education reform, the challenges on the part of the national government is so complex. government agencies in charge of education look into the academic standards, dropout prevention; turn around low-performing schools and stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education to ensure that high school graduates are ready to navigate to college, work, and life (cf kennedy & odell, 2014; nga, 2017; and darling-hammond et al., 2019). likewise, this massive k to 12 education program entails retraining/retooling of teachers, production of ims (instructional materials), allocation of additional budget, expansion and construction of buildings and other facilities, among others. enough resources is a requirement to sustain the implementation of k to 12 education program. as articulated by tanja sargent (2011), and other scholars, that enthusiasm for the reforms seems to have been strongest in the earliest years of the reforms, but may have been waning in more recent years (sargent, 2011; orr & cleveland-innes, 2015; and macha, mackie & magaziner, 2018). according to the governance of basic education act of 2001, ra (republic act) 9155, the “school is the heart of the formal education system”; thus, the translation of 4see also, for example, “the k to 12 basic education program”. available online at: http://www.gov.ph/k-12/ [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 4 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals all the programs, thrusts, and vision of the national government is happening in the school under the leadership of the school head or principal. ra 9155 is the legal basis of the sbm (school based management) as governance framework of deped (department of education) in managing the public schools. this mechanism of decentralized governance of the public schools means that the management is in the hands of the school head or the principal, who is accountable to both the external and internal stakeholders (bautista, bernardo & ocampo, 2010; abulencia, 2012; and read & atinc, 2017).5 the decision making of the school heads is now greater; thus, they should be properly equipped to do the task and responsibilities put in their shoulders. it is in this context that i would like to explore/understand how this k to 12 program is unfolding at the level of school under the leadership of the school heads by exploring the lived experiences of the principals. statement of the problem. this study intends to unfold the lived experiences of select public school principals in manila, the philippines, in the implementation of k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program. specifically, response to the following questions was sought: (1) how may the lived experiences in implementing the k to 12 program by principals be described and reflectively analyzed?; (2) what meanings and insights may be derived from the lived experiences of principals who implemented the k to 12 program?; and (3) what are the implications of the study to the school principals, schools, and department of education? significance of the study. the insights from this study may inform schools, educationrelated organizations, curriculum specialists/ policy-makers, teachers, parents, and school 5see also, for example, “ra 9155 or governance of basic education act of 2001”. available online at: http://www. lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2001/ra_9155_2001.html [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. managers, so that education reform agenda will be relevant and meaningful in our society and community. as we all expect, any new program encounters a “bumpy journey”, because we all know that no matter how prepared the deped (department of education) is, perfect design is always impossible. for curriculum planners/experts. the inputs coming from the lived experiences of the principals may be instrumental to both policy makers and curriculum experts in effectively developing a model of education reform implementation by factoring in the big questions as well as the nuances of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program. for teachers. the results of this phenomenological research could provide broader and deeper understanding to the teachers as to how a new curricular program is experienced by school administrators. these new insights will be used by teachers in designing and planning the way they approach their classroom teaching considering that there are many issues and challenges in the implementation a reform program. for students. the results of the study may ventilate issues and opportunities with regard to the implementation of k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program from the point of view of the principals. thus, both teachers and principals may effectively implement the k to 12 program, which boils down to the benefit of the students. for parents. the parents may be enlightened as regards the issues that were brought up by the stakeholders, especially the principals. they could use the insights of this research in supporting the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program or maybe to serve as critical participants in the course of implementation of the new curriculum. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 5 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 for principals/school managers. for the principals as the front leaders of this national rolling out of k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school), they may use the insights in this research to improve their practices in their schools in connection to the effective implementation of the new curricular program. the lived experiences of the school heads may also serve as validator of the experiences of other schools from other places, e.g. rural schools. education-related-ngos. there are many stakeholders in education, especially with the implementation of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) education program. various ngos (non-governmental organizations) and corporate foundations are very critical as well as supportive to the k to 12 program. the results of this study could serve as basis in their planning and formulating of programs and priorities in their respective organizations. i hope that this research ventilate new issues in the rolling out of k to 12 education program. the transition is likened to many challenges; consequently, the leaders of the education sector will do some kind of “midcourse corrections” by acknowledging some mistakes and learning from them, so that we could overcome hurdles and roadblocks in the midst of school administration and leadership (cf brooks, 2000; abulencia, 2012; pids, 2012; deped, 2017b; and read & atinc, 2017).6 scope and delimitations. the co-researchers in this study were 6 (six) principals from 6 (six) public high schools in the division of city school-manila, the philippines, which 6see also, for example, “the school as leader: guiding schools to better teaching and learning” in the wallace foundation, on january 2013. available online also at: http:// www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/documents/ the-school-principal-as-leader-guiding-schools-to-betterteaching-and-learning-2nd-ed.pdf [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]; and “the principal’s responsibilities in supporting quality instruction” in inclusive schools network, on august 20, 2015. available online also at: http://inclusiveschools.org/the-principals-responsibilitiesin-supporting-quality-instruction/ [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. are implementing the senior high school (grades 11 and 12): grade 11 in 2016-2017 and grade 12 in 2017-2018. not all public schools offered senior high school, due to various constraints like limited school facilities; as a result, some public high schools offered only up to grade 10 (junior high school). this research focused on the lived experiences of the principals as they are in the center of implementing the major reform program of the government. this research did not evaluate or assess the implementation of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program; rather, it described the everyday experiences of the principals as they tackled the challenges as well as the joys of this new curriculum. the study did not also touch on the content of the curriculum, although the co-researchers were very vocal in articulating their views and opinions regarding the features and contents of the k to 12 curriculum. methods this research made use of phenomenological approach. i believe that there are many hidden patterns, structures, meanings, themes, and big ideas in all our education research projects, which will be unearthed with phenomenological research method. doing or conducting phenomenological research is personally empowering, because i know that i am very much engaged and not detached in every research process. in this research, i adopted phenomenological approach to understand and explore the principals’ lived experiences in the implementation of k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program in selected public schools in manila, the philippines (cf moustakas, 1994; patton, 2002; manen, 2011; creswell, 2014; and yuksel & yildirim, 2015). selection of co-researchers. the coresearchers in this study were 6 (six) principals © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 6 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals from 6 (six) public high schools in the city of manila implementing the senior high school (grades 11 and 12). i focused on the lived experiences of principals in selected public schools in implementing the k to 12 curriculum. i did not explore the processes, strategies, plans, and challenges of the private schools in this research, although it was my strong belief that there are many differences and variations in terms of how the curriculum is implemented in public and private sectors (cf leithwood et al., 2004; creswell, 2014; and yuksel & yildirim, 2015). to maintain confidentiality, i labelled the co-participants of the study as follows: co-researcher #1: amihan; co-researcher #2: bayani; co-researcher #3: dakila; coresearcher # 4: datu; co-researcher #5: malaya; and co-researcher #6: tala. in selecting the principals as my coresearchers, the following were the criteria: (1) the principal should have at least 4-5 years of administrative or managerial experience as head of the school or principal; (2) an implementer of k to 12 for at least three years; and (3) the willingness of the principals to serve as co-researchers of this study. inspired by many scholars, i approached the principals, not as merely instruments to fulfil a research endeavor, but the people directly involved in this research as kapwa (fellow being); thus, the research process is pakikipagkapwa-tao, a process of treating others as oneself (enriquez, 1978; valbuena, 2009; dilshad & latif, 2013; reyes, 2015; and lagdameo-santillan, 2018). after identifying the participant schools in my research, i sought the permission of the division of city schools of manila by writing a letter to the sds (school division superintendent). the selection of schools as well as the principals was purposive (mucina, 2011; creswell, 2014; and yuksel & yildirim, 2015). ways of gathering lived experiences. it is consisted of two things, namely: story-telling and in-depth interview. the description of each things is following here: story-telling. the main approach to gather the lived experience in this research was story-telling coupled with in-depth interview. i conducted individual interviews with the principals at their most convenient time and place. i knew that the principals were very busy leaders in the school; thus, they were the ones who set the meeting schedules through the assistance of their office secretary or by themselves. the interview lasted for about one hour or 1 ½ hours (cf mucina, 2011; dilshad & latif, 2013; and smeda, dakich & sharda, 2014). in-depth interview. the in-depth interview was semi-structured or informal like an ordinary conversation, so that the coresearchers were at ease and they were more open and spontaneous with their responses. although i prepared guide questions for the interview, i asked follow-up questions, especially if there were interesting and very much related responses of the co-researchers. follow-up questions were also asked, when the response of the principals was not clear to me (cf balls, 2009; dilshad & latif, 2013; and mcleod, 2014). the thick and rich narratives collected from in-depth interviews were the basis of identifying the emerging themes, patterns, and connections between and among the management/leadership skills of the principals, struggles/challenges, deped (department of education) support mechanisms, and the resistances to the program being implemented (fao, 1998; mulford, 2003; mucina, 2011; creswell, 2014; and yuksel & yildirim, 2015). results and discussion thematic reflections/structural themes. these reflections were drawn from the initial reflections by way of clustering the related and similar textual themes. further, in the discussion, i mobilized the theories and approaches to shed light on the themes: (1) principalship as professional career based on merit; (2) k to 12 implementation necessitates effective school leadership qualities; (3) empowerment affords the principals with democratic space and leeway in decision making for k to 12 implementation; (4) k to 12 as major innovative education reform package; (5) k to 12 as a trigger for economic development; (6) imperative of political dimension in the effective © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 7 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 implementation of education reform; (7) school head as a spokesperson for k to 12 program; (8) resistance to k to 12 program as a feedback for improvement; (9) stakeholders participation for k to 12 program implementation; and (10) support system for principal. the explanations for each theme are as following here: firstly, principalship as professional career based on merit. the position of leadership in the public school is based on qualifications or merit. all of the co-researchers started their career in the public school as classroom teachers. then, they were promoted to head teacher positions or master teacher positions prior to their appointment as principals. all the co-researchers rose from the ranks (paulu, n.y.; mulford, 2003; and day & sammons, 2017).7 one important qualification for appointment to principalship is to pass the nqesh (national qualifying examination for school heads) or principalship test administered by neap (national educators academy of the philippines). datu, for example, was contented serving as department head of mathematics and he had no intention of aiming for higher position. but through the discovery of his strong leadership in the department, he was encouraged by his former principal to take the principal exam. he passed the exam and then, later, appointed to the position (llego, 2015; and pn-rctq, 2018).8 malaya’s position as principal was a product of accident, because she had no plan to be a school leader too. she said as following here: 7see also, for example, in-depth interview with coresearcher #1: amihan, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 1, 2018; in-depth interview with co-researcher #2: bayani, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 5, 2018; in-depth interview with co-researcher #3: dakila, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 9, 2018; in-depth interview with co-researcher # 4: datu, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 13, 2018; in-depth interview with co-researcher #5: malaya, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018; and in-depth interview with co-researcher #6: tala, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. 8see also in-depth interview with co-researcher # 4: datu, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 13, 2018. actually, there was no plan for me to be a principal. there was no intention, no plan or no dream. it was accidental to have this position. but, i am happy serving as school leader, because i am now able to help the government in achieving quality education. the promotion, probably it’s the will of god, providential.9 dakila, further, said that his experiences were instrumental in making him as a good administrator, because he learned from the experiences of his superiors or other leaders. the principal is better prepared to manage a school change or curriculum implementation, if she/he is equip with the struggles along the way (mulford, 2003; kunkel-pottbaum, 2013; and day & sammons, 2017).10 dakila said as following here: then, in the same manner, i observed i got the best practices of my superiors, i also noticed their weaknesses “kaya ito yung naging puhunan ko para makarating ako dito”. and so, when people already notice me “ay doon na nagstart yung nirecommend ako” for promotion. i believed that the best way to be an effective administrator or leader is to experience the struggles and thorns of the grounds before going up.11 another factor for promotion in the public school is the performance. a teacher or head teacher or principal will be promoted based on ranking generally based on merit or performance. the deped (department of education) order 42, s.2007 (revised guidelines on selection, promotion, and designation of school heads) enumerates the criteria in ranking for applicants in principal position: performance rating; experience; outstanding accomplishments; education and training; potential; and psychosocial attributes and personality traits (mulford, 2003; jadhav & patankar, 2013; deped, 2017a; and read & atinc, 2017). furthermore, do (deped order) 42, s.2007 sets the following leadership dimensions expected from each school head: 9in-depth interview with co-researcher #5: malaya, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. 10see also, for comparison, “activity 4.1: understanding curriculum terms and definitions”. available online at: http:// cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415965309/ch04/activity4-1. pdf [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. 11in-depth interview with co-researcher #3: dakila, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 9, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 8 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals (1) educational leadership is the ability to craft and pursue a shared school vision and mission, as well as develop and implement curriculum policies, programs, and projects; (2) people leadership is the ability to work and develop effective relationships with stakeholders and exert a positive influence upon people; and (3) strategic leadership is the ability to explore complex issues from a global perspective, manage an educational enterprise, and maximize the use of resources (cf o’neill, 2010; west, 2012a and 2012b; deped, 2017a; and read & atinc, 2017). at the same time, the school heads and supervisors are keen in observing the performance of the teachers for them to discover future school leaders from the pool of teachers that they are leading or supervising. supervisors and principals are, in a way, talent hunters – they perform an important hidden role in the bureaucracy – by head hunting services (cf goksoy, 2015; rowland, 2015; and anjah, 2017). with k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program implementation, school leadership is a public service. the principal is put on top of the school to lead a magnitude of people with varying interests (students, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders like alumni). leadership is defined as servantship, which means that they are not in the position just to enjoy the privilege being a principal; rather, they are to address the problems of the school curriculum implementation, lead with vision, introduce needed change and innovation in the school, and perform their jobs efficiency and effectively. the principals are hands-on managers/leaders. they micro-manage the different activities in the school to ensure quality output and performance, both from the sides of students and teachers (cf mulford, 2003; pids, 2012; shonubi, 2012; orr & cleveland-innes, 2015; and deped, 2017b).12 12see again, for example, “the principal’s responsibilities in supporting quality instruction” in inclusive schools network, on august 20, 2015. available online also at: http://inclusiveschools.org/the-principals-responsibilitiesin-supporting-quality-instruction/ [accessed in manila, the philippines: november 3, 2018]. secondly, k to 12 implementation necessitates effective school leadership qualities. the co-researchers, as they shared their experiences in the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program implementation, mentioned different leadership qualities that they have observed and practiced. the ability to build teamwork among the teachers is very crucial to achieve the goals of k to 12 program. in this context, tala said that as follows: teamwork as a strategic advantage creates participatory and high involvement work setting; you are in the right direction towards productive work improvement. this is the hallmark of quality commitment from deming’s tqm.13 to rally support from stakeholders like the teachers, students, and parents, it is imperative on the part of the principal to be a team player and develop teamwork. the orc (organizational research centre) model emphasizes the involvement of various actors to get their support and avoid organizational friction that will bog down an innovative program (cf makunja, 2016; collings & wood eds., 2009; and hussain et al., 2018). a principal has to possess high eq (emotional quotient) to be effective and she/ he asserted the importance of eq in her/ his role as principal, as asserted by daniel goleman (2018) on “primal leadership”. he said, then, that: understanding the powerful role of emotions in the workplace sets the best leaders apart from the rest—not just in tangibles, such as better business results and the retention of talent, but also in the all-important intangibles, such as higher morale, motivation, and commitment (goleman, 2018). a principal, who is implementing a big project, must also be effective and efficient. with all the new challenges and problems related to k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, 13in-depth interview with co-researcher #6: tala, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 9 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 and two years of senior high school) program, a principal must be open-minded, accessible, and patient (cf paulu, n.y.; bmgf, 2017; and goleman, boyatzis & mckee, 2018). given the limitation of resources in the school and the magnitude of the problems in relation to the k to 12 program, the principal must be creative in addressing problems. bayani said that: our campus although it’s not that big compared to other schools in manila, “meron pa naman” enough space. “ginagawan pa ng paraan”, we have vertical expansion of our building. just have creativity and resourcefulness, we could manage the program.14 principals, as locally accountable leaders in the school, must be forward looking or anticipatory. the need to set the plan or vision for the school in relation to the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program is very important. their plans should be based on existing policy or orders of the deped (department of education); but there is an elbow space for them to tweak their actions and decisions for the school. they are able to deploy their own personal judgement as to what will be the best for the school and their teachers (cf dufour & mattos, 2013; goksoy, 2015; and moller, 2018). malaya reflects that at the end of the day, she would always anticipate what will be the activities for the following day. she is always prepared for tomorrow, so that she will be able to maximize her time. she, then, said as following here: “ano ang gagawin ko bukas? iniisip ko na agad ang gagawin ko bukas tulad ng mga” activity for the following day. “siyempre ang” reflection “mo nagawa mo na ba lahat ng gagawin mo?”.15 another quality of principals is being a risk taker. the principals must be able to exercise 14in-depth interview with co-researcher #2: bayani, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 5, 2018. 15in-depth interview with co-researcher #5: malaya, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. the authority given them for the benefit of the school. the principal must be willing to embrace new challenges, even after serving in the school. there are many activities that a principal could do to help the school or in the implementation of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program. principals are models or inspiration to teachers. the principal is likened to a mother in the school, who is the source of inspiration to her/his kids (cf mulford, 2003; jadhav & patankar, 2013; and moller, 2018). in this context, tala affirmed that: yes i believe that is motivating instructional change, teachers must be encouraged to try new methods and produce positive results. high quality performance can only be achieved through the support of the administration, staff development, and selfdevelopment.16 the effective school leadership qualities of principals, as heads of the school, are the following: ability to rally teachers as one team or community (team-building) for a common purpose; ability to learn, develop, and demonstrate high levels of eq (emotional quotient); being effective and efficient; being open minded, accessible, and patient; ability to explore alternative possibilities when problems arise (being creative and thinking out of the box); being visionary and forward looking; ability to take risks for the successful implementation of the k to 12 curriculum; willingness to embrace new challenges and tasks that may arise in the program implementation; and being an inspiration and a model to all (cf gruba et al., n.y.; mulford, 2003; leithwood et al., 2004 and 2006; kobola, 2007; and mason, 2018). thirdly, empowerment affords the principals with democratic space and leeway in decision making for k to 12 implementation. the framework of governance in the public school in the philippines is sbm (schoolbased management) based on ra (republic act) 9155. the wb (world bank), in 2007, 16in-depth interview with co-researcher #6: tala, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 10 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals cited a comprehensive definition of sbm by referring to b.j. caldwell (2005) that sbm is the decentralization of authority from the central government to the school level (cf caldwell, 2005; wb 2007:2; abulencia, 2012; and onojerena, 2014). accordingly, b. malen, r.t. ogawa & j. kranz (1990), further, elaborated sbm: […] as a formal alteration of governance structures, as a form of decentralization that identifies the individual school as the primary unit of improvement and relies on the redistribution of decision-making authority as the primary means through which improvement might be stimulated and sustained (malen, ogawa & kranz, 1990:2). under the framework of sbm (schoolbased management), the responsibility in terms of decision making in the operation of the school is transferred to the principals, teachers, parents, and other members of the community. but, the decisions and actions of the principal and other school level actors should still conform to the policies and programs as set or determined by the national government or central authority (abulencia, 2012; rowland, 2015; and makunja, 2016). sbm is department of education’s thrust that decentralizes the decision-making from the central office and field offices to individual schools to enable them to better respond to their specific education needs (abulencia, 2012; deped, 2015; and wohlstetter & mohrman, 2017). the deped (department of education) of the philippines pointed out that one way to empower schools is through sbm grant. the sbm grant is the additional funds to public schools, which shall be used to augment the school fund on mooe or maintenance and other operating expenses (abulencia, 2012; deped, 2015; and ochada & gempes, 2018). the co-researchers, as school heads, are now exercising the power given to them by law. dakila, for example, is keen about his authority that as the need of the situation demands, he will use his authority to issue memo in order to address the problems in relation to the implementation of the k-12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program. dakila clearly said that: “[…] may solusyon na”, but of course you must be ready with the some alternatives, but “ako” when i say we will implement k to 12 “gagawa at gagawa ako ng paraan” to the point of making use of my authority to force teachers to handle senior high school. i am ready to issue memorandum for the senior high school to move forward.17 datu has learned a lot from his experiences as teacher and head teacher in terms of addressing problems in the school. he was happy that principals are empowered to take measures for the improvement of the school.18 principals, who are empowered, are more capable to navigate the possibilities of effectively implementing the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program than without it. principal empowerment under any circumstance is no longer an augmentation but a necessity, so the school leaders could make full use of their position and roles to put a bigger dent of success in school program implementation (cf paulu, n.y.; binda, 1991; caldwell, 2005; and mazibuko, 2007). fourthly, k to 12 as major innovative education reform package. k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program was implemented in 2012. from that time on, there have been many changes in the philippine educational system. the k to 12 curriculum was benchmarked with other countries, developed in cognizance with the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization. the forthcoming asean (association of south east asian nations) integration will demand more competent human capital to compete as 17in-depth interview with co-researcher #3: dakila, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 9, 2018. 18in-depth interview with co-researcher # 4: datu, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 13, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 11 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 well as to supply the demands of the rapidly growing economies of asean. there is a need to be at par with the global basic education standards, so that every filipino will be globally competitive in the global labor market. however, the bulk of the burden is carried by the principal in rolling out this education reform (cf paulu, n.y.; ornstein & hunkins, 2004; kobola, 2007; and aring, 2015). the co-researchers, as school heads, were given the most difficult tasks and responsibility of implementing the k to 12 program, because they are the leaders of the lowest echelon of our education system, the school level. bayani, for example, highlighted his support for the k to 12 curriculum and mentioned the lacking years of basic education in the country, as follows: when this k to 12 was being formulated or planned, actually, before hand, i like and support this curriculum, because as we all know it, the students graduating from our schools lack the necessary preparation for life.19 maria rose s. sergio (2012), and other scholars, highlighted the problems and prospects of k to 12 basic education program in the philippines. adding two more years of secondary education will give the students the opportunity to pursue different tracks, like employment after graduation, higher education, or entrepreneurship (sergio, 2012; okabe, 2013; and sadsad, 2014). dakila also shared his sentimental arguments in support of k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program. he said that he is ahead of his time because in the 1990s, he was already recommending that the basic education should be extended to a year or two, so that the filipino graduates would be at far with their asian counterparts. on practical note, dakila said that not all high school graduates are able to enrol and pursue higher education, due to lack of resources or lack of motivation on the part of the 19in-depth interview with co-researcher #2: bayani, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 5, 2018. students. with k to 12 program, the students or the youth are given the widest options as regards the steps or plans they have in mind. according to dakila, graduates of k to 12 program are already 18 years and could easily enter the world of work, if they opt not to go to college anymore (cf sergio, 2012; sadsad, 2014; and darling-hammond et al., 2019).20 fifthly, k to 12 as a trigger for economic development. the co-researchers were all supportive of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program and they strongly cited its economic or practical benefit (sergio, 2012; icef monitor, 2013; and ibidem with footnote 7). consistent with the economic analysis of gilbert t. sadsad (2014), and other scholars, on k to 12 program that adding two more years of basic education will translate into 2% growth of the gdp or gross domestic product (sergio, 2012; sadsad, 2014; and sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015). masayoshi okabe (2013), and other scholars, argued also that k to 12 curriculum will benefit the economy and society from analysis with socioeconomic perspective (cf mitra, 2011; okabe, 2013; and sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015). the co-researchers viewed k to 12 program from its economic perspective. for datu, a graduate of grade 12 is employable, because she/he is already 18 years old. datu, then, said in tagalog language as following here: “ganito lang ka-simple yan”, i do not […] “kung ano nga ba ang matutunan ng bata”, economics eh […] “pag graduate ng bata continuously, 18 siya sa ilalim ng k to 12. ready na ang katawan niya magtrabaho. tignan mo kapag graduate ng k-10”, 16 years old. “tignan mo ilang percent ng graduate sa highschool ang napupunta sa college. mga 30 percent lang. nasaan yung 70%?”.21 if the young people are enrolled in shs (senior high school) program, they will graduate from secondary education with 20see also, for example, in-depth interview with co-researcher #3: dakila, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 9, 2018. 21in-depth interview with co-researcher # 4: datu, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 13, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 12 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals confidence, because of their experiences in the different tracks they have chosen; thus, they are already mature and have the selfconfidence to apply for work (carter, 2004; sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015; and orbeta, jr. et al., 2018). looking at other countries, datu also pointed out that almost all countries around the world are implementing the 12 years basic education; therefore, the country should also adjust its curriculum to be globally competitive. datu said again in the tagalog language, as following here: “kung tayo ay tama at that time ilan na lang ang bansa sa buong mundo na (hindi nag-implement ng k to 12), sila ang susunod sa atin pero sila ang pumunta doon [nagpatupad ng k to 12]”.22 tala also appreciated the k to 12 program curriculum, because it is innovative and based on constructivist theory of education. the students will be given the tasks or activities; and from there, they will learn new knowledge from their own experiences, but with the guidance of the teachers as facilitators of learning. tala, then, cited the economic benefits of k to 12, when she said that: k to 12 as a curriculum will enhance the skill of the student mathematically, yung computation skills, scientific skills, but more on gearing them towards the world of work. in grade 11 and 12, students are equipped to take on every opportunity in life he/she chooses – to find work, to engage in higher studies and start entrepreneurial endeavours.23 k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program has a strong immersion component, where students are given the time to have their practicum or on-the-job training or community immersion, which will afford them the first hand experiences in the field or tracks that they have chosen. tala said that her school and students engaged in hands22about the 12 years basic education program in other counties, especially in southeast asia, see fredrik sjoholm (2002); arief s. sadiman (2004); and ibidem with footnote 18. 23in-depth interview with co-researcher #6: tala, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. on learning (cf carter, 2004; leithwood et al., 2006; sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015; and ibidem with footnote 16). further, amihan cited her observation and interviews with other educators from other countries regarding curriculum that the philippines, that it is the only country left with ten year basic education curriculum. we do not have other best option except to calibrate the curriculum.24 through k to 12 program, high school graduates will be equipped with basic relevant skills, knowledge, values, and aptitude to pursue higher education or enter the world of work. for students who will pursue tertiary education, they are adequately prepared to do the task and demand of university life; while k-12 graduates, who will opt to enter the labor market, will have the necessary skills to be employed in the industry or start their business ventures (gruba et al., n.y.; geronimo, 2016; and nrc, 2017). sixthly, imperative of political dimension in the effective implementation of education reform. based on this study, the political aspect/dimension of education, e.g. k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program implementation, is very crucial. the leadership of the former president benigno aquino was instrumental, because of its decisive stand in carrying out the implementation of the k to 12 program, despite its rush preparation and limited resources. but, we should be wary of the possible interference of the political force to the autonomy of the education sector in directing its goals and objectives. this simply means that if the education program or project is laudable, it must be supported by the next administration in order to avoid wastage of national resources (paulu, n.y.; binda, 1991; onojerena, 2014; and geronimo, 2016). dakila, for example, expressed clearly the indispensability of political will in any program implementation by saying as follows: 24in-depth interview with co-researcher #1: amihan, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 1, 2018. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 13 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 the good thing about political will of the previous (aquino) administration is that we are able to fast track the k to 12 implementation, but the consequence was that we’re not 100% prepared. with the new (duterte) administration, the only point is to study the k to 12 program and support it. we need to improve the implementation of the program over time, and not to stop k to 12.25 seventhly, school head as a spokesperson for k to 12 program. the principal’s communication role is expected to contribute to reaching the organizational aims and objectives, not any more as controlling and authoritarian head (paulu, n.y.; arlestig, 2008; and holmberg, 2014). the principal, as pedagogical leader, communicates the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program to all its stakeholders. more than the curricular content, the focus of communication in this regard is to clearly explain to the parents, students, and teachers the economic benefits of the k to 12 program for them to understand and support it (kunkel-pottbaum, 2013; geronimo, 2015; and darlinghammond et al., 2019). bayani also ensured that his office is open to convey all matters related to k to 12 program by stating as follows: my office is always to open to all: the parents, students, and teachers. i feel the need to be accessible to teachers and students, because there are new emerging problems because of the new k to 12 curriculum. as principal, i am patient and i explain every now and then that k to 12 to parents and students and to all. it’s our task to market and convince other people about the k to 12.26 the principal knows the in and out of the k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program being the frontline implementers. they are deeply in tune with what is happening in the ground; 25in-depth interview with co-researcher #3: dakila, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 9, 2018. 26in-depth interview with co-researcher #2: bayani, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 5, 2018. thus, they have the wisdom and insights that are much needed in effective management of a reform program. thus, empowerment is justified (leithwood et al., 2004 and 2006; barlongo, 2015; and alosaimi, 2016). eighthly, resistance to k to 12 program as a feedback for improvement. the resistance to k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program was inevitable being a new and massive restructuring of the basic education in the philippines, affecting the higher education as well as the technical vocational education. some sectors (select parents and teachers organizations) raised their doubts and refusal to the k to 12 program. the major reasons uncovered in this study for the resistances are the limited knowledge and information about the new curriculum; lack of preparations and resources; and additional cost of education on the part of the parents (cf ae, 2001; barlongo, 2015; and sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015). the principals have shown enough diligence and patience in handling the resistance by constant communication to parents, to media, and to students about the benefits of k to 12 program for the students themselves and for the entire nation. a project or program that has no resistance is incomplete. the wholeness, the meaningfulness, relevance, and importance of k to 12 program is partially defined by the people, who openly raised their issues and resistance to k to 12 program. with all the issues and critiques of k to 12 program, it will evolve and correct itself (paulu, n.y.; barlongo, 2015; geronimo, 2015; and sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015). ninethly, stakeholders participation for k to 12 program implementation. the principals were in unison that one of the key factors to successful curriculum implementation (k to 12 program) is to encourage joint participation of all stakeholders: the teachers, alumni, parents, students, business sector, ngos (non-governmental organizations), and local government. each of the sectors has their unique and meaningful contribution in the attainment of the set goals and standards © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 14 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals of the k to 12 program (cf paulu, n.y.; ct, 2013; barlongo, 2015; jagannathan, 2017; and kieu & singer, 2017). tala, for example, supported also this by saying as follows: it is a reality that the government always give limited resources to cover operations. there are still revenues that could be tapped. we have alumni, lgus [local government units], ngos [non-governmental organizations], other civic organizations. the present budgetary system provides certain flexibilities like realignment and augmentation. well, we have to be good the parents, the gpta [govering parent-teacher association] especially, because if they want project, the different subject area would like to come up to a project. that would entail the parents permit, and a lot of things, you need to seek the help of the gpta and they are very supportive. they will craft the resolution, then sign it. we have a very very good relationship and also with the alumni. they donate a certain amount for us to use in our school.27 phillip j. watt (2018), in looking at the other side of life, argues that “we can start to consciously and intelligently work towards some sort of harmonization as we continue to co-create our personal and collective futures” (watt, 2018). so, k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program implementation is a process of cocreation, because all sectors are involved in its fruition. the principals, teachers, students, parents, and others are common owners of the deped (department of education) k to 12 program in the philippines (binda, 1991; barlongo, 2015; geronimo, 2015; and sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015). tenthly, support system for principal. the principals can effectively carry on their functions and tasks, if there is support system for them. in this study, there are formal and regular support given to the principals through the division office like the delivery of their basic needs, such as budget, materials, technical support, and trainings. the principals have this systems-based thinking or perspective in the sense that as principals, they know that they have power and authority to implement the k to 12 (kindergarten 27in-depth interview with co-researcher #6: tala, a respondent as principal at the public high school, in the city of manila, philippines, on october 17, 2018. and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program; but there is also a limitation (cf leithwood et al., 2004 and 2006; unesco & unicef, 2007; and barlongo, 2015). thus, other agencies of the government must also act in consonance with the national goals for education (k to 12 program). on the other hand, the principals were outspoken and direct in their assertion that their personal as well as the professional experiences that they have had (as teachers, as head teachers) were also instrumental in the discharge of their duties for k to 12 program implementation (dufour & mattos, 2013; barlongo, 2015; and day & sammons, 2017). another support system that the principals conspicuously floated is that they learned from one another on how to effectively manage and implement the k to 12 program. they shared experiences, compared notes, observed best practices, and extended support among themselves. since they are all similarly situated, they have strong ties and bonding that make them more resilient despite the big challenges of the program implementation (paulu, n.y.; barlongo, 2015; geronimo, 2016; and ibidem with footnote 7). according to dennis yarrington et al. (2017) of appa (australian primary principals association), and other scholars, the person who has the ability and capacity to understand the challenges of one principal is another principal. indeed, it is true that they get inspiration and energy from one another (cf hargreaves, halasz & pont, 2007; yarrington et al., 2017; and doyle & locke, 2014).28 the principals, who rolled out the k to 12 program at the school levels, have two major preparations, namely: material or physical and teacher training. the principals applied their creative genius in preparing their schools for the implementation in terms of repairing existing available resources; doing consistent follow up of the requested 28see also, for example, “tasmanian principal to lead the australian primary principals association from 2019”. available online at: https://associations.net.au/news/sectornews/2018/tasmanian-principal-to-lead-the-australian-primaryprincipals-association-from-2019.html [accessed in manila, the philippines: march 11, 2019]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 15 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 equipment; and proper allocation of scarce or limited resources. in terms of teacher training, the principals and teachers have undertaken training about k to 12 as a curriculum. part of the preparations of the principals was a partnership with private organizations to help them in various capacities. beyond the in-service training, the principals also personally prepared themselves by exploring other sources of information about k to 12 curriculum, like reading different articles from internet and books (cf ae, 2001; nrc, 2017; moller, 2018; and ibidem with footnote 7). there is a positive aspiration for k to 12 program among the principals, due to their invested energy, time, and expertise/talents; thus, they are expecting the continuing support for the program. they are positively looking forward for the first batch of graduates of k to 12, who will enter college by school year 2018-2019 as the results or return of their investment (roi). in their inner most hearts, there is a constant and fervent prayer that the k to 12 program will be supported by the majority of the stakeholders (leithwood et al., 2004 and 2006; holmberg, 2014; sarvi, munger & pillay, 2015; moller, 2018; and ibidem with footnote 7). conclusion after my thorough reflections, which were really iterative, i wrap up with the following major points: the promotion of principal is based on merit and it is a professional career. the qualifications for principals are the leadership potential and skills; passing the qualifying examination; meritorious performance; and passion and commitment to the teaching profession. school leadership as a public service. leadership is servantship, which means that those in position are to lead with vision, introduce innovation, and perform their jobs efficiency and effectively. the effective school leadership qualities of principals in relation to k to 12 (kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school) program implementation are: ability to rally teachers as one team or community for a common purpose; ability to learn and demonstrate high level of emotional quotient; being effective and efficient; being open minded, accessible, and patient; ability to explore alternative possibilities (being creative and thinking out of the box); being visionary and forward looking; ability to take risks; willingness to embrace new challenges that may arise; and being an inspiration and a model to all. principal empowerment has a crucial contribution to the implementation of k to 12 program. k to 12 program is considered as a macro, national, “economy of scale” education program, but the implementation at the local or school level is unscaled. this means that the principal is empowered to organize the stakeholders as one community or group to create a shared culture; connect with parents; have teachers networking with one another; and school leaders working together and learning from one another. these reflect a way beyond the control of the top-down model of k to 12 program implementation. the k to 12 implementation demands multifaceted roles of principal. these are motivator of change, delegator of tasks, supervisor of performance, nurturer of leaders, mentor of teachers, planner of school, decision maker, mover for the majority, exceptional listener, implementer of policy/ program, as micro-manager, harmonizer of discordant voices, and facilitator of the resolution of conflicts. k to 12 program as a response to the challenges of asean (association of south east asian nations) integration and globalization. through k to 12 program, high school graduates will be equipped with basic relevant skills, knowledge, values, and aptitude to pursue higher education or enter the world of work. political will is instrumental, because of its decisive stand in carrying out the implementation of the k to 12 program, despite its rush preparation and limited resources. the principal’s communication role is expected to contribute in reaching the organizational aims and objectives, not any more as controlling and authoritarian head. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 16 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals the principal, as pedagogical leader, is the one who communicates the k to 12 program to all its stakeholders. although resistance, refusal and doubts to k to 12 program were raised by some sectors, the principals have shown enough diligence and patience in handling the resistance by constantly communicating to parents, to media, and to students about the benefit of k to 12 program. successful curriculum implementation encourages joint participation of all stakeholders. each of the sectors has their unique and meaningful contribution in the attainment of the set goals and standards of the k to 12 program. the principals, who rolled out the k to 12 program at the school levels, have two major preparations, namely: material or physical and teacher training. the principals encountered all the stressors within and without the schools, but the strong passion to serve and passion to teach outplay this dilemma. the principals have invested so much of their energy, time, and expertise/talents for k to 12 program; thus, they are expecting the continuing support of the program. in every research undertaking, we need to distil practical ideas that might be of great help in improving the ways we do things. these recommendations are not all encompassing to cover all the aspects of the k to 12 program; rather, it centers on the lived experiences of the principals as they are real actors at the forefront of this major education reform. the recommendations are as following here: firstly, for deped (department of education) division office. it is important to “support for stronger networking, collaboration, and dialogue among principals”. k to 12 program is not exempted from this kind of experience where resistances were raised by certain sectors of education. budgetary constraints limited the performance of the curriculum implementers; delays in the delivery of equipment and facilities affected the quality of instruction; and human resources (teachers and school staff) were not properly prepared to implement the new program. although the principals were formally organized and well aware of the benefits of working together, learning from one another, partnerships and collaboration, deped should create a mechanism, an avenue and a support system for the principals and other school leaders to support each other. funding assistance might be of great help for the principals in their organization. it is important about “provision for training on change management”. there were resistances of varied degrees against k to 12 program. it would be advantageous for principals if they are given knowledge and skills in managing conflicts, mediation, approaching resistances, and coordinating various demands of the stakeholders. it is important to “ensure on time delivery of material and infrastructure support”. the principals will be unburdened if most of their needs, be it infrastructure or human resources, are readily available. it is an additional pressure on the part of the principal if they will be the one to look for resources for some of the needs of the school. although, through networking and partnerships with the corporate world (corporate social responsibility), they are able to secure funding and other supports. the resourcefulness, creativity, and the gift of grace of the principals are employed to obtain the needed support for the k to 12 program implementation. it is important about “imperative of spokesperson”. there are times when a spokesperson is needed in the school especially that deped is implementing major change. at the level of the school, the role of being a spokesperson is performed by the principal. the principal, thus, should be an effective communicator or spokesperson of the school specifically and deped generally. there must be a training package for principal to prepare them for such major role in the school. it is important about “sustainability of the k to 12 program”. there is a strong support of the principals to the k to 12 program. they believe that the k to 12 program will bring a major development in terms of quality of graduates that we will produce. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 17 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 they are staunch believers that through the k to 12 program, the philippines will gain a competitive advantage in terms of the global labor market and other areas like education, innovation, and technology. a sustainability program should be created by the deped, so that we will be able to ensure that it is funded and supported by both the national and the local government. lastly, deped should conduct an assessment or evaluation of the program in order to determine whether the stated goals are attained. k to 12 program evaluation should be done using a holistic framework/evaluation model, so that all the aspects of this major program will be unearthed as basis of curriculum enhancement or revision. it is important about “institutionalizing stress management and recreational program”. since we cannot limit the workloads of the principals in the schools, the co-researchers are explicitly saying that a program must be instituted for both teachers and principals to manage work-related stresses or to promote work-life balance. with many unexpected works assigned to the schools, the surprise activities, the deadlines that are always putting pressures to the schools, there must be balance, a coping mechanism through a program. stress management and recreational program may include seminar-workshops, adequate provision for infrastructure, health and wellness activities, mindfulness and relaxation workshops, among others. secondly, for school principals. they need to ensure that their teachers are really adherent to the changes brought by the new k to 12 program. the principals must be open to take feedback from students and teachers during and after the implementation of the k to 12 program. these feedback, suggestions, and comments are valuable inputs for curricular enhancement in the future, as such they should be submitted to national agencies of deped (department of education). the principals should develop structures by creating ad-hoc committees/taskforces that will support teachers in their teaching; accomplish technical report for submission to do (division office); organize necessary programs; and carry-out routine activities in the school, among others. in this way, the school heads will be unburdened and at the same time, empowering the teachers as well as honing their leadership/managerial skills. the principals as group must conduct benchmarking activity within the philippines or even abroad. in this way, they will be able to adapt and learn from the best practices of high performing schools in relation to k to 12 program implementation. principals should share their experiences, observations, and insights with regard to k to 12 program implementation in a division or regional forum. thirdly, for teachers in public schools. the teacher is the mediator between the curriculum and student. they know various needs of the students, educational institutions, industries, parents, and other stakeholders. they are main actors inside the classrooms in delivering the k to 12 curriculum. thus, their utmost support and commitment are much needed by deped (department of education) to make the k to 12 curriculum successful. every summer, public school teachers undergo mass training to have the opportunities to expose themselves to new learning and teaching methods, which they eventually will impart to their students or apply in their teaching episodes. they must listen, participate, and focus on these in-sets (in-service trainings), because deped is spending a lot for these trainings. recently, deped issued do (deped order) number 42, s.2017, last august entitled “national adoption and implementation of the philippine professional standards for teachers (ppst)”. the ppst is a clear indicator of deped’s recognition of the importance of professional standards in the continuing professional development and advancement of teachers based on the principle of lifelong learning. fourthly, for the students. our young people today are techno-savvy who are constantly bombarded with information from so many sources, especially the internet and social media. the students may organized themselves and create some advocacy groups in support of k to 12 program. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 18 arthur s. abulencia, lived experience of principals they may create a blog, website, students organization with the aim of promoting the accomplishments of the school, benefits of k to 12 program, and encourage other osy (out-of-school youth) to pursue their education under the new curriculum. students must support the k to 12 program, because they are the primary beneficiaries of this education program. but, still my stand is for them to have critical gaze about k to 12 program implementation. they need to voice out their observations and analysis regarding this program of the government, not to obstruct its implementation; rather, they may try to provide constructive critique and offer alternative solutions and options for better, and effective implementation of the program. lastly, fifthly, for the parents. the simple things that parents can do to help their students finish up to shs (senior high school) may be by monitoring the progress of their children and providing for the hidden cost of education (daily allowances, projects expenses), to name a few. parents must also volunteer and participate actively in different school activities, like brigada eskwela, support health related program of deped (department of education) and doh (department of health) for their children, among others. parents, together with the teachers, must strengthen the gpta (govering parent-teacher association), so as to have meaningful and productive partnership for effective implementation of k to 12 program. parents must 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education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of october 2014 to date, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history department unhas (hasanuddin university) in makassar, south sulawesi; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.tawarikhjournal.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 204 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2014 to date, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of lp2m unhas (institute for research and community service, hasanuddin university) in makassar, south sulawesi; and pps unipa (graduate program, university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.sosiohumanika-jpssk.com and www. aspensi.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 205© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to date, the atikan journal has been organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.atikan-jurnal.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 206 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.susurgalur-jksps.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur.jurnal2013@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 207© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com it will be published, sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal will firstly be published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015, the sipatahoenan journal will be organized by the central committee of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.sipatahoenan-journal.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 208 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com it will be published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal will firstly be published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insan journal will be organized by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.insancitaislamicjournal.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 209© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 7, number 1 (august 2014) and number 2 (february 2015) no author institution title of article vol/pages 1 abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie lu (lorestan university), khorramabad city, iran; and education organization of tehran (district 6), tehran city, iran comparative perspectives on educational assessment system at primary schools in japan and iran vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.93-102. 2 amogne asfaw eshetu wu (wollo university), dessie, p.o. box 1145, north central ethiopia does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? comparative study of private and government schools in dessie administrative town, north central ethiopia vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.161-170. 3 anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), central java, indonesia description of the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process using the lesson study vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.103-110 4 anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang ums (malaysia university of sabah), 88400 kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia; and education department, kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia principals’ leadership style and stress with teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.27-42. 5 edmore mbokochena, fungai hamilton mudzengerere & elizabeth chikwiri wuia (women’s university in africa), harare, zimbabwe; nust (national university of science and technology), bulawayo, zimbabwe exploring the link between moral reasoning and behavioral action among young children in zimbabwean vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.1-6. 6 hannu t. korhonen & paavo niemelä mtt agrifood research finland, animal production research, silmäjärventie 2, fin-69100 kannus, finland digestibility of heat treated barley in blue fox and mink vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.43-48. 7 hilal ahmad wani & andi suwirta mu (mekelle university), mekelle, tigray, ethiopia; and upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia changing dynamics of good governance in africa vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.189-202 8 jauhar helmie unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java, indonesia verb go (back to, on, and out) in english for tefl in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer: the syntactic and semantic analysis vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.123-134. 9 kartono ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia social capital and quality improvement at the junior high school vip al-huda in kebumen, central java, indonesia vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.147-160. 10 laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia bipa learning material development for empowering thailand students’ writing competence vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.57-66. 11 mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh uau (umm-alqura university), mecca, saudi arabia pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching as a profession vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.111-122. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 210 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com no author institution title of article vol/pages 12 mohammad parvez & mohd shakir amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, 202002 uttar pradesh, india; and amu, murshidabad centre, 742223 west bengal, india a comparative study of the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.67-74. 13 nik suryani nik abd rahman iium (international islamic university of malaysia) in gombak, kuala lumpur, malaysia using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking in an introductory statistics course: a basis for curriculum materials development vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.49-56. 14 norshidah nordin uitm (universiti teknologi mara), seksyen 17, 40200 shah alam, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia do academic leaders matters? a study on transformational leadership behavior in a higher learning institution vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.7-18. 15 pamujo ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, p.o. box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement toward the learning achievement vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.19-26. 16 samson maekele tsegay bnu (beijing normal university), 19 xinjiekouwai street, beijing, china students’ experience in studentcentered learning at higher education institutions in china: a case study vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.135-146. 17 suarman unri (university of riau), kampus bina widya km. 12,5 simpang baru, pekanbaru 28293, riau, indonesia students’ perspective on the domains of teaching quality vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.171-180. 18 suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad ukm (national university of malaysia), bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment: a case study vol.7(1), august 2014, pp.75-84. 19 truong bao duy seameo retrac (southeast asian ministers of education organization, regional training center), 35 le thanh ton street, district 1, ho chi minh city, vietnam the effects of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning outcome vol.7(2), february 2015, pp.181-188 educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 211© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com index of author ahmad wani, hilal & andi suwirta. 189-202. aida, s. & z. wan. 104, 110. ainurrafiq, dawam. 149, 158. alshraideh, mohamed khaliefeh. 111-122. ayers, william. 112, 121. azar, betty schrampfer. 124-125, 133. bao duy, truong. 181-188. bhutto, m.i. 137-139, 142, 145. bogdan, r.c. & s.k. biklen. 129, 133. bourdieu, pierre. 148, 151, 158-159. bray, mark. 94, 100-101. brophy, jere. 103, 110. chalker, sylvia. 124-125, 128, 133. clark, c. & p. peterson. 112, 121. cohen, r.j. & m.e. swedlik. 104, 110. coleman, james s. 148, 151, 158-159. crossley, m. & k. watson. 94, 101. davies, l. 94, 101. dembo, myron h. 103, 110. dika, s.l. & k. singh. 148, 159. duncan, a. 114, 121. elhampur, h. 100-101. entwistle, n., v. mccune & j. hounsell. 136, 145. eshetu, amogne asfaw. 161-170. farshad, m. 99, 101. fiske, s.t. 112, 121. flint, w.j. 137, 145. frank, marcela. 128, 133. gudmundsson, g. & p. mikiewicz. 148, 159. güneyli, a. & c. aslan. 114, 121. haridison, ayualatha. 151-152, 159. harms, b. & n. knobloch. 114, 121. hasani, m. 97, 101. helmie, jauhar. 123-134. hook, p. & a. vass. 103, 110. hudari, agus. 124, 133. isjoni. 105, 110. israel, d.g. 163, 170. jenny, d. 182-183, 186. jolliffe, wendy. 104, 110. kartono. 147-160. kavcar, c. 112, 121. kholidah, umi. 149, 159. koç, e.m. 136, 145. kusuma, a.b., f.e. subekti & r. untarti. 103-110. kydyralieva, s. 95, 101. leach, j.b.m. 111, 121. lincicome, m.e. 95, 101. lu, j. 136, 138-139, 144-145. madandar arani, a., l. kakia & z. babaie. 93-102. mcnabb, d.e. 140, 145. mincu, monica. 148, 159. murphy, raymond. 123, 133. moghanizade, m.h. 97, 101. moran, a. et al. 112-113, 121. ncube, m., b. jones & z. bicaba. 200, 202. newmann, f.m. & g.g. wehlage. 153, 159. ngelai, edward. 177, 180. odeleye, d. 113-114, 121. o’donnell, s. 99, 101. o’grady, w., m. dobrovolsky & f. katamba. 128-133. othman, nooraini & khairul anuar. 177, 180. passin, h. 95, 101. poon, j. 135, 145. pop, m.d. et al. 117, 121. pyle, m.a. & m.e. munoz. 124, 133. qomar, mujamil. 158-159. quirk, c., a. menezes & c. cherry. 124, 133. rasheed, sadig. 153, 159. reynolds, d. & s. farrell. 93, 101. richter, d. et al. 113, 121. roberts, paul. 127, 133. rousseau, jean jacques. 136, 145. shih, c. & j. gamon. 139, 144-145. sihombing, b. & b.s. burton. 124-125, 127, 133. stiegelbauer, s.a. 113, 121. suarman. 171-180. sugiyono. 154-155, 160. syamsuri, i. & ibrohim. 105, 110. temizkan, m. 112, 121. thomson, a.j. & a.v. martinet. 123, 133. torres, c.a. 136-138, 146. tsegay, samson maekele. 135-146. tzanakis, michael. 151, 160. vanderburg, m. & d. stephens. 183, 187. van uden, j.m., h. ritzen & j.m. pieters. 136, 146. weiner, l.f. 113, 121-122. whitman, randal l. 126, 133. wilkens, c.p. & t.p. hehir. 152, 160. williams, k.c. & c.c. williams. 137, 143, 146. woolfolk, a. 103, 110. xu, x. & w. mei. 135, 137, 146. yu, z. 138, 146. yule, george. 128, 133. zara, a. 111, 122. zepke, n. 137, 146. zuhri, saifuddin. 149, 160. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 212 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com index of subject academic achievement. 161-162. addis ababa. 162, 167, 169. african experience. 191-192. analysis of verb a go bact to. 123, 129-130. asean countries. 171-172. assignments. 178-179. back to, on, and out. 123-124, 133. beijing normal university. 135, 139. boarding school. 148-151. bogor agricultur university. 172. challenges to student-centered learning. 137-139. clients satisfaction theory. 175-176. comparative perspective. 93, 98-100. conflict and security dilemma. 200-2001. cooperative learning. 104-105. corruption disease. 198-199. declarative sentence. 127. dessie administrative town. 161-162. domains of educational quality. 171, 173-174. educational achievement system. 97-98. emotional quotient. 157. endeavor instrument. 173-174. exclamatory sentence. 127-128. facing the challenges. 104-105. faculty of law. 175-176. finite verb. 125-126. gadjah mada university. 172. good governance. 189-190. growing stability and prosperity. 192-193. guidance and evaluation. 135-136. gurukula system. 149. higher education institutions in china. 135-136. higher learning institutions. 171, 173-174. ho chi minh city. 183-184. how to say. 123-124. independent clause. 125-126. individual accountability. 104-105. instructor’s facilitation. 142-143. interaction with course mates. 177-178. japan and iran. 94-95, 98, 100. jump up and down. 125. junior high school vip al-huda. 147, 155-158. kebumen, central java. 147-148, 152, 154-155. kingdom of saudi arabia. 113-114, 120. lack of vibrant. 199-100. learning forward. 181-182. lecturer’s efficiency. 171, 178. lesson study. 104-105. linguistics. 123-124. micro-macro transition. 151-152. millenium development goals. 198. ministry of education. 97-98, 155. motivation of the lecturers. 176-177. national final examination. 156-157. next eleven. 194-195. non-governmental organization. 199. north central ethiopia. 161-162. novel of new moon. 123-124. organization of african unity. 191, 194. overall student satisfaction. 176. oxford advance learner’s dictionary. 131-132. paraphernalia of empowerment. 194-195. phrase and non-phrase. 124-125. pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs. 111-113. primary education in iran. 95-97. private and government schools. 161-162. professional development. 181-183. qosidah, quiz. 158. quality of education. 161-162. quality improvement. 147-148. rapid changes. 148-149. reasons for teaching questionnaire. 118-119. reducing poverty challenges. 197-198. regional examination. 161-162. robust civil society. 199-200. school quality. 152-154. semantics. 128-129. service quality. 174-175. social capital. 147-148. student learning motivation. 103-104. students’ personality. 141-143. teachers’ facilitation. 144-145. teacher professional development. 181-182. teaching as a profession. 111-113. teaching practice. 176-177. united kingdom. 93-94. united states of america. 162-163, 199. university of riau. 171, 173, 175-176. ustadz or islamic teacher. 152-154. very friendly. 177-178. vietnam. 183-184, 195. weight and relevance. 129. western nations. 99, 149-150. will and skill. 153-154. world bank. 198. world war ii. 95-96, 100. working environment. 176-177. ziqir and qalb. 156. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 83 effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program at the muhammadiyah senior high school of purwokerto in central java, indonesia kusno & joko purwanto abstract: for most indonesian students, mathematics is still regarded as a difficult and scaring subject compared to other subjects. therefore, there should be a learning strategy which can empower all the available potential to achieve the learning objectives as a whole. in relation to the learning process of mathematics, the choice of learning strategy is also based on the achievement of the learning objectives. one way of realizing that is through the use of quantum learning. the aim of this research is: (1) to find out the effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching mathematics; and (2) to analyze the difference the result of quantum learning and that of the conventional one. two classes of grade x were randomly taken as sample out of five available, one class being the experimental group and the other control. this random sampling was due to the fact that students are distributed evenly on ability basis. data was taken using test and non-test techniques (observation and questionnaire). to find out the effectiveness of this quantum learning, descriptive analysis was used toward: (1) student’s activity during the learning process; (2) the teacher’s ability in managing the learning process; (3) student’s response toward the learning model; and (4) the student’s mastery. while anakova inferential analysis was used to test the difference on the learning achievement. the result of the two analysis were that quantum learning was effective and there was significant difference in which the quantum learning gave a better learning achievement than the conventional one. key words: teaching and learning effectiveness, mathematics subject, quantum learning concept, and modern and conventional learning. introduction for most indonesian students, mathematics is still regarded as a difficult and scaring subject compared to other subjects. the result of pisa (programme of international student assessment) and timss (third international mathematics and science study) over several periods shows that the ability of indonesian students is below than of the international students. indonesian students can only kusno, m.pd. and joko purwanto, m.si. are lecturers at the department of mathematics education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. they can be reached at: pakusno@yahoo.com and jokotien@gmail.com kusno & joko purwanto, effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program 84 solve low-category questions, and even there is almost no student can answer high thinking question (muhaimin, 2001). this shows that the quality of mathematics learning in indonesia is still low. this low quality of mathematics learning, according to marpaung (2001), is due to the fact that teachers mostly use the paradigm of uniformity in terms of curriculum, learning process, as well as the test items regardless of students’ difference. according to degeng (2001:1) this is due to centralized, monolithic, and uniformed way of thinking of most indonesian teachers. in general, out of the desire to meet the demands of curriculum, teachers tend to pour as much information as possible to students, where concept, principles, and rules of mathematics are presented as something finished. students are given test samples and their solution, and then given exercises in which they will use the formula that have been previously given. concept, principles, and rules of mathematics seem to be meaningless, and presented as something mechanistic just for the sake of solving test items (soedjadi, 2001). this has caused the students not to be able to develop their reasoning, communicating, and understanding of mathematics. therefore, there should be a learning strategy which can empower all the available potential to achieve the learning objectives as a whole (kusno, 2002). in relation to the learning process of mathematics, the choice of learning strategy is also based on the achievement of the learning objectives. according to r. soedjadi, the objective of mathematics learning in the future should pay attention to: (1) the formal objective, the establishing of reasoning system and personal development of the students; and (2) the objective which material in nature, the application of mathematic and mathematical skill (soedjadi, 1994:20). while davis (in suryanto, 1987) give more emphasis on the effort to thinking exercise and communication. to make that a reality students always have to be in ideal condition, knowing what they are going to learn, realizing its importance for their lives, being optimistic that they are going to succeed, even having a plan of what they are going to do. for this, they should be opportunity to express themselves. teachers only add or reduce what they already have where necessary so as not to deviate from the initial learning objective. one way of realizing that is through the use of quantum learning. quantum model of learning is one used as a guide in planning and executing classroom learning which include the strategy called, in indonesian language, tandur (tumbuhkan – grow, alami – experience, namai – give a name, demonstrasikan – demonstrate, ulangi – repeat, and rayakan – celebrate), context, content, principle, and main paradigm. quantum learning is a combination of various interactions which are available in the learning moment. this interaction covers all element which effective in enabling students’ success (de porter, 2000). in quantum learning, what is meant by tumbuhkan – grow, is to grow students’ interest by answering the question of ambak – an acronym of “apakah manfaat bagiku”, how is it useful for me, and also for the students. finding the ambak is educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 85 creating interest in the part of the students toward what is being learned and relate it to the real world, and also creating optimism in learning. this is expected to arouse the students’ need of learning and strong determination for its success. what is meant by alami – experience, is providing students with learning experience before a material is taught so that there appears a natural desire to explore (de porter, 2001). in this phase, teacher gives the students a game to play so that student can understand mathematics in meaningful way, because ausubel (in dahar, 1996) says that new information will be related with cognitive structure which is already present. by playing game, student will also have enjoyable situation so that can occur eliminating mathematics phobia. what is meant by namai – give a name, is an effort to satisfy the natural urge of mind to name, order, and define by giving opportunity to the students to construct knowledge in the form of concept, principle, and thinking skills based on the game the students have played. in this case, teacher can help the students by giving guiding questions, examples, illustration, and so on according to each concept. according to bruner (in slavin, 2000) through active participation, students can find the concepts and principles which is the material of the lesson. what is meant by demonstrasikan – demonstrate, is providing students opportunity to show that they know. students are given a chance to translate what they know into a case, events, and other learning into their lives. for example, they are given a problem to solve of which the solution is to be demonstrated to their classmates. here, the teachers give freedom to their students to express their ideas, present their work, and make positive interaction as well as make the use of students difference to support learning. this is important because, according to bandura (in slavin, 2000), learning is effective if done through demonstration. what is meant by ulangi – repeat, is an effort of reiterating, emphasizing, and inferring the learning material. teacher has to show to the students how to repeat learning material to show that they already know what they are learning. repetition can reinforce the connection of the nerve. by repeating retention will be stronger. and finally, what is meant by rayakan – celebrate, is the recognition and appreciation to every accomplishment of participation and the acquisition of knowledge and skill. celebration can be in the form of giving gift, praising, nodding showing approval, smiling, giving point, thumb up, applause, three times yeah, poster display, and things that can arouse students’ positive self perception. according to lozanov (in de porter, 2001), this can accelerate learning. in short, in quantum learning students are required to think, explore, and construct knowledge from their experiences with the guide question given by the teacher. students should solve a problem through discussion and present their solution. the teacher only facilitates, guide, and encourage enjoyable and cheerful learning. meanwhile, it is known that conventional mathematics learning is mainly teacher centered activity, characterized by memorization instead of understanding kusno & joko purwanto, effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program 86 (russefendi, 1992:74). lesson usually starts with theory followed by example of problem solving activity and continued with exercise. daily phenomenon is sometimes included in certain topics, but it is just for the sake of showing an example of how a theory can be applied. there is hardly any interaction among students (soedjadi, 2001). in other words, students tend to be passive, just listening to and jotting, and only few ask questions. the aim, benefit, and method of the research this research aims at applying quantum learning to teach linear program and seeing the practical implication of the application. there are two purposes of this research: first, finding out the effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching mathematics by seeing the effectiveness of students’ activity, effectiveness of teacher’s capability in his/her classroom management using quantum learning, and students’ response toward the learning and their classical achievement. second, analyzing the difference of learning result of students who are taught with quantum learning and those taught using conventional model of learning. the benefits of this research are: (1) it can be an alternative learning which is suitable with the demand of educational reform in indonesia; (2) if it is proved effectively, quantum learning can be a means of improving the quality of mathematics learning process; and (3) the finding can be the basis of further research. the population of this research is all the grade x students of smu (sekolah menengah umum or senior high school) muhammadiyah of purwokerto in central java, indonesia, which consists five classes. from that population, two classes are then chosen on random basis to be the sample of the research, one as the experiment group, and the other as control. this random selection of sample is due to the fact that, according to the headmaster, students are evenly distributed to the five classes. data on students’ and teachers’ activities are obtained through observation, while questionnaire was used to get data on students’ response toward quantum learning. students’ achievement of both experiment and control group was measured using essay test after quantum learning was done. there were three stages in this research: preparation, action, and concluding stage. preparation stage included: (1) developing learning device and research instrument using 4-d model according to semmel d.s. thiagarajan in 1974 which has been modified; and (2) communicating the learning device with the collaborator. the action stage included: (1) giving pre-test to both experiment and control groups; (2) forming study group for the experiment group; (3) applying quantum learning to experiment group and conventional learning to the control; and (4) giving post-test to both groups. finally, the concluding stage was the analysis of the data obtained in the second stage. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 87 the design of this research used two-group pre-test – post-test by involving (1) the treatment variable, namely the quantum and conventional learning for experiment and control group respectively; (2) the control variable, name the teacher, subject matter, and time; and (3) dependent variable, namely the learning achievement on the topic of linear program. in this design, descriptively-statistical and inferential analysis was used. descriptive analysis was used to test the effectiveness of the learning based on the test of learning mastery, learning achievement, teacher’s performance in classroom management, students’ activity and response. a learning is said to be effective if: (1) mastery is at least 65% with 85% of the students in the class master the topic; (2) the accomplishment of the mastery of the learning objective if ≥ 85% of the objective can mastered by 65% of the students; (3) effectiveness of students’ activity is achieved, and (4) 80% of students give positive response toward the learning (dahar, 1996; and slavin, 2000). inferential statistic analysis was used to test the research hypothesis and draw conclusion toward population being studied based on the sample of the study. data analyzed in this research is the score of the pre-test as the accompanying variable or co-variant and the score of the post-test as the dependent variable. the data was analyzed using co-variant analysis (anacova) because co-variant variable was used as the independent variable which is difficult to control but can be measured at the same time with that of the dependent variable (agung, 1998). anacova has the same principle as that of anava, it having effect to any treatment toward dependent variable of each group (netter & wassernmen, 1974). besides that, prerequisite test was also done with the following stages: (1) setting the regretion model; (2) independence test/significance test; (3) test of regression model linearity; (4) similarity test of the two regression models; and (5) test of the two regression models parallelism/homogeneity test. if the two regression models sought are not linear or parallel, co-variant analysis cannot be used. result and discussion the research discussion based on the descriptive-quantitative analysis, included: (1) students’ activity during the learning process; (2) teacher’s performance in managing the class; (3) students’ response toward the learning; and (4) the students’ mastery. based on the observation to students’ activity during the learning process, it was obtained that the mean of students’ activity for demonstrating (communicating ideas) was 23.69%. this shows that quantum learning can make students active and thus reducing teacher’s dominance. therefore, there is opportunity for discussion among students and between students and teacher. based on the students’ response, the new (85%) and pleasant classroom atmosphere (90%) can improve enthusiasm so that the silent students had the courage and will to ask questions and present ideas. this was based on the observation and testimony of the mathematics kusno & joko purwanto, effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program 88 teacher who facilitated the learning process. while the students’ enjoyment was seen from the questionnaire which shows that they responded positively toward the quantum learning. each observation on the teacher’s performance in running the learning gave 2.3 to 3.0. this can be categorized as effective based on the criteria previously set. only that in the first and second meeting the pause belonged to fair category. this might be caused by the teacher’s doubtfulness in facilitating pause song. based on the questionnaire on the students’ response to the learning, 97% of the students were interested in joining the following lesson with the same model. this positive response will surely make students pleased during the learning. they are motivated in individual problem solving activities and constructing knowledge, so that they enlarge their knowledge because they are not dependent on the teacher. the minimum mastery was achieved in the experiment group but not in control group. post-test score shows that 35 out of 40 or 88% the student master the topic learned compared to 23 out of 38 or 61% students. this means that students’ achievement in quantum group is better that in conventional group. this can also be seen from the increase from the pre-test score to the post-test score. in the experiment group, the mean score of the pre-test was 5.38 (14.16%) and increased in the post-test to 28.83 (75.87% from total score), compared to control group with 4.41 (11.60%) for the mean pre-test score to 24.95 (65.65% from total score) or in other an increase of 54.04%. based on the inferential statistic analysis, it was obtained that the simple regression model which showed the relationship between the initial performance and the learning achievement of students taught using quantum learning was yc = 21.35 + 1.52 x c, while the simple regression model which showed the relationship between the initial performance and the learning achievement of students taught using conventional learning was yk = 17.87 + 1.51 x k. the analysis on the test result of regression coefficient significance (independence test) for the model, as shown in table 1 and table 2, showed that students’ initial performance (x) has significant effect on the students’ learning achievement (y). table 1: variant analysis for independence test of experiment group variant source ss df ms f* regression error 279.1 382.2 1 38 279.1 10.06 27.75 total 661.3 39 level of significance α = 5% gave f (0.95; 1; 38) = 4.15 which means f*>f so that ho is rejected or that regression coefficient does not equal zero. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 89 table 2: variant analysis for independence test of control group variant source ss df ms f* regression error 221.6 464.3 1 36 221.6 12.9 17.18 total 685.9 37 level of significance α = 5% gave f (0.95; 1; 38) = 4.15 which means f*>f so that ho is rejected or that regression coefficient does not equal zero. from the result of linearity test, as seen in table 3 and table 4, it was found that the two models above was compatible with linear regression model in which the initial performance and learning achievement can be expressed in the form of linear regression. table 3: variant analysis for linearity test of the experiment group variant source ss df ms f* regression error 279.1 382.2 1 38 279.1 10.06 0.646 lack of fit pure error 338.55 1134.5 12 26 28.21 43.63 level of significance α= 5% gave f (0.95; 26; 12) = 2.75 which means f*>f so that ho is accepted or that the regression model of experiment group is linear. table 4: variant analysis for linearity test of control class variant source ss df ms f* regression error 221.6 446.3 1 38 221.6 12.9 1.967 lack of fit pure error 445.4 452.8 12 24 37.12 18.87 level of significance α = 5% gives f (0.95; 24; 12) = 2.27 which means f*< f so that ho is accepted or that the regression model of control group is linear. this further means that the higher the initial score (x) the higher the learning achievement (y). from the result of similarity test, it was found that the regression model was not the same; and from the result of parallelism test, it was found that the two regression model was parallel. therefore, it can be concluded that there is difference between students who were taught mathematics with quantum method and those with conventional method. kusno & joko purwanto, effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program 90 the regression line of the experiment group and that of control group is parallel and the constant of the regression line of the experiment group is higher than that of control group, which means that the difference is significant. geometrically, the regression line of the experiment group is above that of the control group. this means that the learning achievement of the students taught with quantum learning is better than those taught conventional learning. this means that the result of the quantitative descriptive analysis is in line with the result of statistic inferential analysis, showing superiority of quantum learning over conventional one. this also shows that quantum learning used in teaching mathematics can motivate students, make retention better and longer, because students were required to present their learning, knew how to learn, how to motivate themselves, and how to think. conclusion and suggestion based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that: (1) quantum learning is effective to teach mathematics on the topic of linear program; and (2) the learning achievement of students taught with quantum method is better than that of conventional method. with this, the researchers recommend that quantum learning be used to teach other topic because the method attract students’ interests due to their experiencing and constructing knowledge with their own modes, which in turn improve their achievement. references agung, i.g.n. (1998). metodologi penelitian: pengertian dan pemakaian praktis. jakarta: pt gramedia. dahar, r.w. (1996). teori-teori belajar. jakarta: ditjendikti depdikbud ri [direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan, republik indonesia]. degeng. (2001). “belajar-mengajar kuantum”. paper presented in the national conference at unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java, indonesia: 21 april. de porter. (2000). quantum teaching. bandung: kaifa, translation. de porter. (2001). quantum learning. bandung: kaifa, translation. kusno. (2002). “pengembangan perangkat pembelajaran matematika dengan pembelajaran model kuantum pada pokok bahasan program linear di kelas 2 smu [sekolah menengah umum]”. paper presented in the comprehensive discussion at postgraduate program unesa (surabaya state university), east java, indonesia. marpaung. (2001). “prospek rme untuk pembelajaran matematika di indonesia”. paper presented in the national conference at unesa (surabaya state university), east java, indonesia: 24 february. muhaimin. (2001). “problematika pendidikan di era otonomi daerah”. paper presented in the national conference at unesa (surabaya state university), east java, indonesia: 19 may. netter, john & william wassernmen. (1974). applied linier statistical models. illions: richard d. irwin inc. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 91 russefendi. (1992). pendidikan matematika di indonesia. bandung: ikip [institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan] bandung press. slavin, robert e. (2000). educational psychology: theory and practice. massachussetts: allyn and bacon publishers, 10th edition. soedjadi, r. (1994). “memantapkan matematika sekolah sebagai wahana pendidikan dan pembudayaan penalaran” in media pendidikan nasional, no.4, th.3. surabaya, indonesia: pps ikip [program pascasarjana institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan] surabaya. soedjadi, r. (2001). “pemanfaatan realitas dan lingkungan dalam pembelajaran matematika”. paper presented in the national conference at unesa (surabaya state university), east java, indonesia: 24 february. suryanto. (1987). “penelitian pendidikan matematika di indonesia” in marpaung [ed]. pendidikan matematika. yogyakarta: tiara wacana. thiagarajan, semmel d.s. (1974). instructional development for training teachers of exceptional children: a source book. bloomington: central for innovation on teaching. kusno & joko purwanto, effectiveness of quantum learning for teaching linear program 92 the quantum learning is effective to teach mathematics on the topic of linear program and the learning achievement of students taught with quantum method is better than that of conventional method. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 205 dr. ir. harmein nasution is a lecturer at the faculty of industrial engineering & management usu (university of sumatera utara), medan, north sumatera, indonesia. prof. dr. najib ahmad marzuki is a lecturer at the college of arts and sciences uum (university of utara malaysia), sintok, kedah, malaysia. they can be reached at: harmein_nasution@yahoo.com and najib320@uum.edu.my the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki abstract: in conducting teaching, research and community service, academic staffs should weight more on quality than quantity. in this context, individual habit reacts to the demanded jobs which are influenced by his/her knowledge, attitude, and skill. university is an organization which based on science which is not overtly competitive. the competitive advantage should lie on academic staffs as the main resource. the statement correlates with the main function of a university as the main producer of human resources which is based on science and which shows its competitive advantage. this research is to analyze the influence of work behavior and work result towards work performance. variables for behavior are knowledge, skill, attitude, and habit. for work result, the variables are quantity, quality, and timeliness. the research is conducted in usu (universitas sumatera utara or sumatera utara university) with 312 academic staffs as samples. questionnaires are tested thru reliability, criteria, construction and validity tests by using factor analysis method. then, data is analyzed thru statistical structural equation method (sem). such methodology is chosen due to the analysis which relates to the interrelationship amongst variables, indicators, and latent variables simultaneously. the result shows that there is a significant correlation between work behavior and work result aspects where behavior aspect correlates more than that of work result aspect. key words: work behavior, work results, performance, teaching, research and community service, academic staffs, and competitive advantage. introduction according to h. nasution (2005), human resources is the key of organizational success since they basically form, manage, organize, arrange, operate, and maintain available systems, material (stuff and service), method, processes (machinery or computational equipments), and product (things or services). therefore, human resource is a critical factor in an organization; then in organizational management, human need should always be considered significantly (lilik agung, 2002). the development of an organization is measured from the performance achieved by that organization. performance achievement of an organization is mainly based on the behavior of human resources within the organization. harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 206 organization needs a well-managed structural mechanism in assessing work force performance in correlation to work performance and productivity of workers. performance appraisal is a measurement conducted on workers to evaluate how they achieve work targets and productivity (najib, 2007). various factors can be regarded in applying performance appraisal. some researchers state that performance appraisal can be viewed from various aspects relating to the aims of research or what is going to be analyzed. some evaluate working activity aspect, while others evaluate behaviour or personality aspect. factors which commonly used in performance appraisal in some countries are: first, organization in usa (united states of america), performance appraisal factor is more focussed on fairness, where appraisal is based on how much a worker can contribute on the job. moreover, performance appraisal is also considering behavior based on the assumption that behavior factor contibutes significantly to achieve the best work performance in the future. second, pacific region countries use performance appraisal either formally or informally to determine awards in developing performance. most appraisal happen in an informal conversations individually or collectively, but not in a formal conversational context. therefore, it can be inferred that the role of behavior is mainly considered in performance appraisal. third, in south korea, performance appraisal is applied to all workers, either big or small scale entreprises. career promotion relies mostly on personality matters. therefore, the result of the appraisal is promptly used as feedback in counseling and developing their performance. in most organization in south korea, the significance of behavior factor is considered equal to work result (output). fourth, organizations in china, performance appraisal is using traditional cultural values. performance appraisal lies more on behavior factor by observing and evaluating behavior. such evaluation is conducted in a meeting called hsiao-tsu. in china, behavior factors which mostly observed are loyality and responsibility in conducting a job. it is really different from organization in usa which focus on work result. fifth, in japan, performance appraisal is conducted periodically by observing and evaluating knowledge and skill characters on the job such as communication skill, team work, responsibility, and honesty. in assessing such factors, organizations in japan rely more on behavior factor rather than on work result factor (dowling, welch & schuler, 1999; mangkunegara, 2000; and rivai & basri, 2005). the above descriptions have ended in conclusion that performance appraisal, when relates to its duty, can be classified into two aspects i.e. work result and work behavior. the statement is supported by of what v.m. rivai and a.f. basri (2005) state that the most recent approach in performance appraisal should be a mixture of two aspects which are known as input and output conception. input is all that individual gives to his/her job in relation to attributes and behavior. output is what can be achieved in relation to work result. the concept of input and output is based on the appraisal of an individual thru job requirement, job description, and responsibility. meanwhile, according to d. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 207 grote, (2002), output or work result is related mostly to what has been achieved by a worker in his/her job such as product provided in terms of quality, quantity, cost and product time; while input or work behavior relates to how a job is completed in terms of knowledge, attitude, skill, and habit. problem statement how about performance appraisal factor in indonesia, especially in university sector? academic staff performance appraisal in indonesia, especially in university sector, lies mainly in output alone, does not include behaviorial side. this fact is supported from the data that university in indonesia, in assessing its academic staff, concerns mostly to the output factor and ignores behavior (input) factor. hence, b. frensidi (2007) based on his research when he was a member of national accreditation board for university in indonesia clearly defines the fact. he concludes that universities in indonesia only consider output result without considering the process (output without process). just like an industry which strives for targets, an academic staff should work or teach in three shifts (morning, afternoon, and night). academic staffs work more on teaching than doing research and writing thus they lose their idealism. without idealism, an academic staff will not have a motivation to develop the university, therefore unable to compete in worldwide level. based on what has been identified by u.m. lubis and h. nasution (2007) which state that the quality of teaching and learning process in usu (universitas sumatera utara or sumatera utara university) based on students’ perception has not reach an optimum level and is considered very low. this happens because appraisal to academic staffs is based on attendance rate alone, without considering the process in teaching and learning perspective. hence, it does not really motivate academic staffs to increase their quality of work. most appraisals focus on output such as: (1) number of graduates, (2) attendace rate, (3) number of research, and (4) number of teaching credit unit. those all do not show how an academic staff acts or performs in producing such service. therefore, this research will be focused on the relationship between work behavior aspect and work result aspect towards performance of academic staff thru academic staffs’ perception. research questions and objectives the research questions are as follows: (1) does work behavior aspect appraisal significantly affect academic staffs’ performance?; and (2) does work result aspect appraisal significantly affect academic staffs’ performance? while the research objectives are as follows: (1) to identify and analyze the effect of work behavior aspect towards academic staffs’ performance; (2) to identify and analyze the effect of work result aspect towards academic staffs’ performance; and (3) to analyze the most influencing factor between work behavior aspect and work result aspect towards performance. harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 208 literature review: a. work performance w.h. cash and f.e. fischer (1987) define performance as “result” which means result produced by a worker. while s.p. robbin (2003) defines performance as human output, which can be measured through productivity, presence, and satisfaction. according to mangkunegara (2000), performance means work result qualitatively and quantitatively that can be achieved in conducting a job as demanded by responsibility. while h.j. bernardin and j.c.a. russel (1993) state that performance is an income produced by a worker during his/her service time. v.m. rivai and a.f. basri (2005) conclude the definition of performance as a function of motivation and capability. to finalize a demanded job or duty, someone should have a certain motivation and capability. capability of a worker is not worth if he/she does not know what should be done and how to do it. target achieving is one of measurements in performance appraisal. there are three criteria in assessing performance, i.e. (1) individual duty, (2) individual behavior, and (3) individual characteristics. from the above description, it can be inferred that performance can be categorized as work result achieved by a worker in a certain time in an organization based on power, responsibility, and duties. during his/her service time, performance of an individual can be observed (rivai & basri, 2005). meaning that performance appraisal should always relate to task finalization. whenever performance appraisal does not relate to job finalization, then such appraisal will result in a misjudgment and a mistake. b. performance appraisal performance appraisal is a part of organizational appraisal systems which compares target and result achieved, analyzes emerged deviation, and conducts improvement. performance appraisal aims at appraising steps of performance by comparing factual achievement and expected result stipulated by organization which is used as feedback (makhbul & hasan, 2003; and hedge & borman, 2008). therefore, in performance appraisal factors or aspects of appraisals should be defined earlier to motivate workers. work performance, according to d. grote (2002), v.m. rivai and a.f. basri (2005), and l.m. robert and h.j. john (2006), is stated as behavior and work result that should be made as priority. they believe that behavior aspect is input or how individual conduct his/her duties which can be measured by knowledge, skill, attitude, and habit variables. work result aspect, on the other hand, is output or what is going to achieve from a job which can be measured by quantity, quality, and timeliness variables. the approach of both appraisal aspects is used in this research i.e. (1) behavior aspect and work result aspect, and (2) their contribution to performance. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 209 c. the relationship of work behavior aspect and performance behavior which connects to job is behavior on conducting a specific job and other relating behavior in finalizing a certain job target. the finding of samsudin’s work (2003) shows that the level of education, training, experience, loyalty, and work culture simultaneously give a significant effect on performance. human behavior is very much influenced by objectives, since each activity has a stipulated mission or objective to reach. according to p.j. paul and c.o. jery (1996) and abdul mujib (2006), behavior is the same as “gut”, physical behavior which is implemented in the real circumstance. the form of behavior is influenced by value (attitude) and value depends on motivation. behavior is one of individual’s capability factors which is a manifestation from the inner supports such as motive, character, personal concept, knowedge, cognitive capacity, and skill which guide action and activity leading to produce work performance. other than that, studies of b. robert (2004), prove that behavior aspect can improve performance. the above opinions are inline with what is stated by j. winardi (2007). behavior is basically objective oriented; or in other words, our behavior is motivated by the need to achieve a certain target. thus, behavior relates to achievement, since by conducting a certain behavior, someone wants to get what he expects. each individual always considers his/her behavior in order to get what he/she wants without causing any conflict, either individually or collectively, thus he/she can achieve his expected results. in this research, behavior aspect is measured from 4 variables i.e. (1) knowledge, (2) skill, (3) attitude, and (4) habit (dowling, welch & schuler, 1999; and grote, 2002). d. the relationship of work result aspect and performance the findings of some studies have stated that there is a significant relationship between determining peformance objective and achievement (brown & lathan, 2000; udan, 2002; harrel, 2005; and stephen, 2006). according to t.c. brown and g.p. lathan (2000), performance objective should be specific, clearly defined, and affordable. specific objective which is determined by organization will motivate workers to achieve more. the workers will contribute all their capabilities and potentials to the best of organization. meanwhile, a study conducted by p. lewis (1998) proves that organization which effectively determines performance objective and target will make the organization itself continuously developing. if the performance appraisal is conducted fairly, the workers feel satisfied and will in turn increase their trust in the organization. the same thing applies as the theories from p. lyman and e. lowler (in robert & john, 2006) explain that workers will work harder to perform a better achievement, if they understand there are results to acieve. if workers know job targets, they will harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 210 always try to do better than the organization expected and feel unsecured if they work under the target. the workers will feel depressed if they produce lower than the job demanded. therefore, a system of fair performance appraisal and eligible expected target must be developed. according to k.r. hubert (2005), acceptance to job targets means that the workers agree to achieve them. meanwhile, according to b. robert (2004) if the workers involved in determining job target, then they tend to be committed and performance will be optimal. based on a wider research on organization by t.c. brown and g.p. lathan (2000), it states that there is a positive relation between job target determining and performance/achievement. determining job target should be specific, defined, and affordable. specifically, difficult job target objective which is determined by organization will lead workers to have a higher achievement compared to that of when an organization does not stipulate the target. in this research, work result aspect uses three variables i.e. quantity of work, quality, and timeliness (gomes, 1995; mangkunegara, 2000; and grote, 2002). research methodology: research framework, population and sample, research instrument, technique of collecting data, validity test, and data analysis model this is a surveillance study using explanatory research, where research which clearly explains the interrelationship amongst variables through hypothesis testing (singarimbun, 1989); and survey sample taken from a population of data using questionnaire which is categorized as individual analysis unit. this research is categorized a surveillance research because analysis conducted directly to object of research. conceptual framework of this study is figured as follows: behavior aspect 1. knowledge 2. skill 3. attitude 4. habit 1. 2. 3. performance teaching research community service 1. 2. quality 3. timeliness work result aspect quantity variables exogenous endogenous variables exogenous variables educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 211 population of this study is all academic staffs of usu (universitas sumatera utara or sumatera utara university) in medan, north sumatera, indonesia, at total number of 1,737 persons (based on the data of 2006). number of sample is using krejcie formulation (sugiyono, 2005) that is at 313 persons. instrument used in this research is questionnaire. most items in the questionnaire are formed by the researchers. each variable consists of 8 questionnaire items. data are collected through interview based on the questionnaire items. the data are considered as primary data about behavior aspect, work result aspect, performance aspect, and motivation of academic staff. to justify the quality of measurement, a preliminary study is conducted. at the first step, content validity is tested, then criteria validity, and a following reliability test. next, a construct validity test is conducted by using factor analysis. this study uses a statistical structural equation model (sem) by applying amos 4 to identify interactions amongst variables. this method is chosen since it is inline with the subject of the research which involves relationship amongst various latent variables simultaneously. research findings: a. the effect of behavior aspect to performance the results of the test model of behavioral aspects of the relationship to work performance that the models corresponding to the data and fit to the data available there, after the modification of the model by linking the modification of knowledge and efficiency, teaching with the investigation. these test results prove that the behavioral aspects of a significant and positive impact on performance. direct effect than behavioral aspects of performance is as much as 51% and indirect effect as much as 26%, means the relationship is positive and impact. influences that shape behavioral aspects of construction for each variable, each result is: the variables as much as 77% of knowledge, efficiency of 85%, 90% of habits, attitudes as much as 88%. the results of model modifications influence behavior aspects of work performance can be seen in table 1 following: table 1 modification of model results influence behavioral aspects of job performance index cut–off value model results description x2 – chi-square expected small 11.545 < 18.307 small probability > 0.05 0.316 good rmsea < 0.08 0.222 good gfi > 0.90 0.989 good agfi > 0.90 0.971 good cmind/df < 2.00 1.154 good tli > 0.95 0.997 good cfi > 0.94 0.998 good harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 212 b. the effect of work result aspect to performance the results of the test model of the relationship aspect of the work on work performance that the models corresponding to the data and fit to the data available, after the modification of the model by linking the modification of teaching well. these test results prove that the aspect of the work of a significant and positive impact on performance. direct impact than the work aspect of performance is as much as 47% and indirect effects of 22%, means the relationship is positive and impact. influences that shape aspects of construction work for each variable, each result is: variable quantity of work as much as 87%, working qualities as much as 89%, punctuality of 79%. the results of the model modification aspects of the work on work performance can be seen in table 2 as follows: table 2 modification of model results influence aspects of work performance index cut–off value model results description x2 – chi-square expected small 2.394 < 12.541 small probability > 0.05 0.880 good rmsea < 0.08 0.000 good gfi > 0.90 0.997 good agfi > 0.90 0.991 good cmind/df < 2.00 0.399 good tli > 0.95 1.010 good cfi > 0.94 1.000 good appraisal discussion first, the appraisal of behavior aspect to performance. hypothesis testing shows that behavior aspect of academic staffs significantly affects performance. this finding is supported by researches conducted by h. mifrani, m. dalziel and d. fit (1992); samsudin (2003); and j. winardi (2007) which state that behavior aspect will influence performance of the worker. behavior aspect results in activity or action which creates performance. by analyzing behavior of academic staff, such inhibiting factors that prohibit academic staffs from achieving job targets, can be identified thus correcting actions can be formulated. using behavior aspect really interrelates with the duty of academic staffs, because academic staffs’ performance is also measured from the quality of graduates they produce. the better academic staff behave the better quality of graduates they produce. according to abdul mujib (2006) and p.j. paul and c.o. jery (2006), behavior is the same as “gut” where physical individual behavior applies in real action. the result also shows educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 213 that each variable of behavior aspect significantly affects performance where the most influencing variable is habit variable. second, the appraisal of knowledge to performance. knowledge variable significantly affects performance of academic staffs. the finding is supported by a number of researches conducted by t.v. rao (1986), g.i. friedman (1988), and mangkunegara and a.v. hubies (2007) which conclude that the higher knowledge of a worker in his/her job, the more capable he/she is in conducting improvement and completing his/her job satisfactorily which in the end will increase his/her performance. the finding suggests that knowledge variable can be figured out as one aspect of performance appraisals. it can be inferred that the more knowledge an academic staff has the better his/her performance will be in teaching, research and community service. with the knowledge he/she has, an academic staff can remember, understand, design, or solve various problems due to teaching, researching and community service. knowledge that an academic staff should have is curriculum overview, core of the science he/she is teaching, knowledge to conduct research and a set of knowledge deals with community. the research also finds that the better an academic staffs’ understanding to his/her lecturing, the better he/she can perform at work. third, the appraisal of skill to performance. the finding shows that academic staffs’ skill significantly affects performance. this hypothesis is also supported by research finding conducted by j.i. delaney and m. huselid (1996), i. dayang (2004), and h. nasution (2006) which conclude that there is a positive relationship between skill and performance. the skill that academic staff owns will enable them to finalize the demanded job. without such skill, the academic staff can not perform the job well. the skill that an academic staff should have is the skill of transferring knowledge, expressing opinions, and motivating students. the more the skill he/she has the better his/her performance will be either in teaching, research or community service. this will lead to a better work performance of the academic staff. fourth, the appraisal of attitude to performance. the finding shows that academic staff attitude significantly affects his/her performance. the hypothesis is supported by studies conducted by a.m. lilik agung (2002), biantoro udan (2002), and k. harel (2005), if an academic staff owns a positive attitude, he/ she will work well, more proactively, more positively thus his/her satisfaction on working will be bigger and simultaneously increase his/her performance. the same thing applies in research task, based on a study conducted by a.m. herwan (2007), that attitude will make an academic staff motivated to conduct research activities. according to wahyudin (2003), academic staff who owns a good community service attitude will own a good professional capability and thus will increase his/ her performance. this positive attitude is badly needed since academic staff should maintain a good relationship to students, faculty and academic staff should have an open minded attitude. without a good attitude, there will be no good result. this finding shows that appraising academic staff attitude will increase his/her performance, in performing his/her duty to produce qualified graduates. harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 214 fifth, the appraisal of habit to performance. the research shows that there is a significant influence of habit towards performance. the hypothesis testing describes how habit affects performance, like what has been offered by r.c. stephen (2006), that human habit is formed or a mixture of knowledge, attitude, and skill. academic staff which functions as a guide to students should be able to perform a positive habit to students such as showing a high discipline, proactive manner, scheduling habit, and reading habit. academic staff should also maintain an ability to formulate thinking habit of the students, since academic staffs are good examples to students, it is quite impossible to formulate a good reading habit of students whenever academic staffs can not perform such habit. sixth, the appraisal work result aspect to performance. hypothesis proves that there is a significant effect of work result aspect towards performance of academic staffs. this study supports similar research conducted by p. lewis (1988), t.c. brown and g.p. lathan (2000), and b. robert (2004) which conclude that an organization which always determines work result will produce an effective work result, where there is a positive relationship between determining work result and performance. if academic staffs have already understood work targets, they will be ready to achieve them. such targets will guide academic staffs to conduct their duties. the targets should not be as estimated figures but should come from a careful job analysis which is understood and should be socialize to academic staffs before they perform the job (abdurrachmat, 2006). for academic staffs whose job description consists of teaching, researching and community service, it is advisable to determine measurement of work results like quality, quantity, or timeliness. the finding also proves that each variable of work result aspect significantly affects performance where the most influencing factor is work quality. quality measurement is the most influencing factor compared to quantity and timeliness. seventh, the appraisal of quantity to performance. the research hypothesis testing proves that there is a significant effect of work quantity on performance. this result supports the finding proved by b. robert (2004) and j. elliot (2004). in their works, they state that most individuals feel that they have contributed at above average. therefore, measurement of quantity target is very important in such appraisal. a certain criteria of measurement to evaluate work quantity must be settled, which will lead academic staffs in achieving the result so they will be motivated to increase their performance such as attendance frequency, number of researches or books which will qualify performance of academic staffs. with good target setting, academic staffs will be motivated to create good strategies and steps to achieve. in line with the work result, whenever academic staffs get involved in determining such targets, they will have better commitment and higher performance (eliot, 2004; and robert, 2004). eighth, the appraisal of work quality to performance. the finding shows that work quality significantly affects performance. this finding is supported by a study conducted by sritomo wignjosoebroto (2000), finding that 77.6% of academic staffs from 589 respondents, requires awards from the management educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 215 when they can perform their duties satisfactorily, in terms of quality measurement. meanwhile, according to g. fuller (1998) and d. grote (2002), appraisal on work quality is to clarify that workers will realize and wiling to improve their work quality. academic staffs are not only to fulfill attendance rate but should also fulfill quality measurement of their job as stipulated in the teaching learning process. quality measurement should be conducted continuously since the quality in teaching, research and community development is really dynamic. whenever such measurement is not continuously and consistently, a decrease in quality will happen which causes a failure in fulfilling public expectation. ninth, the appraisal of timeliness to performance. the research finds that there is a significant effect of timeliness on performance. the finding is supported by sritomo wignjosoebroto (2000) and b. robert (2004) which state that workers can allocate working hours when timeliness becoming a measurement of finalizing a job. with timeliness factor, academic staffs will not delay the finalization of a job, since they can schedule their job which will finally increase their performance. moreover, psychologist (in herwan, 2007) states that one of reasons or resource of stress is inability of allocating time when working. such inability makes the job unfinished thus ignites uncertainty and worries. everybody has exactly the same time duration, successful person will always use his/her time effectively and be able to make use every minute he/she has so he/she can prioritize the jobs. conclusions it can be concluded that in conducting teaching, research and community service, academic staffs should weight more on quality than quantity. therefore, behavior aspect is more dominant in performance appraisal, as the research finds, even though both aspects should be considered equally in performance appraisal. habit is the most influencing variable of work behavior aspect. in this context, individual habit reacts to the demanded jobs which are influenced by his/her knowledge, attitude, and skill; or in other words, it can be stated that habit is a function of knowledge, skill, and attitude. university is an organization which based on science which is not overtly competitive. the competitive advantage should lie on academic staffs as the main resource. with behavior appraisal, academic staffs will make the university to become more globally competitive as a science-based organization and as the main producer of human capital. the statement correlates with the main function of a university as the main producer of human resources which is based on science, and which shows its competitive advantage. harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 216 references abdurrachmat, f. 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(2007). motivation and demotivation in management. jakarta: pt raja grafinda persada. harmein nasution & najib ahmad marzuki, the analysis of work behavior and work result towards work performance 218 university is an organization which based on science which is not overtly competitive. the competitive advantage should lie on academic staffs as the main resource. with behavior appraisal, academic staffs will make the university to become more globally competitive as a science-based organization and as the main producer of human capital. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 49© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the author: assoc. prof. dr. nik suryani nik abd rahman is a senior lecturer at the institute of education iium (international islamic university of malaysia) in gombak, kuala lumpur, malaysia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via phone: +60192244813 or e-mail: nsuryani@iium.edu.my how to cite this article? nik abd rahman, nik suryani. (2014). “using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking in an introductory statistics course: a basis for curriculum materials development” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.49-56. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/using-data-analysis-projects/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 17, 2013); revised (april 14, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction statistical thinking has long been a topic of discussion and a generally agreed upon goal for statistics instruction (snee, 1999; chance, 2002; and rumsey, 2002). in his influential report on the need to reform the teaching of introductory college statistics classes, g. cobb (1992) wrote that any introductory course should take as its main goal helping students to learn the basic elements of statistical thinking. many advanced courses would be improved by a more explicit emphasis on those same basic elements. those elements were described as: the need for data; the importance of data production; the omnipresence of variability; and the quantification and explanation of variability. further, d.s. moore suggested that statistics involves distinctive and powerful ways of thinking. he said that statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data, variation, and chance appear. it is a fundamental method because data, variation, and chance are omnipresent in modern life (moore, 1998:134). in their landmark paper, c.j. wild & m. pfannkuch (1999) provided an empirically-based model of statistical thinking that described the processes involved in the statistical practice of data-based enquiry from problem formulation to conclusions. for many students, nevertheless, the prospect of taking an introductory statistics class is still daunting. r.e. kirk (2002) reported that students believe an introductory nik suryani nik abd rahman using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking in an introductory statistics course: a basis for curriculum materials development abstract: statistical thinking has long been a topic of discussion and a generally agreed upon goal for statistics instruction. statistics involves distinctive and powerful ways of thinking. statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data, variation, and chance appear. any introductory course should take as its main goal helping students to learn the basic elements of statistical thinking. many advanced courses would be improved by a more explicit emphasis on those same basic elements. those elements were described as: the need for data; the importance of data production; the omnipresence of variability; and the quantification and explanation of variability. the use of data analysis projects provides also students with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply and integrate statistical knowledge and skills in analysing information statistically. this paper will describe the projects and types of statistical analysis that had been selected by 31 counselling students enrolled in an introductory statistics course at the undergraduate level. content analysis was carried out on their final report of the projects and survey was used to elicit their experiences of working on the projects. these findings will eventually be the basis for the development of curriculum materials to help instructors and their students implement data analysis projects in their respective classrooms. key words: counselling, projects, survey, statistical thinking, statistics, curriculum materials, and undergraduate students. nik suryani nik abd rahman, using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking 50 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com statistics course to be demanding, to involve lots of math, and to be irrelevant to their career goals. thus, r. snee (1993) advocated changes in the instructional delivery system for statistics education citing people’s lack of understanding of statistical thinking which resulted in a lack of appreciation for statistical thinking. r. snee further suggested that experiential learning, which includes working with real data and having students work on subject matter in which they take a personal interest, are vital to improving students’ understanding of statistics (snee, 1993). overall, the literature suggests that using projects of some type in an introductory statistics class may positively influence learning of statistics (garfield, 1995; bradstreet, 1996; moore, 1997; and shaughnessy, 2007). however, often the projects that students in these studies were asked to do were designed by the instructor in some way. usually, the instructor came up with at least the topic for the project. g. smith did allow students, with prior instructor approval, to modify or replace a given project. however, he reported that students seldom asked to make these changes (smith, 1998). in spite of the increasing support for such projects as sound pedagogical tools for teaching statistics, many instructors still do not incorporate projects into their statistics courses (landrum & smith, 2007). this could be an obstacle to developing statistical reasoning and thinking among the students. challenges in developing statistical thinking despite agreement on the need for statistical thinking, there have been no empirically tested instructional materials or methods that can be shown to develop such an important learning outcome. in fact, studies of student outcomes in a first statistics class show an alarming lack of statistical reasoning and thinking (delmas et al., 2007). the guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education (gaise) – endorsed by the american statistical association in 2005 – include the goal of developing students’ statistical thinking. the report also offers examples of what this type of thinking may look like and advocates the importance of teaching and modeling statistical thinking in the introductory statistics course (aliaga et al., 2012). furthermore, the report suggests that merely learning statistical content (i.e. terms, formulas, and procedures), even with real data and research studies used as a context, does not appear to lead students to think more like statisticians, along the lines described by c.j. wild & m. pfannkuch (1999). what is needed is a radically different approach that is designed to help students to begin to think statistically and to build on this thinking to understand and appreciate the discipline of statistics. in this paper, i will share my experiences using data analysis projects with my students. the purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which the use of data analysis project in the course where students worked in groups would result in students’ better thinking of statistics. this was done through the listing of the topics that the students themselves had chosen and the types of statistical tests they had selected to answer their research questions. in addition, i also shared what the students had thought of their experiences with the projects and the course itself. finally, implications of the findings of this study will be discussed as a basis for curriculum materials development for the undergraduate students in the field of social science. the setting beginning the first week of class, students who were enrolled in an introductory statistics course were informed of the data analysis project. for the project, students were asked to choose their own research topics, define their variables, articulate their research questions, devise and carry out a data collection plan, conduct the appropriate analysis on the data, and prepare both a written report and an oral presentation to share the results with the instructor and the rest of the class. students were given the choice to either work individually or in small teams of 2-4 people. in short, the projects are broadly divided into three phases: the data collection phase, the data analysis phase, and the dissemination phase. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 51© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the data collection. during the data collection phase, students gather data from constructing and administering surveys. they may choose to construct their own survey or download and adapt them from the internet. they are also encouraged to use surveys that they had used before in their research methodology class. about the data analysis. the results are produced during the analysis phase of the project, after the data are collected and organized. the requirements for each project depend in part on their research questions for the type of test or analysis to be conducted, which are routinely taught to students during twice weekly class meetings of 2½ hours each for 12-14 weeks. regardless of the type of analysis required for a given project, students were strongly urged to produce the appropriate descriptive statistics, including graphical representations (e.g. histograms) of the distribution of their sample data. students used spss (statistical package for the social sciences) software to accomplish these analyses. for t-test projects, students must compute and interpret the t statistic and p-value for the test. for linear regression projects, students must create a scatter plot and a graph of the regression line; they must also compute and interpret the value of the correlation coefficient r, coefficient of determination r2, and equation of the regression line. about the dissemination. when the students have collected and analyzed their data, the last phase of the project was to prepare a written report and in-class presentation. most frequently, students chose to use microsoft word and power point for these two tasks. results and discussions the 31 students in this class have divided themselves into 10 groups of 3 to 4 members in each. none chose to work individually. about the title of students’ research projects. the topics that they had selected for their group projects are as listed in table 1. most of the topics chosen are diversified but related to their field of specialization, that is counselling. they can be broadly categorized into four: (1) conflicts and problems; (2) perception studies; (3) effect studies; and (4) teaching and learning. about the research questions and types of statistical tests. there are many variations to the types of research questions requiring descriptive and inferential statistical tests. in this sub-section, i will list the different types of research questions that students had used to answer the descriptive as well as inferential research questions. first, research questions requiring descriptive statistics. some questions are as follows: (1) to what extent are students involved in conflicts with their roommates?; (2) what factors contribute to the conflicts among their roommates?; (3) what do students perceive as the main reasons for their financial problems?; (4) what strategies did they use to overcome their financial problems? (5) what are the levels of social networking addiction among the college students? are table 1: titles of projects category title of project conflicts and problems. college students’ involvement in conflicts with their roommates. college students’ financial problems: causes and strategies to overcome them. social networking addiction among college students. perception studies. students’ perception and knowledge of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. perception on counselling as career. effect studies (v, vii, viii, and x). effects of co-curricular activities on college students’ social development. effects of cultural diversity on college students’ social interactions. effects of self-esteem on academic achievement. effects of working while studying on academic achievement. teaching and learning. can pbl (problem based learning) be a powerful t&l (teaching and learning) tool in enhancing humanistic skills among undergraduates? nik suryani nik abd rahman, using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking 52 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com they members of multiple networking sites?; (6) what do students perceive as the main factors contributing to their involvement in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues?; (7) what are the students’ perceptions on counselling as career?; (8) across the faculties surveyed, students from which faculty obtained the highest level of self-esteem?; (9) what are the advantages of extra cocurricular activities to college students?; (10) how receptive are local students towards their international counterparts?; (11) what are the main reasons for students to work while studying?; (12) what is the students’ overall perception of pbl, or problem based learning, as a new approach of learning at the end of the semester?; and (13) what is the students’ perception of pbl in developing their motivation and learning skills? second, research questions requiring inferential statistics. for the research questions requiring inferential statistics, students’ selection of statistical test is limited to t-tests, anova, and correlation. examples of research questions using t-tests are: (1) is there a difference between males and females with regard to their involvement in conflicts with their roommates?; (2) which gender is more involved in financial problems?; (3) which gender is more affected by social networking addiction?; (4) which gender is more involved in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender activities?; (5) which gender has a better perception on counselling as career?; (6) which gender has a higher self-esteem: male or female?; (7) which gender is more receptive towards international students?; (8) which gender is more involved in working while studying?; and (9) is there any difference in the perception on effectiveness of pbl between male and female students? all groups except one had used the independent t-tests. further, all the research questions revolved around gender differences in the topic they had studied. examples of research questions using anova are: (1) is there a significant difference across courses/majors with regard to conflicts with roommates?; (2) do students from different faculties differ in terms of their financial management?; (3) is there any difference between students’ level of study and their social development?; and (4) do students from difficult specializations differ significantly in terms of their perception on the effectiveness of pbl or problem based learning? the independent variables for the research questions using anova are the different courses/majors/specializations, faculties, and level of study. examples of research questions using correlation are: (1) is there any association between parents’ income and financial problems?; (2) is there any association between parents’ income and social networking addiction?; (3) is there any association between age and knowledge of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues?; (4) is there any association between students’ cgpa, or cumulative grade point average, and perception on counselling as career?; (5) is there any association between cgpa and selfesteem scores?; (6) is there any association between students’ involvement in extra cocurricular activities and social development?; (7) is there any association between fluency in english and social interactions?; and (8) is there any association between wage earned from working and academic achievement? all the above research questions used bivariate correlation; and each variable is at least at the interval level of measurement. about the survey findings and interpretations. upon completion of their projects, students were asked to complete questionnaire seeking their satisfaction working with the data analysis project and the course itself. findings from the survey are divided into two parts: the first being respondents’ rate of satisfaction with the data analysis group project; while the second part elicited how they felt towards the course itself. first, what do they think of the data analysis project? students’ experiences with the data analysis project were captured through the questionnaire items. from it, 74.2% of the respondents indicated their agreement that the topic of the project their group has chosen is related to real life situation; nevertheless, the same percentage of the respondents (74.2%) of the opinion that the project is challenging. one of the benefits of the project that educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 53© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com they had undertaken was that the project gave them more confidence to interpret statistical data in other courses (64.5%); and helped them understand how data is processed using the statistical tests (67.7%). about 64.5% of the respondents also felt that through doing the project their learning of statistics was enhanced. although almost half of the respondents (48.4%) felt that they had difficulty in understanding the statistics involved in the project, they admitted that the projects did capture their interest in learning statistics (42%); and the project had also prepared them to deal with statistics outside the classroom (45.1%). in addition, all responses to the items are negatively skewed. the mean, standard deviation, number of respondents, and percentage as well as skewness for the items on respondents’ satisfaction towards the data analysis project is provided in table 2. second, what do they think of the course? the respondents’ perceptions of the course were found to be negatively skewed, except in two items: “statistics is an easy subject” and “learning statistics is fun”. majority of the respondents did not agree with the first statement; that is, they were of the opinion that statistics is not as an easy subject. hence, learning it becomes no fun. in addition, it was rather unfortunate that before taking the course, a majority of respondents (77.4%) had heard that statistics is a difficult course; and only 35.5% of the respondents’ initial attitude (that statistics is difficult) changed after attending the course. the good news, however, is that 61.3% of the respondents were of the opinion that they would be using the statistical tests to conduct research in their profession as counsellors; and 58.1% agreed with the statement that learning statistics did prepare them to be smart consumers in today’s society. finally, almost half of the respondents (48.4%) were confident that they will get very good grades in the statistics project; and 42% of them are now becoming more confident to apply statistics in future. table 2: respondents’ perceptions of group project, no (%) mean (sd strongly disagree neutral strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 the group statistics project captures my interest in learning statistics. 3.06 (1.09) skewness: -.135 2 (6.5) 9 (29.0) 7 (22.6) 11 (35.5) 2 (6.5) the group statistics project is difficult to understand. 3.35 (1.05) skewness: -.234 1 (3.2) 6 (19.4) 9 (29.0) 11 (35.5) 4 (12.9) the group statistics project is challenging. 3.87 (0.92) skewness: -1.095 1 (3.2) 1 (3.2) 6 (19.4) 16 (51.6) 7 (22.6) the topic of the project our group has chosen is related to real life situation. 4.10 (0.87) skewness: -.521 1 (3.2) 7 (22.6) 11 (35.5) 12 (38.7) the project gives me more confident to interpret statistical data in other courses. 3.61 (0.84) skewness: -.558 4 (12.9) 7 (22.6) 17 (54.8) 3 (9.7) the project helps me understand how data is processed using the statistical tests. 3.55 (1.06) skewness: -.764 1 (3.2) 6 (19.4) 3 (9.7) 17 (54.8) 4 (12.9) doing the project enhanced my learning of statistics 3.52 (1.06) skewness: -.672 1 (3.2) 6 (19.4) 4 (12.9) 16 (51.6) 4 (12.9) the project has prepared me to deal with statistical situations outside the classroom. 3.06 (1.12) skewness: -.586 4 (12.9) 5 (16.1) 8 (25.5) 13 (41.9) 1 (3.2) nik suryani nik abd rahman, using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking 54 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com one of the groups summarized their experience in the course as follows: learning statistics is not something very difficult to learn, but it requires a very deep interest and concentration if students want to understand it well. and we really hope that we will continuously get the important information about statistics from time to time until we enter the world of work in the future (interview with students goup a, 15/10/2013). table 3 provides the mean, standard deviation, number and percentage as well as skewness for the items discussed above. my present experience suggests that students are more engaged in the course material and learn the material better when involved in the group project than when presented with traditional lectures. however, it should not be viewed as the sole method for improving instruction in a heavily conceptoriented course such as statistics. course material must be organized to meet clearly defined course objectives, and class activities and instructors must be oriented toward giving students practice in applying difficult concepts. in incorporating the project into the course, the instructor must also consider the impact on the instructor’s in-class and out-of-class time. in courses with large enrolments, the initial establishment of group processes may take some commitment of course instructional time (maziha mustapha & nik abd rahman, 2011). i have found that this time is more than made up by the increased efficiency of assisting students in groups rather than as individuals. questions may also be answered by group members, freeing the instructor to assist students in developing an understanding of the more abstract and difficult concepts. an unexpected benefit, i have experienced from this group project, is the day-by-day feedback the instructor gets from reading and grading the material turned in by the groups. since these papers are relatively few in number, it is not a burden for the instructor to grade them. the instructor finds out what the students understand and what must be table 3: respondents’ perceptions of the course, no (%) mean (sd) strongly disagree neutral strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 learning statistics is fun. 2.61 (1.20) skewness: .085 7 (22.6) 8 (25.8) 7 (22.6) 8 (25.8) 1 (3.2) before taking this course, i heard that statistics is difficult. 4.03 (1.43) skewness: -1.536 3 (9.7) 2 (6.5) 2 (6.5) 7 (22.6) 17 (54.8) after attending this course, my initial attitude towards statistics has changed. 3.06 (0.89) skewness: -.734 2 (6.5) 5 (16.1) 13 (41.9) 11 (35.5) many real world examples involving statistics have been included in this course. 4.0 (1.0) skewness: -.185 (9.7) 3 (19.4) 6 (32.3) 10 (38.7) 12 i will use statistical tests to conduct research in my profession as a counsellor. 3.68 (0.98) skewness: -.649 1 (3.2) 2 (6.5) 9 (29.0) 13 (41.9) 6 (19.4) learning statistics prepare me to be a smart consumer in today’s society. 3.58 (0.92) skewness: -.661 1 (3.2) 2 (6.5) 10 (32.3) 14 (45.2) 4 (12.9) i am more confident to apply statistics in future. 3.06 (1.09) skewness: -.049 2 (6.5) 9 (29.0) 7 (22.6) 11 (35.5) 2 (6.5) i will get a very good grade in the statistics project. 3.45 (1.34) skewness: -.470 4 (12.9) 2 (6.5) 10 (32.3) 6 (19.4) 9 (29.0) educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 55© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com reviewed or re-taught. this has resulted in an experiential learning process that enables the students to integrate critical thinking, technical writing, and presentation skills into an analytical course thus promoting statistical thinking. conclusion in conclusion, three main practical implications can be drawn from this study. first, the teachers and the researcher need to come to a common consensus of what they mean by the term statistical thinking. second, the teachers need to reflect critically on their current teaching and identify areas which are acting as barriers to the development of their students’ statistical thinking. third, the identification of the current main barriers to statistical thinking led the researcher to designing a new statistics teaching unit. new activities were chosen on the basis that they would be interesting to the students and would allow sufficient exploration of the data within an empirical enquiry process. references aliaga, martha et al. (2012). guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education: college report. california, usa: published and endorsed by the american statistical association. available [online] also at: http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise/ gaisecollege_full.pdf [accessed in gombak, malaysia: may 9, 2014]. bradstreet, t. (1996). “teaching introductory statistics courses so that non-statisticians experience statistical reasoning” in american statistician, 50(1), pp.69-78. chance, b.l. (2002). “components of statistical thinking and implications for instruction and assessment” in journal of statistics education, 10(3). available [online] also at: www.amstat.org/ publications/jse/v10n3/chance.html [accessed in gombak, malaysia: october 9, 2013]. cobb, g. (1992). “teaching statistics” in l.a. steen [ed]. heeding the call for change: suggestions for curricular action. washington, dc: mathematical association of america, pp.3-43. delmas, r.c. et al. (2007). “assessing students’ conceptual understanding after a first course in statistics” in statistics education research journal, 6(2), pp.28-58. garfield, j. (1995). “how students learn statistics” in international statistical review, 63(1), pp.25-34. interview with students goup a, who were enrolled in an introductory statistics course, in gombak, malaysia, on 15 october 2013. kirk, r.e. (2002). “teaching introductory statistics: some things i have learned”. paper presented at the annual conference of the american psychological association, chicago, il [eric document reproduction service no.ed 473 611]. landrum, r.e. & r.a. smith. (2007). “creating syllabi for statistics and research methods courses” in d.s. dunn, r.a. smith & b.c. beins [eds]. best practices for teaching statistics and research methods in the behavioral sciences. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum, pp.45-57. maziha mustapha, siti & nik suryani nik abd rahman. (2011). “classroom participation patterns: a case study of malaysian undergraduate students” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.3(2), february, pp.145-158. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available [online] also at: www.educareijes.com moore, d.s. (1997). statistics: concepts and controversies. new york: w.h. freeman and company, 4th edition. moore, d.s. (1998). “statistics among the liberal arts” in journal of the american statistical association, 93, pp.1253-1259. rumsey, d.j. (2002). “statistical literacy as a goal for introductory statistics courses” in journal of statistics education, vol.10(3). available [online] also at: www. amstat.org/publications/jse/v10n3/rumsey2.html [accessed in gombak, malaysia: october 9, 2013]. shaughnessy, j.m. (2007). “research on statistics learning and reasoning” in f.k. lester, jr. [ed]. second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning. reston, va: national council of teachers of mathematics, pp.957-1009. smith, g. (1998). “learning statistics by doing statistics” in journal of statistics education, 6(3). available [online] also at: http://www.amstat.org/ publications/jse/v6n3/smith.html [accessed in gombak, malaysia: may 12, 2014]. snee, r. (1993). “what’s missing in statistical education” in american statistician, 47(2), pp.149-154. snee, r. (1999). “discussion: development and use of statistical thinking: a new era” in international statistical review, 67(3), pp.255-258. wild, c.j. & m. pfannkuch. (1999). “statistical thinking in empirical enquiry (with discussion)” in international statistical review, 67(3), pp.223-265. nik suryani nik abd rahman, using data analysis projects to promote statistical thinking 56 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com students should be promoted toward the statistical thinking (source: www.google.com, 12/5/2014) regardless of the type of analysis required for a given project, students were strongly urged to produce the appropriate descriptive statistics, including graphical representations (e.g. histograms) of the distribution of their sample data. students used spss (statistical package for the social sciences) software to accomplish these analyses. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 35 the basic design of physical education instructional model based on self-regulated learning approach yudy hendrayana abstract: the purpose of this research was to produce a basic design model of physical education instructional based on self-regulated learning approach. the research was carried out using qualitative and quantitative methods on thirty elementary school students (m = 11.2) and physical educators in bandung city, as well as some experts from the school of physical education and health education of upi (indonesian university of education) as samples. the data were gathered using the techniques of document analysis, questionnaires, observation, depth interview, and focus group discussion. the result of this research was a compilation of a basic design model of physical education instructional for elementary school based on self-regulated learning approach. generally, physical education instructional condition in the elementary school is good enough; it is indicated by the feasibility level of 68%. however, there are four primary problems faced by physical educators, such as instructional facility, equipment, time allocation, and students engaging in instructional activities. the instructional model has been used by elementary school physical educators is sport education instructional model. key words: instructional model, physical education, self-regulated learning, elementary school, and physical educators. introduction the ultimate aim of physical education instructional is personality development as a whole, such as physical, mental, emotional, social, as well as spiritual aspects through guided, selected, and systematic-methodic physical activity participation based on health and social norms. m.h. barrow (1983) called it “physicallyeducated person”. the most important thing was the application of instructional model can be learned by students to be more independent, responsible, and motivated toward achievement goal. at present time, the instructional model emphasizes on technical and focuses on behaviorist approach. students were treated as passive, where the live process determined to external factors. besides that, the development of material used in some books more concentrates on development of psychomotor aspect, whereas cognitive and affective aspects still ignored. dr. yudy hendrayana is a lecturer at the school of physical education and health education upi (indonesian university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: yudy_hendrayana@upi.edu yudy hendrayana, the basic design of physical education instructional model 36 the use of self-regulated learning approach in physical education instructional is regarded very important; it is because the self-regulated learning is a basic foundation for long-life learning process which offers instructions to control mind, attitude, and behavior of students to reach the instructional goal (zimmerman, 1989; and smith, 2001). self-regulated learning constitutes an instructional approach based on social cognitive theory, and it emphasizes on interaction among personal, behavioral, and environmental factors (bandura, 1997). those factors give mutual effects and it is called triadic reciprocality theory (zimmerman, 1989; schunk & ertmer, 1999; and kuiper, 2002). based on short illustration above, this research is very important, especially for instructional model that will be developed based on cognitive, motivational as well as behavior approach. by using this model, the students were expected to be more independent, responsible, and motivated to learn. besides that, it also supports the teacher to be more creative and innovative in developing instructional media. instructional model and self-regulated learning approach model is a set of procedure to form a certain process. the instructional model defined as a conceptual design which describes systematic procedure in organizing learning experience to attain certain instructional goal (joyce & weil, 1980). meanwhile, b. sells and z. glassgow (1990) pointed out that the models of instructional were compiled by several interrelated and cooperative components. there are several models of instructional developed and used in instructional process. some of them are: direct instructional model (dim); personalized system for instruction model (psim); cooperative instruction model (cim); sport education instruction model (seim); and tactical games model (tgm). those instruction models were developed using different goals and foundations, and have different implication. self-regulated learning constitutes a learning strategy. it has been developed from a. bandura’s triadic theory of social cognition (zimmerman, 1989; zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1990; and kuiper, 2002). according to this theory, human being is a result of the interdependent causality structure from behavioral, personal, and environmental aspects (bandura, 1997). furthermore, a. bandura pointed out that all the three factors influenced self-regulated learning, in which, (1) a person try to regulate itself; (2) its result in the form of action or behavior; and (3) gives effect on environmental change, and so on. in that process, every aspect is interdependent, therefore, self-regulated learning constitutes a learning activity that engage student’s metacognition, motivation, and behavior aspects. the students using these aspects in implementing their learning activities will be more independent, responsible, and motivated person. generally, they will responsible toward their learning activities, due to their awareness that only by making effort themselves, the goal of learning will be achieved. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 37 as a learning strategy, self-regulated learning constitutes action plan that illustrates what happen in instructional process. the action plan compiled and directed to learning orientation as a mental thinking framework. it guides and determines thinking process or the student’s ways to interpret and response achievement situation that are manifested in form of performance or skills acquisition (brett & vandewalle, 1999; and barron & harrackiewicz, 2001). the instruction principle of self-regulated learning is instructing the student in order to be more independent, responsible, and motivated to achieve the learning goal stated. methods: research approach and procedure, subjects, instruments and data gathering, and data analysis technique research and development (r&d) approach was used in this research (borg & gall, 1979). the whole process of this research and developmental materials devided into three phases. from preliminary survey of possibility model design will be developed, tested, revised, product retested, and taken into experiment that will be done within two years. at the first phase (2008), research process conducted using qualitative as primary method and quantitative as supporting method. w.r. borg and m.d. gall, in their book educational research: an introduction (1979), stated that four phases should be conducted in research and development, namely preliminary survey, compiled pre-design development of model, try-out, model validation, and disemination. therefore, this research and development will referred to those phases. the first two phases, namely preliminary survey and compiled pre-design development of model, held in the first year (2008). based on those both phases, the researcher decided three steps to conduct, that is: (1) field study by questionnaire, depth interview, and focus group discussion; (2) literature study; and (3) compiled model basic design of instructional will be developed based on self-regulated learning approach. the subjects of this research were: (1) practitioners consist of fourty physical educators in bandung city; (2) the thirty six grade students of elementary school in astana anyar, bandung; and (3) two experts of physical education from the school of physical education and health education of upi, universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesian university of education. instruments used in qualitative method were researchers themselves. it is because of human is primary instrument in qualitative research and has competence to do self-adjustment with reality spectrum that cannot be done by non-human instrument, and data gathered by observation, depth interview, and focus group discussion techniques. there were five data gathering techniques used in this research, they are questionnaire, scale, observation, depth interview, and focus group discussion. the questionnaire distributed on august 28th through september 12nd, 2008. depth yudy hendrayana, the basic design of physical education instructional model 38 interview was carried out on saturday, august 29th, 2008 at 4 to 5.30 pm toward six physical educators of elementary school. observation conducted on saturday, september 6th, 2008, followed by interview on saturday, september 9th, 2008 toward 30 students of elementary school, and finally focus group discussion involved 11 persons consisting of 6 physical educators, 3 experts of physical education from fpok upi (school of physical education and health education of upi, universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesian university of education), and 3 researchers. trend of instructional models used by elementary school physical educators’ questionnaire. it was developed base on m.w. metzler’s instruction model dimensions and components. five instructional models in physical education that used by elementary school physical educators are direct instruction, personalized system for instruction, cooperative instruction, sport education, and tactical instruction (metzler, 1999). physical education instruction feasibility scale. development of this scale based on dape (developmentally appropriate physical education) rating scale practice for children developed by council on physical education for children. it consists of 24 feasibility indicators, and the reliability coefficient of this scale was 0.729. the development of both instruments in order to explore of conditions of physical education instruction in elementary school. data analysis technique used was qualitative method developed by a. kitsantas, b.j. zimmerman and t. cleary (2000) and p.a. smith (2001). the phases consist of: (1) data organization; (2) coding and analysis of data; and (3) conclusion or verification and interpretation. the analysis was done by content analysis, i.e. a technique to analyze content of a document as data resource (borg & gall, 1979); and inductive analysis applied to some special things that have similarity elements to get general conclusion. furthermore, the percentage analysis technique was used to analyze quantitative data. research result generally, the implementation level of the physical education instructional in elementary school was 68%. there were four primary problems faced by elementary school physical educators, that is: instructional facility (30.3%), equipment (39.0%), time allocation (45.0%), and students engaging in instructional activities (46.3%). the instructional model that has been used by elementary school physical educators is sport education instructional model. in the present study, we found the empirical data of six types of learning strategy, seven types of management strategy, and four types of knowledge about learning. the seven learning strategies that were effectively used in the natural physical education context were: (1) formulating the goal setting, (2) listening to instruction, (3) thinking and understanding, (4) looking and imitating, (5) visualizing and imaging, (6) paying attention, and (7) repeating and training. furthermore, there were seven management strategies that emerged from the data including: (1) managing attention, (2) seeking help, (3) managing the task and adjusting difficulty, educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 39 (4) managing time, (5) reducing peer interaction, (6) managing motivation, and (7) getting self evaluation. the research also found four types of knowledge about learning, they were: (1) knowledge related to itself, (2) knowledge of learning strategy, (3) knowledge of situation, and (4) knowledge of other people. based on data analysis resulted from questionnaire, observation, depth interview, and focus group discussion, a model basic design of physical education instructional model in elementary school based on self-regulated learning approach has been compiled and developed, as seen in figure in the below: condition identification academic & non academic behavior internal & external barrier identification documentation & appreciation components & dimensions of instructional model procedure & kind of evaluation evaluation phase (3) instructional process organizing content development phase (2) identification phase (1) instructional condition identification student behavior competence (cognitive, motivation, & behavior) instrument instructional activities, time allocation, facility, equipment, method and strategy formulating objective selection of content figure 1: the design of physical education instructional model at elementary school based on self-regulated learning approach according to figure 1, mpeis-cca development procedure consists of three phases. first, identification of instructional condition, consist of three steps of activity: (1) identification of instructional feasibility and problems faced by physical educators; (2) formulating general instructional objective; and (3) identification of student behavior characteristic. second, instructional development phase, consist yudy hendrayana, the basic design of physical education instructional model 40 of two steps of activity: (1) material organization process; and (2) development of instructional process. third, evaluation development phase, consist of two steps of activity: (1) deciding procedure and kind of test; and (2) deciding system of documentation and appreciation. discussion in general, the condition of physical education instructional in the elementary school is good enough; it showed the feasibility level of 68%. however, there were four primary problems faced by physical educators, that are instructional facility (30.3%), equipment (39.0%), time allocation (45.0%), and students engaging in instructional activities (46%). these problems can be a barrier for physical educators to bring about successful instructional process (singer & gerson, 1979). these problems can also cause some problems, especially related to planning arrangements. physical educators reluctant to arrange instructional planning due to the limitation of facility, equipment, time allocated was unorganized well. finally, the student’s engagement in instructional process is not optimum. it also found that the instructional model used by elementary school physical educators is sport education instructional model. this tendency indicates that instructional process at present time emphasizes more on development of psychomotor aspect and sport skill acquisition, whereas cognitive and affective aspect developments were still ignored. the identification and application of the components and sub-components of self-regulated learning strategies employed by students in a natural physical education setting give illustration of various factors that influence students’ engagement in instructional process, metacognitive, motivation, and behavior as well. in other words, effectively of physical educators to conduct instructional process depends on what the students know, think, and do while participating in physical education lessons. hence, understanding the factors that influence how the students engage actively in the learning process becomes very significant, where those factors are the student’s ability to employ self-regulated learning towards the achievement of learning goals. the study showed that self-regulated learning constitute one of the factors that influence motor performance and learning (singer, lidor & cauraugh, 1993; and schunck & zimmerman, 1996). learning strategies indicated how the students select or process information presented in lessons. they have seven sub-components and the result of this study support the previous researches, for example, listening to instruction (dansereau et al., 1979; dansereau, 1985; and zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1986); thinking and seeking understanding (singer & gerson, 1979; and weinstein & mayer, 1986); looking and imitating (kitsantas, zimmerman & cleary, 2000); visualizing (singer & gerson, 1979); focusing attention (singer & gerson, 1979; and singer & caraugh, 1985); and repeating and training (weinstein & mayer, 1986; and zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1986). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 41 management strategies in learning are supporting strategy related to selfregulated process. this strategy relates to how the students organize the learning situation and how the students facilitate information processing. it has seven sub-components and the result of this study supports the previous researches, for example, to manage concentration (dansereau, 1985; singer & cauraugh, 1985; and weinstein & underwood, 1985); to seek help (zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1986; and gernigon, longueville & debove, 1999); to manage the task and to adjust its difficulty (weinstein & underwood, 1985; and zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1986); to manage time (judd, mccombs & dobrovolly, 1979; singer & gerson, 1979; and son & metcalf, 2000); to manage motivation (dansereau et al., 1979; and boulet, savoie-zajc & chevrier, 1996); and to make self-evaluation (singer & gerson, 1979; dansereau, 1985; and zimmerman & martinez-pons, 1986). the knowledge of learning component represents general information that describes the student’s knowledge about how to learn. the observation identified four sub-components of learning that is knowledge of self, strategy, contexts, and other person. those components are the same as the previous research conducted by c.e. weinsten and l.m. hume (2001); they found 5 components of knowledge about learning, such as knowledge of strategies, content, contexts, tasks, and individual. in connection with instructional process, the three components of self-regulated learning above must be used as basic principle for physical educators. as described in this study, the use of self-regulated learning can increase student’s learning and performance. teachers should support the students to apply all the three components during the instruction process of physical education. the study proved that it is very effective to increase student’s performance and learning. the instructional model design of physical education underlying self-regulated learning approach is a systematic plan of identification of condition and instructional objective, content, process, strategy, and method. it also empowered the supporting facilities, learning resources available, and evaluation system to achieve instructional objective systematically that conformed to self-regulated learning approach. it is expected that the instructional model design can be employed by physical educators in the elementary school as one of various instruction models conform to the available curriculum. according to concept of self-regulated learning approach, physical education program in the elementary school should be applied as an instructional model to make the students to be more independent, responsible, and motivated to achieve the learning objective. the students that engaged metacognitive, motivation, and behavior actively during instruction process should apply three components of selfregulated learning–learning strategy, management strategy, and knowledge about learning. in its implementation, students will apply those components by three kinds of physical education self-regulation models–verbal information, associated with nonverbal information, training and repeating models. yudy hendrayana, the basic design of physical education instructional model 42 conclusion and suggestion generally, physical education instructional condition in the elementary school is good enough; it is indicated by the feasibility level of 68%. however, there are four primary problems faced by physical educators, such as instructional facility, equipment, time allocation, and students engaging in instructional activities. the instructional model has been used by elementary school physical educators is sport education instructional model. there were three components strategies of instructional self-regulated learning employed by students in a natural physical education setting, i.e. learning strategies, management strategies, and knowledge about learning. the all three components elaborated to 18 sub-components. they are 7 sub-components for learning strategies: formulating goal setting, listening to instruction, thinking about and seeking understanding, looking and imitating, visualizing and imaging, paying attention, and repeating and training. the 7 sub components for management strategies are managing attention, seeking help, managing the task and adjusting the difficulty, managing time, reducing peer interactions, managing motivation, and making self-evaluation. furthermore, there are four sub-components of knowledge about learning that is knowledge of himself or herself, strategies, situation, and other person. the research has already compiled and developed a model basic design of physical education instructional in the elementary school based on self-regulated learning approach. this model was expected to be used by physical educators in the elementary school as one alternative model of instructions based on the available current curriculum. based on the result of this research, it is important to perform continuation research, an evaluative research of this basic design model toward larger subjects. to get standard model, the hypothetic model shall be tested by experimental research, and disseminated model in order that the model can be used nationally by elementary school physical educators. references bandura, a. 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(1989). “social cognitive views of self-regulated academic learning” in journal of educational psychology, 81(3), pp.329-339. yudy hendrayana, the basic design of physical education instructional model 44 physical education instructional condition in the elementary school is good enough […] there are four primary problems faced by physical educators, such as, instructional facility, equipment, time allocation, and students engaging in instructional activities. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 67© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the authors: dr. mohammad parvez is an associate professor at the department of education amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, 202002 uttar pradesh, india; and dr. mohd shakir is an assistant professor at the department of education amu, murshidabad centre, 742223 west bengal, india. for academic purposes, the authors can be contacted via e-mails at: mparvez9@ yahoo.co.in and aligarhshakir@gmail.com how to cite this article? parvez, mohammad & mohd shakir. (2014). “a comparative study of the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.67-74. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educareijes.com/a-comparative-study-of-the-attitudes/ chronicle of the article: accepted (april 15, 2014); revised (june 1, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction education means to open up hidden talent of a child. it is an activity as well as a process which helps students in attaining needed information and knowledge, ability, attitude, and perception (mirunalini & anandan, 2012). the quality of a nation depends upon the quality of its citizens. the quality of the citizens depends upon the quality of education system, and the quality of education depends upon the combined efforts of planners, educationists, and administration; however, the most significant factor is the quality of the teachers. it means excellent and efficient teachers can change the fate of the nation. in fact, it is in the schools, colleges, and universities that the development of the attitudes and dispositions necessary for the progressive life in a society takes place. education is imparted by teachers’ schools, colleges, and universities. if the teacher is capable, energetic, mentally healthy, and having positive attitude, it is well and good for the whole education system. a teacher helps a child in bringing out the hidden capabilities. he unfolds what is within, hidden, and untapped. he makes explicit what is implicit in the students. so, teachers’ importance in teaching-learning process is very much. the secondary education commission (19521953) report stated as follows: mohammad parvez & mohd shakir a comparative study of the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession abstract: securing the right type of prospective teachers for training is very crucial. unless such prospective teachers are found our secondary schools cannot deliver as per our expectations. therefore, for the professional preparation of prospective teachers, the study of attitudes held by them is very important. this study was conducted to study the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession. a sample of 360 prospective teachers i.e. 200 muslim and 160 non-muslim prospective teachers was taken through purposive sampling technique. teacher attitude inventory (tai) developed by s.p. ahluwalia (2007) was used to collect the data. mean, sd (standard deviation), and t-test were used for the analysis of the data. research findings revealed not significant differences in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers; muslim and non-muslim male prospective teachers; muslim and non-muslim female prospective teachers; muslim and non-muslim science prospective teachers; muslim and nonmuslim social science prospective teachers; muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. (bachelor of education) institutions; whereas a significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession. muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions had a more favourable attitude towards teaching profession as compared to non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions. key words: prospective teachers, muslim and non-muslim teachers, teaching profession, favourable and unfavourable attitudes, and public and private b.ed. institutions. mohammad parvez & mohd shakir, a comparative study of the attitudes 68 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com we are convinced that the most important factor in the contemplated educational reconstruction is the teacher, his personal qualities, his educational qualifications, his professional training, and the place that he occupies in the community. [...] it is very right that, “no people can rise above the level of its teachers” (goi, 1953:155; and goi, 1986:31-32). the teacher is the real and dynamic force of any institution. the school without him is a sole less body. without good, devoted, and competent teachers, even the best system is bound to fail. a good teacher can certainly give best result out of the worst system (parvez, 2010:58-59). he is a powerful and abiding influence in the formation of character; the influence of a great teacher indirectly extends over many generations. the pivot upon which an educational system moves is the personality of the teacher. teaching is often called a calling, not a profession or a trade or simply a job. this means that a teacher should regard himself as one specially called to do this work, not so much for the pecuniary benefits which he may derive from it as for the love of it (mohiyuddin, 1943). the strength of the schools depends upon the attitudes of the teachers. for qualitative improvement in secondary education of our country, the selection of right type of prospective teachers is a must. this require not only improving the knowledge and teaching competence of prospective teachers, but also to inculcate in them healthy professional attitudes and desirable teacher like qualities. therefore, securing the right type of prospective teachers for training is very crucial. unless such prospective teachers are found our secondary schools cannot deliver as per our expectations. therefore, for the professional preparation of prospective teachers, the study of attitudes held by them is very important. a positive favourable attitude makes the work not only easier but also more satisfying and professionally rewarding. a negative or unfavourable attitude makes the teaching task harder, more tedious, and unpleasant. thus, effective, productive, and constructive learning on the part of the pupils can be achieved by employing teachers with favourable attitudes towards teaching profession. prospective teacher prospective teachers are those who are undergoing training or studying in b.ed. (bachelor of education) programme to become teachers; and they are known by different names like “would be teachers”, “pupil-teachers”, “student-teachers”, “futureteachers”, “b.ed. trainees”, etc. and when their training period is over, they join the coveted profession of teaching and become full-fledged teachers. about the attitude. the most important factor in the teaching-learning process is the teacher. a good education system can flourish if two conditions are satisfied. firstly is the constant updating and refinement in knowledge and skills of existing/serving teachers; and secondly is equipping upcoming/ prospective teachers with positive attitude towards their profession of teaching. attitudes towards profession are usually related with enjoying the profession, complete dedication to their profession, and being aware that profession is socially useful and believing that they need to improve the profession. c.v. good defined “attitude” as the predisposition or tendency to react specifically towards an object, situation, or value; usually accompanied by feelings and emotions (good, 1973:49). according to l.l. thurstone, “attitude” is the degree of positive or negative effect associated with some psychological object. by psychological object, l.l. thurstone means any symbol, phrase, slogan, person, institution, ideal or idea towards which people can differ with respect to positive or negative effect (thurstone, 1946). g.w. allport defined “attitude” as a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individuals response to all objects and situations with which it is related (allport, 1935). in the words of e. katz, an attitude is a tendency or disposition to evaluate an object or the symbol of that object in a certain way. an attitude is an important concept to understand human behavior (katz, 1959). as behaviour is composed of many attributes and one of these important attributes is attitude. ones behaviour educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 69© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com to a great extent depends upon one’s attitude towards the things, idea, person, object in his environment (mangal, 2009). in this way, attitudes are to a great extent responsible for a particular behaviour of a person. in simple words, attitudes are “predispositions” to behave in a certain way. attitude is defined as preference along a dimension of favourableness and unfavourableness to a particular group, institution, concept, or object. a person with a favourable attitude toward something is likely rate favourable and an unfavourable attitude presumes a tendency to reject something (sax, 1974). an individual’s attitude towards his occupation may affect the end-product. it has been observed that someone who does not enjoy his occupation is not be able to succeed in that occupation. a good teacher with positive attitude, behavior, and personality traits can motivate, inspire, and make students lost in his teaching. a teacher with a positive attitude towards teaching is considered better and becomes popular figure among students. positive attitudes not only promote learning, but also create the climate which stimulates effective teaching-learning (cf pehlivan, 2010; and parvez & shakir, 2013). therefore, it is important to study the attitudes of the prospective teachers who are going to serve this noble profession of teaching. about the review of related literature. a. guneyli & c. aslan (2009) found a significant difference in favour of female prospective teachers in relation to the gender. no significant difference between attitude scores was observed in relation to the effects of class and socio-economic level. n. baloglu & e. karadag (n.y.) showed that there was a noticeable statistical meaningful relationship between student teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching profession and some of their preferred coping strategies with stress. m.i. arif et al. (2012) found that the ratio of four personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) was nearly same, but the ratio of openness personality trait was greater which means that the openness personality trait of prospective teachers was more dominant as compared to remaining four big personality traits. there was a significant difference between male and female prospective teachers on their big five personality traits. female prospective teachers got greater score on their big five personality trait instrument as compared to male prospective teachers. u. kareem et al. (2012) reported that students enrolled in regular programmes showed high levels of professionalism as compared to distance education students. similarly, b.ed. (bachelor of education) students enrolled in regular programmes showed the highest levels of professional attitude. s. sharma & p. dhaiya (2012) found that: (1) no significant difference between attitude of male and female b.ed. students towards teaching profession; (2) arts and science b.ed. students do not differ significantly in attitudes towards teaching; and (3) female b.ed. students were found to have most favourable towards teaching profession. s.i.a. shah & a.a. thoker (2013) reported that there was significant difference between teaching attitude of government and private secondary school teachers, and government secondary school teachers have higher teaching attitude towards their teaching profession as compared to private secondary school teachers. research gap, objectives, hypotheses, and methods a careful perusal of above mentioned studies related to attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching profession suggest that a lot of research has been conducted to investigate the attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching profession, despite best efforts investigators could not find even a single study comparing the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession. it means there is a research gap. this motivated the investigators to carry out the present research study. this study is a humble attempt to fill in the research gap in this specific area. the following were the objectives of the study: (1) to compare the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (2) to compare the attitudes of muslim male and non-muslim male prospective teachers mohammad parvez & mohd shakir, a comparative study of the attitudes 70 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com towards teaching profession; (3) to compare the attitudes of muslim female and nonmuslim female prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (4) to compare the attitudes of muslim science and non-muslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (5) to compare the attitudes of muslim social science and non-muslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (6) to compare the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. or bachelor education institutions towards teaching profession; and (7) to compare the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession. in tune with the objectives of the present study, following hypotheses were formulated in null form: (1) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession”; (2) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim male prospective teachers towards teaching profession”; (3) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim female prospective teachers towards teaching profession”; (4) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession”; (5) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession”; (6) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession”; and (7) “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession”. this study falls under the category of descriptive research. survey method was adopted to carry out the present research work. thus, in the present research study, “descriptive survey design” was employed. in the present study, all the muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers of aligarh district in india constitute the target population. in the present study, sample consisted of 360 prospective teachers: 200 muslims and 160 non-muslim prospective teachers selected through purposive sampling technique. for data collection “teacher attitude inventory” (tai) developed by s.p. ahluwalia (2007) was used to measure the attitudes of prospective teachers. the inventory consists of 90 statements. responses were made on a five point scale and the response categories were assigned weights from 0 to 4. the tool was reliable and valid. the investigators visited the selected institutions personally and administered the “teacher attitude inventory” (tai). the data were analyzed with the appropriate statistical measures to justify the objectives of the present study. the investigators employed mean, sd (standard deviation), and t-test for the analysis of the data. data analysis and interpretation of results the analysis of data was done in order to make inferences and generalizations about the population. statistical package for the social science (spss) version 16 was used for the analysis of data. hypotheses wise analysis is as follows: in order to test ho1, t-test was applied, as showed in table 1. a close examination of table 1 shows that the t-value 1.108 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho2, t-test was applied, as showed in table 2. a glance at table 2 shows that the t-value 1.646 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim male prospective teachers towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim male prospective teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho3, t-test was applied, as showed in table 3. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 71© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim prospective teachers 200 262.92 24.28 358 1.108 * non-muslim prospective teachers 160 259.68 31.30 * not significant at .05 level table 2: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim male prospective teachers towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim male prospective teachers 108 258.22 27.13 176 1.646* non-muslim male prospective teachers 70 251.81 22.37 * not significant at .05 level table 3: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim female prospective teachers towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim female prospective teachers 92 264.26 23.51 180 0.285* non-muslim female prospective teachers 90 263.17 28.12 * not significant at .05 level table 4: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim science prospective teachers 117 265.69 25.46 199 1.071* non-muslim science prospective teachers 84 262.08 20.64 * not significant at .05 level table 5: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim social science prospective teachers 83 260.96 23.82 157 1.449* non-muslim social science prospective teachers 76 254.97 28.28 * not significant at .05 level table 6: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions 95 257.73 23.48 138 1.603* non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions 45 251.00 22.53 *not significant at .05 level mohammad parvez & mohd shakir, a comparative study of the attitudes 72 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 3 clearly shows that the t-value 0.285 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim female prospective teachers towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim female prospective teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho4, t-test was applied, as showed in table 4. an inspection of table 4 clearly reveals that the t-value 1.071 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho5, t-test was applied, as showed in table 5. an examination of table 5 clearly shows that the t-value 1.449 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho6, t-test was applied, as showed in table 6. table 6 clearly shows that the t-value 1.603 is statistically not significant at .05 level. this means there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. (bachelor education) institutions towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession” is accepted. in order to test ho7, t-test was applied, as showed in table 7. table 7 clearly shows that the t-value 3.799 is statistically significant at .01 level. this means there is a significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. (bachelor education) institutions towards teaching profession. therefore, the null hypothesis that “there is no significant difference in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession” is rejected. higher mean score of muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions than the non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions indicate that muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions had a more favourable attitude towards teaching profession as compared to non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed institutions. so, the findings of the study are as follows: (1) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (2) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim male and non-muslim male prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (3) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim female and non-muslim table 7: showing the comparison of attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession basis n mean sd df t-value muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions 105 271.96 25.11 218 3.799 ** non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions 115 257.66 27.06 ** significant at .01 level educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 73© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com female prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (4) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim science and non-muslim science prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (5) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim social science and nonmuslim social science prospective teachers towards teaching profession; (6) no significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in public b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession; and (7) a significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession. more specifically muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed institutions had a more favourable attitude towards teaching profession as compared to non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions. conclusion teachers are called nation builders, their role is most important for social, economic, and political transformation of an equitable and just society. a good principal, magnificent building, sound infrastructure, and good curriculum are useless, if the teachers in any institution are not with positive attitude towards teaching profession. teaching is a very respectable and pious profession, but even then not all the teachers who are in this profession like it. many prospective teachers join this profession not by their choice, but simply by chance, some join this b.ed. (bachelor education) programme just to spend one year, some join it if they do not get admission in their chosen course. this is the reason why they do not develop positive attitude towards teaching, because of the simple reason that teaching is not their first choice, rather this is their last choice. therefore, through this paper, it is suggested that they must develop positive attitude towards teaching profession if they really want to excel in this field. attitudes towards profession are usually related with enjoying the profession, complete dedication to this coveted profession, and giving it more than hundred percent. prospective teachers must develop proper and positive attitudes towards their profession, so that they can bring about a positive change in the life of their students. this study will help in the selection of those students for teaching profession who held favourable attitude towards teaching. this research study would bring about a substantial change in the attitudes of muslim and nonmuslim prospective-teachers community towards teaching in particular and prospective teachers in general. findings of the study have some implications for practice and for further research. one important implication of this study is the finding that a significant difference was found between the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession. more specifically, muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions had a more favourable attitude towards teaching profession as compared to non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions. therefore, non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions need to develop positive attitudes towards teaching profession. this study may be helpful as an introduction to the complex task of finding the “best” prospective teachers. the fact that a teacher has to have both knowledge and certification to be a teacher, along with certain personality characteristics, make the search for qualified teachers for indian teacher training institutions more easier. perhaps more studies should be carried on to examine more carefully what are the factors that might have caused the difference between the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers studying in private b.ed. institutions towards teaching profession. the investigators believe that present research study comparing the attitudes of muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers and its correlations will be much helpful in identifying those factors that govern the behaviour of the muslim and non-muslim prospective teachers. it will also be useful in developing the predictive measures to be mohammad parvez & mohd shakir, a comparative study of the attitudes 74 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com employed in selection of candidates for teacher training programme. references ahluwalia, s.p. 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(1973). dictionary of education. new york: mcgraw-hill book company. guneyli, a. & c. aslan. (2009). “evaluation of turkish prospective teachers’ attitudes towards teaching profession: near east university case” in procedia social and behavioral sciences, 1, pp.313-319. kareem, u. et al. (2012). “comparative study of the professional attitudes of prospective teachers recruited in regular and distance education programmes” in international journal of learning & development, vol.2(5), pp.182-189. katz, e. (1959). “mass communication research and the study of culture” in studies in public communication, 2, pp.1-6. mangal, s.k. (2009). essentials of educational psychology. new delhi: phi learning private limited. mirunalini, m. & k. anandan. (2012). “teacher professional perception of b.ed. student teachers” in journal of community guidance and research, vol.29(3), pp.473-480. mohiyuddin, s. (1943). school organization and management. bombay (mumbai): universal book corporation. parvez, m. (2010). school administration. aligarh: kitab ghar. parvez, m. & m. shakir. (2013). “attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching profession” in journal of education and practice, vol.4(10), pp.172-178. pehlivan, k.b. (2010). “a study on prospective teachers’ learning styles and their attitudes towards teaching profession” in elementary education online, 9(2), pp.749-763. sax, g. (1974). principles of educational measurement and evaluation. california: wadsworth publishing company. shah, s.i.a. & a.a. thoker. (2013). “a comparative study of government and private secondary school teachers towards their teaching profession” in journal of education and practice, vol.4(1), pp.118-121. sharma, s. & p. dhaiya. (2012). “comparative study of attitude towards teaching of science and arts of b.ed. students” in bhartiyam: international journal of education & research, vol.1(2), pp.1227-1255. thurstone, l.l. (1946). “comment” in american journal of sociology, 52, pp.39-50. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 129© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ahmad & anton jaelani developing a simulation of transformation geometry by using flash abstract: the development of science and technology stimulates the rise of effort to make use of all facilities in all fields. one of the results is increasing number of computer use in indonesia. this condition encourages educational practitioners to develop several models of learning media by using computers with purposes of tutorial, exercises, simulations, and games. meanwhile, learning process which applies some media of simulation provides some benefits as they are realistic, secure, and simple. this simulation will lead students into a visualization of real life condition. without media, students will usually imagine what they learn. it later exposes them with some problems that influence their abstractions. if a lecturer only explains about transformation geometry without using simulation, there is a big opportunity that students will yield misconception or they will only remember it with little understanding. this research aims to develop a valid and practical the transformation geometry simulation. the method in this research is a design research from a technology perspective that uses a preliminary stage and evaluation stage. the result presented the simulation of the definition of reflection, rotation, rotation half-round, and translations that have been made are in accordance with the curriculum and the existing concepts. try-out result shows that the simulation can help students find their own concepts of reflection, rotation, rotation half-round, and translation; and sets up students to communicate. the conclusion of this research is that the result of simulation design that has been created has to be valid and practical. key words: development of science and technology; computer use; transformation geometry; learning process; understanding of concepts. about the authors: ahmad and anton jaelani are the lecturers at the department of mathematics education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto, central java, indonesia. corresponding authors is: ahmadump@yahoo.co.id how to cite this article? ahmad & anton jaelani. (2016). “developing a simulation of transformation geometry by using flash” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(2) february, pp.129-138. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (january 17, 2016); revised (february 1, 2016); and published (february 28, 2016). total number of computers sold in semester one of 2009, which was 1.6 million units. this condition encourages educational practitioners to develop several models of learning media using computers with purposes of tutorial, exercises, simulations, and games (hu et al., 2010; and spector, 2013). according to molenda heinich & smaldino russell (1996), learning process which applies some media of simulation provides introduction the development of science and technology stimulates the rise of effort to make use of all facilities in all fields. one of the results is increasing number of computer use in indonesia. in accordance with the data of idc (international data corporation), it is revealed that total number of laptop sold in semester one of 2010 reached 2.18 million units. there is an increase at 32.46% compared with the ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry 130 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare some benefits, as they are realistic, secure, and simple (heinich & russell, 1996:332). this simulation will lead students into a visualization of real life condition. without media, students will usually imagine what they learn. it later exposes them with some problems that influence their abstractions. if a lecturer only explains about transformation geometry without using simulation, there is a big opportunity that students will yield misconception or they will only remember it with little understanding (jonker & galen, 2004). simulation applying traditional visual aids always addresses problems in terms of production process. they will require some materials of real objects that are considered impractical and uncomfortable. it causes lecturers’ mind-set in which they come to a conclusion that computers can accommodate their functions. a transformation geometry simulation using computer animation is considered more flexible and comfortable compared with traditional simulation model (thalmann & thalmann, 1990 and 2000). a computer simulation offers learning opportunities in a dynamic, interactive, and private way (arsyad, 2010:96). a simulation is a form of computer use employing the function of cai (computer assisted instruction). in this context, y.p. xin & a.k. jitendra (1999) reported that cai is the most effective method, as substitutions for teachers or lecturers in learning process (xin & jitendra, 1999). meanwhile, g. fitzgerald, l. fick & r. milich (1986) and c.m. fletcher-flinn & b. gravatt (1995) also stated that cai was more effective than any traditional instructional equipment to accommodate broader competence in mathematics, science, arts, reading, and writing (fitzgerald, fick & milich, 1986; and fletcher-flinn & gravatt, 1995). the discussion of transformation geometry includes reflection, rotation, translation, and dilatation (rasmedi, 2009). transformation geometry understanding can use visual aids that enable students to comprehend the concept of transformation geometry. therefore, it is necessary to use moving pictures that may assist students in learning the transformation geometry. a software, that can be used to design the transformation geometry simulation, is macromedia flash 8. this software is used to make animation, either interactive or not interactive (madcoms, 2004:1). it is the older version of the more popular and recent flash animation maker, adobe flash cs6. macromedia flash 8 has its own benefit as the installation does not take large space of disk and can be used fluently in computers with hardware specification and operating system equals netbooks. despite the fact that macromedia flash 8 provides animation users with attachment program through action script, flash animation focuses more on the timeline that enables users to learn it in a short time without any knowledge about algorithm and programming. priyanto hidayatullah, aldi daswanto & sulistyo ponco nugroho (2011) stated that, in general, there are many programs that can be employed to develop animation, such as j2me (java 2 mobile edition). however, for beginners or novices, this application is not likely chosen as a main option, since it mostly deals with programming. novices are not used to programming model application (hidayatullah, daswanto & nugroho, 2011). one characteristic of learning models is that they contain and relay messages or information to receivers or students (arsyad, 2010:81). according to a.s. sadiman et al. (2007), media is anything that can be used to deliver messages from senders to receivers, so that it can stimulate thought, feeling, attention, and interest of students in a certain way during learning process (sadiman et al., 2007:7). molenda heinich & smaldino russell (1996) also stated that media is communication mediator (heinich & russell, 1996:8). a computer simulation offers opportunities to learn in dynamic, interactive, and personal ways. the success of its use can be influenced by basic models, scenario, and teaching layers. scenario must reflect real life situation. it determines what happens and how it happens, who the characters are, what objects are involved, in what way students take part, and how they deal with the simulation. basic model is the second factor affecting the success of simulation. model is a mathematic formulation or rules that reflects causal relationship (akker et al. eds., 2006b). educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 131© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare movement 1 bagian yang berkedip movement 2 image 1: simulation display of reflection definition from the explanation above, the researchers intend to construct a transformation geometry simulation design that can be used by lecturers and students of mathematics department as a media or visual aids to grasp the concept of transformation geometry. this research aims at creating transformation geometry simulation using flash. research method the method applied in this research was design research model in the perspective of technology (akker et al., 2006a; and reeves, 2006). this research was conducted in two main steps: preliminary step or preparation step covering practical problem analysis by the researchers and practitioners; and evaluation step in which the researchers designed a solution based on the design and technology innovation principles, interactive cycle of try-out process and practical revision from the given solution, and reflection of the product. it was conducted from october to december 2013 at the department of mathematics education fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. result and discussion the design of transformation geometry simulation, which was constructed, only focused on defining concepts of each type of transformation, including reflection, rotation, half-round rotation, and translation. at the beginning, these four types of definition were compiled into one file. that file contained navigations directing to each transformation definition simulation. considering the function, the researchers decided to separate definition simulations based on the transformation types as stated in the limitation of problem. they were separated with a reason that they could be displayed together, at the same time, and be stored in a smaller size. navigation buttons, which are included, are the buttons of play, pause, and stop. each button possessed their own functions. play button is used to play the animation from the beginning. if the animation has run to the end of frame, it can function to play the next frame, if it is stopped by pressing pause button. pause button works to stop the running animation. stop button is used to stop the animation in the last frame or stop the animation and replay it from the beginning. in a simulation of reflection definition, the researchers paid attention to the straightness of line cutting made through reflected points and points resulted from reflection with the mirror. the distance of the reflected point to mirror and the distance from reflection result point towards mirror must be equal. considering the importance of two elements above, the researchers make animation of reflecting definition that covers those two ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry 132 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare elements by setting those two to be blinked that they will attract the users. see image 1. in rotation simulation, the researchers make the design by moving the rotated points into rotation result point, as shown in image 2. there are two main concerns in rotation simulation as: the distance from rotation center point that must be rotated that has to be equal with the distance from the point of rotation center to potation result point; and certain angle resulted from the rotated point, rotation center, and rotation result point. the researchers make those two elements blink, so that users can focus on those two conditions of rotation. it is expected that they will comprehend the concept of rotation without asking. see image 3. in half-round rotation, the researchers focused on two main concerns for users. movement direction of the rotation as in halfround rotation, which users may regard the rotation moving clockwise and counter clockwise similar, as shown in image 4. the distance from rotation center to half-round rotated point and the distance from rotation center to half-round rotation result point have to be equal, as shown in image 5. the researchers do not include the size of rotation angle. it is because in the angle of half-round rotation, rotation as the center point between the rotated point, and the result of rotation point can be considered a sufficient condition of half-round rotation. in translation simulation, the main concern of users is the direction of translation and size of translation vector. see image 6. though in calculation, translational results must be done analytically by having separated movement 1 movement 2 arah gerakan rotasi movement 2 image 2: simulation display of rotation simulation image 3: 2 hal yang diperhatikan image 3: attention to rotation image 4: the direction of half-round rotation image 4: the direction of half-round rotation educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 133© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare calculation between basis and ordinate, yet conceptually translational result is gained by following translational vector direction. therefore, the researchers make movement points of translation results following translation vectors’ direction, as shown in image 7. validation results can be explained as follows: first, in terms of content, validators stated all contents were in line with curriculum of mathematics department. two validators suggested that the coverage of media should have been extended. yet, the researchers considered to expand the coverage of simulation design in the following research. second, validators stated that design results had reflected the indicators of material comprehension. the second validator stated that media was only for students’ conceptual comprehension. the third validator suggested that the definition should have been written. this suggestion could not be accepted under consideration that the simulation might lead students to find the concepts with their own language. third, validators stated that the design was in accordance with the correct material concept. fourth, the first validator stated that the material should have been improved. it was in line the second validator that suggested to add transformation simulation in cartesian coordinate. this advice was taken into account for the next research. in general, validators considered that the design was appropriate for students’ comprehension level. fifth, validators agreed that the design could stimulate further development of transformation concept. they stated that this design is suitable to start an introduction of certain concepts. sixth, the validators said that the design was constructed in a simple way that it could be easily used by students. the second validator suggested that simulation design would be jarak yang perlu diperhatikan image 5: half-round rotation image 6: image 6: translation movement direction image 7: bagian yang berkedip image 7: simulation display of translation definition extended that it required transformation visualization in diagram catechus. this suggestion became an object of consideration in the following research. seventh, validator 1 and 3 gave statements in the validation sheet that the design could be easily used without any certain software and any installation. eighth, validators said that there was no execution mistake in navigation. they stated ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry 134 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare that all navigation reached its targets. ninth, though validators suggested that the colors should have been varied and more attractive, the researchers made no change with a reason that the original colors, black and grey, might make students pay full attention to the movements. colorful images might obstruct students’ concentration towards expected targets to comprehend concepts of each type of transformation. tenth, validators tried the design and stated that there was no mistake in the execution of design. the try-out was conducted with subjects of fourth semester students from mathematics education department fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, in the academic year of 2012, which planned to have transformation geometry in the next semester. the researchers presented the design to subjects after we had asked about transformation, since we believed that students had had learnt about it in senior high school. the first student is izat. he scored a in plane analytic of geometry. the researchers only presented a result of interview related to reflection from the overall recorded interview. izat knew about reflection since he had studied about it, when he was in senior high school. it was proven by his ability to determine a reflection result of a certain point, as shown in image 6. he understood about reflection yet he got difficulties to define it with his own language. he only mentioned a condition in reflection (interview with izat, 28/10/2013). in fact, there were two conditions that reflection could be formed from a reflected point: reflection line and reflection result point. it was proven from the dialogue between the researchers and izat, conducted on 28 october 2013, as follows: the researchers: “what’s the cause? why is that the result?” izat: “since the mirror is like this, the reflection is reversed” (while moving his hands to result that the researchers asked with a purpose of showing the process). the researchers: ”what is the condition? what is the condition of reflection?” izat: “the distance between the item to the mirror and the mirror to the reflection are equal”. the researchers: “besides that?” izat: “biasanya bayangannya jadi terbalik” (the reflection is usually reversed). the researchers asked izat to observe reflection design result. the researcher: “well, from the image (the simulation), what are other conditions of this reflection?” izat: “if a line is drawn from the item to mirror, it create an angel of 90 degrees”. the second student is yoga. he got c for plane analytic of geometry. it made him one of students in low competent category. the researchers only presented the result of interview about rotation from the overall conversation. yoga stated that he once learnt about rotation in senior high school. he could answer some questions about determining result of a rotation. he could mention one condition in rotation, which was the distance from the center of rotation to the rotated point should have been equal with the distance from the center of rotation to the rotation result (interview with yoga, 10/11/2013). it was proven from the dialogue between the researchers and yoga, conducted on 10 november 2013, as follows: the researchers: “syarat dari rotasi itu apa?” (what is the condition of rotation?). yoga (take a minute thinking): “the distances are equal”. the researchers: “the distance from what point to where?” yoga: “from a (rotated point) to p (rotation center point) and from a′ (rotation result point) to p’ (while pointing at the points), then it rotates with p as its center”. yoga could not mention conditions related to rotation angles. he could only explain that rotation was supported by rotation center. later, the researchers provided an example if a rotation was supported by another rotation, then the result of transformation could be more than one. therefore, the researchers showed a result design of rotation simulation that it made yoga able to mention the educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 135© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare conditions (interview with yoga, 10/11/2013). it was proven from the dialogue between the researchers and yoga, conducted on 10 november 2013, as follows: yoga: “angle”. the researchers: “what angle?” yoga: “angle resulted from …” (thinking). the researchers: “a, a′, and p”. the third student is ani. she scored b in plane analytic of geometry. ani is in the category of mid competent students. the researchers showed only a result of interview about half-round rotation for the whole interview. ani seemed to have little understanding about translation. when the researchers asked her to draw a result of translation, she seemed to be reluctant, and at first it seemed that she did not understand about the meaning of translation (interview with ani, 25/11/2013). it was proven from the dialogue between the researchers and ani, conducted on 25 november 2013, as follows: the researchers: “if it is a point, then this point is translated in a vector with this length and direction (while making sketch on paper), where is the result of translation?” ani: “it could be here or here?” (while pointing at the direction unparalleled with vector direction). ani could sketch her translation result correctly. yet, when she was asked about transformation conditions that something could be defined as a translation, she could only explain it with her own language. following is a dialogue between the researchers and ani, conducted on 25 november 2013: the researchers: “why (the result is there)?” ani: “it is because in translation, we need to find out the length and the direction”. later, the researchers showed translation design to students. we, then, asked ani to find out if this design might stimulate her to express her mathematic language. again, following is a dialogue between the researchers and ani, conducted on 25 november 2013: the researchers: “or what can you say about this line with this line?” (the researchers pointed at the translation vector on the design). ani: (still thinking). the researchers: “what about the line?” (while pointing the design shown to ani). ani: “parralel”. the fourth student is anggit. he is in the category of mid competence students. his score in geometry analytic was b. he came from a vocational school; hence, he learned transformation when he was in junior high school (interview with anggit, 5/12/2013). the researchers take the result of interview with anggit in relation with half-round rotation. when anggit was asked to determine the result of half-round rotation, he could determine the result correctly. he mentioned two conditions in which a transformation can be regarded as half round rotation. the first condition was that the distance of rotation center to the rotated point should have been equal with the distance of rotation center to rotation result point. the other condition was that the angle formed by the rotated point, rotation center, and rotation result point was 180 degrees (interview with anggit, 5/12/2013). moreover, anggit was unable to mention the direction of half-round rotation, whether it was clockwise or counterclockwise. having observing half-round rotation simulation design, anggit could mention that the direction of half-round rotation was counter clockwise. it was proven from the dialogue between the researchers and anggit, conducted on 5 december 2013, as follows: the researchers: “to what direction does it move”. anggit: “it moves clockwise”. the researchers: “in mathematics, to what direction does rotation move?” anggit: (thinking). after that, half round rotation simulation is shown to anggit. the researchers: “in what direction does it move?” anggit: “it moves clockwise, sir”. the researchers: “see the hand” (while appointing at the watch anggit is wearing). ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry 136 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare anggit: (looking at his own watch) “counter clockwise, pardon me, sir”. simulation design made by the researchers covered reflection, rotation, half-round rotation, and translation in separated files. it was based on the reason that it would be more practical to use and saved more disc space, due to small size of each file. this design was made by considering conditions of each concept of transformation type. the design was constructed by making a central movement, which should be focused on by users in relations with conditions of each transformation type. validators gave many positive statements towards simulation design. a suggestion stating that the material coverage should be extended became the researchers’ consideration for the next research, due to insufficient time allotment. validators agreed that this design could be used as an initial concept to a more complex concept. based on try-out result of transformation geometry design to some students, it was found out that this design could assist students to construct their own concepts and communicate abstract ideas, which were difficult to explain. conclusion transformation geometry simulation design, which consists of reflection, rotation, half-round rotation, and translation, is valid and reliable. this design can assist students to construct and strengthen conceptual students’ understanding of reflection, rotation, halfround rotation, and translation as well as helping them to communicate this concept. the advice of this research is that the lecturer should use media simulation, if it is related to geometry material in mathematics, especially transformation geometry. it is due to the fact that it can help students to find their own concepts of transformation geometry. the researchers are also expected to develop computer-based media, which can help students learn the mathematics.1 1statement: herewith, we have declared that this paper is our original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet be reviewed as well as be published by other scholarly journals. references akker, jan van den et al. 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(1999). “the effects of instruction in solving mathematical word problems for students with learning problems: a metaanalysis” in journal of special education, 32(4), pp.207-225. ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry 138 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare students of mathematics education (source: https://plus.google.com, 27/8/2015) this research was conducted in two main steps: preliminary step or preparation step covering practical problem analysis by the researchers and practitioners; and evaluation step in which the researchers designed a solution based on the design and technology innovation principles, interactive cycle of try-out process and practical revision from the given solution, and reflection of the product. it was conducted from october to december 2013 at the department of mathematics education fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. 8 umi.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 83 dr. tumisem t. mihardja is a lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto); and head of institute for research and community developement in ump, jalan raya dukuhwaluh, po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. she can be reached at: umiump@yahoo.com the model of environmental education management in indonesia through extracurricular activity tumisem t. mihardja abstract: indonesia government realizes that the formula of an effective environment policy is based on scientific information. this research mainly discusses how to develop the model of environmental education management and how to manage it in order to be continued and applicable. in the formal education in indonesia, extracurricular activity aims to support the understanding material where the implementing done out of the class. the type of extracurricular which has direct relationship with environment is scout movement. the application of environmental education model through the scout movement activity can enhance the conservation of forest by doing reforesting. this activity is done by applying some steps there are: introduction, collection and selection of seeds, breeding, and plantation. the scout movement activity, however, becomes one of the education activities which is suitable for getting experience, keeping and preventing environment, and the last doing conservation. the result also shows that the application this model which is followed by a direct action to rehabilitate the damaged area is able to broaden and develop conservation area continuously in its region around the school. key words: the model of preservation, environmental education, extra curricular activity, and the scout movement in indonesia. introduction the activity of human being in indonesia in utilizing natural resources, both waterways and forest, often ignores the rule. it causes the decrease of environment quality and the damage of natural resources. this damage is getting increased because of the pollution which comes from industry activities around the area. the environment destruction has an effect on: (1) the change of environment and social tumisem t. mihardja, the model of environmental education management in indonesia 84 economy around the beach and forest; (2) the change of social-economy around the beach from the fisherman to be fish-pond fisherman and the producer of gula kelapa or sugar made from coconut-pal sap; and (3) the change of environment caused by pollution from industrial activity: mangrove tree mortality is quite good and fishes contains pollutant (soemarwoto, 2001; and vaquette, 2001). accordingly, n. salim in his research (2005) showed that the environment in the south sea of java and brackish contained dissolved metal level approximately cu = 17.21 ppm, pb = 14.33 ppm, cd = 11.45 ppm, and hydrocarbon = 35.31%. the dissolved metal level in water would be accumulated to the result of caught fish. in doing so, tumisem t. mihardja and p. endar (2004) showed that there were many kinds of fishes from south sea of java and brackish contained cd = 1.5 ppm; cu = 21,80 ppm; and pb = 9,8 ppm. in crustacea contained cu = 60.38 ppm. this pollution directly causes the decrease of the quality of caught fish. meanwhile, tumisem t. mihardja (2007) also said that the pollution happened in south sea caused the decreased of caught fish 8.72% from 1995 – 2000. the damage of coastal and mangrove forest in the south sea of java comes from illegal logging, rearing pond, residence, pollution and sedimentation. these causes the change of vegetation structure from the structure which is dominated by mangrove becomes structure dominated by tidal shrub or acanthus ebracteatus and mangrove tree or nipa fruticans; the change of vegetation growth; and the decrement of vegetation from 21.090 ha into around 8.000 ha. the change of mangrove forest is caused by rearing pond which is done by many newcomers. hence, tumisem t. mihardja (2001) said that the amount of newcomer increased 1.8% per year. government regulation which covers environment management has been completely ruled, but the government itself and the citizens tend to ignore it. there is a board which handles environment management in every area in indonesia, yet the damage of environment happens continuously. the idea of sustainable development in indonesia stated in the conference in rio de janeiro in 1992 is only a symbol and it cannot overcome environment damage (soemarwoto, 2001). indonesia government realizes that the formula of an effective environment policy is based on scientific information. meanwhile the scientific information got from many locations is still inaccurate. it is because the government has not carried out an attitude scale judgment for every person and has not carried out an activity to manage the environment. one of the programs carried out by indonesia government in short and long term is by including environmental education through formal education system accompanied by direct action toward the prevention of environment damage. environmental education in formal education system in indonesia started in 1980s from elementary school to university level (ganjar & arief, 2001; and nomura & hendarti, 2005). in this era, environment is considered as an education model which is designed to increase public awareness relate to environment crisis. this education tries to give environment literature to someone. it means that the education is intended to develop the understanding of environment problem and the skill to overcome environment damage to individual or group. it causes educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 85 environmental education becomes an essential component from the strategy of national environment management. gradually, environmental education in indonesia is thought as a process of long life education. so, environmental education becomes the basic of all subjects in school. this is stated in education of population and environmental affairs. in the contrary, this education model does not run well (nomura & hendarti, 2005). the curriculum of formal education from elementary to university level contains a very compact material. as a result, the supplementing and developing material related to environment seems to be impossible to implement. one of the real actions of environmental education which may be implemented is by applying in extracurricular activity. in the formal education in indonesia, extracurricular activity aims to support the understanding material where the implementing done out of the class. the type of extracurricular which has direct relationship with environment is scout movement (hereafter sm) and environmental activists (hereafter ea). the sm activity is applied from elementary to university level, whereas ea is implemented senior high school to university level. the sm activity is a process of education which is done outside the class. it is run nicely and interestingly because it is conducted in an open area. this type becomes one of the education activities which is suitable for getting experience, keeping and preventing environment, and the last doing conservation. the main point of this education is that environmental education starts in early year, so it can be memorized that sm is very close to environment. world scout bureau (2002) stated that sm, as one of non-formal education, has a good position as a model related to environment. it has been showed that the themes developed by lord baden powell are respecting, loving, understanding and protecting environment. according to lord baden powell, the activity conducted in open area can show how people think about natural phenomenon, use and protect it. in 1970s, sm activity in indonesia related to environment cleanliness and greening. this fact shows that sm is the pioneer of environment movement in indonesia (nomura & hendarti, 2005). as consequence, environmental education which is given through sm activity may be used to promote environmental education and direct action to conserve environment. this activity will bore environmental activists who become motivator to anticipate and overcome the damage of environment, so it will significantly contribute to conserve environment. meanwhile, the sm activity in indonesia tends to be not active and does not run continuously. it is only carried out in a certain program like ceremony and national jamboree. thus, environmental education activity through sm becomes motivator to re-activate the sm activity. environmental education which is given from the lowest level of education, around 5 – 20 years, relates to forming basic attitude for children. slamet imam santoso said that generally a 5 – 20 year man/women is easy to be influenced, so the personality after this age tends to be stabile and becomes a habit (santoso, 1981). the age between 5 – 20 years is the formative years. the habit formed in formative years will not change again. tumisem t. mihardja, the model of environmental education management in indonesia 86 in doing so, g. thomson and j. hoffman define environmental education or environmental education as follows: […] is a process that creates awareness and understanding of the relationship between humans and their many environments-natural, man-made, cultural and technological. environmental education is concerned with awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills and participation, and has as its aim responsible environmental behavior. awareness–to help social groups and individuals acquire an awareness and sensitivity to the total environment and its applied problems. knowledge–to help social groups and individuals gain a variety of experience in, and acquire a basic understanding of, the environment and its associated problems. attitudes–to help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and protection. skills–to help social groups and individuals acquire the skills for identifying and solving environmental problems. participation–to provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working toward resolution of environmental problems (thomson & hoffman, 2002). meanwhile, g.a. lieberman and l.l. hoody, in their research toward 19 schools with 450 students, revealed that environmental education which is done interdisciplinary was able to develop students’ ability in certain subjects: language, mathematics, science and social (lieberman & hoody, 1998). moreover, they revealed that environment based education is able to upgrade the ability to think creatively and to solve the problem through a systematic thinking and thinking system application. environment based education is able to increase the ability to work in group, the skill to communicate, and the ability to behave politely to other people. tumisem t. mihardja (2007) shows that environmental education based mangrove ecosystem which is applied in elementary school can develop contextual learning, constructivism, active learning, inquiry and problem solving. related to student ability development, environmental education can change student’s point of view from anthropocentric to exocentric. this change will cause responsible manner and environment-friendly. method the research location was chosen based on the completion of area. those are sea, brackish and forest. it is found that 75% cilacap regency is surrounded by sea and forest. this regency consists of 23 districts. among them, there are five (5) districts which have direct border with sea. they are kroya, adipala, central cilacap, south cilacap, and kampung laut. two of those districts, central cilacap and kampung laut, have the most complete of territorial water. the transportation in central cilacap is quite good, whereas the transportation in kampung laut is a bit difficult. both in central cilacap and kampung laut, the territorial water is categorized into three (3) types. they are sea, brackish, and forrest. central cilacap district consists of five (5) sub-districts. they are gunung simping, sidanegara, donan, lomanis, and kutawaru. kutawaru is the only one educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 87 sub-district which has the most complete environment. hence, the location of research was conducted in this sub-district. the result of the first observation showed some points: the damage of forest, pollution from petroleum industry and cement, and 65.20% are elementary school graduates. the developed environmental education model is holistic and situational, so it can contribute not only overcome one case but also help to finish other case related to students’ environment. before deciding components from a certain model, it needs to do need analysis in order to be suitable with the stated aim and to avoid a high gap. the steps of the development of environmental education model are as follow: table 1: the steps of the development of environmental education model the total of the students in experimental school taken from class iii to vi were 220 students. the sampling was conducted randomly. suharsimi arikunto (2002) said that if the research subject is less than 100, it is better to take them all, so it is called a population research. if the research subject is more than 100, it can be done by taking 10-15% or 20-25%. based on this theory, the samples were 80 students, which were taken from class iii – vi. each class was taken 20 students which were grouped into male and female group. the total of students in research school got from class iii – iv were 259 students which were divided into class a and b. the research sample was grouped into control and experiment class which was done randomly. tumisem t. mihardja, the model of environmental education management in indonesia 88 the data was analyzed descriptive qualitatively. this analysis was done internally which was carried out by all teachers and principal and externally done by all stockholders. research findings the result of analysis which was done internally shows that the materials of environmental education conducted inside the class become burden for all the teachers. it is because the teachers must give additional time to teach. on the contrary, the material and the activity of environment conservation which are done integrated with the sm activity can be easily carried out. it also can help students to understand the materials given in the class and help them to solve the problems. the materials of environmental education which are designed collaboratively with teachers from many studies are able to assist students comprehend the materials in the class. accordingly, k. ganjar and a. arief stated that the integration of environmental education materials with other subjects occur because the current curriculum consists of many subjects (ganjar & arief, 2002). thus, it seems impossible to add a new subject. one of the techniques to include the materials of environmental education is by integrating into one subject which is based on the current curriculum. in the first experiment of the model, all teachers experienced difficulty in controlling and supervising the activity in conducting conservation. as a result, this model seemed impossible to be done. it happened because the area of students’ movement was wider. from the result of discussion internally and externally decided that the model of environmental education is implemented through camping and hiking. hiking is done to strengthen relationship among sm members from siaga – member of the pramuka (praja muda karana or boy scout movement) between 7 and 10 years – and pandega – member of the pramuka or boy scout movement up to 18 years. these activities done only in a certain occasion related to building of manner’s awareness toward environment. hiking activity is done to practice discipline and skill to overcome hindrances and to train how to analyze environment problem faced by their community. some teachers assumed that both hiking and camping activity are an activity model which need long and special time. they also need much money. considering this fact, it can not be done every time. it shows that teacher, as a sm instructor, does not understand the aims of environmental education. world scout bureau (2002) explained environment has an important role. it is not only as background but also as a view for training. this context is explained more by lord baden powell. he said that there are many activities done in open area, like tracking and stalking. he added that sm activity can be used to train how to observe flora and fauna, like: imitating the voice and act of birds, observing many kinds of leaves and naming them, and also other activities which can be done through playing games, camping, and hiking. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 89 related to the result of observation to the syllabus in curriculum 2004 for elementary school, the materials of environmental education which are developed through sm activity can clearly unite with science, mathematics, social, indonesia language, handicraft and art, sport, and religion. this integration can be seen from the correspondence or connection of basic competence, main topic, result of study, indicators, and learning experience which must be reached through learning process from class iii to vi. it can be explained as follows: first, language. the vocabulary related to forestry, ecology, story, and dialogue which are presented and expressed by students in their group help them to recognize and add their mastery of vocabulary and imagination. this activity can not only assist and cause students think abstract but also help them to make simple sentences. second, mathematics and art. the growth of plants or animals in environment helps students to recognize and operate number systematically. moreover, this case will help students to enhance their skill in solving mathematics problems. dealing with painting scenery, students are able to make a composition to paint objects found in environment. furthermore, this activity will trigger students to express their feeling toward natural environment. finally, it will be able to trigger students’ imagination about environment esthetics. third, science. territorial water ecology based environmental education which is conducted outside the class make students easier to learn about living thing or human being. it includes describing their features and needs in their environment. students can easily conclude that living thing or human being will change related to the change of natural environment, growth, and development and interrelated between living thing or human being and their environment both advantage and disadvantage. in short, in this context of learning, students understand more by conducting research and experience themselves through the phenomena found in environment. fourth, religion. environmental education done outside the class is considered to have good impact at religion education. starting from recognizing the natural environment, students will have curiosity. by having curiosity, it causes students want to see more detail and be able to ask, admire, and admit god’s greatness. from this context, environmental education is an awareness education which is backed up by a certain dynamics happened in the environment. fifth, social. territorial water ecology based environmental education train students’ sensitivity in regard to environment. individual sensitivity can cover three different environments which complete each other. those are (1) social environment: in understanding this environment, students start by listening to other people, seeing and being receptive with the given messages. in order to keep a good communication with other people, students not only listen to other’s opinion but also respond to it. it means that students interact with others; (2) culture environment: territorial water ecology based environmental education spontaneously recognizes and learns daily life related to its culture. cultures which can be known and learned by students through this environment are house architecture, handicraft, students’ voice and accent in their communication, and tradition for working; and (3) natural environment: tumisem t. mihardja, the model of environmental education management in indonesia 90 environmental education conducted outside the class is simple. it means that in the teaching learning process does not need much theory. students can be admired with the beauty and richness of natural. they also have to face simple things, like: the breeze of wind, the drop of rain on stones, and the many types of tress. those statements are in the line with p. vaquette’s statement. he states that learning natural environment does not mean that it not only learns natural science but also learns other fields. learning natural environment broadens students’ point of view to get a whole education manner (vaquette, 2001). it is because natural environment is the widest main of education. if teacher divides one subject matter related to living thing into some parts, so the learning itself is not comprehensive. on one side there are language fields, on the other side there is mathematics, social, and science. for example: in learning mathematics, teacher must use a language and social. the integration of environmental education in some fields is able to explore students’ knowledge and understanding through language, mathematics, history, geography, biology, ecology, art and geometry. accordingly, g.a. lieberman and l.l. hoody state that environmental based education in the field of language is able to upgrade the skill of reading and speaking, to progress students’ effort to learn language, and to communicate (lieberman & hoody, 1998). it terms of mathematics, it can be said that mastering mathematics can enhance the understanding of mathematics concept and material, the skill how to operate mathematically, and increase their desire to learn mathematics. in the field of science, it can be reported that this field is also able to enhance the knowledge and understanding of material, concept, process, and science principles. they add that through this field, students can apply or implement it in the real world. it also can help students to progress the desire of learning science. whereas in the field of social, it can be stated this field can increase the understanding of social material comprehensively and the skill of applying social thing to real life situation and cause the desire to learn social studies (lieberman & hoody, 1998). based on the result got from observation and discussion internally and externally shows that the model of environmental education through the sm activity focuses on students’ activity. this activity has possibility for students to carry out activities lead to sensitivity done through sensing, observing, and gathering and analyzing information got from the environment. this way develops eco-pedagogy. this model approaches students to nature. the approach of students to nature leads to have sensitivity to: (1) listening to the sound happened in the nature; (2) smelling any kind of odors; (3) getting along with flora and fauna; (4) practicing how to paint; and (5) looking for information and observing the nature in order to be able to forecast nature phenomenon. the application of this model also motivates students to conduct experiment and explore sensing, observing, and gathering and analyzing information got from the environment. the model of environmental education through the sm activity should be designed with the theme related to many point of views and field studies in order to be easily understood and recognized by students. concerning this model, educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 91 the theme which can be set up include animate and inanimate objects; inter dependent, natural resources and their function; positive and negative impact of natural resources function; and protecting and conserving environment. it can be done comprehensively, so some related concepts do not need to be discussed many times. g. thomson and j. hoffman statement (2002) is in the line with the characteristic of non formal education in djudju sudjana (2004). he says that environmental education is emphasized on knowledge, value or norm or attitude which aims to develop a responsible attitude toward their environment. it includes: (1) fulfillment a certain functional needs at present and future; (2) direct application on students’ daily life; (3) the model related to students’ needs in environment; (4) the curriculum focuses on students’ important and the potential of their area; (5) learning activities carried out in any places; (6) the material given relates to students’ and society’s life; (7) learning activities focus on students; and (8) utilizing any sources available in environment (sudjana, 2004). the application of the model is well designed in order not to be burden for students and not to disturb the mastery of national curriculum (thomson, 2002). this model is developed by considering physic and psychic approach. physically close means that this activity conducted around the school or students’ neighborhood. psychic means that the material is easily understood by students at their age. the material is designed based on some principles. they are: (1) starting from concrete to abstract, (2) developed from known to unknown point, and (3) starting simple to more complicated one. the result got from observation and discussion internally and externally shows in order this model can run continuously, so the material and activities focus on forest pollution and damage. it is caused by the present environmental research focuses on negative impact of the use of natural resources and overcoming pollution. the continuously research of natural resources covers the development of the land potential by considering its environment, like the movement of land and forest or gerhan (gerakan lahan dan hutan). this movement is one of the efforts to anticipate the shrinkage and destruction of forest. in the past, this movement was called greening and reforesting. this activity is handled by private organization and entrepreneur; as a result it can not be done maximally. now, it has been built institutions in each regency which clearly manage environment namely environment bureau. the working area of this bureau covers city and village. other institution which takes part in managing and anticipating the damage and decrease forest is forestry service. the development of cooperation has possibility that environmental education can be developed more based on environment crisis development around it. conclusion the application of environmental education model through the scout movement activity can enhance the conservation of forest by doing reforesting. this activity is tumisem t. mihardja, the model of environmental education management in indonesia 92 done by applying some steps there are: introduction, collection and selection of seeds, breeding and plantation. the students think that this activity is challenging, enjoyable and interesting. the impacts of the application of this model not only make the material conducted inside the class clearer but also result management of integrated area. the model of an effective and efficient environmental education management through sm activity is developed by working together between instructors from the higher school level. this instructor guidance is done by implementing a family system. references arikunto, suharsimi. (1989). penilaian program pendidikan. jakarta: departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan ri. ganjar, k. & a. arief. (2001). pedoman pelaksanaan pendidikan dan lingkungan hidup. jakarta: departemen pendidikan nasional ri. lieberman, g.a. & l.l. hoody. (1998). closing the achievement gap: using the environment as an integrating context for learning. san diego, california: state education and environmental roundtable. mihardja, tumisem t. (2001). “penyusutan hutan mangrove akibat pengambilan kayu bakar”. unpublished thesis master. bandung: institut teknologi bandung. mihardja, tumisem t. (2007). “program pendidikan lingkungan berbasis ekologi perairan sebagai upaya pengembangan literasi lingkungan dan konservasi melalui kepramukaan di sekolah dasar”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. bandung: universitas pendidikan indonesia. mihardja, tumisem t. & p. endar. (2004). “evaluasi kadar logam berat pada hasil perikanan tangkap di segara anakan, cilacap”. unpublished research report. purwokerto: universitas muhammadiyah purwokerto. nomura, k. & l. hendarti. (2005). environmental education and ngos in indonesia. jakarta: yayasan obor. salim, n. (2005). “pencemaran sungai donan dan intrusi bahan pencemar ke daratan”. unpublished research report. purwokerto: universitas jenderal sudirman. santoso, slamet imam. (1981). pembinaan watak: tugas utama pendidikan. jakarta: universitas indonesia press. simmons et al. (2004). nonformal environmental education program: guidelines for excellence. washington dc: national of american aee nw soemarwoto, otto. (2001). atur diri sendiri: paradigma baru pengelolaan lingkungan hidup. yogyakarta: gadjah mada university press. sudjana, djudju. (2004). pendidikan nonformal: wawasan, sejarah, perkembangan, filsafat, teori dan pendukung asas. bandung: falah production. thomson, g. (2002). what is good environmental education?. canada-ontario: canadian parks and wilderness society education director. thomson, g. & j. hoffman. (2002). measuring the success of environmental education programs. canada-ontario: canadian parks and wilderness society and sierra club vaquette, p. (2001). belajar mencintai alam. translation. jakarta: djambatan. world scout bureau. (2002). scouting and environment. genewa: switzerland press. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 55 improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language through role play isnaeni praptanti abstract: this research is aimed at knowing whether or not role play is effective in improving students’ ability in speaking with “krama” variant in javanese language. this is developmental research taking the eighth-year students of smp negeri (state junior high school) 2 in purwokerto, central java, indonesia, of the academic year of 2006/2007 as the sample. this research was done in two cycles in car (classroom action research), each of which consisted of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. each acting stage took 2 x 40 minutes. the data was collected using test, observation, interview, and journal in each cycle. the data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. the initial mean score of students’ ability of using “krama” variant in javanese language was 64.5. after the first cycle, it became 67.42 which was categorized as fair. after the second, it was 73 and categorized as good, above the minimum competence criterion. it can therefore be concluded that role play can improve the ability in using “krama” variant of the javanese language of students of smp negeri 2 purwokerto. process increase can be seen from students’ skill in implementing the steps of role play to improve the ability of speaking which is increasing, while productivity improvement can be seen from the grade of role play. key words: role play, “krama” variant in javanese language, car (classroom action research), and improving the ability. introduction language enables man to interact with each other, share experience, learn from each other, and improve his intellectual capacity (depdiknas, 2002:8). the first form of language known to man is that of spoken (samsuri, 1980:20). spoken language is expressed through meaningful speech sound produced through the manipulation of human speech organ. in learning language, students are taught both receptive and expressive skills. receptive skills include reading and listening; and expressive skills include speaking and writing. this also applies in the teaching of javanese language, of which the purpose is to make students able to communicate in it. as a local language, javanese has the function as (1) the pride of its speakers; (2) the identity of the javanese; (3) means of communication among members of society and family; (4) one of the constituents of the national language; (5) the isnaeni praptanti, m.pd. is a lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto, central java, indonesia. she can be reached at: tukiranump@yahoo.com isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 56 lingua franca at schools to help explain the bahasa indonesia and other language; and (6) tool for the expression of the javanese culture. in javanese language, there is what is called unggah-ungguh (speech level) that a variant of javanese language which show relationship between speakers. this relationship can be on the age, gender, kinship, rank, or intimacy basis. among the speech level there is the krama and ngoko variant. students of junior high school tend to ignore this. the sometimes use ngoko when they should krama and vice versa. for example, words which are supposed to be used to honor other people are used to themselves as in kulo badhe kondur (i am going home), where the appropriate on is kulo badhe wangsul. the students’ lack of mastery of the krama language make them shift to bahasa indonesia. this is due to several factors, such as family, society, environment, and school. they always use ngoko or bahasa indonesia in their daily communication at home, school, and society. to make students are able to use krama javanese, teacher should use the appropriate method, and role play can be the one. based on observation several students of grade viii of smpn (sekolah menengah pertama negeri or state junior high school) 2 who had very little ability in using krama variant. this could be because of some factors, such as low students’ interest to learn krama, teaching method, material selection, and poor learning media. the writer therefore wants to carry out a classroom action research to solve this problem by using role play. theoretical review: a. speaking skill speaking ability is the ability to produce sounds or saying words as an expression of thought and feeling (arsyad & mukti, 1988:17). speaking is a human behavior which make the extensive use of some factors which is physical, psychological, neurological, semantic, and linguistic in nature, so that it is regarded as the most important form of communication. physical factors include motoric activities, body movement which support speaking; psychological factors include mental activities which is related to emotion, feeling, and the courage to express ideas. neurological factors deals with the capacity of the brain nerve to produce language, while the semantic one relates with the meaning, and linguistics with the language itself (tarigan, 1986:15). in speaking, someone should be able to know his position related to his or her speaking partner(s). this means that he should know whether the one he is speaking to is older than him, has the same or different sex as him, has higher or lower position or social status etc. this will determine the choice of words, language variant. the purpose of speaking is to make effective communication. guntur tarigan (1981:15-16) says that the purpose of speaking include among others (1) informing, (2) entertaining, (3) persuading, (4) inviting, (5) urging, and (6) convincing. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 57 b. javanese language of “krama” in communication, javanese people pay very much attention to the unggahungguh basa or speech level, one of which is krama variant. the use of this level mark the personality of someone. the correct use of these levels will gain someone respect from others. in javanese language, there are the standard variants and krama is one of them. the standard variants which are most widely used are ngoko lugu, antya basa, krama lugu, and krama andhap. according to dwidjosusana (in sudaryanto, 1991), the javanese speech levels include: (1) ngoko kasar or rude ngoko, (2) ngoko lugu or standard ngoko, (3) ngoko andhap or polite ngoko, (4) krama lugu or standard krama, (5) krama madya or middle krama, (6) krama inggil or high krama, and (7) krama kedhaton or bagongan or palace krama. polite ngoko consists of (1) entya basa and (b) standard krama. the latest includes (a) wredha krama, (b) kramantara, and (c) madya krama or middle krama. so the standard variant which is now widely used is ngoko lugu, antya basa, krama lugu, and krama andhap. because antya basa and krama andhap belong to polite variant, these two variants are called ngoko halus or polite ngoko and polite karma which are different from ngoko lugu and karma lugu. lugu means biasa or ordinary. lugu here means not using polite words as in krama inggil when addressing second person or talking about third person. this unggah-ungguh basa is based on the javanese philosophy of respecting others. a speaking javanese always wants to appreciate and respect his partner. according to suwadji bastomi (1992:65), speech level is a language variation which is determined by the difference attitude towards the speaking partner. sudaryanto (1991:5) says that the speech levels which are now in use are the ngoko and krama variant. ngoko is divided into two, namely (1) ngoko biasa or ordinary ngoko, and (2) ngoko alus or polite ngoko. krama is also divided into two, namely (1) krama biasa or ordinary karma, and (2) krama alus or polite krama. therefore, ngoko biasa and krama biasa will hereafter be referred to as ngoko or krama. with this the speech levels are ngoko, ngoko alus, karma, and krama alus. c. the importance, characteristics, and function of “krama” krama is language expressing smooth language unit. krama is applied in respecting addressee. people will be impolite if they don’t apply krama to others who are older than them or to people who are younger but needed to be respected because of their social status. so it can be told that krama usage is requirement of polite attitude. there is standard manner in javanese language. krama language is one of standard manner. standard manner is manner received by public as custom manner used as frame of reference in language usage. this manner is applied as manner in writing and students’ in school. in usage of krama recognized existence of standard isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 58 manner krama (standard) and non-standard manner (substandard). krama which is usually called as krama village is included in non-standard krama because its custom value is lower and usually used in low educated society, while krama in high standard is used in educated society (sudaryanto, 1991). krama standard is meant as cultured language, full of ethics, and manner. while non-standard manner of language (substandard) is meant as dialectal language in each area. the characteristics of krama are as follows: first, sub section of krama or ordinary krama. this form of sub section of krama has characteristics: (a) all language or vocabularies applied are in the form of group words in krama and so it is with forming elements in the form of karma; and (b) term for speaker or main purusa applies kula word or i, and for discussed people or people in second side or madya purusa applies word panjenengan or you, and for discussed people or people in third side or pratama purusa applies word piyambakipun or they. its usage system is occurred between old and young people or people in lower class. second, sub section of krama alus. this form of sub section of krama alus has characteristics: (a) language or vocabulary applied is in form of mixture of group words in krama and krama alus, with word former elements are karama, and (b) term for speaker or main purusa applies word kula or i, and for addressee or people in second side or madya purusa applies word panjenengan or you, and for discussed people or people in third side or pratama purusa applies word panjenenganipun or they. its usage system is occurred between young to old people, pupil to teacher, subordinate to employer or leader, upper class and upper class people (priyayi), unclosed, and closed friend. krama is compatible form in many available alternatives in order to show courtesy to the addressee. krama is also used to express respect to people called in regulation. form of this manner is desired in every situation of regulation. education in using language well is started from home and from young age. the parents teach their children to use krama to greet others who are older then them. krama also expresses an important thing, that compilation of respectful form is needed to be aware in communication (bastomi, 1992). krama is grade of language that reflects politeness, besides expressing respect or respects close partner in office, old people, upper class (priyayi), and stranger. role play technique one of method which can be applied in speaking teaching activity is role play method. according to opinion of shaftel & shaftel (in riyanto, 1999/2000:107), role play method is interpreted as a problem solving method which involves two or more people to take decision openly in dilemmatic situation. performance is finished when point of dilemma can be reached and each player frees to analyze on what is going on through discussion involving observers to look for its solution. according to opinion of joyce and weil (in riyanto, 1999/2000:110) study, method of role play is termed with role play study model that is a study model educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 59 designed by exploiting human’ habitual in society, like helps each other, loves, respects, and cooperates. in its execution is more emphasizing in cooperation between educative participant through group concerned with problems, social criticism, value, and public issues. in the role playing method, role play is similar with holds function (karo-karo & uihbukit, 1979:60). someone who is playing a play or drama, hence she/he acts as one who is played by it, for example as mother, father, child, teacher, etc. in playing at role, student acts, applies, and speaks language is as the one played in the part of it. from the side of language means student must understands and applies its language manner. according to davis’s opinion (in riyanto, l999/2000:1l0) asserts that its study method of role play looks like simulation method, case study, and game. simulation method emphasizes knowledge, understanding, and application; while case study emphasizes analysis, synthetic, and evaluation. this thing is very good to check cognitive skill obtained through method and it is effective to change attitude. the prominent element in role play method is social relationship element. in playing at role, student places her/himself as certain figure or person, for example as warrior, farmer, doctor, teacher, driver and etc (surakhmad, 1989; and arikunto, 2002). based on inferential above can be concluded that role play method is a way to present lesson material by emphasizing to student to be able to behave or express mimic in the social relationship between socialist and speak language according to figure which is played in it. writer chooses role play method in this research because the method is one of appropriate method to teach speaking fluently. besides, the method will be able to create student to take part her/his self in daily life. teacher’s steps in using role play method are fellows: (1) first step so-called preparation step. the preparation needed is situation that will be played the part of. teacher assigns students to play the part of people who involved in social relationship and explains duties of the players and teacher also become observer; (2) teacher specifies student as role player; (3) student as role player plays the part of its role in each character; (4) determines background setting; (5) chooses observer and explains her/his duty; (6) discusses and gives assessment of role play result between role players and observer; and (7) concludes result of discussion by drawing generalization of comments based on experience. research method this learning innovation development was specially designed for bahasa jawa class, with standard of competence or sk (standar kompetensi) on “speaking javanese language”. basic competence or kd (kompetensi dasar) on “speaking javanese language of krama trough role play technique”. the subject of this study were the viii of smpn (sekolah menengah pertama negeri or state junior high school) 2 in purwokerto, banyumas, central java, indonesia, a mounting of 19 students consisting of 11 boys and 8 girls. isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 60 this study, which was a class room action research, was carried out two cycles (depdiknas, 2003c; and yatmana, 2003). each cycle consisted of two hours lesson (2 x 40 minutes). each cycle consisted of four actions. they were: (1) planning, (2) action, (3) observation and evaluation, and (4) reflection (madya, 2007). the plan of each phase was based on the changes which were made on the basis of observed factors, namely students, teacher, and learning activity. research records description of implementation result of cycle 1 is consisted as follows. first, description of teacher’s records in cycle 1 learning development. teacher’s ability to raise students’ requirement of studying has been good so far. it appears on teacher’s performances in describing the javanese language of krama which is used as an instrument to develop and increase youth’s personality. nowadays, youth’s personality should be improved because of excessive influences of foreign cultures which are not suitable with indonesian culture. along with example, teacher explained to the children the appropriate attitude toward parent, teachers, and older people by using javanese language of krama. thus, the children will be ready for various contexts of situation. at the end of the introduction, teacher emphasized on the importance of mastery and application of javanese language of krama in daily life as an instrument for increasing national personality. teacher’s ability in explaining students’ activity in speaking is good. teachers started with explaining etiquette of javanese language along with the examples of its direct application and through texts containing dialogues of javanese language of krama. relation between teachers and students is also good, in which teacher-students interaction was conducted by catechizing after the students paid attention to teachers’ explanation in javanese language. however, students-teachers interaction did not run delicately since there were some students who felt low and did not relax in speaking javanese language. the students were uncertain when they were asked to perform their speaking ability in front of the class. in spite of that, there was congenial relation between teachers and students as proved by the students’ readiness to perform the dialogue in javanese language of krama. teacher’s ability in delivering the explanation toward student groups was clear enough. the formation of students group ran effectively in which the students directly formed some groups based on their decision on topic and based on each role. teacher’s instruction met good response before the students worked in each group, even though there were some students who were confused and not accustomed to use javanese language of krama. while the students were discussing certain speaking topics which were going to be presented in front of the class, the teacher was controlling each group and asked them the difficulties in creating the scenario of role play dialogue. there were some students who were confused in deciding the diction because they did not know the meaning of the words. teacher’s activity in this process is advising and helping the students to choose the diction which is appropriate to the context. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 61 as next activity, the teacher asked students to practice the role play by having conversation in javanese language of krama in group. the performance of each group was based on the sequence and during 5-10 minutes for each group. the activity which was given to the students is appropriate to the instructional objective of the course in which the students are expected to perform the dialogue in javanese language of krama. when one group was performing the dialogue, the other groups were watching and examining the performance carefully. teacher observed and recorded the inadequacy of students’ speaking ability. this correction was conducted toward each group and each student. the aspects of speaking ability which were noted include of: (1) preciseness in form of address in speaking, (2) fluency in expression, and (3) intonation. lack of those aspects would be discussed together. teacher’s ability in organizing learning time was not appropriate because the allotment time was not maximally spent. at average, each group spent less than five minute to perform. the dialogue which the students performed was still simple and had not developed yet because the students depend only to the text and they just read it without any improvisation. thus, the role play they performed did not reflect optimal communication. the students acted out the dialogue in hurry as if they wanted to finish the performance as soon as possible. to create a more optimum process of learning, the teacher played a tape recorder, which the students had to listen first before the main activity began. to give the example of the dialogue, the recorded transcription was played first before the students of each group create the dialogue based on certain topic. however, the students could not hear the transcription well, since the listening activity was disturbed by the uproar of the classes beside. thus, the process did not run effectively. second, description of students’ records in cycle 1 learning development. in first fifteen minutes, teacher began the activity by greeting in javanese language of krama. the students tried to answer it slowly. the teacher then asked whether the students could speak javanese language of krama to communicate. most of the students answered it uncertainly. then, teacher and students are catechizing about the etiquette of javanese language and its use. the students’ answers were not satisfying, some of the students tried to translate javanese language of ngoko into krama before they answered the question given by the teacher. because most of the students’ answers were not correct, the teacher tried to explain the etiquette of javanese language of krama again. the students were listening and made a note. next, the teacher gave an example of javanese language application in varied context of situation before asked the students to answer her questions. after that, the teacher gave the students a group task to create a dialogue based on certain topics. then, in group, the students discussed the dialogue of javanese language in krama that they were going to perform in front of the class. there were six groups which each member were different. the groups were decided based on the topic that the students had chosen before. in choosing the member of the group, the students tend to select the same genders. there were 3 female groups and 3 isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 62 male groups. the female groups tend to choose role play about teacher and student, woman of pkk (program kesejahteraan keluarga or family prosperity program), a program at village level to educate women on various aspects, or social gathering, and parents, and children. meanwhile, male group tend to perform the role play about the chief of rt (rukun tetangga), the lowest administrative unit in village, and the villagers, teachers-students, and parents children. after discussion for about 15 minutes, the students then performed the role play in front of the class. the teacher gave chances to students group who was ready to perform the role play in javanese language of krama that they had created. the description of students’ activity in role play is as follow: the students could understand the task easily as could be seen when the teacher asked them to form groups to create dialogue in javanese language of krama. however, there were two groups read the text as they performed the role play. meanwhile, the other four groups did not read the text while performing the role play even thought they were trying to remember the words they had created in the dialogue. as a result, the condition showed that some students were not adept to speak language java of krama. students’ motivation in performing role play was good as could be seen when they were listening to teacher’s explanation and discussing how to create the scenario. their motivation also appeared in their abilities to perform the role play of javanese language of krama in front of the class. while one group was performing, the other groups were listening and examining the dialogue being performed. students’ cooperativeness toward other groups and teacher is also good, as they tried to revise the mistakes of javanese language etiquette which one of their friends made while performing the role play. the teacher was also observing every performance and noted every student development. students’ development results in the raising grade from 64.5 at pre-cycle 1 to 67.42 at cycle 1. besides, the students also show improvement in which they felt happy, comfortable, and more confident when they were communicating the javanese language of krama by role playing. third, achievement test. at the end of cycle 1, test measurement upon students’ ability in speaking javanese language of krama was conducted in the form of practical activity. the result shows that students’ grade is 67.42 at average. it means that students’ ability in speaking javanese language of krama is still low, under determined criteria of study completeness that is 70. fourth, reflection. based on observation record upon teachers’ ability in implementing learning process of speaking javanese language of krama through role play, it can be seen that in cycle i, even though the teacher was quite good in explaining the materials that were going to be learned, she did not maximally link the material towards competence and objective life skill. besides, the teacher did not emphasize important part of the materials going to be learned. thus, the students were confused whether they would use javanese language of ngoko, alus or kromo. teacher did not control the meaning of the words effectively since some students got problems in choosing diction. the interaction between teacher and students was not maximum in which the students were depressed and not relax. as a result, students’ ability in speaking javanese language of krama is 67.42%, which educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 63 is under the determined grade. in performing the role play, the students memorized the dialogue, thus the speaking activity is not communicative one. based on the reflection above, there are some recommendations to improve the activity of learning development on next cycle, as follows: (1) discussion with partner-teacher about learning procedure, development, communicating, and reflection; (2) preparing task or communication activity for students and explaining them some ways to communicate the activity of speaking javanese language of krama toward the teacher; and (3) explaining some ways for teacher to control the meaning and diction effectively. thus, the students can deliver their ideas smoothly. fifth, outcome description of cycle i consists of description of teacher record in developing learning cycle ii. teacher’s ability in improving student need to learn is becoming more and more optimum. teacher starts the class by greeting and catechizing in javanese language of krama, then the students answer with “sugeng siang, bu” (good afternoon, madam). compared to cycle i, they were more fluent in replying the greeting now. the teacher gave illustration about speaking javanese language of krama and played cassette containing the example of krama dialogue. the students were listening and noted difficult words. after that, the teacher asked them about the dialogue they had listened from the tape. they were asked to imitate the dialogue to form the habit of speaking and understanding javanese language of krama. this exercise of imitating the dialogue helped the students to obtain language ability and they became familiar to use javanese language. teacher ability in giving explanation and speaking procedure was good. she asked the students to state a topic to be developed into a dialogue which can reflect the real language situation. after agreeing the topic, teacher asked the students to develop the topic into simple scenario in group discussion. the time given is 15 minutes. teacher walked around the class to monitor the discussion while occasionally asking the students “is there any difficulties?”. the students asked teacher some words and sentences they did not know or uncertain sentences. teacher approached and answered the questions directly or indirectly. teacher and students has interacted optimally in this cycle. the students fell comfortable and confident to have dialogue in javanese language even though some of them used ngoko, especially when they were having discussion with friends. after discussion, teacher asked the students to perform the dialogue they had created in front of the class. all groups were ready now and each was hesitate to perform the role play without being appointed by the teacher. some members of different groups stood up in unison, but the teacher finally chose one of the groups to perform the role play first. thus, the teacher could improve the students’ motivation. carefully, the teacher observed and graded student groups who were preparing to perform the role play of javanese language of krama dialogue. allotment time of the performance which is 5-10 minutes for each group was now optimally used. the students practiced the role play fluently and not in hurry. the teacher graded students’ ability in communicative speaking which aspects are accuracy, fluency, and intonation. the observation was conducted more accurately by using grading isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 64 list containing each aspect of speaking ability. after each group performed the role play, the teacher analyzed their performance directly. the method used in this cycle is different with cycle i in which the critique or input was given after all groups had already performed the role play. teacher’s ability in arranging and managing learning time is quite effective now. teacher gave much time to practice the scenario, thus lot of communicative activities happened between students. as long as allotment time of 5-10 minutes, each group spent only 7 minutes at average. the students conducted the role play calmly although a group was performing while tried to remember the concept of the text they had created before. although limited, the communication has developed yet. teacher did not rely much on teaching media, before entering cycle ii, teacher had given task for students to observe any communication activity in their families or society environment. by observing the language activity directly upon original speaker, the students are expected to understand and apply the javanese language of krama in the real context. sixth, description of the students’ records in cycle ii learning development. as the teacher entered the class, the students were ready to start the lesson, they had sit in each chair. after getting teacher’s explanation, they sit in a group to do the task as the teacher commanded. the students looked very busy discussing the topic they wanted, and they also decided character that each member will perform. after that, they developed the scenario into a complete dialogue. the students needed times to practice it and choose the diction which presented their ideas. once in a while, the teacher helped the students in choosing the diction. after fifteen minutes of discussion, the students practiced the character they performed, they were practicing the dialogue in javanese language of krama. now, the students did not read the script, it shows improvement since there was a group who was still reading the text in performing the role play. at this cycle, the dialogue has improved and the speaking activity is more fluent even though some words were pronounced stiffly influenced by their daily language that is indonesia language. students used some ways in presenting their ideas such as by using gesture, expression, and properties to support the role play. students’ motivation in learning the role play is good as proven by the presence of all members of each group. they did the task given by the teacher, used the result of the observation about language communication using javanese language of krama in their environment as a reference for completing the task although there was inappropriateness in choosing diction and arranging the sentences in role play. in cycle ii, the students developed the topic or material given in cycle i into a role play because the communication activity in cycle i was stiff. in cycle ii, there has been significant development in which the speaking activity is improved and the allotment time is longer and the activity of communicating can be clearly seen. the teacher, students, and observer could understand the content of the dialogue. however, the organization of group work, preparation of procedure, follow up, and variation of activity were not maximally conducted yet. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 65 seventh, achievement test. at the end of cycle ii, practical test of speaking was conducted. the result shows that students’ average grade is 73 and determined criteria of study completeness is 84.2%. it means that there has been improvement in students’ speaking ability even though there were three students did not satisfy the criteria of minimum competence or kkm (kriteria kompetensi minimal). discussion in the first cycle, the students used javanese language of krama in learning process. in fact, javanese language of krama should be used when someone is speaking toward older person or respected people. teacher used javanese language of krama toward students in case that the students will be accustomed to understand and use javanese language of krama in daily life. before moving to the important activity, the teacher played recorded dialogues of javanese language of krama from different language situations upon society. these steps are important since language ability can not be learned as a science but through habitual action. to gain a deeper internalization, the students were asked to observe and record the dialogues of javanese language of krama which happened in teacher’s family, society, and surrounded environment as an advanced task of cycle i. students’ activities of listening, observing, and imitating will help them in presenting their ideas into easier form of dialogue. to build language ability, especially speaking, considerably needs practice and habitual action. language is not only understood as a theory but should be practiced habitually. entering the second cycle, learning process ran more effectively. the students were quite busy trying to understand teacher’s explanation and recorded dialogue of javanese language of krama even though there was small discussion to compare the perception or to understand the meaning of the conversation. students’ attention toward the lesson was increasing as could be seen in the discussion to develop the topic which going to be performed in the role play. besides asking words in sentence structures, the students also practiced to pronounce the words correctly for next performance. they also practiced to pronounce the sentences in the right intonations while the teacher was walking around the class, observing the activity of the group, and helped them. practice in expressing the ideas, pronunciation, and intonation is a way to support students’ ability in speaking. at this activity, the teacher does not role as a lecturer again, but she roles as a guide. it means that the teacher has already done the activity of development. cycle ii shows significant improvement in almost all study groups. teacher’s effort in raising students’ need to learn succeeded in this stage because she described and linked the importance of communication toward the needs. the application of javanese language of krama can affect students’ values of manners. good manners then will build the character which can affect students’ personality. teacher’s appreciation has increased because she conducted the follow up based on the result of the observation and recorded conversations. further task made by the students was analyzed by teacher. thus, the students could understand it easily. isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 66 at this cycle, the development and activity of role play have increased. this improvement can be seen from the attitude of each student in having conversation, students’ fluent pronunciation, and intonation that supports the content of the dialogue and more fluent communication. in general, teacher performance in implementing learning process of speaking javanese language of krama is increasing. students’ performance in this activity is also good. at this cycle, language class belongs to the students who are communicating actively while the teacher roles as facilitator. conclusion and recommendation based on the analysis toward students’ performance and the result of ability test of speaking javanese language of krama, it can be concluded that students’ ability is speaking javanese language of krama can be increased through role play technique. process increase can be seen from students’ skill in implementing the steps of role play to improve the ability of speaking which is increasing, while productivity improvement can be seen from the grade of role play. at cycle i, test grade is 67.4 at average, while in cycle ii is 73 or 5.58 higher than cycle i. besides, presentation of learning exhaustiveness is also increasing from 52.36% into 84.5%. based on the result of development in learning innovation stated above, following are some recommendations as important suggestions to be implemented. first, role play technique can be alternative way to increase students’ ability in speaking javanese language of karma; and second, role play technique can also be used as an alternative way to increase students’ ability in speaking non javanese language because role play is a substitute toward the real language activity, while the essence of all language is as means of communication. references arsyad, maidar & mukti. 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(2003). penelitian tindakan kelas (action research) dalam bidang pendidikan dan sosial. malang: banyumedia publising bekerjasama dengan umm press. isnaeni praptanti, improving the ability of using krama variant of the javanese language 68 the role play technique can be used as an alternative way to increase students’ ability in speaking non javanese language because role play is a substitute toward the real language activity while the essence of all language is as means of communication. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 127 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare abdorrakhman gintings the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability abstract: this research aims to reveal the correlation between the understanding of pre-service teacher at schools for persons with disability or slb (sekolah luar biasa) about children with special needs or abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus) as an independent variable x1 and understanding of the teaching profession as an independent variable x2, with their performance in carrying out internship activities at slb as the dependent variable y. by applying a quantitative research approach, the results of the study showed that: understanding of abk was low with mean x1 = 1.694; understanding of the teaching profession was high with mean x2 = 3.071; and the performance of the internship was also low with mean y = 1.764. the results of the correlative analysis show that the understanding of the abk has a very high correlation with the internship performance with rx1y = 0.946; the understanding of the teaching profession has a low correlation with the internship performance with rx2y = 0.339; while the two independent variables have moderate correlated with the dependent variable with rx1x2y = 0.477. it could be interpreted that a sense of concern for the difficulties faced by persons with disabilities is less influential in shaping the professional attitude of prospective teachers than their motivation to enjoy the various benefits that can be obtained if working as a teacher. therefore, it is recommended that visiting slb activities should be made as part of an orientation program for new students before the first lecture begins. in addition, the university offered scholarships to family members with disabilities and children of slb teachers to attract their interest in continuing their education as prospective slb teachers. key words: children with special needs; teacher professionals; internship program; school for students with special needs. about the author: prof. abdorrakhman gintings, ph.d. is a senior lecturer at the uninus (universitas islam nusantara or islamic university of indonesian archipelago) in bandung city, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: abdorrakhman.gintings@uninus.ac.id suggested citation: gintings, abdorrakhman. (2019). “the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february, pp.127-138. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (december 22, 2018); revised (january 27, 2019); and published (february 28, 2019). introduction the awareness of parents of children with disabilities, or children with special needs, and in indonesia called as abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs), has recently increased. as © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 128 abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children an illustration, the number of students with special needs, or persons with disabilities in indonesia, in the last 10 years, according to ministry of education and culture of the republic indonesia has increased by 550.49% from 19,756 people in 2008 to 128,510 in 2018 (cf purbani, 2013; moec ri, 2015; and jaya et al., 2018). simultaneously, in the same period of time, the number schools for abk and slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school) has also increased by 27.94% from 1,686 units to 2,157 units (cf moec ri, 2017; widyawati & felicia, 2017; and jaya et al., 2018). this quantitative increase is inseparable from the continuous efforts of the indonesian government, through the moec ri (ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia), to improve education services for abk as well as increasing socialization to parents of students. this effort was strengthened by organizing a special program to find children with special needs and to encourage parents to send their children to school. this is due to the existing stigma in the community about the birth of children with special needs is a result of god’s punishment for the bad behavior and sins of their parents, so many parents are ashamed and reluctant to send their children to school (suwaryani, 2008; wike, 2015; and mastiani, 2018:3). indeed, improving services qualitatively has not guaranteed the achievement of goals and benefits for the crew itself. one component of education management, which is also one of the components of the snp (standar nasional pendidikan or education national standards) is the professionalism and performance of the education staff, who teach at the slb. this is in line with the opinion of ron brandt (1992/1993), as cited also in udin s. sa’ud (2009), that almost all reform efforts in education, finally, depend on the teacher (brandt, 1992/1993; and sa’ud, 2009:116). in this context, i. yuastutik (2016) and other scholars also argued that there is no point of developing education if teachers are left behind, because various studies found that teacher is the most consistent and strong factor that influence the quality of education (darling-hammond, 2000; hightower et al., 2011; and yuastutik, 2016). therefore, in order to be able to carry out their educational tasks professionally, a prospective teacher must first be trained and educated specifically (malm, 2009; and husien, 2017:22-23). this demand is reinforced by the results of a study conducted by p. lubrica et al. (2018), and other scholars, which revealed that students feel teachers are not doing good practices related in adapting to different class environments (blaylock et al., 2016; blazar & kraft, 2017; and lubrica et al., 2018:116). however, the professionalism and performance of the teacher are largely determined by the process they are undergoing, when attending prospective teacher education programs. this is in line with the research findings conducted by mohammed ali alkahtani (2016), and other scholars, that the low quality of education services provided by teachers to children with special needs, in that case students with autism, is due to their lack of knowledge about students with disabilities. the researchers, then, recommended the need for improvements in the education system for prospective teachers, who would be assigned to schools for children with disabilities (rieser et al., 2013; alkahtani, 2016; and kang & martin, 2018). since the introduction of the teacher as a profession by the president of the republic of indonesia, in the teacher’s day on 25 november 2005, there has been an education reform of prospective teachers in indonesia (cited in mutohar, 2016; and rahman, 2016). one of the changes applied in the education of prospective teachers in indonesia is ppg (pendidikan profesi guru or teacher professional education). the ppg is a component of the professional attitude formation program as applied in other professions, such as the medical profession (surya, 2012; syahril, 2016; and fauzan, 2017). in general, the purpose of implementing this ppg is to form the four core competencies of teachers as mandated by law number 14 of 2005 concerning teachers and lecturers, chapter iv, article 10, paragraph (1), which reads “[…] pedagogics, personality competencies, social competencies, and professional competencies obtained through professional education” (setneg ri, 2005b:6; and ada & © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 129 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 azisah, 2016). in the explanation section of article 10, paragraph (1), it is clarified that: what is meant by pedagogic competence is the ability to manage the learning of students. personality competence is defined as a strong, noble, wise, and authoritative personality ability and an example for students [...]. what is meant by professional competence is the ability to master subject matter widely and deeply. what is meant by social competence is the ability of teachers to communicate and interact effectively and efficiently with students, fellow teachers, parents/guardians of students, and the surrounding community (setneg ri, 2005a:5). in the curriculum of ppg (pendidikan profesi guru or teacher professional education) in indonesia, there is a ppl (program pengalaman lapangan or internship program) for the formation of the professionalism of prospective teachers. for prospective slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school)’s teachers, ppl program is conducted at the slb (ediyanto et al., 2017; husien, 2017:151; and utami, 2018). thus, the prospective teachers get the opportunity and facilities to familiarize themselves with the situation and environment of abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs)’s schooling life. their presence there will provide an opportunity to interact with students of various types of disabilities. this is very important considering that some of the prospective teachers are not from families, which have family members with disabilities (fauzan, 2017; husien, 2017; and utami, 2018). in fact, most prospective student teachers still have psychological problems in carrying out educational service assignments for students with disabilities. as a result, prospective teachers still feel over proud and less interested in getting along with students at the slb, where they carry out their internship program. this attitude is counter-productive to the success production of slb teachers, who are ready and able to provide quality education services according to the education national standards (kurniawati, 2017; and widyawati & felicia, 2017). basically, professionalism of a plb (pendidikan luar biasa or special needs education)’s teacher is related to two worlds: the world of teacher training and the world of abk. therefore, this study aims to answer the question of whether there is a correlation of between understanding of the teaching profession and abk with the performance of prospective teachers in conducting internships at the slb as part of the ppg curriculum? furthermore, based on the discussion of the answer, this study proposes several recommendations in improving the quality of the implementation of the internship program for slb’s teacher candidates. methods this study applies a quantitative research approach to obtain an overview of the correlation of two independent variables (creswell, 2003; williams, 2007; and yilmaz, 2013), namely: understanding of abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs) as x1, and understanding of teacher profession as x2 with internship program performance as y of slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school)’s teacher candidate students at the fkip uninus (fakultas keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan, universitas islam nusantara or faculty of education and teacher training, islamic university of archipelago) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the constellation of relations between the three research variables is as illustrated in the figure 1. figure 1: constellation of relationships between research variables © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 130 abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children data was gathered by distributing three sets of questionnaires for each variable, with four closed answer alternatives adopting a likert-scale: strongly agree (sangat setuju = 4), agree (setuju = 3), disagree (kurang setuju = 2), and disagree (tidak setuju = 1). as respondents, there were 82 semester 2 students from academic year 2018-2019 in the teacher education study program for abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs) as a sample drawn randomly from a total of 128 students (mathers, fox & hunn, 2007; and pearse, 2011). for triangulation, two supervisor lecturers were interviewed. in addition, six students were taken with a combination technique, purposive or representative and random sampling. the sample of student respondents consisted of three groups, which are: students from families which a member has disabilities; children from slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school) teachers; and students who are not from the previous two groups (holtzhausen, 2001; and peter, 2010). the location of the respondents’ internship is in three slb units, which are: slb mekar, slb kuntum, and slb tunas. the three slbs are located in the city of bandung, west java, indonesia. the location of the interview was held in the lecturer’s room of the fkip uninus in bandung. the entire series of research activities were carried out starting from september 2018 to january 2019. data from the questionnaire answers were analyzed using descriptive analysis and correlative analysis, as following here: firstly, descriptive analysis. it is done to get an idea of the high value of the three variables by calculating the average score given to each statement in the three questionnaires with the formula: ∑ sc mean = -------- n mean is the average score. sc is the score given for each statement. n is the number of statements for the variables analyzed. the mean calculation results are, then, interpreted referring to the contents of table 1. secondly, correlative analysis. it is intended to determine the level of the relationship between: variable free x1 with y or rx1y; free variable x2 with y or rx2y; and a combination of both independent variables x1 and x2 together with y or rx1x2y. correlation analysis is calculated using the pearson product moment correlation formula with the assumption that the data is normally table 1: descriptive categorization range category 1.000 – 1.600 very low 1.601 – 2.200 low 2.201 – 2.800 moderate 2.801 – 3.400 high 3.401 – 4.000 very high note: results of data calculation. table 2 guidelines for interpreting the correlation coefficient correlation interval correlation level 0.000 – 0.199 very low 0.200 – 0.399 low 0.400 – 0.599 moderate 0.600 – 0.799 strong 0.800 – 1.000 very strong note: adapted from sugiyono (2010:184). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 131 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 distributed and linear (bewick, cheek & ball, 2003; and hazra & gogtay, 2016). the correlation formula used is: n stands for the number of data. r is the correlation coefficient. in order to be able to interpret how strong the relationship is, the guidelines can be used as shown in the table 2. results and discussion descriptive analysis results. the results of the calculation of descriptive analysis of the three variables can be seen in the table 3. the results show that plb (pendidikan luar biasa or special needs education) study program’ students had a low understanding of abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs) with mean = 1.694. it can be interpreted that the choice to continue their education as prospective plb’s teachers less influenced by their knowledge of abk. it can be assumed that this trend is due to the low understanding of the community about persons with disabilities (mudzakir, 2011; tirtayani, 2017; and mastiani, 2018:3). in addition, most of the prospective slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school)’s teacher students from families, who have family members are abk or children of slb teachers, who have knowledge and experience with the lives of persons with disabilities (sartica, 2013; efendi, 2018; and jaya et al., 2018). moreover, the students of plb study program have high knowledge of the teaching profession with mean = 3.071. this can be interpreted that their choice to pursue the education as prospective plb’s teachers is influenced by their knowledge of the teaching profession rather than understanding about abk. it can be assumed that this trend was due to the government’s success in disseminating teacher reform policies. the policy provides an increase in social welfare for teachers and other awards, such as a 60-years retirement age that is higher than the retirement age of non-teacher civil servants – 58 years (ediyanto et al., 2017; haug, 2017; and efendi, 2018). in addition, teachers are also given other various benefits according to the mandate of law number 14 of 2005 and derivative regulations. these results also confirmed the 2013 bermutu (better education through reformed management and universal teacher upgrading) program report, which showed that not a few high school graduates who graduated with the highest ranking placed lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or educational personnel education institutions) as their first choice in continuing their education (nurliana, 2012; and ningsih, viant & inderawati, 2014).1 plb student teacher performance, in implementing the internship program, is at a low level with mean = 1.764. this was allegedly because most of the students, 58 people from 82 people, or 70.73%, had just visited schools for people with disabilities for the first time. in addition, only 16 people, or 19.51% of them, came from families with family members with disabilities. only 8 people, or 9.76%, are actually persons with disabilities. the supervisors explained that those who have absolutely no experience relating to schools and children with disabilities still feel awkward and unfamiliar with the atmosphere in schools for people with disabilities (mian, 2017; andriana, 2018; and interview with respondent a, 22/12/2018). 1see also, for example, “indonesia: better education through reformed management and universal teacher upgrading” in the world bank, on 24 april 2014. available online also at: http://projects-beta.worldbank.org/en/ results/2014/04/14/indonesia [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: march 24, 2018]. table 3: descriptive analysis results description x1 x2 y mean 1.694 3.071 1.764 category low high low © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 132 abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children in the interview, the two supervisors stated that many of the prospective teacher students, especially those who did not have sufficient knowledge and experience of persons with disabilities, were still reluctant to associate with slb students where they carried out the internship program (interview with respondent b, 27/12/2018; and interview with respondent c, 27/12/2018). the two supervisors underline the same conditions with studies conducted by loi sook wei & mohd hanafi mohd yasin (2017), and other scholars, that most preservice teachers of special education have inadequate field-based experiences and lack of exposure to disabilities (adioetomo, mont & irwanto, 2014; wei & yasin, 2017; and wibowo & muin, 2018). the interviews with prospective teacher students confirmed the study of the induction program for novice teachers conducted by kairit tammets, kai pata & eve eisenschmidt (2019). in the study, they found that many prospective teachers found it difficult to collaborate with senior teachers to share professional knowledge that would enrich their experiences (cf johnson et al., 2014; blaylock et al., 2016; and tammets, pata & eisenschmidt, 2019). this stems from the lack of support from the senior teachers and supervisors from the university, which is expected by the prospective teachers (mulford, 2003; zhao & zhang, 2017; interview with respondent b, 27/12/2018; and interview with respondent c, 27/12/2018). correlative analysis. the results of the calculation of a simple correlation coefficient using the pearson product moment formula between variables x1, x2, y, and z are as can be seen in te table 4. understanding of children with special needs (x1) correlates very strongly with internship performance (y) with correlation coefficient rx1y = 0.946, while understanding of the teaching profession (x2) correlates low with internship performance (y) with correlation coefficient rx2y = 0.339. the combination of the two independent variables, the understanding of children with special needs (x1) and the understanding of the teaching profession (x2), together correlated moderately with the performance of the internship with coefficients rx1x2y = 0.477 the analysis of the correlation between the two independent variables on the variable performance of the prospective plb (pendidikan luar biasa or special needs education)’s teacher shows that the understanding of children with special needs is more strongly correlated with the internship performance of the prospective plb’s teacher compared to the correlation of understanding of the teaching profession (cf azizah, 2015; and budiarti & sugito, 2018). according to this result, it could be interpreted that the very high correlation of understanding of abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs)’s children with the internship performance of slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school)’s teacher candidates has to do with intrinsic motivation to carry out an internship program in students who already have knowledge about abk, both those who have siblings with disabilities and whose parents are slb’s teachers as stated in interviews with them. they added that they continued their education to study programs for slb’s teacher candidates based on their intention to provide assistance to persons with disabilities (tucker, 2013; azizah, 2015; and budiarti & sugito, 2018). good intentions, or intrinsic motivation, is one of the factors that contribute to a person’s high performance, which certainly applies also to the performance of student candidates for slb’s teachers (brantas, 2009; torang, table 4: results of correlation coefficient calculation correlation correlation coefficient category x1y 0.946 very strong x2y 0.339 low x1x2y 0.477 moderate © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 133 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 2013; and tucker, 2013). more than that, performance is also a function of competence which includes knowledge and experience about the work done (winterton, le deist & stringfellow, 2006; and wirawan, 2009:9). in line with that, knowledge about abk has encouraged the use of expertise to carry out quality internship tasks (true ed., n.y.; wirawan, 2009; and petrila et al., 2015). a knowledge of the various welfare schemes provided by the government to the teaching profession as delivered by two students, who did not have disability siblings was also not an slb’s teacher child, motivating them to continue their education to study programs for slb teacher candidates. referring to the theory of motivation from a.h. maslow (1943)’s hierarchy of needs, the motivation possessed by this group is extrinsic at the level of physical or material needs (cf maslow, 1943; ward & lasen, 2009; and hasibuan, 2014:225). even though including the main needs, but the lowest weight. therefore, this theory is confirmed by the results of this study, namely the value of the correlation of knowledge about the teaching profession with low internship performance. in addition, basically extrinsic motivation does not last long, if the causative factor is not obtained. this is experienced by students of slb’s teacher candidates whose knowledge of the teaching profession is high, but their knowledge of abk is low (ward & lasen, 2009; hasibuan, 2014; and haug, 2017). the performance indicated by their internship productivity is low, because of their low motivation as a result of dissatisfaction, as they have not received various welfare allocated to teachers who are already in charge, according to l.w. porter & e.e. lawler (1968)’s model (cf porter & lawler, 1968; engkoswara & komariah, 2012:217; fahmi, 2013:119; and kuranchie-mensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). the results of this study also confirm the opinion of h. weihrich & m. cannice (2011), and other scholars, which reminds us that it is possible that under certain conditions motivation does not succeed in encouraging performance improvement (roberts, 2005; weihrich & cannice, 2011:344; and dobre, 2013). the combined correlation of understanding of children with special needs (x1) and understanding of the teaching profession (x2) with an internship performance (y) is moderate, because it is the resultant of the two correlation vectors of the two independent variables individually with the dependent variable. in this case, the medium correlation is the result of a very strong correlation with a low correlation. this condition can be interpreted that the understanding of abk and the understanding of the teaching profession affect each other the performance of prospective slb’s teachers. in accordance with vector theory, the resultant value of two vectors will be between the second value of the forming vector. if the two vector formers are rx1y vectors, which are larger than rx2y vectors, then the vector resultant will be smaller than rx1y but larger than rx2y vector. because rx1y is very strong, and rx2y is low, the combined vector value, rx1x2y is rationally acceptable. conclusion this study revealed that students have a low understanding of abk (anak berkebutuhan khusus or children with special needs), a high understanding of the teaching profession, and low performance in implementing an internship program. moreover, students choosing their careers to become slb (sekolah luar biasa or special needs school)’s teachers are highly correlated with their understanding of the teaching profession and have a low correlation with their understanding of abk. this result can be assumed that the choice of career to become a slb’s teacher is more motivated by the desire to obtain a bright future life from teacher profession, because of the various welfare benefits rather than the desire to provide quality education services to abk. furthermore, this study also shows that in implementing the internship, students who have family members as persons with disabilities or have parents with professions as slb’s teachers are more serious and active in serving slb students compared © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 134 abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children to their classmates who have no family life background that is related with children with special needs or people with disabilities. according to the results above, this study proposes several recommendations in relation with special education teacher program. firstly, prospective special education teacher should be provided with the understanding of abk, especially for new students who do not have family members with disabilities and who are not children of slb’s teachers. this could be given during the orientation program through visiting slb and inviting plb (pendidikan luar biasa or special needs education)’s experts and slb students to give lectures on various aspects of the lives of persons with disabilities. secondly, increasing the number of prospective slb’s teacher students who have experience in children with special needs as a positive capital, universities with special education program should allocate funds to offer scholarships to senior high school graduates if they continue their studies in educational study programs for children with special needs. allocation of scholarship offers could also be increased by coordinating with the ministry of higher education, research, and technology of the republic of indonesia.2 references ada, julkifli hidayat & siti azisah. 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(2016). “peningkatan kinerja guru di dalam merencanakan, menerapkan, dan mengevaluasi metode pembelajaran kreatif dengan menggunakan model pembinaan recharging kearifan spiritual by reward king (rksbrk)” in jurnal penelitian dan pengembangan pendidikan luar biasa, volume 1(2), pp.105-111. zhao, h. & x. zhang. (2017). “the influence of field teaching practice on pre-service teachers’ professional identity: a mixed methods study” in frontiers in psychology, volume 8. available online also at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/pmc5522859/ [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: april 1, 2018]. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 iii© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com volume 7 (2) february 2015 www.educare-ijes.com issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [iv] abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system at primary schools in japan and iran. [93-102] anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti, description of the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process using the lesson study. [103-110] mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching as a profession. [111-122] jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english for tefl in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer: the syntactic and semantic analysis. [123-134] samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning at higher education institutions in china: a case study. [135-146] kartono, social capital and quality improvement at the junior high school vip al-huda in kebumen, central java, indonesia. [147-160] amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? comparative study of private and government schools in dessie administrative town, north central ethiopia. [161-170] suarman, students’ perspective on the domains of teaching quality. [171-180] truong bao duy, the effects of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning outcome. [181-188] hilal ahmad wani & andi suwirta, changing dynamics of good governance in africa. [189-202] info-edu-tainment. [203-212] educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 iv © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. what are the criteria of an international journal? i think this is a problem that is still debatable, not only that the journal should use one of the languages at the united nations (un) and published abroad, but there are many other aspects that must be observed and discussed. one aspect that is also important, i think, in a scientific journal with international standards is that the articles published by the journal must come from various countries in the world. thus, although the journal claimed as a standard of “international”, but if the articles are coming from the authors of indonesia only, it is still relatively as journal of “national” standard. in addition, the members of editorial advisory board of the journal must also come from various countries around the globe. therefore, since the beginning of its publication in august 2008, the educare journal has been trying in order the articles published by the journal come from various countries. and, thank god, the efforts to obtain the research results are quite good, as shown by the response of the authors from outside of indonesia’s nation-state, which they interest and always send the articles to be published in the educare journal. thus, although the educare journal has not been accredited yet by ditjendikti kemenristekdikti ri (directorate-general of higher education, ministry of research, technology, and higher education of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta, but many writers from outside of the indonesia’s country saw it as “esteemed and reputable journal”. as indicated in the issue of february 2015, the educare journal contains 10 articles that six of them come from outside of the indonesian country, and only 4 articles are coming from the authors of indonesia. from the indonesian state, beside two articles from the lecturers of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, i.e. “description of the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process using the lesson study” (by anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti) and “social capital and quality improvement at the junior high school vip al-huda in kebumen, central java, indonesia” (by kartono); also there are two articles from outside of ump, which is coming from unsur (suryakancana university) in cianjur, “verb go (back to, on, and out) in english for tefl in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer: the syntactic and semantic analysis” (by jauhar helmie); and from unri (university of riau) in pakanbaru, “students’ perspective on the domains of teaching quality” (by suarman). while the articles from outside of indonesia came from the lecturers of the iranian nation-state, “comparative perspectives on educational assessment system at primary schools in japan and iran” (by abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie); from saudi arabia, “pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching as a profession” (by mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh); from ethiopia, “does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? comparative study of private and government schools in dessie administrative town, north central ethiopia” (by amogne asfaw eshetu); from china, “students’ experience in student-centered learning at higher education institutions in china: a case study” (by samson maekele tsegay); and from vietnam, “the effects of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning outcome” (by truong bao duy). it is interesting to note here that the article was written jointly by the lecturer of india who now works at the university in ethiopia, africa and the lecturer of indonesia, namely “changing dynamics of good governance in africa” (by hilal ahmad wani & andi suwirta). i think, in this era of globalization and in the context of the southeast asian region will also apply the aec (asean [association of south east asia nations] economic community) in 2015, the cooperation in the field of research and publication was very encouraged. we do not live in a vacuum and aloof, but we live with other people and other nations. therefore, cooperation and collaboration is the most important, in addition to the competition and comparison so that we, as a nation, do not miss when compared with other nations in the world. the educare journal, however, has become a trade mark of the fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammdiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, due to since 2009 to date, this journal is managed and organized by the lecturers of ump. and the minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, is as publisher of educare journal. therefore, on this occasion, i would like to thanks and appreciation to the lecturers of fkip ump and minda masagi press in bandung, who have had the attitudes of seriously, diligent, and hard work so that can make the educare journal published regularly and increase its quality from time to time. finally, do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). purwokerto, central java, indonesia: february 28, 2015. dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad rector of ump in purwokerto, central java; and honorable patron of the educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 27 al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an and its implication in learning and teaching process based on the islamic education dedeng rosidin1 abstract: in repertory arabic, the term usually translated education with some vocabulary words, including “tarbiyah”, study groups, “tadris”, “ta’dib”, and “tahdib”. the vocabulary of popular and commonly used to express terms of education. and the fifth is the vocabulary of the most popular and most widely used is “al-tarbiyah” word. semantic approach is commonly used to study more about this problem. this problem is studied from the aspect of language, how the term is used in a variety of lexical dictionary, and then how it is used in a variety of contexts in the al-qur’an. in the end result of the nature of meaning and pronunciation led to the concept of education in islam. based on the analysis and discussion of the meaning of the word “al-tarbiyah” with its derivation, it is concluded that “al-tarbiyah” is the process of development, maintenance, preservation, management, delivery of science, giving instructions, guidance, improvement, and sense of belonging for students both body, mind, soul, talent, potential, sense, on an ongoing basis, gradually, loving, caring, gentleness, good, wise, easily tolerated, thus forming the perfection of human nature, pleasure, glory, and live independently to achieve the pleasure of allah swt. the implications of the study results is that any interpretation of “al-tarbiyah”, it should be explained by the semantic approach and perspective. key words: al-tarbiyah, semantic perspective, al-qur’an, teaching and learning process, and implication in islamic education. introduction al-qur’an is a guidance and instruction for all men in carrying out its mission as khalifatullah on earth. it contains various aspects of human needs, such as the spiritual aspects, social, cultural, educational, and other aspects. the position of the qur’an as the main source of islamic education can be seen in the qur’an surah an-nahl verse 64 and surah shad verse 29. there was revealed that in essence, the qur’an is an important treasure for life and human culture, especially the field of spirituality. al-qur’an is a guide for civic education on moral and spiritual. muhammad naqib al-‘attas opinion that in islam, there are two terms that are used for the meaning of education, namely tarbiyah and ta’dib (al-‘attas, 1996). dr. h. dedeng rosidin is a lecturer at the department of arabic language education, faculty of arts and language education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: nalahuddinsaleh@yahoo.co.id dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 28 semantically, tarbiyah specifically is not intended to educate people, but can be used for other species such as minerals, plants, and animals. while referring to the notion ta’dib or ‘ilm, teaching or study groups, and good parenting or tarbiyah (ramayulis, 1994:2-3). thus, the concept muhammad naqib al-‘attas (1996) on tarbiyah is only one sub-system of ta’dib. hence, tarbiyah concepts and differences among the study groups encourage writer to study it from the perspective of semantic study. this issue needs to be studied through arabic literature research with semantic approach (linguistic), because of differences in concepts that are used will be very influential to the implications and implementation. due to the broad range and scope of this discussion, so in this study is limited to the basics, the true meaning of trabiyah in the qur’an. specifically, the research examined and questioned the following things: (1) how much tarbiyah word and its derivation that used in qur’an whose meaning commensurate with education?; (2) how does the concept of education in the qur’an by the following tarbiyah vocabulary and its derivation?; and (3) how to implicate tarbiyah meaning in teaching and learning courses in the department of arabic education, faculty of arts and language education, indonesia university of education in bandung, west java, indonesia? literature review on the semantics and the nature of its element. semantics is a technical term which refers to the study of meaning. semantic means theory of meaning or sense of the theory systematic branch that investigates the meaning of language (pateda, 1989:19). in other languages, henry guntur tarigan said that semantics is the study of meaning. examine semantic symbols or signs stating that the meaning of relationships with one another, and its impact on society (tarigan, 1993:7). therefore, semantic include its meaning, development, and change. semantic consists of two components: (1) defines the components which form the sound forms of language; and (2) components defined or the meaning of the first component. the second component is a sign or symbol, while a marked or represented is something beyond language commonly known as the referendum or thing designed (chaer, 1995:2). there are three ways used by linguists and philosophers in their attempt to explain the meaning in human language, namely: (1) defines the nature of the meaning of the word; (2) by defining the essence of the meaning of the sentence; and (3) by explaining the communication process. the first way, the meaning of the word, is taken as a construct, a construct of the meaning of the sentence, and communication can be explained. the second way, the meaning of the sentence, is taken as a basis while the words be understood as a systematic contributor to the meaning of the sentence. the third way, both the meaning of sentences and the meaning of the word, described in the limits of use in acts of communication (aqil, 1983). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 29 on the tarbiyah in islamic treasury. in the historical development of islamic civilization since the time of the prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him) until the golden age of islam in the bani abbas, it was said that tarbiyah never appeared in the literature of education. it was only in the modern age that tarbiyah was said sticking to the surface as a translation of the word education. in classical times, people only know that the word ta’dib to refers to the meaning of education. as mentioned in the hadith of the prophet muhammad saw as follows: أدبين ريب فأحسن تأديـيب allah has taught me that i am well educated. this kind of understanding continued in use during the heyday of islam. so that all knowledge produced by the human mind is called adab, both associated with islam such as fiqh, tafseer, tawheed, and which are not related directly like physics, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, pharmacy, and language. all the books that contain science are called the popular al-adab. then, when the scholars of leading to the field of specialization in science, the notion of adab narrowing, which is only used to refer to literature and ethics; ta’dib consequences as the concept of islamic education is less well known anymore. methodology this research uses descriptive linguistic methods with emphasis on the study of semantic grammatical, lexical, and semantic usage. the source of data in this study is the al-qur’an and commentary. interpretation is used, among other interpretations of ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971) and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988) interpretations. the techniques and steps taken are: (1) collecting al-qur’an verses that contain words and tarbiyah and its derivation. after that sought explanation the commentary; (2) analyzing the pronunciation al-tarbiyah above, both morphological and syntactic, consist of fi’il madhi, fi’il mudhari, and its mashdar; (3) assessing through lexical analysis, among other uses mu’jam taj al-‘arusy and lisan al-arab; (4) tracing and examining the semantic analysis by using books and commentaries of ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari; (5) classifying the data to find understanding and use of pronunciation tarbiyah; and (6) inferring the meaning of the word tarbiyah in the qur’an in the context of islamic education. result and discussion on the al-tarbiyah judging from the aspect of language. generally, tarbiyah words can be returned to the three different verbs. first, the word around yarbu dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 30 developed. second, the word :(منا-ينمو) which means that the name yanmu (ربا-يربو) around rabiya yarba (ريب-يريب) nasyaa meaningful: tara’ra’a (grow). third, the word around rabba-yarubbu (رّب-يرّب) which means aslahahu, tawalla amrahu, sasaahu, wa qama ‘alaihi wa ra’aahu which means repairing, care, conduct, maintain, and maintain or educate (hamzah, 1996:6). etymologically, the word comes from the word tarbiyat ربا – يربو – ربوا و رباء then this wording was changed into a pattern tsulatsi mazid فّعـل يفّعـل تفعيـال then it becomes in this context, ibnu al-manzhur (1988) .(al-jubaedi, 1306h:142) .رّبي – يرّبي – تربيـة and muhammad murtadha al-jubaedi (1306h) explained that رّباه تربية أي أحسن القيام means that education means better maintenance عليه، وولّيه حّتى يفارق الطفولة، كان ابنه أو مل يكن and management of past childhood, he/she was good or not their children (ibnu al-manzhur, 1988:96). then, they were adding that tarbiyah is interpreted here also means غذوته as feeding or care. furthermore, ibnu al-manzhur (1988:95) suggested that رّب يرّب – رّبا أي ملكه, it means to have or control. then, he explained that the pronunciation رّبا وربابا وربانة أي منّا وزاد وأّمتها وأصلح – يرّب ,means to develop, adding رّب refining, and clean or organize. meanwhile, muhammad murtadha al-jubaedi conveys the same to explain ibnu al-manzhur the above, but he added another meaning that is the pronunciation لزم , is full رّب يرّب – رّبا وربابا وربانة أي منّا وزاد وأّمتها وأصلحها و لزم which means living or staying in one place (al-jubaedi, 1306h:261). then, al-fairuz abadi explained in the dictionary that al-muhith رّب أي مجع وزاد ولزم وأقام, means to collect, add, and live or stay (abadi, n.y.:70). this is the meaning of the amplifier as well as reinforce the notion that the two figures submitted by the language above, as well as evidence that the experts on complementary. on the al-tarbiyat judging from the grammatical aspect. research data about tarbiyah fi’il groups and grammatically isim in al-qur’an is as follows: الفاعلالصيغات/ الوظيفاتالجملالرقم نائب الفاعل المفعول به صغريا ١ ربياين كما ارمحهما رب وقل (اإلسراء : ٢٤) أنا (اإلنسان) -هما (الوالدان)فعل ماض صغار امل نرّبك فينا وليدا ولبثت ... (الشعراء ٢ (١٦ : انت (الناس) – -نحن (فرعون)فعل مضارع وليدا ---مضافاحلمد هللا رب العاملني (الفاحتة: ٢)٣ و لكن كونوا ربانيني … (آل عمران ٤ (٧٩ : ---خبر كان from the data above, it can be obtained several images of related grammatical tarbiyah. simply put, the researcher describes the content or links grammatically and intent of that line. the word of tarbiyah اإلنسان (human) on first data, al-qur’an shows that education for men (since childhood). on second data, al-qur’an shows that education can be educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 31 used for humans in general, since childhood and adulthood. tarbiyah components include: (1) مترىب (3) – يرىب (2) – مرىب – and (4) تربية form of tarbiyah fi’il show will be one object, while objects in tarbiyah not called because the complex and the number of objects that must be di-tarbiyah-i. in third data (al-qur’an), the word of رب idzafat العالمين, this indicates that the tarbiyah used for all allah’s creatures including humans, animals, plants, and others. in fourth data (al-qur’an), رباني word suggests a human rabbani command. كونوا ربانيني sentence implies among others who hold fast to the religion of allah, obedient to continue his education specialists, educators are trustees. one of the features of word رب isim رّب fa’il of the word in the sense that الرّاب educate not show significance but اهللا as meaningful مربى stepfather or stepmother stepson educate. meanwhile, as murabbi mashdar use as a form of meaning isti’arah for fa’il. in terms of subject or murabbi and object or mutarabbi of grammatical data above can be explained as follows: t a r b i y a h m u r a b b i m u t a r a b b i 1. allah 1. angel 2. human 3. ginny 4. plants 5. animal 6. etc 2. human 1. babies/children/step children 2. human (all ages) 3. animals from the scheme above, it can be explained that tarbiyah and its murabbi consists of allah and human beings, including the apostles. object tarbiyah of allah demonstrates comprehensive coverage, while the object of human or messenger can be used for people of all ages and levels of animals. this shows that tarbiyah emphasis on individual development and indicates that the object is not complex. on the meaning of al-tarbiyah in al-qur’an. al-qur’an, as the words of allah, has many secrets and privilege both in content and linguistic terms which are not found in other religious scriptures. similarly, existing vocabulary terms related to tarbiyah, al-qur’an tells us a lot of good vocabulary related directly or closely related to the term tarbiyah. in other words, the root of the term tarbiyah researcher found, whether in relation to the meaning of tarbiyah, the word taken and its derivation in terms closely related to tarbiyah. muhammad fuad abdu al-baqi al-baqi (1992:362) explained to us, some good vocabulary is directly related to educational affairs or indirectly. the vocabulary in the form of fi’il or in the form of isim. the words are included in the category fi’il group there were 6 (six) different verses, pronunciation, and pronunciations are: dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 32 while the vocabulary that includes researcher finds ; رّبت ، يربو ، رّبياين ، نرّبك ، يريب ، أريب ، isim group there were 12 (twelve) pronunciations. pronunciation is: رّب ، أرباب ، أربابا ، رّبيون ، رّبانّيون ، رّبانّيني ، ربائبكم ، رابيا ، رابية ، الربا ، ربا ، ربوة. if we divide in accordance with the purposes of this study, the eighteenth such vocabulary, researcher grouped into: (1) those who have a relationship of meaning with particulars or terms tarbiyah; and (2) a group closely associated with the case history of education, whether the purpose, process, means or strategies, procedures, coverage of education, and the like. pronunciations that have relationship or have a close meaning to the educational affairs, the first is: أرباب. this vocabulary is contained in the surah of yusuf verse 39, and the mufassirs explained, among others, according to abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:225), أرباب يعين األصنام من صغري وكبري means statue both small and great. second, pronunciation of it is contained in surah of ,أربابا ali imran verse 64. the mean of mufassirs, both abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:402), ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:101), and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988:304) have resemble th, that is defined أربابا. jews made priest-pastor as scholars in the field of religion as arbab, and the christians made their priest as a figure for those in worshiping. third, pronunciation of it is contained in the surah of ,رّبّيون ali imran verse 146. the mean of mufassirs are varied, both abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:472), ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:92), and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988:117). but if we compromised the interpretation of the above verse, it means: a group of people who worship the god, either of the jurists, scholars and students or students and teachers. fourth, pronunciation of it is contained in the surah al-ra’du verse 17. the ,رابيا mean of mufassirs are also varied, both abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:321), ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:87), and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988:134). but if we compromised the interpretation of the above verse, it means: high above the water or floating on the water. fifth, pronunciation of it is found in surah al-haaqqa verse 10. the mufassirs ,رابية defined it variously, both abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:348), ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:50), and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir althabari (1988:53). but if we compromise the interpretation of the above verses, it can be concluded that رابية in this paragraph is hard punishment of god. sixth, pronunciation of it contained in the surah of ,ربوة al-mu’minun verse 50. the mufassirs defined it variously, both ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:27), abdurrahman bin al-kamal jalaluddin al-suyuthi (1993:100), and ahmad al-shawi (1993:144). but if we compromised the interpretation of the above verses, it can be concluded that ربوة in this paragraph is a place or high ground. seventh, pronunciation of it is contained in surah al-fushshilat verse 39 ,رّبت and surah al-hajj verse 50. the mufassirs interpret it a variety of both abi alfaraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:408) and ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 33 (1971:134). but if the interpretation is compromised, then the interpretation of the above verse, it can be concluded that رّبت it means to fulfill or rising or expanding or growing. eighth, pronunciation of this pronunciation is found in surah ali ,ربا / الربوا / الربا imran verse 130, the surah al-rum verse 39, and the surah al-baqarah verse 257. the mufassirs mean many things, both the interpretation of abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:304) or exegesis of ahmad al-shawi (1993:238). but if the interpretation is compromised, then the interpretation of the above verse, it can be concluded that ربا / الربوا in الزيادة verse is increasing or developing. ninth, pronunciation of it is found in the surah al-rum verse 39. then, abi ,يربوا al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:304) interpreted that يربوا مبعىن يزكو و يضاعف means clean and being double or increasing. tenth, pronunciation of the pronunciation is found in surah al-baqarah ,يريب verse 276. the mufassirs defined many things, both interpretations of ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:65) and abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988:101). but if the interpretation is compromised, then the interpretation of the above verse يريب it can be concluded that زاد ، يزيد و يضاعف means increasing or growing and being double. eleventh, pronunciation of it is found in surah an-nahl verse 92. according ,أرىب to abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965:486), أغىن means the rich; and according to ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971:129), أكثر means more. both shows are no different meaning. thus, a variety of existing vocabulary related to tarbiyah meaning, but has no direct relationship with educational affairs. here are researcher presents some vocabulary related to education found in al-mu’jam al-mufahras li al-alfazh al-qur’an al-karim. vocabulary that includes 4 (four) in the form of pronunciation isim and 2 (two) in the form fi’il pronunciation. spelling-pronunciation included to isim category is الرّب. when researcher explored the book of al-mu’jam al-mufahras li al-alfazh al-quran al-karim by muhammad fuad abdu al-baqi (1992:362-380), there are 952 رّب is said in alqur’an, some researchers have examined a large (639) words and the rest (313) is said by the researchers that there have not examined deeply. furthermore, pronunciation of according to some dictionary or mu’jam ,الرّب which researcher examined and the findings of several other interpretations of the commentators like ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971) and ahmad al-shawi (1993); and interpretation as well as the findings of abu al-a’la al-maududi (1981) was about 19 (nineteen) meanings. the al-nihayat book of ibn al-atsir, الرّب explained that the meaning is: مالك ، السيد ، املرىب ، املدبر ، املنعم، القيم ، املوىل ، صاحب ، املتمم ، الزائد (cited by ulwan, 1992). meanwhile, the dictionary of taj al-‘arus of muhammad murtadha al-jubaedi (1306h:142) explains that الرب أي املالك ، السيد ، املرىب ، املدبر ، املتمم; whereas ma’ani al-qur’an book of abdurrahman faudah (n.y.) explains that الرب in addition to .أي مالك للشيئ املنصرف فيه، السيد املطاع ، املرىب ، القائم على إصالح الشئ / املصلح ، املنّمي ، املتوىل meanings in the researcher also discovered other means, including: املصلح , املعبود , dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 34 ,meanwhile .(al-maraghi, 1971:69-194) املقدر and , املعّلم املهدى , املحسن , املرسل , اخلالق abu al-a’la al-maududi (1981:26-27) explains 5 (five) of meanings. fifth meanings are as follows: (1) education, assistance, and improvement; (2) raise, mobilize, and prepare; (3) responsibility, improvement, and care; (4) greatness, leadership, authority, and the execution of orders; and (5) the owner and skipper. both رّبانّيون pronunciation, this vocabulary is mentioned in al-qur’an as much as twice contained in surah al-maidah verse 44 and 63. third, pronunciation of ربانئبكم ,in al-qur’an is mentioned once in surah ali imran verse 79. fourth ,رّبانّيني pronunciation in al-quran is called only once in surah an-nisa verse 23 (depag ri, 1995). otherwise vocabulary derived from fi’il, new research found in the al-qur’an twice, namely رّبياين pronunciations contained in surah al-isra verse 24 as well as pronunciation نرّبك, the researcher found in surah al-isra verse 18 (depag ri, 1995). sixth vocabulary that will be examined in some depth, and will describe research and analysis based on the book of interpretation, according to the writer’s ability is very limited. the books will be commentators who said the researcher in this study, including works of zad al-masir fi ilmi al-tafsir by abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965); tafsir al-maraghi by ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971); jami’ al-bayan an-ta’wil ayi al-qur’an by abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988); hatsiyat al-shawi ‘ala tafsir al-jalalen by ahmad al-shawi (1993); and tafsir al-dur al-mantsur fi al-tafsir al-ma’tsur by abdurrahman bin al-kamal jalaluddin al-suyuthi (1993). a. data results of research on “al-tarbiyah fi’il” group from the data results of research on vocabulary tarbiyah which is a direct relationship with educational affairs, fi’il group of al-qur’an can be explained in the following points: from the data of surah al-isra verse 24 may be understood that tarbiyah means to develop physical, mental, and reason requires the child to be accompanied with the love and tenderness until the child can be independent and able to defend him/ herself or his/her life in a heterogeneous society. this is supported by abi qasim jarullah mahmud bin umar al-zamakhsyari al-khawarizmi in al-kasysyaf an haqaiq al-tanzil wa ‘uyun al-aqawil fi wujuhi al-ta’wil (n.y.) which states that children should feel sorry for his/her parents and pray that god gives eternal blessing because they have been educated since childhood without limit. abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988) explains that ربياين is منياين convey the same meaning grow. in other words, every parent is always to educate children in a small time and lovingly until the child reaches adulthood to be independent and adequate. other analysts, ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971) explained that ربياين means the old man always in educating their children of the perfect loving, patient, and responsible. furthermore, he explained that تنميـة / تربيـة has 3 (three) kinds: (1) تربيـة or educational mind / mental; and (3) تربيـة العقل or physical education; (2) األجسـام educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 35 or psychological education (al-maraghi, 1971:30). this is reinforced تربيـة قوى النفـس by other analysts, muhammad mahmud hijazi (1993) that both parents had a little time to educate children. viewed from the context, the pronunciation ربياين associated with صغريا, this indicates that tarbiyah here is used for little children. in the structure (morphology and syntax), mashdar of as well as تربيـة is رّبي mashdar of both follow the pattern of تنميـة is ّمني the pronunciation above .تفعيل shows one object, namely “i”. this shows that the pressure of tarbiyah is on individual development and developed by a complex way. based on data of surah asyu’ara verse 18, tarbiyah of pharaoh to moses that is occurred in the maintenance and development of the physical side, not mental educate and conscience, because pharaoh grew moses without his faith. in addition, in islamic concept, the process and implementation of tarbiyah happens and applies to the early age / childhood and also occurs during adulthood. this is supported by ahmad al-shawi (1993) who explains that pharaoh gave pleasure to take care of moses as a child with education. this is reinforced by abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965) that pharaoh took care moses since he was child. the duration of the education process by pharaoh, the friends (tabi’in) informed by varied, but essentially is the same that is until the age of mature (baligh). ibn abbas argued that the age of moses until 18 years, according to ibn as-saib, moses was 40 years old, while according muqatil, until reaching 30 years of age moses. this suggests that moses was educated by the pharaoh from childhood until adulthood stage. this means that the process of tarbiyah is not just for early / childhood only, but applies also to the adult age (al-abrasyi, 1950; al-hasyimi, 1972; and al-nadwi, 1974). al-wadhih explained that the above verse describes moses to the pharaoh’s answer of the point: “how could you (pharaoh) feel educate moses in pharaoh’s house but he has been tormenting the bani israel with a grievous punishment?” this suggests that moses does not mean educated by pharaoh though pharaoh acknowledged it. in other words, the essence of pharaoh educated and grew moses is just in terms of physical and did not educate in his mental and his conscience (al-ahwani, n.y.; al-‘attas, 1996; and al-nahlawi, 1999). other analysts, ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi in tafsir al-maraghi (1971) explains that tarbiyah of pharaoh reached the adult level (the rajul age). abi qasim jarullah mahmud bin umar al-zamakhsyari al-khawarizmi in al-kasysyaf an haqaiq al-tanzil wa ‘uyun al-aqawil fi wujuhi al-ta’wil (n.y.) and abdurrahman bin al-kamal jalaluddin al-suyuthi in tafsir al-dur al-mantsur fi al-tafsir al-ma’tsur (1993) agree with al-maraghi that the pharaoh educate moses from childhood until the age of rajul. ibnu al-manzhur (1988:154) also explains that what is meant by rajul is if a person has reached the condition of ihtilam and through a period of youth; and what is meant by syabab is if someone has entered the age of baligh (14-16 years old). viewed from the context of which according to abi وليدا associated with نرّبك qasim jarullah mahmud bin umar al-zamakhsyari al-khawarizmi in al-kasysyaf an haqaiq al-tanzil wa ‘uyun al-aqawil fi wujuhi al-ta’wil (n.y.) that is meant by dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 36 newborn of baby, thereby the tarbiyah used for babies at the beginning of birth. in structure, pronunciation above has one object. this means that the pressure of tarbiyah emphasizes on individuals and physical objects to be tarbiyah. from both data about the tarbiyah fi’il that it can be concluded that the root word tarbiyah is رّبى يرّبى which means منّا ينّمى that is meant by to develop and grow. tarbiyah includes his/her body, soul, and minds. the way of tarbiyah should gently and affectionate. tarbiyah happened since early age or childhood to adulthood, i.e. after ihtilam age and after passing the syabb level. b. data results of research on “al-tarbiyah isim” group from the data results of research on vocabulary of tarbiyah which relates directly or indirectly with isim group educational affairs from the al-qur’an, it can be explained in the following points: rabb on surah al-fatihah verse 2 that means to develop, lead, educate, organize, assist, and own. this is consistent with ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi in tafsir al-maraghi (1971) that defines the leader, master of education which administers the students and manage his/her business. and about the rabb, it means the king and lord, the word implies divinity, education, and guidance or assistance. in this context, abi al-faraj abdurrahman ibnu al-juzi (1965) argues that rabb is the king. the name did not use for his creatures except to be said in other words, such as: master of = رّب العبد ,homeowner = رّبالدار followers, and said that the word رّب is taken from tarbiyah. furthermore, abi qasim jarullah mahmud bin umar al-zamakhsyari alkhawarizmi in al-kasysyaf an haqaiq al-tanzil wa ‘uyun al-aqawil fi wujuhi al-ta’wil (n.y.) explains that the tarbiyah is for those who have knowledge like humans, jinn, and angels; and are known by the creator such as plants and animals. ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi in tafsir al-maraghi (1971) explains that tarbiyah of god to human that there are two, namely: (1) tarbiyat khalqiyat, coaching and development of body, soul, and intellect in various forms; and (2) tarbiyat diniyat tahdzibiyat, namely coaching soul with the revelation to the perfection of reason and sanctity of life. word عاملني means all what is exist. usually the pronunciation of unusual عامل to be plural, they used to say: human nature, animal nature, natural plants, and unusual is said by the natural stone, the natural soil. realms of meaning here that contain tarbiyah (development) that signed by word رب. so, who is / looks at her is life, eat, and breed. in its context, the word رب connected at عاملني, this shows the meaning of tarbiyah used to be common: for angels, humans, jinn, animals, plants, etc. and the type tarbiyah for humans include: development and physical development, mental, and mind with various clues and revelations. in its structure, رّب mashdar of pronunciation يرب رب namely mashdar used in the meaning fa’il; and means as mubalaghah, العاملني: plural عامل, it has many kinds, besides nature of god, such as the nature of angels, humans, jinn, animals, plants, etc. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 37 according to muhammad mahmud hijazi in al-tafsir al-wadhih (1993:180), the education process must be in fresh, loving, caring, inspiration, and fun or not boring environment. in surah al-an’am verse 104 and surah at-thalaq verse 1, according to ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971), there are explained that the scope of education includes physical, emotion, mind or intellect, and talent or potential, the soul, so on as to achieve the perfection of humanity in the eyes of god almighty. then, he explained that the purpose of education is to give pleasure and glory of the teacher-student without any limitation. later in the data of surah ar-rahman verse 13, surah al-baqarah verse 260, and surah al-an’am verse 83, ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971) explains the phrase rabb here is a hint that originated from the supreme self or educator who developed the physical and mental. in another verse, ahmad mushthafa almaraghi (1971) explains that begins with the phrase rabbi will petition and help as a servant of god and the petition will be an educational sense and soul. and tarbiyah means educating, teaching, and showing or guiding or giving directions; with another expression that the purpose of tarbiyah is to imperfect the innate nature of humanity. according to abi ja’far muhammad bin jarir al-thabari (1988), in surah al-an’am verse 128 is explained that tarbiyah must be wise in its settings and manage from one condition to another condition, and must be developed stage by stage. ahmad mushthafa al-maraghi (1971), in another verse, points out that tarbiyah imperfect human nature. from the ninth tafsir on tarbiyah above, it can be shorted that there are two kinds of tarbiyah, namely: (1) tarbiyah khalqiyah which includes coaching, development of body, soul, and mind with the instructions; and (2) tarbiyah diniyah tahdzibiyah, supervising the soul with the revelation to the perfection of mind and sanctity of life. tarbiyah can occur in general circumstances for people in various age levels; occurs also for the animals, in the sense of taking care of, train, feed, and maintain; occurs also for plants, in the sense of care, nurture, and maintain. tarbiyah should also be proceed, clear guidelines, have specific goals, everything comes from god almighty to refer to things that are educational, teaching, guiding, and developing the potential for future students in order to live independently and be useful for their surroundings. conclusion on the meaning of tarbiyah, it is drawn from the results of the study of the verses of the al-qur’an, and the term of language that has been discussed in the previous section. then, the analysis of the meaning of the tarbiyah to see, assess, and compare the results of discussion, research, or review of previous experts to obtain input and description in the arrangement of the definition of al-tarbiyah by the its term. furthermore, the definition of al-tarbiyah according to its terms. the arrangement of this definition will stand and is based on the meanings of the tarbiyah that have been analyzed. dedeng rosidin, al-tarbiyah meaning in al-qur’an 38 in general, the word tarbiyah can be returned to the three different verbs and have a relationship of meaning, namely: (1) raba which means developing; (2) yanmu which means grow; and (3) rabba-yaribbu which means repair, manage, lead, keep, maintain or educate. from the results of the study of the verses of the al-qur’an, it acquired several meanings of tarbiyah is as follows: (1) tarbiyah is the process of development and guidance on body, mind, and soul carried on an ongoing basis so that mutarabbi or students can be mature and independent living in the community; (2) tarbiyah is an activity which is accompanied with great affection, tenderness, caring, wise, and fun not with boring environment; (3) essential murabbi that develops body, mind, and soul is god almighty; (4) tarbiyah aims to improve human nature, giving a pleasure and glory without limitation based on the shari’ah of allah almighty; (5) tarbiyah is a process that is done by setting a wise way and implemented in stages from easy to difficult one; (6) murabbi always to be able to and try her/his best to maintain the purity of the shari’ah of allah and carry out amar ma’ruf and nahyi munkar; (7) murabbi should always hold hardly to the religion, always obedient to allah, teaches science, and always learning; (8) murabbi levels are higher than the levels of mua’lim and mudaris; (9) tarbiyah is to educate children through the delivery of science, using methods that are readily accepted so that students can practice it in daily life; (10) tarbiyah is an activity which includes the development, maintenance, preservation, processing, and delivery of science, giving instructions, guidance, improvement, and a feeling of belonging; (11) tarbiyah carried out with the intention to obey, worship god almighty and to attain his good pleasure; (12) tarbiyah occurs in human beings in the sense that is common to various age levels, both aged child and the next age; (13) tarbiyah included in tarbiyah khalqiyah, coaching and development of body, mind, soul, potential, feeling with a variety of directions, and tarbiah diniyah tahdhibiyah, coaching soul by revelation to the perfection of mind and sanctity of the soul in the eyes of god almighty; (14) in tarbiyah activity, it implied the existence of murabbi or educator, yurabbi or educational process, mutarabbi or students, and tarbiyah itself that is non-teaching materials; and (15) tarbiyah may occur also in animals and plants within the meaning of feed, maintain, and keep doing well and big. so, on the basis of the meaning of the above simple, definition of tarbiyah according to its terms is as follows: al-tarbiyah is the process of development, maintenance, preservation, processing, delivery of science, giving instructions, guidance, improvement, and the feeling of having good pupils’ body, mind, soul, talents, potentials, feelings, continuous, gradual, full of love, caring, tenderness, playful, wise, easy to be accepted, thus it will form the perfection of human nature, pleasure, glory, live independently, to achieve the willing of allah almighty. the implications of the study results is that any interpretation or tafsir of tarbawi teacher at any college student should explain by the semantic approach, so that it will be able to look the meaning of the language, terms and the other kinds of, and any subject matter that is in the interpretation tarbawi should approach through educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 39 lexicologist, morphological, syntactic, contextual or munasabah al-ayat approach even strengthened by al-ahadists al-syarifah. references abadi, al-fairuz. 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(1992). tarbiyat al-aulad fi al-islam, i & ii. al-azhar, mesir: dar alsalam. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 187 sony irianto and karma iswasta eka are the lecturers at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. they can be reached at: tukiranump@yahoo.com the impact of delikan learning towards mathematics achievement in terms of students motivation: an experiment at the state elementary schools of banyumas, central java, indonesia sony irianto & karma iswasta eka abstract: this research is aimed at finding out the difference between the mathematics achievement of the students taught using delikan (dengar, lihat, kerjakan or listening, looking, doing) learning and those taught using conventional one; the difference in mathematics due to the difference in the level of motivation; and the interrelationship of mathematics achievement as caused by delikan learning, conventional learning, and motivation. this research was carried out in state elementary school of pasir wetan and state elementary school 2 of kecila in the even semester of the academic year of 2009/2010. the method used was experiment with factorial design of 2 x 2. the population was the fourth year students of both elementary schools. data was collected through multiple choice objective test and questionnaire to measure motivation. the result of the analysis showed that the there was a significant difference in the mathematics achievement of students taught using delikan and those taught with conventional learning; there was not significant difference in mathematics achievement as a result of difference in motivation; and there was not significant interrelationship in mathematics achievement as caused by delikan, conventional learning, and motivation. key words: delikan learning, conventional, motivation, elementary schools, and mathematics achievement. introduction the development of education in elementary school is very crucial stage because the formation of learning habit takes place at this phase. if there is something wrong in this stage in the form of either incorrect method or concept, the wrong perception with is carried by the learners to next level of education. in other words, teaching and learning in elementary school should be correct in line with pedagogical and psychological aspects in children development (suherman, 1993; djaali, 1999; darhim, 2001; and muhsetyo, 2005). sony irianto & karma iswasta eka, the impact of delikan (listen-look-do) learning towards mathematics achievement 188 mathematics as a hard subject in indonesia mathematics is a subject which gets most attention from teachers, parents, and students themselves. but in reality, many students do not fully understand mathematics concept. the result is that many students get low achievement and become demotivated in learning mathematics. this low achievement is also because students find it difficult to understand mathematics. this is because mathematics is composed of many abstract concepts and expressed in logical reasoning. this low achievement also happens in sd (sekolah dasar or elementary school) pasir wetan, banyumas, central java, indonesia. this can be seen from the score of mathematics national exam from the academic year of 1999/2000 to 2004/2005 as shown in table 1. table 1 scores of mathematics national exam of sd negeri pasir wetan from the academic year of 1999/2010 to 2004/2005 n academic year average scores 1 1999/2000 6.64 2 2000/2001 5.75 3 2001/2002 5.59 4 2002/2003 5.87 5 2003/2004 6.57 6 2004/2005 6.96 source: document of sd negeri pasir wetan, banyumas (2005). tabel 2 the recapitulation of the final-school exam score of mathematics the academic year of 2005/2006 to 2006/2007 score 2005/2006 2006/2007 highest 10 9.04 lowest 4.79 4.90 mean 7.56 7.02 deviation standard 1.40 0.95 source: document of sd negeri pasir wetan, banyumas (2007). besides, the average review scores of mathematics of the second semester of the fourth grade of the academic year 2005/2006 is 6.5. while the students’ absorption level on the subject of mathematics of the grade iv a and grade iv b can be seen from the following table. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 189 table 3 the students’ absorption level on the subject of mathematics of the grade iv a and grade iv b of sd negeri pasir wetan of the academic year of 2006/2007 skill absorption level (%) grade iv a grade iv b arithmetic 67 66 geometry/measuring 65 63 source: document of sd negeri pasir wetan, banyumas (2007). from the above data, it can be seen that student’s achievement and absorption level is relative low. based on the observation and interview with the headmaster as well as the teacher of grade iv, it can be concluded that it is the teachercenteredness of learning mode, causing he students to be passive, which has made the achievement and observation level low it was then known that media was not involved in the learning of prime number, making it difficult for students to understand the concept. erman suherman (1993:272) says that learning aid can make the lesson interesting so that it can encourage to learn more. besides that with learning aid students’ attention can be more focused. the role that learning aid play is to lay the basic ideas which underlie a certain concept. according to nana sudjana (1991:58), delikan (dengar, lihat, kerjakan or listening, looking, doing) learning is appropriate for teaching subject which is both factual and conceptual. in this type of learning, students will memorize, know, explain, differentiate, conclude, and apply. this learning will focus on motivation information by listening, looking, and doing. “listening” means paying attention to and understanding explanation given by the teacher. “looking” is watching teacher’s showing things, how a concept works, example of how a problem is solved, and reading books. this is the continuation of the listening stage for better understanding of the topic being explained. while “doing” is the students’ activities in doing the assignments the teacher gives. the use of numbered-line rod is an example of an effort in making students understand better about the concept of integer. basically, there is not any negative measurement, but in mathematics there is the concept of negative integer which is still difficult for students to understand. gatot muhsetyo (2005) says that numberedline rod can help students understand this mathematical concept better. therefore the use of this learning aid in delikan learning is expected to improve students understanding about the concept of arithmetic, and integer, so that their motivation and achievement can increase. this research will try to find out the impact of delikan learning using the numbered-line rod towards the students mathematics achievement, particularly on the conceptual understanding, and also analyze its impact on their motivation. the result of this research is expected to be of use for the ministry of education in improving the quality of mathematics learning. sony irianto & karma iswasta eka, the impact of delikan (listen-look-do) learning towards mathematics achievement 190 therefore the problem of the research can be formulated as follows: (1) is there any impact of delikan learning using numbered-line rod towards students’ mathematical achievement?; (2) is there any impact of motivation towards students’ mathematical achievement?; and (3) is there any interaction between the impact of delikan learning and motivation towards students’ mathematics achievement? the essence of mathematics learning in elementary school mathematics is often viewed as a subject with strict ordering, which means that one concept should be totally understood before understanding a new concept. ausabel, in suryadi (1997), says that unless the prerequisite is well understood, students will not be able to understand the next concept. the average age of elementary school students is seven to eleven years old, at which their mental development is in the stage of concrete operational. at this stage, a child has the ability to make logical thinking with the use of concrete things. this is in line with what djaali (1999) says that the learning of mathematics concept in elementary schools should be aided with concrete objects. otherwise, mathematics concept, which is abstract in nature, will mean nothing for students, and students will find it difficult to understand the next topic. to help solve this problem, teacher should find the most effective way of presenting the material with the help of learning aid so that student will easily understand it. first, mathematics learning aids. mathematics learning media is defined as a learning aid which is in its use integrated with the objective and content as stated in the gbpp (garis-garis besar program pengajaran or the general guideline of the learning program) of mathematics to improve the quality of learning. according to johnson and raising, in darhim (2001:6), says that learners can remember a fifth of what they have heard, a half of what they have seen, and three quarter of what they have done. this means that if the media is in the form of audio visual aids and can be manipulated, learning aid can help improve the achievement of a learning process. second, numbered-line rod. number is an abstract mathematical concept. therefore, its operation will be difficult to understand if its basic is not mastered. integer is one of the concept of number which can be expressed as {…, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …} which include negative integers and prime numbers. many problems arise when a teacher presents the addition and subtraction of integers to the fourth years students of elementary schools. darhim (2001) says that all the basic forms of calculation in the integer system can be visualized concretely using numbered-line rod which is a modification of number line ladder or ribbon. third, delikan learning. delikan (dengar, lihat, kerjakan or listening, looking, doing) learning, according to nana sudjana (1991:58), is one form of cbsa (cara belajar siswa aktif or student-centered learning) in its simplest educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 191 form. what is meant by simple is that it is easy to apply. this type of learning is appropriate for learning process which involves facts and concepts. this type of learning involves students’ mental activities such as recalling, knowing, explaining, differentiating, concluding, and applying. this model emphasized information of motivation. as the name suggests, students do three activities, namely listening, looking, and doing. “listening” means not only paying attention and understanding teacher’s explanation but also other instructional media such as recorded material, discussion, role play, and so on. “looking” includes observing teacher’s demonstrating, how something works, how a problem is solved, and reading books. this activity is the continuation or complement of listening activity, which is meant to improve students’ retention. the “doing” is in the form of completing assignments given by the teacher which is meant for the students to apply and use the concept learned, for example doing exercises, discussing a solution of problems, doing assignments of a workbook, or making writing task. fourth, learning motivation. m.d. merrill and c.m. reigeluth (2000:341) define motivation as a recurring dilemma for beginning and teachers alike. keller, in r.m. gagne (1989:320), says that motivating begins with the analysis of the learners, setting the goal of motivating, deciding the method of motivating and making necessary revision. according to a.m. sardiman (2001:24), several indicators of a highly motivated learner, among others, is having an interest in the teacher in that he or she likes and is not indifferent towards him/her, being enthusiastic to the subject being learned, wanting his/her being known and recognized, always trying to recall what he/she has learned and relearn it, and having control over his/her morality. the learner also has high persevere in carrying assignments out and can work for a relatively long time, being tough in overcoming difficulties, and not easily satisfied with what he/she has achieved. fifth, mathematics learning achievement. learning achievement is the maximum result someone has obtained after a learning effort. w.s. winkel (1996:226) says that learning achievement is a proof of someone’s success. therefore, learning achievement is the result of a measurement of someone’s learning effort which expressed in the form of symbol, letter, or sentence showing what someone has obtained. mathematics learning achievement is an indicator on the level of mastery in mathematics in the form of score after attending mathematics course. research design this research was carried out at grade iv of sdn (sekolah dasar negeri or state elementary school) of pasir wetan and sdn (sekolah dasar negeri or state elementary school) 2 kecila of the banyumas regency, in central java, indonesia. sample was taken using cluster random sampling technique, in which sample was taken randomly on the basis of group or class. in this research grade iv of sony irianto & karma iswasta eka, the impact of delikan (listen-look-do) learning towards mathematics achievement 192 sdn pasir wetan was chosen as the experiment class which given treatment with delikan type of learning and grade iv of sdn 2 kecila as the control class which was taught using conventional method. this research was an experimental one, because the result would confirm the causal relationship among the variables being studied. the purpose of this research was to find the impact of delikan and conventional method of learning towards the students’ mathematics achievements viewed from their motivation which classified into two categories, low and high motivation. to identify the variable, 2 x 2 factorial design was used. this research used two main instrument, namely test and motivation questionnaire which was given when the students were being taught with delikan and conventional method. the analysis was done in two stages, the first to test the analysis requirement; and to test the hypothesis. result of the research anova test of the two-factor interactions was used to test the hypothesis of this research, the result is as follows: tabel 4 post test score of delikan and conventional learning and motivation between-subject factors value label n method motivation level 1 2 1 2 delikan conventional low high 48 35 41 42 tabel 5 result of the measurement two-factor interaction test of between-subjects effects dependent variable: postest source type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. corrected model 6458.851a 3 2152.950 7.711 .000 intercept 220044.620 1 220044.620 788.125 .000 method 6321.879 1 6321.879 22.643 .000 grade 97.597 1 97.597 .350 .000 method * grade 54.310 1 54.310 .195 .000 error 22056.812 79 279.200 --total 267100.000 83 ---corrected total 28515.663 82 ---a.r squares = .227 (adjusted r squared = .197) educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 193 from table 5 above, it can be concluded that the result of each hypothesis test of this research is as follows: first, the result of hypothesis-test i shows that there is a difference between mathematics learning achievement of students taught with delikan method and those with conventional method or in other words there is an impact of delikan method towards mathematics learning achievement which higher than that of conventional method. second, the result of hypothesis test ii shows that there is no difference in mathematics achievement as a result students’ motivation. based on the data, there are students with high motivation in learning mathematics who get low achievement and there are also student with low motivation who get high achievement. this means that there is not any impact of motivation on the students’ mathematics achievement. third, the result of hypothesis test iii shows that there is no significant interaction about mathematics learning achievement which is caused by delikan and conventional learning, and students motivation. there are students with high motivation who got higher scores than those with low motivation. students in experiment class with delikan learning perform better those in control class which was taught with conventional method. conclusion and suggestion based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that: (1) there is an impact of delikan learning on the students’ mathematics achievement which is higher than that of conventional one; (2) motivation, either high or low, does not give impact towards students’ mathematics achievement; and (3) there is not any significant interaction about the students’ mathematics learning achievement caused by delikan, conventional learning, and level of motivation. students with high motivation tend to perform better in mathematics that those with low motivation, and experiment class taught with delikan learning achieve better score than those taught with conventional learning. based on the above conclusion it is suggested that: (1) in order to apply delikan learning method a teacher should make good preparation such as preparing learning aid, media and so on; and (2) teachers are expected to use active, creative, effective and enjoyable learning model which suits class condition through experiment research and classroom action research. sony irianto & karma iswasta eka, the impact of delikan (listen-look-do) learning towards mathematics achievement 194 references budiyono. (2004). statistika penelitian. surakarta, indonesia: sebelas maret university press. darhim. (2001). materi pokokwork shop matematika. jakarta: universitas terbuka. depdiknas [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan]. (2007). dokumen nilai sd negeri pasir wetan banyumas. purwokerto, indonesia: sdn pasir wetan. depdiknas [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan]. (2007). dokumen struktur kurikulum sd negeri pasir wetan banyumas. purwokerto, indonesia: sdn pasir wetan. djaali. (1999). “materi pelajaran matematika di sd terlalu abstrak dan rumit” in daily newspaper of kompas. jakarta: 6 may. gagne, r.m. (1989). principle of instructional design. new york: hall rinehant and winston merril, m.d. & c.m. reigeluth. (2000). education psychology. new jersey: education technology publications. muhsetyo, gatot. (2005). pembelajaran matematika sd. jakarta: penerbit ut [universitas terbuka]. pandoyo. (1992). “konsep-konsep essensial pengajaran matematika”. makalah seminar pendidikan matematika. santoso, singgih. (2003). mengatasi berbagai masalah statistik dengan spss versi 11.5. jakarta: pt elex media komputindo. sardiman, a.m. (2001). interaksi dan motivasi pembelajaran. jakarta: pt raja grafindo persada. sudjana, nana. (1991). model-model mengajar cbsa (cara belajar siswa aktif). bandung: penerbit sinar baru. suherman, erman. (1993). materi pokok strategi pembelajaran matematika. jakarta: penerbit ut [universitas terbuka]. sukarman, h. (2003). dasar-dasar didaktik dan penerapannya dalam pembelajaran. jakarta: penerbit depdiknas ri. suryadi. (1997). alat peraga dan media pengajaran matematika. jakarta: ditjen dikdasmen depdikbud ri. winkel, w.s. (1996). psikologi pengajaran. jakarta: gramedia widiasarana indonesia. winkel, w.s. (2004). psikologi pengajaran. yogyakarta: media abadi. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 191 andi suwirta, m.hum. is a senior lecturer at the faculty of social studies education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java; and joko purwanto, m.pd. is a senior lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuh waluh, purwokerto, central java, indonesia. they can be reached at: aspensi@yahoo.com reformulating the educational philosophy and aim of lptk (teacher training institutions) in indonesia andi suwirta & joko purwanto abstract: entering the 21st century, there was a new phenomenon in higher education world in indonesia, especially for institution of education and teacher training. in 2000, for example, ten ikips (institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan or institute of education and teacher training) in indonesia changed their names into university. accordingly, discussing critically educational philosophy and aim in a nation-state is very important and should always be sought for in order to realize the critical society, especially related to the question of how this nation-state will be built. every nation-state has contextual education philosophy and aim, which is particular in its own historical and social context. indonesia, as a nation-state, has unique educational philosophy and aim, and it is the next generation’s job to revitalize and implement it in the real educational praxis. this paper tries to discuss the position and role of lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training institutions) as one of higher educational institutions that is responsible to educate the professional teachers in indonesia. it is imperative to reformulate and revitalize the educational philosophy and aim of lptk, especially related to preparing the candidate of such institution participants – who will be the teachers and educators in the future – in order that educational development in indonesia can educate the people in one side, and can strengthen self identity in other side as civilized, advanced, modern, prosperous, and social justice nation. key words: national philosophy, educational aim, teacher training institutions, and reformulate the position and role of institution. introduction entering the 21st century, there was a new phenomenon in higher education world indonesia, especially for institution of education and teacher training. in 2000, for example, ten ikips (institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan or institute of education and teacher training) in indonesia changed their names into university. hence, ikip bandung changed into upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) and other ikips changed also into state universities following the name of city where such universities located. for example, ikip medan changed to unimed (universitas negeri medan or state university of medan) in north sumatera, ikip padang changed to unp (universitas negeri andi suwirta & joko purwanto, reformulating the educational philosophy and aim 192 padang or state university of padang) in west sumatera, ikip jakarta changed to unj (universitas negeri jakarta or state university of jakarta), ikip yogyakarta changed to uny (universitas negeri yogyakarta or state university of yogyakarta), ikip makassar changed to unm (universitas negeri makassar or state university of makassar) in south sulawesi, and so forth (zulkabir & suwirta eds., 2011). the ten ex-ikip universities had joined in an institution which was called the lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training institutions) for a long time. the critical question, then, what is the position and role of lptk in educational development in indonesia? this paper discusses about lptk in indonesia, especially discussing critically about the philosophy and aim of lptk and the participant candidates of such institution in order to be ready to face the challenge and needs that always change. this paper, however, is not based on the research conduct, but just overviews of lptk based on the reflective thinking and personal experiences in educational and teacher training matters.1 on the philosophy and aim of education educational philosophy and aim are the basic foundation and direction of education organized by a society or nation-state. educational philosophy relates to in-depth thinking and belief about how education is sought and organized. meanwhile, the educational aim gives direction and guidance about ideal wish and hope that want to be realized by the educational management (burdett, 1988:150). generally, the educational philosophy and aim in the world are divided into 4 (four) parts, which are: reconstructionism, progressivism, essentialism, and perennialism (zais,1996:iv). in specific about indonesia national educational philosophy and aim, we know it as national education philosophy based on pancasila or five basic principles of the republic of indonesia.2 according to reconstructionism philosophy of education, it is stated that the basis of educational management at school is to improve and upgrade society life. therefore, according to this philosophy, educational process at school should contain life problems or matters existing in society such as unemployment, life environment, ethnic conflict, student fighting, corruption, and so forth. meanwhile, progressivism educational philosophy and aim assumes that the 1this paper, before it is revised into this writing, was a mid-test paper in the subject of “isuisu pengembangan kurikulum untuk lptk or issues on curriculum development for lptk” given by prof. dr. sri mulyani in 2003 at the post-graduate study program of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung. we thank to prof. dr. sri mulyani for her valuable questions in the lecturing process. however, all content and interpretation of this paper do not have any correlation with her. in other words, the academic responsibility this paper is ours. 2pancasila contains five basic principles, namely: (1) ketuhanan yang maha esa or belief in one god almighty; (2) kemanusiaan yang adil dan beradab or humanity that is just and civilized; (3) persatuan indonesia or unity of indonesia; (4) kerakyatan yang dipimpin oleh hikmah kebijakasanaan dalam permusyawaratan dan perwakilan or democracy guided by the wisdom of representative deliberation; and (5) keadilan sosial bagi seluruh rakyat indonesia or social justice for all indonesians. see, for further information, ismaun (1967, 1969, and 1980); and john m. echols & hassan shadily (2003:406). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 193 primary function of education is to develop the students’ personality in order to be optimal. thus, the aim of education at school is more a self-realization of student than acquiring some particular information. therefore, educational approach that should be applied as school should be child centered, not only the subject. essentialism educational philosophy and aim have different assumption. according to essentialism, educational process should be able to develop the students’ intellectual and cognitive competences. therefore, its educational aim is to construct the students who are capable to think, analyze, and solve life problems logically and rationally. the essentialism educational philosophy and aim are mostly influenced by behaviorism psychology using stimulus and response bond theory paradigm. by this theory, some stimulus are given to the students in order that such stimulus can be responded using logical and rational thinking and intelectual skill. lastly, the perennialism educational philosophy and aim emphasize more in the reality that the truth is absolute and does not change. therefore, the function of school is as a place to bequeath such absolute truth continuously and hereditarily. in this case, what is meant by “absolute truth” is very contextual in its nature. for western people who have experienced secularization and modernization processes such as the truth source is the great books of the western world. meanwhile, for eastern people, islam particularly, the absolute truth is in their holy books of al-qur’an and al-sunnah. indonesia national education philosophy and aim based on pancasila are based on a belief that every nation has particular educational philosophy and aim. since indonesia was independent in 1945, and decided pancasila as its national principle, then the national education aim had not changed substantially. such aim is related to the quality description of indonesia people which are pious, knowledgable, intelligent, having good personality and character, nationalism and loving homeland. the last formulation of indonesia national education aim is stated in the act of national education system no.20 year 2003. the national philosophy and aim in education: the indonesian context the description of educational philosophy and aim as stated above is the wish that wants to be realized in reality. in other words, it is the wish of reality. the function of a nation’s educational philosophy and aim is to give direction and basic guidance to where such educational aim and process will be done. thus, it should always be strived for in order to be reality. actually, pancasila-based educational philosophy can be tracked from the rationale as stated by ki hajar dewantoro in 1920s. in his educational philosophy thinking, ki hajar dewantoro stated that educational process should be based on three principle pillars such as: tut wuri handayani, ing madyo mangun karso, ing ngarso sung tulodo which were translated into english: giving guidance to the disciple from the back, building the disciple will in the middle, and showing good model for the disciple in the front (tsuchiya, 1986:189). such rationale is always developed until andi suwirta & joko purwanto, reformulating the educational philosophy and aim 194 now; moreover, the logo of ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia uses one of sentences in trilogy rationale of ki hajar dewantoro, which is tut wuri handayani. in fact, educational praxis based on value trilogy stated by ki hajar dewantoro has some problems. some say that such trilogy is more javanese-centric in educational thinking. the implication of such educational thinking is that there is no space which gives chance in democratic, innitiative life, and innovation in the students themselves. meanwhile, especially moslems assume that such educational philosophy does not contain islamic values in which the dimensions such as faith, piety, knowledgable, and lofty manner are not its main parameter (maarif, 1996:57). it is still not clear until now the form of indonesia national education philosophy. the konaspi (konvensi nasional pendidikan indonesia or indonesia convention on national education) has not succeeded in formulating comprehensively the national education philosophy. besides that, the educational experts in indonesia have not thought seriously about the needs of having national education philosophy for indonesia people. the common thing is the thinking of educational process, policy, and evalution of education in indonesia to be done (tilaar, 2003). it is similar with the national education aim. since indonesia was independent and national education aim formulation was firstly done by mr. suwandi, minister of teaching, education, and culture of the republic of indonesia in 1946, the national education aim has undergone changes and has not showed comprehensive and convincing formulation. the study conducted by said hamid hasan (1996) showed that the formulations of national education aim, as it could be seen in curriculum changes, had not showed consistency and comprehensive continuity; in contrast, it was partial, ideological, and reflection of temporary age needs. therefore, it needs assessment and appropriate problem solving in order that such indonesia national education formulation is not only able to get the basic value substance desired by a nation, but also can describe the real needs and reality of its society. the last national education formulation, contained in the act of national education system no.20 year 2003, is assumed as ideal and comprehensive formulation by some parties (tilaar, 2003). the value substance that wants to be realized in such aim is the construction of indonesia people who are: faithful and pious, knowledgable, having good manner, having lotfy manner, skillful, having higher nationalism, and social solidarity. back to the praxis problem of education, such lofty aim has not been supported by learning process that more prioritizes mere knowledge, minimum learning facility, unprofessional teachers, ignored ethic and value education, and so forth (djojonegoro, 1995). those things should be found their solving. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 195 reformulating the indonesia national education philosophy and aim: an alternative solution from above explanation, it is clear that indonesia has been independent more than a half century, and it is the time for indonesia people to think, review, and re-formulate its national education philosophy and aim. it is important because the great and developing nation is a nation which has clear and firm national education philosophy and aim basis (smith, 1986:265-268). from the formulated educational philosophy and aim, it will be found out the basic potency, belief, direction, and aim of a nation in sailing through its future life. before stating the problem solving, it will be better to explain what is meant by national education philosophy. according to muhammad numan somantri (2001:90), national education philosophy is a reconstruction of educational philosophies based on national fundamental rule and religion values. from such explanation, it is clear that national education philosophy more directs at reconstructionism. from the explanation, the problem solution to construct and re-formulate indonesia national education philosophy can be done, at least basic and general efforts. at least, there are 3 (three) primary steps to reconstruct national education philosophy. these three steps seems to be separated but actually they should be an integral unity. they are: first, studying critically educational philosophies in the world and other countries is a necessity. it is important as a comparison and to find out universal values and thinking contained in such various educational philosophies because in its turn, a national education philosophy is not only particular of related nation but it should have universal value as part of global community. only educational philosophy thinking that has such type seems to survive and develop dynamically folowing the age development in one side, and being able to show its unique identity and character in other side. second, thinking, reviewing, and socializing the national basic foundation, in this case is pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia), critically, truly, and objectively is a must. since soekarno discovered pancasila values in 1945 and even muhammad yamin assured that the personality of indonesia nation from the old times, pancasila had been a sacred and preserved thing. however, the elaboration of pancasila values in education sector has not primarily thought and explained satisfactorily the values contained in pancasila in our national education context with all characters, principles, and aim. third, various experiences, belief, knowledge and religion values that can enrich and strengthen the foundation of national education philosophy should be sought. all this time, it seems that religion problem is conflicting with national politic matters, it may be due to western countries experience. for the countries that have undergone secularization process and deciding its otonomous ideology foundation and religious values, it may be that between state and religion are andi suwirta & joko purwanto, reformulating the educational philosophy and aim 196 in diametric position. meanwhile, for the indonesia nation-state and society that have thinking, behavior and action orientation related to religious values, reformulating indonesia national education philosophy should be enriched and stabilized by religious values. by this effort, national education philosophy will survive and develop in the mainstream of religious indonesia people. it does not need ideological statement that has unclear meaning, which is that religion is not being pancasila-lized and pancasila is not being religionized. from those steps, it gives description of how indonesia national education philosophy can be reconstructed and reviewed so that after indonesia has been independent more than 50 years, it will have clear and glorious national education philosophy. that indonesia people and nation should learn from other nation’s philosophical thinking and review religious values that have been existing is not an extraordinary thing. as presented by the study of denys lombard (1996), indonesia nation occupied the cross-cultural position which had been the character of this nation to be flexible, open-minded, and dynamic. on the lptk in indonesia: encompassing the student candidate to be an ideal educator the participant of lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training institutions) is one of important components in national education system. it is raw input for the institution which is further processed in line with the aim, mission, vision, and policy of such institution in preparing himself to face future challenge. the importance of raw input in qualified higher education institution is equivalent with the needs of good raw material in an industry. generally, the aim of lptk in indonesia is to produce the professional educator that is competent in its discipline, having dedication, and firm personality. quoting mohammad fakry gaffar’s (2003) statement, the vision and mission of lptk is to build an institution based on science and good manner. by such aim, it is clear that the job of lptk to have wider knowledge and lofty manner is not easy to realize. but it should be a glorious job that should always be considered and realized. it is frequently stated that the educator is a person who will have role in determining the national future. therefore, it needs qualified educator who has firm personality, willing to learn and develop himself, being creative and innovative, and responsive in following his/her age challenge. the educators are also frequently called “nation teacher” in which their modeling values, dedication, clear thinking, and good belief are the meaningful pearl beads for all national generation (harefa, 2002:65-67). because of that, the participants joining lptk should aware from the first their job and position as future educators. ideal qualification for lptk participants should be considered in some matters. the factors of personal character, psychic development, family background, interest and competence, and wish and obsession in the future should be considered. by considering and studying such factors, it will be easier for lptk to educate and educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 197 develop them so that they will be intended educators. the ideal educators should be resulted from the candidate of participants that are qualified and processed in trusted educational institution. considering the educational history of educator, especially teacher school in indonesia, is interesting due to two things. first, formal teacher education institution was firstly established in the late 19th century by dutch colonial government which was named kweek school (ks) or teacher school. it developed rapidly in the early 20th century by the proclamation of ethic political policy by dutch colonial government in which education was included in such government program (ricklefs, 1991). after indonesia had been gaining the independent in 1950s, it felt the needs of teacher education institution. it was the beginning of ptpg (perguruan tinggi pendidikan guru or higher education of teacher training) establishment in four cities in indonesia, which were in batusangkar (west sumatera), bandung (west java), malang (east java), and manado (north sulawesi). thus, teacher education institution in indonesia has been complete starting from primary to higher education (supriadi, 2002). second, the participants of such education institution in its early times were those coming from middle to higher social status as noblemen. in other words, they were only the children of noblemen such as priyayi in java or menak in sunda, who had opportunity to join in such teacher institution. the title for those who had completed their education in such institutiton was also honoured, which was: tuan guru or the honorable teacher. until 1950s, the social prestige of teacher in society was very influential and honoured. then, in 1960/1970s, along with open and mass education, the prestige and image of such institution were defeated by other educational institutions in indonesia (supriadi, 1998). by the occurrence of significant social shift, the participants which were coming from elite group in the past, then, changed into the middle and lower group at that time and in future. seeing the phenomenon becomes the challenge for lptk management to prepare itself in facing future social changes. in one side, education is believed as a force that can educate and develop a nation so that education sector will always be needed. in other side, it needs management, paradigm, and orientation changes from its management, educator, and participants of lptk to prove themselves as superior community that can compete and collaborate with other higher education institutions in indonesia. optimizing the lptk towards the quality of human resources: the case of upi now, we arrive at the efforts to develop and modernize the lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training institutions) in order to be capable in competing with other developing and qualified higher education andi suwirta & joko purwanto, reformulating the educational philosophy and aim 198 institutions. since 1960/1970s, the condition of lptk di indonesia had not showed good development due to some factors. from the participants factor joining lptk, for example, it is clear that most of them coming from teacher education institution, while the participants graduating from senior high school tended to choose the public univerities that had developed fast in 1970s. it brought in implication of institutional image that lptk was university-level teacher school, which only involved in teaching and education matters and did not have the right to discuss social matters indonesia. when it was entering 1970/1980s, in which university entrance testing system was introduced, most of the participants joining lptk had not showed significant change, which was still based on teacher education, from middle to lower group coming from remote area. along with the organization of lptk regularly and continually, the changes into the progress had been seen in the late 20th century and in the early 21st century. ten lptks in indonesia, for example, changed into universities with their own vision, mission, and policy. ikip (institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan or institute of education and teacher training) bandung, which later changed into upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education), seems to be the only one lptk which is consistent with its early mission to make “education” as the core business of strength and superiority of such institution (kartadinata, 2012). raw input of participants interested in lptk, upi in bandung specially, has undergone signficant change. nowadays, a lot of senior high school graduates with their good learning potency and achievement start to have interest in entering upi. for example, in history education department at the faculty of social studies education upi, the participant candidates have showed constant number each year which is around 250-300 people, meanwhile the capacity of such department is only 60-70 people. therefore, every candidate who wants to be accepted in such department should compete tightly with other 5-6 candidates. the background of candidates is also various: starting from higher to lower class, teacher and general education, and city to village. according to above description, there are some matters should be done. first, the participants’ potency should be optimized so that the pride, confidence, achievement, and wish in the future as professional educators can be realized. second, in this case is lecturers should be supported and stimulated to improve their quality through advanced educational process so that their qualification and specialization in their discipline will be improved. third, the construction of facilities and physical infrastructure which support the modern, advanced, and glorious campuss building should always be sought in order to be the pride of academical community and its alumnus. wish lptk, and upi specially, can still be a leading and outstanding university. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 199 conclusion discussing critically educational philosophy and aim in a nation-state is very important and should always be sought for in order to realize the critical society, especially related to the question of how this nation-state will be built. every nation-state has contextual education philosophy and aim, which is particular in its own historical and social context. indonesia nation-state has unique educational philosophy and aim, and it is the next generation’s job to revitalize and implement it in the real educational praxis. lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or teacher training institutions) as one of higher educational institutions responsible to education and teaching world should reformulate and revitalize its own educational philosophy and aim. it is important, especially related to preparing the candidate of such institution participants – who will be the teacher and educator in the future – in order that educational development in indonesia can educate the good people in one side, and can strengthen self identity and character in other side as civilized, advanced, modern, prosperous and social justice nation. references burdett, frank. (1988). “education policy innovation: a conceptual approach” in l. bondy & m.h. matthews [eds]. education and society: studies in the politics, sociology and geography of education. london and new york: routledge. djojonegoro, wardiman. (1995). lima puluh tahun pendidikan indonesia, 1945-1995. jakarta: depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. echols, john m. & hassan shadily. (2003). kamus indonesia-inggris: an indonesian-english dictionary. jakarta: penerbit pt gramedia, third edition. gaffar, mohammad fakry. (2003). “membangun institusi yang berbasis ilmu pengetahuan dan akhlak mulia”. rector speech at the 49th anniversary of upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia: 20th october. harefa, andrias. (2002). sekolah saja tidak pernah cukup. jakarta: pt gramedia pustaka utama. hasan, said hamid. (1996). pendidikan ilmu sosial. jakarta: ppta, ditjendikti, depdikbud ri. ismaun. (1967). tindjauan pantjasila: dasar filsafat negara republik indonesia. bandung: karya remadja. ismaun. (1969). problematik pantjasila sebagai kepribadian bangsa indonesia. bandung: karya remadja. ismaun. (1980). pancasila: pandangan hidup bangsa dan dasar negara republik indonesia. bandung: cv yulianti. kartadinata, sunaryo. (2012). “institutional governance requirements to produce dedicated teachers: restr ucturing teacher training institutions towards efficient and effective management”. available also at: http://file.upi.edu/direktori/fip/jur._psikologi_ pend_dan_bimbingan/195003211974121-sunaryo_kartadinata/institutional_ governance_%28english%29.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: 15th january 2013]. lombard, denys. (1996). nusa jawa silang budaya: kajian sejarah terpadu, three volumes. jakarta: pt gramedia pustaka utama, translation. andi suwirta & joko purwanto, reformulating the educational philosophy and aim 200 maarif, ahmad syafii. (1996). sejarah pendidikan islam di indonesia. yogyakarta: lp3m. ricklefs, m.c. (1991). sejarah indonesia modern. yogyakarta: gadjah mada university press, translation. smith, samuel. (1986). gagasan-gagasan besar tokoh-tokoh dalam bidang pendidikan. jakarta: penerbit bumi aksara, translation. somantri, muhammad numan. (2001). menggagas pembaharuan pendidikan ips. bandung: pt remaja rosdakarya. supriadi, dedi [ed]. (2002). guru di indonesia: pendidikan, pelatihan, dan perjuangannya sejak zaman kolonial hingga era reformasi. jakarta: ditjendikdasmen, depdiknas ri. supriadi, dedi. (1998). mengangkat citra dan martabat guru. yogyakarta: adicita karya nusa. tilaar, h.a.r.. (2003). kekuasaan & pendidikan: suatu tinjauan dari perspektif studi kultural. magelang: indonesiatera. tsuchiya, kenji. (1986). “perjuangan taman siswa dalam pendidikan nasional” in akira nagazumi [ed]. indonesia dalam kajian sarjana jepang: perubahan sosial-ekonomi abad xix & xx dan berbagai aspek nasionalisme indonesia. jakarta: yayasan obor indonesia, translation. zais, robert s. (1996). curriculum: principles and foundations. new york: harper & row publishers. zulkabir & andi suwirta [eds]. (2011). membangun pendidikan guru tingkat universitas: pemikiran pendidikan dari mas sadarjoen siswomartojo hingga sunaryo kartadinata, 1954 – 2015. bandung: upi press and rizqi press. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 59 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 jerick c. ferrer financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines abstract: the overarching objective of this research is to investigate the current financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines.the current study focused on the three key measures of financial capability: money management; ability to plan ahead; and financial literacy.this research followed a descriptive design and utilized survey as its method. frequencies and percentages were computed to examine the three key measures of financial capability of the respondent-teachers. data gathered were also compared in terms of regions and school levels. the survey was conducted among public school teachers in two regions: region iv-a and the ncr (national capital region). results shows that the financial capability of public school teachers is far from what is desired and merely reflects the negative trend on financial capability nationally and all over the world. contributing to this findings are the respondent-teachers’ deficient money management skills, low incidence of financial planning, and inadequate knowledge on basic financial concepts as reflected in their dismal performance in the financial literacy quiz. integrating financial education in the teacher education curriculum and in-service training of public school teachers can be an effective means not only to enrich the academic training of future teachers, but also to empower them to secure a more wealthy and prosperous future for themselves and for their family. while the current study provided server insights on the current level of financial capability of the public school teachers in terms of its three key measures, further research is necessary to validate these findings. key words: financial capability; financial literacy; financial planning; money management; public school teachers. about the author: jerick c. ferrer is an assistant professor iv at the faculty of education science pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, the philippines. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: ferrer.jc@pnu.edu.ph suggested citation: ferrer, jerick c. (2018). “financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august, pp.59-78. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (april 21, 2018); revised (june 22, 2018); and published (august 30, 2018). introduction despite of the positive effects of financial literacy on the welfare of the people (stango & zinman, 2009; atkinson & messy, 2012; hung, yoong & brown, 2012; and lusardi & mitchell, 2013), result of financial literacy survey around the world is depressing (lusardi, 2008; brunton, 2009; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; wb, 2011; agarwalla et al., 2012; atkinson & messy, 2012; ibrahim & alqaydi, 2013; lusardi, 2013; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014). all of these researches indicated a disturbing trend of low literacy in specific countries around the globe. multi-country reports on financial literacy also resonate the same conclusion (atkinson & messy, 2012; lusardi, 2013; and oecd/ infe, 2013). in the philippines, two recent © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 60 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability surveys were conducted to measure the financial literacy of the filipinos (solar/ flare, 2013; and wb, 2015). these surveys pointed out the dismal state of financial literacy among many filipinos, with many struggling to understand basic financial concepts and their application to everyday life. it is not, therefore, surprising that pyramiding scams (ponzie-styled scams), such as the one perpetuated by aman future group in 2012, which victimized 15,000 investors in visayas and mindanao, has been an increasing trend in recent years in the country. these unscrupulous individuals and syndicates may have exploited the low level of financial literacy of many filipinos in successfully executing their predatory practices (pmt, 2014).1 financial capability, according to world bank (2013a), is following here: […] an internal capacity to act in one’s best financial interest, given socio-economic environmental conditions. it encompasses the knowledge (literacy), attitudes, skills, and behaviors of consumers with regard to managing their resources, and understanding, selecting, and making use of financial services that fit their needs (wb, 2013a). the results of researches on financial capability highlighted the fact that individuals who are able to make sound financial decisions are in a much better position to reach their financial goals and can looking forward to a life that is more financially stable and secure. looking, therefore, into the status of the financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines is vital not only in providing empirical evidence to existing theories on the topic, but can also provide a holistic understanding of the financial situation of public school teachers that policymakers can use to inform public policy on the teachers’ financial welfare and protection (cf widdowson & hailwood, 2007; vyvyan, blue & brimble, 2014; and wb, 2015). jose rizal, the filipino national hero, once described the youth as the future of 1see also, for example, “mayor tried to help aman scam group” in abs-cbn news, on 19 december 2012. available online also at: https://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/ regions/12/19/12/mayor-tried-help-aman-scam-group [viewed in manila, philippines: 27 december 2017]. our motherland, but what kind of future our youth will become depends on the quality of teaching, mentoring, and caring their teachers are going to impart to them. if the teachers are buried in neck-deep debt, are not well equipped to manage soundly their finances, or are themselves victims of financial scams, what more can we expect from the general populace who are supposed to be trained and educated by them (osias, 2005; and alejandrino, 2016). the result of this research is primarily intended to inform public policy on the welfare and protection of public school teachers, and it is hoped that it also encourage all concerned sector of the society to participate in an advocacy to improve the financial capability of our public school teachers and secure a healthy and prosperous financial well-being for these modern day heroes (cf inciong, 2005; taylor & wagland, 2013; and ulla, barrera & acompanado, 2017). the concept and measurement of financial literacy and financial capability. the advocacy for an enhanced financial capability and financial inclusion among a much boarder segment of the populace has been gaining ground in many countries (lusardi, 2008; brunton, 2009; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; agarwalla et al., 2012; ibrahim & alqaydi, 2013; and mandigma, 2013). although most of the early researches in the area of financial education used the term “financial literacy” (lusardi, 2008; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; atkinson & messy, 2012; hung, yoong & brown, 2012; oecd/ infe, 2013; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014), the most recent researches conducted by the wb (world bank) already utilized the term “financial capability” (finra, 2013; and wb, 2013a, 2013b and 2015). even though most researches mentioned above stated that the two terms can be used interchangeably or synonymously, the wb in 2013a and 2013b report defined financial capability as a broader term than financial literacy, which refers only to the knowledge aspect of capability (wb, 2013a and 2013b). this current study adheres to the conceptual © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 61 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 overlap between the two terms as used in other researches in the area, but prefers to use “financial capability” to be consistent with the 2012 national financial capability survey of the finra (financial industry regulatory authority) investor education foundation, in 2013, whose research instrument was adopted in this survey (finra, 2013); and with the latest survey conducted by wb, in 2015, in the philippines which measured the financial capability and inclusion in the country (wb, 2015). furthermore, this study also follows the wb’s definition of financial capability (wb, 2013a and 2013b). although measuring this internal capacity is difficult, because of its multi-dimensional nature, surveys of financial literacy usually focuses on measuring some of the observable aspects of this internal capacity (wb, 2013a). some of the identified concepts of financial capability are financial knowledge, skills, attitude, and behaviors. for example, colmar brunton (2009) survey in new zealand measured financial knowledge, goal setting, financial planning, budgeting, debt management, saving, investing, and managing risk (brunton, 2009); while the wb survey in gaza, in 2011, focused on money management, planning and provisioning for the future, and making financial choices and financial literacy (wb, 2011). the wb survey in the philippines focused only on knowledge of financial concepts and financial behavior and attitudes (wb, 2015). on the other hand, m.s. mandigma (2013), in her study of the financial capability in an academic institution in the philippines, examined the relationship of financial capability and its elements: knowledge and understanding; skills and competence; and attitude and confidence (mandigma, 2013). the finra survey, in 2013, concentrated on the four key components of financial capability: making ends meet, planning ahead, managing financial product, and financial knowledge and decision making (finra, 2013). although this current research adapted the finra survey instruments, it limits its investigation only on money management, planning ahead, and financial literacy as key components of financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. results of financial capability surveys. studies around the world presented an alarming trend of low financial literacy across the general populace and identified target groups (lusardi, 2008; brunton, 2009; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; wb, 2011; agarwalla et al., 2012; atkinson & messy, 2012; ibrahim & alqaydi, 2013; lusardi, 2013; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014). this is despite the growing empirical evidence showing the benefits of having a financially literate citizen (lusardi, 2008; cohen & nelson, 2011; atkinson & messy, 2012; and hung, yoong & brown, 2012), see also review of literature on the effects of financial literacy. a. lusardi & o.s. mitchell (2014), for example, highlighted the finding of surveys across countries and stated that low levels of financial literacy are widespread in many countries around the world (lusardi & mitchell, 2014). a study made by wb (world bank), in 2011, among the residents of west bank and gaza revealed the prevalence of low financial literacy in the area (wb, 2011). moreover, a. lusardi (2008) commented that financial illiteracy is not only widespread, it is particularly acute among specific demographic groups, such as the elderly, women, and those with low education (lusardi, 2008). this finding was also supported by a. hung, j. yoong & e. brown (2012) which stated that discrepancies in financial literacy puts some of the more economically vulnerable groups at an even greater disadvantage, i.e. the poor, undereducated, and minority households (cf calamato, 2010; wb, 2011; and hung, yoong & brown, 2012). multi-country surveys also reported the low level of financial literacy across countries (atkinson & messy, 2012; lusardi, 2013; and oecd/infe, 2013). for a more comprehensive review of empirical researches on financial literacy, see for example a. lusardi & o.s. mitchell (2014). in the philippines, latest surveys on financial capability were released just recently by the solar/flare (study of © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 62 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability lifestyles, attitudes and relationships/ financial literacy advocacy reports), in 2013; g.m. llanto, in 2015; and the wb (world bank), in 2015. the study of the adb (asian development bank) revealed the dismal level of financial inclusion in the country, and highlighted one of its findings that many filipinos have low access to formal financial intitutions (llanto, 2015). on the other hand, sun life philippines reported that 1 out of 5 filipinos consider themselves as expert on money matters however, their scores on basic financial literacy quiz showed otherwise with only 8% scored above 80% and none scored more than 90% (solar/flare, 2013). the most recent survey on financial capability in the philippines was conducted by the wb in 2015. results of the survey shows understanding basic financial concepts is a big challenge for many adult filipinos as they were only able to answer correctly less than half (3.2) of the 7 financial-related questions. the findings of these financial capability surveys in the philippines reflected the result of the financial literacy/capability surveys around the world – that attaining financial capability has been a struggle for many people, and apparently the filipinos are not exempted from this fact (cf gropello, tan & tandon, 2010; and wb, 2013b and 2015). teacher’s financial literacy. the positive association between teacher and student academic achievement has been documented in various researches; however, various studies also confirmed the finding that the teachers understanding of financial concepts is on a decline (otter, 2010; han, yin & boylan, 2016; and zhao & zhang, 2017). c. loibl (2008), in his study, and others also confirmed that teachers have insufficient knowledge of personal finance concepts (loibl, 2008; lusardi, mitchell & curto, 2010; and otter, 2010). despite the numerous survey on financial literacy and capability around the world and most recently in the philippines (solar/ flare, 2013; and wb, 2015), there is still no study focusing on the level of financial capability of public school teachers as a significant particular target group in the philippines. the only study that is somehow related was that of m.s. mandigma (2013), which assessed the level of financial capability of a select group of academic personnel in a philippine comprehensive university and how financial capability was influenced by factors, such as knowledge and understanding; skills and competence; attitudes and confidence; and demographic and socio-economic characteristics (mandigma, 2013). . research objectives. the overarching objective of this research is to investigate the current status of the financial capability of public school teachers. specifically, the research are: (1) analyzed key measures of financial capability, such as money management, ability to plan ahead, and financial literacy among public school teachers; (2) evaluate how those key measure varies among public school teachers in term of regional and school level assignment; and (3) provide data and estimates that can inform public policy on the welfare and protection of public school teachers. method this research followed a descriptive design and utilized survey as its method. a survey has the “ability to measure attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge” (presser et al., 2004; fraenkel & wallen, 2006; otter, 2010; and blair, czaja & blair, 2013); and is also a methodology for describing a population (glatthorn & joyner, 2005; burian, rogerson & maffei, 2010; and otter, 2010). about the survey, according to wb (world bank), in 2011, states as following here: […] conducting a survey is a very common method used by policy makers to understand the nature and extent of the issues they want to address through intervention. a survey can also identify possible areas of intervention. this assessment can be repeated over time to measure progress toward the policy objectives (wb, 2011). the survey questionnaire. this survey adapted the survey questionnaire used by finra (financial industry regulatory authority) investors education foundation, in the 2012, nfsc (national financial study © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 63 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 capability) in the united states of america. permission to use an abridged version of the survey questionnaire was sought from finra and was given by mr. gary motolla; and of the nfsc, foundation research, through an e-mail dated on july 7, 2015 (oecd/infe, 2011; and finra, 2013). some modifications on the questionnaire, used in the 2012 nfsc, were to achieve the general objectives of this research and cover the different areas of concern of this study, as well as to better reflect the experiences and contextual condition of the public school teachers in the philippines. the selfadministered questionnaire in this research was designed to assess the financial capability of public school teachers. specifically, it focuses on measuring financial behavior such the ability to money management and making plan for the future and financial literacy as aspects of financial capability (kidwell & turrisi, 2004; and oecd/infe, 2011). participants and sampling procedures. this survey was conducted in two regions: the ncr (national capital region) and region iv-a calabarzon. the regions were purposively selected to capture differences of the financial capability of teachers at the urban/rural level. the ncr represents the urban areas in the country, while region iv-a calabarzon typifies the rural areas (reyes et al., 2010; and ferrer, 2017). the respondents of the survey are public school teachers from three deped (department of education) schools division in the ncr and two deped schools division from region iv-a. the three schools divisions in the ncr are all city schools division; while the two schools divisions in region iv-a are all province divisions. city schools divisions in region iv-a were purposely not included in cluster selection. there are more schools divisions selected in the ncr, because it has a larger population not only in terms of number of schools but also in terms of the number of teachers than region iv-a. the schools divisions were randomly selected from each of the two regions. a four-stage stratified cluster sampling was employed to select the sample respondents of the survey per region (barbosa et al., 2016; martinez-mesa et al., 2016; and ferrer, 2017). during the first stage of the clustering, sample respondents were first clustered by schools division comprising each of the region. after the two schools divisions were, then, randomly identified per region, the respondents were further clustered by schools district. one schools district was selected per schools division. respondents were, then, stratified by school level: elementary and secondary schools. two elementary and two secondary schools were randomly selected from each of the two schools districts. the respondent public school teachers were, then, randomly identified per school. fifty percent of the teachers on each of the schools were targeted as respondents. a total of 710 teachers participated in the survey: 239 are elementary school teachers and 471 are secondary school teachers. about 499, or 70%, of the teacherrespondents came from ncr; and 211, or 30%, came from the region iv-a calabarzon. ethical procedures were strictly considered in the research. respondents were informed that participation in the survey was voluntary and that they could refuse to participate and not answer the questionnaire given to them. in addition, they were given the option to skip any question or set of questions that made them feel uncomfortable by just indicating that they refuse to answer. finally, the personal identity of the respondents is not asked in the questionnaire; and, thus, all respondents’ identity remained confidential throughout the presentation of the results of the survey (cf kelley et al., 2003; jewkes, dartnall & sikweyiya, 2012; and blair, czaja & blair, 2013). data analysis. descriptive statistics was utilized in this research. frequencies, percentages, and mean scores were computed to examine the data gathered from the survey (kelley et al., 2003; presser et al., 2004; ali & bhaskar, 2016; barbosa et al., 2016; and zhao & zhang, 2017). results were also compared between the two regions: regions iv-a and ncr (national capital region); and between the two school levels: elementary and secondary. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 64 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability the results and discussion following the definition of financial literacy given by wb (world bank), in 2013, and this research focuses on how the respondents act to secure for themselves the best possible financial well-being by measuring some observable aspects of this capacity, such as: money management; ability to plan ahead; and financial literacy (wb, 2013a and 2013b). on the money management. the ability to live within one’s means, to balance income and expenses, and to cope with the daily nuances of one’s finances is an important aspect of financial capability. the ability of managing money on a daily basis can be mirrored from personal satisfaction to one’s financial condition, having a written budget, managing income and expenses, making ends meet, and saving and investing (ferrer, 2017; and kempson, finney & poppe, 2017). first, personal financial condition. one’s ability to manage effectively and efficiently his/her finances can be gleaned from the level of satisfaction to one’s financial condition (dobre, 2013; and kolzow, 2014). in a scale of 1-10, the respondents were asked how satisfied they are with their current personal financial condition. although, most of the respondents are indifferent with the level of their financial satisfaction with 52.6%, who stated that their feelings are neutral, a significant number reported that they are not satisfied with their current financial condition (27.1%), compared to a smaller number stating that they are satisfied (8.3%). it seems that there are teacher-respondents from regions iv-a, who have a more extreme perception regarding their current financial condition as the percentage of those who reported that they are not satisfied with their current financial condition (30%) and those who are satisfied (12.1%) is higher compared to that from ncr or national capital region (25.1% & 9%). on the other hand, the percentage of elementary teacher (29.8%), who are not satisfied in their current financial condition is bigger than the percentage of high school teachers (25.7%). see table 1. second, budgeting. having a written budget is an important behavioral indicator of sound financial management. having a budget allows one not only to plan how to use their money, but also to easily monitor their expenses later. in spite of the benefit of having a budget, close to half of the respondents stated that they do not have a written budget (47.2%), this is higher than those who indicated that they have one (39.3%). teachers from ncr (national capital region) are more likely to have a written budget (40.5%) than from region iv-a (36.5%); while there are more elementary teachers who have a written budget (44.8%) than high school teachers (36.5%). this finding is also consistent with the finding of wb (world bank), in 2015, that filipino adults are having a hard time with managing their money on the day-to-day basis, especially their ability to make a written budget to plan and track their expenses (wb, 2015). see figure 1. third, managing income and expenses. asked about how they balance their income and expenses, 48.5% of the respondents reported that they are spending more than their income, table 1: satisfaction with personal finance total region level iv-a ncr elem hs f % f % f % f % f % 1-3 192 27.1% 67 30.0% 125 25.1% 71 29.8% 121 25.7% 4-7 373 52.6% 109 48.9% 264 52.9% 112 47.1% 261 55.4% 8-10 59 8.3% 27 12.1% 45 9.0% 20 8.4% 39 8.3% don't know 85 12.0% 20 9.0% 65 13.0% 35 14.7% 50 10.6% total 709 100% 223 100% 499 100% 238 100% 471 100% note: one respondent did not answer this part of the questionnaire. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 65 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 while 32.1% are spending about equal to their income, and only 15.5% are spending less than their income. it seems that for many of the respondents, managing their day-to-day finances is a major challenge. this finding merely reflected the over-all difficulty of filipinos in managing efficiently their finances, especially their day-to-day expenses (wb, 2013a and 2015). more respondents from region iv-a (55.5%) reported they are spending more than their income compared to those from ncr or national capital region (45.5 %). there are slightly more elementary teachers than high school teachers, who reported that they are spending more than their income (49% versus 48.2%). see figure 2. fourth, making ends meet. an overwhelming majority (78.2%) of the teacher-respondents are having difficulty meeting their daily expenses. only a few (17.6%) reported that they are not experiencing difficulty in covering their expenses. this is one of the most worrying findings of this study, many of the respondent-teachers are having a hard time even making ends meet on a daily basis. making ends meet is maybe just one of the measures of money management, but its centrality to the overall concept of financial capability needs to be emphasized hereon (d’ortenzio, 2012; and morton, 2017). if almost 80% of the teachers are experiencing difficulty in meeting their basic daily expense, it is not therefore surprising that many of them are not satisfied with their current financial condition. notwithstanding the increases in the salary of teacher in recent years, it seems that it did not substantially improve the well-being of many public school teachers so much so that there are still a lot of them that are finding it hard even to finance their day-to-day expense. this issue needs urgent policy attention and more in-depth investigation (leithwood et al., 2004; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014). teachers from region iv-a are having more difficulty in meeting their expenses (86.3%) than those from ncr or national capital region (74.7%); this is consistent with the previous findings that there are also more teachers in region iv-a, who are having a hard time making ends meet. also, more teachers from ncr (20.2%) compared with region iv-a (11.4%) reported not having difficulty covering their daily expenses. more high school teachers (18.7%) reported not having difficulty in covering their expenses than elementary school teachers (15.5%). see table 2. fifth, saving and investing. saving is a positive indicator of efficient management of one’s finances. if a person saves, then, it is an indicator that he/she has the ability to plan ahead for the future, and more importantly has the capability to make investments that can earn him/her extra income, which will enable him/her to save even more (oiea, 2011; hastings, madrian & skimmyhorn, 2013; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014). however, the survey shows that only 23.2% of the teacher-respondents indicated that they 39.3% 36.5% 40.5% 44.8% 36.5% 47.2% 52.1% 45.1% 43.9% 48.8% iva ncr es hs total region level yes no figure 1: with written budget 15.5% 13.7% 16.2% 16.3% 15.1% 48.5% 55.5% 45.5% 49.0% 48.2% 32.1% 28.4% 33.7% 29.7% 33.3% iva ncr es hs total region level spend less than income spend more than income spending about equal to income figure 2: household spending behavior © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 66 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability save regularly, while 37.6% save money only sometime, 29.9% save for special occasion only, and 21.4% cannot save for reason of not having enough money. more teachers from ncr (national capital region) save money regularly (26.1%) than region iv-a (16.6%). this is consistent with the finding that teachers from region iv-a are having a hard time making ends meet as compared to teachers from ncr. those who save regularly among elementary school teachers (24.3%) are only slightly higher than those who save regularly among high school teachers (21.4%), while more high school teachers (21.8%) indicated that they cannot save money for reason of not having enough money than elementary teachers (18.0%), although again, the difference is only slight. another important finding to take note is that more teachers from ncr (5%) indicated that they do not save at all than from region iv-a (3.3%), while more high school teachers (5.2%) do not save at all than elementary school teachers (2.5%). see table 3. majority of the respondents have savings account (56.9%) and a significant number have shares in cooperatives (28.6%). however, only a few uses treasury bills and bonds, and uitf (unit investment trust fund) as an investment tool (1.3% & 2.7% respectively). it seems that majority of teacher-respondents are not yet acquainted with some of the more advanced investment instruments and their financial inclusion is still limited to the traditional savings account. access to financial services is not a substantial challenge for many public school teachers as the rate of financial inclusion among them is high, albeit comprising significantly of savings account and cooperative shares (hastings, madrian & skimmyhorn, 2013; and rillo & miyamoto, 2016). the problem of low financial inclusion among the general population of filipinos identified by the adb (asian development bank) survey (cited in llanto, 2015) is not prevalent among the public school teachers; concomitantly, data also shows that respondent-teachers have very little exposure to high yielding investment accounts, such as bonds and t-bills, uitf, mutual funds, and stocks which limits their capability to accumulate wealth or secure a better retirement life (llanto, 2015; and llanto & rosellon, 2017). table 2: difficulty in covering expenses total region level iv-a ncr es hs f % f % f % f % f % very difficult 151 21.3% 47 22.3% 104 20.8% 66 27.6% 85 18.0% some what difficult 404 56.9% 135 64.0% 269 53.9% 121 50.6% 283 60.1% not at all difficult 125 17.6% 24 11.4% 101 20.2% 37 15.5% 88 18.7% did not indicate 30 4.2% 5 2.4% 25 5.0% 15 6.3% 15 3.2% total 70 100% 211 100% 499 100% 239 100% 471 100% table 3: saving behavior which best describes you? total region level i v a n c r e s hs f % f % f % f % f % save money regularly 165 23.2% 35 16.6% 130 26.1% 58 24.3% 107 21.4% save money sometimes 267 37.6% 89 42.2 % 178 35.7% 97 40.6% 170 34.1% save only during special occasion 212 29.9% 66 31.3% 146 29.3% 68 28.5% 144 28.9% can't save, money not enough 152 21.4% 45 21.3% 107 21.4% 43 18.0% 109 21.8% dont’ save at all 32 4.5% 7 3.3% 25 5.0% 6 2.5% 26 5.2% © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 67 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 the same finding was also reported in the solar/flare (study of lifestyles, attitudes and relationships/financial literacy advocacy reports), in 2013, which shows that only 1 out of 10 filipinos resort to investment as a way to anticipate life events (solar/flare, 2013). in the study of m. van rooij, a. lusardi & r.j. alessie (2011), they concluded that there is positive relation between stock market participation and financial literacy (van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011). premising on these two studies, it is can be assumed that low level of financial literacy may have prevented many of the respondent-teachers in participating in other forms of high yielding investment accounts. see figure 3. ability to plan ahead. life can be viewed as a series of events that are both certain and uncertain. marriage, starting a family, sickness, retirement, and even death are life events that are certain in almost all person. financial planning, therefore, is vital to cope with these certainties in life. on the other hand, the intrinsically uncertain nature of the future should compel individuals and households to make provision for any financial emergencies that can come their way (walsh, 1996; and diacon & mahdzan, 2008). first, coping with financial emergency. more respondents reported not having emergency fund in case of medical emergencies, unemployment, economic recession, or other emergencies (54.9%) than those with sufficient emergency fund (39.2%). many of them are in constant state of insecurity in case an emergency happens in their family, because they know that they do not have a sufficient buffer fund to hurdle any emergency that might occur to them personally or their family. although the same result was also reported by finra (financial industry regulatory authority), in 2013, in its own survey among adults in the united states of america, it contradicts the result of the recent survey of wb (world bank), in 2015, conducted in the country on financial capability which shows that most adult filipinos as highly capable in provisioning for unexpected expenses (finra, 2013; and wb, 2015). this finding that public school teachers in the philippines have weaker financial capability in provisioning for their future than the general populace are a cause for concern and should be investigated further. more respondents from region iv-a (62.6%) do not have an emergency fund than those from ncr or national capital region (51.7%); while elementary school teachers (55.2%) slightly outnumber those from the high school (54.8%) in not have an emergency fund. see table 4. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 saving checking cooper ative share stock bond/t-bill mutual fund uitf figure 3: types of account subscribed © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 68 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability second, provisioning for the future. we all know that just like any other commodities, college tuition fees have been raising annually, eating up a larger portion of the family income. the burden of paying the education of their children has been a major concern of all, especially those who already have difficulty managing their financial resources, due to debt problem and making ends meet (wellen, 2004; unesco, 2014; and ferrer, 2017). even with this situation, majority of the respondents who reported to have financially dependent children (63% of the total sample), only close to 20% are setting aside money or have availed of an education plan for their children’s college education. the majority (43.7%) is not setting aside money or has not availed of an education plan. this is quite disturbing as we may probably witness an irony that many of our teachers’ children are not able to graduate in college. how can we expect our public school teachers to teach effectively if they are constantly worried that their children may not be able to finish their education? comparing the regions, there are more teachers from ncr or national capital region (22%), who have set aside money or availed themselves of education plan for their children than those from region iv-a (12.8%). this finding is expected, already having difficulties managing their resources and daily expenses, teachers from region iv-a will also have a harder time saving money for their their children’s college education compared to those from ncr. the same pattern was also observed when comparing the responses per school level. the incidence of subscription to a college educational plan for their children is low for both elementary and high school teachers. see table 5. financial literacy. following the format of the 2012 finra (financial industry regulatory authority) survey, self-assessment questions on financial literacy and competence, where included and followed by a five item quiz to measure objectively the financial literacy of the respondents (finra, 2013). first, self-perception of financial knowledge. respondents assessed their over-all level of awareness and understanding of financial knowledge on a scale of 1-7, in which 1 being very low and 7 very high. this was done with a view of comparing later the objective result of the literacy quiz vis-a-vis their subjective assessment of their financial knowledge. the result of the self-assessment table 4: setting aside rainy day fund to cover 3 months expenses total type level rural urban es hs f % f % f % f % f % yes 278 39.2% 69 32.7% 209 41.9% 89 37.2% 189 40.1% no 390 54.9% 132 62.6% 258 51.7% 132 55.2% 258 54.8% did not indicate 42 5.9% 10 4.7% 32 6.4% 18 7.5% 24 5.1% total 710 100% 211 100% 499 100% 239 100% 471 100% table 5: availed of a college educational plan respondents with financially dependent children who answered total region level iv-a ncr es hs f % f % f % f % f % yes 137 19.3% 27 12.8% 110 22.0% 47 19.7% 90 19.1% no 310 43.7% 106 50.2% 204 40.9% 112 46.9% 198 42.0% not applicable 232 32.7% 70 33.2% 162 32.5% 64 26.8% 168 35.7% did not indicate 31 4.4% 8 3.8% 23 4.6% 16 6.7% 15 3.2% total 710 100% 211 100% 499 100% 239 100% 471 100% © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 69 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 seems to be very positive, as almost half of them (47.3%) reported that they have a high level of financial knowledge (scale 5-7), and only a few reported that they have low or very low financial knowledge (12.3% and 3.5% respectively). almost the same number of teachers from ncr or national capital region (47.3%) and from region iv-a (47.4.4%) reported that they have high level of financial knowledge, but there are more teachers from ncr (4.2%) who rated themselves to be very low than from region iv-a (1.9%). on the other hand, more high school teachers reported that they have high knowledge (50.3%) than elementary school teachers (41.4%). see table 6. on a scale of 1-7 (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree), teacher-respondents were also asked to self-assess how strongly they agree or disagree on the statement that they are “good in dealing with day-to-day financial matters, such as inflation rate, interest rate, credit and debit cards, and tracking expenses”. results revealed that the teacher-respondents acknowledged the fact that they are not good (35%) in dealing with everyday financial matters, only a few perceived themselves to be good (19%). even those who perceived themselves to be good, more than half of them (12%) gave themselves the lowest degree of confidence. there are more teacher-respondents from region iv-a (30%) who also acknowledge that their knowledge is not good compared with teacher-respondents from nrc or national capital region (25%). on the other hand, there are more elementary teachers (30%) who regard their knowledge of these financial concepts as not good compared with high school teachers (26%). see figure 4. the result of the two self-assessment questions is conflicting: on one hand, teachers tend to be highly confident on their assessment of their over-all financial knowledge, but when asked with a more specific question pertaining to financial matters, such as inflation rate, interest rate, credit and debit cards and tracking expenses, their perception of their knowledge turns to negative. we can only surmise that respondent-teachers are being overly confident with their perception of their over-all financial knowledge, but when confronted with more specific financial concepts or issues, they suddenly realize that their knowledge about these concepts is quite low (otter, 2010; d’ortenzio, 2012; and sawatzki & sullivan, 2017). finra (financial industry regulatory authority), in 2013, also reported a similar finding in the usa (united states of america), where respondents tends to over-estimate their financial knowledge (finra, 2013). the self-assessment questions revealed that there seems to be a detachment between what they perceived they know and what they actually know with regards to finances. this overconfidence on their knowledge of personal finance might work against them if it will blind them from realizing the sources of their financial problems and woes, and discourage them to seek sound financial advice or to avail of financial education to table 6: how would you assess your overall financial knowledge? total region level iv-a ncr es hs f % f % f % f % f % very low 25 3.5% 4 1.9% 21 4.2% 10 4.2% 15 3.2% low (2-3) 87 12.3% 33 15.6% 54 10.8% 34 14.2% 53 11.3% moderate 136 19.2% 48 22.7% 88 17.6% 48 20.1% 88 18.7% high (5-6) 297 41.8% 85 40.3% 212 42.5% 87 36.4% 210 44.6% very high 39 5.5% 15 7.1% 24 4.8% 12 5.0% 27 5.7% dont’ know 27 3.8% 6 2.8% 21 4.2% 10 4.2% 17 3.6% prefer not to say 43 6.1% 9 4.3% 34 6.8% 22 9.2% 21 4.5% did not answer 56 7.9% 11 5.2% 45 9.0% 16 6.7% 40 8.5% total 710 100% 211 100% 499 100% 239 100% 471 100% © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 70 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability improve their financial literacy. on a positive note, the teacher-respondents seem to quickly realize their limitation on understanding basic financial concepts when specifically confronted with these concepts. the knowledge of the perception of the teachers with regards to the level of financial literacy is important as it might determine their financial attitude and behavior (remund, 2010; ghani, 2013; and karelaia & reb, 2015). m. van rooij, a. lusardi & r.j. alessie (2011) explained that the personal perception of an individual with regards to his financial knowledge may have an effect on financial outcomes. for example, overconfidence might dissuade one from attending financial training, seeking more information, or soliciting the advice of professional financial advisers. on the other hand, under confidence might prevent one from effectively using his knowledge to enhance his growth potential. needless to say, this type of self-assessment questions suffers from personal biases, the inclusion of the literacy quiz will provide a more objective measure of their financial knowledge (cf colthart et al., 2008; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; and leichner et al., 2016). second, result of the financial literacy quiz. a five-item financial literacy quiz was given to the respondents to measure their knowledge on the basic concepts in financial literacy, such as interest rates and inflation, risk and diversification, bond prices and interest rates, and terms of mortgage or loan (mandell, 2004; lusardi, 2008; and hastings, madrian & skimmyhorn, 2013). with an overall mean score of 1.7 the results reveal a low level of financial literacy among the respondents. this is even lower than the result of 2012 financial capability survey of finra (financial industry regulatory authority) among americans, which used the same questionnaire and reported a mean score of 2.9; and the wb (world bank) survey, in 2015, in the philippines which reported a mean score of 3.2 in a 7-item quiz (finra, 2013; and wb, 2015). the respondents are quite good in answering questions on interest rates, but find it difficult to answer the rest of the questions, especially the question of bond prices and risk. it is clear from the result of the financial literacy quiz that public school teachers have very low awareness and understanding of advanced investment tools, such as bonds and stocks. their diminished understanding of these financial concepts may have hindered these teachers from investing in these high yielding investment portfolios, which could have contributed to their long term financial stability and gains. in their study, a. hung, j. yoong & e. brown (2012) found empirical evidence which suggests the positive impact of financial literacy to financial behavior and the financial status of individuals and cited various researches providing empirical evidences that supported this conclusion (hung, yoong & brown, 2012). it is also important to note that the number of teacher-respondents who indicated they “don’t know” the answer to the questions are quite high. on the interest rate question, 13% stated they “don’t know” the answer; on the inflation question 32%; bond price question 35%; mortgage/loan question 31%; and finally, on the risk question, a staggering 58% indicated that they “don’t know” the answer. on the last three questions, those who indicated that they “don’t know” the answer outnumbered those who answered the questions incorrectly. see figure 5. figure 4: “i am good in dealing with overall financial matters …” © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 71 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 majority of the respondents were able to answer 1 to 2 questions only and less than 1% obtained a perfect score, but the real cause of concern is the 15.3% who were not able to answer any of the questions correctly. these teachers do not seem to have a clear understanding of the financial concepts included in the quiz. considering that our public school teachers belong to the most educated segment of our population, and the fact that they are supposed to impart financial literacy to their own students, these numbers represent a significant challenge not just to the teachers but to the country, which hopes to have financially literate citizens as the backbone of its economic growth (lusardi & mitchell, 2007; and infe, 2008). in the research done by m.s. mandigma (2013), on measuring the financial capability of the academic personnel of a comprehensive university in the philippines, her major finding was that they have above average financial capability; and she concluded that this maybe brought about by the fact that they belong from a known comprehensive university; thus, they are relatively more financially welloff (mandigma, 2013). the research, then, concluded that financial circumstance may have an effect on the financial capability of the respondents. following this conclusion, it can also be infer that one of the reasons for the seemingly low financial capability of our public school teachers is also their inferior financial circumstance and not just the other way around (cf letkiewicz, 2012; mandigma, 2013; and ferrer, 2017). this finding needs to be analyzed further and validated in future study. see figure 6. looking closer at the mean score, it seems that teacher-respondents from region iv-a performed better than those from ncr (national capital region), while high school teachers outperformed elementary school teachers. see table 6. discussion. this study assessed the status of the financial capability of public school teachers by looking into their money management ability, ability to plan ahead, and financial literacy. results shows that the financial capability of public school teachers is far from what is desired and also reflected the negative trend on financial capability nationally (llanto, 2015) and all over the world (aizcorbe, kennickell & moore, 2003; lusardi, 2008 and 2013; brunton, 2009; van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2011; wb, 2011; agarwalla et al., 2012; atkinson & messy, 2012; ibrahim & alqaydi, 2013; and lusardi & mitchell, 2014). corollary to the above conclusion, the 63.5% 31.0% 7.9% 40.3% 12.4% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% interest rate question inflation question bond price question mortgage question risk question figure 5: percentage of correct answer figure 6: frequency of scores © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 72 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability ability of the teachers to manage money is deficient. the negative perception of many public school teachers on their current financial condition still reflects the finding of the earlier survey by project tao (tropical atmosphere ocean), in 2000, that their living standard is still below than what is considered sustainable, considering the value society attached to them as educators (project tao, 2000). furthermore, their negative perception of their financial condition may also reflect the fact that they are having difficulty managing properly their finances. being able to manage money effectively and efficiently is an important behavior indicator of financial capability (project tao, 2000; and de guzman, 2008). it is also important to note that the components of money management are greatly intertwined. not having a budget means that one does not have a plan on how to use his/her money; thus, may end up overspending especially on non-essential commodities. not living within one’s means will ultimately results in borrowing and even long-term debt, which may eventually impair one’s ability to meet his/her daily needs and the vicious cycle goes on. this scenario maybe true for many of these public school teachers (van rooij, lusardi & alessie, 2007; ferrer, 2017; and kempson, finney & poppe, 2017). findings on savings suggest that for many public school teachers saving regularly is not a habit, and for a significant number of them its underlying cause is not having enough excess money after expenses. nearly 20% of the respondent filipinos ran out of money, due to overspending (llanto, 2015); this may be true also for many of the respondents of this study. their inability to manage their money forced many of these teachers in a situation where they could hardly save money for future use. in terms of investing, the low incidence of the participation of the respondents in high yielding accounts, such as mutual fund, uitf (unit investment trust fund), and the stocks due to their lack of awareness and understanding of these financial instruments are limiting their potential to acquire passive income, build-up wealth, and secure a comfortable retirement life in the future (inciong, 2005; dayang, 2011; llanto, 2015; and llanto & rosellon, 2017). result of the most recent survey on financial capability in the philippines shows that filipinos are strong in terms of farsightedness or the inclination to think about the future and in coping with unexpected expenses (llanto, 2015; and llanto & rosellon, 2017). unfortunately, the same is not true for the respondent-teachers of this study, for many of them, it is a great challenge to cope with financial emergency and to provide for the education of their children. this is of great concern and needs policy intervention given its implications to the health, well-being, and security of these teachers (lavy, 2002; drexler, fisher & schoar, 2014; and ferrer, 2017). the results of the self-assessment questions reveal a disconnect between what the teachers think they know and what they can actually do. this means that even though they perceived their financial knowledge to be adequate, it is not translated into positive actions that contribute to enhancing their financial capability and economic wellbeing. the performance of the teacherrespondents in the literacy quiz is a cause of concern. although this pattern of low financial capability among the populace and target groups is also shown in most financial capability surveys around the world, including rich countries, the result of the table 6: mean score region level mean n sd mean n sd iv-a 1.73 201 1.07 es 1.63 217 1.06 ncr 1.67 452 1.13 hs 1.72 436 1.13 total 1.69 653 1.11 total 1.69 653 1.11 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 73 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 quiz is quite staggering since not only is the mean score of our teacher-respondents low, it is even lower compared to international benchmark (finra, 2013) and the result of the wb (world bank) survey on the financial capability among adult filipinos (demirguckunt & klapper, 2012; llanto, 2015; wb, 2015; and llanto & rosellon, 2017). however, since these are different surveys, the results are not necessarily comparable, but what is apparent is that our public school teachers do not have adequate knowledge on basic financial concepts, especially with regard to advanced investment tools such as for example bond and stocks. considering these results, the government should consider studying the possibility of including financial education in the curriculum of teacher education institution and in in-service training programs given to public school teachers (johnson & sherraden, 2007; jumpstart, 2008; grifoni & messy, 2012; and ferrer, 2017). conclusion this research was originally envisioned to be conducted nationally, but due to limited funding, only two regions were included in the survey. the findings, therefore, may have limited generalization ability. moreover, further refinement of the instrument used is needed to increase its contextualization in the philippine setting. future research should consider harmonizing its methodology and instrument to international researches on financial capability, such as those conducted by oecd (organisation for economic cooperation and development) and wb (world bank) to allow meaningful comparison of results and benchmarking practices. also, while the current study provided server insights on the current level of financial capability of the public school teachers in terms of its three key measures, further research is necessary to validate these findings. also, the inclusion of provisioning for 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(2017). “the influence of field teaching practice on pre-service teachers’ professional identity: a mixed methods study” in frontiers in psychology, volume 8. available online also at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pmc/articles/pmc5522859/ [viewed in manila, philippines: 2 march 2018]. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 78 jerick c. ferrer, financial capability financial capability in the philippines (source: aspensi document, 2/3/2018) result of the most recent survey on financial capability in the philippines shows that filipinos are strong in terms of far-sightedness or the inclination to think about the future and in coping with unexpected expenses. unfortunately, the same is not true for the respondent-teachers of this study, for many of them, it is a great challenge to cope with financial emergency and to provide for the education of their children. this is of great concern and needs policy intervention given its implications to the health, well-being, and security of these teachers. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 93© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie comparative perspectives on educational assessment system at primary schools in japan and iran abstract: the comparison of different dimensions of successful and unsuccessful educational system is a popular trend among educational researchers in developing countries. the educational success of japanese students in international examinations has triggered many researchers all around the world to pay attention to the role of educational system of this country. in the meanwhile, asian countries have a feeling of closeness to japan and think they can follow the footsteps of japan as an ideal model. in iran and over the last two decades, the japanese model of education has drawn the attention of researchers involved in education. this interest toward japan stems from these facts: (1) japan is an eastern country and abides by its cultural and traditional system; and (2) japan’s educational advancement. in addition, iranian researchers pay particular attention to japan’s primary school period as the most fundamental stage because international surveys, such as timss (trend in mathematics and science study) reveals that iranian primary school pupils do poorly on the math and science exams. one of the reasons of such poor results is the weakness of educational assessment system of iran. the present article attempts to look at the evaluation system in both countries from a comparative perspective. in the first part, the reasons for the comparison are clarified. in the second part, an overview of the two countries educational system is presented. part three elucidates common evaluation methods in two countries. in the end, we conclude with a comparative outlook to some of the similarities and differences between japan and iran. key words: the comparison, educational system, japan and iran, model of education, similarities and differences, and the math and science exams. about the authors: dr. abbas madandar arani is a lecturer at the department of education, lorestan university, khorramabad city, iran; dr. lida kakia is chairwoman of social studies group, the education organization of tehran (district 6), tehran city, iran; and zahra babaie is head of ayob hosayni middle secondary school, the education organization of tehran (district 5), tehran city, iran. for academic interests, the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: rie2000@gmail.com, lida.kakia@gmail.com, and babaei.zahra@ymail.com how to cite this article? madandar arani, abbas, lida kakia & zahra babaie. (2015). “comparative perspectives on educational assessment system at primary schools in japan and iran” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.93-102. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educareijes.com/comparative-perspectives-on-educational-assessment-system/ chronicle of the article: accepted (september 29, 2014); revised (november 14, 2014); and published (february 28, 2015). introduction structure of research in the field of comparative education is based upon understanding others through the educational system. this understanding, as m. sadler (1964) points out, is a major step toward understanding oneself. this fact is even accepted in countries like iran and uk (united kingdom), which have commonly an introspective view of themselves. for example, in england, during the mid-1990s, the government’s office for standards in education (ofsted) commissioned a review of comparative studies of educational achievement. the report commenced by observing that: we live in a world that is becoming “smaller” all the time. the spread of mass communications, and particularly of satellite broadcasting, makes ideas that were formerly found only in isolated cultural niches globally available. the enhanced interactions between citizens of different countries through visits, vacations, migrations, and electronic contact are clearly both breaking down cultural barriers and yet, at the same time, also leading to a reassertion of cultural distinctiveness. the educational world is also becoming “smaller” all the time (reynolds & farrell, 1996:3). belief in global village and the scope of teaching and learning becoming smaller have eliminated comparative researchers past worries. however, despite so many cultural and geographical differences between uk abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system 94 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com (united kingdom) and the far east countries, the above mentioned committee emphasizes on studying the educational systems in countries, such as japan and south korea (crossley & watson, 2003; and davies, 2004). therefore, choosing a country as the “unit of analysis” is the major feature of comparative studies, but as mark bray points out: a prerequisite for any comparative study is to establish the parameters for initial comparability of the chosen units of analysis. in general, instructive analysis can be made when the units for comparison have sufficient in common to make analysis of their differences meaningful (bray, 2004:248). thus, rather than a mechanical identification of similarities and differences between two or more places, it is suggested that attention be paid to the underlying context of these commonalities and differences, and to their causal relevance to the educational phenomenon being examined. in other words, any meaningful comparative study should be able to identify the extent and the reasons for commonalities and differences between the units of comparison, examining the causes at work, and the relationships between those causes. p.k. kubow & p.r. fossum (2003) provided a useful tool with “boxed” juxtapositions of comparisons of featured countries with respect to demographic, geophysical, and socio-political factors shaping education. with regards to present paper, and based on p.k. kubow & p.r. fossum (2003), figure 1 is drawn for japan and iran. with regard to the findings of the figure 1, some similarities and differences between japan and iran could be found. these common grounds can assist us in explaining the assessment system of education in both countries. it is obvious that japan’s educational system, over the last two decades, has got much attention from those who are involved in education. in the meanwhile, iranian feel to have commonalities with japan’s social setting. both countries enjoy a rich cultural and historical background over the past centuries. the geographical position of iran in contrast to japan has caused much cultural exchanges with other nations. however, in both countries, customs, traditions, cultural, and religious rituals are still very common and prevalent. on the other hand, unlike japanese, iranians have not been able to find a way to reconcile traditions with modernism. therefore, one of the reasons for iranian’s attraction to japan can be found in the way iranian have understood to learn from japan’s educational system. figure 1: points of convergence in different settings for japan and iran japan iran aspect: because of japan’s geographical condition, racial, cultural, and religious unity over the past centuries, there is a solid social structure among people. demography and educational consequences how have attributes of the population affected education? aspect: three-forth of iranian are persian and the rest are turks, kurds, arabs, and lors. about 90% are shiite, 7% are sunnis, and the rest are christians, zoroastrian, and jews. farsi is the national language, but other languages like arabic are also spoken in some parts of the country. response: centuries of intermarriage and racial and cultural mixing have shaped the japanese population. a more unified and distinctly japanese “race” has emerged as a result. response: despite racial and religious differences, there is a unified educational system for all parts of the country. after the 1979 islamic revolution, there is an emphasis on religion in schools teachings but religious minorities have their own schools. consequence: although there is no clear indication of differences in access to educational opportunities, the economic gap shows that the rich have more access to better schools and universities. consequence: despite racial differences, there is a common feeling of “being an iranian” among all the people. however, religious and language differences along with economic gap have caused some parts of the country to have better access to educational opportunities. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 95© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com on the other hand, differences between the two countries can affect educational borrowing. from the geographical points of view, iran is vaster than japan and its population is double as much less than this country. also, the ethnic-religious and linguistic varieties are more profound than japan. despite these differences, educational experts in iran believe that similarities between iran and japan are more than similarities between iran and any european country. in the past, iran adopted the france’s educational system. some believe that we would have been more successful if we had adopted the japanese model of education. primary education in japan the culture of education in japan is based on shinto, buddhism, and confucianism philosophy. buddhism was introduced to japan during the sixth century; at the same century, japanese had been introduced with chinese writing and literature (passin, 1965). chinese philosophy and literature had influenced history of japan. according to these philosophies’ learning and study are the main tools of personal and social improvement, consequently had respect and honor in the japanese society (aso & amano, 1972). therefore, educational achievements of japanese pupils and students influence their social and economic status very much. the education system of japan was formed for the first time after taiho constitution in the 701. this constitution was a base of japanese law till the meiji restoration (1868). the meiji restoration period was very important and had innovations not just in social life, but in educational system too. the main specialties of this time were learning different education systems, inviting foreign specialists, and departure japanese specialists to the europe countries to research their education (lincicome, 1995). three big reforms in educational system have been done at the end of the 19th – 20th century. the first was done in 1872, the second was done after world war ii in 1947, and the third after 1987. the purposes of the reform in 1987 were to pay maximum attention to individuality of every student, to make long life education, to internationalize education, to create modern education, computerization of schools, and spread of english learning (kydyralieva, 2010). apart from the philosophical characteristics of education system in japan, we can deal with some features of its elementary education system. in japan, primary schools begin at the age of 6. this period is 6 years, and it is mandatory and free of charge. since 1992, the educational syllabus is covered in 5 days of table 1: standard annual “teaching hours” (45 minutes) in primary schools year 6 11-12 yrs year 5 10-11 yrs year 4 9-10 yrs year 3 8-9 yrs year 2 7-8 yrs year 1 6-7 yrs curriculum area and number of teaching hours compulsory subjects: 210210280280315306japanese language 105105105105----social studies 175175175175175136arithmetic/mathematics 105105105105----science --------105102living experience 707070707068music 707070707068art (drawing and handicrafts) 7070--------home economics 105105105105105102physical education 353535353534moral education 353535353534special activities 1,0151,0151,015980910850total source: moe [ministry of education] (2004). abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system 96 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com class time per week. a considerable amount of teacher’s time is spent on organizing field trips, participating in sports festivals, and also orientation and graduation ceremonies. the academic year is 35 weeks and the class time is 45 minutes. schools starts at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 3:50 p.m. more than 2 hours is spent on breaks, lunch, and cleaning of classes and corridors. books are not quite unique and local committees in consultation with teachers’ representatives compile books for every grade and progress to higher grades is automatic. table 1 shows subjects matters from 1st to 6th grade. primary education in iran until the middle of the 19th century, formal education in iran was almost entirely provided by the islamic maktab, private schools associated with a mosque and supported by contributions of the wealthy faithful. however, in 1848, and twenty years before meiji restoration (1868) in japan, amir kabir, the prime minister of iran and a royal advisor, started a government-supported polytechnic in accordance with the european model to be located in tehran. in 1925, while the last qajar king was in europe, a parliament composed of reza khan’s men deposed the qajar dynasty and recognized him as reza shah, the first pahlavi. his reign in iran was contemporaneous with ataturk in turkey. reza shah had almost the same objectives regarding education as ataturk did. he established the secular primary and secondary school systems in iran. the years since the end of world war ii have seen the establishment of a number of new schools and universities (sadigh, 1974). in 1941, at the beginning of the world war ii, reza shah moved close to the germans, in spite of initial british support. as a result, allied forces occupied iran and the shah abdicated in favor of his son, mohammad reza shah. however, the islamic revolution that toppled shah in 1979 steered the nation’s education system in a new direction. the organization of the education system in iran is highly centralized. the ministry of education administers and finances schools at the primary and secondary level (arani & abbasi, 2008). primary education is a five-year programme which provides students with basic knowledge and skills, as shown in table 2. primary school is 5 years and pupils range from 5 to 11 years old. this period is compulsory and free of charge. classes are held 6 days in a week and everyday school time is from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., although in some parts of country start and finish time can vary according to number of pupils and class availability. based on regulations, teachers must be at schools for 40 hours per week; but in practice, it does not happen and usually they leave schools after they finish their classes. each teacher has to teach 24 hours in a week. most of teacher’s time is spent on organizing class, teaching, and correcting quiz or exam papers. academic year is 32 weeks and each class lasts 45 minutes. in practice, the presence of pupils at schools can vary according to harsh climate conditions and religious or political occasions which can lead to the one-day shut-down of schools. textbooks are unique and are developed for all boys and girls all around the country without any consideration of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences. the ministry of table 2: primary school schedule course title total number of hours weeks per year hours per week grade spelling; composition; social education; religious teaching; holy koran; persian (reading, grammar); physical education; art (drawing, handicraft, calligraphy); science; and mathematic. 768 768 896 896 896 32 32 32 32 32 24 24 28 28 28 1 2 3 4 5 source: moe [ministry of education] (2004). educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 97© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com education is responsible for textbook design and development. going to higher grades depends on success in final exams. educational achievement system at primary school in japan, the assessment of educational achievement at primary school is task-based and not-based on scores. there is no final examination for going from one grade to the next. in this view of assessment, three points are emphasized: (1) efficiency and usefulness of teaching-learning system; (2) reflection of student’s abilities and capacities; and (3) quantitative and qualitative record of results in the report card [scores obtained from every subject matter, results of special activities, and record of events which calls for counseling, records of roll-calling]. the record of results in the report card for each subject matter is in the shape of absolute criterion (what must be learned) and normreferenced methods with the teacher’s opinion about student’s individual abilities. there is a formative and continuous method of assessment at work. there is also an emphasis on student’s self-assessment (sarkar arani, 2001). in 1990s, japan reformed its educational system and focused on a revised syllabus which is less strict and more lenient and emphasizes on individual’s independent thinking. moreover, japan’s educational system is central and reformative and insists on growth and development as the prerequisite for the success of citizens. qualitative continuous assessment and its feed-back to parents have helped the progress of japan’s educational system. research shows that the success of primary schools in japan stems from three sources: the feeling of belonging to schools, development of whole person, and appropriate content (lewis & tsuchida, 1997). since 2002, with the slogan of “less is much”, japanese have reduced about 30 per cent of teaching hours and textbook contents at primary schools in order to provide opportunities for learning and can enjoyable chance at school. at iranian primary schools, assessment of educational activities is the teacher’s responsibility, which is done for the active involvement of students in teaching-learning process. continuous and formative assessments are common. continuous assessment is based on pupil’s participation in learning activities, such as homework completion, class questions, and out of class activities. feedback is given through sending a report card to parents. exams are conducted in written, oral, and hands-on ways based on the type and nature of the subject matter. written exams are the most common of all three methods. pupils’ scores are recorded in special books. the passing score is 10 out of 20. getting the passing score is the ultimate requirement for moving on to higher grade levels. at the end of primary period (fifth grade), exams are designed and administrated nation-wide. as of academic year of 2002-2003, based on the directive of the supreme committee of educational system and with the aim of working fundamental changes in assessment methods, qualitative assessment trial project was piloted at some primary schools (omission of 0-20 band score for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade pupils). currently, after three years of piloting, this project is extended to all the primary schools in the country. the emphasis here is on changing quantitative to qualitative assessment and replacing summative with formative evaluation (hasani, 2005). according to this method, weak and strong points of pupils are investigated based on their portfolio, which is a report of all their abilities, skills, and attitudes (moghanizade, 2001). recent surveys reveal that under this project, there has been less exam stress, improved learning, increased parents satisfaction, less failing, and grade repetition. on the down side of the project, there are factors, such as: teachers, pupils and parents’ habit to scoring system, too much content, teacher’s lack of familiarity with the project and time–consuming qualitative assessment. it is obvious that the project was in trial phase and was administered in a few schools. further investigation by the researchers emphasizes on a step by step implementation of the project throughout the whole country (khoshkholgh & sharifi, 2007). comparative perspective in light of previous sections of the article, some points of similarity and dissimilarity abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system 98 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 3: an overview of principles, tools, and assessment domains at primary schools in japan and iran principles assessment tools assessment domains type of educational system country • evaluation of teaching-learning usefulness • measurement of pupils abilities • information about physical conditions and educational achievement • gathering information about successes teacher-made tests, standardized tests, observation, and selfassessment concentrate on affective, cognitive, and psycho-motor domains central reformistjapan • giving information about pupils educational progress to their parents • providing proper conditions for promoting pupils to higher levels • determining pupils weak points and eliminating them teacher made tests, standardized tests concentrate on cognitive domain central leaning toward delegation of power iran table 4: some innovations in assessment of educational achievement in japan and iran assessment innovations types of assessment based on objective types of assessment based on subject matter country • omission of final exams • attention to individual differences • preparing portfolios for each pupil • selfassessment techniques • critical questions for improving educational activities • observing pupils behavior formative assessmentwritten, oral, and practical japan • use of questions bank in final exams • change of quantitative scale of 0-20 to ranking scales • omission of scoring from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade of primary school continuous final exams written, oral, and practical iran between japan and iran's evaluation of education achievement at primary schools can be identified. the age of entry to primary school in both countries is 6 and this period is compulsory and free of charge. the length of this period is 6 and 5 years in japan and iran respectively. see table 3 and 4. from the view point of organizational structure, the decision-making role in both countries is played by ministry of education (in both countries ministry of education has main responsibilities for decision-making). although it must be admitted that over the last two decades in iran, there has been an increase in the trend of hand-over of school management to private sector, but this matter is limited to financial issues. as far as teacher recruitment, text-book development, and school management are concerned; there are huge differences between the two countries which necessitate the attention of iranian policy-makers to japanese experiences. from assessment standpoint, the examination, according to regulations, consists of four types of exam, but close observations show that not all the four types are utilized properly. summative assessment is utilized for students ranking and grade promotion. formative assessment is utilized for scoring exams. entrance assessment is hardly ever utilized. the stark contrast is in different views of assessment of educational achievement educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 99© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com between the two countries. in japan, assessment is viewed as a tool for providing feed-back and creating motivation for learning, and it is also task-based. in iran, assessment is looked upon as a tool for showing schools functionality and also pupil’s success. another difference is in how results are reflected in the report card. in japan, the results are reflected both qualitatively and quantitatively. in japan, qualitative results are reported in the form of description of strong points, physical conditions, social and behavioral descriptions, extracurricular activities, and general suggestions for every pupil. also, with reference to figure 1, it can be stated that in japan assessment is quite flexible with regard to regional differences. on the contrary, in iran, there is only one book for all the country. text-books do not take into account pupils’ gender, linguistic, ethnic, religious, cultural, and economical differences. as a result, exam questions are the same all around the country and are not based on a deep understanding of environmental realities. therefore, research findings show that in primary school period, the content of text-books are not in line with most of pupils’ mental abilities, and they are forced into memorizing such contents (ahghar, 2004). the comparison of different dimensions of successful and unsuccessful educational system is a popular trend among educational researchers in developing countries. some countries like japan, singapore, and south korea are getting the attention of educational policy makers in iran. the main reason for such modeling adoption is the history of previous borrowing from western countries educational systems. the formal educational system in iran dates back to 100 years ago. in the beginning, iran adopted the france’s educational system. after the 1979 islamic revolution, most experts were of the opinion that such adoption was completely wrong on the basis of deep social differences between iran and france. therefore, in an obvious u-turn, they veered off from west and steered toward east. educational and economic advances and also being an eastern country are the main reasons for adopting and borrowing japanese models. over the past two decades, there have been much research about japan’s educational system in iran. as such, the period before the revolution can be dubbed “westernization” and the time period after the revolution can be labeled “japanization”. most researchs have emphasized the superiority of japan. this is quite evident in the present article. in fact, current data shows the great gap between iran and japan in international arenas. for example, in timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) of 2007, average mathematics scores of japanese fourth grade students is 568 compared to 402 in the islamic republic of iran. also, national findings of timss and perls (practical extraction and report language study) reveal that iran’s position and performance in 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007 for timss; and 2001 and 2006 for perls have always been below the international performance in a significant way. also, timss findings in 2003 shows poor results of iranian primary school children in science exams and a lower quality of this subject matter compared to international standards. in a performance test, iranian pupils had a good performance in understanding and memorizing, but they were much weaker in theorizing, analyzing, problem-solving, and use of scientific methods (martin et al., 2004). national research has also created much concern about the teaching of sciences in primary schools. the findings reveal that educational methods are not proportionate to text-book contents and are not applied to all schools; and that in most schools conventional assessment and educational methods are being applied in japan national center for educational assessment continuously controls educational programs in teaching sciences in all grades (cf ahmadi, 2003; and farshad, 2003). also, in this country, formative assessment is used realistically in line with predefined objectives (o’donnell, 2004). in contrast, in iran, only teacher-made tests are used and consequently lots of educational objectives are not tapped into. in iran, qualitative assessment is used only in first, second, and third levels of primary schools; whereas, japan is among progressive abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system 100 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com countries in this regard. from an educational point of view, the main reason behind iranian pupil’s failure in international exams is the common assessment methods of educational achievement. in fact, assessment and evaluation in iran, which are administered by government institutions and most teachers, includes only summative assessment. over-emphasizing an objective that is, learning a huge amount of content students must achieve, is quite bothersome. one of the outcomes of this issue is pupils and their anxiety and stress on the one hand and lack of opportunity for engaging in other valuable educational goals and objectives on the other hand (dadsetan & daneshpajuh, 1995; and khalkhali, 1995). moreover, researchers such as h. pashasharifi & a. kiamenesh (1990); h. elhampur (1996); and s. moshavi (1996), in an analysis of the exam contents, have concluded that questions are mostly about the knowledge level and do not cover higher order notions, such as analysis and synthesis. a natural consequence of this is the widening of educational gap between developing and developed countries. conclusion in the end, with a comparative perspective, a general conclusion can be reached. firstly, social and cultural differences between japan and iran are as much as differences between france and iran. secondly, from a cultural standpoint, similarities between japan and iran are more than similarities between france and japan. japan and iran are both eastern countries with people who believe in traditions. geographical vastness, abundant natural resources, and less population give iran superiority over japan. as far as economy is concerned, japan is in the hay days of its prosperity, whereas iran has not been able to materialize its full potentials. from a political point of view, after the ii world war (1939-1945), japan is experiencing a calm period, whereas iran has been in the center of the middle-east conflicts. political problems permitting, iran enjoys rich human resources that can be drawn on in exploiting the japanese model. some educational reforms are dependent on cultural teachings. common teachings in japan are based on beliefs in order, law, and social preferences to individual ones. we believe that using japan’s educational model entails drawing on social and cultural models. the experience of following other countries models has shown that for example the application of qualitative assessment in iranian schools is not enough. iranian teachers and students alter qualitative assessment methods with their culture. therefore, what has been successful in japan may not be successful in iran. iranians are creative people, if politic and economy permit. we even cook pasta which is an italian food according to our own taste and style of cooking. the iranian positive view of japan can be a good opportunity for primary education experts to utilize on japan's 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(1995). a critique of testing and evaluation system on pupils’ learning in iran. tehran: educational research center, press unit. khoshkholgh, e. & h.p. sharifi. (2007). “evaluation of the national experimental project on descriptive evaluations at some of the country’s elementary schools” in quarterly journal of education, 22(4), pp.117-148. kubow, p.k. & p.r. fossum. (2003). comparative education: exploring issues in international context. new jersey: merrill prentice hall. kydyralieva, s. (2010). “the education system of japan as a model to education system of kyrgyzstan” in journal of turkish weekly. available [online] also at: www. turkishweekly.net/prints.asp?type=2&id=266 [accessed in khorramabad city, iran: october 24, 2014]. lewis, c.c. & i. tsuchida. (1997). “planned educational change in japan: the shift to student–centered elementary science” in journal of educational policy, 12(5), pp.313-331. lincicome, m.e. (1995). principle, praxis, and the politics of educational reform in meiji japan. honolulu: university of hawaii press. martin, m.o. et al. (2004). timss 2003: international science report. boston, usa: iea, boston college. moe [ministry of education]. (2004). education in the islamic republic of iran: a general overview. tehran: center for educational research, ministry of education. moghanizade, m.h. (2001). “the assessment of qualitative pre-piloting at primary schools in the academic year of 2002-2003”. available [online] also at: http://arzeshyabytosify.blogspot.com [accessed in khorramabad city, iran: october 24, 2014]. moshavi, s. (1996). a survey on assessment system of primary cycle. tehran: institute of research and educational planning, ministry of education. o’donnell, s. (2004). international review of curriculum and assessment frameworks, qualifications and curriculum authority, and national foundation for educational research, washington, dc: n.p. pashasharifi, h. & a. kiamenesh. (1990). assessment methods of pupils’ learning, tehran: office for planning and compiling text-books, ministry of education. passin, h. (1965). society and education in japan. tokyo: kodansha international ltd. reynolds, d. & s. farrell. (1996). worlds apart? a review of international surveys of educational achievement involving england. london: her majesty’s stationery office. sadigh, e. (1974) history of culture in iran. tehran: university of tehran press. sadler, m. (1964). “how far can we learn anything of practical value from the study foreign systems of education?” reprinted in comparative education review, 7(3), pp.307-314. sarkar arani, m.r. (2001). culture of education in japan. tehran: roozegar publications. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & zahra babaie, comparative perspectives on educational assessment system 102 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the elementary school students in iran and japan (source: www.google.com, 24/10/2014) we believe that using japan’s educational model entails drawing on social and cultural models. the experience of following other countries models has shown that for example the application of qualitative assessment in iranian schools is not enough. iranian teachers and students alter qualitative assessment methods with their culture. therefore, what has been successful in japan may not be successful in iran. iranians are creative people, if politic and economy permit. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 157 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers abstract: in the era of globalization, schools are expected not only to provide high quality of educational services for students, but also to provide high quality assurance of instructional services for all students. this role of schools can be conducted regularly through implementing the plc (professional learning community) practices at the school level. the purpose of this study is to describe the effectiveness of plc activities for elementary school teachers by discovering principal roles as a supervisor on developing teachers’ professional competences, plc activities, and its performance indicators. the study applied quantitative approach with survey method by using stratified random sampling technique on collecting data from elementary school principals and teachers in subang district, west java, indonesia. data collected are analyzed by using multi-regression technique. the study concludes that the effective model of plc activities for elementary school teachers are strongly supported by: (1) the school principal leadership behavior oriented toward his/her function as the instructional leader, motivator, and facilitator on providing condusive learning environment for students and teachers; (2) determinant components of improving teachers’ competences through plc, such as commitment, responsibility, meaningfulness, collaboration and sharing, and quality school culture; and (3) teachers’ self-renewal capacity to understand students’ potential and capacities, and the need to improve instructional services regularly. the study recommends that the school principal should develop school quality culture as the basis for effective plc activities to facilitate teachers’ professional quality improvement and students’ learning quality improvement; and should collaborate with various sources available in outside of the school related to plc activities. key words: professional learning community; principal leadership behavior; teacher professional competences. about the authors: dr. cicih sutarsih and prof. dr. udin syaefudin saud are the lecturers at the department of educational administration fip upi (faculty of education, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229, bandung 40153, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mails at: cicihsutarsih@upi.edu and usaud@upi.edu suggested citation: sutarsih, cicih & udin syaefudin saud. (2019). “the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february, pp.157-168. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (october 28, 2018); revised (december 27, 2018); and published (february 28, 2019). introduction the plc (professional learning community) can be defined as a professional learning community programs and a platform of learning among teachers and educational staff in a school, among schools, or among educational staff with various parties to improve the quality of learning. plcs are various activities done by the school community that lead to improving the quality of learning services in schools (draper, 2014; ruland, 2015; bennett, 2017; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). the development of research conducted by many educational administration experts have established a conclusion that to improve the quality of learning, it needs to be developed appropriately in accordance with the needs of © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 158 cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud the implementation of professional learning community the school environment. these research suggested that when experienced teachers have an opportunity for joint discovery and are linked to learning, it will result in a wider teachinglearning framework to other teachers; and it will impact on school quality improvement (cf morrissey, 2000; horton, 2009; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; and furqon et al., 2018). in addition, it is understood that schools are now expected not only to offer high quality of educational services, but also to ensure the quality of learning is well organized. in order to do so, the current practice and literature review has led to efforts to professionalize teachers continuously and integrate with their daily work activities called plc or professional learning community. through this plc program, teachers learn together to continuously improve their professionalism on improving educational services and learning quality (stoll et al., 2006; louis, 2008; and furqon et al., 2018). the problems that the schools face today, based on research conducted by jim horton (2009), and other scholars, showed that many schools in developing countries focus on capacity building on physical and financial organizations, and often neglect capacity building of teachers on conducting quality of learning processes (acker & gasperini, 2009; horton, 2009; henard & roseveare, 2012; and campbell, 2015). furthermore, bappenas ri (badan perencanaan pembangunan nasional republik indonesia or national development planning agency of the republic of indonesia), in 2009, and other scholars, also identified that schools and teachers today in indonesia are facing various problems in educational services in schools, as illustrated in the graph 1 (cf bappenas ri, 2009; sukasni & efendy, 2017; and wahyuningsih, 2017). parental discontent depicted in the graph 1 is a condition most likely, due to the lack of human resources capacity of the school to perform its functions. parents’ dissatisfaction in primary school, especially related to service in a1 or quality of learning process; a3 or result of learning process impact on quality of human resources; a6 or parent involvement; a7 or quality of physical facility; a8 or readiness over the school year; and a9 or school fee availability (bappenas ri, 2009). thus, it can be understood that if children do not experience a good learning process in the classroom or school; then, the capacity of teachers in the school can be categorized as “low capacity of services”. the complexity of the educational service components of the school require the unity of all human resource components to provide facility and support to enable an effective learning experiences (cf schlechty, 2005:3; rafiei & davari, 2015; and usman, 2016). the main problem is that how to facilitate teachers, who need to further explore the function of providing quality learning services in accordance with the characteristics of learners? teacher’s capacity improvement in plc (professional learning community) is related to the function of creating conditions, 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 ls s graph 1: parental satisfaction rates for nine service attributes of elementary education notes: ls = less satisfied; s = satisfied; a1 = quality of learning process; a2 = quality of teaching; a3 = results of the learning process that impact on the quality of human resources; a4 = school comfort conditions; a5 = maintain discipline and safety in schools; a6 = parent involvement; a7 = quality of physical facilities; a8 = readiness over the school year; and a9 = school child fee availability. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 159 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 in which the learning objectives are designed and achieved by facilitating the student to learn as well as to achieve a competence and personality development in accordance with the expectations of all parties. if the students’ capacity does not develop, then, it is reasonably suspected that this is due to the power of teacher resources that is not functioning optimally (gaspar, 2010; draper, 2014; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). based on the background of thought and focus of the research mentioned above, the main problem of this research can be formulated as follows: “how to design the implementation of plc in the public elementary school’s teachers of subang district, west java, indonesia on improving and strengthening their ability to solve problems encountered in the learning process?”. the research questions developed for collecting data and information in schools are as follows: (1) how does the school principal facilitates teachers in implementing plc activities at the public elementary school in subang district?; (2) how do teachers implement and develop various plc activities at the public elementary school in subang district?; and (3) what are the impact of plc activities developed by teachers at the public elementary school in subang district? the purpose of this study is to reveal the practice of implementing of plc activities by teachers at the public elementary school in subang district, west java, indonesia on improving and strengthening the ability of teachers in schools to solve the problems and the quality of learning process (cf bolam et al., 2005; ratts et al., 2015; and furqon et al., 2018). specifically, objectives of the research are to analyze the best practice of implementing plc activities in the elementary schools, in terms of: (1) the school principal’s facilitating the implementation of plc activities at the public elementary school in subang district; (2) the process of implementing plc activities by teachers at the public elementary school in subang district; and (3) the impact of plc activities on improving learning services at the public elementary school in subang district. theoretical framework. teachers, who work together in their workplace, produce a significance effect on student learning outcomes that are larger than done individually (mulford, 2003; fullan, 2010; and blazar & kraft, 2017). many research on plc (professional learning community)’s activities demonstrate a school environment, where teachers work collaboratively in groups designed deliberately to improve student achievement with the support provided by school administrators. in the school that plc effectively done, the principal creates a culture in which teachers work actively in fostering students’ growth and development (vescio, ross & adams, 2008; darling-hammond et al., 2017; furqon et al., 2018; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). in this context, l. stoll & l.k. seashore eds. (2007) and other scholars describe the plc characteristics in learning professionals; in the context of a cohesive group; focusing on knowledge development; and occurring in the interpersonal concern between teachers, students, and principals (stoll et al., 2006; stoll & seashore eds., 2007; harris & jones, 2010; and furqon et al., 2018). the rationale has encouraged many teachers to explore plc as a strategy to improve students’ growth and learning. the plc provides a learning environment in schools by supporting capacity building for teachers and leadership. by developing the collective ability to act together, plc has proven to be very supportive on school improvement (morrissey, 2000; stoll et al., 2006; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; and furqon et al., 2018). when principals, vice principals, and teachers work together to begin the process of building a professional learning community within their school, they make a deep commitment to building capacity. by working together in plc, teachers develop new skills, explore and utilize instructional resources, and grow in commitment and motivation to improve students’ learning outcomes (louis, 2008; fullan, 2010; and hargreaves & o’connor, 2018). plc is also a new perspective in continuous teacher professional development. shirley hord (2009), and other scholars, explained that plcs (professional learning © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 160 cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud the implementation of professional learning community communities) build the following aspects of professional teachers: it is based on constructivism rather than on a “transmissionoriented model”; it is perceived as a longterm process as it acknowledges the fact that teachers learn over time; it is perceived as a process that takes place within a particular context; many identify this process as one that is intimately linked to school reform; a teacher is conceived of as a reflective practitioner, a person who is entitled to a knowledge base, and who will acquire new knowledge and experiences based on that prior knowledge; and professional development is conceived of as a collaborative process (hord, 2009:34; gaspar, 2010; keke, 2014; and furqon et al., 2018). there is a strong reason for the further development of plc attributes that student learning achievement is influenced by the development of a collaborative action process focus on improving student learning. a review of the plc literature points, the seven key attributes of effective plcs: student learning; common goals; collaborative team; teacher capacity; leadership capacity; professional development; and learning continuously (bolam et al., 2005; stoll et al., 2006; feger et al., 2008; dickerson, 2011; and hargreaves & o’connor, 2018). the essence of a plc is that teachers and school staf continually seeks and shares experiences together and conducts or tries what it learns. the main purpose of these actions is to improve the effectiveness of teachers as a professional worker, whose impact is directed on improving the quality of learning (stoll et al., 2006; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; pirtle & tobia, 2014; and permana & sudarsyah, 2016). the essence of professionalism benefits in plc is developed based on plc objectives. among the objectives of the plc is not to lead to the improvement of the morale or technical ability of teachers, but to make differences in outcomes of learners. the meaning of the word “professional” indicates that the work has: specialization and technical skills based on knowledge; service ethics oriented to fulfilling the needs of clients (learners); strong group identity embodied in commitment as professional; and professional autonomy embodied in the supervision of professional practice and professional standards (aylsworth, 2012; stamper, 2015; and bennett, 2017). the model of plc activities is in the form of self-evaluation, reflective discovery, dialogue, joint learning, and problem solving together. accordingly, s. kruse, k.s. louis & a. bryk (1994), as cited also in l. stoll & l.k. seashore eds. (2007), revealed five crucial points for developing activities within the plc, such as: (1) the importance of the time activity for extended reflection; (2) the main principle in plc is to keep all focus views on the problem learning; (3) the important for initiation from the leadership, school or district, to create plc that emerged effectively from the needs of teachers and principals; (4) awareness supports innovation in plc implementation in order to survive; and (5) schools are the main unit of effective change (cf kruse, louis & bryk, 1994; stoll & seashore eds., 2007; bond, 2013; and furqon et al., 2018). characteristics of plcs in schools can be identified from the characteristics of the above five points: supportive leadership; shared values and vision; joint learning; supportive school conditions; and shared practice. all the characteristics indicate that plc is done collectively in a school community (bolam et al., 2005; stoll et al., 2006; harris & jones, 2010; wilson, 2016; and hargreaves & o’connor, 2018). the effectiveness of implementing plc requires several plc principles, such as: plcs support continuous learning and improvement; teachers and school staff involved in plc appreciate their direct involvement on improving learners’ learning and improvement of their schools; and practical development of teachers dan school staff are known as a core component to bring a quality of learning experience to classroom practices (vescio, ross & adams, 2008; bond, 2013; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). ideally, the implementation of plc in schools should follow the stages of conceptualization, consideration, capability, attention, and capacity. conceptualization is the process of knowing something from the work practices that have been done. the © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 161 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 intended considerations know why the relevant knowledge and skills are important and valuable for the educational staff and for the school. on the other word, defined as “the process of knowing the reason why something is necessary” (stoll et al., 2006; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; barr, 2017; and dehdary, 2017). the capability in question is a change from conceptual knowledge to action. in brief, defined as “the process of knowing how to do something”. concern defined as the need to discover and understand oneself in the flow of organizational change. capacity is an opportunity to try changes in the classroom or at school (mulford, 2003; zeichner, 2008; and blazar & kraft, 2017). all the stages are described and as shown in the graph 2. the process application can be supported by a prediction framework for changes in the school community. furthermore, individual changes that will bring organizational change will be seen, if there are five factors fulfilled, namely: vision, skills, incentives, resources, and work plan (reilly, 1998; cormier & olivier, 2009; and metre, 2009). if in the process of learning and work is not accompanied by the vision, there will be confusion. if the process of learning and working to realize this change is not accompanied by the skills required, it will bring out concerns. if there is no incentive in the process of learning and working for change, it will lead to rejection. if no resources are available for study and work, it will create frustration. finally, if learning and work is not accompanied by a work plan, it will bring the way in place (mulford, 2003; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; and pirtle & tobia, 2014). therefore, if the absence of two or three factors, then the change is just wishful thinking. the five factors above can be understood as a prerequisite for organizational change as a consequence of learning and working in the organization (bolam et al., 2005; stoll et al., 2006; campbell, 2015; and o’riordan, 2017). methods this research applied quantitative approach with survey method referring to historical data, followed by verification and validation test. survey research is basically a study of a population through research on selected samples from the population, to know the interrelations, and distribution of psychological and sociological variables. in the survey research, researchers asked respondents to provide information both orally and in writing (mathiyazhagan & nandan, 2010; cresswell, 2012; and yilmaz, 2013). in this study, information from respondents obtained randomly in writing from public elementary school’s principals and teachers in subang district, west java, indonesia. based on their nature, variables from survey research can be grouped into parts, namely: sociological facts, such as opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. sociological facts are individual attributes because of their existence as members of a social group, for example: gender, income, education, age, and so on. while the group of opinion variables, attitudes and behavior in accordance with the proposed research model. questions about the sociological facts of respondents were also asked to complete the profile of the study respondents (cresswell, 2012; rajasekar, philominathan & chinnathambi, 2013; and yilmaz, 2013). methods to obtain information on survey research can be done in several ways: interviews, questionnaires, panels, and graph 2: the process of knowing how to do something © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 162 cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud the implementation of professional learning community telephones. among these four methods, interviews are the most useful method, when conducting an exploratory study. while in the main study phase, the method of data collection done through the distribution of questionnaires. the questionnaire is a series of questions that are structured to obtain information from respondents (mathiyazhagan & nandan, 2010; yilmaz, 2013; and akinci & saunders, 2015). in general, the questionnaire is a set of data collection tools consisting of: information about data filling procedures and questions; rewards or prizes given to respondents; and communication aid tools, such as pictures, maps, advertisements, and envelopes to send back on surveys conducted by post (kusek & rist, 2004; mathiyazhagan & nandan, 2010; and akinci & saunders, 2015). characteristics of respondents included in this study are principals and teachers of public elementary school in subang district, west java, indonesia. the process of disseminating data is preceded by both formal and informal communication (wilson et al., 2010; cresswell, 2012; and yilmaz, 2013). findings and discussion the findings of the study indicate that: (1) the functional orientation of the principal as an instructional leader, motivator, and facilitator is absolutely necessary in providing a learning environment in the school as well as supporting the improvement of leadership and teacher capacity by developing collective capacity; (2) the elements of professional development of teachers through plc, or professional learning community, are commitment, responsibility, utilization, collaboration and sharing, and school culture and climate; and (3) impact of professional development of teachers are raising selfreflection awareness and self-renewal capacity, understanding characteristics and developing potential learners, and improving the quality of learning services. the implementation of plc is able to promote the development of sustainable professions that leads to improved quality of learning services (cf cormier & olivier, 2009; aylsworth, 2012; balyera, karatas & alcia, 2015; bennett, 2017; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). the key to the success of a community of learning in school is the commitment, motivation, and passion to move forward in a strong family atmosphere and togetherness among teachers fully supported by the principal, solely to provide the best learning for all students in school. in a plc, a central activity of the school is a shared vision and concern for learning-focused goals. each learning community in the school has its own strength in each of its constituent elements. this research found that the elements that form the community of professional learning are commitment, responsibility, usefulness, collaboration, sharing spirit, and school culture and climate (cf bolam et al., 2005; vescio, ross & adams, 2008; crow & matthews, 2010; dehdary, 2017; and furqon et al., 2018). professional learner communities have interpretations in different contexts, but there is a broad consensus that the plc shows a group of people sharing and critiquing their teaching practices in an atmosphere of reflection, collaborative, and inclusive. in addition, it also oriented and focused all aspects of learning with the goal of promoting the development of sustainable professions that enable the formation of a culture (stoll et al., 2006; dufour, eaker & many, 2010; gaspar, 2010; benson, 2011; ruland, 2015; and permana & sudarsyah, 2016). however, this study found that each school displays the characteristics of a plc that is correlated with the characteristics of the school. the strength of the emergence of each community characteristic is developed mainly based upon the school social environments. the form of a community of professional learning in the studied school is equally embodied in a classroom parallel with teacher activity group managed by a coordinator. the activities have a regular schedule, taking place in a formal and informal format, with themes focused on improving learning (cf morrissey, 2000; stoll et al., 2006; weathers, 2009; dufour, eaker & many, 2010; gaspar, 2010; and bennett, 2017). the research gained some specific details of how the school-based professional community of learning is building the © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 163 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 teacher skills and in maintaining innovative practices in learning. research shows a very positive response to school culture in terms of openness to improvement and to explore new teaching practices, as well as reflective dialogue and discussion of the specific situations and challenges faced in the school’s learning community (cf stoll et al., 2006; fry, ketteridge & marshall, 2009; hord, 2009; day & sammons, 2014; and furqon et al., 2018). some of the impacts of the plc obtained from the results of this study are the increase of self-renewal capacity in the form of increased knowledge and practice of learning among teachers, improving teachers’ ability to understand the characteristics of learners, improving the process, collaboration to reflect, and improving the quality of service learning. regarding the quality of student learning, all teachers also identified several specific examples to change their practices as a result of involvement in the professional learning community activities (cf bolam et al., 2005; shannon, 2010; williams, 2010; balyera, karatas & alcia, 2015; and furqon et al., 2018). the principal facilitated plc programs to improve the overall success in order to improve the quality of school learning and the progress of teachers and students. this is done through regularly monitoring the continuity of the learning community. in this learning community, the principal acts as a learning leader, a motivator, and a facilitator, as well as a teacher learning designer. the ability of the principal is one of the main determinants of teacher empowerment and the improvement of the quality of the process and learning products, because the principal is responsible for the optimization of teacher’s capacities (cf crow & matthews, 2010; williams, 2010; day & sammons, 2014; permana & sudarsyah, 2016; dehdary, 2017; and schaap & bruijn, 2018). conclusion the findings of this study confirm and reinforce previous theories and research on school-based teacher development through plc (professional learning community) activities. furthermore, the study proposes the following suggestions for improving the quality of implementing plc at school level in the future. improving the professionalism of teachers should become the interests and responsibilities of all schools, and schools need to become a community of professional learners to develop teacher capacity, improve teacher quality, and quality of student learning. the school-based teacher development model requires integration and synergy of internal and external school resources to create an enabling environment for professional teacher collaborative learning directed for improving the quality of learning. the principal should provide a depth understanding to all teachers about the importance of the plc as the development of the teacher profession. the principal should develop school structures and culture conditions that support the school as a plc. lastly, the principal should collaborate with various parties, such as the department of education in the district and higher education institutions to develop the school into a plc.1 references acker, david & lavinia gasperini. 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(2010). “disseminating research findings: what should researchers do? a systematic scoping review of conceptual frameworks” in is: implementation science, volume 5 [november]. available online also at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ pmc2994786/ [accessed in subang, west java, indonesia: october 17, 2018]. yilmaz, kaya. (2013). “comparison of quantitative and qualitative research traditions: epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences” in european journal of education, vol.48, no.2, pp.311-325. available online also at: https://pdfs. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 167 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 semanticscholar.org/f45f/993702833849749b3ddd83 e1673728d569eb.pdf [accessed in subang, west java, indonesia: october 17, 2018]. zeichner, ken. (2008). “a critical analysis of reflection as a goal for teacher education” in educacao & sociedade, vol.29, no.103 [may/august]. available online also at: http://www.scielo.br/scielo. php?pid=s0101-73302008000200012&script=sci_ arttext&tlng=en [accessed in subang, west java, indonesia: october 9, 2018]. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 168 cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud the implementation of professional learning community the elementary school’s principals and teachers in subang, west java, indonesia (source: https://pasundanekspres.co, 27/12/2018) the study applied quantitative approach with survey method by using stratified random sampling technique on collecting data from elementary school principals and teachers in subang district, west java, indonesia. data collected are analyzed by using multi-regression technique. the study concludes that the effective model of plc (professional learning community) activities for elementary school’s teachers are strongly supported by the school principal leadership behavior oriented toward his/her function as the instructional leader, motivator, and facilitator on providing condusive learning environment for students and teachers; determinant components of improving teachers’ competences through plc, such as commitment, responsibility, meaningfulness, collaboration and sharing, and quality school culture; and teachers’ self-renewal capacity to understand students’ potential and capacities, and the need to improve instructional services regularly. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 111© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching as a profession abstract: teaching is a main goal of teacher education students. teacher education students must be well prepared in order to be ready for their future career as teachers. the study aimed at examining pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs about teaching in umm-alqura university as a profession. the study attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) what are the type of reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers decisions to become teachers?; (2) what are the types of beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; (3) is there statistical significant difference between pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs to become teachers?; (4) is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; and (5) is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers? the participants were 321 male and female students enrolled in the fall semester of the academic year 2013 in umm-alqura university, in both the education and scientific colleges. about 187 participants were from the college of education and 134 participants were from the college of science. the data were collected by distributing three questionnaires. one for demographic characteristics, another one for the students’ reasons behind choosing teaching as a career, and a third one was for the students’ beliefs about choosing teaching as a career. results showed significant differences between gender, major, and the interaction between them regarding their reasons and beliefs about teaching as a career. key words: reasons, beliefs, teaching, teacher education students, pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs, umm-alqura university, and teaching as a career. about the author: dr. mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh is an associate professor at the curriculum and instruction department, college of education, umm-alqura university, mecca, saudi arabia. for academic interests, the author can be contacted via e-mail at: shraideh@yahoo.com how to cite this article? alshraideh, mohamed khaliefeh. (2015). “pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching as a profession” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.111-122. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/pre-service-teachers-reasonsand-beliefs/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 21, 2014); revised (december 29, 2014); and published (february 28, 2015). responsibility with its instructors to help students change these negative attitudes to positive ones, in order to help them to become efficient teachers. students usually get their information from the teacher, the teacher who once was a student. this helps the students to get the information better, because the teacher-student relationship here is dynamic; and teaching is considered bidirectional and challenging. the main goal of such relationship is learning. teaching can be defined as a process of communicating information in order to bring a positive change in the students behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, etc. (aydin, 1993; leach, 2000; and alkhulai, 2008). any student, who enters this field in order to become a teacher, will go through different experiences in the classroom before introduction teaching is a main goal of teacher education students. teacher education students must be well prepared in order to be ready for their future career as teachers. preparing students means preparing them academically and educationally (aldeoan, ghazi & abdalqader, 2007; and zara, 2009). students’ preparation was defined as developing students’ attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed for and by the students to get them do their job in the future. john lott (2008) defined students’ preparation as preparing them vocationally, culturally, and educationally. the main reason behind this preparation is that students join the university with different attitudes toward teaching. these attitudes might be positive or negative. therefore, it is the university’s mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 112 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com going to schools and practicing the job. these experiences will usually create a basis for the beliefs and reasons that the future teachers hold (clark & peterson, 1986; and sönmez, 2001). the term “beliefs” used in this study is a concept that usually goes with terms like “attitudes, values, judgments, opinions, dispositions, implicit theories, preconceptions, and perspectives” (pajares, 1992:308). b. torff & r.j. sternberg defined beliefs as: [...] propositions and networks of ideas that a teacher holds to be reasonable, whether those propositions are expressed by teachers or are held implicitly and inferred from statements and actions. elements of beliefs include conceptual categories that define what is reasonable or important to notice, empirical claims, prescriptive guidelines, and educational values (torff & sternberg, 2000:148). therefore, this study aimed at examining pre-service teachers reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a career. getting teacher education students’ to reflect on their beliefs about teaching will allow them to think more about teaching and the advantages and disadvantages of the educational process. this study will allow students examine some of the social issues and questionable educational practices that require change. educational beliefs can then easily appear to “change”, so that teachers, educators, and researchers will begin to abandon old and inappropriate beliefs and set new, progressive, and more effective ones (pajares, 1993; kavcar, 2005; and rentzou & ziganitidou, 2009). m. temizkan (2008) showed that teachers’ attitudes towards their profession are usually related to their happiness in their profession, dedicating themselves to that profession, being aware that their profession is socially necessary and important, and believing that they need to continuously improve their profession and themselves. m. temizkan argued also that “learning experiences of prospective teachers should be organized in a way that they will establish positive attitudes towards the profession of teaching” (temizkan, 2008:468). the term “reason” in this study can be defined as purpose, aim, objective, reason, cause, and motive are all terms for a circumstance (or circumstances) which brings about or explains certain results. a reason is an explanation of a situation or circumstance which made certain results that seems possible or appropriate. the cause is the way in which the circumstances produce the effect, that is, make a specific action seem necessary or desirable, a motive is defined as “underlying psychological processes that impel people’s thinking, feeling, and behaving” (fiske, 2004:14). according to a. moran et al. (2001), the reasons for entering the teaching profession, according to previous research, are classified into three categories: extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic. extrinsic motivation includes the benefits which offer good remuneration and having holidays with one’s own children etc. intrinsic factors may be understood as entering the profession for job-related factors like the nature of the job, providing an avenue for life-long learning; the perceived good job fit, the many opportunities that the job appears to offer and so on. the third category of motives termed as altruistic factors goes beyond any tangible benefits that the teaching profession has to offer. instead, those motivated by altruistic reasons to join the career have a deep passion to teach, a great love for children and desire to make a difference to the lives of their students. k.c. goh & l. atputhasamy (2001) in singapore revealed that it was the altruistic motives (“love for working with children”) that were dominant. when a person thinks of becoming a teacher, he/she should has in mind all the complexities, paradoxes, and tensions that exist in the simple act of teaching. teaching is not an easy profession, one has to put all the effort he/she has in the act of teaching with all of these complexities, paradoxes, and tensions, a teacher’s work shapes the daily life of his or her classroom. the teacher usually works toward changing the lives of his/her students. the successful teacher is the teacher who is able to make the poor students good and the good students successful (ayers, 2001). due to the important role of the teacher, it is important to focus on when and how teachers establish their beliefs about teaching educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 113© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and their reasons for teaching. the time of the student spends on getting his/her bachelor’s degree during his/her four years of study plays an important role in the development of these beliefs and reasons (richter et al., 2010). students choose to become teachers for different reasons. many people choose teaching because of their love for children. l.f. weiner (1993) did a study where she compared students enrolled in the teaching and curriculum program at harvard and 53 student teachers at an urban college, in terms of their reasons, regarding why they joined the teaching profession. the study showed some of the reasons were that they wanted an opportunity to be creative, enjoyed work with young people, and also desiring a socially useful job (weiner, 1993). in another study, s.a. stiegelbauer (1992) asked 203 students accepted at the faculty of education at the university of toronto, canada, about their reasons for entering the profession. the answers included making a difference to students and society; being models for their students, viewing teacherstudent interaction as one of the mutual growth and continuous learning for both; and also creating a positive learning environment (weiner, 1993). therefore, it can be seen that becoming a teachers requires one to put all the effort needed to achieve the goal of teaching. especially, when knowing why they entered this filed and what are they looking to do to make the change required. research questions, purpose and importance of the study the research questions, examined in this paper, dealt with the following: (1) what are the type of reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers decisions to become teachers?; (2) what are the types of beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; (3) is there statistical significant difference between preservice teachers’ reasons and beliefs to become teachers?; (4) is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; and (5) is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers? the purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching in umm-alqura university in mecca ksa (kingdom of saudi arabia) as a profession. m. cochran-smith & k. zeichner eds. (2005:52) wrote, “we assume that beliefs and attitudes are the lenses through which teachers enact and interpret their daily work, and also the filters through which they use knowledge to construct practice”. therefore, from this perspective, it is important to investigate how pre-service teachers view their reasons for entering teaching, and their beliefs about teaching. it also examined how students’ gender and college affect their reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a career. being in the field of teaching for a long period of time, inspired the researcher to examine why pre-service teachers want to become teachers, and to examine their beliefs about teaching in order to help develop their understanding of the teaching profession. also students understanding their goal of becoming a teacher, how they perceive themselves as teachers, and how they perceive teaching as a profession can help both research and practice better understand the career choice at the individual level. this may also help those students become successful teachers who enjoy and love their work. literature review the researcher reviewed studies and articles on the subject of students’ reasons and beliefs behind choosing teaching as a career. the review of the literature revealed various reasons and beliefs for joining the teaching profession. generally, there are three categories of motives or reasons: extrinsic (tangible rewards), intrinsic (intangible rewards), and altruistic (selfless contributions to young lives). according to a. moran, et al. (2001), each of the three categories contributed to affect the motivation of each individual. d. odeleye (2009) conducted a study on the senior secondary students in order to find out mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 114 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com their attitudes towards the teaching profession. the researcher examined if gender, location, and school type may affect students’ attitudes towards teaching as a profession. the data was collected by distributing a fifteen item questionnaire on a sample of 250 participants from both private and public schools. the findings showed that the students had positive attitudes towards the teaching profession (odeleye, 2009). a study was conducted by a. güneyli & c. aslan (2009) on prospective teachers to determine their attitudes towards the teaching profession in light of their gender, classes and socio economic level, and their reasons for choosing the teaching profession. the study was done on 117 participants using a 5-point likert type attitude scale. the results showed a significant gender difference in favor of female prospective teachers towards the teaching profession. no significant difference between attitude scores was observed for the effects of class and socio-economic level (güneyli & aslan, 2009). an interesting study was also done by a. duncan (2009), where he did an interview with a number of virginia’s curry school of education university students and why they wanted to become teachers. the interview showed that they wanted to become teachers for different reasons. some said that they were influenced by their parents’ profession, who believed that it is one of the toughest professions and that they can make a change. others said that it was a job that they had loved since they were young. others indicated that since the situation was very bad in schools, it would be better, instead of talking about it, to get involved and try to improve (duncan, 2009). a study conducted by m. marshall (2006) on why people decide to become teachers and spirituality had anything with to do it? to answer this research question, two researchers interviewed 18 first-year undergraduates, during a program evaluation of an elementary teacher education program at a catholic institution, had three questions related to spirituality, the decision to teach, and what makes a good teacher. the study results showed that pr-eservice teachers had always wanted to be teachers; they wanted to make an impact or help others; they were inspired by their own teachers; they were recognized as talented and explicitly advised by their teachers to consider teaching; and they had prior teaching experience or experiences working with children that confirmed or made them realize that (marshall, 2006). another study was done by b. harms & n. knobloch (2005), where they surveyed graduates who were certified to teach agriculture in secondary education chose teaching as a career. the participants were twenty-nine student teachers from four different universities in a midwestern state. the results of the study showed that 24 out of 29 preservice teachers in the study planned to become teachers another career choice was related to intrinsic and extrinsic career choice motives. pre-service teachers choosing formal education as a career had intrinsic motives. on the other hand, pre-service teachers who anticipated careers in non-formal education had extrinsic career choice motivation. moreover, preservice teachers who planned to pursue formal education careers were more efficacious than their peers, who planned to pursue non-formal education careers or were undecided about their careers (harms & knobloch, 2005). it is clear from the presented that students enter the field to teach for different reasons. it also obvious from the studies above that students male or female, no matter what the socio-economic status is choose teaching for different reasons, and they all hold different beliefs behind choosing teaching as a career. method about the participants. the participants in this study were 321 students enrolled in the fall semester of 2013 at the umm-alqura university in mecca ksa (kingdom of saudi arabia), in both the education and scientific colleges. the total number of participants were 321 students consisted of 189 female students and 132 male students. table 1 shows the participants demographic characteristics. about the instruments: demographic questionnaire. the purpose behind using the demographic questionnaire was to collect data about the participants’ gender and college. first, reasons for teaching questionnaire. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 115© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: sample distribution according to gender and college total major gender educationscientific 1328052male 18910782female 321187134total appendix i: reasons for teaching questionnaire below is a list of possible reasons why someone might decide to become a teacher. how important is each reason in influencing your decision to think about becoming a teacher? please indicate your answer for each item by checking the appropriate box. extremely important very important fairly important not very important not at all \ important reasons 1. teaching offers good job security. 2. the job offers opportunities to socialize with colleagues. 3. the level of pay is quite good. 4. there are long vacations. 5. i enjoy the subject i will teach. 6. my employment as a teacher is assured after graduation. 7. i want to help children succeed. 8. teaching is a noble profession. 9. teachers have a respectable social status. 10. i like the activity of classroom teaching. 11. i have a personality that is suited for this job. 12. previous jobs that i had influenced me to become a teacher. 13. i can get a job as a teacher in any part of the country. 14. the subject i will teach is important to me. 15. the subject i will teach is an important subject for students. 16. being a teacher can help improve society. 17. being a teacher can lead to other jobs in the future. 18. family members influenced me to become a teacher. 19. other people influenced me to become a teacher (e.g. previous teachers, friends). 20. it can help me to get a job teaching in another country. 21. my experience as a student has given me a positive image of the job. reasons for teaching questionnaire (rtq) was to investigate the pre-service teachers reasons for choosing teaching as a career, adapted from c. kyriacou, a. hultgren & p. stephens (1999), a self-completion instrument of 21 items, investigating pre-service teachers reasons for choosing the teaching career. participants were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = “not important at all” and to 5 = “extremely important”), the importance of specific reasons for their choosing teaching as a career. see appendix 1. mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 116 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 2: reliability of the reasons of teaching questionnaire with its sub-scales internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha coefficient)sub-scales .87reasons related to the subject matter taught .69reasons related to job benefits .88reasons related to identity issues .87reasons related to meaningful relationships .72reasons related to holistic views of profession .83reasons related to opportunities .95total appendix 2: career statements questionnaire here is a list of statements about teaching as a profession or what someone might consider important in teaching. there are no right or wrong answers, because each teacher candidate has his/her own concerns, opinions or values about education. please read carefully the statements below and indicate (check) your level of agreement for each statement. no statements strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 if i had to start all over i would choose teaching again without any hesitation. 2 for me, teaching is a lifelong career. 3 i look forward to meeting my first students as a classroom teacher. 4 i believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to dispense knowledge. 5 i feel anxious about meeting my first students as a classroom teacher. 6 i believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to facilitate learning. 7 i believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ social growth. 8 i believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ moral growth. 9 i believe students learn best through direct instruction. 10 i believe that students learn more from asking questions than from listening to the teacher. 11 i believe that students learn best through active participation in cooperative learning activities. 12 i believe that punishment is necessary to maintain order in schools. 13 i believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ emotional growth. 14 i believe that teachers are born, not made. 15 i believe that teaching is a very difficult job to do well. as for the reliability and validity of the instrument, it was ensured by distributing the instrument to a number of university professors. who all agreed on the items with no further changes. cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained for the total number of 21 questionnaire items was (α = .95) suggested that the total items maintained a high internal consistency. in addition to the overall internal consistency, cronbach’s coefficients for the subscales (i.e. factors) representing types of reasons for teaching were also calculated as: reasons related to subject matter taught (α = .87); reasons related to job benefits (α = .69); reasons related to identity issues (α = .88); reasons related to meaningful relationships (α = .87); reasons related to holistic views of profession (2 items, α = .72); and reasons educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 117© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com related to opportunities (α = .83). these values also suggested a high internal-consistency for the subscales obtained (pop et al., 2008). it can be seen from the table 2 that cronbach alpha was between .69 and .95 for the questionnaire items as a whole along with its subscales. which were listed in m.d. pop et al. (2008), as the following: (1) reasons related to the subject matter taught, i.e. “enjoying their subject matter”, “believing their subject matter is important for students”, the items that measure this scale were 14, 15, 5, and 13; (2) reasons related to job benefits, i.e. “job security”, “long vacations”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 6, 1, 9, and 4; (3) reasons related to identity issues, i.e. “personality suited for teaching”, “wanting to help children succeed”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 11, 12, 10, and 7; (4) reasons related to meaningful relationships, i.e. “past school experiences”, “family influences to become a teacher”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 19, 20, 18, and 21; (5) reasons related to holistic views of profession, i.e. “viewing teaching as a noble profession”, “viewing teaching as an opportunity to help improve society”, the items that measure this scale were two items, 8 and 16; and (6) reasons related to opportunities, i.e. “opportunities to socialize with colleagues”, “teaching leading to better jobs in the future”, the items that measure this scale were three items, 17, 2, and 3. second, career statement questionnaire. career statement questionnaire (csq) was used to investigate students’ beliefs about teaching. the csq, was adapted from a. saban (2003), is a self-completion questionnaire of 15 items exploring participants’ perception of teaching as a profession. participants rated each statement on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 = “strongly disagree” and 4 = “strongly agree”) to indicate the level of their agreement with the teaching career statements provided by the questionnaire. see appendix 2. as for the reliability and validity of the instrument it was ensured by distributing the instrument to a number of university professors. who all agreed on the items with no further changes. reliability coefficients were calculated based on participants’ responses in the present study for the “career statements questionnaire” and the cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained was α = .93 for the total number of 15 questionnaire items. the three subscales obtained were: pre-service teachers career orientation views (α = .72); perception of student growth and development (α = .77); and orientations toward instruction (α = .82), based on ten items of the questionnaire since the other five have. five items were eliminated due to their low loading factors. these sub scales were taken from m.d. pop et al. (2008). it can be seen from the table 3 that cronbach alpha was between .72 and .93 for the questionnaire items as a whole along with its subscales. which were listed in m.d. pop et al. (2008), as the following: (1) perception of teaching career, i.e. “beliefs about career commitment”, etc., the items that measure this scale were three items, 2, 1, and 3; (2) perception of student development, i.e. “students’ emotional, social, and moral growth”, the items that measure this scale were three items, 7, 13, and 8; and (3) perception of learning, i.e. “belief about active learning”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 11, 10, 6, and 4. data collection and analysis the data was collected in the fall semester of 2012. three questionnaires were distributed to the students. the first was a demographic questionnaire. the second was the reasons for teaching questionnaire, as shown in an appendix 1; and the third one was the career statement questionnaire, as shown in an table 3: reliability of the career statements questionnaire with its sub-scales internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha coefficient)sub-scales .72perception of teaching career .77perception of student development .82perception of learning .93total mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 118 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com appendix 2, that included the students beliefs about teaching as a career. data analysis was then conducted using spss (statistical package for the social sciences) to calculate the means, standard deviation and t-tests, and two-way anova (analysis of variance) in order to arrive at the answers of the research questions. the following sections present the results and the discussion of the results obtained in this analysis. first, results dealing with the pre-service teachers reasons for becoming teachers. the means and standard deviations were calculated for the pre-service teachers reasons to become teachers as shown in table 4. from the table 4, it is clear that the total mean for the dimensions of the rtq (reasons for teaching questionnaire) was 3.59. examining the table carefully the dimensions fell between 3.48 to 3.73. taking in mind that the dimension of reasons related to meaningful relationships took the first place on a mean of 3.73; where as the second was reasons related to job benefits on mean of 3.64; third was reasons related to holistic views of profession on a mean of 3.57; fourth was reasons related to the subject matter taught on a mean of 3.54; and fifth was reasons related to identity issues and last was reasons related to opportunities on a mean of 3.48. second, results dealing with the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching. the means and standard deviations were calculated for the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching as shown in table 5. from the table 5, it is clear that the total mean for the dimensions of the csq (career statement questionnaire) was 2.99. examining the table carefully the dimensions were between 2.95 to 3.09. taking in mind that the dimension of perception of teaching career took the first place on a mean of 3.09; where as the second was perception of student development on mean of 2.99; third and last was perception of learning on a mean of 2.95. table 4: the means and standard deviations of the pre-service teachers’ reasons to become teachers standard deviationsmeansdimensions on the rtq (reasons for teaching questionnaire) 1.043.54reasons related to the subject matter taught 1.233.64reasons related to job benefits 1.043.51reasons related to identity issues 1.073.73reasons related to meaningful relationships 1.113.57reasons related to holistic views of profession 1.023.48reasons related to opportunities .973.59total table 5: the means and standard deviations of the pre-service teachers’ beliefs to become teachers standard deviations meansdimensions on the csq (career statement questionnaire) .683.09perception of teaching career .762.99perception of student development .742.95perception of learning .652.99total table 6: pearson correlation of teachers reasons for becoming teachers and beliefs about teaching beliefsreasons .871** .000 321 1 321 reasons: pearson correlation sig.(2-tailed) n 1 321 .871** .000 321 beliefs: pearson correlation sig.(2-tailed) n educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 119© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 7: means and standard deviation of pre-service teachers’ reasons on the rtq (reasons for teaching questionnaire) according to gender and major educationscientificmajor gender sdmeanssdmeans 21.674.307.686.11male 20.572.1922.674.05female 20.973.0919.278.75total table 8: two-way anova results to measure the interaction between gender and major on pre-service teachers’ reasons for becoming teachers source type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. gender 3749.892 1 3749.892 9.420 .002 major 3525.569 1 3525.569 8.856 .003 gender * major 1849.595 1 1849.595 4.646 .032 error 126191.389 317 398.080 total 1961240.000 321 this study agrees with the results of the study by n. ahsan & t. anjum (2012) that explored the pakistani teachers beliefs, perceptions, and values related to their teaching-learning situations. from the 163 responses, that related to teachers beliefs, they classified the results into four categories as: (1) beliefs about themselves as professionals and individuals, attributes 51%; (2) beliefs about their knowledge, training needs, 23%; (3) beliefs about roles, pedagogic, and management skills, 12%; and (4) beliefs related to students, administration, curricula, parents, and society at large 14% (ahsan & anjum, 2012). this indicates that teacher’s beliefs about teaching start with the teachers themselves, then, with the students’ development, and last is their beliefs related to students, content, and others. third, results showing the relationship between pre-service teachers reasons for becoming teachers and beliefs about teaching by using persons’ correlation. the result is shown in table 6. looking at the table 6, the coefficient .871 shows that there is a strong relationship between pre-service teachers’ reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a profession. fourth, results dealing with differences between pre-service teachers’ reasons for becoming teachers due to gender and major and the interaction between them. the means and standard deviation were calculated for the gender and major on the reasons for teaching questionnaire rtq (reasons for teaching questionnaire) as shown in the table 7. the table 7 shows differences in the means between the groups and to check if these differences were statistically significant a twoway anova (analysis of variance) was done as shown in table 8. the table 8 shows statistically significant differences on (α ≤ 0.05) in pre-service teachers’ reasons to become teachers on the interaction between gender and major. and the significance is in the favor of the male scientific students and this could be due to the fact the those students in particular are not into teaching so they think so much of the reasons to become teachers before they begin their journey in education. this was shown in a study done by guoyuan sang et al. (2009), where their results of anova (analysis of variance)’s analysis showed that male and female teachers had significant differences in their beliefs about teaching [f (1, 818) = 10.221, p = 0.001, h 2 = 0.000), where male teachers adopt beliefs a significantly higher extent. this could be due to the fact male always look for jobs other then teaching, so when they enter the field they hold mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 120 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com different beliefs (sang et al., 2009). a study carried by the national education association survey, cited on edutopia (http:// www.ehow.com, 17/10/2014) showed also that the females as a group are more drawn than men to careers that involve working with elementary and preschool children. it was showed that more men than women stated that salary is a significant factor in them pursuing other, often more lucrative careers than teaching. fifth, results dealing with differences between pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching due to gender and major and the interaction between them. the means and standard deviation were calculated for the gender and major on the career statement questionnaire csq (career statement questionnaire) as shown in the table 9. the table 9 shows differences in the means between the groups and to check if these differences were statistically significant a twoway anova (analysis of variance) was done as shown in table 10. the table 10 shows statistically significant differences on (α ≤ 0.05) in pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching due to the interaction between gender and major. and the significance is in the favor of the male scientific students and this could be due to the fact the those students in particular are not into teaching so they think so much of the beliefs about teaching before they begin their journey in education. conclusion results showed significant differences between gender, major, and the interaction between them regarding their reasons and beliefs about teaching as a career. the limitations of this study were that it was only carried out in one university; that is ummalqura university in mecca ksa (kingdom of saudi arabia) and on the sample chosen and in the semester it was done. therefore, the results can’t be generalized except to similar universities. it is recommended that more studies be done on students’ reasons and beliefs about the teaching profession taking other factors such as the students’ age, year of study, place of study into account. findings from this study may also provide a useful basis for further exploration of why people choose teaching as a career, and how these pre-service teachers understand their choices for their reasons and beliefs. it is also recommended that a qualitative study be carried out through in depth interviews with the participants.1 1statement: herewith i declare that this article is my own original work, not product of plagiarism, and not yet also be reviewed and published by other scholarly journals. table 9: means and standard deviation of pre-service teachers’ beliefs on the csq (career statement questionnaire) according to gender and major educationscientificmajor gender sdmeanssdmeans 10.143.857.149.92male 9.443.7610.444.17female 9.643.809.746.40total table 10: two-way anova results to measure the interaction between gender and major on pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching source type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. gender 639.341 1 639.341 6.968 .009 major 787.612 1 787.612 8.584 .009 gender * major 603.213 1 603.213 6.574 .011 error 29086.661 317 91.756 total 677457.000 321 educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 121© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com references ahsan, n. & t. anjum. 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(1993). “choosing teaching as a career: comparing motivations of harvard and urban college students”. paper presented at the conference of the eastern educational research association, clear water, fl. mohamed khaliefeh alshraideh, pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs 122 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com zara, a. (2009). “effectiveness of the proposed training program to configure the student teacher the division of social studies for the development of some life skills and awareness of the challenges of educational globalization”. paper presented in the second scientific conference: the role of arab teacher in the era of flow of knowledge, at the faculty of science education, university of jerash. 1 okeke.pmd educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 1 dr. chinedu i.o. okeke is a lecturer at the department of educational foundations and management uniswa (university of swaziland) in africa. his contact address is department of educational foundations and management, university of swaziland, private bag 4 kwaluseni, swaziland m201. his e-mail addresses are: ochinedu@uniswacc.uniswa.sz and okekechinedu@yahoo.com the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research: issues pertaining to value claims chinedu i.o. okeke abstract: in this paper, the writer calls into question the yet to be resolved epistemological issues about the way researchers make value claims in support of the authenticity of their research discoveries. the writer offers recognition to existing paradigmatic duality as a necessity for the third wave expressed by proponents of triangulation. such dichotomy offers room for continuous divergence of opinions on the ways researchers perceive the empirical social world. the paper supports ongoing argument that any discussion of the criteria for judging social and educational research findings must confront the issue of relativism. this position resonates through the writer’s encounter and experience with qualitative validity during a classroom study. the conclusion drawn through this encounter is that a research design is not made valid or reliable by the user’s ability to apply many verbose or exoteric terms. instead such claim is made by the meanings, which the designs and the final report make to those for whom the study is conducted in terms of policy and practice. key words: epistemology, quantitative methods, qualitative research, validity, reliability, and generalisability. introduction to argue that qualitatively designed studies fall short of producing valid, reliable and replicable findings is to suggest a denial of the qualitative epistemology. ongoing debates about whether qualitative studies are capable of producing good knowledge centre on the non-application of statistical apparatuses in the conduct of such research (creswell, 2003; smith & deemer, 2003; and henning, 2004). it would appear much of the argument, particularly within sub-saharan africa, in support of the quantitative value claims hinge on the researchers’ proficiency in the use of statistical tools, which do not necessarily lend support for use by qualitative chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 2 researchers. however, the question, which resonates from such argument, is whether statistical tools possess any investigative quality and whether such tools are capable to add values, which do not inherently exist within the body of such data. the position of this paper is that statistical tools do not possess any investigative quality capable to discover hidden knowledge. what strength such tools do possess, however, is analytical whereby numerical and calculative meanings are imputed to already assembled data resulting from a concluded fieldwork. again such tools do not uncover beyond that which the data-collecting techniques had offered during the course of a particular fieldwork. like the sorting and the coding processes commonly used in qualitative research, statistical tools ensure that some order may be brought to otherwise highly voluminous set of data. however, while the qualitative researcher applies the interpretivist narration to assign meanings to sorted and coded data, statistical tools offer the quantitative researcher the impetus to assign meanings to quantitative data by drawing inferences from sample to population. it is the argument of this paper that this process, whether it be quantitative or qualitative, does not uncover beyond the strength of the data-collecting instrument. that is why e. henning had earlier argued, “the function of a research design is to ensure that evidence obtained enables us to answer the initial question as unambiguously as possible […], which will be the basis on which knowledge claims will be made” (henning, 2004:146). one other issue, which has made some import in this paper, borders on what appears to be an overly quantitative claims of the infallibility of human judgment. the argument has always been that quantitative researchers rely on well-established schemata (glesne & peshkin, 1992; wainwright, 1997; and bryman & bell, 2007). the argument also maintains that qualitative researchers, rely on their interpretive strengths, often deeply and subjectively biased (winter, 2000; and creswell, 2003). however, this writer argues nothing exist in knowledge that is not a product of human judgment, theoretically as well as practically. the writer concurs with g. rolfe argument that “quality judgments entail a subjective reading of the research text, and the responsibility for appraising research lies with the reader than with the writer of the research report; with the consumer rather than with the researchers themselves” (rolfe, 2006:309). the point being made here is that the process – through which validity as a research principle is reached – is always and necessarily based on human judgment, which can not be exclusively immune to falsifications. this sort of argument appears to dominate research enterprise in recent years with the result that most research reports appear unnecessarily and overly statistical irrespective of the often questionable level of statistical expertise among the users. this is an account of this writer’s experiences of qualitative validity during a classroom study. the qualitative-quantitative divergence as epistemological requisite for choice to argue as did g. rolfe that “any attempt to establish a consensus on criteria for qualitative research is unlikely to succeed for the simple reason that there is no educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 3 unified body of theory, methodology or method that can collectively be described as qualitative research” (rolfe, 2006:305) was inappropriate. such theorizing appears to be informed by either a lack of history of the 18th and 19th century philosophy of science, which partly informed the foundation of research methodologies or an abject non-recognition of an existing functional paradigm. this author argues that it is neither the existence of a unified theory nor even the scrupulous application of such theory that made quantitative research generally acceptable. rather, quantitative methodologies derive such perceived unity from their susceptibility to statistical manipulations. however, this author offers recognition to existing paradigmatic duality as a necessity for the third wave expressed by proponents of triangulation. such dichotomy offers room for continuous divergence of opinions on the ways researchers perceive the empirical social world. the quantitative research is defined as “an objective, formal, systematic process in which numerical data are used to quantify or measure phenomena and produce findings” (carr, 1994:716). one major aim of quantitative research is the testing of theories a` priori from which predictive statements are made. it is a type of research that is designed for the testing, description and examination of variables with attempts at establishing the interconnectedness between their causes and effects. quantitative research method neither measures the historical processes nor does it measure the cultural contexts within which a particular research is conducted (carney, joiner & tragou, 1997). on the other hand, qualitative research is a “form of research activity that relies on the use of unstructured and semi-structured forms of data collection techniques and represents the outcome of these activities using verbal descriptions specially designed for the purpose” (okeke & ume, 2004a:165). the word “qualitative” implies an emphasis or recognition of the processes and meanings that are not easily susceptible to measurement in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (carney, joiner & tragou, 1997). its emphasis is on capturing or obtaining in-depth understanding of the participants’ actions in a particular study (wainwright, 1997). in this context, c. glesne & a. peshkin conceive qualitative research to mean all forms of research that are linked with the humanistic or interpretive approaches including phenomenology, ethnography, ethno-methodology, heuristics and hermeneutics, among others (glesne & peshkin, 1992). to deny knowledge of such collective theory, which found expressions in humanism or interpretivism as did g. rolfe (2006) is to argue same for quantitative research. it is the same as arguing that the application of experimental, quasiexperimental and the survey research approaches; variations of quantitative research, also inhibit any attempt to collectively pin such approaches to any body of theory or methodology. studies have shown that research methodologies have history, which dates back to the 18th and 19th century’s philosophy of science. it is imperative for those entering the research field to acquaint themselves with this history because it would appear that ongoing argument, which borders on value claims among researchers, is partly explained by this lack of history. for instance, positivism according to h. brink “is the paradigm or philosophical perspective, which underlies the quantitative approach chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 4 […] in which reductionism, quantifiability, objectivity and operationalization are essential” (brink, 1991:14). as a philosophical current, positivism was first made prominent in the works of the french philosopher, auguste comte (haack, 1995) and ever since its discovery; positivism has metamorphosed into three stages including logical positivism, logical empiricism and empirio-criticism (haack, 1995; and murzi, 2001). however, of these three stages, it would appear only logical positivism, had directly imparted on the establishment of the quantitative approach to research. for example, logical positivists perceive experience as the only judge of scientific knowledge; arguing that knowledge is meaningful only if it has been proven by means of experience, positivists note that metaphysical conjectures are completely forbidden. the goal of research is simply to describe the phenomena as they are experienced and the purpose of science is simply to stick to what are observable and measurable. knowledge of anything beyond that, a positivist would argue, is impossible (trochim, 2002). thus, having positioned itself as a total rejection of metaphysics, the argument in positivism is that observation alone cannot lead to the discovery of universal laws concerning a particular phenomenon even though it argues valid knowledge may result from such observation. observation, according to logical positivism (murzi, 2001; and trochim, 2002), must be backed by reason, conjectures and theories regarding their forms. this calls for the hypothetico-deductive approach to social inquiry. so, therefore, the positivists retained from the 18th and 19th century philosophy of science on the idea of the natural laws. following this, positivists will then argue that the central aim of research is to discover universal laws. they also retained from this philosophical tradition, the idea that science is the only true source of legitimate knowledge (hammersley, 1989). it would appear this mode of conception influenced the positivists’ application of methods used within natural sciences. again, it would appear this philosophical tradition also influenced the quantitative and statistical representation of data from the empirical social world. to get on with research, the positivist would argue what the researcher requires is “knowledge of the previous research and of statistics” (mennell, 1977:1) and such is the tradition, which deeply influenced the conduct of research well into the 1950s and 1960s (ward, 1999; and wildy, 1999). the positivist researchers, therefore, concern themselves with the discovery of universal laws governing society. human actions are then perceived in relation to these laws and consequently human beings are pictured as acting in accordance with the dictates of these laws. researchers within such philosophical orientation rely on controlled and systematic observation of its subject matter as well as on systematic collection and analysis of data (okolocha, nwanunobi & igbo, 1999). it is this type of orientation that guides the positivists’ conduct of research and during this process “persons or events are broken down into discrete parts for study; these discrete parts are directly observable units with behaviour that is separate from and unaffected by the observer” (brink, 1991:14). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 5 however, humanist researchers dismiss the positivists’ assumptions as speculative and seek to humanize the process of social inquiry (brink, 1991; and jones, 1997). humanist researchers include those oriented within the 18th and 19th century philosophy of science, which found expressions in historicism, neokantianism and the american pragmatism (gwinn, norton & goetz, 1987; hammersley, 1989; haack, 1995; and ritzer, 1996). historicists argue that human life is so diversified and, as such the positivists’ physical expressions of it, is highly inappropriate for the understanding of these diversified forms of life. however, historicists argue what is required to understand such varied forms of life is a deeper investigation of the underlying meanings in order to uncover the distinctive cultural dynamics from which such forms of life have evolved (brink, 1991; and jones, 1997). on the other hand, neo-kantian researchers reject the idea of natural sciences as the only source of legitimate knowledge while arguing that observers operating within the social and physical world can only do so through differential values (gwinn, norton & goetz, 1987). pragmatism is a combination of two main tendencies: “the belief that experience is the starting point and terminus for all knowledge; and (second) the idea that human must be understood as part of the natural world” (hammersley, 1989:45). taken jointly, the central theme in the humanists’ epistemology is the understanding of the distinctive nature of human social interactions. it is important to note that such epistemology was very influential to the development of what is today regarded within research parlance as the qualitative approach. for in qualitative research “there is attention to the social context in which events occur and have meaning, and there is emphasis on understanding the social world from the point of view of the participants in it” (brink, 1991:14). it is thus wrong to argue as did g. rolfe that no such thing exists in form of unified body of theory, methodology or method that can collectively be described as qualitative research (rolfe, 2006). rather, it would seem qualitative research found itself in the present state of “unacceptability” because of what appears to be lack of self confidence and trust among qualitative researchers. moreover, qualitative methodologies’ non-susceptibility to statistical quantification and manipulation also account for the reason why this research paradigm is still being treated as second-rate. what is more? what is important in every research process is the demonstration of rigor through a well documented and verifiable proof. quantitative researchers are able to demonstrate such proof of statistical rigor through their “ability to operationalize them in such a way that numbers can be attributed to them” (liebscher, 1998:670). however, there is little or no evidence to support, as noted by t. greenhalgh and r. taylor (1997), the well known fact that one couple in ten is infertile or that one man in ten is homosexual yet most of us accept as truth so long as such statements contain numbers in support. it is also important to note that qualitative researchers are not easily susceptible to applying such numerical evidence to strengthen their claims. nonetheless, instead of demonstrating how they will or have achieved rigor in the body of their research report, some qualitative researchers have laboriously argued that validity and reliability cannot be achieved in qualitative research (morse chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 6 et al., 2002). this is the missing link. the rest of this paper tells the story of this author’s experiences with qualitative validity during a classroom research. the research setting it was between 2001 and 2003 when this writer undertook a study for the award of a doctorate. the larger study was aimed to make the qualitative research paradigm more acceptable within the nigerian research tradition and thus, it was meant to be a demonstration study captioned “the gendered perception of schooling amongst secondary school students”. the study was an observational single case study research design. this writer was aware of other types of case studies including the oral history, situational analysis, clinical and multi-case (tellis, 1997; and osuala, 2001) but the observational single case study was the one that suited the purposes of the study. it must be noted that a case study is an ideal methodology when a holistic, in-depth investigation is needed. this writer was interested in understanding the indepth immanent meanings the participants of his study made out of their understanding and interpretations of schooling. it was for this reason that the observational single case presented the opportunity for a micro-approach to the study of the gendered perception of schooling through a particular group of students within the chosen school. such design ensured that detailed viewpoints of the participants were brought to the fore using multiple methods. moreover, a single case can represent a significant contribution to theory building and assist in refocusing the direction of future investigation in the area. it was in this understanding that this writer also found one of the strengths of the knowledge claims because “validity asks […] the question whether, by using certain methods, we are investigating what we say we are investigating” (henning, 2004:147). in addition, it was the use of the observational single case, which allowed this writer to engage multi-data eliciting technique during the fieldwork. more so, this writer was aware that “engaging multiple methods such as observation, interviews and recordings, will lead to more valid, reliable and diverse construction of realities” (golafshani, 2003:604). this practice is in line with what b. brockutne (1998) refers to as convergent validity, which argues that one of the conventional ways of ensuring validity in qualitative studies is the recourse to triangulation. the idea of convergent validity therefore entails that adopting different methods when studying same construct should give relatively high inter-correlation. in addition, j.w. creswell and d.l. miller suggest triangulation to be “a validity procedure where researchers search for convergence among multiple and different sources of information to form themes or categories in a study” (creswell & miller, 2000:126). the study took place in one of the community secondary schools in nsukka local government area of enugu state of nigeria. the school was located along the nsukka end of the nsukka-enugu road, not very far away from the popular opi junction. a number of reasons informed the selection of the school for study. first, the location of the school along a major express highway exposed the school to all sorts of social dynamics. students in the school were likely to be susceptible to all educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 7 kinds of influences. second, preliminary investigation showed that the school had a history of persistent lateness to school amongst the student population. absenteeism was also a problem within the school. third, the population of the school also added to the appropriateness of the school as a study site. it was a co-educational type and that made it easier for gender studies to be located within. knowledge of these dynamics, which were contingent upon the study site, ensured that openness was maintained throughout the period the study lasted. it is this type of reflexive subjectivity (mccotter, 2001) that informed this writer to document clearly the assumptions that have influenced the research process. these influences were made manifest during data collection and that made the task of achieving validity much easier. this process was continuous until the research report was written and it is believed this type of reflexivity would enable “reader to evaluate the appropriateness of [this writer’s] influence” (turnock & gibson, 2001:472) and other dynamics upon the research process. meanwhile preceding the presentation of the proposal for the larger study to the proposal committee, the methodology chapter was put through the test of verification. this is one important process of checking, confirming, making sure as well as being certain about the research strategies (morse et al., 2002). in line with this, the entire methodology chapter was sent to two separate qualitative research experts: professor stephen lerman of london south bank university, britain; and suzanne mccotter of the millersville university, pennsylvania, united states. this exercise was also in line with j.w. creswell’s “use of external auditor to review the entire project” (creswell, 2003:196) and one advantage gained from allowing the research design pass through verification process was that it helped the researcher modify the research processes. getting the qualitative experts read through the design components of the study enhanced the process of rigor which also guaranteed validity because in qualitative research to validate is to investigate, to check, to question, and to theorize. the sample of the study was made-up of fifty (50) senior secondary school students of equal number of boys and girls. this was in line with the design of the study, which emphasized micro but detailed understanding of the phenomenon under study. however, with the sample identified, ethical issues were quickly addressed. participants were informed of the purposes of the study and that the study was to last for a whole school term beginning from september 16 to december 13, 2002. the participants were also informed that in the course of the study, certain issues were to be discussed, some of which were to touch on their private lives. but participants were also informed that all efforts were to be made to avoid being intrusive on the part of the researcher. moreover, participants were equally advised on their rights to withdraw from the study whenever they so desired. most importantly, participants were informed that should any part of the information resulting from the study be published, efforts would be made to protect their identities where the release of such information would be injurious to the participants’ integrity. following these, consent forms were issued to the fifty participants in the study to which they all signed. again this was partly in congruence with the principles chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 8 of catalytic validity (brock-utne, 1998; and mccotter, 2001) which demands some documentation that the respondents were vigorously involved in the research process. the principle of triangulation directed the process of data collection. four methods were used during the collection of data and these included observations, interviews, focus group discussions and the participants’ diaries. this researcher also supported these methods with a still camera and a personal diary. it must be noted that observation became necessary in the study because this researcher was interested in describing the behaviour of the individuals in the study. it therefore became imperative for the participants to be studied within their natural setting. triangulation was necessary in the study in order to overcome the problems associated with method bounded-ness (wildy, 1999) and the need to achieve internal validity. the internal validity of a study demonstrates how correct the research portrays the phenomena it is supposed to portray (brock-utne, 1998). again internal validity, which in qualitative paradigm is replaced with the concept of credibility, involves establishing that the result of one’s research study is believable from the point of view of the participants (trochim, 2006). one way the researcher undertook this exercise was to take the final report back to the participants in the study. under the principle of participant observation, it was agreed with the authorities of the chosen school that this researcher was to teach the class from where the sample for the study was drawn. consequently, this researcher chose history and taught the subject throughout the period of the fieldwork. data collection therefore began in form of participant observation in which this researcher was the sole collector of the data that formed part of the study. observation started on the september 16 and lasted until december 13, 2002. this was a prolonged period of stay on the field lasting for sixty-two (62) days, which made one academic term. j.w. creswell has identified prolonged period on the field as one of the primary strategies for achieving qualitative validity (creswell, 2003). space does not allow mention to be made of various items that guided the observational activities in this article. however, observation usually started from the assembly and then moved to the classroom vicinity of the chosen study group. while in the school, participants were systematically followed during class lessons in various subjects, during break times, manual labour and at all other times until the closing time. during observation, this researcher recorded all behavioural attributes displayed by participants in the study. at the end of every observation, the researcher transcribed all observed and recorded items into a descriptive whole. this exercise marked the beginning of the initial analysis, which helped in the establishment of the analytical themes used in the final analysis. it was in this way that the observational instrument aided the collection of data. the interview instrument was adopted with the understanding that it has the ability to elicit information that may not easily be accessible through other means (elliott, 1997). moreover, this researcher was aware of the fact that when allowed to answer in their own words, the interview instrument was capable to bring out the qualitatively hidden and varied differences within the participants’ interactions (horn, 1998; and liebscher, 1998). the interview was unstructured and covered educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 9 sixteen (16) areas including participants’ attitudes, likes and approaches to schooling, and these were put to the participants in question forms. interviews took place at the library of the chosen school between september 30 and november 19, 2002. each interview lasted about forty (40) minutes from 10:30 to 11:40 am each day and two participants were interviewed on each day. the tape recorder was used during the process of interviewing and, while the participants responded to the questions, their responses were tape-recorded. at the end of each interview session, responses were transcribed into data. the focus group discussions were partly influenced by emerging issues from both the researcher’s observations and the interviews. three sessions of discussions were held with the participants of the study. the first was on the 23rd of october, followed by another on the 4th of november 2002. the third and final session of the discussion was held on the 27th of november same year. each of the focus group discussions lasted for a period of sixty (60) minutes. the method adopted during group discussions was to introduce the topic or issue and while participants engaged themselves, this researcher simply acted as moderator as well as recording the speeches. the tape-recorder was also used during the process of discussion and participants’ speeches were later transcribed by the researcher. one important benefit derived from the use of fgd (focus group discussion) was that it enabled the researcher clarify some of the issues raised during the interviews. particularly the adoption of the fgd offered a deeper understanding of the participants’ feelings over issues as they struggled to make sense of the issues in focus. it is for this reason that c. gill argues one advantage of focus group lies in the nature of the material it gives access to. the fgd also helped the researcher confirm the credibility of some of the issues raised during individual interviews (gill, 1998). this is what b. brock-utne refers to as instrumental or criterion validity demonstrated by a researcher by showing that data generated through a particular instrument can match those resulting from alternative instrument(s) used in the same study (brock-utne, 1998). while the focus group discussion was used as a supporting method, the adoption of the diary was informed by the understanding that only diaries will enable researchers access phenomena, which were not amenable to observation and discussions because they were unfocused or occurred outside set time or environmental boundaries, and were likely to be altered by the presence of an observer (elliott, 1997). data were collected through the participants’ diaries in two stages. the first stage concentrated mainly on eliciting information on the participants’ social as well as cultural background. the second stage of the diary exercise aimed at eliciting information on the nature of the participants’ activities outside the official school period. the diary exercise lasted from 22nd to 29th november 2002. the diary was unstructured but also required the participants to document as sincerely as they wished all activities that occurred within their lives from the moment they left the school premises until they returned to school the following day. this exercise lasted for seven days and every participant took part in the diary exercise. diaries were also taken home since information from such a document was supposed to have chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 10 been influenced by events which took place within spaces that were outside the official time boundaries. taken jointly, one important advantage gained from the triangulated approach to data collection was that “engaging multiple methods […] lead to more valid, reliable and diverse construction of realities” from the participants in the study (golafshani, 2003:604). the use of pseudonym in place of the participants’ real identities was necessitated by the nature of thick, rich description of the research report. studies have identified both the use of thick, rich description and member-checking as strategies for achieving validity (greenhalgh & taylor, 1997; brock-utne, 1998; creswell, 2003; and smith & deemer, 2003). participants in the study were given the opportunity to read through the report of the study as one way of ensuring the study actually investigated what it intended to investigate. the use of “memberchecking to determine the accuracy of the qualitative findings through taking the final report back to participants” is seen by j.w. creswell as a good strategy for achieving validity (creswell, 2003:196). discussions when evaluating the usefulness of any research outcomes, it is important to note both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms have different reasons for researching the social world thereby necessitating differential findings. for instance, one visualizes the social world in terms of variables seeking causal correlations; the other visualizes the social world in terms of phenomena and seeks understanding of the immanent meanings that inform actions within human interactional situations. it must be noted that “unlike quantitative researchers who seek causal determination, prediction and generalization of findings; qualitative researchers seek instead illumination, understanding and extrapolation to similar situations” (golafshani, 2003:600). consequently, the assessment of their findings insofar as such findings result from processes informed by differential rationale, calls for differential criteria for doing so. the quantitative researcher begins his/her research activity “by […] identifying the variables inherent in the problem to be investigated, pose relevant questions and state testable hypotheses, develop a design appropriate for the investigation, carry out some treatment and no treatment conditions, collect data, and interpret and report them” (ohuche & anyanwu eds., 1990:22). such an approach emphasizes quantity and its significance derives from the researcher’s ability to represent in numerical forms, any emerging analysis and interpretation from the data. by employing such instruments as the descriptive and inferential statistics, such a researcher is able to reproduce a well-ordered representation of the entire research process sometimes mostly through the help of a computer machine. it is through this process that such a researcher is able to leave behind, a well-ordered and documented process that is always taken-for-granted (hammersley, 1989). moreover, because such process is always and necessarily replicable based on the availability of numbers, such procedure is constantly being counted as valid. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 11 this of course is not the way of the qualitative researcher. the rationale for conducting qualitative research is to explore the emic aspects of the individuals’ everyday lives and not to search for truth. this was exactly the case with this researcher’s study of the “gendered perception of schooling”. for this purpose, emphasis is always and necessarily not on the reproduction of a representative sample of a given population. the qualitative researcher is interested in a deeper understanding of the social phenomenon and not in the uncovering of any existing truth. accordingly, h. wildy argues that in as much as validity represents the truth claim, no such thing exist in concrete terms. she further states that no such thing as truth exists anywhere and therefore no such truth is waiting out there to be captured by researchers. she therefore concludes “reality is constructed by people as they attempt to make sense of their experiences” (wildy, 1999:69). the validity of such exercise rest not with any academic research committee rather such value claims must necessarily rest with the users of the research finding. moreover, “validity comes from being able to get your ideas accepted in the discourse community […] to open them to possible falsification […] also to publish them for even broader communication” (henning, 2004:149). earlier, b. brock-utne differentiates six forms of qualitative validity through which studies that are qualitatively designed must be assessed (brock-utne, 1998). such forms included apparent validity; instrumental or pragmatic validity; construct validity; internal validity; external validity; and catalytic validity. when doing qualitative study, j.w. creswell notes “validity is discussed in terms of trustworthiness, authenticity and credibility” (creswell, 2003:196). j.w. creswell also notes certain strategies including triangulation, member-checking, thick description, use of external auditor, which must be adopted in qualitative research in order to achieve validity (creswell, 2003). when researchers are concerned about improving the validity of their study, it is imperative to indicate the roles of the self in the process of such study. by so doing, readers and users of the outcome of such study are enabled to make appropriate decisions on value claims. this is what c. turnock & v. gibson refer to as reflexive validity “whereby articulation of the researchers’ influences on a study enables the reader to evaluate the appropriateness of their influence” (turnock & gibson, 2001:472). of course as already noted, s.s. mccotter (2001) refers to it as reflexive subjectivity. to reiterate, it has to be noted that qualitative research arose out of postpositivists’ refusal to accept the concept of a single static or objective truth. that is why g. winter indicates that one’s notion of truth determines one’s definition of accurate representation (winter, 2000). that is why j.k. smith and d.k. deemer argue “any discussion of criteria for judging social and educational inquiry must confront the issue of relativism” (smith & deemer, 2003:429). such argument would, therefore, support the notion that there is no generally valid and objective knowledge. rather, j.k. smith and d.k. deemer would argue that all knowledge comes from a particular perspective and consequently, the validity of such knowledge is relative to that particular perspective (smith & deemer, 2003). therefore, whether or not validity is essentially the same concept in qualitative and quantitative research, chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 12 it would appear evident that the means by which such value claim is to be achieved are different for each methodology. both j. hupcey (2002) and a. smaling (2003) also emphasize the need for researchers and evaluators to look for, as well as strive to maintain the methodological difference within the distinct approaches to social inquiry. following this, some writers have attempted to replace reliability and validity with concepts, which appear to satisfy the evaluation of the kind of findings coming from qualitative research enterprises. according to j.m. morse et al., reliability and validity are substituted with the parallel concepts of trustworthiness, which contains four aspects: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. according to j.m. morse et al. also within these concepts were specific methodological strategies for demonstrating qualitative rigor. they include audit trail, member checks, confirming results with participants, peer debriefing, negative case analysis, structural corroboration and referential material adequacy (morse et al., 2002). according to n. golafshani, the concepts of reliability and validity in quantitative research connote two types of interpretations, “firstly, with regards to reliability, whether the result is replicable. secondly, with regards to validity, whether the means of measurement are accurate and whether they are actually measuring what they are intended to measure” (golafshani, 2003:599). also n. golafshani argues that such definitions appear inadequate for use in qualitative studies noting that “reliability and validity are conceptualized as trustworthiness, rigor and quality in qualitative paradigm” (golafshani, 2003:604). it is further argued that the importation of the quantitative conceptualization of generalization of research findings into the qualitative research operations appears inappropriate (mccotter, 2001; hupcey, 2002; trochim, 2002; golafshani, 2003; and smaling, 2003). the concept of generalization of research findings portrays the notion that everything in life is constant and unchanging. such perception of human social activities has deeply informed the quantitative researchers’ application of such techniques as manipulation and control of variables during a particular data collection fieldwork. but human beings are always in constant state of flux. this means human behaviour is neither static nor fixed, rather human behaviour is fluid and ever-changing. this is in line with b. ward’s claims that “the meaning of each thing concrete or abstract is not fixed […]. it is constantly changing […] and because we are in constant engagement with the world, meaning is constantly being modified if not completely changed” (ward, 1999:54). qualitative research processes are grounded in the observation of phenomena in a real world that is in a constant state of flux. such processes equally take place in a situation that is specific in time and space and as a result, cannot be generalized to a different context. by so doing, the aim of qualitative research stands defeated. so what then is generalization in qualitative research? a number of scholars have attempted to provide an answer to the above question (chenail, 1995; turner, 2001; and smaling, 2003). however, the word transferability appears to be in congruence with the aim of qualitative research. accordingly, a. smaling argues educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(1) 2009 13 that in qualitative research, generalization is replaced with transferability. as an aspect of communicative generalization, a. smaling maintains transferability remains the only replacement for the traditional external validity otherwise known as research generalisability. explaining further, a. smaling argues transferability is implicitly based on analogical reasoning (smaling, 2003). the fact of the matter is that the reader of the research report, not the researcher or the supervising committee, who determines whether analogies exist in the report. the reader must have an adequate knowledge of the researched situation so that he/she can determine by him/herself whether there are sufficient relevant similarities that make it plausible that the research conclusions should hold in other situation. conclusion the purpose of this paper has been to discuss some of the epistemological issues encountered during a classroom research. specifically, this paper aimed to address the yet to be resolved issue about the way researchers make value claims regarding the authenticity of their findings. it has not focused on the specific issues of using any or all of the methods triangulated in the course of the study, which has influenced this paper. such issues however form a wider discourse which is beyond the scope of this paper. nonetheless, this paper discusses how the scrupulous application of some qualitative methods by this researcher led to the construction of the story of how young adults perceived of education in a high school within a nigerian suburb. this researcher argues that the stories, which emerged from this encounter, were as representative as events in the lives of the participants in the study. this researcher also argues that validity of any research finding resonates from the effect such account makes in the lives of those for whom the study was conducted. although both quantitative and qualitative research approaches are committed to improving upon what is known about a phenomenon, they nonetheless pursue different research agenda. both research approaches have differential operational purpose; seek differential data which result in findings that are very distinctive ontologically and epistemologically. in comparison to quantitative studies, findings from qualitative research such as the one which has influenced this paper, are better positioned to offer varied and in-depth understanding on the ways through which the participants in the study had come to perceive of education. again, various methods used by this researcher in his study enabled him enter the world of the participants in ways difficult through the “agreed and disagreed” patterns common with the quantitative design. in particular, the type of interaction involved in the use of focus group discussion enabled this researcher to gain insights in ways that would remain inaccessible by other means. the approach was very exploratory, leading to revelations from the emic perspective of those individuals involved in the study. on the strength of these, qualitative research stands out as a unique research paradigm with an agenda aimed at capturing the internal processes through which individuals in a study have been involved. however, both quantitative and chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 14 qualitative research methods can play important supplementary role for each other; 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(1997). “can sociological research be qualitative, critical and valid?” in the qualitative report, 3(2). retrieved from: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr3-2/wain.html [8 december 2001]. ward, b. (1999). “the edited topical life history: its value and use as a research tool” in education research and perspectives, 26(2), pp.61-72. wildy, h. (1999). “statuses, lenses and crystals: looking at qualitative research” in education research and perspective, vol.26(2). chinedu i.o. okeke, the experiences with qualitative validity in a classroom research 16 winter, g. (2000). “a comparative discussion of the notion of validity in qualitative and quantitative researc h” in the qualitative r epor t, 4(3&4). retrieved from: http:// www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr4-3/winter.html [10 december 2001]. educare august 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 17 namitha elizabeth jacob is a research scholar at the department of psychology, university of calicut, kerala, india; and dr. baby shari is a reader at the same department, university of calicut, kerala, india. the authors can be contacted via e-mail at: namithaej@ gmail.com 1967). academic organizations are not less different. the public at large has become more conscious of its institutions of higher education. state and localities are more demanding in terms of education and service, more critical of what they perceive institutions to be doing, and more vocal in expressing their criticism and desires. public institutions like these always answerable to the general interest can no longer avoid defending what they do or do not. they are increasingly becoming answerable to numerous constituencies for the range of their services and the effectiveness of their performance. the main mission of academic organizations includes teaching, research, academic services to the community, and fostering arts and culture. other missions are human development and exploration of an improved quality of life leading to a better, more peaceful society through educational reform and sustainable development of local introduction organizations occupy a predominant place in the lives of modern men that study of their effectiveness has emerged as an important area of research in psychology. in spite of the marked importance of the subject, however, much controversy exists pertaining to the theory and researches of organizational effectiveness. the primary reason is the perplexing diversity of organizational forms in modern society (ghorpade, 1971). organizations differ in regard to their societal functions; they vary in terms of size, shape, and structure; and most certainly, they differ in relation to the institutional interrelationships and circumstances in which they operate. organizational effectiveness is a concept of how effective an organization is in achieving the outcomes the organizations intends to produce. every organization regardless of industry or country seeks to be more effective and achieve superior results (thompson, namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari organizational effectiveness in educational institutions abstract: organizational effectiveness is a concept of how effective an organization is in achieving the outcomes the organizations intends to produce. every organization regardless of industry or country seeks to be more effective and achieve superior results. academic organizations are not less different. the public at large has become more conscious of its institutions of higher education. and universities, as a part of its main objective, conduct several studies for the societal benefits. however, there are a very few studies conducted on these institutions themselves, even though a part of the national budget is set aside for the development of societal reforming organizations like schools and universities. in other words, though a widely used and researched area, there still exists a lack of clarity with regard to the general understanding of organizational effectiveness and this goes true for academic institutions as well. the system of education needs to conduct its own research into the identification of the variables and factors associated with effectiveness. however, the meaning of the effectiveness of an educational institution is defined as its successful operation in terms of awareness of the organizational missions by the administrator, faculty members, and the support staff. this paper attempts to understand the basis of attaining effectiveness in academic institutions and also attempts to reflect on the ways in which effectiveness can be enhanced. finally, no single model accurately describes the conditions in an institution, instead multiple models provide a richer understanding of organizational outcomes. key words: organizational effectiveness, academic organizations, organized anarchy, students, faculty members, administrators, and universities. namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari, organizational effectiveness 18 communities. education acts as an agent of social change and social development and social change takes place as a response to many types of changes in the social and nonsocial environment. education initiates social change by bringing about a change in outlook and attitude of man, which in turn brings about a change in the pattern of social relationships. education also aims at imparting knowledge and enabling every individual to effectively participate in the activities of society and to make positive contribution to the progress of society. with education playing a major role, it is very important to see that such organizations function effectively while imparting quality education to the masses. but the question is how far academic institutions are concerned about increasing effectiveness? k.s. cameron (1978) and karagoz and oz (2008) mentioned in their writings that various effectiveness approaches and models have been developed, but unfortunately little research has been done on organizational effectiveness in higher education context. universities as a part of its main objective conduct several studies for the societal benefits. however, there are a very few studies conducted on these institutions themselves, even though a part of the national budget is set aside for the development of societal reforming organizations like schools and universities. the meaning of the effectiveness of an educational institution is defined as its successful operation in terms of awareness of the organizational missions by the administrator, faculty members, and the support staff. w. zummeta (2001), in a review of higher education, had noted that institutions were historically viewed as “necessarily freewheeling and unconstrained”. however, w. zummeta (2001) also observed that colleges and universities face unprecedented external demands and this shift in states expectations; and relations with colleges and universities is significant not only for academics own interests but for important societal values. r. howard bowen (1977) observed that the production process in higher education is far more intricate and complicated than that in any industrial enterprise. turning resources into human values defies standardization. students vary enormously in academic aptitude, interest, intellectual dispositions, social and cultural characteristics, educational and vocational objectives, and many others. many theorists consider organizational effectiveness, as if it is a goal to achieve, as though at some point of time, organizations will have a final set of characteristics or reach a level of productivity and effectiveness will be attained. this is just not the case in institutions of higher education and denies the temporal reality of developing organizations and also ignores the contribution of process to develop effectiveness. organizational effectiveness here depends on the organizations ability to change, develop, and adapt over time (ross & goodfellow, 1980). most organizations are not completely free to set their own goals and are constrained by their environments to conform to the goals expected by external constituencies. thus, in higher education, most universities tend/try to set goals quite similar to those of the most other prestigious universities (cameron & whetten eds., 1983); or seek to adopt practices of institutions deemed best within a particular institutional type. occasionally, however, some institutions are able to identify themselves as unique and as deserving the public’s attention, even though they don’t conform to the traditional models of success. there are also different levels within the college and university with large cultural variations exiting within. overall organizational effectiveness may be to some extent be a function of the degree to which the organization is able to accommodate and reconcile differences among multiple organizational cultures. in some institutions, however, it may not be possible to support simultaneously all of the cultural dimensions that underlie each branch or department. organizational effectiveness, thus, requires an understanding by leaders of the priorities of the institution, especially as the organization moves through different phases. organized anarchy though there are many approaches proposed for the valuation of effectiveness, educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 19 there is a group of organizations for which none of these approaches for evaluating effectiveness is appropriate. schools, colleges, universities, large service organizations, and research and development organizations encompass this group of organizations together referred to as “organized anarchy”. the main peculiarity about this class of organization is that sub-units are largely autonomous and there are few common structures or linkages flowing throughout organized anarchies to bind the sub-units together. common linking factors, like purposes and goals and the formalized hierarchy of authority, are either not present or may be weak in organized anarchies. goals of such organizations are complex, changing, and contradictory. sub-units purse goals that may be unrelated to the broader, more general organizational goals. since the sub-units are not tightly connected, influences from external environment are partitioned among them. and also any disturbances from external forces seldom diffuses throughout the entire organization because of the autonomous nature of the sub-units. academic organizations are not completely free to set their own goals since most organizations are constrained by their environments to conform to the goals expected by external constituencies. organizational theorists often adhere to the fact that effectiveness of organizations cannot be described in a straight forward manner. the interpretation of the concept is done on the basis of the organizational theory and the specific interests of the group posing the question of effectiveness (cameron & whetten eds., 1983; and cameron & whetten, 1985). therefore, different models have been used as background to understand organizational effectiveness. under the goal model, an organization is effective if it accomplishes its goals over a long time. effectiveness is measured by the degree to which the organizations attain identified output targets. in higher education, benchmarking (alstete, 1995; and barak & kniker, 2002); performance funding (banta, 1993); institutional and professional expectations (betz, cunliff & guinn, 2003); and many evaluation service instruments all embody the goal model of effectiveness. most researchers and practioners suggest that the achievement of goals must be understood not in terms of some ideal for all organizations, but instead viewed realistically in terms of the constraints on goal achievement that may limit a particular organization (cyert & march, 1963; and steers, 1977). that is organizational effectiveness should be judged in terms of what the organizations members are expected to do, not in terms of unrealistic hope (cameron, 1980). as per the system model, organizations can be compared to biological systems which adapt to their environment. the main characteristic of this approach is that organizations are considered to interact openly with their surroundings and also they can themselves actively exert influence on the environment. flexibility and adaptability are the two most important conditions for effectiveness i.e. for survival. thus, organizational effectiveness may, then, be measured in terms of yearly intake which could be attributed to intensive canvassing or academic marketing. canvassing activities mainly consists of displaying of acquired facilities or the presentation of data such as the previous years examination results. a major characteristic of an anarchic organization is unclear technology. educational institutions being operated at different levels, there does not exist a single methodology for functioning. the organization manages to survive and even produce and very often its own processes are not understood by its members. it operates on the basis of simple trial and error procedures, the residue of learning from the accidents of past experience and pragmatic inventions of necessity. fluid participation is another characteristic of an anarchic organization. there are different levels within the college and university with large cultural variations existing within. some units may be characterized by elements of the collegial culture, while others emphasize market or adhocracy characteristics. the kind of culture existing in medical academic institutions is drastically different from that of a culture existing in an arts and namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari, organizational effectiveness 20 science college. likewise so is the difference in culture in two different universities. evidence also suggests that such a division of organizational culture within institutions of higher education commonly takes place – for example between administrative and faculty cultures, between student affairs and academic affairs cultures, and among the different cultures of the academic disciplines (hellawell & hancock, 2001). within the department itself, the participants vary in the amount of time and effort they devote to different domains, involvement varies from one time to another. as a result, the boundaries of the organizations are uncertain and changing; the audience and decision makers from any particular kind of choice change capriciously. overall organizational effectiveness may be to some extent be a function of the degree to which the organization is able to accommodate and reconcile differences among multiple organizational cultures. in some institutions, however, it may not be possible to support simultaneously all of the cultural dimensions that underlie each of the effectiveness indicators (connors, 1979). in his own study of educational institutions, k.s. cameron (1978) reflecting the interests of students, faculty, and administrators, drew on a variety of criteria like objective and subjective criteria or participant criteria and organizational criteria. he developed profiles of different educational institutions according to nine general criteria and found them to be diverse. one institution scored high on student academic and personal development, but quite low on student’s career development. similarly while one institution scored high on community involvement, the others scored relatively low. these variations show that even organizations in the same industry or service sector often follow somewhat different clients, approaches, products, and services. thus, organizational effectiveness being a multidimensional construct requires an understanding by leaders of the priorities of the institution, especially as the organization moves through different phases (cameron, 1978). very often because of the difficulty to evaluate the effectiveness of organizations with anarchistic characteristics, researchers and people tend to rely on simple, uncomplicated, easily obtainable, and quantifiable indicators to justify their effectiveness. however, the best way to assess effectiveness is by asking knowledgeable administrators, faculty members and also students, the real receivers of education, to describe the various aspects of institutional performance. assessment of effectiveness assessment of effectiveness in non-profit and service organizations is not an easy task. when asked a question which academic institution is more effective, institution a or institution b, often there is a struggle because the question can’t be answered in a meaningful way, because of the lack of a systematic approach to measure institutional effectiveness. judgments are regularly made, consciously or unconsciously by people who make choices and these choices are made on the basis of self interest, tradition or personal bias, because those making them do not have a clear idea of the pertinent criteria of effectiveness (cameron, 1980). an institution is very often judged by the size, age, and beauty of the campus, the amount of its endowment, its faculty–student ration, and the number of professors who received doctorates from prestigious institutions. another approach for many years was to rely on a single overall assessment such as reputation ratings. though very little sophistication was involved in such assessment techniques, this approach is still widely used to rate colleges and universities later on published in leading magazines. the criteria include faculty awards and honors, student’s achievement after passing out, scores of students on national exams, and institutional resources. how true and valid are such ratings? sadly the groups of institutions who do not full fill the above criteria are innumerable. apart from a few institutions, like research institutions, most of them left without an accurate criterion to assess their effectiveness. the main question is what is the kind of analysis used in such an assessment and also from whose perspective or view point is such an assessment made? since the real receivers educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 21 of education are students, they have the actual right to evaluate an institution and not the general public. not all organizations can be evaluated using the same criteria of effectiveness. certain effectiveness criteria are more appropriate for some kinds of organizations than others. the criteria of effectiveness for different institutional types are not the same. both internal and external evaluators of effectiveness in a college might apply quite different standards than would those in a research university. however, very often the different colleges and universities in spite of its wide differences in its characteristics, end up using the same criteria for evaluating effectiveness. this conclusion raises the question of whether it is fair and reasonable to demand of colleges and universities that they perform effectively in same ways as organizations in the corporate sector. there are many problems in measuring and evaluating faculties of academic organizations effectiveness and efficiency, because variables are either not covered or may be too abstract, indicators not sufficient, the weight of indicators not suitable, criteria unclear, analysis not covered, casual factors not shown, and models not sufficient (katz & kahn, 1978; and harrison, 1994). evaluation is so pervasive and important that the outcomes of such ubiquitous assessments have direct and serious consequences for organizations in terms of resource acquisition, legitimacy, and survival itself (jobson & schneck, 1982). if appropriate assessment criteria cannot be agreed upon, it would be manifestly impossible to agree completely on an evaluation of an organizations success or failure. efforts become more meaningful if resource inputs, instructional and operational processes, and outcomes are assessed in an environment with a common understanding and shared purpose. indicators of effectiveness many researchers have explored different indicators to measure effectiveness and most of them have same point of views. the effectiveness of an educational organization depends on many details such as the administrator, teacher, students who are the permanent items of learning and teaching process. a premise of most organizational research is that effectiveness can be improved as more is learned about structures, processes, and contexts of organizations (cameron, 1986). d.l. clark, l.s. lotto and t.a. astuto (1984) identified features of an effective academic institute as students’ acquisition of important skills, students’ success and development, learning targets, strong culture, and influential academic leadership. similarly, w.k. hoy and j. ferguson (1985) mentioned that students’ success, effective management of teachers, school’s satisfaction, and the way in which academic leaders cope with environment are those dimensions that should be considered while measuring organizational effectiveness. moreover, j.a. gun and e.a. holdaway (1986) have highlighted that the most important effectiveness indicator is teachers and students’ satisfaction, then academic development, parents’ satisfaction, grooming of students as a responsible citizens, employment of expert staff, and finally preparing students for moving in markets and getting good jobs, as building up their professional carriers. one of the ways through which students can be transformed into active learners is through the development of better educational curricula and teaching methods which enables students and teachers to participate in new ways in the teaching-learning process. learning in all subject areas involves inventing and constructing new ideas; and s. zemelman, h. daniels and a. hyde (1993) suggest that if a constructivist approach is incorporated into the curriculum, where teachers create environments in which children can construct their own understandings, it will foster critical thinking and create active and motivated learners. this will act as an indicator to increase institutional effectiveness. staff training and development too have been identified to be crucial to an organization. since effectiveness and success of an organization lies in the hands of people who form and work within the organization, training and development will enable them to namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari, organizational effectiveness 22 work towards taking the organizations to its expected destination. training and re-training of all staff in form of workshops, conferences, and seminars should be vigorously pursued and made compulsory. since teachers directly deal with students, training will enable them to brighten-up their ideas and know more about the recent development in their course area. a. balci (2001) also emphasized that effectiveness should be measured in terms of student’s development. k.s. cameron (1980) conducted effectiveness studies in institutions of higher education and identified nine distinctive areas that administrators believed were indicative of an effective institution of higher education after carefully selecting the criteria, constituencies, and institutions. these dimensions represented characteristics of organizations judged to be indicative of effectiveness from the point of view of internal major decision makers of the institution. the nine dimensions included: (1) student’s educational satisfaction, (2) their academic, (3) personal development, (4) professional development, (5) faculty’s job satisfaction, (6) professional development of teachers, (7) resource acquisition, (8) system clarity, and (9) organizational health. later in his study, he elaborated that varying environmental conditions did have a strong impact on academic institutions (cameron, 1986). in india, one of the primary and most important evaluation service instruments used to assess colleges and universities is the national assessment and accreditation council (naac), an autonomous body, established by the university grants commission in pursuance of the recommendations made by the national policy of education laying special emphasis on evaluating the quality of higher education in india. based on different assessment, the institution is provided with grades of “a, b, and c”. the different criteria of assessment of naac includes curricular activities; teaching and learning evaluation; student support and progression; infrastructure and learning resources; research, consultancy, and extension; and innovative practices. thus, based on the above assessment criteria, the different indicators of effectiveness include student’s development, effective management and leadership of academic organizations, faculty satisfaction, and quality of teaching, institutional culture, environmental impact, parental involvement, acquisition of resources, and their efficient usage. this gives us a clear idea why k.s. cameron (1978) mentioned that organizational effectiveness being a multidimensional field, a single model cannot be used to measure all the underlying variables. often when evaluation service instruments such as naac, approaches an institution for assessment, the first requirement is to present the records and documentation of the various activities. however, many institutions fail to maintain the accurate records and details. moreover for many institutions, the records maintained are just records without actual or detailed information maintained. there are even instances where records are kept just for the sake of documentation. thus, a choice arises between objective data (company records) or subjective or perceptual data (interview/questionnaire responses) to assess effectiveness. but how far is using such information collected by the organization and stored as official document serving as appropriate indicators of effectiveness. in academic organizations, the product is invisible unlike other organizations. usually, a layman’s criteria of an institution’s effectiveness are often the number of students passing out with flying colors. but the question is exams scientific in assessing effectiveness? does getting high marks indicate extremely great performance of the student and inurn the organization? the overall development of an individual is complete when a combination of knowledge, skill, and attitude is merged. such a combination can be developed not only through academics, but also through an involvement and active participation in other social and cultural activities. but often that part of educational institutions is not given as much importance as it requires. but for that aspect to be recognized, we still have to go a long way. a decade back, educational institutions were considered to be noble institution, where the students are polished into fine, educated educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 23 individuals ready to face the world, useful for the society and mankind. unfortunately, a latest trend that is arising is the emergence of the privatization into the academic sector making it more business oriented. the impact of privatization is only making education into a commodity which can be attained and provided through money and not a service. recently, there had been reports of a large number students failing to pass their graduation exams and this is all, because the colleges had been providing admitting those students with money and not on the basis of merit or capability. though it is not directly applicable to all private organizations, it’s a dangerous tendency that is leaning towards a business strategy. institutions are becoming more concerned with getting back the invested money. thus, the quality of education in institutions with a money making attitude are often not up to the standard; thus, affecting the students and also in turn affecting the effectiveness. how can one call such an organization, an effective one, when the final product itself is defective? salaries in india are growing at a very fast pace, primarily because there isn›t a sufficient pool of manpower. even though many have university degrees, the quality of education in most of the institutions are often not up to the mark. m.m. sullivan and p.c. wilds (2001) suggests that the primary measure of effectiveness is the cause and effect relationship between the institution and student learning outcomes. however, most colleges have no experience or models on how to develop and sustain a comprehensive effort for assessing student learning outcomes at the institutional level. this is where the government has to take an action and stop educational institutions from deviating from its mission. steps have to be taken to devise ways to upgrade the educational system across the country, with the government directly setting up central universities in various states. but, then, how is organizational effectiveness related to education? the government taking charge of education also should mean providing a major fund for its upliftment of various colleges without any need or help from private organizations. “upliftment” means not only increasing the number of courses, but also, like naac has suggested, improving the quality of teaching, implementation of a new curricula, creating a culture with a flavor of its own, developing parks for relaxing and refreshing the students minds, and efficient leadership role taken up to guide the teachers and the students. all these factors summed up will influence the overall development of the student in turn increasing the effectiveness of the institutions. thus, effectiveness is not just bound to the efficient functioning activities of the organization alone, but also extends into the achievements of the students. therefore, achieving effectiveness of educational institutions is indeed a very complex task. just like the problem of privatization faced by educational institutions, another problem faced is the deep rooted influence of politics in all the sections of the institution. there’s always a fight over, which party, or which community is going to gain power. and every time a particular party or community comes in power, they make changes in the administration and also enforces upon the employees new rules and regulations. this change causes the employees to face role confusion to a certain level and on the way effectiveness loses it track. employees have explained how they’ve lost their voice in expressing their queries which was not the case about 2 decades back, where the working condition was employee oriented and working in an educational institution was considered as more of a service. thus, the impact of academic leadership on motivation of faculty members and their impact on organizational effectiveness are undoubtedly vast and deep (anum siddique et al., 2011). all educational organizations have a particular structure/style in its function. it’s not zig zag, but rather there exists coordination among the members in each department for its effective functioning and also someone to guide them through their goal oriented activities. in an organizational set up, one can call them leaders, administrators, managers; and how they influence their employees to work is leadership. leader must have the namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari, organizational effectiveness 24 ability to influence others and to direct their efforts to achieve success. leadership styles may vary from organization to organization and even within the organization. with academic environment facing many challenges these days, the leaders need to motivate, inspire, direct, and lead the faculty members towards achievement of shared objective. agility too has a major role in educational institutions. the best performing organizations in the current fast paced environments move quickly to identify opportunities. promoting agility in institutions means concentrating on creating an openness to change and assuring swift execution of strategy and breaking away the barriers that impede the flow of work, people, resources, and ideas. with the increasing globalization and connectivity, it is important that educational institutions keep up with the changing world and create more opportunities and options for the students to grow and prosper. conclusion in this age of increased accountability in higher education, far more attention is being paid to evaluation at all levels of colleges and universities. trustees and presidents find themselves having to answer more completely and quickly to state agencies, accreditation associations, students, parents, and the local community. each of these stakeholders may have a somewhat different view about what constitutes an effective college or university. so, also do the organizational members themselves have divergent perspectives on organizational performance. further, complicating the assessment of effectiveness is the issue of the time frame for drawing conclusions about how well a college or university is doing. choices driven by short term forces may induce the adoption of policies and practices that in the long run may work to the detriment of the institutions. thus, the conceptualization and measurement of effectiveness and efficiency consitute significant 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(1980). “a fitness approach to corporate survival” in journal of business quarterly, 45, pp.19-25. steers, r.n. (1977). organizational effectiveness: a behavioral view. santa monica, ca: goodyear publishing. sullivan, m.m. & p.c. wilds. (2001). “institutional effectiveness: more than measuring objectives, more than student assessment” in assessment update, 13(5), pp.4-13. thompson, j.d. (1967). organizations in action. new york: mcgraw-hill. zemelman, s., h. daniels & a. hyde. (1993). best practice: new standards for teaching and learning in america›s schools. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. zummeta, w. (2001). “public policy and accountability in higher education: lessons from the past and present for the new millennium” in donald e. heller [ed]. states and public higher education policy: affordability, access, and accountability. baltimore: john hopkins university press, pp.155-197. namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari, organizational effectiveness 26 naac and assessment of the higher education institution in india (source: www.google.com, 12/12/2012) in india, one of the primary and most important evaluation service instruments used to assess colleges and universities is the national assessment and accreditation council (naac), an autonomous body, established by the university grants commission in pursuance of the recommendations made by the national policy of education laying special emphasis on evaluating the quality of higher education in india. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 49 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 ifeoma p. okafor influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria abstract: the importance of female education, especially in the developing countries, cannot be overemphasized. there is considerable evidence that the education of women has a direct impact on various aspects of the social, economic, and political well-being of a country. descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and a total sample of 240 parents in ilorin metropolis, nigeria, participated in the study. multi-stage sampling technique was employed, while instrument used in gathering data for the study was a questionnaire entitled “sbpgeq (sociocultural background of parents and girl-child education questionnaire)’’ and a reliability coefficient of 0.68 was obtained. percentage was used to present the demographic data of the respondents, while the hypotheses formulated were tested using t-test and anova (analysis of variance) at 0.05 level of significance. the findings of the study revealed that ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education, girl-child education is a waste of resources, and girl-child education is not profitable. there were no significant differences in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis based on gender, religion, age, and educational qualification. in line with the findings of the study, it was recommended that government agencies, such as the ministry of education, ministry of health, and other youth related institutions should have programmes that are designed for parents on girl-child education, counsellors should be employed at all level in the country. the counsellors should also be supported and provided the needed facilities that would help in the services they rendered in the environment; and stakeholders in the society should ensure that cultural affinities are not attached to girl-child education. key words: influence; socio-cultural background; parents; girl-child education. about the author: ifeoma p. okafor, ph.d. is a lecturer at the department of social sciences education, faculty of education unilorin (university of ilorin) in ilorin, nigeria. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail address at: ifeomapokafor@gmail.com suggested citation: okafor, ifeoma p. (2020). “influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august, pp.49-60. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (june 22, 2020); revised (july 27, 2020); and published (august 30, 2020). introduction it has been a source of basic skills for something that society or segments of it’s considered very paramount. taking nigeria as an example, in indigenous nigerian societies during the era before the advent of the british, the family and other institutions provided education through apprenticeship, adequate socialization, and skills for community developments and self reliance (uwameiye & iyamu, 2002; osokoya, 2017; and osiri, 2020). to make her implementation of educational policy effective, government made efforts by establishing concrete and purposeful direction for the entire educational systems in the country. this aimed at giving © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 50 ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents the accessibility of education to nigeria and translates into action, her philosophy of equality to educational opportunities (okoroma, 2006; otive, 2016; and viennet & pont, 2017). this has brought great increase in the school enrolment; and the result of this is the increase in the number of primary, post primary (secondary), and tertiary institutions in the country. although this study is not comparative one traditional with all provision and potentialities for women development, it becomes grossly in adequate due to technological development that requires professional and sophisticated knowledge and skills (ogunyinka, okeke & adedoyin, 2015; otive, 2016; and viennet & pont, 2017). girl-child education is a catch-all term for a complex set of issues and debates surrounding (primary education, secondary, and tertiary, and health education in particular) for girl and women. denying the girl-child access to education implies making her a dysfunctional member of the society. statistics show that many girls are not enrolled in school. the global figure for out of school children is estimated at 121 million, 65 million are girls with over 80 percent of these girls in subsahara africa, including nigeria (amirikpa, 2010; ww, 2015; and unicef, 2016). the importance of female education, especially in the developing countries, cannot be overemphasized. there is considerable evidence in the management of resources, child’s health, and family planning, that the education of women has a direct impact on various aspects of the social, economic, and political well-being of a country (risikat, 2007; aminchi, 2015; and osita-oleribe, 2017). for instance, nicola swainson (2005), and other scholars, suggested that the mother’s educational level has a direct influence on economic productivity and on the level of her daughter’s education. research findings show also that investing in females’ education may be the most cost-effective measure a developing country can take to improve its standard of living (swainson, 2005; donkor, 2010; and hong et al., 2019). the factors that account for low female participation in education are enormous, amongst them, socio-cultural values, norms, and practices with economic realities superimposed on these. the factors interact in complex ways that perpetuate and reproduce gender disparities. these factors exert their influence from birth, through the child rearing practices followed by different communities, initiation, and marriage, to old age (ugwu & de kok, 2015; ww, 2015; and unicef, 2016). in some communities, for example, reports indicate that the girl-child is prized for the labour, she provides to the family, and for the dowry she brings. this pushes up the opportunity cost of educating a girl, and exposes her to early marriage (okoli, 2007; ugwu & de kok, 2015; and okafor, 2020). the socio-traditional environment, which is rooted in culture, creates the barriers that rob females of their human identity and social rights. a negative attitude towards women’s education, the dowry system, control of women’s lives, male privilege, and time constraints as well as the multiple roles women must perform are some of the cultural barriers impeding women’s access to education (parpart, connelly & barriteau eds., 2000; tanye, 2008; and shabaya & konadu-agyemang, 2014). several researches had been conducted in the area of potential impact of parents on growth and development of their children. parental beliefs and values influence environment they create for themselves; and, consequently, the environment in which they raise their children (rubin & chung eds., 2006; gorard, see & davies, 2012; and okafor, 2020). in the present societal family can vary from the nuclear family, i.e. mother, father, and offspring, to the stepfamilies, i.e. with a step-parent, step-child, and/or step-sibling, to single-parent families, among others. regardless of the specific format, families generally develop rules which regulate behaviours by allocating roles and functions to individual members (mooney, oliver & smith, 2009; pearce, 2011; and sheppard, garcia & sear, 2014). problem, question, and research hypotheses. education is not equally or evenly given to male and female. many people, who are © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 51 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 entitled, are not allowed access to education. this is done to the gender discrimination, especially in some rural areas. there is problem of enlightenment, which does not make many rural women to understand, what is meant by education; many women think education, especially the western type, is of no value to female. they believe women education ends in the kitchen, they believe that the role of women is only a domestic one (desa, 2010; ashiq et al., 2011; and sodimu, 2011). there is belief by most rural women that there should be gender inequality. they believe that male is stronger than female. it is often said that male bones are nine, but that of female are just seven. so, already the women have presented female as inferior to man in all perspective. already there is belief in the necessity of male education over female. this is why those who are faced with economic problem do prefer to withdraw female child for male (vlassoff, 2007; desa, 2010; and opeke, 2018). m.d. garba (2014), and other scholars, worked on factors militating against the enrolment and retention of girl-child students in junior secondary schools in kaduna state. while a. ajao (2001), and other scholars’ study, were on parental influence on and attitude towards girl-child education in lagos state (ajao, 2001; garba, 2014; muraina et al., 2014; akinbi & akinbi, 2015; and onoyase, 2018). none of these scholars conducted a study that specifically focused on attitude of parents towards girl-child education in ilorin metropolis. owing to the gaps identified above, the current researcher, therefore, focused on finding out influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria (cf kazeem, jensen & stokes, 2010; efedi, 2018; and osokoya, 2018). research question: “what is the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria?”. research hypotheses: the following null hypotheses were formulated for the study: (1) “there is no significant difference influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on gender”; (2) “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on religion”; (3) “there is no significant difference in the influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on age”; and (4) “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on higher educational qualification”. methods research design. the research design that was adopted for the study was the descriptive survey method. descriptive survey is concerned with the collection and summarizing of numerical data. however, the major function of descriptive survey is the presentation of information in a convenient applicable and understandable manner. the descriptive approach was used in this research to obtain data from the situation as they exist (wilkinson & birmingham, 2003; vaismoradi, turunen & bondas, 2013; and edeh et al., 2018). the population for the study consisted of parents within ilorin metropolis, kwara state, nigeria, which comprises of three local government. however, for the purpose of the study, random sampling technique was used to select two secondary schools in ilorin south, which are government secondary school maraba and government day secondary school tanke; baboko community secondary school and government secondary school oke-aluko from ilorin west; and government girls day secondary school okesuna for ilorin east. systematic sampling techniques was used to select 40 respondents, each making 240 parents that were selected for the study (wilkinson & birmingham, 2003; lodico, spaulding & voegtle, 2006; and edeh et al., 2018). the instrument, that was used in collecting useful information for this study, was a self-designed questionnaire titled “isbpgceq (influence of socio-cultural background of parents girl child education questionnaire)”. it was a self-developed questionnaire. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 52 ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents the validity of the instrument was established, while its reliability was compared using ppmc (pearson’s product moment correlation), which yielded 0.68 which is high to make the instrument reliable (wilkinson & birmingham, 2003; lodico, spaulding & voegtle, 2006; and dan’inna, 2016). descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage were used to answer the research questions generated for the study; while inferential statistics of t-test and anova (analyses of variance) were used to analyse the formulated research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance (wilkinson & birmingham, 2003; lodico, spaulding & voegtle, 2006; and massey & miller, 2018). findings and discussion demographic data. this section presents the results of data obtained on the respondents in frequency counts and percentages. see table 1. table 1 shows the distribution of respondents by gender. the table shows that 68 (32.4%) of the respondents were male; while 172 (67.6%) of the respondents were female. this indicates that female participated more than male in the study. see, then, table 2. table 2 shows the distribution of respondents’ age. the table reveals that 98 (41.9%) of the respondents were below 30 years; 71 (29.0%) of the respondents were between the ages of 31-44 years; while 71 (29.0%) of the respondents 45 years of age and above. this also indicates that respondents, who were below 30 years, participated more in the study. see, then, table 3. table 3 shows that 4 (1.9%) of the respondents were practicing atr (african traditional religion); 79 (32.9%) of the respondents were practicing christianity; while 157 (65.2%) of the respondents were practicing islam. this indicates that respondents practicing islam participated more in the study. see, then, table 4. table 4 shows that 109 (47.1%) of the respondents had nce/ond (nigeria certificate in education/ordinary national diploma); 91 (38.6%) of the respondents had 1st degree/hnd (higher national diploma); while 40 (14.3%) of the respondents had postgraduate. this indicates that respondents who had nce/ond participated more in the study. table 1: percentage distribution of respondents based on gender gender frequency percentage male 68 32.4 female 172 67.6 total 240 100 table 2: percentage distribution of respondents based on age age frequency percentage 2039 years 98 41.9 40-59 years 71 29.0 60 years and above 71 29.0 total 240 100 table 3: percentage distribution of respondents based on religion religion frequency percentage atr 4 1.9 christianity 79 32.9 islam 157 65.2 total 240 100 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 53 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 research question 1: “what is the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girlchild education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria?”. see, then, table 5. table 5 presents the mean and rank order of respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education. the table indicates that item 7 which states that “ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education” ranked 1st with a mean score of 3.36. item 1 which states that “girl-child education is a waste of resources” ranked 2nd with a mean score of 3.10. ranked 3rd is item 2 with a mean score of 3.08 and states that “girl-child education is not profitable”. on the other hands, item 8 which states that “girl-child education has no benefit to society” ranked 18th with a mean score of 2.28. item 17 which states that “early marriage affects the number of woman in civil service employment” ranked 19th with a mean score of 2.23; while item 19 which states that “females are regarded as commodities that can increase the income of family therefore do not need education” ranked 20th with a mean score of 2.12. since twelve out of twenty items have mean scores that are above the mid-cut off point of 2.50; then, it can be said that respondents attested to the influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education list on the table. hypotheses testing. four null hypotheses were postulated and tested for this study. the hypotheses were tested using t-test and anova (analyses of variance) statistical table 4: percentage distribution of respondents based on educational qualification educational qualification frequency percentage nce/ond 109 47.1 1st degree/hnd 91 38.6 postgraduate 40 14.3 total 240 100 table 5: mean and rank order on the respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education item no. as far as i am concerned: mean rank 7 ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education. 3.36 1st 1 girl-child education is a waste of resources. 3.10 2nd 2 girl-child education is not profitable. 3.08 3rd 12 parent unemployment leads to poor enrolment of females in school. 3.07 4th 15 religious tenets do not favour girl-child education. 3.01 5th 11 girls get exposed to sexual abuse through formal education. 2.92 6th 18 female children should be allowed to finish their education before marriage. 2.92 6th 6 culture and ties of most community discourage girl-child education. 2.90 8th 5 western education promotes immorality among female. 2.89 9th 20 females education is a waste of time. 2.84 10th 10 governments do not encourage girl-child education. 2.67 11th 14 girls should engage more in domestic chores than education. 2.58 12th 13 education of girls will interfere with their interest in getting married early. 2.49 13th 9 absence of girl’ only schools discourages me from sending my daughter(s) to mixed schools. 2.48 14th 16 early marriage deprives female of qualitative education. 2.43 15th 3 girl-child education is prevented by poverty. 2.38 16th 4 girl-child education is a taboo in my culture. 2.37 16th 8 girl-child education has no benefit to society. 2.28 18th 17 early marriage affects the number of woman in civil service employment. 2.23 19th 19 females are regarded as commodities that can increase the income of family therefore do not need education. 2.12 20th © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 54 ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents methods at 0.05 level of significance. hypothesis one: “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on gender”. see, then, table 6. table 6 shows that the calculated t-value of 1.77 is less than the critical t-value of 1.96 with corresponding p-value of .077, which is greater than 0.05 level of significance. since the p-value is greater than the level of significance, the hypothesis which states that “there is no significant difference in influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on gender” is, therefore, not rejected. hypothesis two: “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis based on religion”. see, then, table 7. table 7 shows that calculated f-ratio of .411 is less than the critical f-ratio of 3.00 with a corresponding p-value of .664, which is greater than 0.05 level of significance. since the calculated p-value is greater than the level of significance, the null hypothesis is, therefore, not rejected; hence, “there is no significant difference in the influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis based on religion”. hypothesis three: “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on age”. see, then, table 8. table 8 shows that calculated f-ratio of 1.52 is less than the critical f-ratio of 3.00 with a corresponding p-value of .217, which is also greater than 0.05 level of significance. since the p-value is greater than the level of significance, the null hypothesis is, therefore, not rejected; hence, “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on age”. hypothesis four: “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on educational qualification”. see, then, table 9. table 9 shows that calculated f-ratio of 0.56 is less than the critical f-ratio of 3.00 with a corresponding p-value of .572, which is greater than 0.05 level of significance. the null hypothesis is not rejected since the p-value is greater than the level of significance; hence, “there is no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on educational qualification”. discussion. the study revealed that ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education, girl-child education is a waste of resources, and girl-child education is not profitable are socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education. the findings show that some parents were of the opinion that education of girl-child is a waste of time and recourses. table 6: mean, standard deviation, and t-value on the respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education based on gender gender n mean sd df cal. t-value crit. t-value p-value male 78 55.41 5.287 238 1.77 1.96 .077 female 172 53.67 7.221 table 7: analysis of variance (anova) showing the respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education based on religion source df ss mean squares cal. f-ratio crit. f-ratio p-value between groups 2 37.029 18.514 .411 3.00 .664 within groups 237 9326.538 45.056 total 239 9363.567 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 55 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 13(1), august 2020 the findings was supported by a.k. donkor (2015), and other scholars, who posited that investing in females’ education may be the most cost-effective measure a developing country can take to improve its standard of living (uruemu, 2012; ajaokorie, 2013; donkor, 2015; agbigbe, sr., 2016; and rose et al., 2019). the factors that account for low female participation in education are enormous, amongst them: socio-cultural values, norms and practices, with economic realities superimposed on these (okoli, 2007; ugwu & de kok, 2015; and unicef, 2016). findings revealed that there was no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girlchild education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on gender. this indicates that gender of parent would not influence girl-child education. it was in line with t.m. notley & j.a. tacchi (2005), and other scholars, who posited that the socio-traditional environment, which is rooted in culture, creates the barriers that rob females of their human identity and social rights. a negative attitude towards women’s education, the dowry system, control of women’s lives, male privilege, and time constraints as well as the multiple roles women must perform are some of the cultural barriers impeding women’s access to education (notley & tacchi, 2005; ugwu & de kok, 2015; olorunsogbon & ajibade, 2017; sibani, 2018; and olanrewaju, 2018). obanya o. bellany (2003), and other scholars, asserted that there can be no significant or sustainable transformation of societies and no significant reduction in poverty until girls receive equal access to quality basic education. after all, societal development does not start with goods and things (bellany, 2003; boyi, 2013; and osarenren-osaghae, imhangbe & irabor, 2019). another finding also revealed that there was no significant difference in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on religion. this shows that religion of parents would not influence girlchild education. the finding was supported by j.a. ojobo (2009), and other scholars, who reported that societies are characterized by uneducated and conservative adults, religious conservatives, retarded, development, and early marriage how school environment most especially the females (ojobo, 2009; ojewole & adegbenle, 2017; and omeike, 2017). finding also revealed that there was no significant difference in the influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on age. this shows that age of parents would not influence girl-child education. the findings was in line with e.a. nwankwo, m.u. agboeze & a.u. nwobi (2018), and other scholars, who posited that table 8: analysis of variance (anova) showing the respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education based on age source df ss mean squares cal. f-ratio crit. f-ratio p-value between groups 2 435.907 217.954 1.522 3.00 .217 within groups 237 8927.659 143.129 total 239 9363.567 table 9: analysis of variance (anova) showing the respondents’ expression on the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education based on educational qualification source df ss mean squares cal. f-ratio crit. f-ratio p-value between groups 2 50.464 25.232 0.56 3.00 .572 within groups 237 9313.103 44.991 total 239 9363.567 © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 56 ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents there aged practice had denied many females the opportunity to receive western education. those young married girls and the small girls send out were deprived of their education. these factors exert their influence from birth, through the child rearing practices followed by different communities, initiation, and marriage, to old age (okoli, 2007; ojobo, 2009; kazeem, jensen & stokes, 2010; and nwankwo, agboeze & nwobi, 2018). according to a.u. chidinma (2015), and other scholars, in all the societies down through the ages, women have made and continued to make enormous contributions towards economic development in diverse ways. it was, further, stressed that they are central in production and custodians of privates of family trades, such as spinning, dyeing, weaving, trading, and faming as home makes woman are centre of the family and the custodians of the social, cultural, and fundamental values of permanent desirable change, which is going to achieve through them (ajayi, 2002; matthew, 2013; shochat, 2014; and chidinma, 2015). another finding revealed that there was no significant difference in the influence of sociocultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria based on educational qualification. this shows that educational qualification of parents would not influence girl-child education. the finding corroborates g. van der warf, b.i. creamers & g. guldemont (2001), and other scholars, who posited that parental involvement is not only necessary, but it is also one of the most cost-effective means of improving quality in education. higher levels of parent involvement in their children’s educational experiences at home, e.g. supervision and monitoring, daily conversations about school, have been associated with children’s higher achievement scores in reading and writing, as well as higher report card (cf warf, creamers & guldemont, 2001; mukethe, 2015; and fischer et al., 2018). conclusion the study investigated the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girlchild education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. the study revealed that ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education, girl-child education is a waste of resources, and girl-child education is not profitable are socio-cultural background of parents on girlchild education. there were no significant differences in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis based on gender, religion, age, and educational qualification. based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: (1) government agencies, such as the ministry of education, ministry of health, and other youth related institutions should have programmes that are designed for parents on girl-child education; (2) counsellors should be employed at all level in the country, the counsellors should be supported and provided the needed facilities that would help in the services they rendered in the environment; 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(2015). “information and resources on gender equality and empowerment of women”. unpublished paper for education and training of women and the girl-child, sponsored by unesco and unicef, on 10th january to 4th february. © 2020 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 60 ifeoma p. okafor, influence of socio-cultural background of parents the girl-child education in nigeria (source: https://flexisaf.org, 21/4/2020) the study investigated the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis, nigeria. the study revealed that ignorance on the part of some parents affect girl-child education, girl-child education is a waste of resources, and girl-child education is not profitable are socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education. there were no significant differences in the influence of socio-cultural background of parents on girl-child education in ilorin metropolis based on gender, religion, age, and educational qualification. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 111 dr. abbas madandar arani is an assistant professor at the department of education lu (lorestan university) in iran; mrs. lida kakia is a ph.d. student in comparative education at su (sofia university) in bulgaria and at present works as a teacher counselor at different schools in tehran, iran; and mrs. batol moazani is m.a. (master of arts) in islam history and at present works as a teacher at different schools in tehran, iran. the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: rie2000@gmail.com and lida.kakia@gmail.com introduction following many western countries, a historical description of comparative education exists in many societies. this description forms a public identity to prove that many logical and comprehensive attempts have been made to understand educational systems during the ages. this is an interesting subject to indicate those who have tried to make a precise survey of educational system. some of these histories appear in travelogues and some others in disquisitions and printed books. this is the case that the former president of the world council of comparative education societies, in inspecting improving movement of the discipline, elaborates on a traditional type of philosophical and literary thesis writing and also reminisces about some pioneers of the field (wilson, 2003). to our surprise, d.n. wilson (2003) names thinkers such as herodotus, xenophon, and aristotle, and only ibn khaldon from the world of islam, the one who is popular as a sociologist rather than an educator (cf oweiss, 1988; and enan, 2007). the fact that great muslim educators have not been mentioned reminds us that many researchers of the field all around the world may not know them as properly as possible. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives: contextualization of comparative education as a university’s discipline abstract: during the two recent decades, the world has witnessed that regional conflicts are increasing because of the type of relationships among civilizations. most of these conflicts have been resulted from political, social, and economical relations among muslim countries and western countries at the middle east. in such a situation, for reducing millions of people’s sufferings, educational systems and especially higher education system surely play a vital role. higher education system, through developing humanities-related disciplines, could increase levels of common understanding among intellectuals of the involved societies. on this score, comparative education has the power to encourage hearing other cultures out and international mutual understanding among people round the globe through educational system. unfortunately, comparative education as a university discipline has not developed considerably at higher education systems in the middle east countries. the present paper, first, tries to briefly explore the present situation of comparative education science in the region and, then, through comparing educational viewpoints of three muslim pedagogues: al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali; and three famous educators of the west world: john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey, demonstrate the possibilities of developing comparative education science as a university discipline in the middle east. the comparisons between muslim educators and their counterparts in the west, however, made in this paper have bilateral benefits. key words: comparative education, educational perspective, muslim, middle east, pedagogues, western, higher education system, and understanding. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 112 on the other hand, comparative education (ce) discipline is still in embryo in many islamic countries. hence, it seems to be a mutual responsibility to establish and develop the discipline in islamic world to explicate both its existing role among muslim countries, and its position in developing international understandings. as far as its first mission is concerned, it should be pointed out that ce, in spite of attempts made by many researchers in recent decades, is still deeply influenced by the old tradition of writing philosophical and literary disquisitions. for example, although ce as an academic discipline is still not familiar even for many educated people in iran, few people might be found who are not heard of educational ideas of al-farabi, al-ghazali, sadi, avicenna, hafiz, rumi, and nasir khosrow. it is completely understandable that their ideas and educational teachings, after such a long time of a few centuries, are yet informative and invigorating for iranians. the lifestyle of these people who already have been considered as intellectual thinkers and sophisticated teachers can still be viewed as proper models for all teachers and students in islamic world (nofal, 1993). iranian comparativists, studying the lives and works of these educators, will not only explicate the position of the discipline in iranian higher education system, but help the iranian youth in exploring their identities (rajaee, 2003). in addition, the works of each one of these educators can function as a rich source for explicating the very existing of ce in the islamic world. ce, through analyzing and comparing educational views of these scholars with that of great educators such as kant, pestalozzi, rousseau, locke, and dewey, shows that muslims and iranians have already benefited from very rich intellectual and educational sources. it is one of the responsibilities of ce researchers to survey the history of education with no dogmatism. hence, as said by one of the present writers, abbas madandar arani (2003), the development of a regional comparative education seems to be necessary. in fact, ideas of these muslim scholars can contribute in the establishment of “regional comparative education association” in the middle east countries. the reason for such an association is their religious similarities and also the fact that they have written their books and disquisitions both in arabic (main language for arab countries) and persian (for people of iran, afghanistan, tajikistan, and some parts of pakistan, india, and turkmenistan). unfortunately, a quick study reveals that muslim countries have not made use of this rich intellectual source in order to establish and develop different educational programs (bachelor, master, and ph.d.) in the field of ce. for example, turkey is the only country in the middle east in which a comparative education society has been founded. iran and saudi arabia have ce program at master’s degree in a university each and the condition is even worse in other countries; b.a. students should pass a 2 or 3-credited course in the field of ce. the second responsibility assigned to ce in muslim countries can be analyzed based on r. cowen’s analysis and interpretations of academic atmosphere (cowen, 1996 and 2000). having considered a set of mainly political incidents during 1960-1990, r. cowan coins the term “read the global” and shows the way in which scientific controversies and debates are being carried out in higher educational centers and universities. therefore, the writers of the present paper, based on the r. cowen’s analysis, believe that the common interpretations of scientific issues in the first decade of the 21st century affected by incidents like the attacks on september 11th, 2001, war in afghanistan and iraq as well as different terrorist attacks around the world might be considered as an analysis of the “relationships between civilizations”. most of these conflicts have occurred in the middle east based on economic, social, and political relationships between muslim countries and the west (al-harthi, 2007). in such a situation, educational systems in general and higher education in particular would have a crucial responsibility in relieving people’s sufferings. higher education can increase a common understanding among educated people in involved societies by educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 113 developing humanities programs. so, it would be no more difficult to predict the mission of ce in this regard (grant, 2000). ce has the capability to hear the voice of other cultures and to increase an international mutual understanding among people in the world through educational system. this might be considered an important ce mission. the discipline can help us understand each other more deeply (sepehri & madandar arani, 2007). using great muslim educators’ books and disquisitions and comparing their ideas with that of famous international educators would be a good initiation for this recent mission. this way, common grounds between civilizations would be revealed and also unwelcome phenomenon such as “islam phobia” would be avoided (allen & nielsen, 2002). ce researchers in the middle east, in deed, are supposed to make their best attempts to explain the point that human beings disregarding their nationalities and other differences are idealist people who seek to grow and rise. we do believe that recognition is the introduction to mutual understanding and ce, more than any other academic discipline, is able to bridge the gap between different civilizations and cultures (madandar arani & abbasi, 2007). considering the above discussion, the present paper tries to give a brief comparison between the ideas of three muslim thinkers with that of three great international educators to show the extent to which ce might have the capabilities to develop into an academic discipline with a crucial responsibility in muslim countries. a brief comparison of the lives of al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali with john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali lived in the 9th, 10th, and 12th centuries respectively; while john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey spent most of their lives in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. the existence of lots of similarities between ideas and educational views of these educators makes us ask ourselves if they had been ahead of their time and if education in general moves so slowly that in spite of passing the time the speeches made by these great educators never would lose their freshness, vigour, and enthusiasm. a quick study of family backgrounds of these thinkers shows that al-ghazali and jeanjacques rousseau belonged to the poor class people; and al-farabi, avicenna, john locke, and john dewey were among middle class people. nevertheless, they spent most of their lives in service of upper classes and authorities, except john dewey. occupationally speaking, al-farabi played the role of a consultant for the governor, avicenna was a minister, alghazali became the university chancellor, john locke was a tutor and also held a high governmental position, jean-jacques rousseau was a homeless rebellion, and john dewey was a respected university teacher. al-farabi died when he was just 53 (the youngest) and john dewey lived for 93 years (the oldest), yet they both experienced a similar calm and riot-free life. exile, imprisonment, and burning their books by the enemies and escape from hometown, are the inseparable part of life of avicenna, al-ghazali, john locke, and jean-jacques rousseau. undoubtedly, although jean-jacques rousseau is the greatest educator among these thinkers, he must be known as the unluckiest one. based on his ideas and recorded works, jean-jacques rousseau was discontented with his society and considered it a corrupt society (boyd, 1963). al-farabi, al-ghazali, and john locke were misanthrope and cloistered themselves (cf fakhry, 2002; and zarinkob, 2004). avicenna was also seeking for such an opportunity while he never arrived at. john dewey, criticizing the thought procedure, the practice of education and also proposing the relationship between democracy and education, had a critical view towards the society (westbrook, 1991). hence, all these educators can be renowned as the “reformists” of their time. in spite of many similarities between these educators, their large-scale impacts and reputations vary from one another. the three muslim educators are native iranians, were born in the eastern abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 114 part of the country and wrote their books in persian and arabic (almasi, 1998). in the world of islam, al-farabi, because of his vast knowledge in logic, philosophy, music, and politics is recognized as the second teacher, after aristotle, called as the first teacher. many researchers have mentioned him as the first muslim philosopher (cf al-talbi, 1993). ordinary people, because of the stories heard about avicenna, knew him as the most skillful physician of his time, while he has been a great philosopher for the educated people. avicenna’s philosophical ideas made him unique not only in the world of islam but also in the west. the compilation of christian religious argumentations by albert the great, and particularly thomas aquinas, was greatly influenced by fundamental teachings of avicenna (halabi, 1980). there are a lot of similarities between alghazali and jean-jacques rousseau, perhaps more than the others. al-ghazali was a grand rebel like jean-jacques rousseau. escaping from school and secluding himself, he takes the responsibility of refining the religion from incorrect ideas. there is a known story about his seclusion. it is said that once alghazali dwelled in a mosque for a short time as a sweeper in damascus, syria. one day, he noticed that a group of seminarians were harshly debating on an issue and each of them was attributing his own idea to “imam mohammad” al-ghazali. in order to settle their controversy, alghazali explained the issue in detail and solved their problem. their surprise and astonishment in how could an old man in tattered clothes explicate such a complex problem gave him away. al-ghazali who wanted to get rid of seminarians, the lessons and the school move to egypt, saudi arabia, and then returned back to his hometown, toos, eastern iran (zarinkob, 2004). he is the first scholar who warns everybody of possible dangers in philosophical interpretations of divine teachings. the significance of john locke relies on his sincerity of thought much more than on the depth of his philosophy. he expresses a moderate view on both philosophy and education. through presenting the principle that says “man’s mind is like a blank sheet”, john locke had a wonderful influence on the two fields of politics and education (cf aldrich, 1994; and moseley, 2007). undoubtedly, jean-jacques rousseau and the followers of behaviorism are beholden to john locke. jean-jacques rousseau, with his genius and exciting writings, created a set of impressive works which were extraordinarily influential in stimulating french public opinion and provoking people into a political revolution. the writers of the present paper, based on their personal experiences, believe that, even in the present time in spite of passage of some centuries, many of jean-jacques rousseau’s ideas and teachings in developing countries need to be interpreted and examined in detail. let finalize this discussion in remembrance of john dewey. john dewey, with his sincerity, modesty, and perseverance, reminded people all around the world that the initial stage of freedom of thought and democratic life must start from the school (caspary, 2000). the spread of john dewey’s ideas made the teachers around the globe happy and hopeful that the realm of education is still capable of experiencing immense heights of intellectuality, such as al-ghazali, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau. we, teachers, disregarding our race, language, culture, and politics are proud of these great educators. a quick clarification of educational views in this part, we try to examine the ideas and educational approaches of these educators (al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali; and john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey), according to their books and also in a comparative framework. therefore, their philosophical school of thought, the position of education, and its basic elements (goals, methodology, curriculum, teacher, and learner) are summarized as follow: first, philosophical school of thought. these six scientists agree that man needs philosophy and philosophy plays a very basic role in everyone’s life. yet, their views towards philosophy are so wide that indicates specific educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 115 viewpoints of each of them towards the affairs such as culture, politics, and religion. for example, al-farabi pays much of his attention to the role of philosophy in politics; avicenna is a philosopher who tries to adapt the aristotelian understanding of philosophy and brings it in an islamic tradition; whereas alghazali takes religion apart from philosophy and believes that philosophy hinders religious improvements. in this way, john locke is a realistic philosopher; while jean-jacques rousseau follows naturalism; and john dewey supports pragmatism. second, the position of education. all these six scientists believe that the importance of man’s education is undeniable. al-farabi, through his political philosophy, proposes the establishment of utopia and believes that education is a means for philosophers and scholars to guide individuals to get to happiness and prosperity in this world and salvation in the next (haque, 2004). avicenna considers education as a precise practice and planning for the purpose of child growth, goodness of family and social affairs management, and finally mans’ attainment of earthly perfection and divine salvation. al-ghazali takes education as a kind of self management by broadening knowledge and undergoing mortification in order to be highly esteemed (almasi, 1998). john locke considers education as a way to prepare a safe and sound conscience and mind in a healthy body which would follow personal happiness and consequently social happiness. jean-jacques rousseau views education as an art or technique which is manifested in guiding the trainees and also through obeying rules of natural growth in cooperation with the trainee himself. also, john dewey considers education as a reciprocal action between social environment and new generation based on present inclinations, reconstruction of experience, and social democracy (westbrook, 1993). even though al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali take a similar religious view toward education, john locke has a physiological view about education; and jean-jacques rousseau determining the educational stages becomes closer to john dewey’s viewpoints. table 1: a glance at biography of six great educators n ame personality living environment al-farabi, 870. ascetic, hermit, politician, musician, sociologist, the first philosopher in the world of islamthe second teacher. establishment of alexandria school – the religious branch – and promoting philosophical ideologies, propagation of different religious groups of sunni, presence in the court of seif-al-dawla, the compilation of more than 33 books and disquisitions. avicenna, 980. a short and tense life, pleasure seeking, politician, physician, philosopher. presence in the courts of kings in different parts of iran, treating sick people, compiling more than 200 books and disquisitions. al-ghazali, 1058. renowned and effective intellectual in the world of islam, propagation of religious philosophy, fight against innovations in religion, struggle with mingling philosophical discussions with religious ones, the great renowned teacher at nizamieh school in baghdad. living during abbasid caliphs, political and military weakness of abbasids, the age of moral degradation and rebellions, foundation of ismaïlia movement, appearance of hassan-i sabbah. john locke, 1623. reticent, calm, revolutionary intellectual, freedom seeking, political thinker, individualist, liberal politician. authority of anglican church, an upholder of moral principles and opponent for indulgence in religious reforms in society. john-jacques rousseau, 1712. sensitive, revolutionary, a true lover of nature, man of letters, the greatest educator after plato. exile in france and prussia, preparation for the french revolution, change of religion, compiling educational and social books. john dewey, 1859. simple, humble, sympathetic, intellectual, perseverance, eloquent, hard work. authority of democracy in the late 19th century, appearance of pragmatism, appearance and propagation of darwinian ideas. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 116 third, the purpose of education. these great educators agree on the importance of attention paid to moral education and its definite necessity. for al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali, the ultimate goal of education is man’s happiness and human well being; while john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey pay more attention to practical functioning of education in individuals’ lives. even though al-farabi, al-ghazali, and avicenna have founded moral training on the basis of religion, john locke focuses on educating manner as a basic factor. jeanjacques rousseau takes “not doing evil deeds” to others as the basic principle of moral education; and for john dewey, moral education is paying attention to experience and practice (bailyn, 1992). of course, it must also be pointed out that muslim educators considering man as a two-dimensional being emphasize on training the soul as well as the body. fourth, the methodology of education. as far as methodology is concerned, these educators agree on the following grounds: attention on students’ level of understanding, attention on accompanying of theory and practice when performing a given method, emphasis on the strength of imitation in children, and applying encouragement for better learning in students. while alfarabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali stress on educational role of habit; jean-jacques rousseau believes that habits are nothing but adherence to students’ nature. he is in line with john dewey in opposing memorization and repetition drills in learning. in addition, although these six scientists prefer encouragement to punishment in a learning situation, jean-jacques rousseau disagrees with any kind punishment in any form. the final point is this that al-farabi and john locke pay much attention to the important role of observation in learning, but john dewey and jean-jacques rousseau maintain that problem solving and discovery learning are more beneficial. fifth, education curriculum. all these six educators agree that education program must be based on teaching a profession each learner. in this procedure, the planned curriculum must include reading and writing, counting, ethics, and games. al-farabi, jean-jacques rousseau, and john locke believe that teaching program during childhood period must be focused on the child senses. al-farabi, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau call our attention to the basic role of government in educational planning. al-farabi believes that educational planning is a responsibility of the utopian governor (henry, nasr & yahya, 1993). avicenna gives importance to the attention paid to political and economical problems; and jean-jacques rousseau says that the government which has not been corrupted yet deserves an educational planning (al-naqib, 1993). al-ghazali, avicenna, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey have similar ideas about stages of education according to human growth. sixth, teacher. there are several common aspects in these educators about the role and position of teachers. they consider the followings as the characteristics of a good teacher: discovering students’ talents and capabilities, focusing on students’ individual differences, and getting interested in teaching profession. al-ghazali and jean-jacques rousseau emphasize that the teachers must not expect to be paid for what they are doing. al-ghazali believes that teachers should teach for god’s sake and blessing – to gain spiritual reward. jean-jacques rousseau, on the other hand, construes the teacher’s job as a humanitarian activity that would be so beneficial for the society in the future. al-ghazali, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau believe that teachers function as students’ models. al-ghazali asserts that teachers must gain and keep the respect of their students and try not to loose their own face at any time and in any condition. jeanjacques rousseau, however, says that teachers must play the role of students’ an intimate friend and even a playmate (simpson, 2006). al-ghazali and al-farabi emphasize the importance of social relationships – particularly cooperation between students with each other and their teacher. john locke believes in private teacher’s effectiveness and individual education and also says that the school has nothing to do except educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 117 preventing students’ creativity and innovation development (moseley, 2007). and finally, jean-jacques rousseau and john dewey have similar ideas in the teachers’ role in preparing students for learning activities and provide them a suitable learning condition. seventh, student. these six scientists agree in the presence of individual differences among students and assert that the development of individual talents and aptitudes needs close attention in every instructional setting. cooperation and teamwork are also the stressed issues in education from the viewpoints of al-farabi, avicenna, al-ghazali, and john dewey. jeanjacques rousseau agrees with the principle of cooperation and social collaborations. at the same time, however, he believes we cannot let our students enter the social interactions based on their natural dispositions and this is because the society is corrupt for the moment. al-ghazali, jean-jacques rousseau, and john locke have similar ideas in preventing children from having friendly relationships with their badly-behaved peer groups. alghazali, emphasizing on the aforementioned cases, approaches to jean-jacques rousseau’s negative education to some extents. their differences, however, lie in the fact that jeanjacques rousseau denies any direct education – good or bad – up to the age of 12 years. also, al-ghazali, john locke, and jeanjacques rousseau agree that the child needs to develop a sense of tolerance in dealing with difficulties and problematic issues in order to get experienced and maturity. their difference is that al-ghazali agrees with both compulsory and arbitrary procedures, while jean-jacques rousseau believes that education must be chosen freely (westbrook, 1991; caspary, 2000; and simpson, 2006). conclusion le thanh khoi, in his message written to the persian version of his book in 1992, addresses his iranian readers and calls their attentions to an important point. he remarks that although comparative education, in its daily development, considers the experience of other countries, cultures, and social groups, it must take full attention to the concepts, theories, and procedures taken from a particular geographical environment too (khoi, 1981). in spite of le thanh khoi’s informative warning, it should be pointed out that comparative education, as an academic discipline, is very young and unknown in the middle east yet. perhaps and bitterly, it might be said that unfortunately the middle east which is a generating source of international conflicts and clashes, especially in the recent decade, has not made use of the discipline’s capacities in favor of a better understanding of other cultures and decreasing people’s sufferings. comparative education, as an academic course, has been included in the syllabus of educational sciences program in iranian universities for four decades. yet, because of a number of reasons such as lack of appropriate information about its purposes, methodology and procedures, unavailability of innovative comparative research methods, and more importantly lack of enough experts in this field in our universities, comparative education has not developed as much as it should. the comparisons between muslim educators and their counterparts in the west made in this paper have bilateral benefits. on the one hand, researchers, students, and practitioners of educational systems might come to the idea of making use of their historical backgrounds to develop the discipline. and, on the other hand, the paper would direct the focus of attention of ce (comparative education) practitioners to other society’s experiences. a brief comparison of educational views of these renowned educators shows that there are considerable instances of similarities between their ideas. the basic question, however, is why our understanding of global issues and problems is so different. we do believe that ce in a region, like the middle east with so many crisis and conflicts, can help us find a proper answer to this question. mark bray, the former president of the world council of comparative education societies, in a message written for the persian version of his book in 2005, points out that ce emphasizes on the importance of paying deep attention to other cultures and accepting pluralism in educational sciences (bray, 2001). abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 118 it is definitely obvious for the middle east comparativists that the characteristics of ce studies would be impossible to understand unless a precise knowledge of the tortuous route passed in the previous centuries are at hand. references aldrich, r. 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(2004). literary criticism. tehran, iran: amir kabir, 7th edition. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 135© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com samson maekele tsegay students’ experience in student-centered learning at higher education institutions in china: a case study abstract: this paper focuses on students’ experience in student-centered learning at higher education institutions (heis) in china. socio-economic transformation and growth in china have led to unprecedented changes in higher education in the past three decades. the notion of world class university is high on the policy agenda at governmental and institutional levels in china. as a result, chinese higher education has expanded tremendously both in quality and quantity. however, a slow progress has been made in engaging students in the teaching-learning process, both as beneficiaries and implementers. the study found out that students’ experiences in student-centered learning at heis in china are characterized by different developments and challenges. despite the different challenges, heis students in china are experiencing some benefits of student-centered class environment. the students are able to share ideas and experiences, learn collaboratively, and apply content-based knowledge into real world problems. however, there is still a major problem with regard to recognizing each and every student and embracing them to the class interaction equally. some students are dominant, while others participate rarely in the class interaction. the interaction of students is highly influenced by the experience and perception of instructors towards students’ participation. the facilitation of the instructor can recognize or marginalize students in a class and could greatly affect their participation and building up of a strong student-centered learning environment. this paper contributes in making learning more participatory, enjoyable, and meaningful. key words: student-centered learning, students’ experience, pedagogy, higher education institutions in china, share ideas and experiences, learn collaboratively, and apply content-based knowledge. about the author: samson maekele tsegay was a program coordinator at the national board for higher education (nbhe), eritrea. he is currently pursuing his graduate study in comparative education at the faculty of education bnu (beijing normal university), 19 xinjiekouwai street, beijing, china 100875. the author can be contacted via phone: (+86) 18813044150 or e-mails at: samex221@gmail.com and samex221@yahoo.com how to cite this article? tsegay, samson maekele. (2015). “students’ experience in student-centered learning at higher education institutions in china: a case study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.135-146. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/studentsexperience-in-student-centered-learning/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 21, 2014); revised (december 29, 2014); and published (february 28, 2015). learning interesting and most meaningful. this enhances the interaction among teachers and students, among students, and among students; and the text they read, watch or listen, and simultaneously teaching-learning becomes effective. in this sense, both teachers and students become partners, learning from each other. many researchers have been done and handbooks prepared regarding experiences of teachers in the teaching-learning process. to mention some, teachers’ roles and experiences cover different issues, such as facilitation and mediation of classrooms (toshalis & nakkula, 2012), guidance and evaluation (xu & mei, 2009; and stanulis & ames, 2009); as well as introduction enhancing student’s learning experiences has become more important in higher education institutions (heis) since the mid 1990s, due to increased student enrollment and diversification (poon, 2013). as a result, parallel to the technological, socio-economic, and political aspects, the teaching-learning process is also changing tremendously, both in nature and quality. teachers are changing from instructors to facilitators, while students are changing from listeners to active participants (freire, 2010). student-centered learning is helping students to help themselves. it is focusing on the needs and abilities of students to make samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning 136 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com motivation of students (koç, 2012). however, little has been done focusing on the experiences of students in student-centered learning. different studies show that student-centered learning environment brings a lot of changes in the teaching-learning process, which helps not only students but also teachers to boost their experience (freire, 2010; tongsakul, jitgarun & chaokumnerd, 2011; and van uden, ritzen & pieters, 2013). on the other hand, despite of its important contribution, students and teachers face many challenges to bring up student-centered learning atmosphere (torres, 1998; lizzio & wilson, 2005; freire, 2010; and lu, 2012). although these and other researchers have touched students’ experiences in teachinglearning, a little has been done focusing on student-centered learning and the existing ones are done from different perspective and regions. for example, n. entwistle, v. mccune & j. hounsell (2002) conducted a research to define the most salient aspects of teaching-learning environments in higher education. however, the study was done with a quantitative approach in britain. therefore, a detailed research is needed to understand students’ experience in studentcentered learning in general and in china in particular. this study focuses on the experiences of students in student-centered learning at heis in china. literature review the theme for the literature review is set based on the case this research focus to analyze. accordingly, related and relevant literatures are reviewed to understand the participants’ realities and responses regarding students’ experiences in studentcentered learning at heis (higher education institutions). country specific writings that serve as case studies are also included in the literature. what is student-centered learning? according to m.i. bhutto (2011), studentcentered learning formally started by the philosophical work of the french philosopher, jean jacques rousseau, after publishing his educational treatise “emile” in 1762. jean jacques rousseau (2009) stated that a child is born naturally good as he/she comes out of the hands of creator (nature), but society turns him/her into evil. from jean jacques rousseau’s argument, we can infer that student-centered learning is engaging students with nature, with each other and with circumstances. others have also defined student-centered learning in different ways. it is “engaging the mind and heart of students” (hooks, 2010); “the eager and continuing learning that human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (freire, 2010); “use and interpretation of lessons for students with participation of the students” (toshalis & nakkula, 2012); and “motivating students to be responsible on selflearning” (zabit, 2010). however, all these writers share one thing in common. student-centered learning is engaging every student to make a valuable contribution to the teaching-learning process. it is a complex process of cooperation and inter-communication rather than one-way communication from the teacher to the learners. characteristics of student-centered class environment. student-centered class environment is characterized by different events and strategies. it focuses on the needs and interests of students, employs participatory teaching strategy, and changes the role of a teacher and students in the teaching-learning process. student-centered class environment put students at the center of its teaching-learning process. it focuses on the needs and interests of the students, both in terms of content and application of the teaching-learning process (zabit, 2010). this is because, as in any teaching-learning process, students are not only the rational consumers or primary beneficiaries of the class activities, but they are also important precursors for learning (van uden, ritzen & pieters, 2013). however, student-centered class environment is not about marginalizing the teacher (hooks, 2010). despite of the change of role from a dominant teacher to facilitator and co-learner, a teacher has an active and important role in student-centered class environment in preparing students with the skills, knowledge, and commitment that educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 137© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com provide them with the opportunity to shape their perspectives (freire, 2010). moreover, student-centered class environment is characterized by participatory teaching strategy, which involves both the teacher and students (freire, 2010). it is about minimizing the dominance of teachers who make all the talking by themselves, and creating two ways of communication within students, from teacher to students and vice versa. according to m.i. bhutto (2011), this does not mean totally avoiding the lecture method as many misunderstand it, because lecture method can be used in higher education with proper modification to make it two-ways learning process. this modification basically allows frequent questioning and discussion between the teacher and the learners. the role of a teacher in student-centered class environment is different from that of teacher-centered class. the teacher is responsible for facilitating the teachinglearning activities through various means. the teacher is “a mediator among student, and between students and the lesson” (toshalis & nakkula, 2012); “a guide” (xu & mei, 2009); and “a student who learns from the students and their activities” (freire, 2010; and hooks, 2010). at this stage, both the teacher and the students become persons with knowledge, understanding, feeling, and interest who come together in a shared educational process (freire, 2010). consequently, the role of the students also changes from passive listeners to active participants of the teaching-learning process. changes brought by student-centered learning environment to students and teachers. studentcentered learning brings a lot of changes, both to students and teachers. these changes include recognition of students, collaborative and critical learning, and application of knowledge into real world problems. student-centered learning environment enables students to be recognized as active members of the class (hooks, 2010). recognizing students and giving them opportunity to have input on the teachinglearning activities give students a responsibility to promote their self-learning and come to class prepared (zabit, 2010). this is because self-learning and preparation help students to confidently express their idea and contribute to the teaching-learning process positively. in such a way, student-centered learning environment plays a big role in students’ motivation for self-learning and interaction (williams & williams, 2011). it motivates students to explore, experiment, and discover on their own or in-group (snyder & snyder, 2008). student-centered class environment is collaborative, where everyone contributes to the teaching-learning (zabit, 2010; and tongsakul, jitgarun & chaokumnerd, 2011). students use their different talents and experiences to help one another and learn from each other collaboratively. collaboration occurs when students share their diverse thoughts and perspectives in the form of questions, answers, comments, etc. on the other side, the thinking, belief, perception, and self-knowledge of the teacher and students are challenged during the class discussion and interaction (zabit, 2010). then, students start to see things critically and in different perspectives. in a class of diverse personal experience and background, they develop an atmosphere of appreciating (if not tolerating) the different positions and viewpoints of any member of the class. hence, the teacher and students promote a sense of trust and tolerance between and among each other (torres, 1998; lizzio & wilson, 2005; freire, 2010; hooks, 2010; and zepke, 2013). student-centered class environment helps students to apply content knowledge to a practical real world problem (flint, 2007; zabit, 2010; and katz, kaplan & buzukashvily, 2011). students learn by integrating theoretical and practical knowledge simultaneously. through active discussion among students and with their teacher, and through their interaction in the world and with the world, students develop a capacity to reflect on their ideas and apply it (freire, 2010). challenges to studentcentered learning firstly, perception of students and teachers in student-centered learning. the process of knowledge transmission in china was directly samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning 138 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com from teachers to students and its delivery was carefully sequenced for students to memorize, repeat, and understand (lu, 2012). many researchers, including j. lu (2012), argue that, with the ideology and value of confucian thinking, education in china is perceived as being reliant upon authority in the classroom. this in combination with the cultural influences of china has greatly affected the perception of students and teachers in student centered learning. the perception of students on respecting and obeying teachers limited students in listening to the lectures of their teachers quietly. the students do not only show a high degree of respect to their teachers, but also remain passive in the class. through time, this develops to fear; fear of students to be seen as impolite or stupid. then, this fear of mistake and looking silly by students develops to withholding their ideas from participation in the class discussion and interaction (lizzio & wilson, 2005). students’ previous learning experience could also influence the way students perceive student-centered learning. according to z. yu (2012), competition in chinese schools is fierce especially in situations, such as gao-kao examination, which they influence the future life of the students. this is because the higher the students score, the better opportunity they can get in different circumstances, such as schools/universities choice and others. this is also common in many other countries, especially in developing countries like eritrea. these situations affect the way students behave and participate in class, which sometimes results in reservation of students from participating and domination of the class by few. many teachers perceive that changing their role as facilitators will diminish their power and influence over their students (freire, 2010; and zabit, 2010); whereas others totally leave the teaching-learning process solely to students (bhutto, 2011). it becomes difficult for teachers to understand their role change as facilitators. this is mainly associated with teacher’s understanding of student-centered learning due to either cultural influence, lack of pedagogical skills, or experience in engaging students. leaving the teaching-learning process solely to students minimize the control of teachers in the classroom environment. however, as paulo freire (2010) stated, the freedom of students in student-centered learning has its limits. teachers have to make sure that students should avoid doing anything that could take the attention of students from teaching-learning process. secondly, diversity of perceptions from students. within the globalized world, students could have different socio-political, economic, or cultural differences which could influence their perceptions. c.a. torres (1998) explained that diversity of perceptions from students has been a key challenge for student-centered learning. nowadays, the world has many areas where individuals maintain different views. as a result, students and teachers could have totally different and sensitive positions on issues, such as religion, same-sex marriage, ideology, etc. which sometimes result in misunderstanding and confrontation among students, and between students and the teacher. with the short time available in a particular class to negotiate and settle differences, these perspectives hinder the teaching-learning process. moreover, a. lizzio & k. wilson (2005) noted that students’ diversity of perceptions present challenges to any group work and sharing of ideas by students. students’ personal and cultural differences affect their way of acting in the teachinglearning process. thirdly, type of teaching methods and materials used. in student-centered learning, a pedagogy based on participatory approach towards teaching is more effective than traditional one-way teaching (bhutto, 2011). different methods focused on two-way of communication can be used with regard to related topics or subject matters. finding the most appropriate pedagogical approach promotes not only students’ comprehension, and acquisition of competencies, but also facilitates their participation, communication skills, independent thinking, and team work (tran & lewis, 2012). however, the same teaching methods and strategies were found to be used for teaching of diverse range of topics and disciplines (bhutto, educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 139© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 2011). in addition, in china and surrounding countries, many teachers use the lecture method with minimum or no participation from learners (bhutto, 2011; lu, 2012; and tran & lewis, 2012).therefore, such teaching methods indicate failure of pedagogical skills and hinder students’ participation, and usually result students’ boredom and disinterest in the teaching-learning process (daschmann, goetz & stupnisky, 2013). student-centered learning requires more resources, than teacher-centered learning, to facilitate all the desired teaching-learning activities and make students’ participation a reality. large class size and lack of teachinglearning materials (such as printed materials, computers and internet facilities) hinder the smooth facilitation of student-centered learning (shih & gamon, 2001; and bhutto, 2011). methods a sample university, beijing normal university (bnu), was used for collecting data on students’ experience in studentcentered learning at heis (higher education institutions) in china. bnu was selected by purposeful and convenience sampling methods, because it is one of the first tier universities in china and it is close to the researcher. in bnu, a sample class was selected based on the characteristics of student-centered learning and other features. goals and research questions. this research is qualitative in nature with a case study design. the purpose of this research is to explore the experience of students in student-centered learning environment at heis (higher education institutions) in china and share them with students, teachers, and other stakeholders of tertiary education. the study may also be applied to other levels of education, such as middle and senior secondary schools. the key research questions, that will be focused in this study, are: (1) how studentcentered learning environment influence the teaching-learning process in heis in china?; and (2) what are the challenges to studentcentered learning in heis in china? as the study is confined only in bnu (beijing normal university), the sample students and teacher cannot entirely represent the diverse experiences of students and staff at heis in china. class selection and participants. as this research focuses on students’ experience in student-centered learning at heis (higher education institutions) in china, a studentcentered class taught by chinese instructor and attended by chinese students was targeted for a sample. accordingly, an international postgraduate class made of up of foreign and chinese students, and taught by chinese professor was selected. the case class was selected for two reasons. firstly, the researcher believed that the learning environment of the case class was student-centered. this was verified against the main features of student-centered learning based on the literature review. secondly, the class was the only international (english taught) class that the researcher encountered to be taught by chinese instructor and attended by both international and chinese students. therefore, the combinations of these features made the class to be selected as a case class. the class had a total of 28 students. the number of respondents selected for interview was 6 students (2 chinese and 4 international students from both genders) and the instructor; whereas every member of the class including the instructor was included in observation. participation to the study was voluntarily. data collection, presentation, and analysis. qualitative data were collected through observation and interview to investigate students’ experience in student-centered learning. face-to-face semi-structured interview was used to collect data regarding the perception of students and the instructor about the class, the influence of student-centered learning environment in the teaching-learning process, and the challenges of students and teachers to bring such learning atmosphere. this is because semi-structured interview is helpful in getting enough information by making the questions flexible and it allows asking additional questions based on what an interviewee responds (bryman, 2008). the interviews were recorded upon permission of the interviewee. samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning 140 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com as a participant observer, the researcher observed all the potentially relevant phenomena regarding the class atmosphere and interaction focusing on what is happening and how. both class and online interactions were noted. a narrative text is used to analyze the data collected through interview and observation. through descriptive and explanatory methods, a structural skeleton is established to provide for meaningful interpretation and discussion (mcnabb, 2008). moreover, the data was interpreted with a continuous reference to previous literature and empirical studies on a theme basis. research findings first, on the class environment. almost all the interviewees believed that the sample class is more or less based on student-centered learning environment. according to the response from the instructor: although the students’ interaction is not really interactive to my expectation due to time and other factors, a tremendous effort was done to focus on the needs and interest of students by adjusting the syllabus and content based on my prior experience and the feedback of the students obtained from the mini-survey done at the first class (interview with instructor a, 20/5/2014). moreover, the instructor stated that the main focus of the class was on learning by doing; and students were encouraged to discuss not only by asking question, but also by taking the ideas of the voluntarily participating students and putting it back again to the class for further discussion. although the students agreed that class had many student-centered features, including independent assignments, presentations, class discussion, online (qq) discussion, etc, they raised noted that the instructor was taking more time in lecturing than in students interaction, and few students were dominating the class interaction. one of the students stated: the instructor was giving different tasks and is encouraging questions and answers. most importantly, students were able to raise more and more questions which was making the class more interactive. however, the class should have gone further beyond this in giving students more control of the class, in terms of time and freedom of activities (interview with student a, 25/5/2014). another respondent noted: the class was based on student-centered learning focusing on the needs of the students. the instructor was involving students by asking questions and giving a sense of participation. the instructor also gave a sequence of exercises and handled them properly with proper feedback, which provided the right direction to students learning (interview with student b, 25/5/2014). moreover, the respondents explained that the class was different from other teacherdominated classes, in the sense that students were more involved in practical independent studies, class discussions, and cooperative learning both within and outside (through online discussion) of the class. the researcher’s observation was also not entirely different from the viewpoints of the interviewees. all the features of the class, including the lecturing method, were designed to allow students to participate and create knowledge beyond rote memorization. the instructor tried to include students to be part of the teaching-learning process as can as possible by proving different opportunities for independent study and class discussion. the researcher especially agrees with the interviewee statement that while teaching, the instructor was also raising important question for discussion. according to the researcher’s observation, the students’ engagement in the class could be understood from their dissatisfaction to see the class end. when the instructor announced that the class was left with only one week, the students’ response was a kind of surprise which sounded like “we need it to go longer”. second, on the changes brought by studentcentered learning environment to students and the teacher. the respondents described that student-centered learning environment brought changes both to the students and the teacher in different ways. they believed that the class promoted class interaction, which influenced the students and the teacher to work more independently and as a part of the class. the response from the instructor agreed that educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 141© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the class interaction promoted the instructor’s understanding from the different ideas and experiences of the students. the students also stated that the class brought them out of their private personal atmosphere to the social and interactive learning. a response from a student explained: my first experience in the class was a kind of confusion. i was shocked by some of the questions raised in the class, because they were totally different from my expectations and ways of thinking. then, i realized things can be seen in different perspectives, and i said to myself “that can make sense too”. then, i really felt it because i started to get used to diverse ideas (interview with student c, 25/5/2014). regardless of their active participation in the discussion, all the respondents agreed that the experiences that they got from the studentcentered environment of the class go further beyond the theoretical knowledge. they noted that theoretical knowledge is not a big deal, which they believe it can be acquired simply by reading books. however, the experiences of the class is about understanding and respecting the different view points of students, learning from one another, and working hard to be part of the class. from my observation, i concur with the respondents that through the questions that students ask and the ways they answer, students could pick up not only the subject matter related knowledge and experience, but also the art of interacting. in response to the new and diverse view points of the class, a student responded: despite of the benefits that i got from the class discussion, first i was feeling upset, excluded and very marginalized for not being part of the interaction. then, i started to raise myself and my standards, and went on pushing myself that in the next class i need to express my questions and comments and be part of the class interaction (interview with student d, 25/5/2014). according to the respondents and my observation, another effect of the class environment was the application of theoretical knowledge into real world problems and focus in cooperative learning. the respondents noted that feeling the taste of every step of the theoretical knowledge in practice was one of the best parts of class environment. they emphasized the effort of the instructor to engage students and provide feedback; and direction to the individual work of the students was encouraging to work more and more. in addition to the comments from the instructor, during their presentation and discussion in class, students were able to get different critical comments and suggestions from their classmates. the instructor also made available the work of every student with its feedback open for everyone, which enabled students to learn from each other. third, on the challenges to studentcentered learning. the response from the students and the teacher described that studentcentered class atmosphere was not developed to the point that it should be able to embrace each and every student in the class. the following are some of the challenges faced by the teacher and students to develop a solid student-centered learning environment. students’ personality: the respondents stated that students’ personal behavior and perception affected the level of their participation in the class. some students described that they prefer to communicate with the instructor in private so as to get profound and satisfactory answer. whereas other students responded that their prior experience affects them from actively interacting in the class. a respondent noted: i was disciplined by my high school teacher, because my teacher thought that i was dominating the class. that adjustment affected my life, because since then i fear that i might take too much time and dominate the class (interview with student e, 25/5/2014). moreover, some students believe that it is not compulsory to engage in class since neither answering nor asking a question is a sign of following the class or being better than anybody else in the class. although the respondents are not sure, whether the above personalities had to do something with their cultural backgrounds or not, they agreed that it has something to do with their family background or prior educational policy, which discourages students’ creative development. this has been manifested in one of the samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning 142 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com students’ response stating, “i believe it is my personality, which is part of my life and which makes it much complicated to explain and figure out its relationship with culture” (interview with student f, 25/5/2014). the response from the instructor and chinese students reiterated that the personality issue has something to do with students’ social life and previous educational experiences in china. on the other hand, the interviewees stated that there are students who always want to dominate a class. hence, some of the students’ response indicated that there is no need to compete with students of such personality so as to be recognized as part of the class. according to my observation, these are few and active students who usually would like to participate (to dominate) in the class; and some of them do not even wait permission from the instructor to interfere. the response form students mainly stressed that the dominant students sometimes respond to questions directed to the teacher and come up with controversial ideas, which disturb the positive classroom interaction. class size and time factor: the students felt that the number of students in the class was many with regard to the time and the different methods and tasks the instructor employed. this affected the inclusion and recognition of each and every student in the class. the instructor also agreed that the time was not enough to cover all the contents to give students enough theoretical background and allow detailed students discussion seeking contribution from every member of the class. students’ preparation: according to my observation, students’ failure to come to class prepared affected the class interaction. students’ failure to come prepared for class usually put the class in general and class discussions in particular at the hand of few dominant and/or prepared students. instructor’s facilitation: the respondents reiterated that in addition to the above challenges, the instructors’ could have done more in motivating students to come to class prepared and in directing and facilitating the interaction of students. the instructor didn’t have any means of checking students’ preparation to class (such as reading the required materials), and was not inspiring the reserved student to participate in the class discussion; instead the instructor was relying on power point slides and voluntary participation. this problem of proper direction and facilitation was also evident in the online (qq group) discussion; students were not properly using the platform as it should be. as a result, some unnecessary and out of topic issues were appearing in the platform, as in the class discussion. discussions first, on the class environment. the result of the interview pointed out that teachinglearning environment of the case class was more or less based on student-centered learning. the respondents explained that as a teaching method, the class had many student-centered features such as participatory lecturing, independent assignments, class presentation, class discussion, online (qq group) discussion, etc. this idea is consistent with the characteristics of student-centered learning environment argued by many educators, including b. hooks (2010); m.n. zabit (2010); paulo freire (2010); and e. toshalis & m.j. nakkula (2012). all these educators agree that student-centered learning environment should engage every student to make a valuable contribution to the teaching-learning process. this would mean that the teacher should use a teaching strategy that avoids domination of the class by either the teacher or few students. according to the students’ response, the lecture method that the instructor used was prepared in a way to enable students to participate. this shows that the lecture method was designed in a way to allow lecturing, asking questions, and discussion simultaneously; and this was not only consistent with but proves the argument of m.i. bhutto (2011), who argued that lecturing method with some modifications can be used in student-centered class environment. moreover, the class was started by identifying the needs, interests, and expectation of students in the course. this is important point in integrating the needs and interests of students, which could definitely make leaning enjoyable. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 143© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the result of the students’ interviews reiterated that students were given individual assignments and proper feedback and opportunity to present their assignment. in addition to the voluntary interaction, all the students were given compulsory opportunity to present their assignment in the class. these results concur with the central ideas of student-centered learning as “helping students to be responsible for their self learning” (zabit, 2010); “engaging in the world, with the world, and with each other” (freire, 2010); and “the use and interpretation of lessons for students with participation of the students” (toshalis & nakkula, 2012). this shows that, despite of the short time and comparatively large class size, the instructor succeeded in recognizing the contribution of every member of the class in someway. regardless of their perceptions about the class and other situations, the compulsory assignment encouraged every student to work hard. at the same time, the class presentation triggered the students to share their ideas with the class and get feedback from their classmates. in such a way, these activities boosted students’ self learning, engaged students in the class interaction, and promoted cooperative learning. second, on the changes brought by student-centered learning environment to students and teachers. the response from students stated that the student-centered learning environment enhanced their self and cooperative learning simultaneously. students were able to learn from the course materials and individual assignments, and from their classmates through interaction and discussion. this is consistent with the ideas of k.c. williams & c.c. williams (2011) and a. tongsakul, k. jitgarun & w. chaokumnerd (2011). in this context, k.c. williams & c.c. williams (2011), for example, explained that student-centered learning environment plays a big role in students’ motivation for selflearning and interaction; while a. tongsakul, k. jitgarun & w. chaokumnerd (2011) stated that students use their different talents and experiences to help one another and learn from each other collaboratively. this indicates that students work harder to be part of the student-centered class environment and strive for their voice to be heard. then, such experiences extend further to motivation and learning better beyond taking notes and listening to the teacher. however, this is not always true with all students, because as some of the respondents noted that they prefer to be reserved. as presented in the findings, some students were confused and shocked by the diverse ideas and thinking from the class discussion. this can be connected with personal experiences of students with regard to student-centered learning environment. as m.n. zabit (2010) stated that putting students in a class, that shakes their previous knowledge and perceptions, is challenging. this indicates that students are confronted with new perspective or knowledge, which they have not considered or thought about before. it could also be related to the ideas and perspectives other students share and the ways they interact. that is why the students noted that they really felt the diverse perspectives from different students. this shows that student-centered learning enable students to go further beyond the class and promote their critical thinking. according to the respondents, the students were able to experience learning by doing, and were able to link theoretical knowledge with real practical situations. this supports the idea of paulo freire (2010), in the sense that students learn by integrating theoretical and practical knowledge simultaneously. it also illustrates that students learn better in studentcentered class atmosphere, because students learn better by doing rather than hearing. moreover, this opportunity of linking theory with practice goes beyond acquiring theoretical knowledge and encourages students to reflect upon and use their knowledge into practical situations in the future. third, on the challenges of studentcentered learning. students’ personality: students’ personal behavior or perceptions hinders developing a sound student-centered learning environment. as it has been shown in the result, students’ low participation in the class interaction affects student-centered learning environment. although students samson maekele tsegay, students’ experience in student-centered learning 144 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com were not definitely sure how to connect this to culture, the chinese students and the instructor mainly agreed that it has something to do with students’ social life and previous educational experiences in china. these findings support the ideas of “respecting and obeying teachers” (lu, 2012); “experience of learning based on competition” (yu, 2012); and “fear of mistake and looking silly” (lizzio & wilson, 2005). this could be connected with the type of pedagogy used in primary, middle and secondary schools in china, where the teacher is a dominant figure in the class; and where competition-based learning is emphasized instead of cooperative learning. as a result, students fail to distinguish between disobeying and disrespecting teachers, and engaging in the teaching-learning process. they perceive that discussing and arguing with the teacher is challenging the experience and knowledge of the teacher, which is equivalent to disrespecting the teacher. therefore, they could be less active in class discussion unless they are encouraged by the instructor. on the other side, the students explained that there are few students who are always active and dominant in the classroom interaction. these dominant students oppress the voice of the class and make other students passive. this reflects the ideas of a. lizzio & k. wilson (2005), which argued that students’ personal and cultural differences affect the way students behave and participate which sometimes result in domination of the class by few students. however, for the dominant group, this could be a matter of expressing their ideas and making contribution to the classroom interaction. the students might think that others are not interested to share their ideas and contribute to the teaching-learning process, instead of them dominating the class. as a result, they interfere in every step of the class. class size and time factor: as presented in the research findings, the instructor was struggling to coordinate the short time allotted for the course, the comparatively large class size, and the interactive class atmosphere. this illustrates the notion that large class size hinders the smooth facilitation of studentcentered learning (shih & gamon, 2001; and bhutto, 2011). large class size is not manageable to fully recognize the input and contribution of every member of the class with the short period of time available for all the activities of the class. that is why the class was merely a taste of different activities and methods. students’ preparation: it has been noted in the findings that the class interaction was badly affected since some students were coming to class without preparation. failure of students to come prepared to class wastes the time that the students and the teacher do not have because, as m.n. zabit (2010) stated, that the students could not confidently express their idea and contribute to the teaching-learning process positively. then, it is obvious that the class could also be dominated by few, whereas the others become passive observers. teachers’ facilitation: the response from the students showed that although the instructor did a very good job in overcoming the different challenges and in creating studentcentered class atmosphere, the instructor could have done better to promote the learning environment by properly directing students towards the specified topic and focusing on every student. this is consistent with the point that teachers need to facilitate the teachinglearning process in a way that students should actively interact without hijacking the topic out of track (freire, 2010). this indicates that some procedures are lacking to limit students from going too far out of the topic. it also illustrates that the instructor need to fully set a mechanism to encourage the students to come prepared to class so as the class interaction could embrace all the students and be meaningful. for instance, the instructor could have requested a short summary of every assignment given to students (reading, watching movie, etc.) to be reported one day before the class. specific questions could have also been given to students to focus on discussion, so that they could use the online platform properly. if not, students can come to class unprepared and hide from class participation; they can also discuss on issues outside of the specific topic and divert the attention of others from the main point to be discussed. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 145© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com conclusion 1 although the research paper has certain limitations due to time and financial constraints, it has the changes that are brought by student-centered learning environment and the main challenges that face students and teacher to bring up such class environment at heis (higher education institutions) in china. the study found that students’ experiences in student-centered learning environment are highly connected with the facilitation and direction of the instructor. the facilitation of the instructor can recognize or marginalize students, which could greatly affect their participation and building up of a strong student-centered learning environment. students’ experiences in student-centered learning are characterized by different developments and challenges. despite of the different challenges, heis students in china are experiencing some tastes of the benefits of student-centered class environment. students are able to share ideas and experiences, learn collaboratively, and apply content-based knowledge into real world problems. however, there is still a major problem with regard to recognizing every student and embracing them to the class interaction equally. the study also indicated that culture or culture-based personality is a challenge to develop a solid student-centered learning environment. nevertheless, as the study could not exactly identify the components of culture in relation to the challenges, this needs further study and investigation.2 references bhutto, m.i. 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(2013). “student engagement: a complex business supporting the first year experience in tertiary education” in the international journal of the first year in higher education, 4(2), pp.1-14. doi: 10.5204/intjfyhe.v4i1.183. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 219 dr. nalini arumugam is a lecturer at the academy of language studies uitm (mara university of technology), km 26, jalan lendu, alor gajah, 78000 melaka, malaysia. she can be reached at: nalini@melaka.uitm.edu.my and nalini_2130@yahoo.com students and teachers: trouble shared, trouble halved nalini arumugam abstract: the study reported here sought to investigate the use of the cooperative learning (cl henceforth) approach in the english as second language (els henceforth) writing classrooms at institutions of higher learning. more specifically, it took a closer look at the importance and efficacy of the use of cl strategies in teaching writing skills as perceived by esl learners and teachers. a mixed-design approach was adopted in data collection. information was derived via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. the results indicated a favourable view of cl as an instructional approach. both teachers and learners viewed this approach to be effective as it engenders a risk-free environment that promotes learning specifically writing. nevertheless, the teachers perceived the cl approach to be time-consuming and tedious on their part as the use of cl strategy added to an already heavy work load. the respondents indicated that they needed formal training in cl to be able to make a distinction between its application and the group work that they often assigned in esl classrooms. this study concludes that cl a beneficial pedagogical approach that could provide invaluable insights into meaningful learning in esl classrooms of higher learning. however, small-scale and class-based cl activities can be introduced in the classroom to enhance teaching. to provide tertiary level, students with an opportunity to elevate their language skills, collaborative efforts among curricular designers, administrators, and english teachers must be initiated. key words: cooperative learning, english as second language, instructional approach, teachers and learners, and meaningful learning. introduction cooperative learning (cl henceforth) is acknowledged as a set of pedagogical practices in which students are grouped and encouraged to work together to facilitate active participation in discussing different perspectives on a common topic (johnson & johnson, 1999; hirst & slavik, 2005; and chapman et al., 2006). small group activities in cl provide more opportunities for students to have hands-on activities (wentzel & watkins, 2002; kreie, headrick & steiner, 2007; and lee, 2007). furthermore, assisting peers to learn through explaining to one another has been positively correlated with academic achievement (depaz & moni, 2008). therefore, it is argued by some researchers such as a.k. azizah (2001); n. chandrika (2001); and f.a. brown (2008) that cl is an effective instructional approach in the esl (english as second language) writing classrooms. besides, numerous studies nalini arumugam, students and teachers 220 such as a. iwai (2000); k.a.s. lancaster and c.a. strand (2001); and k. mason (2006) have also shown that cl provides confidence, self-esteem, social skills, and enhances academic achievement to limited english proficiency students who can find positive social benefits in the spirit of cooperation within the classroom. therefore cl is a much debated topic and has created a lot of interest amongst researchers. statement of problem writing in an esl (english as second language) classroom is not purely writing but it involves a lot of other processes such as asking for personal reactions rather than “text responsible” responses where learners have to put down what they have grasped (atkinson, 2003). when learners write, they are expected to find and organise ideas, consider many issues such as content, organisation, purpose, target audience, appropriate vocabulary, correct spelling, and mechanics (atkinson, 2003; and kim & kim, 2005) which hammers that writing requires cognitive competence to come up with a writing task. probably out of the four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), writing has often been regarded by teachers and learners alike as the most difficult and tedious skill to teach, learn or acquire for non-native (azizah, 2002) as well as native learners (abu rass, 2001). esl learners struggle with many structural issues, including selecting proper words, generating ideas, and developing ideas (kim & kim, 2005; and lee, 2007). thus, learners with language learning problems are not motivated to engage with the writing activity (gleason & isaacson, 2001). mariam mohamed nor (2004) has pointed out that many learners in malaysia cannot write well even after eleven years of learning english. the ministry of education (moe) malaysia has, therefore, identified three main weaknesses in learners’ writing, namely the inability to: (1) develop interesting and thoughtful ideas; (2) present ideas clearly and coherently; and (3) plan paragraphs or essays cohesively. the learners’ basic deficiencies are often not detected until the learners enter an institution of higher learning. it is therefore assumed, given the above weaknesses, the group writing approach would be able to counter this situation. studies done on cl both internationally (atkinson, 2003; chen, 2004; and mason, 2006) and locally (chandrika, 2001; and mariam mohamed nor, 2004) have highlighted the positive effects of using cl in esl writing classrooms. these studies indeed highlight the virtues and significance of employing the cl approach but have been mostly confined to the incorporation of the approach and writing in the secondary school setting. further, numerous studies (chen, 2004; and mason, 2006) have reported on the benefits that accrue to students from cl experiences, but little is known about two important parties: (1) the learners and teachers; and (2) their point of views in learning strategy. most importantly, very little seems to have been done to show how these parties view cl approach. this gap leads to the conclusion that there is an urgent need to investigate the perceptions of learners and teachers within the higher education setting. therefore, this study will attempt to fulfil this research niche. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 221 methodology, sample, and tools the efficacy of the cl approach, the students’ and teachers’ perceptions as to what extent the cl approach enhances writing skills. in order to facilitate data collection, the study adopted a mixed methodology. a set questionnaire, focusing on students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of cl in esl writing classrooms, was administered to the treatment group. as for the teachers, survey questionnaire consisting two parts, (1) part i related to their perceptions on cl; and (2) part ii related to teaching styles in esl classrooms, were administered to elicit information from twenty six esl teachers in location of the survey. subsequently, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to elicit qualitative data about the issues under study i.e. the effectiveness of cl and ability to be fully engaged in cl activities. as for the student sample, two groups from two different programmes of study were chosen for this study. the subjects of experimentation were two groups of part 3 diploma students: diploma in business (38 students) and diploma in mechanical engineering (25 students). this study was carried out in a one-semester period (10 weeks). the groups received two hours of cl-based writing instruction per week. hence, this research attempted to answer the following questions: (1) how do the students in the experimental groups perceive the cl approach?; and (2) what views do tertiarylevel esl teachers have about the cl strategies in their writing classrooms? results and discussion: a. demographic profile: learners and teachers the data indicate that the parents of students diploma in business are relatively superior, in terms of education. many of them hold respectable, top level posts with the government, and in the private sectors. the parents of the students in diploma in mechanical engineering generally appear to be labourers. as the disparity in terms of the socio-economic standings of both sets of parents is indisputable, it is unfair to compare the achievement of the students. therefore, there will not be any comparison made between the two groups. the twenty-six teachers who participated in the study were teaching english at institutions of higher learning in malaysia. all possessed postgraduate degrees in esl though their areas of specialisation were different. most of the teachers had more than 10 years of experience in teaching english. b. how do the students view the cl? the students indicate that they favoured cl (cooperative learning). as claimed by some researchers (chen, 2004; mason, 2006; and brown, 2008) that the learners in both cases have shown positive outcomes of cl. in ia, 74% of the learners perceived group writing to help them understand assigned tasks well, while 76% responded that group writing fostered exchange of knowledge, information, and nalini arumugam, students and teachers 222 experiences, and 71% said that they received helpful feedback in ib. a majority of the learners (84%) felt that group writing enabled them to help limited learners in the group and at the same time it assisted them to improve their performance in writing skill respectively. a total of 63% admitted that learners actively participated in writing process. in ib, the learners too perceived group writing to be facilitating writing process. around 76% of the learners said that group writing helped understanding writing tasks; 80% felt it fostered exchange of knowledge, information, and experiences; and 72% revealed that they received helpful feedback from their peers to complete their assigned tasks. a total of 72% agreed that group writing enabled proficient learners to help limited proficient learners. interestingly, 96% in ia and 76% in ib perceived that they had improved their writing performance. as previous studies had highlighted that cl facilitated academic advancement of the learners (azizah, 2002; mason, 2006; and brown, 2008), the present finding further strengthens the role of cl in academic performances. as for social benefits in ia is concerned almost all (95%) while 96% learners perceived group writing to be fun and 68% (ia) and 84% (ib) revealed that they made new friends. this finding concurs with the findings of a previous study (depaz & moni, 2008). furthermore, i. depaz and r.w. moni (2008) claimed that group writing creates a “risk-free” environment where the learners are not worried of the adult or teacher’s presence. learners try out expressions and negotiate meaning with a familiar audience without having to worry about getting everything right. such an environment creates a “stress-free” learning context (mason, 2006). a large number, 89% (ia) and 96% (ib) agreed that group work should be continued. at ia, a total of 90% and 96% (ib) of the learners said the maximum group size must be four members. this could be a good reason to avoid “free-riders” in group work (brown, 2008). if there are too many members in the group, the learners may dwell in unnecessary talk and waste time. as such, three to four members to a group would be an ideal number to make all the members to be committed. a total of 81% felt that cl enhanced their communication skills, while 87% admitted it fostered team spirit in line with c. ingleton et al. (2000). the majority perceived that cl to be helpful as 76% of the respondents found it to aid problemsolving and enhanced collective efforts rather than individual respectively. a total of 80% admitted that they have greater responsibility of their own as well as for their group’s achievements. besides, 92% revealed that group writing enhanced communication skills and fostered team spirit which reaffirms mariam mohamed nor (2004) and a. iwai’s (2004) findings that cl develops communication skills. when asked if cl is a “waste of time explaining things to others”, the majority (79%) disagreed to the statement. in the structured interview, a learner said that, “though it was difficult getting members to actively participate in tasks, they found it to be less burden as their peers shared the workload”. perhaps, the teacher needs to watch the involvement of learners in group work to facilitate group writing. these responses indicate the importance of practicing oneness “swim together” as stressed by d.w. johnson et al. (1991) and d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1991). thus, the teacher educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 223 needs to ensure that the learners have effective training to participate effectively in group writing. as such, while the intricacies of the english language proved challenging too many, they felt that working in groups made it easier for them to learn and improve their writing skills (sweeney, weaven & herington, 2008). c. teachers’ perceptions of the cl the majority of the teachers revealed that they would use the cl approach in their writing classrooms because it facilitates learning. they believed that cl could be effective if the teachers are successful in encouraging the learners to cooperate with one another. the use of this approach also encourages feedback, which serves to strengthen it. unfortunately, the cl approach is perceived as an energy and time-consuming technique. thus, only 19% used it always, while 22% of the teacher sample used it more than half the time, and 50% used it sometimes. the remaining 9% revealed that they did not employ cl-based group work at all in their writing classrooms. although the approach was not their favourite, the majority of the teacher sample was optimistic towards the cl approach. they agreed it gave good opportunities for learners to interact with one another during group work and learn from one another which reaffirm the benefits of the approach in writing class as suggested by some researchers like k. mason (2006) and a. sweeney, s. weaven and c. herington (2008). many teachers considered that cl is a good approach for teaching and learning the writing skill, especially when it is combined with the process writing skill of problem-solving. they perceived that the cl-based group work encouraged the learners to brainstorm and discussed the assigned topic in their group. such discussions give the learners opportunities to have practical contexts to use the language in and to learn from one another. they regarded cl as an appropriate approach in all writing classes because it promotes interaction and meaningful communication. a teacher said, “not only does cl break the monotony of individual learning but it also assists the learners retain what is taught better in the writing class and this definitely makes them learn it without pressure”. this opinion is in line with j. kreie, r.w. headrick and r. steiner (2007) who put forward that cl significantly increased learners’ retention ability. however, a large proportion of the sample, 39% felt that cl would add to their burden, as they had to do extra work to be prepared for the classroom. this was a disabling factor as a. sweeney, s. weaven and c. herington (2008) had pointed out that teachers need to go the “extra mile” to experience positive outcomes. another dimension of cl related to teachers is that it is easier for the teachers to evaluate group projects. a teacher said that “in cl groups, i have fewer papers to be marked and i also noticed that while working in groups, the learners tend to achieve higher competence levels, increased learning, and motivation” as also put forward by m.l. chen (2004). teachers seemed to like the camaraderie that developed among the learners and the ambiance that was created in class that really had a captive audience. nalini arumugam, students and teachers 224 the teachers thus perceived that cl-based group work provides opportunities for learners in large classes, especially to interact using the language more effectively (iwai, 2000; and kreie, headrick & steiner, 2007. in addition, many teachers agreed that cl was a good technique to increase language proficiency because the learners felt more comfortable working with peers. they also revealed that the use of cl increased learners’ confidence which corroborates the findings of the previous studies (mason, 2006). thus, the teachers perceived this approach to be very useful, though the classroom could be noisy sometimes. although the teacher sample perceived cl positively, in the structured interviews about the actual use of cl, the responses revealed otherwise. the majority of the teacher sample said that they had stopped using cl due to their heavy workload and other administrative tasks they choose not to use this approach in their classrooms. however, looking at the benefits, they agreed to consider cl first if they decide to incorporate any new approach in their class. the actual use of the cl approach in reality is not congruent to the perceptions as to the effectiveness and benefits. in other words, the teachers found this approach to be the most beneficial, but the majority have yet to embrace it fully. this finding corroborates with the previous results of j. kreie, r.w. headrick and r. steiner (2007) and a. sweeney, s. weaven and c. herington (2008) revealing that teachers hesitate to use this approach due to the heavy workload and time constraint. further comments elicited from the teachers structured interviews revealed that “the cl approach be used not only writing but for all esl classes because the learners like the idea of working in groups”. a teacher shared, “it definitely has a role in esl writing classrooms” and “it encourages confidence, accountability, and increases self esteem”. another said this approach “helps the group oriented tasks and learners would be able to achieve their intended goals easily”. another teacher strongly recommended cl to be used when learners had to complete a lot of projects. the group projects could reduce the burden of the learners as well as instructors. in addition, many teachers agreed that cl was a good technique to increase language proficiency because the learners felt more comfortable working with peers. they also revealed that the use of cl increased learners’ confidence which corroborates the findings of the previous studies (lancaster & strand, 2001; and mason, 2006). thus, the teachers perceived this approach to be very useful, though the classroom could be noisy sometimes. conclusion students and teachers perceived cl (cooperative learning) to be an effective approach in improving the writing ability in comparison to the tfi (teacher fronted instruction). they agreed that cl also enhanced students’ interpersonal skills and created a stress-free learning environment. the students revealed that not only they have improved in the written aspect of the language component, but also in the spoken aspect. the improvement came about as a result of a stress-free educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 225 environment, peer coaching, and meaningful and authentic learning experiences. students became more engaged, motivated, and their attitudes were also positively shaped as they learnt to share and care for their peers. cl will not take place in the classroom without teachers who employ transactional styles of teaching/learning. nevertheless, it requires a lot of effort on the teachers’ side, especially when they already have so many hours of teaching. it is essential for both teachers and students to be trained for cl activities to bring about effective outcomes. further, the teacher has to understand individual differences. some students do not enjoy working in groups. they prefer to get help from the teacher rather than their friends in class. in such cases, the teacher has to guide the students by giving them space to work individually instead of pushing them into group work. some teachers who employ a more traditional approach have found cl lacking in provoking interest and promoting productivity among students when used in the esl (english as second language) writing classroom. however, it is noted here that teachers generally do not like changes in their teaching methods and usually do not make changes unless they perceive that something is not working well. while it is undoubtedly an effective language learning approach, it also creates opportunities for students to shirk their responsibilities. thus, cl should be implemented whenever possible with discretion. moreover, time constraints often prevent the full implementation of the cl approach. thus, once the speaking test was completed, the researcher had to “steal” the time allotted for speaking to complete the writing sessions for the experimental groups. however, as a teacher, i find that cl is an effective way for me to discover and empower myself in becoming a more reflective teacher. this study illuminated a complex web of language learning and gave me insight into cl. in short, we can conclude that cl creates better learning opportunities in esl writing instruction when the “experimental factor” is utilised by practising teachers. it encourages a more interesting and creative approach to language proficiency and this is invaluable, especially with regard to weaker students. that cl in tandem with process-oriented techniques in writing instruction also instils positive values such as cooperation, leadership skills, and interpersonal skills among group members is a plus point. recommendations recommendations are hereby made to reform the pedagogical approaches to bring about a paradigm shift in the esl (english as second language) classrooms in higher education so that the aspired and envisaged educational reforms can manifest in the true sense. to do so, cl (cooperative learning) instruction should be strongly advocated to teachers as an avenue to adopt. administrators should appreciate that the use of this approach is a time-consuming one and perhaps try to lessen workloads. this would take the toll off teachers who have to shoulder heavy workloads besides planning and preparing cl lessons. nalini arumugam, students and teachers 226 in addition, the decision to reconsider the workload of teachers may bring about a commitment to higher levels of involvement. teachers should be trained to use the cl approach interactive activities in the classroom. however, small-scale, classbased cl activities can be introduced in the classroom to enhance teaching. to provide tertiary level students with an opportunity to elevate their language skills, collaborative efforts among curricular designers, administrators, and english teachers must be initiated. references abu rass, r. 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(2002). “peer relationships and collaborative learning as contexts for academic enablers” in school psychology review, vol.31(3), pp.366-348. also available at: http:// proquest.umi.com/pqdweb [accessed at melaka, malaysia: 18 december 2010]. nalini arumugam, students and teachers 228 some teachers who employ a more traditional approach have found cl (cooperative learning) lacking in provoking interest and promoting productivity among students when used in the esl (english as second language) writing classroom. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 181© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com truong bao duy the effects of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning outcome abstract: professional development is of great importance not only for teachers but also for administrators and leaders. it helps teachers improve or change their teaching behaviors and make their lessons more interesting and effective. to meet the academic needs of learners, it is clear that schools need to build seasoned and well-qualified teaching staff. it is commonly agreed that with the same modern facilities, only the upgrade of teaching quality sets themselves apart from any other schools. the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teacher professional development activities attributed to teaching and learning skills acquired as well as to determine teacher attitude toward their participation in these activities. about 114 teachers participated in the study. the data collected from the returned questionnaires were entered into the computer file using microsoft excel for the analysis. the study answered the following research questions: (1) what are the teachers’ perceptions toward professional development activities they have participated in?; (2) to what extent do trained teachers implement what they have learned?; and (3) what do teachers suggest for professional development training activities? the findings show that teachers have positive perceptions toward professional development training and they hope to attend more trainings in the future. regarding teachers’ application of new learning in the classrooms, school leaders should invite facilitators who are experienced in teaching the same materials that respondents teach. the facilitators can take examples from the materials. in this way, respondents can find skills and techniques applicable. they also can change their teaching behaviors and classroom activities. key words: professional development, teaching activities, teaching capacity, teachers’ perception, teaching practice, training program, and student learning outcome. about the author: truong bao duy is a manager, department of international development seameo retrac (south-east asian ministers of education organization, regional training center), 35 le thanh ton street, district 1, ho chi minh city, vietnam. for academic intetests, the author can be contacted via phone at: (84.8) 38245618 or via e-mail at: tbduy@vnseameo.org how to cite this article? bao duy, truong. (2015). “the effects of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning outcome” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.181-188. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/the-effectsof-teacher-professional-development/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 21, 2014); revised (december 29, 2014); and published (february 28, 2015). because teacher expectations are that learners can enhance their learning outcomes. h.h. sandra pointed out that “we cannot expect our students to change what they do if we are content for teachers to continue doing what they have always done” (sandra, 2003:2). apart from ceaseless efforts from learners, teachers play an indispensable role in performing educational expectations. as such, teachers’ engagement in professional development to improve their practice and performance is a must as teaching requires continual learning. otherwise, the educational system, as well as societal intellect, could not develop as expected. to meet the academic needs of learners, it is clear that schools need to build seasoned and introduction teachers cannot enter the new era if they lack professional development activities (roger, 2010). as the world develops rapidly, teachers also need to keep pace with the speed of the global development. in this context, b.p. price (2008); d. roger (2010); lf [learning forward] (2013); and p. youngs (2013) indicated that lack of professional development activities can stop teachers increasing learners’ academic achievements. therefore, teachers always feel the need of professional development activities to help them with teaching performance. in particular, professional development is the greatest concern in educational systems, truong bao duy, the effects of teacher professional development 182 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com well-qualified teaching staff. it is commonly agreed that with the same modern facilities, only the upgrade of teaching quality sets themselves apart from any other schools. g.b. dinh (2007) showed that professional development plays a crucial role in enhancing teaching capacity. c.d. brown proposed “there is a need for high quality professional development to impact teaching strategies” (brown, 2007:30). research has also shown that teachers’ continuous professional development together with professional learning communities helps students acquire higher academic achievements (schmoker, 2004; lf, 2013; and youngs, 2013). professional development is regarded as a selfregulated learning to characterize teachers’ collaborative engagement in instructional change cycles (butler & cartier, 2004). h.h. sandra added that “professional development should be based on curricular and instructional strategies that have a high probability of affecting student learning – and, just as important, students’ ability to learn” (sandra, 2003:4). furthermore, g.b. dinh stated that “teachers are considered to be an important element in promoting positive changes in the field of education through professional development” (dinh, 2007:1). however, j. richards indicated that lots of teachers are resistant to make changes and therefore resistant to take part in professional development activities (richards, 2002). therefore, teachers need to change their teaching performance provided that learning is regarded as a needed activity (joyce & showers, 2002). the lf (learning forward) in 2013 also highlighted that “increasing time for teacher professional learning is advocated as a necessity in improving learning for every student, yet it is also cited as the most common problem plaguing schools and school systems across the nation” (lf, 2013:15). this study helps determine teachers’ perceptions toward professional development. by the way, it is a chance to figure out teachers’ needs so that school leaders can customize suitable trainings for their teaching staff; through trainings, teachers will apply new methods of teaching in the classrooms. teachers will perform their teaching better and more comprehensibly. learners will study more efficiently. this study can serve as a foundation for school leaders to see the importance of professional development and contribute to their schools’ academic improvement. review of related research literature living in a rapidly changing world, we need to catch up with changes in our work. that is why professional development is really necessary and has been defined by many scholars and researchers. according to c.d. brown, professional development is “the process of improving staff skills and competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results for students” (brown, 2007:17-18). to l.l. hayes & v.j. robnolt (2007), professional development is considered to be the formative evaluation in the daily lives of teachers implementing new instructional practices. in addition, professional development is used “to feature learning opportunities and topics suggested by teachers and a principal to improve teaching and learning” (lester, 2003:50). in recent years, there has been lots of research related to professional development. after years of findings, b. kubitskey & b.j. fishman developed a model of teacher learning which helps build up teachers’ confidence in the relationship between teacher behavior and student response, when they take part in professional development activities (kubitskey & fishman, 2007). furthermore, t.a. nugent indicated that “teachers value jobembedded training and the experience to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development activities in terms of anticipated student outcomes” (nugent, 2007:22). d. jenny also mentioned that “professionallearning activity meshes with the work of teaching” (jenny, 2013:6). to have a broader view of this indication, models of professional development and ways to establish professional learning community need to be examined. a professional development model is utilized to guide the program design since b.j. spencer-chapman (2008) demonstrated that the program design helps improve reliable measures of student outcome. realizing the importance of a professional development educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 183© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com model, e. drago-severson (2002) suggested seven major models used for teachers such as: (1) in-service training, (2) observation/ assessment, (3) development/improvement process, (4) study groups, (5) inquiry/action research, (6) individually guided activities, and (7) mentoring. these kinds of models help teachers establish professional development communities within institutions as they “support teacher learning” (stodolsky, dorph & nemser, 2006:94). to do this, teachers’ perceptions towards professional development need to be examined. it appears that teachers’ perception towards professional development will decide their further academic success. m.r. ferguson (2008) noted that many teachers like to attend workshops and peer-sessions when motivated. this has proved that these activities meet their own professional development needs and motivating factors also play a pivotal role; therefore, practices teachers apply after their participation in professional development will once again obviously explain their perception towards professional development (ferguson, 2008). furthermore, m. vanderburg & d. stephens (2010) laid the emphasis on the caliber of mentors to help teachers with professional development. j. ben (2014) supposed that teachers can create an environment conducive to student learning; nevertheless, they also need the collaboration and interaction from students. moreover, teachers are able to change their teaching performance if they attend high quality professional development (jenny, 2013; and ben, 2014). in the research, k.e. keenan emphasized that “learning arises from the context of practice” (keenan, 2005:54). k.e. keenan also added that the learning process is facilitated via peer and expert modeling, peer collaboration, and proactive involvement in practice (keenan, 2005). students will benefit from the teachers’ level of willingness to apply techniques gained from learning. therefore, teachers play an indispensable role in professional development. t.j. kane & d.o. staiger (2012) highlighted the use of classroom observations to help teachers improve their teaching performance. g.b. dinh indicated that “teachers need to understand their duties in the field of upgrading and improving their professional skills and knowledge” (dinh, 2007:12). additionally, they also need to know their academic limitations and the impacts of professional development activities on their professional achievements. according to s.k. abell & m.h. lee (2008), professional development activities provide teachers with chances to apply learning to the classroom. in addition, o. amaral & l. garrison (2007) proved that they help develop teaching and learning performance in the classrooms; besides, teachers can acquire new knowledge via professional development activities (scott & mouza, 2007; jenny, 2013; and youngs, 2013). more importantly, they do contribute to the development of professional learning communities within schools, enhance reflection on teaching practice and facilitating collaboration, and improve students’ academic achievements (stanton, 2004; park, oliver & johnson, 2007; and doe, 2013). materials and method the subjects in this investigation were 150 teachers teaching different subjects in secondary and high schools in ho chi minh city, vietnam. they were randomly selected via teacher database. the data collected from the returned questionnaires were entered into the computer file using microsoft excel for the analysis. the descriptive statistics were utilized for data analysis. the descriptive statistics were used to sum up and compare findings. according to m.l. patten (2005), descriptive statistics helps summarize data. the demographic data, related to the participants taking part in the questionnaires, were collected. the data collected from the questionnaires were coded numerically and entered. descriptive statistics were also used in the second section to “provide baseline data in the scaled variables” (brown, 2007:48). tables using frequencies and percentages were used to report the responses to 14 likert-type scale questions and multiple-choice questions. results and discussion this study targeted 150 teachers who were teaching different subjects in secondary and truong bao duy, the effects of teacher professional development 184 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com high schools in ho chi minh city, vietnam. they were randomly selected as they were being trained, so that they were able to enhance their teaching capacity. of the 150 teachers, 114 teachers (49 males, 65 females) responded yielding an overall response rate of 76%. though the researcher failed to collect all the questionnaires as planned, it was significant for analysis. the biggest number of the respondents (41%, n = 47) ranged from 26 to 35 years in age. about 12 (11%) were below 26; 39 (34%) were from 36 to 45; and 16 (14%) was over 45. among 114 teachers, the majority of them (89%, n = 101) obtained bachelor degrees from teacher training colleges or universities; while only 13 (11%) graduated in master degree. most of the teachers (90.4%, n = 103) had been teaching for more than 5 years. concerning teachers’ attitudes toward professional development activities, 100% of the respondents agreed that professional development training provided with ideas that helped with class management. about 97 (85.1%) strongly agreed that professional development was necessary. about 45 (39.5%) respondents strongly agreed that teachers should be offered equal opportunities to receive professional development training. they altogether agreed that professional development activities helped them become more confident in classroom management and it addressed their individual needs for in-depth training. all of the respondents agreed that professional development helped them selfassess their teaching performance and sharpen table 1: number and percentage to respondents’ application of new learning after professional development training activities focus topics strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree # % # % # % # % my professional knowledge has increased after my participation in professional development training activities. 98 86 15 13.1 1 0.9 the knowledge acquired from teachers’ professional development training is necessary and applicable. 7 6.1 54 47.4 13 11.4 40 35.1 my professional skill level had improved after my participation in professional development training activities. 10 8.8 57 50 23 20.2 24 21 the teaching skills and techniques gained from the training are beneficial in the classrooms. 9 7.9 51 44.7 17 15 37 32.4 i have changed classroom activities as a result of effective professional development training. 17 15 46 40.4 44 38.6 7 6 i have known how to increase my students’ academic achievements via skills and techniques acquired from training. 6 5.3 65 57 31 27.2 12 10.5 my students have improved their academic outcomes since i started new teaching approaches. 11 9.6 53 46.4 33 29 17 15 i had time to share my teaching approaches with my colleagues. 7 6.1 19 16.7 66 57.9 22 19.3 n = 114 table 2: respondents’ preference in modalities of training training modalities n % training courses 17 14.9 training workshops 55 48.2 conferences 27 23.7 seminars 76 66.7 n = 114 * percentages are greater than 100, because several respondents preferred more than one kind of training topic. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 185© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com their skills. they completely agreed that the goal of professional development was to help change their teaching behaviors. consequently, 114 out of 114 respondents agreed that professional development training activities helped them improve their teaching performance and also helped their students increase their learning outcomes. of all the respondents surveyed, only 16 (14%) out of 114 disagreed that professional development activities were based on their prior knowledge. however, the majority of the respondents (85.1%, n = 97) uttered out that the professional development topics were not based on their needs. about teachers’ application of new learning in their classrooms, after their participation in professional development training activities, see in table 1. table 1 explicitly illustrates how teachers applied what they had learned in their classrooms. nearly all the respondents strongly agreed that after their participation in training, they increased their professional knowledge and improved their skill levels, and their students increased their learning outcomes. about 53 (46.5%) disagreed that the knowledge acquired from teacher professional development training was necessary and applicable. about 67 (58.8%) agreed that their professional skill level improved after their participation in professional development training activities. in addition, 54 (47.4%) out of 114 respondents disagreed that the teaching skills and techniques gained from the training were beneficial in the classrooms. the results show that 51 (44.7%) did not change their classroom activities. about 71 (62.3%) agreed that they had known how to increase their students’ academic achievements via skills and techniques acquired from the training; whereas 50 (43.9%) disagreed that their students had improved their academic outcomes since they started new teaching approaches. about 88 (77.2%) out of 114 teachers disagreed that they had time to share learning experiences with their colleagues (see again table 1). about teachers’ suggestions for future professional development training, see in table 2. the majority of the respondents (59.7%, n = 68) rarely attended teacher professional development training activities; while only 27 (23.7%) answered that they often did. about 19 (16.6%) sometimes attended. most of the respondents (66.7%, n = 76) preferred seminars; while only 17 (14.9%) preferred training courses. it is interesting to figure out that 55 (48.2%) preferred training workshops and only 27 (23.7%) preferred conferences (see again table 2). conclusion the data show that teachers taking part in the questionnaires were young and experienced. all of them obtained at least a bachelor’s degree. though respondents had positive perceptions toward trainings, they might not be willing to attend if they found topics boring and unsuitable to their individual needs. it is recommended that surveys on training needs be conducted before training, so that school leaders would know what training modalities teachers need. furthermore, leaders can talk to teachers in faculty meetings to seek out their training needs. training facilitators should be more flexible and select appropriate teaching methodology in the future. regarding teachers’ application of new learning in the classrooms, school leaders should invite facilitators who are experienced in teaching the same materials that respondents teach. the facilitators can take examples from the materials. in this way, respondents can find skills and techniques applicable. they also can change their teaching behaviors and classroom activities. concerning teachers’ suggestions, respondents preferred seminars to conferences. teachers themselves can work with other colleagues to study with one another. additionally, training workshops and courses on specific topics will be conducted to help teachers with professional development. as expected, more than half of the respondents agreed that the most suitable time for training is from july to september. it is understandable because most of the teachers are on their summer holidays; then, and therefore, they will have more time to attend the trainings. it is recommended that training be mainly truong bao duy, the effects of teacher professional development 186 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com conducted at this time. however, other followup workshops should be conducted throughout the year to remind teachers of skills and techniques learned.1 references abell, s.k. & m.h. lee. 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(2006). “professional culture and professional development in jewish schools: teachers’ perceptions and experiences” in journal of jewish education, 72(2), pp.91-108. retrieved from h.w. wilson database, on september 26, 2014. vanderburg, m. & d. stephens. (2010). “the impact of literacy coaches: what teachers value and how teachers change” in the elementary school journal, 111(1), pp.141-163. youngs, p. (2013). using teacher evaluation reform and professional development to support common core assessments. washington, d.c.: center for american progress. truong bao duy, the effects of teacher professional development 188 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com teachers at the secondary and high schools in ho chi minh city, vietnam (source: www.google.com, 24/10/2014) this study targeted 150 teachers who were teaching different subjects in secondary and high schools in ho chi minh city, vietnam. they were randomly selected as they were being trained, so that they were able to enhance their teaching capacity. of the 150 teachers, 114 teachers (49 males, 65 females) responded yielding an overall response rate of 76%. though the researcher failed to collect all the questionnaires as planned, it was significant for analysis. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 223 the improvement of students’ understanding about sociology materials by using index card match strategy mustolikh abstract: this research is aimed at improving the understanding of semester ii students of geography education about sociology materials. this is a development and improvement of learning quality research (ppkp). the subject of this research is 23 students of semester ii of class a, geography education, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, academic year of 2008-2009. this research is conducted in three cycles. each cycle consists of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. time allocation for action is 2 x 50 minutes of teaching and learning process for each cycle. the data is collected by conducting observation, interview and test. the data is analyzed by using descriptive quantitative method and percentage technique with the target of more than 75% students can achieve mastery learning. the average of students understanding about sociology materials increases from cycle 1 meeting (65, 23%) to cycle 2 meeting (74%) and from cycle 2 meeting (74%) to cycle 3 meeting (82,61%). based on the result above, it can be concluded that the understanding of semester ii of class a students of geography education about sociology materials can be improved by using ‘index card match’. key words: improvement, students’ understanding, strategy in teaching and learning process, and sociology materials. introduction a good beginning as well as a good result is the most students’ hope in their studying time. unfortunately, the lecturers as the most central element in teaching-learning process rarely pay attention to this matter. students’ curiosity at the beginning of studying sociology will affect their way of thinking in the future. it will also play an important role to improve their understanding in order to achieve a good result in their study (sudjana, 1987; slameto, 1995; and nasution, 2002). the success of a teaching-learning process does not merely depend on the curriculum quality, but it also on the choice and the implementation of the strategy done by lecturers in that process. an inappropriate choice of strategy can lead to students’ low understanding (syah, 1997; nurzaman, 1999; and silberman, 2004). mustolikh, m.si. is a lecturer at the department of geography education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. for academic purposes, he can be reached at: mustolikh@ymail.com mustolikh, the improvement of students’ understanding about sociology materials 224 the research problems it is hoped that all students at higher education have a good understanding about all subjects, in this context, including sociology. based on the data from geography education study program of muhammadiyah universtiy of purwokerto (ump) in central java, indonesia, it is known that in the last four years, students mean score of sociology has not shown mastery learning. more than 75% of the students got the score lower than 75. the score range between 70 to 75 equals to b or 3. this condition affects students gpa. most of their gpa is lower than 2.75. based on above problems, the causes as well as the alternative solutions can be analyzed as follows: problem cause solution low students participation in teaching-learning process. the strategy or model used does not reflect active learning strategy. the application of active learning to encourage students to study actively (they dominate learning activities), it is done by using index card match strategy. this strategy is to gain both individual and class participation. the better students’ participation, the better understanding they will have. low students readiness in attending teaching learning process. the strategy or model used encourages the students to be passive. students do not prepare any materials before the class. individual and group tasks are rarely presented in front of the class. the indicators for the success of the action in this research are: problems success indicators low students participation in teachinglearning process. students participation in teaching-learning process increases. low students readiness in attending teaching learning process. students are ready to attend the class, brave to ask questions, ask actively, and brave enough to predict the answer. students do not prepare any materials before the class. before the class, students prepared the materials. students understanding increases, meanwhile their study achievement increases more than 75% to achieve comprehensive study. in teaching-learning activities, students’ understanding is the amount (percentage) of materials which can be understood well by the students at the end of the class. accordingly, muhammad ali (2004) stated that mastery learning means the comprehensive mastery of the materials studied. for formative test, a comprehensive study can be achieved if at least 75% of all questions can be answered correctly. meanwhile, for summative test, it should be at least 69%. hence, j. winkel (1999) stated that the learners who get the mastery percentage less than 75%, they need remedial teaching program. therefore, variation of method in sociology learning process among the students of geography education study program at the muhammadiyah university of educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 225 purwokerto (ump) is required. it can be done by selecting an active learning strategy. in this research, the active learning strategy used is index card match. hisyam zaini, bermawy munthe and sekar ayu aryani (2002) stated that index card match (icm) is a fun learning strategy which is suitable to improve students’ achievement, because it can increase students’ participation. icm method, according to hisyam zaini, bermawy munthe and sekar ayu aryani (2002), can also improve evaluation test, because students’ brain needs some steps in order to store any information. those steps are: (1) information repetition; (2) ask about that information; and (3) teach it to others. those steps are found in index card match. another consideration in using active learning strategy is the reality that students have different way in learning. some of them are: (1) dare to read; (2) dare to discuss; and (3) dare to practice. method this research is conducted in three cycles. each cycle consists of: (1) planning, (2) acting, (3) observing, and (4) reflecting. the planning for each is based on the identified changes among observed factors, they are: students, lecturers, and learning activities (ncniff, 2002; depdiknas, 2005; and wiriaatmadja, 2007). the subject of this research is semester ii students of geography education study program at faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). the subject is 23 students that consist of 17 male students and 6 female ones. the objects of this research are: (1) the appropriateness of lecturer in managing the class based on lesson plan; (2) students’ activities in class; and (3) the improvement of students’ understanding about studied materials. this research is conducted for four months. it is conducted in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump), from february 2009 to may 2009. the data is collected by using certain instruments. the steps in collecting the data are: (1) designing daily journal; (2) observing classroom activities; (3) interview technique; and (4) test technique. the data of students’ understanding is analyzed by using students’ mastery learning. it is done by using descriptive quantitative method and percentage technique. elaboration and discussion: 1. previous condition the previous condition before the use of index card match in this research, the class tends to be passive. the participation of the students of class a, semester ii of geography is low. the students do not actively participate in the learning process. on the other hand, the lecturer dominates the class by explaining the materials. this passive condition is proved by students’ attitude in the class room. they only listen to lecturer’s explanation and take a note. students’ low participation in learning process can be shown from the table 1 below: mustolikh, the improvement of students’ understanding about sociology materials 226 table 1: students’ participation in sociology class before this research n students’ participation number percentage 1 asking a question 4 17.40 2 giving an opinion 4 17.40 3 doing the exercises 15 65.22 source: observation data (2009). 2. applied elaboration applied elaboration consisted of two steps, there are: (1) the level of students ability in making a question; and (2) the analysis of students’ understanding about sociology subject. elaboration for each step as follows: first, the level of students ability in making a question. the level of those 23 students who attend sociology class in making question is varied. it is shown in table 2 as follows: table 2: the level of questions made by the students n question level cycle i ii iii 1 knowledge/memory 8 6 1 2 understanding/comprehension 6 5 1 3 application 5 4 3 4 analysis 3 3 6 5 synthesis 1 3 7 6 evaluation 0 2 5 total 23 23 23 source: primary data (2008). table 2 shows students’ ability in making questions. it can be explained as follows: (1) the number of students who make questions in the level of knowledge or memory decreases in the following cycles. it means that the students are only asked to choose an answer from two or more options; (2) the number of students who make questions in the level of understanding or comprehension decreases in the following cycles. it means that the students are asked to prove that they understand simple correlation among facts or concepts; (3) the number of students who make questions in the level of application increases in the following cycles. it means that the students are urged to have the ability to select one of certain abstractions to be applied correctly in different situation; (4) the number of students who make questions in the level of analysis increases in the following cycles. it means that the students are asked to analyze a correlation or a complex situation of basic concepts; (5) the number of students who make questions in the level of synthesis educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 227 increases in the following cycles. it means that the students are asked to combine or to recompose the specific things to develop a new structure. the students can also be asked to make a generalization; and (6) the number of students who make questions in the level of evaluation increases in the following cycles. it is aimed at observing students ability in applying their knowledge and ability to evaluate a concept asked. from above discussion, it can be concluded that the quality of students’ ability in making questions increases from cycle i to cycle ii, and from cycle ii to cycle iii. second, the analysis of students’ understanding about sociology subject. the analysis of quantitative data is used to measure students understanding about sociology materials (table 3). table 3: students understanding about sociology materials n score standard cycle i cycle ii cycle iii students number students number students number 1 2 3 4 5 total score > 60 60 < total score < 70 70 < total score < 75 75 < total score < 80 total score > 80 2 2 4 9 6 0 2 4 8 9 0 1 3 8 11 total 23 23 23 source: primary data (2009). table 3 shows students’ understanding about sociology materials. it can be explained as follows: (1) the number of students who got score standard < 60 decreases; (2) the number of students who got score standard 60 < total score < 70 decreases; (3) the number of students who got score standard 70 < total score < 75 decreases; (4) the number of students who got score standard 75 < total score < 80 increases; and (5) the number of students who got score standard of total score > 80 increases. the terms and condition of mastery learning in this research can be achieved when a student got the total score standard > 75. in the meeting of cycle i the number of students who achieve mastery learning is 65.23%, in cycle ii it increases to 74%, and in cycle iii it increases to 82.61%. conclusion based on above discussion, it can be concluded that the understanding of class a, semester ii students of geography education about sociology materials can be improved by using index card match strategy. this improvement can be proved by the increase of students’ understanding about sociology materials, from cycle i (65.23%) to cycle ii (74%) and from cycle ii (74%) to cycle iii (82.61%). mustolikh, the improvement of students’ understanding about sociology materials 228 the steps conducted in this research can also be applied for the same problem in a learning context, as an alternative of problem solution. they are: (1) index card match strategy which is well-planned and well-implemented can improve students’ understanding; (2) developing a harmonious relation between lecturer and students is encouraged to create an effective, efficient and fun learning atmosphere; (3) index card match strategy is appropriate to gain both individual and class participation; and (4) index card match strategy gives the students more chance to act as a lecturer for his or her classmates. references ali, muhammad. (2004). proses belajar-mengajar. bandung: sinar baru. depdiknas [departemen pendidikan nasional]. (2005). penelitian tindakan kelas (action research). jakarta: proyek peningkatan mutu smu-adb loan. nasution, sorimuda. (2002). berbagai pendekatan dalam proses belajar & mengajar. jakarta: bumi aksara. ncniff, j. (2002). action research for education change: principle and practice. jakarta: rineka cipta. nurzaman, usman. (1999). metodologi pengajaran. semarang: dikmenum. silberman, melvin l. (2004). active learning. bandung: nuansa & nusamedia. slameto. (1995). belajar dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhinya. jakarta: rineka cipta. sudjana, nana. (1987). dasar-dasar belajar-mengajar. bandung: sinar baru. syah, muhibbin. (1997). psikologi pendidikan: suatu pendekatan baru. bandung: pt remaja rosdakarya. winkel, j. (1999). psikologi pengajaran. jakarta: gramedia widia sarana indonesia. wiriaatmadja, rochiati. (2007). penelitian tindakan kelas. bandung: pt remadja rosda karya – program pascasarjana upi. zaini, hisyam, bermawy munthe & sekar ayu aryani. (2002). strategi pembelajaran aktif di perguruan tinggi. yogyakarta: ctsd institut agama islam negeri sunan kalijaga. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 129 the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention on badminton learning achievement motor skill at 10-12 years old: the context of indonesia yusup hidayat abstract: the purpose of this research was to examine the influence of goal setting and mental imagery as two methods of psychological skill training on learning achievement of badminton motor skill. fifty beginning female athletes at 10-12 years old (m = 10.8) from bandung fpok upi badminton school were divided into four experimental groups and one control group in random. before getting the treatment, all groups carried out motor ability test, then all experimental groups were given following instructional about goal setting, mental imagery training, and badminton motor skill materials according to experimental condition in each group. it was hypothesized that shifting goal would more improve the development of high service and defensive clear skill than process goal, and mental imagery training would more enhance high service and defensive clear skill than without mental imagery training. the result of data computation by two ways factorial ancova showed that goal setting and mental imagery training method given a significant main effect, but no interaction both of them. furthermore, the result of means adjusted pair comparison analysis indicated that the effectiveness of mental imagery training influenced by goal setting but not vice versa. mental imagery process of the mental imagery training group was significantly higher than without mental imagery training, and all experimental groups have a significantly learning achievement higher than control group. key words: psychological skill training method, goal setting, mental imagery, learning achievement, badminton motor skill. introduction generally, the badminton development in club, school, or education and training level is started at about 6-14 years old. its existence as the developmental stage to perpetuate regeneration process becomes very important. moreover, the badminton club, school, or education and training is the only developmental center for those young age athletes and is one of the basic strategy to improve achievements in this sport. therefore, its development needs to be implemented by planning, regularly, and systematically by empowering all supporting aspects of achievement which dr. yusup hidayat is a lecturer at the school of health and physical education upi (indonesian university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: yusuf_h2000@yahoo.com and indrahafizh@yahoo.co.id yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 130 established as high as possible. the aspects are mainly related to training process simultaneously, i.e. physical ability, technical, and tactical or psychological skill. this factual condition shows that the development of badminton achievement, which mainly in the level of badminton club, school, or education and training, was still lack of concern, especially in psychological aspect. the program was usually focused on the aspect development of physical and technical ability (rahayu, 1997). the evidences showed that psychological skill training was a pivotal training in sport development. patience, bravery, sportsmanship, self-confidence, motivation, etc. are some important psychological aspects in sport development. those psychological aspects need to be developed and improved earlier through a specific method which is called psychological skill training method such as goal setting, mental imagery, self-talk, emotional management, and others. goal setting is a technique to set the learning goal orientation to be achieved which leads pupils’ regulation thinking process in order to master the motor skill (anderson, 1997; and schunk & ertmer, 1999). goal setting plays an important role in educational process because it will help pupils to regulate their actions, to define their performance operationally, and to improve their learning achievement (ames & archer, 1988; and caroll et al., 1997). e.a. locke et al. (1981) and d.h. schunk and p.a. ertmer (1999) divided goal setting into product goal and process goal. b.j. zimmerman and a. kitsantas (1997 and 1999), in their study, developed some types of shifting goal. the process goal is a goal that focused on skill acquisition process related to technique used or strategy that can help pupils to master a certain task. in the process goal, motor skill learning is conducted by dividing skill target into several sub-skills as behavior target (schmidt & wrisberg, 2000) or critical features (knudson & morrison, 1996). in contrast, the product goal is focuses pupils’ attention on task completeness (schunk & ertmer, 1999). it focuses on high competence demonstration that is to be able to defeat others (ames & archer, 1988; and eggen & kauchak, 1999). the shifting goal is a combination between process goal and product goal. in the shifting goal, pupils began initally using process goals and then changed to product goal when the basic process has been mastered or when high service and defensive clear strategy was automated. b.j. zimmerman and a. kitsantas (1997) were conducted the first study on shifting goal advantage comparing to process goal and product goal. it was reported that the shifting goal experiment shows the highest result in acquisition of dart throwing motor skill, self-efficacy, self-reactions, and intrinsic interest level. meanwhile, the lowest result was achieved by product goal experiment group and the result of process goal was between shifting and product goal. the goal could influenced motor skill learning achievement because it points the focus directly to the important aspects from the skill learned, mobilizes effort, improves persistence, and develops new ways in learning (locke et al., 1981; gould, 1993; and cox, 2002). it will also indirectly influences psychological aspects such as anxiety, conviction, satisfaction, and motivation (gould, 1993). mental imagery is a set of activity to create or recreate in mind a correct object, occurrence or motor experience, and kept in memory (blischke et al., 1999). various educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 131 result of studies showed that mental imagery could facilitate sport-performance improvement (vealey & walter, 1993; and kossert & chandler, 2007). mental imagery can be used to enhance sport performance in various sport, both elite or non-elite athletes. for example, to improve accuracy and quality of table tennis strokes (li-wei et al., 1992), basketball free throw (onestak, 1997; and ramsey, cumming & edwards, 2008), golf (thomas & fogarty, 1997; jae-hoon & dug, 2003; and peluso et al., 2005), handball shooting (thill, mailhot & mounda, 1998), hockey (smith et al., 2001), shooting performance in biathlon (groslambert et al., 2003), water-ski (callow, roberts & fawkes, 2006), swimming (pavlidou & doganis, 2008), high jump (olsson, johnson & nyberg, 2008), rock climbing (jones et al., 2002), and so on. according to r. marten (1987) and r.h. cox (2002), goal setting and mental imagery were the integral part of the whole psychological skill method. goal imagine is an effective way to direct the athletes on a goal fulfillment and mental imagery can work effectively as the athlete set their goal specifically and realistically during mental imagery training. the more obvious and detail the object or the motor imaged, the more possible pupils will be able to see the chances they can achieve in their learning goal (shone, 1984). besides, by creating specific picture or image, pupils can decide critical aspects or key components that have to be the focus during the learning process (syer & connoly, 1990). as a result, the goal will be easier and faster to be achieved. according to this, the goal can be imaged and imaging process must be directed on goal. it is the best way to do mental imagery (shone, 1984). the responsibility of the coach, related to both psychological skills method above, is to attempt both implementation into integral part of the whole developing process, especially in acquisition learning process of badminton motor skill. it is because the effective and efficient acquisition is one of the standard determinants of an athlete’s sport achievement. the two of the main badminton motor skills which was firstly taught and having simplest motor complexity but plays an important role are high service and defensive clear. high service is one of the most frequent services used and it plays important role in single (poole, 1988). it is a service that points the shuttle cock high and far behind. then, the shuttlecock will turn over and fall as close as possible at the back boundary line (grice, 1996). thus, the opponent will move to the back part of the court and the front part of the defensive area will be widely open. besides, high service can also be very difficult to be shot since the shuttlecock will fall upright to the floor (davis, 1998). one type of overhead stroke often used and plays important role, especially in single, is defensive clear (a high lob to the back part of the court). defensive clear is a stroke done from overhead by forehand and the direction of the shuttlecock will fly-over to the opponent’s back part of the court. its aim is to defend or to get parity to the position before (edward, 1997; and davis, 1998). acquisition defensive clear is crucial since it is not only used often in single, but also the basic stroke to develop another strokes. the perfectly acquisition of both skills is crucial, since the technique of the stroke will determine the whole movements. it is not yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 132 only adequate to train the pupils physically, but certain psychological techniques are needed as well. based on the description, this study was intended to identify causal relation between psychological skill training method of goal setting and mental imagery to the learning achievement of badminton motor skill for high service and defensive clear strokes by involving motor ability as co-variable. the hypothesis proposed in this study are: (1) the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear motor skill given the shifting goal treatment is higher than process goal; (2) the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear motor skill given the mental imagery treatment is higher than not; (3) the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear motor skill that its learning oriented in shifting goal is higher than oriented in process goal to pupils given the mental imagery treatment or not; and (4) giving the mental imagery treatment will provides higher influence on learning achievement of high service and defensive clear motor skill than giving no mental imagery treatment to pupils oriented in shifting goal or oriented in process goal. methodology the study was conducted in badminton education and training for young age in the school of physical and health education upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) in bandung in 2008. fifty female pupils of 10-12 years old (mean = 10.8) were the subjects of this study. they were divided into four experimental groups and one control group by selected random. the instruments used in this study were included badminton motor skill test (high service and defensive clear tests), motor ability test, questionnaires of learning mental imagery process of high service and defensive clear motor skill, interview, and focus group discussion (fgd). the high service test was used to measure subject’s ability in doing stroke with racket swing from down to up in order to direct shuttlecock high and far to the back of the border part of opponent’s line. the validity coefficient was .60 and the reliability was .87. the defensive clear test was used to measure pupils’ ability in doing high and long stroke to the back part of opponent’s court. the type of the test used was the test made by indonesian recreational and physical fitness center, the department of education and culture in cooperation with young-age badminton training and development center bm 77 bandung, west java, indonesia (1995/1996). the validity alpha coefficient of this test was .74 and the reliability was .897. the motor ability test was used to measure subject’s ability in performing motor skill and physical activity entirely. the type of the test used was motor ability test for elementary children developed by arnheim and sinclair (kirkendall, gruber & johnson, 1980). the questionnaire of mental imagery process was used as manipulative verifying procedure on mental imagery process. the writer developed it with reference educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 133 to mental imagery questionnaire by r. marten (1987) consisting of 38 items. the items were described in two constructs of dimension, that is vividness and controllability. the alpha coefficient from the questionnaire was 0.86. the interview and fgd were conducted towards the subjects who were not given mental imagery treatment and in control group. the subjects were three persons that were from eg-1, eg-4, and g-5. the interview and fgd (focus group discussion) were used as the additional instrument to obtain additional information about the feasibility of process or result goal creation on research subject. the research design used was 2x2 factorial design. the implementation of the study was divided into three stages: preparation, implementation, and final stage. the preparation stage consisted of pre-experimental sub-stage, subjects’ selection, and motor ability test implementation. the treatment giving stage were education and training sub-stages. while the final stage including sub-stage of manipulative verification and final test. the experimental condition was based on determining classification of process and shifting goal, mental and non-mental imagery training classification as well. thus, there were four experimental groups: (1) eg-1 or first experimental group which combined shifting goal with imagery mental training; (2) eg-2 or second experimental group which combined process goal with mental imagery training; (3) eg-3 or third experimental group which combined shifting goal with non-mental imagery training; and (4) eg-4 or fourth experimental group which combined process goal with non-mental imagery training, and one additional group called g-5 or the control group. every group was placed in two different courts and separated from each other – then the groups conducted motor skill training of high service and defensive clear. the hypothesis testing was conducted by using two way factorial ancova. meanwhile, the manipulative verification data was analyzed by analytical technique of two mean (t-student). one way ancova was used to verify the comparison control group and all experimental groups; and omega-square (ω2) was to provide information useful for evaluating the practical of statistically significant value of two way factorial ancova, t-student, and one way ancova. besides that, it was also used for interview and fgd that were analyzed with content and inductive analysis. result according to the summary of two way factorial ancova in table 2 below, it is known that there were no significant result interaction between goal setting and mental imagery training. it was proved by the value of f (1.35) = .013 and p = .906 (insignificant), and the omega square index (ω2) = –.2 or –2%. table 1 and 2 displays f (1.35) = 6.029 and p = .018 (significant), the mean of learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill given shifting goal (m = 68.841) has higher learning achievement than those were yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 134 given process goal (m = 63.659). as conclusion, the pupils who were given shifting goal had significantly higher learning achievement of high service and defense clear badminton motor skill than those who experienced process goal. thus, the hypothesis was accepted. the power of treatment influence was proved by omega square index = .12 or 12%. table 1 means and standard deviations for the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill goal setting (a) process goal (a 1 ) shifting goal (a 2 ) imagery (b1) means 71.375 74.086 68.665 sd 9.165 8.497 8.820 without imagery (b2) means 61.125 63.597 58.652 sd 4.642 4.253 3.390 process goal (a1) means 68.841 ----sd 8.975 ----shifting goal (a2) means 63.659 ----sd 8.686 ----control means 56.544 ----sd 4.724 ----table 2 result summary of two way factorial ancova for learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill source df sum square mean square f p inter a 1 266.795 266.795 6.029 .018* inter b 1 988.897 988.897 22.346 .000** inter ab 1 .574 .574 .013 .906 inside 35 1548. 871 44.253 ------total 38 1805.137 ---------* = p < .05; ** = p < .01 as shown in table 1 and 2, it was resulted that f (1.35) = 22.346 and p = .000 (very significant). the mean of the learning achievement in high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill given the mental imagery treatment (m = 71.375) was higher than which not given (m = 61.125). as conclusion, the pupils who were given mental imagery treatment had significantly better learning achievement in high defensive and defensive clear badminton motor skill than who were not given. thus, the hypothesis was accepted. the omega square of index number was .51 or 51%. according to table 2 and 3, the result of pair comparison a 1 b 1 -a 2 b 1 was the value of t = 1.848 and p = .070 (not significant). the mean of a 1 b 1 (m = 74.086) is higher than a 2 b 1 (m = 68.665). it means that the shifting goal gives insignificantly educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 135 higher influence than the process goal towards the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill. hence, there was no significant influence between shifting goal and process goal on the learning achievemenet of high service and defensive clear in pupils who experienced mental imagery training. after verified by omega square analysis, the index number was .113 or 11%. table 3 result summary of post hoc pair comparation of two way factorial ancova in the score of learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill a,b 1,1 1,2 2,1 2,2 1,1 p .000 1.000 3.576 .001** 1.848 .070 5.261 .000** 1,2 p .000 1.000 -1.728 .089 1.686 .097 2,3 p .000 1.000 3.413 .002** 2,2 p .000 1.000 * = p < .05; ** = p < .01 from the pair comparison of a 1 b 2 -a 2 b 2 , the value of t = 1.686 and p = .097 (not significant). the mean of a 1 b 2 (m = 63.597) is higher than a 2 b 2 (m = 58.652). this result showed that the shifting goal gives insignificantly higher than the process goal setting towards the learning result of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill. hence, there was no significantly different influence between shifting goal and process goal toward the learning achievement on high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill to the pupils who did not experience mental imagery training treatment. thus, the hypothesis was not accepted. the index value of omega square was 0.084 (8%). from the pair comparison a 1 b 1 -a 1 b 2 , the value of t = 3.576 and p = .001 (very significant) with the mean a 1 b 1 (m = 74.086) is higher than a 1 b 2 (m = 63.597). this result showed that mental imagery training gives significantly higher influence than non-mental imagery training towards the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill. thus, the hypothesis was accepted. this result was built up by the result of omega square analytical test with index number of .371 or 37%. the pair comparison of a 2 b 1 --a 2 b 2 produced the value of t = 3.413 and p = .002 (very significant). meanwhile, the mean of a 2 b 1 (m = 68.665) is higher than a 2 b 2 (m = 58.652). as conclusion, the mental imagery training gives significantly higher influence than the non-mental imagery training on the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motoric skill. thus, the hypothesis was yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 136 accepted. the connection of index level reflects the power of treatment influence after analyzed by omega square test and the value was .347 or 35%. table 4 below shows the summary of the t-test analysis inter-groups. it shows that t = 4.864 and p = .000 (very significant), the mean of group a 1 (m = 31.700) is higher than the mean of group a 2 (m = 21.530). it means that there was a significant difference in mental imagery process between group whose subjects experienced imagery mental training with group whose subjects did not experience. table 4 summary of t-test analytical result inter-groups group n ∑x ∑x٢ mean standard deviation group x a 1 20 634 20846 31.700 6.275 a 1 -a 2 p 4.864 .000*a 2 20 427 10089 21.530 7.154 * = p < .05; ** = p < .01 based on the analytical result in table 5, the value of f (4.44) is 12.275 and p = .000 (very significant). it means, there is a significant difference between group a. furthermore, to more identify which group is significantly different, pair comparison analysis was used as shown in table 6. table 5 summary of one way ancova of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill source sum square df mean square f p inter a 2.297.001 4 574.250 12.275 .000** inside 1.985.616 44 45.128 ----total 4.282.617 48 ------* = p < .05; ** = p < .01 it can be concluded that the learning achievement from all experimental groups was significantly higher than the learning achievement from control group. the two experimental groups, eg-1 [t = 6.048; p = .000; ω² = .64 (64%) and eg-2 (t = 4.131; p = .000; ω² = .45 (45%)] showed a very significantly higher learning achievement. meanwhile, eg-3 learning achievement is significantly higher with its value of 2.292; p = .025; and ω² = .18 (18%). when comparing to eg-4, there was no significant difference and the value of t = .437; ρ = .668; and ω² = is .04 (4%). according to comparative analytical result between experimental groups, it was proved that eg-1 was insignificantly higher than eg-2 with the value (t = 1.917; p = .059; ω² = .12 (12%) and was significantly higher with eg-3 (t = 3.755; p = .001; ω² = .40 (40%) and eg-4 (t = 5.611; p = .000; ω² = .60 (60%). eg-4 was insignificantly different from eg-3 with its value of t = .839; ρ = .069; ω² = -.02 educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 137 (-2%), yet it is significantly higher than eg-4 (t = 3.694; p = .001; ω² = .39 (39%). last, eg-3 was insignificantly higher than eg-4 with its t value =1.855; p = .067; and index ω² = .11 (11%). table 6 summary of t-test between a and omega square index of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill source x 1 ω2 source x 1 ω2 a1-a2 p 1.917 .059 .12 (12 %) a2-a4 p 3.694 .001** .39 (39 %) a1-a3 p 3.755 .001** .40 (40 %) a2-a5 p 4.131 .000** .45 (45 %) a1-a4 p 5.611 .000** .60 (60 %) a3-a4 p 1.855 .067 .11 (11 %) a1-a5 p 6.048 .000** .64 (64 %) a3-a5 p 2.292 .025* .18 (18 %) a2-a3 p .839 .069 -.02 (-2 %) a4-a5 p .437 .668 -.04 (-4 % ) * = p < .05; ** = p < .01 discussion the evidence of subject’s group in which the learning oriented in shifting goal has significantly higher in learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill than the process goal supports the result of previous study about the advantage of shifting goal from process goal and product goal conducted by b.j. zimmerman and a. kitsantas (1997 and 1999). one of the reasons to explain this result is that goal shifting introduces pupils about the importance of knowledge of result from motor skill learned by them. pupils understand the importance of final product through learning process they do and it is not only able to reduce meta-cognitive demand from the skill that needs to be performed, but also to improve their motivation. by having proven that shifting goal gives significantly higher influence than process goal, it gives information on the existence of multiple goal strategy. it means that to master a motor skill more effectively and efficiently, pupils can set their learning goal they want to achieve hierarchically. moreover, the learning achievement of motor skill will be more effective if the learning process oriented to more than just one goal setting. the accepted hypothesis that stated the mental imagery training gives higher influence than the non-mental imagery training toward learning achivement of high yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 138 service and defensive clear badminton motor skill supports the previous finding results (li-wei et al., 1992; peynircioglu, thompson & tanielian, 2000; smith et al., 2001; jae-hoon & dug, 2003; peluso et al., 2005; and callow, roberts & fawkes, 2006). the pupils who experienced mental imagery training felt as if they had exercised twice, firstly in their minds and secondly in reality. this result also supports the evidence that the combination of mental imagery with motor skill training will actually give better result than the separation of the training (hall et al., 1998; bar-eli et al., 2002; and cumming, hall & shambrook, 2004). based on symbolic learning and bio-informational theory, mental imagery has cognitive function that can be used to perform and to repair specific motor skills. a. paivio (1985), also cited by j. byod and k.j. monroe (2003), called it cognitive specific imagery. the mental imagery training helps pupils create mental blue-print and develop mental plan about ways to perform motor skill that they will learn. all those mental plans can ease motor skill training process. it is because pupils can firstly exercise the skill they want to learn mentally in mind. this evidence also emphasizes on the importance of mental imagery training in motor skill learning process to be implemented. it is based on several functionalpractical reasons, that is: (1) as a supplemental training before and after training, even in spare time while waiting for the turn to exercise, especially if the class is abundant of pupils; (2) as device to train cognitive skill of pupils; (3) as device to accelerate the process of motor skill acquisition and more accurate motor response formation; and (4) giving influence to improve psychological aspects according to some studies. c. hall et al. (1998) called the last function as the motivational specific function of imagery which they described as a function to imagine goal fulfillment. related to success performance, this motivational function is proved to be able to increase motivation (fulgham, 1998; and kitsantas & zimmerman, 1998); to repair readiness level of regulation (haslam, 1990; and gordon, weinberg & jackson, 1994) and anxiety (magyar & chace, 1996; and marks, 1999); to improve self-eficacy (morris & thomas, 1995; and perry & morris, 1995); and self-confidence (fulgham, 1998; cumming, hall & shambrook, 2004; and callow, roberts & fawkes, 2006). the unaccepted hypothesis that stated the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear motor skill its learning oriented in shifting goal is higher than oriented in goal process to pupils given the mental imagery treatment or who not given proves that the difference of both kinds of goal setting effectively are not influenced by mental imagery training. this means that although every part of movement, all motor serial, and its final result of performance are imagined before, otherwise, it won’t be the appearance of significant different influence between the two kinds of goal setting. methodological reason caused the unaccepted hypothesis above. as it is known, the implementation treatment to the experimental group 1 (eg-1) with experimental group 2 (eg-2) was not controlled strictly. every group was placed into two separated courts, yet still in the same sport building and it was the same treatment educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 139 as to eg-3 and eg-4. this condition caused the influence of psychological and social aspect that could not be controlled well, as in the possibility of diffusion and novelty effect. in other words, the subject of the study could not be controlled well because the weakness to harness situational difference. yet one of the characteristics in the experimental study is controlling (furchan, 1982; and masrun, 1984). the fact mental imagery training gives insignificantly higher influence on the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill than the non-mental imagery training to either pupils given process goal treatment or shifting goal proved that the effectiveness of mental imagery training influence toward the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill is influenced by goal setting, either process or shifting goal. according to this result, if pupils want to begin mental imagery training, firstly they must know and understand their goal. they also must set their goal from every motor skill that will be imagined. it is because goal is the basic thing from all mental training (porter & foster, 1986), including the mental imagery training. distincness and pupils’ ability level to control the correct motor during mental imagery training are influenced by how sharp and detail the goal has been set. as a result, imagery training will work if the training process is directed to the goal (porter & foster, 1986; and marks, 1999). this result was supported by the result on omega square significant test in which the value of omega square is .35 (35%) and .38 (38%). the significant difference in mental imagery training process between the groups that given the treatment and not is an indication of the inexistence of informative diffusion process between groups’ subjects given the treatment and not. the score which was obtained by subject group who did not experience mental imagery training treatment is a real image from imagery ability as potential ability owned by every subject and is one of the factor which moderate mental imagery influence toward the improvement of performance (perry & morris, 1995). entirely, all experimental groups had very significantly higher learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill than the control group, except when comparing to experimental group of process goal (eg-4) and it was comparable statistically. this fact is presumably caused by the same instructional orientation, which both are directed to process goal. the evidence indicated that experimental group 1, 2, and 3 had significantly higher than the control group supports the previous studies about psychological skill learning method influence effectiveness, especially goal setting and mental imagery training toward learning improvement and performance (gould, 1993; gordon, weinberg & jackson, 1996; fulgham, 1998; and bar-eli et al., 2002). therefore, psychological skill training as an educational training program in order to develop and improve psychological physical skill simultaneously should be the integral part of physical and technical training program existing nowadays. it is because many results of studies showed that psychological training was as crucial as physical training in the effort to improve technical skill (fulgham, 1998). yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 140 conclusion and recommendation the psychological skill training method of mental imagery and goal setting influences the learning achievement of high service and defensive clear badminton motor skill, but the standard of motor skill learning achievement intended was not determined by interaction between goal setting and mental imagery training. the instructional oriented on shifting goal gave higher motor skill learning achievement than process goal learning achievement and motor skill instructional which was completed with mental imagery training shows higher learning achievement than instructional with only using physical or technical training. goal setting influences the instructional effectiveness completed with mental imagery training. in contrast, mental imagery training does not influence the learning achievement effectiveness oriented on goal setting. it is necessary to integrate psychological skill training method of goal setting and mental imagery into the existing training program in a whole. teacher, trainer, sport coach, and policy maker have jobs and responsibility to design the structure and the schedule to make them uninterrupted by the existing program. advanced study should be conducted to apprehend the influence of psychological skill training method either on physical skill aspect acquisition or on psychological skill aspect development by involving advanced subject development in club, educational and training, school, educational and training center, or national level. moreover, another psychological skill method needs to be concerned, such as emotional management, self-talk, interpersonal relation, and others. there are a lot of teachers, trainers, athletes, and coaches who do not understand well about the substance and the importance of psychological skill training method of mental imagery and goal setting in sport development. therefore, it is necessary to conducts socialization through a training, workshop, panel discussion, or seminar involving related parties including psychologists. manipulative verification for mental imagery training method can be implemented not only through questionnaires as in this study, but also through reviewing motor skill understanding which will be imagined and physiological responsive measurement, such as pulse, respiratory rhythm, and muscles movement related to the movement which will be conducted through electromyographic device. references ames, c. & j. archer. 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(1999). “acquiring writing revision skill: shifting from process to outcome self regulation goal” in journal of educational psychology, 91(2), pp.241-254. yusuf hidayat, the effect of goal setting and mental imagery intervention 144 there are a lot of teachers, trainers, athletes, and coaches who do not understand well about the substance and the importance of psychological skill training method of mental imagery and goal setting in sport development. educare august 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 43 literary history, about authors and periods, and literary types will be so much useless baggage if he has not been led primarily to seek in literature a vital personal experience. in turn, reading literary text requires highly involvement from reader. the more reader’s attention is on the more personal lived-through evocation of literary work. in other words, the more aesthetic stance is the most appropriate when reading and interpreting literary text. it is the core of transactional theory from l.m. rosenblatt (1978 and 1991) about transaction between reader and text. besides, d. bleich (1975:4) assumes that the role of personality in giving response is the most fundamental fact of criticism. thus, there is no absolute response of a literary text rather there can be several probable responses, depending in part upon what the reader bring to the text. the transaction between readers and text can only be done if classroom applies response-based-classroom; the task in teaching yayu heryatun, m.pd. is a lecturer at the english department iain (institut agama islam negeri or state islamic religion institute) “sultan maulana hasanuddin” in banten, indonesia. for academic purposes, the author is able to be contacted via her e-mail at: yayuheryatun@yahoo.com introduction any text can be considered as literary text provided they are read as aesthetic objects by a number of readers. it is in line with what l.m. rosenblatt (1991) says that texts become “literary” when they are chosen by a sufficient body or reader community to be read as aesthetic objects as opposed to documents. in other words, it is the reader who determines whether a piece of text is literature. therefore, literature should be thought as literary evocation. quoted l.m. rosenblatt (1991), then, c. cox and l. many (1992:25) put forward that literary evocation is the process in which readers select out ideas, sensation, feelings, and images drawn from his past linguistics, literary, and life experience; and synthesizes them into a new experience. this literary evocation makes literature as expression of the personalities of readers. l.m. rosenblatt (1978) and r.e. probst (1990) quoted that all student’s knowledge about yayu heryatun how students make meaning from literary text? abstract: this research was intended to explore how students make meaning whenever they read a literary text. it employed a qualitative method to find out how students responded to literary text in meaning making, type of responses produced by students after reading a literary text, and condition where students produced those responses. it was a case study involving seven students who were taking a course of prose and their teacher. classroom observation, questionnaire, and interview served as the data collection method. the result of this research indicated that students responded to literary text in making meaning through multiple reading with different purposes ranging from reading for gaining general idea, reading for learning from the text to reading for searching information. in addition, the way students read a literary text was through the continuum from aesthetic reading to efferent reading. the process of making meaning was demonstrated by most students through questioning about text itself and bringing the text to their lives. students posed questions dealing with the element of story. responses that students produced after reading a literary text was different, vary from restatement, associative, figurative, and emotional responses. based on these findings, it is recommended for teachers that they should be explicit in stating their expectation on what students should achieve. meanwhile, although students themselves who provide and choose literary text, they should select literary text based on their reading skills, in case of choosing the easy ones. key words: meaning, reader response, literary text, aesthetic reading, efferent reading, and interaction of students and teachers in the classroom. yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 44 literature is to help students think, not to tell them what to think (probst, 1998:16). j.w. swope and e.h. thompson (1986:75) also emphasize that teaching literature is aimed to help students to think actively about literary text. that is to engage students in active reading of text, to respond to and interact with it afterwards, and to explore meaning. it means that making meaning from reading literary text is dynamic, reflective, and interpretative process. it will come, in turn, to multiple responses among students and they tend to be more tolerant of multiple interpretation and they are better equipped to examine the arguments of others. in short, in responsebased classroom, students become critical readers. thus, making meaning in reading literary text can seem greatly interesting and challenging for efl (english as foreign language) students (alwasilah, 2001). the main question of this research is: “how students make meaning from literary text?”. the main question will be guided by following three questions: (1) how do students respond to literary text in making meaning?; (2) what responses do students produce after reading literary text in an attempt to make meaning?; and (3) in what condition are the responses produced? review of literature reading based on transactional theory is defined as an event involving a particular reader and a particular text, happening at a particular time under particular circumstances in a particular social and culture setting, and as part of the ongoing life of the individual and the group (rosenblatt, 1978; and corcoran, 1987). the reader is active and the text only consists of marks on the page until the reader transacts with it. it means that meaning resides in the negotiation among readers in an interpretive community, not in the text, in authorial intention or in individual statement concerning that significant of text (cox, 1999:268). furthermore, according to l.m. rosenblatt (1978), although all reading occurs as experienced meaning, each reader assumes a stance or focuses his or her selective attention in different ways. any text can be read more aesthetically or more efferently. a reader moves back and forth on a continuum from aesthetic to efferent. during aesthetic reading, reader’s focus is on his or her own “lived through” experience of reading event, or more private aspects. in other words, an aesthetic reading focuses on the association, feeling, attitudes and ideas that the text arouses in the reader. during efferent reading, reader’s focus is on the information he or she will take away from the text or more public aspects. most readings involve a mixture of both stances, and a single reader may adopt a different stance toward the same text at different times and in different situations. wolfgang iser (1998:93) also conveys that the reader’s communication with the text is dynamic process of self-correction, reader is always looking forward and backward at the same time. reading literary text, then, involves a great deal of critical thought, particularly characterized by the exploration of possibilities. this can be done by posing questions concerning issue on the literary text. questioning is an effective tool which help readers make meaning of literary text by thinking about what is being read. students posed questions when read literary text to what make them curious to know. before reading, they use question to activate prior knowledge, make prediction. during reading, students form questions to compare and generalize and clarify meaning. after they read, students use questioning to locate information, understand and remember events and characters, and identify theme. it can be regarded as a proof of transaction between readers and text. it is also supported by r.w. beach and j.d. marshall (1991:70) that more importantly it is a question that directs attention the transaction between readers and text and not simply to the text alone. in other words, it is such kind of aesthetic questions. besides, j. langer (1994) proposes that posing questions is treated as part of the literary experience as students themselves are regarded as envisionment builders. questions themselves often occurred in the second reading. it can be understood because educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 45 the first reading is generally uncritical (pope & woodlief, 2007). plot or the reconstruction “what happens” is primary importance at this stage. furthermore, they state that in second reading, readers are re-reading for questioning text. one way to make rereading more effective is to organize the specific questions that call for a comparison between the first and second reading. reader will be asked to re-examine their position toward the story after second reading. they are also asked to speculate how closely they to the story through inferences, predictions, and connections. mostly what makes respondents concerned is what is called as elements of story. it is parallel with j. langan (2002a:611) who suggests that issue to discuss in literary text is element of story such as character, plot, and so on. another way that readers attempt to make meaning is through involving a text that they read to their own lives. in line with this, f. palmer (1992) and m.r. hancock (1992) assert that text to life connection is common in aesthetic transaction. this can be done throughout imagining what readers would do in character’s place, try to understand characters in story, in term of how people would act in similar situation as if it is in the real world. in specifically, reader steps into the main character’s shoes and relates what she/he imagines to the character’s underlying emotions, feelings, and state of mind. literary experience also helps students understand the community in which they lived. it is in line with what d. bleich (1975:48) states that at one side, individual’s response to literature is subjective; and the other side, the process by which her/his response becomes a form of knowledge is determined by the community of interpreters, in this case in/ out classroom, to which reader belongs. furthermore, in specifically, students’ expectations (hancock, 1992; and galda & beach, 2001) to character in story influence their response to literary text. for example, research has shown how readers have expectation for how people ought to behave, as readers treat characters as people regardless of the fact that they exist only in literary transaction; how readers become involved with characters, often comparing character feeling, and action with their own or readers resist or reject a story which does not reflect their cultural expectation. those are evidences for inter-textual connection that individual readers make between texts and their life experience. however, it is very important to establish the purposes of reading. because the different purposes of reading will lead to different modes of reading, in turn, to different criteria of evaluation of the “meaning” evoked. if the purpose is literary, the important think is that readers relate to the text and to one another (rosenblatt, 1991:447). the different experience produced during their transaction with it or vice versa. the ability to adopt the stance on the continuum approach to their particular personal purposes and to the situation. in short, the ability to read both aesthetically and efferently. meanwhile, rabinowitz clarifies that when reading a piece of literary text for the first time, students are much more concerned with is called as reading of configuration, namely reading that seek to understand what will happen next (cited in marshall et al., 1995:126). it is done for gaining general idea from text that they read. w. grabe and f.l. stoller (2002:13) express that in reading literary text, we read for learning from text. it is usually carried out at reading rate slower and done by connecting text information with background knowledge. for example, connecting a character, event to other character events. besides, p.l. carell and j.c. eisterhold (1988:88) explain that in efl (english as foreign language) context, readers emphasize more for learning from text that they read. thus, in process of understanding both other culture and our own culture through reading a literary text, readers try to apply real world beyond the printed page. meanwhile, in reading for searching information, we sometimes slow down to process the meaning of a sentence in searching of clues that might indicate the right chapter. d. bleich (1975) and j.w. swope and e.h. thompson (1986) assert that after students read a work of literature, they need to connect the literature to their own experience. the literature journal enables students to make these connections. there are 4 types of responses: yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 46 first, re-statement responses. it is a textbased response. readers have not analyzed the text in depth. it is like a retelling of the content. r.w. beach and j.d. marshall (1991:104) express that retelling as one of response activities assist students to sort out the most from the least relevant event, relate to understanding the point of text. for example, students focus on aspects related to the story conflict, then, by recalling these particular aspects, students lay the groundwork for further interpretation of the story. in addition, b. corcoran (1987:204) states that retelling is a necessary part of formulating more sophisticated responses. retelling also lets teachers know what has not been understood and it allows people to know how they feel about a literary text. second, emotional responses. this response indicates readers’ immediate feelings about literature. it allows readers to analyze and make sense of their subjective reactions. third, associative responses. it clarifies readers to relate their experience of reading to some part of the readers’ subconscious experiences. it also shows us that each individual rework a poem according to the demands of her/his personality at her or his personality at the time of reading. fourth, figurative responses. this response asks readers to identify a feature that regarded important such as word, phrase, sentence, theme, character, etc; and attempt to identify why that feature attracted their attention. those type of responses develop throughout the literary competence. as defined by d.l. spiegel (1998) and safrina noorman (2003) that the ability to read a text as a whole is to master of a set of conventions for reading a literary text. furthermore, they state that readers’ knowledge of convention allows readers to make sense of a literary text. understanding literature depends on experience and mastery. therefore, reading literature means making sense of ways we try to make sense of our lives (spiegel, 1998; and noorman, 2003). since reading regarded as a transaction between text and reader, it implies how the importance of reader’s role in interpreting text. it means that it rejects the idea of fixed meaning which inherent in every literary text. in other words, through a transaction with text, readers create his or her meaning based on personal association – their emotion, concern, life experience, and knowledge to their reading; then, each interpretation from each reader will be subjective and unique. in turn, it will influence to the position of text, students, and teacher in response-centered-classroom. in term of position of students, students will think actively about literature, that is, to engage in active reading of the text, to respond to and interact with it afterwards, and to explore meaning through class discussion (langan, 2002b). l.m. rosenblatt (1978) and b. corcoran (1987) regard that the literary process as a negotiation of meaning and the readers’ role as a co-creator. students should be made to feel that her/his own response to literary text is worth expressing, and then encourage students to develop their own interpretation and gain vision from other because there is more than one way to interpret any piece of literature. students are not simply taking information when they read. students will begin to make personal connection between literary text, their own lives, and the world. students will read and develop their own responses to text. in term of position of teacher, teacher is not a source of the standard interpretation of a text anymore. there is no one “right” answer or “correct” interpretation, the diverse responses among students are key to discovering the variety of possible meaning a text can evoke. it is in line with what c. cox and l. many (1992:32-33) emphasize that teacher should allow students opportunities to make choice about how they will organize their evocation of text. besides, teachers also allow students to talk to themselves as well as to each others; it means that teacher should invite and encourage students to make personal and intertextual connection. those can be achieved through the instruction that played by teacher. d. bleich (1975:4) states that classroom also play role in term of how a classroom as a literary community can negotiate among students’ responses. responses to literary text can be enhanced through community in the classroom. in turn, it will lead to create a educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 47 democratic classroom. finally, students who are schooled in response-centered-classroom where their responses to literature are valued in developing a sense of ownership, pride, and respect with regard to learning. method, respondents, and data collection this research used a qualitative method, because it searched to investigate how students respond to literary text. what type of responses that students produce and in what condition the responses are produced. it is in line with what s.b. meriam (1991) and j. maxwell (1996) emphasize that the focus of qualitative study is on process. this research also a case study as it was an examination of a specific phenomena. yin, as quoted by s.b. meriam (1991:10), defines case study as a design particularly suited to situation where it is impossible to separate the phenomenon’s variable from their context. it means this research was only an analysis of single social unit, namely the chosen students, in a certain period of time (meriam, 1991:9). relating to this research, it referred to students who took prose subject and their teacher. therefore, a qualitative case study allowed me to explore what students experience when interacting with literary text. the research also used of multiple sources for evidence such as data derived from questionnaire, observation, and interview (alwasilah, 2002). in this research, i used detailed observation, questionnaire, and interviews to provide me a real picture of what was happening to students and a teacher. in doing this research, i needed not only appropriate method but also appropriate respondents as key informants who were struggling for their prose assignment, and they were also able to reflect on and articulate their thought and experience in making meaning for the researcher what is going on. the selection of respondents was very important decision. i selected a small group of students for indepth case study. seven students were selected to form a purposeful sampling for providing important information that can’t be gotten as well from other choices. j. maxwell (1996:7071) also states that purposeful sampling is done to search people who are able to be informative, because they are expert in area or were privileged witnesses to an event. multiple data collection were employed in this research. there were observation, questionnaire, and interview. about observation. in this research, i positioned myself as participant, as observer, or observer-as-participant. it meant i participated in classroom interaction; however, my participation was not dominant as my role as an observer of teaching-learning process as what as observer as participant was suggested to do (alwasilah, 2002:220). observation was aimed to get authentic data on the actual activities that occurred in prose. during observation, i found students often wrote their response on journal toward stories that they had read before they did presentation in the classroom. thus, students’ response journal play as a part of observation data. about questionnaire. questionnaire was intended to gain authentic data from students in form of written data. i used two form of questionnaires: open and closed questionnaire. the data from questionnaire were employed as a basic of the questions in the interview. thus, questionnaire data were only used to cross check the answer from other data. ` about interview. i formulated interview questions into three parts. the first part addressed about the responding to reading short story. the second part identified responses that students produce. the last part concerned about the condition of teachinglearning process which made students produce the responses of literary text. by conducting this interview, it made me confident to get comparable data across subject. findings and discussions the data were analyzed through the use of qualitative data analysis. i analyzed the data from observation including students’ journal, the data from questionnaire, and the data from interview to seven students and one teacher. those and other relevant document were read repeatedly. the data consists of analysis to answer research questions. the first is to describe how students respond to literary text; the second is to identify the type of responses yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 48 that students produced; and the third is to investigate in what condition the responses are produced. summaries the responding to literary text, as showed by respondents, are as follows. on the multiple reading with different purposes. students had multiple literary texts for reading. there are different purposes that emerging from respondents: first, reading for general idea. research showed that readers were reading a literary text for the first time. they were much more concerned with what l.m. rosenblatt (1978 and 1991) called that reading which seek to understand what will happen next as aesthetic reading. it focuses on what readers experience in the act of reading. while in what c.a. purves (1993) calls it as reading for configuration. r#4 (respondent 4) stated that her first purpose whenever reading a short story was to achieve a general idea. she stated that “reading for the first time, i cannot imagine how the content of story is. then, i read the whole story and understand where the plot is but i just understand and i have no expectation how all character should act” (interview with r#4, 9/10/2012). second, reading for learning from text. some respondents admitted that they read short story for learning as a lesson. they seemed believe that story brought something useful for their own life. it is in line with what r.e. probst (1990) said that a piece of literary text has moral lesson. r#6 (respondent 6) admitted whenever she read a story to gain something useful for her life. “frankly speaking, i read story because i want to learn for knowing more the various characters in human life as story is a picture of daily life” (interview with r#6, 11/10/2012). third, reading for searching information. some respondents focus was on the information that she or he took from story. r#5 (respondent 5) admitted that she slowed down to process the meaning of a sentence to get the right information. “i read short story carefully to find out the right information what story means. it means firstly i translate words or foreign terms by looking up the dictionary” (interview with r#5, 10/10/2012). it is in line with w. grabe and f.l. stoller (2002) idea that we sometimes slow down to process the meaning of a sentence. it is done to locate the information that might indicate what sentence means. on the questioning about story. respondents posed questions to make them become involved to story. besides, respondents had expectation relating to what character did. it is supported by mellor and petterson that how readers’ expectation for characters’ action influence their responses (cited in galda & beach, 2001:65). r#4 (respondent 4) experienced in questioning text. she was rather surprised and disappointed to the character’s attitude. “i am surprised and disappointed to ryan. he should be glad to have a wife who is smart. because of his egoism, he is ashamed to his friends in the office that his wife has higher education than he has. therefore, he doesn’t allow his wife to study again because the wife’s job is to take care household and children” (interview with r#4, 9/10/2012). related to the end of story, respondents expressed their disappointment in term of how writers closed their stories, the resolution of plot. besides, the way respondents interact with a literary text was influenced by their expectation to have happy ending. r#7 (respondent 7) conveyed that although he table 1: responding to literary text responding to literary text r#1 r#2 r#3 r#4 r#5 r#6 r#7 total 1. multiple reading with different purposes: a. reading for general idea b. reading for learning from text c. reading for searching information v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v 7 4 4 2. questioning about story v v v v v v 6 3. bringing text to life v v v v v v 6 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 49 made a distance to text because he wanted to make text objective, he still had a question for text dealing with element of story such as plot especially in the part of resolution. “i am always interested to know how ending of this story is” (interview with r#7, 12/10/2012). on the bringing text to life. it means that readers step into characters’ shoes, then, they relate what they imagine to be the character’s underlying emotions, feeling, and state of mind (cox & many, 1992:30). r#2 (respondent 2) said that he tried to involve to story to make him concern and understand about story. it was done through tolerating what character did. “we cannot blame why a acts like that and b does because they have different reasons” (interview with r#2, 7/10/2012). meanwhile, r#3 (respondent 3) conveyed that it was easier for her to understand story because her feeling was involved to story. then, she sateted as follows: i am the sensitive one, my emotion always involves to story, i am so upset to caren as she kicks the old lady who adopts her. i am glad to caren when she dances by wearing the red shoes and i feel sad when caren passed away. that’s me, i always involve to what i watch like watching television. if there is a sad scene, i cry but if there is funny thing i laugh (interview with r#3, 8/10/2012). the majority of respondents demonstrated their responses toward what short story they had read. the responses ranged from textbased, respondent’s personal feeling to what part of short story that respondents think, it is the most important. first, re-statement responses. all respondents used the retelling of the short story’s content by using their own words as a first response to what short story they have already read. bleich explained that restatement is a text-based response (cited by noorman, 2003:268). the readers have not analyzed the text in depth. r#7 (respondent 7) said in interview that “readers want to know the content of short story, so when i share my story to my friends i just retell what the content of story is. besides, the message of story as a human being, we have to be able to survive wherever we live (interview with r#7, 12/10/2012). second, associative responses. in this response, respondents related their reading experience to some part of the readers’ subconscious experience. d. bleich (1975:48) stated that associative response is the most complex and the most useful form in expressing feeling about literature. readers rework a poem according to the demand of his personality at the time of reading. respondents tried to become involve through such a way like becoming one of characters in the story. story related to reader’s own world (langer, 1994; and marshall et al., 1995). r#3 (respondent 3) claimed that by involving through story, it made her understand story easily, feel symphaty to character of a story. in her journal, she wrote as follows: reading this story, i feel like on the earth. it means karen reminds me about parents’ love. i can feel the same as karen, so that i must change my attitude to make my parents proud of me. if i were karen, i would love the old lady who adopts me. i won’t make her hurt because of my egoism. i will obey her command. if i make mistakes, i’ll beg her apologize, then i will try to forget all my dreams about the princess and willingness to using the red shoes. that old lady is the most important person for my life. this story also likes “malin kundang”. he disobeys parents and get curse. karen got died with her confession of sin, but “malin kundang” died with his sin to his mother (interview with r#3, 8/10/2012). it was obvious that association made reading literary text became meaningful for table 2: types of students’ responses r#1 r#2 r#3 r#4 r#5 r#6 r#7 total 1. restatement responses v v v v v v v 7 2. associative responses v v v v v v 6 3. figurative responses v v v v v v 6 4. emotional responses v v v v v 5 yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 50 students themselves. d.l. spiegel (1998) pinpoints that making connection between what students have read to the world around them, it helps students to make sense to their own world. when students first begin responding, their responses are often somewhat superficial. later, as they gain experience and trust in the process, their responses often become more reflective and show a greater depth of understanding. r#4 (respondent 4) asserted that although she has not experienced yet like character experiences in story, she could get lesson that story made her realized to her existence in the world. she inserted the famous proverb to support her reason why she wrote like that. she said then as follows: the story reminds me that in real life i cannot close my eyes to the people surrounded me. sometimes, i asked myself why life is so hard to pass. on one side, i see people that lived in the wealth but on other side, i see people that lived in poverty. i aware that “god disposes, man purposes”. it is normal, there are rich men and poor men and if that happens may be the balance of it will happen. this story makes me realize and thank fullness to god for his gift to me and reminds me to keep holding to god every time. everywhere and whatever happened because everything lives because of him (interview with r#4, 9/10/2012). third, figurative responses. each readers had a different sense of what “important” means for them. what one reader regards important is various. according to d. bleich (1975:57), the importance of story is a result of importance to the reader. the subjective importance is the first matter to be determined, and the importance in the story is a secondary consideration. these sense of importance is showed in figurative responses. r#2 (respondent 2) explained that the plot of story was the most important for him. he claimed that he plot of story the adventure of tom sawyer liked his own life. furthermore, he wrote as follows: after i read this story, it reminds me to my own experience. i have experience whatever was done by the boy. the boy wanted to be a good boy, that want i experience now, being a good boy. he promised to free from bad things. however, finally he returns to be a bad boy after everyone lies him. in this case, because i myself have experience too, whoever wants to make the life better, there must be supported by other elements such as friends, neighbor, etc. (interview with r#2, 7/10/2012). fourth, emotional responses. it clarifies readers’ immediate feeling about literature. readers treat characters as people regardless of the fact that they exist only in literary transaction, how readers become involved with characters, often comparing character feeling and action with their own, and how readers resist or reject a story which does not reflect their cultural expectation. those are evidences for inter-textual connection that individual readers make between texts and their life experience. it was obvious that reader’s emotional responses are essential to understand a text (purves et al., 1990a and 1990b). r#5 (respondent 5) expressed her feeling to a main character in the story three hundred pesos as follows: i so hated to anastacio as the main character of this story. because he is stingy and greedy. he does not care to other’s problem even his own sister’s problem, but truly. i have ever felt like anastacio. i don’t know why. it is hard for me to lend money for my own friend eventhough at that time i had enough money to be lent. on the other side, i like anastacio. i like his working hard, his willing to be succeed and make his dream become the fact, have his own store (interview with r#5, 10/10/2012). later, r#5 analyzed her own position toward story whether she liked anastacio or not, then she noted that: thus, i can see the positive and negative side of anastacio. i really feel sorry to the end of anastacio’s life. he did not beg an apologize to his brother and sister of what he has done to them many times ago. i hope it does not occur to my life and i think anastacio’s death is too easy, because he passed away without getting the suffering as well as his brother and sister got (interview with r#5, 10/10/2012). about condition where the responses are produced. the response-based-classroom occurs in the certain condition of classroom. d. bleich (1975) claims that responses to the text can be enhanced through community in the classroom. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 51 first, a classroom where students’ talk is dominant. j. langer (1994:208) explained that one of guidelines of literary instruction is to encourage students to speak to one another, to explore possibilities, and develop understanding one another. r#6 (respondent 6) admitted that “for the first time i take the benefit of discussion. during discussion we find differences among friends and we can solve it, the lecture does not involve at all. she really plays as a good facilitator” (interview with r#6, 11/10/2012). students time talking occurred in small group discussion. r.w. beach and j.d. marshall (1991:58-59) asserted that small group discussion allows each participants to have more opportunities to speak. students are not dependent on the teacher to guide them, they become accountable to themselves. r#2 (respondent 2) noted what he got from small group discussion. “the teacher asked us to hold a small group discussion. there, we can express our opinion and develop our imagination where the plot of story will go” (interview with r#2, 7/10/2012). it was in line with what teacher expected. through interview, r#5 (respondent 5) explained the objective to make a small group discussion as follows: there are some objectives of forming small group. first, it is one of learning activities in classroom in order to make prose not boring. second, through grouping, students discuss, learn each other, share ideas, and i am sure that they will understand text more than if they learn by themselves. third, through discussion, they encourage to develop their thinking activities and it will develop their critical thinking. fourth, it gives opportunities to in-active students for participating as they are more ready to share in small group discussion (interview with r#5, 10/10/2012). the condition is accordance with what l.m. rosenblatt (1978 and 1991) said that classroom situation and the relationship with the teacher should create a feeling of security. class must become a comfortable and non combative place. second, a classroom where nonthreatening atmosphere is created. the classroom situation and the relationship with teacher should create a feeling of security. it is important to run response-centered classroom. in line with this, r.e. probst (1990:25) called as receptivity. teachers have to establish an atmosphere in which students feel secure to respond openly. r#1 (respondent 1) said that “i am not scared to ask something if i don’t understand. if other lessons, i am ashamed because my vocabulary is limited. indeed, i am not scared when my friend in my group ask me to speak in front of class” (interview with r#1, 6/10/2012). third, a classroom where multiple interpretation is accepted. leaving room for possible interpretation is a heart of critical thinking in literature (langer, 1994:204). students learn to see themselves as readers. instead of relying on a teacher of a standard interpretation of text, students also learn to construct their own meaning by connecting the text to issues in their lives. besides, through interacting in groups, students move beyond their initial reaction to take into multiplicity interpretation. r#3 (respondent 3) noted, “the teacher does not give us the limitation whatever our responses, so she gives us a room for exploring our understanding” (interview with r#3, 8/10/2012). however, giving freedom for expressing whatever students’ response made some of students confused to decide which one was more acceptable for each responses. table 3: the condition of classroom r#1 r#2 r#3 r#4 r#5 r#6 r#7 total 1. a classroom where students’ talk is dominant v v v v v v 6 2. a classroom where non threatening atmosphere v v v v v 5 3. a classroom where multiple interpretation is accepted v v v v 4 4. a classroom where cooperative work between teacher and students occurs v v v v 4 yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 52 furthermore, r#1 (respondent 1) stated, “teacher never says whether our response is right or wrong. whatever our responses, she will say it is good. therefore, all responses are regarded as a good response. it makes me confused” (interview with r#1, 6/10/2012). it is obvious that teacher should also be explicit in stating her instruction and her expectation to avoid students’ confusing. teacher seemed to take for granted that students understand to what she expected and asked. fourth, a classroom where cooperative work between teacher and students occurs. teacher who joined the class as another reader like themselves made them encourage to participate in learning activity. r#3 (respondent 3) explained, “teacher as a friend in learning makes me comfortable and i have sprit in learning prose and if we hold discussion she sometimes poses a question” (interview with r#3, 8/10/2012). teacher had a decisive role to make students become an active reader. starting form giving some guiding questions in some meeting, posing some aesthetic questions, making small group, giving help if needed, putting herself as a member of classroom. r#4 (respondent 4) expressed her high appreciation to teacher’s attitude when conducting teaching learning process, as follows: every student has to give response to what story that we have read and during discussion we learn to appreciate our classmates’ responses. she is different from other teacher in term of giving opinion and input. when we have different ideas with her, she accepts it and then she conveys her opinion. so, she is more open-minded. i think she is the best teacher, the first teacher who can receive feedback from students (interview with r#4, 9/10/2012). conclusion students responded to literary text in making meaning through multiple reading with different purposes. first, they read short story for gaining general idea. second, they read short story for learning from text itself and the last, they read short story for searching information. in term of how they read short story, they demonstrated by continuum between aesthetic reading to efferent reading. in addition, during reading a literary text, they also posed questions about text itself. to make literary text easy to understand, they brought the text to their own lives. students produced different kind of responses in making meaning. the responses themselves are ranging from re-statement, associative, figurative to emotional responses. all respondents produced associative as well as figurative responses. the associative responses were produced through bringing the literary text to their lives. however, the difference sense of what most importance of literary text, in figurative responses, was varying among most respondents. expressing feeling as one way to make meaning presented by some respondents in emotional responses. the classroom condition which enables students to produce literary text as described by respondents are: classroom where students’ time talking was dominant, nonthreatening atmosphere was created, multiple interpretation was accepted, and studentsteacher’ cooperation occurred. in applying response-based classroom, although students themselves are meaning makers, teacher had a decisive role in helping students to make meaning from literary text. this involves selecting texts, welcoming any responses, and creating a conducive classroom. based on the research results, there are two suggestions, especially for teachers as well as for students related to this study, as follows: first, suggestion for teachers: regarding to teacher’s instruction, teacher should be explicit in stating his/her expectation what students should achieve in writing their response journal. it is needed because not all students understand what teacher expects. teacher also needs to set his/her own interpretation as a guidance to keep students’ response journal still on the right tract, in case of avoiding students’ confusing. in addition, it is important for teacher to encourage students’ personal to improve their ability in constructing meaning. in term of giving guiding questions, it should be given at earlier meeting because teachers’ knowledge is an asset and it should share with students in the proportional scope. second, suggestion for students: in selecting a literary text, although students themselves educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 53 who provide and choose it, they should consider it in term of the degree of difficulties. it is done to avoid some students who choose the easy one. since responses is resulted not only based on students’ personality but also as a result of students’ community, it will be better if students hold group discussion outside classroom from improving their own responses before presenting in the classroom discussion. references alwasilah, a. chaedar. (2001). language, culture, and education: a portrait of contemporary indonesia. bandung: c.v. andira. alwasilah, a. chaedar. (2002). pokoknya kualitatif: dasardasar merancang dan melakukan penelitian kualitatif. jakarta: pustaka jaya. beach, r.w. & j.d. marshall. (1991). teaching literature in the secondary school. usa: harcout brace jovanovich, inc. bleich, d. (1975). reading and feeling: an introduction to subjective criticism. illinois: national council of teachers of english. carell, p.l. & j.c. eisterhold. (1988). “schema theory and esl reading pedagogy” in p.l. carell et al. [eds]. interactive approach to second language reading. cambridge: cambridge university press. corcoran, b. (1987). “teacher create readers” in b. corcoran & e. emrys [eds]. readers, texts, teachers. england: open university press. cox, c. (1999). teaching language art: a student and response-centered classroom. boston: allyn and bacon. cox, c. & l. many. (1992). “toward an understanding of the aesthetic response to literature” in language arts, vol.69 [january], pp.28-33. galda, l. & r. beach. (2001). “response to literature as a cultural activity” in reading research quarterly, published by international reading association, pp.64-75. grabe, w. & f.l. stoller. (2002). teaching and researching reading. london: pearson education. hancock, m.r. (1992). ”literature response journals: insights beyond the printed page” in language arts, vol.69. interview with r#1 (respondent 1) in banten, indonesia: 6 october 2012. interview with r#2 (respondent 2) in banten, indonesia: 7 october 2012. interview with r#3 (respondent 3) in banten, indonesia: 8 october 2012. interview with r#4 (respondent 4) in banten, indonesia: 9 october 2012. interview with r#5 (respondent 5) in banten, indonesia: 10 october 2012. interview with r#6 (respondent 6) in banten, indonesia: 11 october 2012. interview with r#7 (respondent 7) in banten, indonesia: 12 october 2012. iser, wolfgang. (1998). the act of reading: a theory of aesthetic response. baltimore: the john hopkins university press. langan, j. (2002a). reading and study skills. boston: mc graw hill. langan, j. (2002b). “meaning making in literature” available in www.learner.org/chance/libraries/ makingmeaning/about/project.html [accessed in banten, indonesia: march 1, 2013]. langer, j. (1994). “a new look at literature instruction” in eric digest. marshall, j. et al. (1995). the language of interpretation: pattern of discourse in discussion of literature. illinois: national council of teachers of english. maxwell, j. (1996). qualitative research design: an interactive approach. thousand oaks: sage. meriam, s.b. (1991). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san fransisco: jossey-bass publisher. noorman, safrina. (2003). ”bukan sekedar respon: memupuk kesadaran kritis melalui pendekatan respon pembaca” in c.a. alwasilah & h. abdullah [eds]. revitalisasi pendidikan bahasa. bandung: stbayapari press, pp.263-375. palmer, f. (1992). literature and moral understanding: a philosophical essays on ethics, aesthetics, education, and culture. oxford: clarendon press. pope, m.c. & a. woodlief. (2007). “the rereading/ rewriting process: theory and collaborative on line pedagogy” available in http://www.vcu.edu/ engweb/home/theory.htm [accessed in banten, indonesia: april 6, 2013]. probst, r.e. (1990). ”literature as exploration and the classroom” in e.j. farrell & j.r. squire [eds]. transaction with literature: a fifty years perspective. illinois: national council of teachers of english. probst, r.e. (1998). response and analysis teaching literature in junior and senior high school. prosmouth: heinemann education books, inc. purves, c.a. et al. (1990a). how porcupines make love ii: teaching response-centered literature curriculum. new york: longman. purves, c.a. et al. (1990b). “can literature be rescued from reading?” in e.j. farrell & j.r. squire [eds]. transaction with literature: a fifty years perspective. illinois: national council of teachers of english. purves, c.a. (1993). ”toward a re-evalution of reader response and school literature” in language art, vol.70 [september]. rosenblatt, l.m. (1978). the reader the text the poem. usa: southern illinois university press. rosenblatt, l.m. (1991). ”literature – s.o.s.” in language art, vol.68 [october]. spiegel, d.l. (1998). ”reader response approaches and the growth of readers” in language arts, vol.76. swope, j.w. & e.h. thompson. (1986). “three r’s for critical thinking about literature: reading, riting, and responding” in j. golub [ed]. activities to promote critical thinking. usa: national council of teachers of english. yayu heryatun, how students make meaning from literary text? 54 interaction of students and teacher in the indonesian context (source: aspensi album photo, 9/10/2012) students produced different kind of responses in making meaning. the responses themselves are ranging from restatement, associative, figurative to emotional responses. all respondents produced associative as well as figurative responses. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 223 annierah m. usop is a ph.d. student at the school of social sciences usm (science university of malaysia), usm campus, 1800 minden, pulau pinang, malaysia. she can be contacted via her e-mail address at: asiyyahusop@yahoo.com the kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated (kfpdai): a peacebuilding exemplar annierah m. usop abstract: the purpose of this study is to find out whether or not the programs and activities employed by the kadtabanga foundation for peace and development incorporated (kfpdai) is a peace-building exemplar. the study may provide valuable information to the philippine government and the united nations development program on the specific programs and projects that have been implemented in the conflict affected communities so as to realize one of the provisions of the 1996 grp-mnlf (government of the republic of philippines – moro national liberation front) final peace agreement which is on the “extensive peace and development efforts in southern philippines”. the study may make them aware that the processes and means of non-governmental organizations are rigid and they could assure success. furthermore, there is still a dearth of materials regarding interventions for the purpose of rebuilding communities affected by armed conflict, especially in the philippines. this study is hoped to contribute something. whereas based on the major findings, the researcher concluded that the kfpdai is a peace-building exemplar. however, there are still challenges, but challenge does not mean they have failed to be a model. when the challenges are known, that is where enhancement begins. key words: kadtabanga foundation, development, philippine government, bangsamoro, peace-building, and organizational exemplar. introduction peace-building activities have been going on around the world. the main purpose is to rebuild communities hit by wars and strengthen them which could help prevent recurrences of armed conflicts. many communities have slowly healed the injuries and had been popularized, while others were remained untold. it is a process made-up of activities which include strategies or interventions that contribute to the constructive sustainable transformation from conflict situations to peaceful restructured relationships. its process also entails the coordinated efforts of many agencies and civil society groups. one of these is the kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated (kfpdai). annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 224 peace-building practices vary according to context. modeling, therefore, is important not only for the successes but also the failures. in this study, the processes of the kfpdai in their peace-building work in three peace and development communities (pdcs) were assessed. it also decided the results of the peace-building activities and interventions of the kfpdai as a peace-building exemplar. peace-building exemplar, an experience in the field of community peace-building that, is worth emulating because it follows all the prescriptions of peaceful processes and means. development aimed at enabling the people to restore the economic conditions they enjoyed before the armed encounters and gain capacities for livelihood whenever there was none. lasting peace and sustainable development is the aim of kfpdai. its peace advocacy is to provide educational campaign to internally displaced persons (idps) and research on traditional peacemaking practices in the community and conduct training on culture of peace (cop).the study employed a method. it described kfpdai as a peace-building exemplar. the respondents of the study came from different sectors of the pdcs, namely: mapayag of datu anggal, kauran of ampatuan, and tuka of sultan mastura municipalities. purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of the respondents. fgd (focus group discussion) and key informant interviews also used in gathering data. the survey instrument was administered to the respondents either individually or as a group. the survey questionnaire was used. it was intended to verify the information gathered through the survey and the interviews. they were supported by narrative or qualitative descriptions to give further explanations and substantial details. specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions: (1) what is the profile of the communities in terms of population areas in: hectares, annual income, and year the community became pdc?; (2) what are the peace-building programs and activities conducted by kfpdai in the communities?; (3) how did these contribute to the development of the communities; (4) what peace-building model can be drawn from the kfpdai experiences?; and (5) what are the success stories and what are the issues and challenges encountered by the pdas and how they addressed them? literature review it all started from the armed struggle in which the bangsamoro people asserted for their right to self-determination. the only way they think that they could do this is through an armed struggle, because the national government did not seem to listen to their complaints regarding injustices committed to the moro people (buat, 2007). g. alim (2005) related the history of the struggle by giving a brief account of the islamic era which began in the year 1310 ad (anno domini) through the efforts of arab traders, travelers, sufis (saintly muslims), and muslim missionaries. in the 15th century and early 16th century, the sultanate of sulu and maguindanao came into being. each sultanate was independent, had sovereign power, and had educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 225 diplomatic and trade relations with other countries in the region. c. cerezo (2009) related how the mindanao independence movement (mim) was organized by datu udtog matalam, former governor of the province of maguindanao. e. cantallopez (2010) presents two different accounts of the immediate causes of the widespread fighting in the early 1970’s. she cited how the ilonggo avenge guerilla activity (ilaga) or an armed group composed of ilonggos (people from iloilo) came into the picture. allegedly, they were formed to avenge the series of atrocities committed by the two armed moro groups: the black shirts and the barracudas of cotabato and lanao provinces respectively. she also mentioned p. pigkaulan (2009) who cited sources mentioning allegations of the moro groups only avenging the atrocities done to the moro people. c. cerezo (2009), e. cantallopez (2010), m. mua (2010), and n. macapantar (2010) have described historical events that led to massive confrontations between the two moro secessionist forces, the moro national liberation front (mnlf) and the moro islamic liberation front (milf) against the armed forces of the philippines (afp). peace negotiations between the panels representing the government of the philippines (gop) and the moro national liberation front (mnlf) started in 1975 and this resulted to the signing of the tripoli agreement in 1976 or the 1996 grp-mnlf (government of the republic of philippines – moro national liberation front) final peace agreement (kadil, 2002). this has also to do with self-empowerment, wherein the people themselves are enabled to solve their own problems. they implement their own programs, with financial and technical support from the united nations development program (rodil, 2006). as part of the implementation of the 1996 gop-mnlf final peace agreement, a group of mnlf “demobilized combatants” organized themselves into a nongovernment organization named helping foundation for peace and development advocates of the philippines incorporated (hfpdapi). they were among those who were given extensive training on peace-building by the government of the philippines – united nations multi-donor program (gop-unmdp) incapacitated. they have been facilitating the peace and development activities in the province of maguindanao, including the iranun municipalities of barira, buldon, and matanog. the peace and development advocates (pdas) worked under the auspices of the gop-unmdp, in different phases. in phases i and iii, the programs were mostly on developing capacities among the pdas. they were trained how to work with communities towards peace and development, employing peaceful processes. in phase 4 of the program, kfpdapi has evolved into a partner in peace and development work (linga, 2009). the moro national liberation front (mnlf) and the tripoli agreement. it all started with the mindanao independence movement (mim) that was organized by datu udtog matalam calling for the independence of mindanao and sulu from the philippine republic. when it appeared, the moro people that the mim did not gain popularity among the people, the immediate trigger was the jabidah massacre, a massacre of 200 filipino muslim military trainees on march 18, 1968 annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 226 in corregidor. an outraged group of muslims proclaimed the armed movement in 1972 (pike, 2008). in the beginning, the rebellion was a series of isolated uprisings that rapidly spread in the whole mindanao. the mnlf managed to bring many partisan moro forces to join the mnlf which, at that time, was still loosely organized. the mnlf was conceptualized and organized by abul khayr alonto and jallaludin santos who were at that time active with the bangsamoro movement. with muslim congressmen and leaders as advisers, they recruited young muslims from different tribes (pike, 2008). the events in the early 1970s were a crucial point in the history of mindanao. the government was pressured by both the people in the country and outside the country to stop the costly war. the war has become known in muslim countries, especially the oic (organization of islamic conference). it was in 1972, when the oic learned of the plight of the muslims in the philippines. they learned about what happened in mindanao through the reports rendered by then malaysian prime minister, tunku abdul rahman. the oic appealed to the top officials of the philippine government to give special attention to the muslims, especially those in mindanao (iribani, 2006). after securing an initial agreement, president ferdinand marcos went ahead and held a referendum, which seemed to indicate opposition to the inclusion of certain provinces, opposition to the degree of autonomy presumably wanted by the mnlf and support for marcos’ plan for two autonomous regions with 10 provinces under central control (kadil, 2002). finally in 1996, a compromise was finally reached by then mnlf and the government. this gave autonomy to the areas with muslim majorities. the area is currently called the autonomous region of muslim mindanao (alim, 2005). p. diaz (2003) clarifies that the muslim problem is just a part of the mindanao problem. he defines the muslim problem as socio-cultural and describes the mindanao problem as economic and political in nature. he explains also that the muslim problem is caused by internal factors such as social structure, culture, tradition, and social inequity. the philippine peace process, the mindanao peace process, and the final peace agreement. the usual expectation when a rebel group or a secessionist group enters into an agreement with the government, the former would surrender their arms to the latter. surprisingly, the case of the mnlf (moro national liberation front) leaders and field combatants does not follow this (ermita, 2002). h. burgess (2009) proposes a transformational approach that would still respect an armed group fighting against a legitimate armed force. he considers that conflict is an inevitable element in life. the principles set were the following: (1) a comprehensive peace process should be community-based, reflecting the sentiments, values, and principles important to all filipinos; (2) it should aim at forging a new social compact for a just, equitable, humane, and pluralistic society; and (3) a comprehensive peace process seeks a educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 227 principled and peaceful resolution of the internal armed conflicts with neither blame nor surrender, but with dignity for all concerned (ipulan-bautista, 2009). miriam coronel-ferrer (2002) describes the comprehensive peace process in terms of the “six paths to peace” as follows: (1) the pursuit of social, economic, and political reforms; (2) consensus building and empowerment; (3) negotiations with the rebel groups; (4) implementation of measures for reconciliation, reintegration into the mainstream society, and conflict management; (5) protection of civilians caught in the armed conflicts; and (6) the building, nurturing, and enhancing a positive climate for peace. fr. eliseo mercado, oblates of mary immaculate (omi), former president of notre dame university gives a separate discussion of the mindano peace process. he said that one of the major agreements forged between the panels to implement the 1996 final peace agreement is the creation of the spcpd or the southern philippines council for peace and development (mercado, 2006 and 2007). the 1996 grp-mnlf (government of the republic of philippines – moro national liberation front) final peace agreement was signed in september 2, 1996. it is the main product of the philippine comprehensive peace process. the united nations development program was hopeful that although it is not absolutely demobilization that was aimed by the national government, it provides among others that the mnlf combatants should fully abandon the armed struggle against the government (bacani & ambolodto, 2002). the integration of 7,500 qualified mnlf fighters into the armed forces of the philippines and the philippine national police is another provision. also, the incorporation of autonomy-related provisions that were missed in republic act (ra) 6734 and the delivery of intensive peace and development efforts in the southern philippines council for peace and development (spcopad) areas is another (bacani & ambolodto, 2002). k. askandar and a. abubakar (2005) question the final peace agreement by saying it manifests that the mnlf treats the tripoli agreement as an international agreement “above the competence of domestic law that the mnlf has historically rejected”. they said that among the 13 provinces mentioned in the tripoli agreement. the final peace agreement was legislated into ra 6734 but was finally amended by ra 9054 (bacani & ambolodto, 2002). the kadtabanga foundation for peace and development of the philippines inc. the opening statement in the literature says that from the ruins, people have sown the seeds of transformation in pdcs (peace and development communities) being the mnlf (moro national liberation front) territories that have evolved from war zones to realms of peace and development. this guarantees a certain degree of sincerity, the communities being their own communities. the literature on kfpdai (kadtabanga foundation for peace and development incorporated) further says the following: “the communities referred here are the pdcs which are annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 228 mnlf territories” (unafp, 2009). they are the areas where kadtabanga pdas do peace-building. a pdc is characterized by the following: (1) a basic social unit which the whole peace and development framework of the government of the philippines, government of the philippines – united nations multi-donor program incapacitated is funded; (2) a marginalized conflict-affected or conflict vulnerable community; (3) a barangay with strategic advantage, and one with multi-cultural presence of tri-people constituency, and an local government unit recognized with commitment of support and complementation or it is an area of convergence with other donor organizations (gop-unmdp, 2005). there are 33 pdas who are members of kfpdai and who are working in 20 pdcs in maguindanao and 5 in cotabato city. they work in pdcs in the municipalities of parang, sultan mastura, south upi, datu odin sinsuat, talitay, datu unsay, buluan, datu paglas, datu saudi ampatuan, matanog, and ampatuan. there are members of the organization who fought hard during the war years. the executive director herself spent years in the battlefields, nursing gunshot wounds, and counseling war survivors. another official, khannapi “sonny” ayao, is a former mnlf battalion commander but who finished college in 1989. he is now a holder of the degree m.a. – peace and development studies which he earned from mindanao state university, maguindanao. n. macapantar (2010) described how the non-government organizations implemented programs to rebuild the communities directly hit by the massive armed confrontations in the all out war in 2000, in the three iranun municipalities namely barira, buldon, and matanog. k. ayao (2010) conducted a study on the role of kfdapi in managing development programs for the mnlf beneficiaries. peace-building using the culture of peace (cop) may be tedious but the results could be long lasting. peace-building is a comprehensive process. j.p. lederach (1997) defines it as a series of interventions to transform all forms of conflict and violence in different stages in conflict affected communities. peace-building always refer to the transition from emergency disaster response to relief operations and to rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development (lederach, 1997). e. biton (2009) conducted a study on the peace-building activities done in the communities developed from idps coming from jolo, basilan, and from the different conflict affected areas of zamboanga del sur who were hard hit by the armed conflicts during the martial law years. the first phase of the interventions, as described by e. biton, consisted of social preparations which began with enabling the people to assess their own situations. e. biton cited the peace-building framework of john paul lederach (1997) borrowed the nested paradigm framework of marie ducan, although he said there were variations being introduced to suit the research problem (biton, 2009). s. toh and floresca-cawagas (1990) identify six major peace themes or peace issues. they define peace and un-peace comprehensively: structural violence, militarization, human rights, environmental care, intercultural solidarity, and educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 229 personal or inner peace. structured violence exists when the unequal life chances are built into the society’s structure. there is militarization when there are much more resources spent for the military than for the social services. human rights are rights of the people that they deserve because they are humans. environmental care is about preserving the environmental resources not only because humans depend on them but also because they are creatures of god and as such they should have their space on earth. intercultural solidarity is about respect for other cultures. it is when all of these peaceful realities are experienced that there could be authentic or lasting peace. the rights-based approach (rba) to development is another framework. this focuses on rights, rather than needs. a clear example to this is the difference between the needs-based and the rights-based approach to nutrition. in the former, the “beneficiaries” have no active claim to ensure that their needs be met, and there is no binding obligation or duty by anybody to meet these needs. at a higher level, development and rights become different but inseparable aspects of the same process of social change. all processes of change are rights-based and economically grounded. here, the condition of deprivation is about much more than lack of income. it is characterized by social inferiority, isolation, physical weakness, vulnerability, powerlessness, and humiliation. rba are legal entitlements, claims guarantees. peace-building using the rba framework should empower the rights holders (uvin, 2004). the culture of peace (cop) is both a goal and a process of peace-building. generally, it consists of values, attitudes, behaviors, and ways of life based on non-violence, respect for human rights, intercultural understanding, tolerance and solidarity, sharing and free flow of information, and full participation and empowerment of women (fiesta, 2004). the six elements comprising cop are: (1) compassion and social justice; (2) dismantling of the culture of war; (3) promotion and protection of human rights; (4) living in harmony with the earth; (5) building cultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity; and (6) nurturing inner peace. it is the cultivation of values, attitudes, understanding, action, and practices for building individuals, families, communities, societies, nations, and the whole world (toh, 2003). the cop programme is a program developed by unesco (united nations for educational, scientific, and cultural organization), the un agency tasked to oversee and monitor a worldwide peace education programme. in practice, cop is the transformation of violent competition for shared goals. it requires that conflicting parties work together in the development process. cop was conceived to consist of values, attitudes, behaviors, and ways of life based on non-violence, respect for human rights, intercultural understanding, tolerance and solidarity, sharing and free flow of information, and the full participation and empowerment of women. non-violence as cop strategy is an active struggle for justice, harnessing anger, courage and strength against injustice, and enlisting all members of communities (adams ed., 1995). annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 230 the conflict transformation framework focuses on three dimensions: personal, relational, and structural. the personal dimension of peace-building centers on desired personal changes. the change goes with the process of healing. if personal change cannot be made to take place, there will be broader social, political, and economic repercussions. the relational dimension focuses on reducing the effects of war-related hostility through the repair and transformation of damaged relationships. this center on reconciliation, forgiveness and trust building, and future imagining. it seeks to minimize poorly functioning communication and maximize mutual understanding. the structural dimension of peace-building focuses on the social conditions that foster violent conflicts. stable peace must be built on social, economic, and political foundations that serve the needs of the populace (lederach, 1997). conflict transformation, in other words, refers to outcome, process, and the structure-oriented long-term peace-building efforts, which aim to truly overcome revealed forms of direct, psychological, and structural violence. it involves the development of “horizontal” relationships i.e. dialogue and cooperation of actors or conflicting parties of relatively equal status, as well as “vertical” relationships through dialogue and cooperation between actors of unequal status (lederach, 1997). most peace practitioners feel strongly that the means employed in peace practice (or conflict transformation) is as important as the outcomes. ethical standards that define peace practice, either in personal relationships or programming choices, are important ingredients derived from values of honesty, reliability, and respect (of differences) as well as commitment to justice. peace programs should not offer solutions from outside. a core value and strategy of peace programming is enabling and supporting people in building their own peace (anderson & olson, 2003; and gardiola, 2003). the conflict transformation requires that local government units become key partners in peace-building. effective local government have six distinct characteristics, namely: (1) legitimate leadership; (2) ability to touch the daily lives of citizens through improved delivery of services; (3) close working relationship with communities and community organizations; (4) participatory transparent governance; (5) strengthening public participation for peace-building; and (6) focal point for facilitation and coordination of service delivery and decision-making (bush & fromojvic, 2004). the do no harm gives special attention to timeliness, explains j.p. lederach (1997) as cited also by n. macapantar (2010). it hopes to prevent further harm to conflict-affected communities while doing peace-building work in the conflict affected communities. the framework asserts that providing aid in conflict setting should relieve communities instead of causing further conflict. one of the goals is to help local people prevent the recurrence of violence that surrounds them. it aims at enabling the people address their problems without resorting to further violence. analysis of conflict, then, is crucial. the first thing to be done is identifying who educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 231 the key players are, what the sources of tensions are, and how and why conflicts develop. the framework also aims to ensure that the interventions do not create dividers. instead, it will create more connectors. r. linao (2001) cites the peace-building of swee-hin toh (2004). he advises community peace-builders to take extra precaution so that violence is prevented and not promoted. he identifies the first consideration and which should be meaningful participation by the community people. he classifies participation as passive, active, increasing involvement, and empowerment. based on the teachings of swee-hin toh and floresca-cawagas (1990), r. linao (2001) defines also passive participation as the situation where people participate in a project because they know the whole community will eventually benefit from it; active participation is where people assume the responsibility in the initiative and do collective decision in every step along the way of development. while it is true that there are employment opportunities, the very poor cannot be employed because they cannot qualify for positions and yet the environment that has been destroyed is also their environment (toh & floresca-cawagas, 1990). critical consciousness has something to do with praxis which is reflection-actionreflection. this means that before doing an action, there should be a reflection to think critically the appropriate actions to be taken (toh & floresca-cawagas, 1990). h. buhaenko et al. (2004) said that this is the part of the peace-building process that is often overlooked. but this is very important because in this stage, the project implementers and stakeholders reflect on the whole process. peace-building exemplar and success stories it is the researcher that identified the peace-building exemplars and the success stories with the confirmation of the peace and development advocates (pdas), the executive director, and the former technical assistant of act for peace. the identification was done after the survey, interviews, and fgds (focus group discussions) were done. the first success story is the transformation of the former combatants to being peace and development workers. c. cerezo (2009) talked of this in his paper, mentioning this as a process involving former combatants. in the case of the three pdcs, this does not refer to the pdas only. this includes former combatants who have not joined the government of the philippines – united nations multi-donor program (gop-unmdp) incapacitated-i, ii, and iii and act for peace programs and who are now cooperating with the peace and development advocates (pdas) in the three peace and development communities (pdcs) in their role of transforming the communities. another success story is the raising of the level of consciousness of the people in the three pdcs. this was done through seminars/trainings, convergences, meetings, and ordinary exchange between and among the pdas and the community leaders, the pdas and the community people themselves, the kadtanga officials, the pdas, and the community leaders and between and among the pdas, leaders, annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 232 and sectors of the three pdcs. there is a convergence of the leagues of pdcs known as the peace and development advocates league (pdal), which also hold activities and which also help increase the knowledge of the people. because of this conscientization, people have come to understand that the armed struggle is not the only way to regain economic and political power. pdc tuka success story. the name tuka was deliberately given because the barangay is a delta created by the constant flooding and it looks like a beak of bird. the former barangay chairperson, a pda, told the story of how the community was destroyed by heavy air bombing. this barangay was the target of air bombing because it was the former site of the biggest mnlf (moro national liberation front) camp in mindanao known as camp ali. before 1971, tuka was a flourishing community as described by a pda. however, after the war the barangay was in disarray. the residents were forced to abandon their houses and farms. after five years, the residents came back and started to rebuild the community. the pda assigned in tuka told her own story. she said she was still a child when she became a combatant. she added that she was forced to hold a gun and participate in the war because they needed numbers to deter military attacks. when bombs would drop, their tendency was also to drop and their bodies would shake while their hearts seemed to stop beating. all that she thought was to take revenge but everything changed when she joined kadtabanga. she said that because of kadtabanga, people of the barangay have reasons for gathering together. she added that people come to the meeting place earlier than the schedule. “before the meetings, we the people would talk among ourselves. i find it very enjoyable, thanks to kadtabanga”, she said. another success story as narrated by a key informant how the kadtabanga helped in rebuilding their community. she described it in the following paragraphs: the war experiences were very harsh. there were days when we did not eat because we could not cook. the smoke would enable the soldiers to trace us. it took months for some of the residents to go back to tuka. many did not return anymore, especially those who were orphaned by both parents. when we came back, we had to start from scratch. when kadtabanga entered the community, several seminars were conducted (in all of these, gop-unmdp/act for peace was behind). one of these was the barangay participatory rapid appraisal. it made us realize that we had abundant resources and that we could restore them by ourselves. it made us see that that chemical farming will eventually destroy our farms (opaap, 2005). other achievements which could be considered part of the success story are the establishment of the cooperative. at first, ordinary goods were sold. later, with the encouragement of act for peace, the people established a salted fish factory and the products were sold in the cooperative store. much later, the cooperative delivered the goods, including rice to other places. to add to this, kadtabanga, with support from act for peace, was able to negotiate with the department of health for the establishment of a health center. this has been a very big help, especially that the place is far from where the nearest hospital is. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 233 another endeavour was the production of chemical-free rice. at first, it was not successful. the people were so discouraged when they found out that the certified seeds given by phil-rice did not grow. they just persevered with the encouragement of kadtabanga. another set of seeds were delivered. this time they grew but when they are in the fruiting stage, the rice-fields were attacked by the pests called “tungro”. the pdas kept their cool. another set of seeds were asked. it was the third try that production became successful. but what is sad to say, the rice is sold in high amount. what is consoling is that the farmers have tasted once again, chemical free rice, and they said that it is tasty. a cebuano farmer said, “lami gyud kaayo, di ka makapangagda ug silingan” or “it is so tasty you would forget to invite your neighbour” (opaap, 2005). pdc mapayag success story. the pdas (peace and development advocates) and some elders told the story of mapayag. they said it is one of the communities affected by the armed confrontations between the afp (armed forces of the philippines) and the mnlf (moro national liberation front) in the 1970s and 1980s and it has also been bothered by a series of armed encounters between the combined forces of the afp and that of a big politician, and the moro islamic liberation front. these recent ones are classified as “rido” related conflicts, but they have caused so much disruptions in the lives of the people. this is the reason why the barangay was organized into a pdc (peace and development community) by kadtabanga. when the barangay became a pdc, many things changed. the first sets of activities were seminars and trainings such as culture of peace, intercultural dialogues, barangay rapid appraisal, peace and conflict mapping, and others. one respondent, also a former mnlf combatant but who did not become pda, said: we learned so much. after a series of seminars sponsored by kadtabanga, i could now feel dignified. before, i just stayed at home and in the farm. now, i come to love to associate with others. i now buy “ukay” clothes to wear during meetings. i could feel that my family and my relatives have become proud of me. some kadtabanga people are my relatives. “i am also proud of them”, one elder said that one of the serious problems that bothered mapayag for a long while was the lack of potable water supply. he shared that there were already two children who were hit by vehicles while crossing the street to fetch water. there were also outbreaks of illnesses caused by unsafe water supply. for lack of funds, the local government cannot do anything (opaap, 2005). kadtabanga helped the people such that a proposal was later designed to ask for funding from peace and equity foundation based in davao city. it took months for the project to be realized, especially that the funder imposed strict handling of funds. the process made the people realize that to avail of funding is very difficult but kadtabanga was too patient to assist the people. now, a functional water system which has been bringing water to most of the homes without much expense by the people is its success story. this has solved the annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 234 problem of children’s lives being put to danger because they had to walk far and cross street to fetch water. for the establishment of the water system, the people cooperated in putting up a big water tank and in installing the pipes from the main source to the houses. the funding by kadtabanga was distributed to the pdcs in need of potable water, so it had been spread thin. but the unity and collaboration of the people made the project possible. success story by an idp (internally displaced person) is as follows: i am an idp coming from datu piang. in 2008, my family was among those who were allowed to settle in one area in mapayag. the area consists of several hectares. it was the early recovery program of act for peace facilitated by kadtabanga that brought the idps in mapayag. “makalat kami ged sa ginawa sa kabamagayas name na daladen nagtanggit name kanu mga languntaman name gasasangpan i kapedtimbaka, migkadalempan i pulangi na daladen gapagedan” or “our condition was pathetic. we were not able to bring anything because we were in a hurry. there was firing and the river was rising”. make shift shelter materials were provided by kadtabanga so were able to live a life, feeling so grateful to the host neighbors. in addition, the kadtabanga pdas coordinated with the ngo faith (food always in the house) so that we could avail of relief goods such as sleeping materials, kitchen utensils, food items, medicine, and others. we could attribute this to kadtabanga because they were so quick in their actions and it seemed to me that they have befriended other ngo workers that it was easy for them to ask these groups to help the idps in the pdcs. now, the people who own the land where we settle told us that we could stay as long as we want. kadtabanga had made our life easy despite of the sad experiences. through the program they call “livelihood sharing”, the pdas lent the idps working animals, seeds, and capital so we could farm, still using the lands of the host land owners with whom we give share of the harvest (gomez, 2009). pdc kauran success stories. the success stories that kauran is proud of the tri-people dialogues and the animal fattening and animal dispersal projects. the maguindanaoans, teduray, ilonggos, and cebuanos are now co-existing with harmony and cooperating towards peace and development. as an evidence, the president of kauran as peace and development council (pdc) is an ilongga. this woman shared that they had come to live in kauran when the barangay was abandoned by the residents due to the wars in the 1970s. they came from the nearby esperanza municipality. when some maguindanaoan residents came back, a series of conflicts occurred until kadtabanga intervened. a series of seminars/trainings were conducted, most of which were held outside the community. one teduray, respondent from the pdc, said that the seminars developed in her some social skills. before, she was hesitant to mingle with others. she avoided attending meetings and celebrations such as birthdays, kanduli, and even those sponsored by kadtabanga. but one time, a friend of hers brought her to a tri-people gathering called by kadtabanga. she was amazed at how the young pdas regarded the teduray women. they were considered special visitors. now, she said, she could face them without inhibitions (opaap, 2005). there were also cultural celebrations participated in by the teduray, maguindanaoans, and the ilonggo and cebuano. kadtabanga then was closely educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 235 supervised by united nation multi-donor program (unmdp) iii and later, act for peace. now, many of the respondents from the barangay say that there is harmony between and among the people, thanks to kadtabanga. the animal fattening and dispersal project is also a success to cite. in the animal fattening, the beneficiary-participants were given small cows and carabaos to take care, and when they became adults and they could be sold, thereby increasing the income of the participant-beneficiary. the beneficiary-participants had already sold many fattened cows and carabaos. in the animal dispersal project, the participantbeneficiaries were two hundred cows, in each pdc, but one cow only for each beneficiary. they had to enable the animals to produce young before passing them to other participant-beneficiaries. hundreds of cows and carabaos had already been dispersed, since five years ago. there is another scheme, this time for carabaos. carabaos had been distributed to farmers on loan basis but they did not pay money in return. when there is harvest, the farmer gives a share to the cooperative. the sharing should be so that the farmer retains enough for food of the family until the next harvest. after one harvest, the carabao is lent to another farmer and the cycle goes on. witnessing story of a pda in kauran is as follows: manggihuy-on man gid ako sang una. gusto ko lang mag-obra sa balay. kag nahadlukan ako magsagol sa ibang mga tribu. budlay, siling ko. pero sang ang mga pda na gid naghangyo nga ma atin ako sang miting. ginsulayan ko [i was really shy before, i preferred to stay and work at home, it’s difficulty, i said, i tried]. may mga seminars/trainings gin hold, kadamuay sa iban lugal [a series of seminars/ trainings were conducted, most of which were held outside the community] (opapp, 2012). this ilongga president of the peace and development council (pdc) said that the seminars strengthened her as a woman. she knows that she has many capabilities but she avoided others for fear that trouble with others would arise out of this. before, she was hesitant to mingle with others, especially the maguindanaoans and the tedurays. now, she said, she could face them without inhibitions and that she is proud to have been elected president even if she is an ilonga and her community is predominated by maguindanaoans. the president of kauran pdc manages the cooperative which runs the “botica sa barangay” and the grocery store. both have survived many problems. this story shows how a person changed from being very shy and homebody to being a person who manages a big cooperative. what is amazing is that she is an ilongga and the community is maguindanaon predominated. being such, it should have been a maguindanaon, and a man, who should be in her position. an elder was interviewed about this and he said that indeed, in a maguindanaoan society, the women do not hold top leadership positions (raines, 2004). there may be some women who hold top positions in the government and in non-government institutions but they are very few. she further said that this cooperative president has been observed to be honest in her dealings and very transparent in handling the finances so she earned the respect of the community but annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 236 most part should be attributed to kadtabanga who had brought her many trainings, including bookkeeping. findings the profile characteristics gathered were on the area in hectares, population, annual income, and year the community was organized as peace and development council (pdc). among the three communities, tuka is the largest in terms of area, the smallest is mapayag. in terms of population, kauran has the biggest but in annual income, it has the least. this barangay was organized into a pdc ahead of the two others. the programs and activities conducted were: (1) consciousness raising through the seminars/trainings and community consultations, intercultural dialogues, strengthening of local governance through the barangay development rapid resource appraisal; (2) sustainable livelihood activities such as the sustainable farming, mega gardening and herbal gardening, cooperatives development which helped the people increase their income and helped them regain their dignity, tree planting activities, the sustainable farming practice, establishment of the fermented fish factory the grocery cooperatives, and the botica sa barangay in the three pdcs: the water systems in mapayag and kauran, and the animal dispersal and animal fattening in kauran. people were allowed to participate in the project planning, proposal development, and they were themselves participant-beneficiaries. the people are asked to participate in the discussion about a possible project to conceive/respond to ascertain problem identified by the people. there was also equitability since the peace and development advocates (pdas) and kfpdai (kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated) were not selective as to who would participate. in fact, the programs and activities were for the tri-people and for the sectoral groups. the peace-building exemplar and success stories are the following: (1) the transformation of the kadtabanga pdas from being combatants to being pdas is the model. with these transformations, they also enable to put the pdcs in the track towards transformation from being conflict affected areas to becoming reconstructed and rehabilitated and the people starting their development process; (2) the pdas becoming local government officials is noteworthy. this is an indicator of kfpdai being an enabling and empowering organization. also, there was economic, political, and gender empowerment in the three pdcs; and (3) the sustainable farming project and the “bagoong” factory of tuka, the successful water systems in pdc kauran, and the animal fattening and animal dispersal projects were also success stories. the issues identified by the people are: (1) some projects are not sustainable because they are fund-based; and (2) people suspect that foreign funders grant funding because they are interested in the resources of mindanao educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 237 the challenges identified are: (1) how to put up a bigger capital without external funding; (2) how to make the regional and the national government become responsive to the needs of the people; and (3) how to sustain the interest of the people to participate in community activities. external funding is indispensable. although there are projects that have already become sustainable, there will always be a need for external funding and although there is a problem of funders no preferring gop-mnlf (government of the philippines – moro national liberation front) conflict affected communities, there are still funders who do not choose. these are only for emergency interventions but it cannot be denied that the sustainable programs of kfpdai will go a long, long way and probably, these will be the facility with which the organization and the people could manage without external funding, in the long run. conclusion based on the findings, the researcher concludes that the kadtabanga foundation for peace and development of the philippines incorporated is a peace-building exemplar in their programs and activities implemented. there is a certain level of economic, political, and gender empowerment attained by the people in the three peace and development communities (pdcs) as a result of the peace-building work of kfpdai (kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated). empowerment is the end goal of any peace-building work. however, since there are still challenges, the pdas are glad because they will not become “irrelevant” yet. when they are already irrelevant, they are supposed to leave. the existence of the challenges does not mean that they have failed to be the model. no organization could be perfect. when the challenges are made known or are known, that is where enhancement begins. the researcher recommends the following: (1) for kadtabanga to closely supervise the replication of the projects with success stories in the rest of the pdcs of maguindanao. this would need that kadtabanga assist the people to put up a bigger capital by themselves or without external funding; (2) for the government agencies and the non-governmental organizations to consider the peace-building processes employed by kfpdai. there are success stories that should be popularized; (3) for kadtabanga to popularize its exemplary works and advocate this to the regional and national officials to make them as responsive to the needs of the people; and (4) for the other combatants who are not pdas, to consider working with the government in rebuilding the conflict affected communities. annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for 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(2004). human rights and development. washington dc: thomson shore, inc. annierah m. usop, he kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated 240 the bangsamoro in southern philippines (source: www.google.com, 6/1/2013) peace-building practices vary according to context. modeling, therefore, is important not only for the successes but also the failures. in this study, the processes of the kfpdai (kadtabanga foundation for peace and development advocates incorporated) in their peace-building work in three pdcs (peace and development communities) were assessed. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 43© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the authors: prof. hannu t. korhonen, ph.d. and paavo niemelä, ph.d. are principal research scientist and docent in applied zoology at the mtt agrifood research finland, animal production research, silmäjärventie 2, fin-69100 kannus, finland. for academic purposes, corresponding author is: hannut.korhonen@mtt.fi how to cite this article? korhonen, hannu t. & paavo niemelä. (2014). “digestibility of heat treated barley in blue fox and mink” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.43-48. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/digestibility-of-heat-treated/ chronicle of the article: accepted (march 20, 2014); revised (may 30, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction carbohydrates are cheap and easy accessible material for feed in animal production (berg, 1986; pölönen, 2000; and nenonen & pölönen, 2002). barley, which mainly contains carbohydrates, has become more popular as an ingredient in fur animal feed. however, digestibility of barley varies in different fur animal species. this obviously holds true also for farm-raised canid and mustelid species. further research on this subject is needed, however. the blue fox (vulpes lagopus) is a colour type of wild arctic fox. thus, medium-size canid is farm-raised for its excellent fur coat. as a carnivore, it generally can utilize carbohydrates fairly well. the composition of the diet of wild foxes typically varies seasonally and regionally (frafjord, 1993; and angerbjörn et al., 1994). in an arctic habitat, foxes tend mainly to eat meat and food scraps; whereas in a coastal area, their diet may comprise mainly fish (nielsen, 1991). foxes have, therefore, adapted to marked regional, annual, and seasonal fluctuations in food availability and content. see picture 1. the mink (neovison vison), on the other hand, is a small-sized mustelid having an elongated body shape (korhonen & huuki, 2013). due to high surface-to-mass ratio, the mink has to sustain higher basal metabolic rate than other mammals of the same body weight (brown & lasiewski, 1972; iversen, 1972; and korhonen, harri & asikainen, 1983). the mink typically utilize carbohydrates considerably poor. this is due to very short digestibility tract which results a short transitperiod of only 4-5 hours (sibbald et al., 1962; and jorgensen ed., 1985). furthermore, the production of carbohydrate decomposing enzyme seems to be modest in the mink (ostergaard, 1998). see picture 2. hannu t. korhonen & paavo niemela digestibility of heat treated barley in blue fox and mink abstract: carbohydrates are easy accessible raw material for fresh feed in domestic animal production. barley, which mainly contains carbohydrates, has become more popular as an ingredient in feed for fur bearing animals in particular. the aim of the present study was to clarify the effects of heat treatment on digestibility of barley in farm-raised juvenile blue fox and mink. two different heat treatments were compared here: (1) traditional heat treatment; and (2) specific treatment, including exposure to pressure and heat, and by gelatinization. experimental animals were six adult males of dark standard-type mink or “neovison vison” and blue fox or “vulpes lagopus”. the digestibility was evaluated by the aia indicator method with 0.5 silicate (celite 545) serving as an inert indicator. main components in the study feed were slaughter-house offal, baltic herring, barley, and water. ash content was higher in specific than in traditional diet (p < 0.001). crude protein content tended to be slightly higher in specific diet. in blue fox and mink, digestibility of crude protein and fat were similar in traditional and specific diet (p > 0.005). digestibility of carbohydrates and organic matter was significantly (p < 0.01) better for specific than traditional diets. heat treatment including gelatinization can be recommended to use for better utilization of carbohydrate stuff in the diet. key words: farmed furbearers, mink and blue fox, heat treatment, feed ingredients, fur farming, carbohydrate, and digestive value. hannu t. korhonen & paavo niemela, digestibility of heat treated barley 44 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com digestibility of carbohydrates can be influenced by certain pretreatments during manufacturing process. particularly, heat treatment with gelatinization is expected to improve utilization of carbohydrate components such as starch (ostergaard, 1998). this mainly is a result of clear changes in the structure of starch kernels which become more accessible for digestible enzymes, i.e. gelatinization. the extent of changes is known to depend on water contents, temperature, and certain conditions during process. the aim of the present study was to clarify effects of heat treatment on digestibility of carbohydrates in farmed juvenile blue fox (vulpes lagopus) and mink (neovison vison) during autumn period. this time of the year is most crucial for proper formation of body composition, fattening, and furring process. two different heat treatments were compared here: (1) traditional treatment by extruder; and (2) specific treatment including exposure to pressure and heat, and by gelatinization (niemelä & korhonen, 1998). gelatinization means here boiling of starch. materials and methods about the experimental animals. the study was carried out at the mtt fur farming research station, kannus (63.54 on, 23.54 oe), finland, during the growing-furring period (september 24th – october 3rd, 2013). the use of experimental animals was evaluated and approved by the animal care committee of mtt agrifood research, finland. experimental animals were six juvenile males of dark standard-type mink and blue fox (blue colour type of the arctic fox). all animals were healthy and negative for plasmocytosis. they were divided into two different diet groups, as following: (1) traditional treatment group; and (2) specific treatment group, including exposure to picture 1: picture of juvenile blue fox in a wire-netting farm cage (photo: pekka eskeli, 28/10/2013) picture 2: farmed mink in wire-netting cage. feed is given on top of the cage (photo: hannu t. korhonen, 28/10/2013) pressure and heat, and by gelatinization. gelatinization was made by heating carbohydrates (starch) to ≤ 100oc (niemelä & korhonen, 1998). the general health of the animals was visually checked daily. during the experiment, the animals were housed singly in a wire-netting digestibility cages in an experimental hall. inside temperature of the hall varied from +6 to +10oc. the mink cages were 70 cm long x 30 cm wide x 38 cm high. correspondingly, the fox cages were 105 cm long x 115 cm wide x 70 cm high. cages were lacking enrichments like platform or gnawing object. both in mink and blue fox, experimental animals were educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 45© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com genetically equal, one male kit form a single litter being taken into each of the groups. about the experimental diets. the feed was manufactured daily by the fur farming research station, kannus, finland. the amounts of experimental raw materials were weighed with a balance, accuracy 10 g (neigungswage bauart fo, dayton vaaka, finland; and josef florenz ag, austria). experimental raw materials were mixed with stephan mixer (stephan universal machine, type um 44). details of the raw materials and chemical compositions of the experimental diets are given in tables 1 and 2. animals were fed once a day at 8-9 am by hand. daily feed portions were 350 g/ animal and 900 g/animal for mink and foxes, respectively. leftovers were collected the next day. feed portions were measured with a mettler sm 15 balance, accuracy ± 1 g. watering was automatic ad libitum. their daily routine treatments were conducted according to standard farming procedures. analyses and statistics initially, animals were kept in digestibility cages for four pre-test days. actual experimental period started after pre-test period lasting five consecutive days (september 28th – october 2nd, 2013). faeces of the animals were collected daily and frozen. urine was not collected. the digestibility was evaluated by the aia indicator method with 0.5 silicate (celite 545) serving as an inert indicator. individual feed and faeces samples were taken before and during the collection period for detailed analyses. the samples were analysed at the laboratory of the fur farming research station, kannus (mtt), finland. standard procedures were used for analyses of nitrogen or kjeldahl and fat or hcl hydrolysis (korhonen et al., 2005). carbohydrates were calculated according to equation: 100(ash + crude protein + crude fat). the apparent digestibility was determined according to the following equation: apparent digestibility = a-b/a x 100, in which a = nutrient in feed/indicator in feed; and b = nutrient in faeces/indicator in faeces (korhonen & niemelä, 2012). the metabolizable energy (me) content of the diets was calculated using the factors 18.8 (protein), 38.9 (fat), and 17.2 (carbohydrates) per gram apparent digestibility nutrient (tauson, 1988). statistical analyses were performed by the general linear models (glm) procedure of the statistical analysis system (sas institute inc., 1991) using tukey’s studentized range (hsd) test and analysis of variance (korhonen & niemelä, 2012). results basic data and results can be found from tables 1-3. ingredients of the diets are given in table 1. main components in the feed were slaughter-house offal, baltic herring, barley and water. this is a typical composition of farm feed for caged foxes and mink. chemical composition of the diets are shown in table 2. ash content was higher in specific than in traditional diet. furthermore, crude protein content tended to be slightly higher in specific diet. in blue fox and mink, digestibility of crude protein and fat were similar in traditional and specific diets (table 3). on the other hand, digestibility of carbohydrates and organic matter was significantly better for specific than traditional diets. digestibility of chemical components was better in blue foxes than in mink in general. solidity and general appearance of faces was normal in each study group. dry matter content of faeces from traditional and specific diets were in range of normal values. in mink, the dry matter content for traditional and specific diets were 28.39 ± 2.4 and 28.60 ± 1.49%, respectively. in blue foxes, the corresponding values were 33.71 ± 0.83 and 26.86 ± 1.04%, respectively. discussion the main ingredients in fur animal feed are products of the fish and slaughter industries. typically, their amounts have varied by year and season (korhonen & niemelä, 1998; and pölönen, 2000). also carbohydrates are used in the diet of farmed fur bearers. carbohydrates are cheap substitute nutritional wise for protein and fat to meet the basal energy demands. therefore, they should be favored more in hannu t. korhonen & paavo niemela, digestibility of heat treated barley 46 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the diet. they are typically also beneficial for digestibility of farm feed. therefore, use of carbohydrates should be favored more in future. however, further research is needed before implementation in practice. this study was part of this implementation project. the decomposition of the feed substances is done by means of alimentary enzymes. digestibility of carbohydrates demands that enzymes have enough time to work with the decompositions. particularly, this is problem for animals like the mink with a short intestinal canal. starch is the main component of carbohydrates. starch can be made better digestible by “opening” its structure. this can be done by heat treatment where the material is exposed to pressure and heat, and by gelatinization. digestibility of carbohydrates including starch may improve, because of essential change of the structure of starch kernels which becomes more easily accessible for digestible enzymes (ostergaard, 1998). the change of the structure is known as gelatinization. this treatment was used for our specific diet. comprehensive scientific interest has been to improve diet and raw material digestibility of feed in farmed fur animals. according to literature, digestibility of raw barley in mink typically is 45-52% and that of cooked barley around 60%. carbohydrate digestibility of heated barley by extruder method, on the other hand, is 57-60% and 65-73% in mink and blue fox, respectively (minkinkasvatus, 1967; berg, 1986; and niemelä & korhonen, 1998). in the present study, heat treatment also included gelatinization of feed stuff. the results showed that treatment significantly increased digestibility of carbohydrates both in the fox and mink. furthermore, it was also table 1: the composition of experimental diets ingredient (%) traditional specific slaughter-house offal baltic herring barley water celite 545 26.09 36.52 15.65 20.20 0.50 26.54 37.15 15.92 18.83 0.50 table 2: chemical composition of diets variable traditional specific dry matter (dm), % in dm, %: ash crude protein crude fat crude carbohydrate 33.31 9.93 28.88 20.43 40.77 33.97 7.82 27.63 20.05 44.49 table 3: digestibility (%) of traditional and specific diet components in blue fox and mink variable blue fox mink traditional specific traditional specific crude protein crude fat crude carbohydrate organic matter 79.97 (1.64) 91.17 (1.74) 51.75 (5.14) 66.01 (2.93) 79.03 (1.01) 89.87 (1.03) 71.91** (1.79) 76.81 ** (1.14) 73.92 (3.46) 77.85 (5.82) 43.51 (5.83) 64.78 (4.40) 77.17 (2.85) 80.10 (2.04) 69.55** (2.18) 75.27** (2.06) significant difference: **p < 0.001. standard deviations are given in parenthesis. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 47© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com found that digestibility of organic matter is increased by combination of heat treatment and gelatinization. general concept is that digestibility of feed stuff is better in farmed foxes than in mink (niemelä & korhonen, 1998; and korhonen & niemelä, 2012). the mink typically have a short digestibility tract thus food is passing trough very fast, i.e. in 4-5 hours (sibbald et al., 1962; jorgensen ed., 1985; and korhonen, sepponen & eskeli, 2013). this also impairs digestibility of food in the digestive tract. furthermore, foxes typically are known to utilize more versatile food than mink. the present results confirm this concept. digestibility of carbohydrates, protein, and fat tended to be better for the blue fox than for the mink. most pronounced this tendency was for carbohydrates and organic matter. conclusion 1 the results of the present study are promising. they encourage us to continue in clarifying the suitability of various carbohydrate stuffs for farmed foxes and mink. in addition to barley also oat, for example, can be considered as a potential carbohydrate resource in future. the use of carbohydrates as a part of the feed for farmed furbearers is advantageous, while production costs can be declined by not using so much fat and protein. the present results are also promising. they showed that heat treatment of barley with gelatinization is effective to increase digestibility of carbohydrates in farmed mink and fox diets. digestibility of barley is better in farmed foxes compared to mink. references angerbjörn, a. et al. (1994). “dietary variation in arctic foxes (alopex lagopus): an analysis of stable carbon isotopes” in oecologia, 99, pp.226-232. 1acknowledgements: this study was financially supported by mtt agrifood research, finland. the staffs of mtt research station are kindly acknowledged for their valuable help in carrying out this digestibility experiment. special thanks to pekka toikkanen, terho lindqvist, jaakko huuki, aimo jokihuuki, and pekka eskeli for good co-operation and technical help. many thanks are also extended to juhani sepponen for statistical analyses. however, all content and interpretation in the article are solely responsibilty to the authors academically. berg, h. (1986). “rehutietoutta turkiseläinkasvattajille” in turkiseläintutkimuksia, 23. stklry, vaasa. 99 pp. brown, j.h. & r.c. lasiewski. (1972). “metabolism of weasels: the cost of being long and thin” in ecology, 83, pp.939-943. frafjord, k. (1993). “food habits of arctic foxes (alopex lagopus) on the western coast of svalbard” in arctic, 1, pp.49-54. iversen, j.a. (1972). “basal energy metabolism of mustelids” in journal of comparative physiology, 81, pp.341-344. jorgensen, g. [ed]. (1985). mink production. denmark: scientifur. korhonen, h.t. et al. (2005). “effects of diet calcium: phosphorus ratio and metabolizable energy content on development of osteochondrosis, foot bending, and performance in blue foxes” in animal science, 80, pp.325-331. korhonen, h.t., m. harri & j. asikainen. (1983). “thermoregulation of polecat and raccoon dog: a comparative study with stoat, mink, and blue fox” in comparative biochemistry & physiology, 74a, pp.225230. korhonen, h.t. & p. niemelä. (1998). “effect of ad libitum and restrictive feeding on seasonal weight changes in captive minks (mustela vison)” in journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition, 79, pp.269-280. korhonen, h.t. & p. niemelä. (2012). “effect of fish meal level on growth, food digestibility and fur properties of farmed mink (mustela vison)” in animal production, 14(1), pp.63-69. korhonen, hannu t. & hanna huuki. (2013). “neovison vison: code of good practice for euthanasia in mink” in sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan, 6(1) mei. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press, issn 1979-0112. available online also at: www.sosiohumanika-jpssk. com korhonen, hannu t., juhani sepponen & pekka eskeli. (2013). “a questionnaire study on euthanasia in farm-raised mink” in educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2). bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: www.educare-ijes.com minkinkasvatus. (1967). suomen turkiseläinten kasvattajain liitto ry. jyväskylä: kauppiaiden kustannus oy, 311 pp. nenonen, n. & i. pölönen. (2002). “dehulled and naked oats in mink and blue fox diets” in scientifur, 26(2), p.43. nielsen, s.m. (1991). “fishing arctic foxes alopex lagopus on a rocky island in west greenland” in polar research, 9(2), pp.211-213. niemelä, p. & h.t. korhonen. (1998). kuumakäsitellyn ohran ravinteiden sulavuus siniketuilla ja minkeillä. kannus: maatalouden tutkimuskeskus, tutkimusseloste, 6 pp. ostergaard, k. (1998). “the importance of heat treatment for the digestibility of carbohydrate in mink” in botnia grain: reference paper, no.10e, 3 pp. hannu t. korhonen & paavo niemela, digestibility of heat treated barley 48 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com pölönen, i. (2000). silage for fur animals. helsinki: department of animal science publications no.50, university of helsinki, 54 pp. sas [statistical analysis system] institute, inc. (1999). sas/stat® user’s guide, version 8. cary, nc: sas institute, incorporation, 3809 pp. sibbald, i.r. et al. (1962). “the rate of passage of feed through the digestive tract of the mink” in canadian journal of biochemical physiology, 40, pp.1391-1394. tauson, a.h. (1988). “feed evaluation and nutritional requirements: 5. fur-bearing animals” in livestock production science, 19(1-2), pp.355-367. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 85 text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills: the indonesian context yayat sudaryat abstract: this study was based on the issue that the indonesia high school student’s writing ability was still low. therefore, it was needed to find out the factors causing the problem and solution to overcome in through the implementation of the text-based modelling strategy (tbms). the study used the experimental methods with the randomized pretest-posttest comparison group design. the data were collected in the forms of essay, questionnaire, interviews result, document, and observation result. the main sources of the data were the students of sma yas (sekolah menengah atas yayasan atikan sunda or senior high school of the sundanese education foundation) in bandung. beside, the indonesian teacher and some documents from the school saced as the additional source of the data. the result of this study proved that the tbms could overcome the hindrance of writing, and it was also effective in increasing the students competence of writing an essay. the result was also valid for significance value of the essay writing aspect’s competence (substantive, textual, lexical, syntactic, and graphemic). though they altogether increased the writing competence, it was seen that the tbms was much better and more effectictive than the bms (basic modeling strategy) and cls (conventional learning strategy). the study found that the procedure composed and applied in the tbms, that has never done before, contributed positively to the increasing of writing competence. key words: learning and teaching strategy, modeling, text-based modelling strategy, essays, and writing competence. introduction there are some issues as a background of increasing the competence of writing essay in indonesian language through text-based modeling strategy (tbsm). first, writing is a basic need of the man of education or students. there are many students who still get difficulties in writing although learning of writing has been given since they were in elementary school or junior high school. the difficulties are not only from the students themselves – like their characters, mentality, and personality – but also from the outside of the students like how to find the topic, to arrange the sentence effectively, and to master the rule in writing (maslakhah, 2005:21-28). in general, adeng chaedar alwasilah and seni susana alwasilah (2005:7) stated that the weakness of writing skill of the man in education or students in indonesia is caused by cultural, social, and curricular factors. dr. yayat sudaryat is a lecturer at the department of sundanese language education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229, bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: kisudaryat_sunda@yahoo.com yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 86 relate to the problems above, a. oshima and a. hogue (1993:3) revealed that writing, particularly academic writing, is not easy. although arswendo atmowiloto (2001) said that writing is easy, yet it is more individual competency than collective competency. many people agree that writing is difficult. burhan nurgiyantoro (2001:296) admitted that writing skill is more difficult to achieve than the other language skill even for native speaker. writing skill is the competency that students mastered after they had mastered of listening skill, speaking skill, and reading skill. second, writing competence related to the language competence, namely the speaker or hearer’s knowledge of his language. the competency can be seen through the language performance. it is the actual use of language in concrete situations (chomsky, 1965:4). language competence covers organizational competence and sociolinguistic and illocutionary competence (bachman, 1990:87). the language competence or linguistic competence of native speaker ideally along with strategic competence forms communicative competence, namely aspect competency which enables to give or interpret the message and negotiate the interpersonal meaning in specific context (brown, 1994:227; and celce-murcia, 2000:16-17). related to this research, the competence of writing essay is illocutionary competency which requires grammatical and contextual competence. third, written discourse and the process of expression are the main focus of this research. the student’s ability in writing can be seen through written discourse. the selection of written discourse is based on the assumption that the variety of written discourse is better than spoken discourse since it can show the consistence characteristic either in structural or semantic usage. in other words, written discourse is more consistence than spoken discourse so that it can reflect the standard language (ochs, 1994:51-80). the written discourse in this research is focused on non-fiction essay. fourth, the difficulty in writing will affect not only in other language skill competency like reading and speaking but also in capability of thinking logically. up to this point, the society dissatisfied with the low of the writing competence of the graduation’s students in indonesia. taufik ismail’s study showed that writing competence of the indonesian’s student is the lowest in asia due to lack of reading of the students (cited by imran, 2000:17). in 1988, world bank reported that the result of elementary student’s reading test in indonesia is the lowest in east asia (alwasilah & alwasilah, 2005). fifth, some studies showed that the writing competence of the students is still low. for example, mochtar buchori (2001:142) revealed that one of the common weaknesses of the students is the weakness of reading and writing. even in writing of paper or thesis of the university students which have been corrected by the lecturer still showed the weakness of orthographies, linguistic, and logical aspects. the study which carried out by adeng chaedar alwasilah and seni susana alwasilah stated that teaching of writing started from elementary to university didn’t succeed in increasing the competence of writing of the students (alwasilah & alwasilah, educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 87 2005). the statement assumed that the weakness of writing of university students is the failure of teaching writing in elementary school to senior high school. based on the facts, it is obvious that the alternative of the learning strategy in teaching writing still needed. one of the alternatives in teaching writing is modeling strategy. modeling strategy included the component of contextual teaching and learning (ctl) and genre–based approach (gba) conditioned the teaching by giving the reference model. models which applied are the example of essay text model. modeling covers the teaching activity in observation stages, imitating, and consequence of achievement. in this activity also requires presentation, practicing, and producing. it means that this modeling is not only product-based but also process-based. the research of the application of modeling strategy and its transformation to text-based modeling strategy (tbsm) in increasing the competence of writing an essay has not been carried out yet. whereas, this research can be as an alternative to teach writing of essay, increase the competency and performance of writing, and even enable the students to think logically. the application of text-based modeling strategy in learning of writing an essay can lead the students to think, to write, and to communicate accurately and effectively. the research focused on the student’s competence in writing an essay since writing an essay is the way how to express the feeling and ideas of the students, and it requires the competence of the usage of the language. writing requires the real proficiency of the language and the competency of communication. the difficulty in writing is how to write (mcrobert, 1981:73). the research is carried out to know the barriers and the influenced factors in increasing the students’ competence in writing an essay through text-based modeling strategy (tbms). problem identifications, research objectives, and the usefulness of the research result there are five problems identified in this research, namely: (1) how is the real teaching of writing an essay at sma yas, sekolah menengah atas yayasan atikan sunda or senior high school of the sundanese education foundation, in bandung city nowadays?; (2) what are the difficulties faced by the students in writing an essay?; (3) what factors influenced the students’ competence in writing an essay?; (4) in what level the competence of writing essay of sma yas in bandung city’s students seen through psychological and linguistic factors?; (5) does the text-based modeling strategy give positive contribution to overcome the difficulties in writing an essay?; and (6) is the text-based modeling strategy effective to increase the student’s competence in writing an essay? the research is to find the formulation and to apply text-based modeling strategy in learning of writing essay of indonesia language in senior high school. this strategy is to be the alternative to overcome the difficulties that the students faced in writing an essay and to increase the student’s competence in writing an essay. yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 88 this study specialized to obtain: (1) the comprehensive results of the real learning of writing an essay in senior high school and the competence of students from sma yas in bandung city after tbms applied based on linguistic and psychological aspects; (2) the difficulties and factors which influenced the low of the student’s competence in writing an essay of indonesia language seen from linguistics, knowledge, motivation, and environment aspects; (3) the design model of comprehensive teaching which called tbms. preparing the materials and technique in teaching writing so that it can increase the writing competence of the students; and (4) the conclusion and the implication of research. then, the result of this research will be useful for teacher and student to increase their competence in writing an essay and the language competence. the result of this research is expected to explain and analyze of the competence to write essays, the obstacles and the influenced factors and alternative solution through tbms. the conclusion obtained from this research are expected to provide input for improving the ability in indonesian language and the quality of language teaching in indonesian language either theoretical or practice. if tbms shows an increase the quality of competence in writing essay which is significant, this conclusion can be the new entries that support the importance of learning in the totally stages of education or teaching. in terms of application, learningbased modeling strategy can be recommended for expanded and developed as the alternative source or revision strategy for learning to write and the other language aspects. assumption and hypothesis this research is based on the following assumptions: first, writing activity can achieve mastery literacy skill. the achievement of mastery literacy skill must be programmed based on empirical and theories basis through comprehensive functional literacy. second, writing competence affects mental and man’s social life. the one who has good competence in writing occupies respectable place and authoritative. third, student’s writing competence can be improved through various efforts to achieve high literacy. one of the efforts is the learning-based model which implemented by developed countries such as united states of america. fourth, writing competence as a literacy competence can be used as one solution to improve the quality of human resources needed in the development of the country. fifth, essay writing competence is including the competency of speaking and aspect of language learning. therefore, the efforts to improve the writing competence can be done through particular language learning strategy. sixth, the text-based modeling strategy (tbms) is one of alternative model of learning based on contextual approach and genre-based approach. this model can be used in learning to write to improve student’ competence in writing. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 89 this research formulated in the following two hypothesis. first, ho: “there is no difference in writing competence between the students who learn through tbms (text-based modeling strategy) and the students who learn through basic modeling strategy (bms) and conventional learning strategy (cls)”. second, ha: “the competence of writing essay indonesia language of the students who learn through tbms is higher than those who learn through bms and cls”. next, the hypothetical above tested and analyzed so that the factors that significantly affect the increase of the competence of students in writing essay can be derived. methodology the research used the experimental methods using the randomized pretestposttest comparison group design. the data were collected in the form of essay, questionnaire, interview results, document, and observation result. the data collected were processed in quantitative and qualitative methods. the main source of data was the students of sma yas (sekolah menengah atas yayasan atikan sunda or senior high school of the sundanese education foundation) in bandung city. beside, the indonesian teacher and some documents from school served as the additional source of data. there are three groups of study subject. group 1 (xiiis-1) got the bms treatment, group 2 got tbms treatment, and group 3 is called control group got cls or conventional learning strategy. the data of research is in the form of essay, interview, questionnaire, document, and observation result. the criteria used to assess the effectiveness of the bms includes: (1) learning outcome, (2) behavioral changes, (3) reaction, and (4) achievement of overall the result of research (kirkpatrick, 1994). theoretical issues: a. model and modeling david crystal (1985:228) expose that “a model is especially designed representation of concepts or entities, used to discover or explain their structure or function. all models involve the mapping in a new conceptual dimension of a set of elements recognized in the situation being modeled”. in this definition, a model is: (1) a model is a replica, make-up; (2) a model of an object is a physical representation that shows what it looks like or how it works. the model is often smaller than the object it represents; (3) a model is a system that is being used and that people might want to copy in order to achieve similar results, a formal use; and (4) a model of a system or process is a theoretical description can help you understand how the system or process works, or how it might work, a technical use in science (kern, 2000). modeling is demonstration of behavior; the demonstration of way of behaving to somebody, especially a child, in order for that behavior to be imitated (bandura, 1962). yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 90 figure 1: the research framework data analysis: observation, questionnaire, interview, writing essay the results of empirical testing: textbased modeling strategy (tbms) treatment ii (tbms) analysis characteristic and material in learning to write an essay discourse the problems: � the writing competence of the indonesia high school students is still low. � students faced the difficulties in writing essay. � the efforts are needed to overcome the difficulties and finding out the strategy to increase the student’s competence in writing. prior/preliminary research real-learning strategy in teaching writing at sma hypothetical text-based modeling strategy (htbms) writing comprehensive learning strategy (bms, gba, tbms) control treatment (cls) pre-test treatment i (bms) the empirical testing post-test educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 91 then, models of teaching are really models of learning. as we help student acquire information, ideas, skills, values, ways of thinking, and means of expressing themselves, we are also teaching them how to learn. in fact, the most important long-term outcome of instruction may be the students increased capabilities to learn easier and more effectively in the future, both because of the knowledge and skill they have acquired and because they have mastered learning processes (joyce & weil, 2002:6). in this research was used term of modeling based on theory of imitation or social learning theory from albert bandura (1977). there are four factors of modeling process. first, the learner must pay attention to the crucial details of the model’s behavior. second, factor is retention – the learner must be able to retain all of this information in memory until is time to use it. third, the learner must have the physical skills and coordination needed reproduction of the behavior. and fourth, finally, the learner must have the motivation to imitate the model. in an article entitled “modeling theory” retrieved from http://www.as.wvu.edu (20/5/2010) stated that: modeling theory operates in three simple steps: (1) you observe a model, (2) you imitate the model’s actions, and (3) you get a consequence. among the many uses of modeling, i want you consider three very practical implications: (a) you have to know what is being modeled, (b) you use modeling to change behavior, and (c) you show modeling [don’t tell]. b. the quality of tbms in learning of writing an essay m. celce-murcia (2000:207) viewed writing as an act of communication suggests an interactive process which takes place between the writer and the reader via the text. such an approach places value on the goal of writing as well as on the perceived reader audience. even if we are concerned with writing at the beginning level, these two aspects of the act of writing are of vital importance; in setting writing tasks, the teacher should encourage students to define for themselves the message they want to send and the audience who will receive it. learning to write an essay (lwe) is included one of the aspects of language learning process. learning to write will be effective if there is: optimization in modeling role (o); giving the appropriate model (m); interaction of all components of learning such as teacher, students, teaching material, method, and media (l); and supporting factors the success of learning (p). the effectiveness of learning to write essay can be formulated as lwe = o (m + l + p). to increase the competence of writing essay (cwe) of the students, there are some efforts can be done, such as learning strategy. this is the most effective effort for it can be planned, carried out, and evaluated. one of the most influential aspects to the result of student’s writing is learning strategy. this research applied the text-based modeling strategy (tbms). it is formulated and transformed from basic modeling strategy (bms), genre-based yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 92 approach (gba), and text-based unit (tbu). those strategies are fitted to the level of student’s cognitive development. by the basic behavioral approach and social learning theory, assumed that someone need reference model in making something. similarly, in learning to write essay, student needs a model form of text essay. tbms is accordance with seven principles of learning literacy, namely interpretation, collaboration, convention, cultural knowledge, problem solving, reflection and self-reflection, and language use (kern, 2000:16-17). the implication of this strategy is when teacher planned the teaching-learning activity, he/she has to consider that the student is the main subject. therefore, it must be considered to five principles, namely: (1) selection, (2) responses and question, (3) atmosphere, (4) relativity, and (5) forms of response. k. hayland (2004:10-11) observed the seven benefits of learning to write textbased (genre), namely: (1) explicit, to clarify teaching materials in facilitating ability accomplishment; (2) systematic, giving the coherent framework by focusing on language and context; (3) need-based, to ensure that the objective and the content of learning are based on student’s need; (4) supportive, to place teacher as “supporter” in learning process; (5) empowering, giving the access to all patterns and various possibility in evaluating text; (6) critical, to give the challenge to the student how to understand the text; and (7) consciousness raising, to increase the awareness of teacher to explain to the students how to write. c. transformation of tbms in learning writing this research put the writing as a process. we began to develop what is now termed the process approach to writing instruction. process approaches do most of the following: (a) focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product; (b) help student writers to understand theory own composing process; (c) help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting; (d) give students time to write and rewrite; (e) place central importance on the process of revisions; (f) let students discover what they want to say as they write; (g) give students feedback throughout the composing process (not just on the final product) to consider as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to intension; (h) encourage feedback both from the instructor and peers; and (i) include individual conferences between teacher and student during the process of composition (brown, 1994:320-321). in this research was succeeded to find the learning strategy called text-based modeling strategy (tbms) as a result of transformation of basis modeling strategy (bms). the basic different between tbms and bms lies between the stages and steps of activity. as a strategy, tbms related to the goal, materials, method, media, and evaluation. this transformation strategy of learning is done by adding three learning methods (reading workshop, learning community, and writing process) and five learning techniques (discussion, inquiry, recitation, collaborative, and educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 93 reflection). bms only has three stages of learning activities by using simple steps, namely observation model, imitation model, and consequence achievement, while tbms has four stages with clear and detailed steps, namely: (1) orientation model stage; (2) exploration model stage for reading workshop, discussion, inquiry, and recitation; (3) imitation model stage for writing process, pre-writing, writing, and post-writing; and (4) consequence achievement for collaborative editing, re-writing, and reflection. the aspect of transformation from bms to tbms is shown in table below. figure 2: the aspect of tbms transformation design bms design tbms design stage i: model observation. i. stage of orientation model: a. opening. b. apperception. c. student’s conditioning. stage ii: model imitation. ii. stage of exploration model: a. inquiry stage: 1.reading-text essay model. 2.discussion-text essay model. b. recitation stage: 1.recitation the result of essay discussion. stage iii: consequence achievement. iii. stage of imitation model: a. pre-writing stage: 1.topic determining. 2.theme selection. 3.essay framework. 4.materials searching b. writing stage: 1.framework developing. 2.writing the draft of essay. c. post–writing stage: 1.re-reading. 2.self-editing. stage iv: consequence achievement. iv. stage of consequence achievement: a. collaborative editing. b. re-write. c. reflection. findings and discussions: a. the condition of learning of writing in indonesia the activity of learning to write in sma (sekolah menengah atas or senior high school) has been inadequate. the result of preliminary study showed the conditions and the obstacles of learning to write as follows: first, preparing syllabus has already been based on ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan or curriculum for school education level); it is not yet adjusted yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 94 to the needs of the schools prepared by the lessons teacher forum or mgmp (musyawarah guru mata pelajaran). second, the management of learning is classical and monotonous, there has not been any various and collaborative development. the media and learning resources are limited on package book (buku paket) and student’s worksheet or lks (lembar kerja siswa). third, learning is done by conventional strategy, such as lectures and assignment. when writing activity took place, teachers role as the instructor so that the logical competence of the students became less developed and passive. fourth, writing activity focused on the product or the completion of study assignment. student is assigned to write based on the topic prepared by teacher. consequently, it is less varied topic so that the alternative for the student is very limited. fifth, writing activity is very crucial for teachers, easily implemented but difficult in assessment. teachers still do not understand how to give score of composition in simplest and practical way. in addition, there are many papers of composition which has to be examined. sixth, the result of preliminary study is not enough, due to the less optimal of learning process. it appears to the results of student’s composition, namely (1) the idea often does not fit with the main issue so that the content of composition is not clear; (2) the use of language is correct but not well structured, expression in subjective–pragmatic, diction is less precisely and the interference is enough high; and (3) the control of graphemes rule for spelling and punctuation, and syntax rule for sentence structure are less effective. seventh, the obstacles of the student in writing are on the place and its preparation and the use of language. the writing’s obstacle at school is lack of time while at home; students do not have enough materials and interfered by tv program. in preparation to write, the students are not accustomed to making composition framework. in the use of language, students got difficulty in choosing simple words and metaphor, sort of sentence, develop paragraph, write down the spelling and punctuation. b. the result of learning writing an essay through tbms the result of writing learning is as descriptive of writing competence as a learning process. the competency writing essays indonesian language of the student from sma yas bandung city has high achievement for tbms applied in this activity. the average score is 84.61. this score is the recapitulation from five aspects of essay assessment, namely (1) substantive, (2) textual, (3) lexical, (4) syntax, and (5) graphemes. in comparison with the average score of the students when cls, bms, and tbms are applied. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 95 table 1: the level of the competency writing an essay class test means of writing an essay aspects � substantive textual lexical syntaxtic graphemic cls pre-test 18.80 12.54 12.41 14.68 2.02 60.46 post-test 19.24 13.71 13.32 15.56 2.76 64.59 0.44 1.17 0.90 0.88 0.73 4.12 bms pre-test 18.66 13.10 12.73 13.78 2.12 60.39 post-test 22.90 15.68 16.46 17.63 2.95 75.63 4.24 2.59 3.73 3.85 0.83 15.24 tbms pre-test 17.83 12.90 12.46 13.51 2.02 58.73 post-test 25.49 17.37 18.32 20.02 3.34 84.61 7.66 4.46 5.85 6.51 1.32 25.88 from the table above shows that there is difference the average score in pretest and post-test between control class (cls), treatment class i (bms), and treatment class ii (tbms). the averages of pre-test and post-test score of control class are the same. or there is not a significant increase. on the other hand, there is significant different in increasing average score of pre-test and post-test from treatment class i (bms) and treatment class ii (tbms). the average score of post-test from treatment class ii is higher than the average score of treatment class i, moreover the average score from control class (cls). the difference of the average score of pre-test and post-test in writing essay from csl, bms and tbms showed the increasing of competency in writing essay. it means that there is more significant increasing of the competence of writing essay through tbms than through cls and bms. the result of testing showed that the end significant competence’ score in writing essay between the student from cls, bms, and tbms class is less than 0.05 for only four aspect, namely (1) substantive, (2) textual, (3) lexical, and (4) syntax. on the other hand, the graphologies aspect is higher than 0.05. nevertheless, overall, the average score post-test in writing essay from three groups are significant different. it means that there is increasing of writing competence after cls, bms, and tbms are implemented. this table below shows the significant testing result of the last competence in writing essay in cls, bms, and tbms class. yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 96 figure 3: increasing the competence of writing essay through tbms ii. stage of exploration model a. inquiry stage 1. reading-essay text model 2. discussion-essay text model b. recitation stage recitation the result of discussion of essay a. collaborative b. rewriting c. reflection iv. stage of consequence achievement a. collaborative editing b. re-write c. reflection the last product in writing essay a. substantive, textual, lexical, syntax and graphemes aspects b. psychologies aspects (cognitive and affective ) the last competence of writing essay evalutaion iii. stage of imitation model a. pre-writing stage 1. topic determining 2. theme selection 3. essay framework 4. material searching b. writing stage 1. framework developing 2. writing draft of essay c. post-writing stage 1. re-reading 2. self–editing a. giving (task) assignment b. the process of writing method a. reading workshop b. learning community c. inquiry d. recitation a. explanation b. question-answers (discussion) method and technique l. stage of orientation model a. opening b. apperception c. student’s conditioning preliminary competence of writing essay pretest t h e p r o c e s s o f l e a r n i n g w r i t i n g posttest educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 97 table 2: the result of the last competence in writing essay in cls, bms, and tbms class writing aspects class class normality test significance test** sig value interpretation sig value interpretation s u b s t a n tive cls bms 0.000 not normal 0.000 significance tbms textual cls bms 0.000 not normal 0.000 significance tbms lexical cls bms 0.000 not normal 0.000 significance tbms syntactic cls bms 0.000 not normal 0.000 significance tbms g r a p h e mic cls bms 0.000 not normal 0.079 not significance tbms * the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. ** the mean difference test with kruskal-wallis test. discussions the objective of this research is to find out the strategy which can increase the writing competence of the students by formulating and testing text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in learning writing essay indonesian language at senior high school. the conclusion of the research refers to (1) learning process of writing an essay through tbms; (2) the result of learning writing an essay through tbms; and (3) meaning and its significant of learning writing an essay through tbms. first, the activity of the student in writing an essay is very responsive when tbms is applied in this learning process. students did the activity seriously. the interaction between teacher and students are very cooperative and democratic. students ask the questions freely and feel free to express their idea in their compositions. this can be understood as the activity focused on students and the topic of writing is selected by the students freely. process of writing tends to be good writing, thorough, creative, and more logic and systematic. student is capable to write satisfactorily and in good result. the seriousness of the students and their positive behavior in writing activity give great affect to the result of their composition. the reflection appears to the students when they checked and edited their friend’s compositions. formulating the four phases of tbms from three phases of bms indicated that the learning process is so conducive that student is more active and creative. four language skills aspects and thinking activity are integrated at once. on the other hand, bms is merely involved writing and reading. students still get confused; they are not capable enough to write correctly, many of their composition are not essay. students are less thorough and their logic is less focus. yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 98 second, the result of writing learning is as descriptive of writing competence as a learning process. the competency writing essays shows that there is difference the average score in pre-test and post-test between control class (cls), class treatment i (bms), and class treatment ii (tbms). it proved that the implementation of tbms in learning process of writing essay is able to increase the student’s competence in five aspects discourse/text, i.e. substantive, textual, lexical, syntax, and graphology. the explanation is as follows: (1) substantive aspect showed that student already understands the content widely and complete. the content is accordance with topic and title. it is also more details, neat, and clear; (2) textual aspect showed that student has an ability to organize the content of text orderly. students have many ideas and arrange them orderly by high cohesion; (3) lexical aspects showed that students have various vocabularies and use them correctly; (4) syntax aspect showed that students are able to arrange the sentence correctly and effectively; and (5) graphology aspect showed that students are able to use the rule of spelling and punctuation. since the test of homogeneity has been known that the increase of three groups distribution is not normal and not homogeny, then used non-parametric analysis through kruskall-wallis test. the criterion for decision is: accept ho if the significant score of the anova result is less than 0.05. on the other hand, reject/ decline ho if the significant score is greater than 0.05. the significant difference between the score of writing competency in pre-test and post-test and the difference of three groups cls, bms, and tbms in post test is 0.000. the reliable level is 95%. this significant score is less than 0.05, then ho rejected/declined. this score valid for significant score of the competency of writing essay aspects. however, there is significant difference in writing between class treatment ii (tbms), class treatment i (bms), and class control (cls). it means that the implementation of tbms in writing essay is much better and more effective than the implementation of bms and cls. third, meaning and its significant of learning writing an essay through tbms. these conclusions recommended the implementing of tbms as one of effective solutions to increase the quality of writing essay. thus, tbms has been able to overcome the obstacle of language learning methodology, especially learning of writing. this scientific prediction is along with the ease of implementation. tbms is quite easily mastered and implementation does not change the system of conventional class and the implementation does not require the additional fund. the implementation of tbms in language learning methodology gives very important role at least if it is seen from two sides: (1) tbms is directly involved in the process of learning, it is operational stage which is very important in determining the quality of learning result; and (2) tbms is learning writing strategy – as the form of experience of written language – giving the opportunity for students to convey their messages such as ideas, feeling, and desire to others in writing. learning of writing refers to the process, products, and materials. the achievement of learning is more effective when it is done by using structural scenario and accordance with the student’s development stage. this effort can be educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 99 achieved through tbms because its implementation to the students implicated to increase the quality of learning to write. tbms is one of modeling strategy that use “the text” as a reference model. in particular learning skill, beside text or passage, reference models can be objects, people, or actions. model can be a teacher and students or shipped from the outside. teacher as student’s facilitator and mediator in reading, understanding, and discussion “text-model” so that it can conclude the characteristic and structural essay. after that, the students practiced writing process so that structured product in the form of essay can be accomplished, then edited by collaborative editing. it can be stated practically that tbms in learning of writing essay at senior high school can increase student’s competence in writing. it also can be developed and modified to teach the other language aspects such as speaking, reading, and literature learning. the best of tbms is on the stages of orientation model, exploration model, imitation model, and consequence achievement. students’ essay is much better and complete due to revision, editing, and re-writing result. by looking at the stages of tbms activities indicated that learning of writing conditioned and lead the students to study four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and learn to think logically at once. learning activity refers to the materials, process, and products. besides increasing the writing competence, tbms is also increasing the students’ interest in reading, increasing students writing motivation, and increasing students’ creativity. however, there is a weaknesses the implementing of tbms, it is time consuming and must provide many various “text model”. conclusion and suggestion the objective of this research is to find out the strategy which can increase the writing competence of the students by formulating and testing text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in learning writing essay the indonesian language at senior high school. the conclusion of the research refers to: first, this research succeeded to find the learning strategy called text-based modeling strategy (tbms) as a result of transformation of basic modeling strategy (bms). the basic different between tbms and bms lies between the stages and steps of activity. second, the result of this research proved that tbms can overcome the obstacle in writing and it is effective to increase the student’s competence in writing essay. these conclusions recommended the implementing of tbms as one of effective solutions to increase the quality of writing essay. thus, tbms has been able to overcome the obstacle of language learning methodology especially learning of writing. third, learning of writing refers to the process, products, and materials. the achievement of learning is more effective when it is done by using structural scenario and accordance with the student’s development stage. this efforts can be achieved through tbms because its implementation to the students implicated to increase the quality of learning to write. yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 100 because of that, the result of this research cannot be generalized. however, this tbms can be applied to the same level of education unit like senior high school or sma (sekolah menengah atas) and/or vocational high school or smk (sekolah menengah kejuruan). tbms can be applied to elementary school or sd (sekolah dasar), islamic elementary school or mi (madrasah ibtidaiyah), and junior high school or smp (sekolah menengah pertama), islamic junior high school or mts (madrasah tsanawiyah). the implementation of tbms in this level of education unit can be modified based on the students’ need, i.e. topic can be adjusted to the age and student’s interest. this research used small sample in small number so that the selection of technique analysis is limited. further research need to be developed the design research by using big sample. by using big sample, it can apply data analysis technique which enables to find the direct and indirect influence from the variables being researched. the essay text is one of the products of writing activity. all the students’ writing product must be appreciated and evaluated it objectively and continually. this evaluation must be done during the process and in the end of learning of writing. this research focused on the skill of essay writing. to complete this research finding, it needs to do the research focused on increasing student’s writing skill and speaking skill, included the variety of text used in learning of writing. references agustien, helena i.r. 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(2005). menuju budaya menulis. yogyakarta: tiara wacana. yayat sudaryat, text-based modeling strategy (tbms) in teaching writing skills 102 learning of writing refers to the process, products, and materials. the achievement of learning is more effective when it is done by using structural scenario and accordance with the student’s development stage. this efforts can be achieved through tbms because its implementation to the students implicated to increase the quality of learning to write. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 93 significance of english literacy and academic performance of medical students in usim suhaila sanip & noor fadzilah zulkifli1 abstract: english had been thought as one of the determining factor of academic excellence in medical school as students with better command of english are thought to have better understanding of the subjects compared to students who have poor command of english. english literacy has also been thought to be correlated with academic performance in medical school. while a lot of researches had been conducted on the relationship of english language proficiency and academic performance among non-native english speakers in other countries. the study on malaysian medical students regarding this issue is still limited. the study was conducted to look at the correlation of english literacy and academic performance of medical students in usim (universiti sains islam malaysia or islamic science university of malaysia). this is a retrospective observational study. the results for “english for medical sciences” in semester 4 was compared to the performance in pathology course in the second professional examination in semester 6. a correlation study showed no correlation between the english literacy and the academic performance of the medical students with r = -0.027. therefore, there is no significant correlation between the english literacy and the academic performance of the medical students in usim. key words: english literacy, academic performance, medical student of usim, and english language proficiency. introduction english had been the medium of instruction of most medical schools in malaysia. this could be due to the fact that western countries had led technology advancement in medicine long ago and most textbook and references are written in english. in our faculty of medicine and health sciences usim (universiti sains islam malaysia or islamic science university of malaysia), students were expected to master at least three languages: (1) english is the medium of instruction in medical subjects; (2) arabic language is the medium of instruction for memorization of qur’anic verses and subjects related to the teaching of islam; and (3) malay language will be the language they use when communicating with patients in the teaching hospitals. dr. suhaila sanip is a lecturer (medical education) at the faculty of medicine & health sciences usim (islamic science university of malaysia) and now as deputy dean (student development & performance management) at the faculty of medicine & health sciences usim, 13th floor, menara b, persiaran mpaj, jalan pandan utama, pandan indah, 55100 kuala lumpur, malaysia; and dr. noor fadzilah zulkifli is senior lecturer (pathology), multidisciplinary laboratory coordinator, and pathology course coordinator at the faculty of medicine & health sciences usim. they can be reached at: suhaila.s@usim.edu.my and nfadzilahz@usim.edu.my suhaila sanip & noor fadzilah zulkifli, significance of english literacy and academic performance of medical students 94 although english is not the mother’s tongue of malaysian, the english language proficiency is a pre-requisite for entrance into medical schools. although patients seen in the clinical settings mostly speak malay, english language proficiency is important as doctors in malaysia do see patients who are from different countries and speaks different languages. rather than learning all different languages of the patients, doctors mostly either speaks in malay or english to their patients. in cases where patients cannot speak malay or english, patient always bring their translator with them for easy communication. english proficiency is also very important in medical field as it is the medium of communication amongst medical colleague locally or abroad when they discuss interesting cases or refer clinical cases to their superior. english language proficiency required of a medical student comprises a few components. the main components of proficiency are speaking, writing, and reading. the importance of speaking proficiency is very apparent in the clinical phase. students who cannot articulate their words fluently may have a problem explaining their answers to clinical examiners. students who do not have enough vocabulary knowledge may face difficulty explaining their answers in written examinations and; while reading textbooks which is written academically in english. on average, malaysian medical students had undergone eleven to twelve years of english language training prior to entering the university. the students then sat for a national english language test called “malaysian university english test” (muet) which is applicable to all candidates entering malaysian universities. the reliability of muet scores, as entrance criteria for entry to some medical schools in malaysia, has been argued. international medical university, for example, developed their own english placement test (ept) to reflect medical students english literacy as muet or ielts (international english language test score) may not cover certain domain of english language literacy which is important in the medical field (doray et al., 2007; and periera et al., 2007). in our faculty, muet score is also used as entrance criteria on top of other academic merits. students should score a muet band of 4 or higher in order to be accepted into medical faculty. once accepted as a medical student, they will receive a further two years of english training in the faculty through a subject known as “english for medical sciences”. in the first half of the semester, students were taught mainly on the communication aspect of english in the medical environment; while in the second semester, students were taught on writing reports, memos, and medical texts comprehension. assessments of the students were conducted in written format accordingly. literature review in order to excel in medical school, english literacy has been thought to be correlated with academic performance in medical school. to further support the importance of english in medicine, p. mccoubrie (2004) argued that in examination questions construction, any confusion over grammar or question structure invalidates the test as this extra grammatical variable does not relate to knowledge of the subject. grammatical error also discriminates against examinees whom english is not their educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 95 first language as their cognitive processes may work slightly less efficiently in the second language (paxton, 2000). in a similar study conducted locally by s. doray et al. (2007), they noted that as for either muet (malaysian university english test) or ielts (international english language test score), there was no significant correlation between the students’ english language proficiency and their academic performance. a study conducted by c. periera and b. budgell (2007) on biomedical science students noted that there’s only little relationship between biomedical language ability and either first language or language instruction prior to university entrance. they also concluded that the language abilities of malaysian students in biomedical is on par with those of their australian counterparts (who is english native speakers) and substantially higher than the abilities of matching cohorts from japan. therefore, is it true that language ability only play a small roles in determing medical students academic excellence? similar studies conducted in other countries give out contradicting results. the studies which resulted in a positive correlation between english language proficiency and academic performance was conducted by yenna salamonson (2008) on 273 first year nursing students who speak english as second language. m.o. hassan et al. (1995) found a significant positive correlation between results in english and the alimentary system whereas foundation sciences courses results in the cvrus (cardiovascular, respiratory and urinary system) were not correlated with english proficiency. they concluded that the contradicting result could be due to the structure of the english language course or the new objectives and structure of the cvrus course. most researches in this topic also proposed that english should be taught according to the need of the students and even medical practitioners. a need analysis should be carried out among the students before english language curriculum is developed. the need analyses ensure better success of the english language proficiency intervention programs as suggested by v.r. chur-hansen (1998) and anna chur-hansen (2007). some researches also proposed methods of effectively teaching english language proficiency to the students. trish stoddart (2002) proposed that the integration of inquiry science and language acquisition enhances learning in both domains. this is not the case in our faculty. english is taught as university core courses and faculty core courses. the english as university core course is delivered to students for the whole university regardless of faculties. english for medical sciences is taught as faculty core course and the content is related generally to the medical field. however, the course content need to be further scrutinized so that it matches the learning needs of the student and the learning outcome of the course. the delivery method of the course should be taken into consideration too. accordingly, p.r. léonard proposed that low academic achievers may benefit from peer discussion of explanatory tasks while high academic achievers benefit more from writing explanation which enhances comprehension more than restricted writing activities (cited in fen wang, 2004). it is clear that students should be divided suhaila sanip & noor fadzilah zulkifli, significance of english literacy and academic performance of medical students 96 according to their language proficiency and delivery methods for each language proficiency level should be tailored according to their ability or competence. objective, materials, and method the main objective of the research is to study the correlation of english literacy and academic performance of medical students in usim (universiti sains islam malaysia or islamic science university of malaysia) in the subject of pathology. this is a retrospective observational study on 43 third year medical students in usim in 2009. the results for “english for medical sciences ii” in semester 4 were compared to the performance in pathology course in the second professional examination in semester 6. pathology was chosen as the subject of choice as it is perceived by the students as the most difficult medical subjects. a lot of reading and text book comprehension is needed for the students to pass the subject examination. results majority of the students is female (62.79%) and all of the students are malay in ethnic. about 1/3 of the class passed in english with good marks. the average score obtained by the students for english is 57.37 while for pathology; the average score obtained by the students were 58.16. no students scored a in english and only one student scored a-. all students passed the english examination. in pathology, six student managed to get a and a-. about 7% of the students failed in pathology. a correlation study was carried out using spss version 15. the result of the statistical analysis showed no significance correlation between the english literacy and the academic performance of the medical students with r = -0.027. table 1: descriptive statistics n minimum maximum median english marks 43 45.00 72.50 57.0000 pathology marks 43 42.12 70.90 58.8600 valid n (listwise) 43 table 2: correlations english marks pathology marks english marks pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n 1 43 -.027 .866 43 pathology marks pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n -.027 .866 43 1 43 educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 97 figure 1: correlations english marks 75.0070.0065.0060.0055.0050.0045.00 pa th ol og y m ar ks 80.00 70.00 60.00 50.00 40.00 r sq linear = 7.08e-4 discussion the result of this study, and other studies conducted by other researchers before, provide a strong basis for a new intervention in providing language support for the medical students in our faculty. the delivery of english language support should be tailored to the need of the students in the faculty. the planning of english language literacy curriculum should include a thorough and comprehensive learning need analysis involving the students and the lecturers both in basic and clinical sciences. the delivery of the english language curriculum should also look into each student individual needs. as personal coaching may not be the perfect mode of delivery, students should be stratified according to their english language proficiency. weaker students should be given more attention on developing their language literacy, while better students can be coached on further development of their language literacy. conclusion english had been thought as one of the determining factor of academic excellence in medical school as students with better command of english are thought to have better understanding of the subjects compared to students who have poor command of english. however, our study had showed that there is no significant correlation between the english literacy and the academic performance of the medical students in usim suhaila sanip & noor fadzilah zulkifli, significance of english literacy and academic performance of medical students 98 (universiti sains islam malaysia or islamic science university of malaysia). our findings also support findings of the research conducted by s. periera et al. (2007). a larger study ideally involving bigger number of medical students, other ethnicity, and other well establish medical schools is needed to confirm our findings. references chur-hansen, anna. (1997). “language background, proficiency in english, and selection for language development” in medical education, 31(5), pp.312-319. chur-hansen, anna. (2007). “assessment of english-language proficiency for general practitioner registrars” in journal of continuing education in the health professions, 27(1), pp.36-41. chur-hansen, v.r. (1998). “clinical teachers’ perceptions of medical students’ english language proficiency” in medical education, 32(4), pp.351-356. doray, s. et al. (2007). “correlation between english language requirements and enlish placement test (ept): do we need an ept?”. paper presented at the international medical education conference in kuala lumpur, malaysia. fen wang, l.l.b. (2004). “an academic writing needs assessment of english-as-a-second-language clinical investigators” in journal of continuing education in the health professions, 24(3), pp.181-189. hassan, m.o. et al. (1995). “contribution of english language to the learning of basic medical sciences in sultan qaboos university” in medical teacher, 17(3), pp.277-282. mccoubrie, p. (2004). “improving the fairness of multiple-choice questions: a literature review” in medical teacher, 26(8), pp.709-712. okhee, lee. (1995). “science knowledge and cognitive strategy use among culturally and linguistically diverse students” in journal of research in science teaching, 32(8), pp.797-816. okhee, lee. (2004). “teacher change in beliefs and practices in science and literacy instruction with english language learners” in journal of research in science teaching, 41(1), pp.65-93. paxton, m. (2000). “a linguistic perspective on multiple choice questioning” in assessment & evaluation in higher education, 25(2), pp.109-119. periera, c. & b. budgell. (2007). “assessing the biomedical literacy and english language skills of malaysian health sciences students”. paper presented at the international medical education conference in kuala lumpur, malaysia. periera, c. et al. (2007). “are english language requirements valid and reliable entry criteria that determine expected academic performancein phase 1 of medicine course at imu?”. paper presented at the international medical education conference in kuala lumpur, malaysia. periera, c. & n. lee. (2007). “the effectiveness of the english course in improving students’ language proficiency”. paper presented at the international medical education conference in kuala lumpur, malaysia. perkins, r. et al. (2007). “assessing biomedical english competency: a fair, valid, sensitive, and reliable approach”. paper presented at the international medical education conference in kuala lumpur, malaysia. richard, c. (1998). “a language-focused needs analysis for esl-speaking nursing students in class and clinic” in foreign language annals, 31(2), pp.203-218. salamonson, yenna. (2008). “english-language acculturation predicts academic performance in nursing students who speak english as a second language” in research in nursing & health, 31(1), pp.86-94. stoddart, trish. (2002). “integrating inquiry science and language development for english language learners” in journal of research in science teaching, 39(8), pp.664-687. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 115© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare marites c. geronimo, marie grace s. cabansag & agnes s. reyes indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices of the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela, philippines abstract: indigenous environmental management for sustainability is about the particularity of place, cultural, and spiritual values woven through knowledge of wildlife, forest trees, water, and land. indigenous values associated with natural resources utilization and conservation might defy some scientific standards as they emphasize symbolic values to indigenous identity, customary law, and environmental philosophy. symbolic values strengthen belief to indigenous knowledge, which are priceless and are handed down from one generation to the next through apprenticeship or direct participation. beliefs and knowledge systems require an indigenous perspective to be relevant for use, so databases from every indigenous peoples group need to be appropriately designed for specific users. this study aimed to ascertain how the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela in the philippines utilize and conserve the natural resources in their domain. the ethnographic research was used to realize the purpose of this study. indepth interview and participant observation were rendered to gather information. a review of documentary materials and readings was done to enrich the researchers’ knowledge of the culture, knowledge systems, and practices of the respondents. findings revealed that the agta are consistent with their home-grown ways of using, protecting, and managing sustainably the ancestral lands and resources that have prevailed upon their identity as a people, despite the onset of science and technology. indigenous environmental management for sustainability could be achieved by recognizing and understanding indigenous knowledge of natural resources. key words: indigenous peoples; environmental management; cultural and spiritual values; sustainability; indigenous knowledge of natural resources. about the authors: marites c. geronimo is a lecturer at the pnu (philippine normal university) in visayas, cabahug st., cadiz city, negros occidental, philippines. marie grace s. cabansag and agnes s. reyes are the lecturers at the pnu (philippine normal university) in north luzon, aurora, alicia, isabela, philippines. corresponding authors is: cardona.rs@pnu.edu.ph how to cite this article? geronimo, marites c., marie grace s. cabansag & agnes s. reyes. (2016). “indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices of the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela, philippines” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(2) february, pp.115-128. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (january 12, 2016); revised (january 22, 2016); and published (february 28, 2016). used can slowly lead to their depletion or loss (painemilla et al. eds., 2010). nowadays, the effects of the depletion of natural resources are becoming more pronounced and so, cannot be ignored. the sustainable use and protection of these resources is of great importance to maintain an adequate supply for future generations. introduction in the beginning of human civilization, the earth was abundant with economically valuable resources, such as forests, soils, coastal and inland waters, and wildlife that are essential for survival. these resources regenerate and even improve their resource values, but when misused or unreasonably m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 116 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare otherwise, the survival of all life forms will become increasingly at stake. natural resources are conserved for their biological, economic, and recreational values, as well as their natural beauty and importance to local cultures (phillips ed., 1998). what are the goals of resource conservation? locally, according to gi (grolier international) in 1995, the regeneration of soil, recycling of nutrients, and cleansing of waters and agricultural systems, coastal and fresh water systems, and forests; the preservation of genetic diversity; and the assurance that utilization of species and ecosystems, such as forests and grazing lands, is sustainable (gi, 1995). literature search reveal that many indigenous communities depend directly on natural ecological systems for their sustenance. in this context, darrell addison posey et al. eds. (1999) and marites c. geronimo, marie grace s. cabansag & agnes s. reyes (2016) stressed that biological diversity and natural ecosystems are closely linked to the economy, identity, cultural and spiritual values, as well as the social organization of ips (indigenous peoples). moreover, many of the landscapes, where ips live is of extraordinary value, not only for their beauty and the ecosystem services they sustain, but also for their biodiversity. as such, ips and their land holdings are a vital strategic component in regional and national conservation strategies (cf posey et al. eds., 1999; and geronimo, cabansag & reyes, 2016). according to the cso (cultural survival organization), in 2014, the ips are often thought of as the primary stewards of the planet’s biological resources. their ways of life and cosmo-visions have contributed to the protection of the natural environment on which they depend on. it is no coincidence that when the world wildlife fund listed the top 200 areas with the highest and most threatened bio-diversity, they found that 95 percent are on indigenous territories (cso, 2014). ips have in-depth, varied, and locally rooted knowledge systems of the natural world; thus, they often inhabit territories that are rich in minerals and natural resources. and because ancestral lands and territories contain some 80% of the planet’s biodiversity, ips can play a crucial role in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources (ifad, 2014). moreover, ips resolved to maintain and regenerate for the continuity of their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities (russell et al. eds., 2015). it is estimated that there are more than 370 million ips spread across 70 countries worldwide (malate, 2014). practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies, in which they live. spread across the world from the arctic to the south pacific, they are the descendants of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time, when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived (geronimo, cabansag & reyes, 2016). according to unpfii (united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues), in 2014, the new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means (unpfii, 2014). majority of the world’s ips are found in asia and they form about 5,000 distinct groups (cso, 2014); and occupy about 20 percent of the earth’s territories (ifad, 2014). the upland tribal groups are the third largest cultural group in the philippines. the islands include more than 100 upland tribes, ranging in size from 100,000 to fewer than several hundred members. the members of the aeta and agta tribes are considered to be the indigenous people of the philippines. their communities are located mainly on northeastern luzon (steinberg, 2009). specifically, the sierra madre mountain ranges of northeast luzon is home to the agta, the first ips to inhabit the philippines and who are now being threatened of extinction (bengwayan, 2007). the agtas are huntergatherers who have inhabited the islands for at least 35,000 years; and today, around 9,000 agta live along the coasts and in the tropical rainforest of the sierra madre mountain range (reyes, 2012) which, with all the resources in it, has provided their basic needs: shelter, food, fuel, and medicine. moreover, the forest is their identity, their source of life. they believe that their ancestors were highly dependent on the forest in order to educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 117© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare survive. thus, anything that upset these places where they coexist would certainly affect them also; hence, they would do everything in order to preserve it. according to napoleon buendicho, a governor of the quezon tribal council, as cited by edna estifania a. co et al. eds. (2012) and l. reyes (2012), that the agtas are in the best position to act as stewards of the forests, because their sustenance comes from the forest and their culture deeply respects the forest and all life within it (a. co et al. eds., 2012; and reyes, 2012). the hmdbmp (highland mapping development and biodiversity management project), in 2006, studied the sustainable, customary use of biological resources by highland communities in northern thailand. the study found out that traditional leaders build relationship between community people and natural resources, and biodiversity management by guiding their customary use of soil, water, forest animal, and plant resources. villagers use natural resources in every aspect of their life through farming, hunting, and gathering (hmdbmp, 2006). similarly, results of the study conducted by r. ocampo & r. ocampo (2014), on the economic life of the negritos of luna, apayao, showed that they engage in activities where they gather materials directly from nature, such as foraging, hunting, fishing, basket weaving, and upland farming (ocampo & ocampo, 2014). one of the constructs on which this study is anchored is agenda 21, the international action plan on sustainable development drawn from the unced (united nations conference on environment & development) in rio de janeiro, brazil, in 1992, which recognizes the relationship of indigenous communities with their lands and natural resources therein (unced, 1992). over many generations, ips and their communities have developed holistic systems of resource utilization, which are considered sustainable and, may also, be scientific. through these systems, they have continually transmitted their sustainable practices; hence, the need to strengthen their role in the implementation of environmentally sound and sustainable development (unced, 1992). furthermore, the ips’ dominion over their lands and resources that will enable them to preserve their institutions, cultures, and traditions; and will further their development in harmony with their aspirations and needs is explicit in the kd (kimberly declaration), in 2002, which says as follows: as peoples, we reaffirm our rights to self-determination and to own, control and manage our ancestral lands and territories, waters and other resources. our lands and territories are at the core of our existence – we are the land and the land is us; we have a distinct spiritual and material relationship with our lands and territories, and they are inextricably linked to our survival and to the preservation and further development of our knowledge systems and cultures, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem management (cited in thotse, 2014). correspondingly, cp (congress of the philippines), in 1997b, on “republic act no.8371, chapter iii, sec. 7b: right to develop lands and natural resources”, states in part, as follows: […] right to develop, control and use lands and territories traditionally occupied, owned, or used; to manage and conserve natural resources within the territories and uphold the responsibilities for future generations; to benefit and share the profits from allocation and utilization of the natural resources found therein: the right to negotiate the terms and conditions for the exploration of natural resources in the areas for the purpose of ensuring ecological, environmental protection and the conservation measures (cp, 1997b). in addition, ncip (national commission on indigenous people), in 2012a, on “ncip administrative order no.2, series of 2012, article 1, sec. 3e, on sustainable development”, stipulates as follows: [...] the iccs/ips, through their ips, occupying their ancestral domain shall preserve, restore, and maintain a balance ecology in the ancestral domain by protecting the flora and fauna, watershed areas, and other reserves and to actively initiate, undertake and participate in the reforestation of denuded areas and other development programs and projects subject to just and reasonable remuneration (ncip, 2012a). in consideration of the foregoing legitimate bases, the researchers, on common ground, deemed it imperative to document the traditional use of natural resources vis-à-vis the conservation practices of the agta of lupigue, m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 118 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ilagan city, isabela that will serve as reference in the preservation and diffusion of their unique practices that support environmental sustainability. figure 1 shows the research paradigm, which guided the flow of the study. this study sought to answer the following questions: (1) how do the agta utilize the following resources: wildlife, trees/plants, inland waters, and land?; (2) what are the indigenous conservation practices of the agta in terms of their utilization of the aforementioned resources?; and (3) what are the implications of the indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices of the agta on: environmental sustainability, and indigenous peoples education? method research design. this study is ethnographic. interview and observation were used in gathering the needed data. the manner on how the agta used the identified resources and their way of preserving and conserving them were described as told by the respondents themselves. according to j.r. fraenkel & n.e. wallen (2006), the emphasis in ethnographic research is on documenting or portraying the everyday experiences of individuals by observing and interviewing them and relevant others (fraenkel & wallen, 2006). respondents. all the agta male and female adults in the small village of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela were considered as respondents of this study. since they are semi-nomadic, they stay along the sierra madre mountains in an area they call sulimanan; and at some point in time, move down the lowland through the abuan river. locale of the study. data-gathering was done in a small village at lupigue, ilagan city, isabela, where the agta families stay when they are in the lowland. lupigue (cabisera 10) is one of the cabiseras of hacienda san antonio in ilagan city, isabela. figure 2 shows the map of the city of ilagan. the research locale is highlighted. instruments. firstly, on documentary figure 1: the research paradigm analysis. an intensive review of documentary materials and readings about the agta was done to enrich the researchers’ knowledge of the respondents and their culture, knowledge systems, and practices. secondly, on interview guide. the researchers used an interview guide to investigate how the respondents use and conserve their resources. the interview was conducted during the day when the respondents were available. the interview guide included varied questions relevant to the study. unstructured interview was used to elicit responses from the respondents. questions were asked in ilocano, since this dialect is spoken with ease by both the researchers and the respondents. the interviews were done in the most informal and unobstructed manner so as to keep the respondents at ease and unperturbed. thirdly, on observation and immersion. as respondents of the study, the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela were the focus of intense observation. the researchers were intent participant-observers. the personal contacts enabled them to elicit the first hand information and genuine observations on how the agta utilize and conserve their resources. data gathering procedure. initially, an application to conduct the research and payment of fees was done at the ncip educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 119© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare cab. 10 figure 2: map of ilagan city (national commission on indigenous people) regional office. after which the application cum proposal was reviewed and evaluated. the iksp (indigenous knowledge systems and practices) team was formed to facilitate the proceedings provided in the guidelines. this was followed by the formulation of wfp (work and financial plan) by the researchers and the iksp team. upon approval of the wfp, the iksp team scheduled the conference and disclosure between the community members and the researcher-applicants. then, the report was submitted to the ncip regional office for the issuance of the certification precondition (cp, 1997a; tuyor et al., 2007; and nicp, 2012b). before the study was conducted, a wellplanned optical inspection of the research locale was done by the researchers. series of interviews with immersion were conducted to document the resource utilization and conservation practices of the agta. part of the immersion was the 8-hours travel by wooden bancas to sulimanan, a place along the sierra madre mountains where the agta do foraging, hunting, fishing, planting, and engage in charcoal making. the researchers also took photographs of the agta’s activities. after completing the write up of the study, the researchers presented their output to the community for validation. the certificate of validation was issued before the submission of output to the ncip offices. see the copy of certificate, pages 1 and 2. data analysis. the data gathered were presented and analyzed in a descriptive narrative form supported by some photographs. results and discussion on indigenous utilization of resources. how do the agta utilize the following resources: wildlife, trees/plants, inland waters, and land are following here: first, wildlife. a common sight in an uninhabited area in sulimanan is the presence of wild pig or boar (alingo). known for their dexterity in hunting, the agta trap the alingo by using a silo, a pliant stem of a forest plant formed into a circle, which is placed over the neck of the animal and then pulled to tighten. in some instances, the agta pursue the animal with the use of a self-made shot gun or by means of a pana, also called pika, a two-pronged, self-made arrow, and bow made from iron scrap materials. sometimes, a dog is freed to chase an alingo, which eventually gives up after being bitten by the dog. the alingo is hunted for food, because of its meat. just like the wild pig, the deer (ugsa) is also trapped by a silo or shot by the pana, primarily for food. however, after the ugsa is slaughtered, the other body parts which are not intended for m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 120 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare copy of certificate, page 1 educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 121© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare copy of certificate, page 2 m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 122 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare consumption are left to flow in the river or may be eaten by a monitor lizard (banyas). moreover, when the cogon grasses are plentiful, this would be the chance for the ugsa to feed on the grass. the monkey sunggo is also hunted with an air gun or shotgun only when needed as medicine. the agta believe that the blood of a sunggo could cure malaria. sometimes, its meat is also eaten by them. fowls such as native chicken (abuyog) and big bird (kalaw) are both hunted for their meat by the agta. birds are less preferred than native chickens, so they are only considered for food when they are accidentally caught by the trap called silo. when they are able to get more than what they actually need the spare abuyogs are sold in the market. similarly, the meat of the monitor lizard (banyas) and snake (beklat) are food to the agta, while the bile of the beklat is soaked in white wine or oftentimes in a glass of hot water and drunk to relieve stomach ache (interview with respondent a, 15/1/2015). second, trees/plants. trees abound in the sierra madre mountains’ thick forest. parts of fallen trees, such as branches and twigs, are cut into pieces and are used as fuel. the slim, sturdy trunks of young trees are cut into poles and are used to hold (pagtik-kin) the boat (bangka) in place or used to move it away from a boulder or barrier. some parts are shaped into paddles (pag-gaod or paluga). the sturdier, mature trunks are cut into slabs and assembled into bangkas. see photo 1. parts of trees that float along the river (driftwood) are gathered by the agta. those that are shaped by the water are used as home décor, which are fixed on the wall of their house in the village and are used to hang hats. the big ones are dug along the river bank and are used to anchor their bangkas. see photo 2. photo 1: the boat (bangka) photo 2: parts of trees that float along the river (driftwood) are gathered by the agta. photo 3: the small pieces of wood are placed in shallow dug holes on the ground, where they are burned into charcoal educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 123© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the small pieces of wood are placed in shallow dug holes on the ground, where they are burned into charcoal. see photo 3. these are put into sacks and are transported to the nearest local market for sale. on the other hand, by order or with permission from the municipal officials, the big trees are cut by a chainsaw into lumber for construction purposes. however, before this is done, a ritual is performed by the elders and a prayer is said. one common source of food for the agta is the agal, also called anibong, a palm tree. after the bark of its trunk is removed, the inner part is cut into pieces and pressed to remove the sap. then, the collected sap is dried under the sun, pound into flour-like texture and fried. this is considered as a substitute for rice. the agta also gather fruits of trees from the forest for food. mangoes (mangga ti bakir), rambutan, banana (saba), and cassava (kamotengkahoy) abound in the forest and are gathered as food. the rattan uway vine bears fruit (alindayag), which is yellow to brown in color, with a sour taste, and a thorny stem. the uway stem is a common raw material woven into baskets (baki), where harvested crops are gathered. the baki is also used by hens when laying their eggs until hatching time or until the chicks are ready to be tagged along by their mother. rattan is also made into backpack pasiking with a detachable basket bigasan used to carry clothes, when an agta goes for a travel. the pasiking is also used to carry their hunt and to keep their food when its basket is detached. the bigasan is made from a palm plant silag. when this basket is detached from the pasiking, it is used to store rice or corn (interview with respondent b, 20/1/2015). third, inland waters. the river is a basic natural resource of the agta. it is the main source of drinking water. it is also used for cooking and washing. moreover, they bathe themselves and wash their clothes in the river. as source of food, the river is home to a variety of fish, such as tilapia, freshwater eel (igat), some species of mullet, president’s fish (ikan), banak, ludong, kurilao, and clams (bukasit and agurong). the fish are usually out at night to hunt for food. the home-made arrow (pana) is usually used to catch fish. it is made of a sharpened nail, a piece of rod and rubber. the agta wear goggles (antipara) and bring along with them improvised torch or lamp, when they go out fishing at night. aside from the pana, the net (sigay) is also used. another kind of net (bukatot or karwas) made of old, wornout mosquito net with smaller holes is also utilized for trapping small fish, including snake that would enter the trap (interview with respondent c, 25/1/2015). see photo 4. fourth, land. arable land along the mountains is planted with corn or rice for food and for barter. harvested rices are put into sacks and are brought to the nearest locality for milling. sometimes, the wooden pestle (al-o) is also used to pound the rice. after harvesting corn, the area is cleared of weeds manually of the stalks and leaves and these are burned to prepare the land for the next planting season. part of their harvest is usually bartered to the kind of seeds, which are ideal for planting. vegetables, such as monggo (balatong), string beans (sitaw), squash (karabasa), parda, and jute (saluyut) are also planted as source of food. other land resources include cogon (pan-aw), talahib or sikal, and bamboo (marakawayan). after harvesting, these are hanged to dry and then stored in the ceilings of their houses for future use. the way the agta of lupigue, ilagan, photo 4: another kind of net (bukatot or karwas) made of old m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 124 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare isabela utilize resources is similar to the agta of mt. iraga in the bicol region, as noted by global pinoy (2014) in that, they use pointed sticks called galud to kill birds, wild deer, monkeys, and wild pigs. hunting, fishing, and farming are also their traditional means of livelihood, while charcoal making is considered a seasonal job (pinoy, 2014). in addition, the bantu and koisan peoples of africa practice hunting as a means of subsistence. moreover, pastoralists in the new world and the people of trobiand islands in guinea practice wasi, an exchange of produce or balanced reciprocity (peoples & bailey, 1997), as well as the negritos of luna, apayao gather plants for consumption or sold to the local market to provide them income for their daily subsistence as do the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela (ocampo & ocampo, 2014). among the foraging agta of the sierra madre in the philippines, women make an important economic contribution to their households through hunting (estioko-griffin & griffin, 1985; ember & ember, 1992; and nanda & warms, 2002). agta men tend to hunt alone, stalking pigs, deer, and monkeys with their bows and arrows. women hunt in groups, with men or with other women, using dogs to drive the animals and killing them with long knives or bows and arrows (interview with respondent d, 30/1/2015). on the conservation practices. what are the indigenous conservation practices of the agta in terms of their utilization of the aforementioned resources? first, wildlife. the agta practice selective hunting. they leave the young, pregnant, and female alingo behind to continue the perpetuation of the specie. in an attempt to use the silo to trap alingo, the agta peg a maximum of 10 sticks only. young animals that get caught in the trap accidentally are brought home by the agta to take care of until they get tamed and grow mature. if they are able to trap more than what they need, they would sell the excess in the local market or preserve the meat by drying under the sun. another way of preserving the meat of alingo or ugsa, fish, and chicken is by drying over fire or smoke. the sahab is an improvised indigenous material, where animal products are placed when drying. the sahab looks like this in the photo 5. this is made of twigs or small branches tied together forming a flat tray attached to three small posts, like a tripod. below it is firewood which is burned when drying begins. the animal meat is then pre-cooked until dry over low fire. this will make the animal products last for a longer period of time. however, these products spoil easily during the rainy or cold season. the dried animal products pindang are usually stored for future consumption in makeshift baskets dagyan, which are made of uway or rattan. see photo 6. the agta usually barter their products with tobacco, rice, salt, and other basic commodities. moreover, the antlers and teeth of ugsa (deer) are sold for as much as one hundred fifty pesos (p 150). the jawbones of ugsa with well aligned teeth are kept for a belief that by keeping them, they bring good luck and harmonious relationship with family members (interview with respondent e, 5/2/2015). second, inland water. moreover, the agta also practice selective fishing. when they plunge into the river, a number of fish would get near them, but they would catch only those fit for consumption. their fishing technique uses weeds lidda or sikal that float in water and drawn by the river current. they believe that once the fish get tired swimming, while photo 5: the sahab educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 125© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare avoiding the chasing weeds, catching the fish becomes easier. this natural technique of fishing could save the river from destruction compared with the use of harmful chemicals by modern fishermen. since the river is the main source of water for drinking and for cooking, it is kept free from floating dung and other waste products (interview with respondent f, 10/2/2015). third, land. the ancestral lands of the agta are maintained for their natural soil fertility by allowing stalks of corn or rice to decay in the farmland to serve as fertilizer. farm pests like rats are treated with kindness, so they will not destroy their crops as they believe that once they get hurt, they become destructive. the agta avoids the use of bt (bacillus thuringensis) corn seeds in their farm to avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers and harmful pesticides as would farmers in the village practice. they dislike the yellow corn seed for planting for its expensive farm input requirements. the integrity of the topsoil is kept by using only bolo and stick in planting (interview with respondent g, 15/2/2015). fourth, trees/plants. only small pieces of wood or wood drifting from the river are gathered for fuel or sold at the local market. the uway vine is made into chairs and baskets, and these are also sold in the local markets or bartered. among the agta, the forest is considered as their food storage. however, food is not stored, so there is no need to collect more than what is needed for the day. a tribe member should only get what he needs for his family. if a catch is more than enough for a family, the tribe member must share it with others (interview with respondent h, 20/2/2015). there are limits to areas to cultivate, where designated areas for the cutting down of trees is allowed. if there are only few remaining trees of a certain kind, these would never be cut down until they have multiplied and grown in sufficient numbers. in addition to this, there are designated months for hunting, as the tribe believes that animals should be allowed to grow properly and increase in numbers. pregnant animals are never hunted. the same is true with fishing (calzado, 2014). the conservation practices of the agta on the use of non-economic goods are environment friendly. thus, their ways of conserving ensure sustainability. on implications of the indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices on environmental sustainability and indigenous peoples education. the indigenous management systems on the utilization and conservation of resources by the agta offer insights into how contemporary practices on the harvest of wild foods might be managed more sustainably. the indigenous knowledge and practices can give long-term perspectives on trends in wildlife populations, the season to hunt for food indicate the period of wildlife abundance, while the need to hunt only for medicine means the resource photo 6: the dagyan m.c. geronimo, m.g.s. cabansag & a.s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices 126 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare is conserved, due to its decreasing number (painemilla et al. eds., 2010). the areas of the forest where the ips (indigenous peoples) hunt and collect food reveal the past and current distributions of forest resources as well as the associations between different species in the wild. the throwing of weeds on flowing water is used to spot the location of big fish, a distinct strategy of agta that illustrates knowledge on symbiotic relationships among organisms (geronimo, cabansag & reyes, 2016). partnership of government agencies and the education sector in incorporating traditional knowledge into contemporary wildlife management regimes and counter the negative effects of technological revolution that have greatly expanded the threats to customary harvests of wildlife for exotic foods is indispensable. sustainable environment anchored on wise utilization and conservation of resources is impeccable among the ips, their effective participation in conservation and in protecting and managing biodiversity of natural resources would result in more comprehensive and cost effective conservation and management of biodiversity worldwide. the ips are a source of knowledge to the many solutions that will be needed to avoid environmental degradation or to ameliorate sustainable environment (tuyor et al., 2007; and painemilla et al. eds., 2010). the core aspect of sustainability of natural resources for the agta is the continuity of supply for their food and medicine (geronimo, cabansag & reyes, 2016). it is only through knowledge application to day to day life experiences that indigenous knowledge will retain its relevance and be perpetuated by future generations. the transmission of knowledge on resource utilization and conservation is through apprenticeship and the early participation of the young in the natural courses of their life, both in the village and in the mountains, has taught them of being mindful for seasonal changes that match with time to move up the mountains to work in the farm and to gather food and time to move down the village for shelter in times of bad weather. the occasional stay of the agta in their houses in the village prepared by the local government for their alternative home has allowed them exposure to other life ways of villagers. a meal on canned sardines for instance has turned as a special treat for them. this indicates that their indigenous knowledge system is open to certain changes (painemilla et al. eds., 2010; and cbd, 2014). conclusion indigenous environmental management for sustainability is about the particularity of place, cultural, and spiritual values woven through knowledge of wildlife, forest trees, water, and land. indigenous values associated with natural resources utilization and conservation might defy some scientific standards, as they emphasize symbolic values to indigenous identity, customary law, and environmental philosophy. indigenous knowledge is very specific to people and place. it is innovative and adaptive, it involves intellectual property issues that need to be well recognized and understood by all parties. symbolic values strengthen belief to indigenous knowledge, which are priceless and are handed down from one generation to the next through apprenticeship or direct participation. beliefs and knowledge systems require an indigenous perspective to be relevant for use, so databases from every indigenous peoples group need to be appropriately designed for specific users. it can be deduced that the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela have invaluable knowledge system for the sustainable management of available resources in their ancestral domain; thus, still cling to some of their usual traditional ways of resource utilization and conservation practices. different indigenous people have knowledge system to conserve their practices and maximize utilization of their resources unique to their own tribe. the agta of lupigue, ilagan, isabela have their own knowledge system to sustain management of their resources, which is unique and incomparable with other indigenous people. however, this could be a viable jumpstart for agencies in the philippines, like ncip (national commission of indigenous people), lgu (local government unit), commission on educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 127© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare human rights, department of education, and commission on higher education to evolve programs and projects which ips (indigenous peoples) can utilize to protect their rights. government agencies may incorporate the indigenous knowledge on natural resource utilization and conservation to contemporary wildlife management regimes through active participation of ips. their knowledge system on sustainability based on continuity of resources will make them effective in conservation and in protecting and managing natural resources. the transmission of indigenous knowledge through apprenticeship may be adapted in the formulation of ips education curriculum in general, and on the conduct of training programs with responsible personnel of government agencies for environmental sustainability in particular. it is only through knowledge application through direct immersion to life experiences that indigenous knowledge will retain its relevance and be perpetuated by future generations.1 references a. co, edna estifania et al. 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(2015). biodiversity and development handbook. washington dc: usaid [united states agency for international development]. available online also at: file:///c:/ users/acer/downloads/pa00kkws.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: december 22, 2015]. steinberg, d.j. (2009). republic of the philippines. microsoft encarta redmond, wa: microsoft corporation. thotse, mahunele. (2014). “constructing a collective memory: monuments commemorating warrior kings in limpopo province, south africa”. unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria, south africa: faculty of humanities, university of pretoria. available online also at: http://repository.up.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/ handle/2263/50805/thotse_constructing_2015. pdf ?sequence=1&isallowed=y [accessed in manila, philippines: december 22, 2015]. tuyor, josefo b. et al. (2007). indigenous peoples rights act: legal and institutional frameworks, implementation and challenges in the philippines. discussion papers, east asia and pacific region, social development, rural development, natural resources, and environment sectors. washington dc: wb [world bank]. unced [united nations conference on environment & development]. (1992). agenda 21: recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous people and their communities. rio de janeiro, brazil: united nations conference on environment & development, 3 to 14 june. available online also at: https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/ agenda21.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: december 22, 2015]. unpfii [united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues]. (2014). “indigenous peoples, indigenous voices (1)”. available online at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/ documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: december 18, 2015]. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 11 patterns of interaction among mono-cultural english as second language learners nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy1 abstract: by exploring the educational pedagogies and classroom discourses, it is the aim of the paper to extend theoretical insights into the way esl (english as second language) writing classrooms might help to make over, negotiate, and manage the linguistic, social and learning iden tities of the mono-cultural learners in the classrooms. the basic premise of social interdependence theory is that the way interdependence among goals is structured determines how individuals interact, which in turn largely determines outcomes. research, therefore, has focused on student–student interaction in esl tertiary writing classroom in an institution of higher learning. the results indicated that mono-cultural learners in an esl classroom juxtaposed two languages (l1 and l2) and appropriated their bilingualism to learn english language. the results also revealed that group discussions in esl classrooms in institution of higher learning offered experiential learning whereby learners became more skilled to use suitable choice of words (at times with help of their more capable peers), specifically utilising their bilingual expertise. the end results of this study point out a favourable feature of the discourses of the esl learners striving for mutual benefits to successfully complete the assigned tasks. key words: mono-cultural, english as second language, face-to-face interaction, patterns of interaction, and malay students. introduction language plays a significant role in social interactions. it enables various types of communication. communication, on the other hand, enables individuals to expand understanding of the world and leads to cognitive development. several types of communication take place in the classroom: teacher and learners as well as learners and learners, text and learners, and learners and teacher. these communication patterns propose that language is a significant tool that connects the individual with the world beyond the self. so does effective and meaningful communication and interaction takes place in an english as second language (esl henceforth) classrooms? dr. nalini arumugam, geraldina de mello and indrani muthusamy are lecturers at the academy of language studies uitm (mara technology university), melaka campus, km 26, jalan lendu, 78000 melaka, malaysia. they can be reached at: nalini@melaka.uitm.edu.my, geraldine@melaka. uitm.edu.my, and indrani@melaka.uitm.edu.my nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 12 l.a. hirst and c. slavik (2005) and j. kreie, r.w. headrick and r. steiner (2007) claimed that the use of group activities to provide opportunities for learners to use language in meaningful ways is one the most effective mode of second language instruction. in completing a cooperative task, learners must listen to and negotiate meaning with one another. although learners’ inter-language may not provide perfect models of the target language, there is obvious communication. obviously, not all the learners in this study are proficient speakers but they still assist one another developing their competence in the target language as suggested by k. mason (2006). apparently, the small group learner-learner interactions indicate that such interactions provide conditions that facilitate language acquisition better than teacher-learner interactions (ellis, 1994). another note worthy point to consider is the mono-cultural esl classroom where learners who prefer to work together to accomplish assigned tasks (mariam, 2004) could result in code-switching, particularly from l1 (first language) to l2 (second language) or vice versa. a. iwai (2004) and m. paramasivam (2005) perceived code switching to be fulfilling the function of language that amounts to effective communication and inter-lingual unity. code switching is viewed as the medium to convey both social and linguistic meanings. they opined that learners often resorted to using their first language to “help bridge the proficiency gap”. a.s. canagarajah (2005) has also pointed out that code switching in the esl classroom helps the instructors and learners to manage their classroom interactions efficiently and to negotiate the pedagogical content meaningfully. he argued that even if some code switches are motivated by incompetence, they are loaded with social meaning and rhetorical implications. in fact, “code switching can lessen the inhibitions against second language learning and enable learners to accommodate them in their repertoire of english” (canagarajah, 2005:592). he has also said that sometimes learners use l1 as the medium for accomplishing the prescribed pedagogical activity such as translating the question into l1, appropriating their attempted sequences, and peer help on difficult words. “such collaborative interactions in the vernacular displayed more depth and involvement than the collaborative tasks teachers gave learners to be conducted in english” (canagarajah, 2005:138). this explanation on the use of l1 befits well to this present study because the participating learners frequently use l1 to communicate. thus, they may want to use their l1 to “speak their thoughts.” meanwhile, d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) stressed the importance of the members meeting face-to-face to work together to complete group tasks and foster one another’s success and stressed that the discipline of using group writing was to ensure the group members meet face-to-face, to work cooperatively to complete the assigned tasks and facilitate their peers’ success as well. the face-to-face promotive interaction (ffpi henceforth) element encouraged group discussions by creating an environment where the group members assisted one another; exchanged ideas and information and provided feedback to members to improve their ideas and facts (johnson & johnson, 1999). therefore, in malaysia the esl classrooms have a variety of language to assist a better grasp of the target language. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 13 statement of the problem the “mono-cultural” background of students to share the same mother tongue and often it is said that they use l1 (first language), the malay language to learn l2 (second language), the english language. it is our view that the bilingual interaction found in these classrooms, particularly the way that the participants spontaneously and purposely juxtapose malay language and english in order to create learning/ teaching opportunities offers a useful example of “bilingual complementarity” at learning institutions. by this we mean the way that the two languages are used together in the classrooms, and how this plays an important part in the negotiation and management of the linguistic, social, and learning identities of the classroom participants. through talk, interaction is made and classroom atmosphere is established. darrell m. hull and terrill f. saxon (2009) opine that talking serves to structure and control our behaviour as well as being a means of communicating with others and influencing them. in this context, how the learners share their ideas and experiences with those involved will be observed. as learners naturally interact in small groups, there is a strong support for establishing interpersonal skills, to help their peers to achieve the group goal. the language skills used by the learners; especially how the learners exchange ideas to complete their assigned task using the characteristics of the social interdependence theory to write the drafts of the essays will be taken into consideration. knowledge is constructed through joint activity (vygotsky, 1978); and therefore, learning is mediated by different learners within the group. knowledge is commonly said to be socially constructed through cooperative efforts toward shared objectives, or by discussions and challenges brought about by the interaction among learners (barnes, 1995). according to d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson’s social interdependence theory, characteristics of group discussion encompass positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, social skills, and group processing. positive interdependence is said to result in promotive interaction, and at times, negative interdependence (johnson & johnson, 1991 and 1999). this creates unity and trustworthiness in the group where learners become aware that they could optimise theirs as well as their peers’ learning (johnson & johnson, 1999; and iwai, 2004) and strive for mutual benefits (johnson, johnson & holubec, 1994). however, to date little has been done to show how beneficial is this approach at a higher learning institution, especially at mono-cultural esl (english as second language) learning environment. hence, the present study aimed to examine how learners in an esl classroom shared their ideas and experiences in the process of discussion and negotiations. nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 14 research questions, scope of the study and theoretical framework, and methodology the present research employed ffpi (face-to-face promotive interaction) which is claimed to encourage a more effective language learning process in the esl (english as second language) writing classroom. as the ffpi in small groups provides multiple opportunities for students to interact and assist each other, the use of this approach can serve to overcome distressed and de-motivated esl learners. furthermore, group discussions also promote positive social interactions (johnson & johnson, 1991; iwai, 2004; mason, 2006; and depaz & moni, 2008) which can enhance students’ learning experiences. as such, this research attempted to answer the following questions: (1) what are the esl learners’ patterns of interaction in the mono-cultural esl learning settings?; and (2) how do esl learners’ patterns of interaction in the writing classes facilitate learning? this study included patterns of interaction based on johnson and johnson’s social interdependence theory, ffpi. ffpi takes place when group members encourage and facilitate one another’s progress by assisting group members to accomplish the assigned tasks, achieving group goals. knowledge is constructed through joint activity (vygotsky, 1978); and therefore, learning is mediated by different learners within the group. to experience the optimal effects of ffpi the members should render assistance such as exchanging needed resources, information and materials, processing information more efficiently and effectively, providing one another with valuable feedback to improve their efficiency, and getting greater insight into the problems being considered (johnson & johnson, 1999). a case study approach was chosen for this study. a total of sixty-three (63) learners, who are pursuing their diploma in business studies, participated in this study. in this context, qualitative method included observations and audio-recording of students’ discussions in naturalistic learning contexts. the discussions were audio-taped and transcribed by the researchers. the checklist was adapted from d.w. johnson, r.t. johnson and e.j. holubec (1994) to elicit data from a group of mono-ethnic students at a public institution of higher learning in malaysia. the checklist consisted of elements like correcting peers, repeating ideas, integrating ideas, explanation, reinforcing, challenging, reasoning, influencing, questioning, probing, clarifying, paraphrasing, encouraging, criticising ideas, criticising members, and approving members’ ideas (johnson & johnson, 1999). the checklist was deemed sufficient in eliciting information on students’ patterns of interaction employing ffpi. later, group semi-structured interviews were conducted at the institution to elicit qualitative data about the issues under study, i.e. the efficacy of ffip and observed their attitudes and ability to be fully engaged in tasks assigned in classroom. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 15 results and discussion on the research question 1: patterns of interaction. l.s. vygotsky (1978) claimed that learning is a social enterprise and students learn through interaction; while d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) claimed that students learn better by helping one another. these claims were observed by the researchers during discussions held among learners in this study. the learners assisted one another and engaged themselves in the tasks by explaining the question. these results show that the learners have practised ffpi (face-to-face promotive interaction) taught by the researchers to complete the designated tasks. they found ffpi traits to be beneficial, which was demonstrated in the structured interview. a learner said, “when we meet to discuss with friends in the group, we learn better. if i don’t know anything, i can ask my friends who are clever”. another learner revealed that “we can always check when we discuss. i feel it is easier to ask my friend and not shy to ask them”. these confessions also proved that ffpi had played a significant role in processing information more efficiently and effectively; providing one another with valuable feedback to improve their efficiency and getting greater insights into the problems being considered which was also observed in d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999), a. iwai (2004), and m.n. mariam (2004). although there are 16 characteristics suggested by d.w. johnson, r.t. johnson and e.j. holubec (1994), the researchers found 6 (six) apparent features utilised by learners during their group discussions. the details of the common features are discussed below. first, correcting peers. the “correcting peers” element is an essential skill in the ffpi context (johnson & johnson, 1999; and iwai, 2004) and the researchers noted that it was an obvious sub skill practised by all the groups in both cases at almost the same frequency. it was also observed that peer correction reduced as the learners got more involved in the discussions and this could be ascribed to the fact that the learners gradually became more confident in their writing ability. d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) and m.n. mariam (2004) posited that correcting peers in group discussion is often used among learners to facilitate a fruitful discussion. the following are excerpts from the transcriptions of the students’ interactions demonstrating this sub skill. excerpt 1: group writing session 1, lines 1 to 2 1. noor hanini, “carbo will give us energy to work. learner must have and banyak (a lot of) he ... he … he … much tenaga, power ya?” (looking at fauziana asman for approval). 2. fauzina, “not power lah, energy” (then noor hanini continued). nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 16 excerpt 2: group writing session i, lines 3 to 5 3. irma suriani, “tugas means responsibility and harian means every day. so, responsibility every day, tak sedap lah maybe everyday responsibility, what you say fauziana?” 4. fauziana, “no lah. better to say ‘daily work’ or ‘daily responsibility’”. 5. noor hanini, “okay, we take daily work in our life”. the excerpts (1 & 2, appendix a) clearly illustrate the commitment of the members in correcting their peers to improve in writing. in the esl (english as second language) classroom, fauziana, a learner, who scored the highest grade in the pre-test assessment, corrected her peer who seemed to be a less proficient group member, irma suriani’s error “everyday responsibility” (lines 2) by providing the appropriate word to “daily responsibility” (line 4) to describe their task. the correcting peer element was remarkable in all groups. this clearly showed that this group writing session not only had encouraged the learners to engage actively in class work and employ the learnt ffpi skills but also encouraged the learners to support and facilitate their peers’ involvement. these findings concur with the findings of m.n. mariam (2004) and k. mason (2006) who disclosed that group work would facilitate talk in the process of completing their task by creating a model for some learners to imitate and improve themselves. it was clear that when a learner was corrected by another, it created an avenue for all the learners in the group to generate better ideas and use more appropriate words such as in lines 2 and 4. during the group reflection, a group leader admitted, “we are very happy having group writing because some of our friends are good in english and they help us. we are more confident now and can write better”. another member said, “now we know how to check our own work. before we just write and ‘pass up’ but now we check before ‘passing up’”. these acknowledgements in fact provide a clearer picture of the learners and the extent to which they had learned from the group-learning experience as also observed in previous study of j. kreie, r.w. headrick and r. steiner (2007). second, approving. d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) and m.n. mariam (2004) put forward that the approving element is another important characteristic among the cll (cooperative language learning)-based group work and this skill was also commonly observed among the learners in both cases. this showed the members’ approval of their group peers’ ideas and views. it was a noteworthy observation that the group members accepted their peers’ contribution in completing their group tasks together. mostly, they accepted peers’ views after discussing and assessing if they were suitable and relevant. below are some excerpts demonstrating the approval trait. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 17 excerpt 3: group writing session 2, lines 6 to 8 6. siti fairuza, “we go point by point. first, we compare point one in hypermarkets with the first point in the sundry shop”. 7. maimunah, “ya lah. hypermarkets are very convenient because it is one-stop for shopping. we can buy a lot of things at one place. we no need to go to many shops”. 8. siti fairuza, “yes, good. now can talk about sundry shop lah”. when siti fairuza suggested that they could compare and contrast the characteristics of hypermarkets to sundry shops (line 6), the leader approved (line 7) her idea by saying “ya lah”. likewise, siti fairuza (line 8) also appreciated and readily accepted, maimunah’s idea by acknowledging “yes, good”. a learner said, “sometimes, we do talk other stories but our members will remind us of the time and task. then we will come back to our work. we also talk about the grammar rules which helped us to check our work”. a group leader from institution a said, “the group members were very helpful. when we made mistakes, they corrected us. we did not call the instructor to help us”. the researchers obviously noted the social talk present in the groups but perceived it as an essential element to strengthen their rapport as well as to stimulate the learners to acquire new knowledge based on their prior experience (mason, 2006; and doymus, 2008). third, explaining. d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) highlighted that the explaining element in cll (cooperative language learning) stimulates learners’ ability and willingness to assist their less capable friends to “swim along” to achieve the goals. undoubtedly this trait was always practised in both cases. this could be interpreted that the members explained the tasks clearly to their peers whenever the group members did not understand. when the members explained the task, most of the times their peers managed to follow the discussion and participated actively in the group tasks. below are some excerpts. excerpt 4: group writing session 2, lines 9 to 11 9. maimunah, “can lah madam. we can do. come let’s start the first point. hypermarkets itu macam (are like) big supermarkets. so, we talk about the good isi (point) first. hypermarkets are better because it is air conditioned and can buy many things”. 10. siti fairuza, “i don’t know about grocery shops or sundry shops. no experience lah”. 11. adila talip, “tak apa (nevermind). it is kedai runcit lah (grocery shop)”. one of the members did not know the meaning of “hypermarkets”. maimunah, the leader patiently, explained the term in their mother tongue (line 9). moreover, she was optimistic and confident on performing the assigned task. in addition, when siti fairuza revealed that she did not have any experience (line 10) in dealing with sundry or grocery shops, adila talip accepted the fact without frowning. besides, nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 18 she also “explained” the meaning in malay, their mother tongue (line 11) ensuring her peer understood the task. a limited proficient learner admitted that she was often assisted by her more capable group members. she said, “some of my group members are very good in english. so they will ‘explain’ the question if i do not know or understand the question. then i can join the group discussion”. it was clear that the explanation was effective and it went across to the other members. these results are in line with that of k.j. chapman et al. (2006); k. mason (2006); and j. kreie, r.w. headrick and r. steiner (2007) who pointed that explanation would heighten learning, especially the average and limited proficient learners. fourth, extending ideas. the “extending ideas” feature is a vital skill in the ffpi context (mariam, 2004; and mason, 2006). this feature was noticed during the group writing sessions in both institution a and b. the observation check list in institution a showed that this sub skill was utilised throughout the discussions. it was also observed that extending peers’ ideas increased as they got more involved in the discussions and this could be described to the fact that the learners gradually became more confident and adept in their writing ability (johnson, johnson & holubec, 1994; and depaz & moni, 2008). excerpt 5: group writing session 2, lines 12 to 15 12. siti fairuza, “hypermarkets are air-conditioned and very comfortable. they have a lot of things and more choices. on the other hand, sundry shops are usually not air conditioned and very small. they also got not much of things to sell. they are very boring. so, i prefer to go to hypermarkets”. 13. adila talip, “must use the word one-stop shopping. ida thinks it is good word”. 14. aida suhana, “tambah (add) the ‘one-stop shopping’”. 15. maimunah, “okay. like this. hypermarkets are one-stop shopping. they are air conditioned and very comfortable. they have a lot of things and more choices. then sambung (continue) with what siti said”. when siti fairuza explained her views (line 12), adila talip highlighted the importance of the word “one-stop shopping”, which is very relevant to their discussion (line 13). this was followed by maimunah (line 15) who appropriated the suggestion given by adila talip and aida suhana which clearly demonstrated the feature of extending ideas. excerpt 6: group writing session 3, lines 16 to 20 16. khatijah, “ya lah. we must talk about the passive smoking. can we start like this, ‘sometimes, women who sit with their husband or their friends who smoke are called passive smokers’, okay keh?” 17. khairul, “this innocent people also tend to become the victim of smoking by getting cervical cancer. finish writing?” educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 19 18. firdaus, “we can add a bit more. smoking can also cause heart attack. we smoke for fun but this fun can musnah … ah destroy our whole life if we get heart attack. anybody want to say anything?” 19. khatijah, “the conclusion? start with ‘hence’, and give one advice lah”. 20. khairul, “ya lah. what about the miscarriage? that point also can go with health risks. we must talk about all the points. madam said we must use all the points in the book”. firdaus (line 18) extended khatijah (line 16) and khairul’s (line 17) idea. when khairul stressed that the innocent passive smokers become victim to cervical cancer, firdaus extended the outcome to heart disease. this is an obvious extension of ideas. thus, it can be interpreted that extending and integrating of ideas are very commonly used by learners. this result concurs with the findings of a. iwai (2004) and m.n. mariam (2004). fifth, integrating ideas. learners integrate ideas of members to write a better piece of writing. however, integration of ideas can be done only once the learners understand and work in groups. d.w. johnson, r.t. johnson and e.j. holubec (1994) and d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) claimed that while learners are engaged in task-focused discussion, they integrate ideas of their peers. as a result, they are able to generate a better piece of writing. excerpt 7: group writing session 4, institution a, lines 21 to 24 21. aida suhana, “clever girl lah you. at grocery shops, we cannot get the nice things there”. (maimunah laughed a little. the others joined her too). 22. siti fairuza, “yes, good point but write clearly point by point. first, we compare point one in hypermarkets with the first point in the sundry shop”. 23. maimunah, “ya lah. hypermarkets are very convenient because it is one-stop for shopping. we can buy a lot of things at one place. we no need to go to many shops”. 24. siti fairuza, “yes, good. now can talk about sundry shop lah”. in a cll-based group discussion, members attempt to integrate ideas of group members to put their thoughts into words (johnson, johnson & holubec, 1994; and johnson & johnson, 1999). the researchers in this study also observed this characteristic as the learners discussed and planned their tasks. for instance, when aida suhana said that “at grocery shops, we cannot get the nice things there”; siti fairuza (line 22) integrated her idea to go further on their discussion. then maimunah contributed and integrated with her idea to touch on the point “one-stop for shopping”. maimunah integrated further her ideas with siti fairuza’s (line 23). nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 20 excerpt 8: group writing session 4, institution a, lines 25 to 27 25. maimunah, “okay. like this. hypermarkets are one-stop shopping. they are air conditioned and very comfortable. they have a lot of things and more choices. then sambung (continue) with what siti fairuza said”. 26. adila talip, “show madam lah”. 27. aida suhana, “wait first. must write properly cantik (beautiful) then only show madam. i’ll write now. munah, munah (maimunah) check the para (paragraph) first. see we have followed the guidelines or not”. suhaimi (line 29) integrated his strength to help firman to put forward his idea clearly. hazwan too came into the discussion to make the point clearer to the readers. it was apparent when syahrul nizam extended and integrated his idea to avoid being a victim of aids. excerpt 9: group writing session 5, institution a, lines 28 to 34 28. firman, “it is proven that the main cause of aids is homosexual activities. all have to be very careful of their own apa, apa, sexual activities”. 29. shuhaimi, “why not we use the word desire”. 30. firman, “desire can be anything like desire to have a car, new shirt like that. here, we have to talk about sexual activities”. 31. hazwan, we can say one’s sexual desire. 32. syahrul nizam, “yes, it’s better. everyone should have good moral conduct so that they do not have same gender as their sexual partner”. 33. hazwan, “if one learns islam, then you don’t have to worry about his moral. islam teaches all the good things and good moral. so, the best way is to go for religious class. the parents also must teach their children about religion. so, they will not get into undesirable activity”. 34. syahrul nizam, “yes, i truly agree with you. the religious class is important. if we go for agama (religious) class, we don’t have worry about the aids. we have to say the important role of islam”. hazwan shared his idea that knowledge of religion would prevent one from engaging in immoral activities. based on one point, all the members joined and integrated their ideas to accomplish their tasks. and finally, the sixth, reasoning. d.w. johnson, r.t. johnson and e.j. holubec (1994) and d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) explained in their theory that “reasoning” element in cll-based activities enhances learning. as the learners were engaged in group writing, it was noted that the learners at both sites applied the “reasoning” trait in their discussions. when they change the words or ideas presented by other members, reasons were expressed for their ideas or change of words etcetera. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 21 excerpt 10: group writing session 3, lines 35 to 39 35. khairul, “we must read all the facts given. then select the suitable example to support our main idea”. 36. nurasyikin, “it is very difficult to explain lah. why we must put here?” 37. khairul, “allah, no problem. the question asking how smoking menjejas our health. so, we must say the health problem we can get if we smoke”. 38. firdaus, “don’t worry. we can take the point from the text book. see here, the example is written, ‘it increased heart beat and blood pressure’ and ‘it also cause thickening of arteries’. so, we can start like this, ‘smoking deteriorates our health and brings risks to our health’. then, we can put all the examples from the book”. 39. khatijah, “use the linkers lah. then we can get more marks. besides that, smoking also can cause lung cancer and heart attack”. when khairul suggested that they should take the examples given in the book and then explain the relevant fact (line 37), nurasyikin felt that it was difficult and not necessary to add that. then khairul just reasoned out why they should include the given point of view and the relevant examples. firdaus gave reasons (line 38) and supported the need to include the specific point in their task. another point of view was highlighted by khatijah (line 39) and told the reason to include the point. she felt that they should include the consequences of passive smoking. otherwise the paragraph seemed hanging, without a proper conclusion. this interaction shows clearly the element of reasoning. excerpt 11: group writing session 3, lines 40 to 42 40. khatijah, “i think we must write about cervical cancer. if not, we are not showing the akibat, the consequences. then the paragraph likes bergantung”. 41. firdaus, “i agree with her. we must add a bit more to show the results of passive smoking”. 42. khatijah, “smoking can also cause heart attack. we smoke for fun but this fun can musnah … ah destroy our whole life if we get heart attack. anybody want to say anything?” conclusions undoubtedly, ffpi (face-to-face promotive interaction) approach requires a lot of effort and time on the instructors and students’ part. this will not take place in the classroom unless and until instructors and students are prepared to make use of innovative styles of teaching and learning. it is crucial for both instructors and students to be trained for cll (cooperative language learning) activities to bring about effective outcomes. furthermore, esl (english as second language) instructors need to understand their students’ language competence and individual differences to enjoy the optimal fruits of the approach. it is obvious that some nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 22 students prefer to seek help from the instructor instead of peers. in such cases, ffpi will not yield much positive outcomes. however, it was also noted that given sufficient explanation and guidance these learners will gradually adapt and accommodate peer feedback. d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson (1999) emphasised on the importance of learners discussing face-toface to complete a task. they also elaborated that these face-to-face interactions will promote learners’ success and facilitate their peers’ success as well. in this study, it was observed that d.w. johnson and r.t. johnson’s claim was proven right as the researchers witnessed the learners encouraging group discussions by assisting one another, exchanging ideas and information, and providing feedback to members to improve their ideas. generally, it is believed that ffpi leads to a reasonably high quality of positive interdependence which appears to be in line with some researchers (johnson & johnson, 1991; iwai, 2004; mariam, 2004; and depaz & moni, 2008) and establish a strong platform, both at the individual and at group level, to proceed with interactive group work initiatives. when a member was “stranded” or “seemed lost”, the group members often came to their aid. the learners explained and corrected their peers’ mistake. when members came up with rational and logical ideas and opinions, they approved and acknowledged their peers’ talents. in fact, all the groups actively practised ffpi. looking at the benefits of the ffpi skills and how this skill had encouraged learners to engage in the writing task, esl instructors could capitalise the small group-learning approach by adopting this ffpi approach in their writing classrooms to positive interdependence characteristics among learners. it was noticeable that the group members practised the elements of interdependence whereby they witnessed the strength of their peers and shared the joy of satisfaction where they congratulated one another: “clever girl”, “i think it is a good start”, “fantastic”, “well done”, “you are very clever”, “i know you can do it”, and so on to acknowledge the group members’ capabilities. here, it must be acknowledged that they have modelled the researcher who often praised the learners to encourage them to speak up. the positive comments were an important feature of encouragement (ghaith, 2002; and doymous, 2008) which positively correlates with a supportive l2 (second language) climate. there was definitely a newfound camaraderie exhibited by the learners. moreover, time constraints could prevent the full implementation of groupdiscussion. some learners and instructors are also anxious that they might not be in complete control of the learning experience and learners may not abide by the classroom rules and go off-task. if the characteristics of interdependence are not cultivated, one may not witness a fruitful outcome (iwai, 2004). it takes a worse scenario if students and instructors do not understand the principles of ffpi and do not construct their groups with extra care; a free-rider effect may exist followed by shirking of responsibility (chapman et al., 2006). thus, instructors need to structure the groups very carefully so as to avoid any free-loaders. group-discussion, when understood and implemented under certain educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 23 conditions like ffpi (depaz & moni, 2008), undoubtedly would bring about a positive impact. whilst it is an effective language learning approach, it also creates opportunities for students to shirk responsibility. in short, ffpi-based group discussion should be implemented whenever possible, but with discretion as time constraints often prevent its full and meaningful implementation. limitations of the study and suggestions for future institutional research the study was conducted with a sample size of 63 learners in a public institution of higher learning which comprised predominantly malay learners. it is acknowledged that the learning style and preference of one ethnic group of students may vary from another ethnic group of students, hence does not reflect all esl (english as second language) learners’ patterns of interaction, in general. the small sample size (n=63) too does not make allowance for any generalisations to the general population of esl learners in malaysia or anywhere else. moreover, the study investigates only one ethnic group of students, malay students, and does not probe the other ethnic groups in malaysia and other part of the world. this is seen as a limitation of the study as it provides data on the efficacy of group discussions from the students’ perspective per se. learners’ interactions are measured based on the researchers’ viewpoints and does not take into account the viewpoints recorded by the learners, as the direct recipients of the pedagogical approach. the researchers recommend that more studies be carried out to provide further insights into esl teaching and learning environments so as to encourage esl proficiency at institutions of higher learning. the learners should also be taught strategies to think, to ask questions, to reason, and to structure their writing on paper. further research is required to carry out such case study in different higher learning institutions to study the efficacy of ffpi (face-to-face promotive interaction) among different ethnic groups of students. in order to enhance fruitful group discussions in esl classrooms at tertiary levels, specific input is necessary in order to provide adequate training facilities to learners and instructors to enhance their performance by having them participate in relevant professional development programmes of institutional scale. esl instructors are hereby invited to contribute their experiences on the efficacy of cll (cooperative language learning) to further reinforce the current vein of institutional research in the domain of esl teaching and learning environment. since the teacher and learner factor is an important factor to contend with in determining the extent of success of the use of ffpi, formal training in the area should be intensified. administrators should appreciate that the uses of cll approach although it is a time-consuming one and perhaps try to lessen workloads. this would take the toll off teachers who have to shoulder heavy workloads besides planning and preparing nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 24 cll lessons. in addition, the decision to reconsider the workload of instructors may bring about a commitment to higher levels of involvement. references barnes, d. (1995). “talking and learning in classrooms: an introduction” in primary voices k-6, 3(1), pp.2-7. canagarajah, a.s. (2005). resisting linguistic imperialism in english teaching: adopting a critical perspective on pedagogy. oxford, u.k.: oxford university press, pp.9-38. chapman, k.j. et al. (2006). “can’t we pick our own groups? the influence of group selection method on group dynamics and outcomes” in journal of management education, 30, pp.557-569, doi:10.1177/1052562905284872. depaz, i. & moni, r.w. (2008). “using peer teaching to support co-operative learning in undergraduate pharmacology, school of biomedical sciences educational research unit, the university of queensland, brisbane” in http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk.journal/vol11/ beej-11-8.aspx [accessed at melaka, malaysia: 19 december 2010]. doymus, k. (2008). “teaching chemical bonding through jigsaw cooperation learning” in research in science & technological education, vol.26(1), april. duran, r.d. (1994). cooperative learning for language minority learners. albany: state university of new york press. ellis, r. (1994). the study of second language acquisition. oxford, uk: oxford university press. ghaith, g.m. (2002). “the relationship between cooperative learning, perception of social support, and academic achievement” in eric clearinghouse for social studies/social science education system, 30, pp.263-273. hirst, l.a. & c. slavik. (2005). effective language education practices and native language survival. choctaw, ok: native american language issues, nali board of executors, pp.133-142. hull, darrell m. & terrill f. saxon. (2009). “negotiation of meaning and co-construction of knowledge: an experimental analysis of asynchronous online instruction” in computers & education, vol.52(3), april, pp.624-639. also available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science [accessed at melaka, malaysia: 14 february 2011]. iwai, a. (2004). exploring the efficacy of cooperative/collaborative learning: the experience of college esl university of new orleans. new orleans, usa: n.p. johnson, d.w. & r.t. johnson. (1991). joining together: group theory and group skills. englewood cliff, nj: prentice hall, inc., 4th edition. johnson, d.w., r.t. johnson & e.j. holubec. (1994). “the new circles of learning: cooperation in the classroom and school” in http://www/.cooperation/.org [accessed at melaka, malaysia: 24 july 2011]. johnson, d.w. & r.t. johnson. (1999). learning together and alone: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. singapore: allyn and bacon, 5th edition. kreie, j., r.w. headrick & r. steiner. (2007). “using team learning to improve learner retention” in college teaching, vol.55, iss.2 [spring], pp.51-57. mariam, m.n. (2004). “a qualitative study of group writing during process writing lessons”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. kuala lumpur, malaysia: university of malaya. mason, k. (2006). “cooperative learning and second language acquisition in first-year composition: opportunities for authentic communication among english language learners, teaching english in the two year college” in proquest education journals, 34(1), september, pp.52-58. nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 25 paramasivam, m. (2005). “code switching among university putra malaysian tamil learners: a sociolinguistic perspective”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. kuala lumpur, malaysia: university of malaya. pica, t. et al. (1996). “language learners’ interaction: how does it address the input, output, and feedback needs of l2 learners” in tesol quarterly, 30(1), pp.59-84. reid, j.m. (1987). “the learning style preferences of esl learners” in tesol quarterly, 21(1), pp.87111. vygotsky, l.s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge, m.a.: harvard university press. vygotsky, l.s. (1986). educational psychology: biological and social factors in education. boca raton, florida: st. lucie press, pp.47-58. nalini arumugam, geraldine de mello & indrani muthusamy, patterns of interaction among mono-cultural esl learners 26 generally, it is believed that ffpi leads to a reasonably high quality of positive interdependence which appears to be in line with some researchers and establish a strong platform, both at the individual and at group level, to proceed with interactive group work initiatives. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 29 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan abstract: the heis (higher education institutions) in the philippines, generally, are experiencing financial constrictions brought by increased social demands and status of learning, which are not given equal extent of funding in respective delivering institutions. this is due to the new guideline aiming to streamline the nation’s expenses to achieve excellent education. conversely, the streamlining led to unproductivity and great decline of monetary appropriation for learning institutions. this study evaluated the compressed workweek program of ifsu (ifugao state university) system in the philippines, basis for further improvement. descriptive-survey method was used. data were collected through questionnaires, document analysis, and interviews. respondents included 938 middlelevel managers, faculty, staff, and junior students. results disclosed that electricity and fuel consumption decreased after implementation of program. however, use of office supplies increased. employees became more productive, committed, and satisfied in their job. illegal conduct of out-of-job activities were eliminated and employees performed very satisfactorily. no significant difference exists in employees’ productivity and commitment. management of time and other benefits showed high significant difference. no significant difference exists in performance of middle level managers and faculty before and after implementation of program. a system mechanism in monitoring and evaluating different areas of program before its implementation is recommended. key words: four-day compressed workweek; ifugao state university; evaluation; employees’ productivity; action plan. about the authors: leudane l. lonez is a lecturer at the ifsu (ifugao state university), nayon, lamut, ifugao 3605, the philippines. dr. nicette n. ganal is a lecturer at the pnu (philippine normal university), north luzon campus, aurora, alicia, 3306 isabela, the philippines. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mails at: leudanelonez@gmail.com and ganal.nn@pnu.edu.ph suggested citation: lonez, leudane l. & nicette n. ganal. (2018). “an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august, pp.29-48. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (may 20, 2018); revised (july 3, 2018); and published (august 30, 2018). introduction the heis (higher education institutions) in the philippines, generally, are experiencing financial constrictions brought by increased social demands and status of learning, which are not given equal extent of funding in respective delivering institutions (reyes, 2009; and albia & chan, 2017). in this context, then, j.b. nangpuhan (2013) cited that despite increase in student population and new forms of funding, that require austere modifications in disbursements and official administration system, heis sustained utilizing their income consistently (nangpuhan, 2013). this is due © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 30 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek to the new guideline aiming to streamline the nation’s expenses to achieve excellent education. conversely, the streamlining led to unproductivity and great decline of monetary appropriation for learning institutions. the economic limitation intensified thru power charges steered institutions to adopt four-day, ten hour work week, where the last day of five working days becomes a nonworking day. according to duque (2014), the four-day workweek scheme is an option whereby the five day working days a week is condensed to four days, but the total work hours daily is added to 10 hours summing up to 40 working hours a week (duque, 2014). duque (2014), further, stressed the necessity of continuous service and claimed that supervising, assessment, and evaluation are imperatives (duque, 2014). csc (civil service commission) resolution no.1401286 categorized standards, which organizations should check in the course of four-day workweek operation. to determine the system’s advantages and flaws and to assess its feasibility for an extensive duration (duque, 2014; and punongbayan, 2014). h.t. chen (2015) affirmed that cww (compressed work week) employs adaptable working hours granting reduction or expansion of working days for workers and sustaining effective and efficient function of organization as well (chen, 2015). the administration can authorize completion of official working hours summed up throughout an identified duration if gratified with working requisites and if upsurge of expenses and extra pay due to additional working hours are avoided (sopher, 2014; chen, 2015; and usaopm, 2015).1 the practice of four-day work week at pnu (philippine normal university) has positive outcome. the administration scheduled wednesday for teachers and staffs’ conferences and other activities. it was operational and productive apparent to their reliable excellent ranking in teacher’s licensure examinations and punctuality of 1see also, for example, “labor, employment, and hr consulting in the philippines”. available online at: https:// kittelsoncarpo.com/labor-employment/ [accessed in alicia, isabela, philippines: march 11, 2018]. teachers (pnu, 2006; pasion, 2013; and wbg & aa, 2016). related to this, house bill no.5237 approves four-day work week in public and private sectors entailing ten hours of work regularly (porcalla, 2017).2 the operation of four-day workweek is established in the administrative code of 1987, section 6 of rule xvii, that states as following here: […] adaptable operating periods shall depend on decision of chief executive of organization […]. should the institution implement the system, reduction of weekly working hours is not allowed (cited in baldoz et al., 2016). the ifsu (ifugao state university), one of state universities in the philippines, implemented four-day compressed workweek as per board of regents’ approval of resolution no.204, series of 2012. the approval was anchored on existing legal bases to wit: (1) administrative order no.103, series 2004 ordering constant implementation of cost-cutting methods in administration; and (2) administrative order no.117, series 2005 postulating regulated authorized working periods in sectors, agencies, workplaces, and other organizations in administrative outlets, as well as establishments maintained and regulated by the government (ifsu, 2014). ifsu commenced the implementation on july 9, 2012, at ifsu main campus, lamut, ifugao, the philippines. with the eagerness of teaching staff to be part of the initiative, ifsu main, including potia and lagawe campuses, simultaneously implemented the program on november 5, 2012. hence, all ifsu employees do not report to work and students do not attend classes during fridays (ifsu, 2014).3 the challenge to the university since the implementation of the initiative is to assess whether or not the objectives are met. to date, there has been no evaluative study conducted on this particular area. the researchers believe, it is high time for the institution to 2see also, for example, “house bill, no.5237”. available online at: http://www.pnu.edu.ph/wp-content/ uploads/2014/08/pnu-research-agenda-2013-2015.pdf [accessed in alicia, isabela, philippines: march 11, 2018]. 3see also, for example, ifsu footprints newsletter. ifugao, philippines: issue of march-july 2012. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 31 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 evaluate the initiative. the results of the study would focus on existing austerity endeavors, performance of middle-level managers and faculty, and development of an action plan. meaning and nature of evaluation. according to h.t. chen (2015), program evaluation is initiated to meet the particular evaluation need of a program’s stakeholders. furthermore, it suggests practical principles that can guide evaluators to make the best choices in the evaluation situations that they are likely to encounter (chen, 2015). further, d.m. mertens (2014) stated that evaluators recognized that there were different interests to be served in an evaluation and that some of these interest might conflict with one another (mertens, 2014). conceptually, evaluation moved from monolithic to pluralist conceptions, reflecting the pluralism that had emerged in the larger society. how to synthesize, resolve, and adjudicate all these multiple multiples remains a formidable questions, as indeed it does for the larger society. evaluation, which was invented to solve social problems, was ultimately afflicted with many of the problems it was meant to solve (calame, 2009; patterson, 2013; and mertens, 2014). purposes of evaluation. evaluation diagnoses the proficiencies and flaws of practice in the earlier operation and efficiency of its administration when implemented. in this context, a. rodriguez navarro (2012) claims that evaluation helps educators determine the success of academic programs and signal efforts to improve student achievement (navarro, 2012). accordingly, evaluation is essential to disclose development in the direction of goals of the discovery and gives confirmation when the identified goals are achieved. the product assessment will let the persons involved stipulate the degree where goals of the proposition will be attained according to plan and intention (roper & pettit, 2005; and navarro, 2012). provus’ discrepancy evaluation model. this model combines appraisal with systems management theory. its four components include: (1) identifying course specifications or criteria; (2) identifying course implementation; (3) assessing implementation with the criteria; and (4) evaluating if inconsistency occurs between implementation and specifications or criteria (cf provus, 1969; barrett, 1998; and regan et al., 2003). its five phases are: (1) design, it involves evaluation of course’s scheme with a set guideline; (2) installation, the actual process of the course is matched with the setting up guideline or reliability measures; (3) processes, exact course procedures are assessed comprising learner and employees’ undertakings, jobs, and consultations; (4) products, the result of entire course is assessed based on primary objectives. the facts gained will help the person, who makes decision to tell either the course is valued and ought to be sustained, changed, or stopped; and (5) cost, the course outputs must be compared to results of related courses; further, it must be gauged related to productivity (provus, 1969; barrett, 1998; and regan et al., 2003). related literature. administrative order no.103, s.2004, declares constant implementation of cost-cutting methods to attain nation’s economic goals, sustain its micro-economic consistency, and increase stakeholders’ assurance (mp of philippines, 2004). administrative order no.117, s.2005, affirmed the preceding order postulating regulated authorized working periods in sectors, agencies, workplaces, and other organizations in the administrative outlet, as well as establishments maintained and regulated by the administration (mp of philippines, 2005). csc (civil service commission) resolution no.1401286 categorized standards, which organizations should check in the course of four-day workweek operation. to determine the system’s advantages and flaws, and to assess its feasibility for extensive duration, an assessment account needs to be presented to the csc six months or beforehand following the execution of the program (cited in valeriano, 2010). the following phases in system’s assessment indicated in the ets (educational testing service), according to stephen p. klein & laura hamilton (2000), are as © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 32 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek follows: (1) stating the objectives clear, the system’s assessors must aid in articulating and expounding objectives of the system to make sure they are well-defined; (2) gauging the system’s effect, both standardized and domainreferenced tests are used to assess the system’s efficiency and are later studied for each decile leveling; (3) working in field settings, guidelines to be used in assessment should be related to the situation setting; (4) analyzing the data, evaluating the information gathered is essential when rules and techniques used by system assessors are effective in acquiring facts needed; and (5) interpreting the results, the utmost significant standard in system assessment are explanations which are basis for decision making (klein & hamilton, 2000). related studies. n.p. batoon (2013) claimed that state universities and colleges conduct other studies on content and bring in innovative approaches in reconstructing set of courses and methodologies. she added that realization of endeavor should emphasize on situations and processes of the system leading to an improved and enhanced student teaching program (batoon, 2013). likewise, j.b. ongan (2008) suggested that school administrators determine teachers’ needs to sustain development and to inspire them in performing their duties and roles effectively and efficiently to achieve higher level of productivity (ongan, 2008). hence, administrators should consider the welfare of the workforce for them to be more productive in their field. it is certified that when the workforce is fulfilled with their job, they will value high level of job participation, which is crucial to the institution and will consider their job as a significant part of their overall life (cf ongan, 2008; nassazi, 2013; page, 2014; and sopher, 2014). see figure 1. the paradigm shows the encircled four day workweek emphasizing evaluation after implementation of program on reduction of monthly operation cost, enhancement of employees’ productivity and commitment, elimination of illegal conduct of out-of-job activities, and performance of middle-level managers and faculty (kondalkar, 2007; osterstocks, 2010; and byrge et al., 2014). findings will be used towards development of an action plan, the final output of the study. statements of the problems are as following here: (1) what is the respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of: reduction of monthly operation cost, enhancement of employees’ productivity and commitment, and elimination of illegal conduct of out of – job activities?; (2) what is the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and after the implementation of four-day workweek?; (3) is there a significant difference in the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff ?; (4) what is the performance of faculty as rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves during the implementation of four-day workweek?; (5) is there a significant difference in the performance of faculty as rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves?; and (6) what action plan can be proposed based from the findings of the study? the hypotheses of the study are: (1) “there is no significant difference in the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff ”; and (2) “there is no significant difference in the performance of faculty as rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves”. method research design. the study used descriptive survey. data gathering procedures involved interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis (mathers, fox & hunn, 2007; and ponto, 2015). in this context, j.r. fraenkel & n.e. wallen (2006) affirmed that survey research involves acquiring information about one or more groups of people about their characteristics, opinions, attitudes, or previous experiences (cf fraenkel & wallen, 2006; and bird, 2009). participants of the study. the respondents composed of 938 middle level managers, faculty, staff, and third year students exposed to the four-day workweek since it commenced. total enumeration sampling was employed to determine the population from the three campuses: lamut, lagawe, and potia of ifsu (ifugao state university) in the philippines. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 33 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 instruments of data collection. it consists of questionnaires, document analysis, interview guide, quantifying data, and arbitrary scale. about the questionnaires, the survey instrument of aaccup (accrediting agency of chartered colleges and universities of the philippines) was used. for personal concerns, items were adapted from office order no.10 – 2012 of dr. serafin l. ngohayon, university president, on the implementation of the 4-day workweek.4 questions for employees’ job satisfaction from j.b. ongan (2008)’s study. questionnaires on performance of middle-level managers were adapted and modified from the instrument performance evaluation of managers/ supervisors of california state university (cited in wang, 2006). about the document analysis, records on consumption of electricity, fuel, and office supplies of three campuses were collected and analyzed. about the interviews guide, this supplemented and validated the information gathered from questionnaires and documents reviewed (ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; and blandford, 2013). about the quantifying data, the actual number of completed scholarly works of faculty before and during the implementation of program was surveyed and quantified. and about the arbitrary scales, measured the actual consumption in the monthly operation costs on electricity, fuel and office supplies before and after the implementation of four-day workweek (ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; peeples, 2009; paho, 2010; and blandford, 2013). data gathering procedure. permission to conduct the study was sought from university president and was cascaded to directors, deans, and chairpersons of the three campuses. the researchers personally 4see, for example, ifsu office order, no.10, series of 2012. ifugao, philippines: ifsu [ifugao state university]. administered the instruments to participants for efficiency and maximum data collection. data gathered have been validated and supplemented by interview done randomly to participants (ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; and blandford, 2013). statistical treatment of data. it consists of frequency counts and percentages, mean, dependent t-test, and one-way anova (analysis of variance). about the frequency counts and percentages are to describe respondent’s evaluation on enhancement of employees’ productivity and commitment and elimination of illegal conduct of out-ofjob activities (cf ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; blandford, 2013; and pham, 2015). about the mean is to determine and analyze performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff and performance of faculty as rated by middle-level managers and by themselves before and during the implementation of fouraction plan four-day work week elimination of illegal conduct of out-of-job activities before the implementation of four-day workweek after the implementation of four-day workweek enhance employees’ productivity and commitment performance of faculty performance of middle level managers ev a lu a tio n reduction of monthly operation cost ev a lu a ti o n figure 1: paradigm of the study © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 34 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek day workweek. about the dependent t-test is to determine the significant difference in the objectives of initiative and performance of faculty before and after implementation of initiative (ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; olum, 2004; and blandford, 2013). about the one-way anova is to determine the significant difference in the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff and performance of faculty as rated by middlelevel managers and by themselves (gliem & gliem, 2003; ritchie & lewis eds., 2003; and blandford, 2013). results and discussion what is the respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of reduction of monthly operation cost? before and after implementation of the program, lagawe campus has consumed 23,870 kwh on electricity and 30,911 kwh respectively. the main and potia campuses have reduced by kwh 230,509 and 197,311 kwh; and 53,244 kwh and 48,560 kwh respectively after implementation of the program. on fuel consumption, lagawe campus consumed 1,888 l and 2,003 l, while the main campus has consumed 19,123 l and 8,512 l respectively after implementation of the program. the consumption on office supplies in the three campuses before the program was implemented was php (philippines pesso) 5,742,313 and php 8,480,617 after the implementation. it could be confirmed that the three campuses generally have cut down in their expenditures. this eased the finances of the university. the decrease in expenditures is a support of the innovation the management has initiated for the good and benefit of the whole system. see table 1 and also picture 1. enhancement of employees’ productivity and commitment. table 2 showed that the middle-level managers, staff, and faculty have generally shown same performance in productivity and commitment before and after implementation of the program. the three groups’ productivity and commitment picture 1: summary of monthly operation cost before and after the implementation of four-day workweek in the three campuses © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 35 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 is much, confirmed by 3.362 and 3.302, 3.296 and 3.293, 3.419 and 3.383, respectively. however, looking at the computed averages, it can be gleaned that productivity and commitment of employees’ decreases during the four-day workweek especially well to the faculty members, due to compressed class schedule. results go contrary with the study of american journal of epidemiology stating that people who worked longer, 55 hours per week, have lower intellectual quality of work as compared to those working for only 40 hours (cited in ferri et al., 2016; and mhf, 2016). it also contradicts the findings of tony schwartz (2013) that employees’ maximum performance can be extracted in a short pressured time of 90-minute followed by sufficient time of rest (schwartz, 2013). j. huntsman, jr. (2010), in his “digest of a performance audit of the working 4 utah initiative”, stated also that impact of four working days to productivity should be properly monitored (huntsman, jr., 2010). see again table 2. table 3 reveals respondents’ evaluation on eliminating illegal conduct of out-of-job activities before and after implementation of program. collectively, they confirmed that attending to personal concerns, such as family problems, attending social obligations, and taking care of family members as well as absenteeism and tardiness, are sometimes not eliminated but rather have increased in occurrence. this is supported by 1.909 and 2.01, 2.335 and 2.303, and 1.875 and 2.088 before and after implementation respectively. the data confirm that during the implementation of four-day workweek, absenteeism among employees increased, confirmed further by the hrd (human resource department)’s survey of the university. this might be due to the transition period requiring adjustment of employees. according to p. katepoo (2011), one of the flaws of four-day workweek is its being mentally or physically exhausting. on the other hand, based on the responses, the monitoring scheme on attendance is lenient, thus, there is a need for a close monitoring (katepoo, 2011). the data contradict to utah’s own literature on the shift to a four-day work week. the first is “improved services based on government offices being open earlier and later”. the second is “improved employee morale and satisfaction”. before the project began, “fifty-six percent of employees expected to like the new schedule better”. after one year, “eighty-two percent liked it better” (cited in crosby et al., 2008).5 as reflected above, one indicator to be evaluated is employees’ satisfaction rate. n. anderson, k. potocnik & j. zhou (2014) stressed that reviving workplaces by means of enhancing trust and employee commitment does not have to be difficult. according to them, the biggest challenge is how to use the time to really change the saturated schedule, instant access competitive work environments (anderson, potocnik & zhou, 2014). with a little knowledge, it can be easy to change workplace welfare and address these suggestive research results (cf anderson, potocnik & zhou, 2014; and tcls, 2015). see again table 3. what is the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty and staff before and after implementation of four-day workweek? table 4 presents the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and after implementation of four-day workweek. the performance is consistently very satisfactory as supported by the mean 3.260 and 3.356, 3.216 and 3.233, and 3.222 and 3.229 of middlelevel managers, staff, and faculty. this is so because the university has a visionary president who causes things to happen. he aims for excellent performance for all stakeholders in the areas, instruction, research, extension, and production (ifsu, 2014). as reflected in the ils (institute for labor studies) philippines, in 2011, that a policy favoring four-day workweeks to cut costs on operations can be a viable option for government establishments (ils philippines, 2011). for government offices establishments, four working days should not destabilize 5see also, for example, “utah is going to a 4 day workweek” in msnbc, on july 3, 2008. available online also at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25518225 [accessed in alicia, isabela, philippines: march 11, 2018]. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 36 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek table 2: evaluation of employees’ productivity and commitment before and after implementation of four-day workweek statements middle managers staff faculty x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd before after before after before after before after before after before after 1. reports to work and leaves work according to work schedule. 3.631 3.552 vm vm 3.376 3.250 m m 3.532 3.325 vm m 2. engages in the work while on paid time. 3.342 3.210 m m 3.122 3.280 m m 3.510 3.391 vm m 3. meets deadlines of submission of reports, assignments and other related tasks. 3.157 3.105 m m 3.329 3.440 m m 3.430 3.275 m m 4. limits unscheduled absences. 3.368 3.342 m m 3.223 3.333 m m 3.401 3.266 m m 5. assists/guides colleagues, staff, and students with relevant and necessary information, knowledge, time and resources. 3.342 3.184 m m 3.258 3.404 m m 3.416 3.450 m m 6. prepares to give extra time when necessary. 3.236 3.157 m m 3.094 3.059 m m 3.510 3.358 vm m 7. responds positively to unanticipated overtime needs. 3.289 3.394 m m 3.211 3.345 m m 3.430 3.341 m m 8. learns technology and databases for maximum efficiency. 3.342 3.184 m m 3.270 3.214 m m 3.250 3.175 m m 9. attends regularly to faculty meetings, student activities and other university convocations and activities. 3.368 3.447 m m 3.211 3.095 m m 3.467 3.525 m vm 10. avoids unnecessary interruptions of others at work. 3.447 3.289 m m 3.364 3.226 m m 3.430 3.291 m m 11. follows-up on activities that have been delegated to meet the deadline. 3.473 3.315 m m 3.517 3.273 vm m 3.385 3.310 m m 12. carries out university systems and procedures. 3.526 3.263 vm m 3.517 3.333 vm m 3.470 3.408 m m 13. brings energy and initiative to the job every day. 3.421 3.222 m m 3.333 3.226 m m 3.404 3.978 m vm 14. cares about ones work and the school as a whole. 3.447 3.473 m m 3.282 3.404 m m 3.411 3.423 m m 15. shows commitment to leadership/ managerial functions and responsibilities. 3.432 3.447 m m 3.313 3.409 m m 3.467 3.459 m m 16. respects university policies on dress code, work schedules, promotions, leaves of absence, privileges, norms of conduct, and discipline. 3.578 3.368 vm m 3.435 3.404 m m 3.481 3.547 m vm 17. goes beyond basics by putting in extra hours, taking up other’s slack, and delivering extra service to others which shows leadership – level dedication. 3.222 3.315 m m 3.141 3.131 m m 3.335 3.306 m m 18. strives for customers’ satisfaction giving the quality service they need. 3.315 3.270 m m 3.529 3.642 vm vm 3.423 3.335 m m 19. handles every task with the idea fresh in mind that work impacts customers, university profits and pride in work lead to improved job performance. 3.189 3.263 m m 3.458 3.416 m m 3.292 3.175 m m 20. makes significant contributions to any group task and shows teamwork commitment. 3.184 3.263 m m 3.270 3.357 m m 3.394 3.321 m m 21. displays confidence with ideas, skills and solutions. 3.315 3.289 m m 3.223 3.214 m m 3.437 3.410 m m 22. shows commitment to team’s objectives and an understanding of the part being played in a bigger picture. 3.368 3.342 m m 3.176 3.333 m m 3.430 3.365 m m 23. takes leadership roles and organizes team members to each other, or collaborate with other groups, shows a commitment to a big picture achievement. 3.315 3.315 m m 3.223 3.202 m m 3.357 3.328 m m 24. practices and encourages healthy balance between work and personal life shows commitment to workers’ wellbeing that is good for the organization. 3.394 3.236 m m 3.226 3.059 m m 3.379 3.360 m m average 3.362 3.302 m m 3.296 3.293 m m 3.419 3.383 m m 3.51 – 4.00 – very much (vm) 1.51 – 2.50 – sometimes (s) 2.51 – 3.50 – much (m) 0.51 1.50 – not at all (na) © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 37 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 table 3: evaluation on eliminating illegal conduct of out-of-job activities before and after implementation of four-day workweek middle managers staff faculty statements x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd a. attending to personal concerns like: before after before after before after before after before after before after 1. family problems 2.342 2.368 s s 2.741 2.619 m m 2.715 2.832 m m 2. social obligations such as weddings, birthdays, and parties. 2.236 2.421 s s 2.523 2.333 m s 2.656 2.824 m m 3. taking care of family members. 2.378 2.500 s s 2.857 2.878 m m 2.735 2.908 m m 4. going-out for personal concerns without asking permission from the department head and dean. 2.078 1.921 s s 2.364 2.250 s s 2.044 2.216 s s 5. engage in small scale business or part time job during office hours or while in school premises. 1.763 1.684 s s 2.247 1.904 s s 1.940 2.075 s s average 2.161 2.179 s s 2.546 2.394 m s 2.421 2.596 s m absenteeism and tardiness: 1. frequent absenteeism among employees due to personal concerns. 1.605 1.736 s s 2.122 2.036 s s 1.889 2.050 s s 2. always late in reporting to work. 1.710 1.947 s s 2.109 2.345 s s 1.860 2.117 s s average 1.909 2.010 s s 2.335 2.303 s s 1.875 2.088 s s delivery of quality services among public offices and basic service providers must serve clientele during fridays. hence, it is assumed that performance of middle-level managers during program implementation is similar with what is reflected in the ils philippines in 2011. furthermore, results indicate that faculty and staff are very satisfied on the management performance as revealed in results of evaluation. finally, the middle level managers have successfully adopted to the new scheme as reflected in their selfevaluation results. see again the table 4. is there a significant difference in the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff ? table 5 describes the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff. the middle level managers have obtained mean rating of 3.26, while both faculty and staff have got mean rating of 3.22. the computed f-value of .165 at .848 is greater than .05 level of significance. therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted. this implies that the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff bears no significant difference. this clearly posits that even during the four-day workweek, the dedication and commitment of middle-level managers is evident as confirmed by very satisfactory rating. the result can also be attributed from the constant reminders on the tenets of quality service and productive public service. middle-level managers are the directors, department heads, and deans who constitute the administrative council members of the university. they are the key persons in the institution to implement and supervise proper implementation of programs, be it routinely or new (cf cabansag, 2013; tan et al., 2014; and cronin, 2015). thus, failure of the program is tantamount to management failure. with these, middlelevel managers are expected to dispose properly their duties towards attaining greater heights and to achieve the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the university. most likely, they are also expected to drive the department they are managing in a way that it will achieve its targets to conform to the new performance evaluation scheme (cf nakae, 2005; cabansag, 2013; and cronin, 2015). see again table 5. what is the performance of faculty as rated by middle-level managers, students, and by themselves after implementation of four-day workweek? table 6 reveals that the faculty members perform very satisfactory in instruction, research, extension, and © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 38 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek table 4: evaluation of performance of middle level managers before and after implementation of four-day workweek statements middle managers staff faculty x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd before after before after before after before after before after before after 1. produces reports, correspondence, and other work products which meet the intended objectives. 3.315 3.315 vs vs 3.135 3.187 vs vs 3.146 3.133 vs vs 2. demonstrates professional competency, quality, and thoroughness. 3.263 3.342 vs vs 3.185 3.225 vs vs 3.240 3.328 vs vs 3. works cooperatively with others, keeps others informed of necessary and factual information; and works together as opposed to working separately. 3.236 3.315 vs vs 3.160 3.212 vs vs 3.219 3.270 vs vs 4. facilitates the operation of a team which promotes teamwork across departments. 3.289 3.315 vs vs 3.123 3.250 vs vs 3.124 3.183 vs vs 5. identifies problems, obstacles, or opportunities and takes action to address issues. 3.157 3.263 vs vs 3.172 3.187 vs vs 3.109 3.108 vs vs 6. demonstrates initiatives without being directed to do so. 3.236 3.368 vs vs 3.135 3.215 vs vs 3.124 3.191 vs vs 7. strives to meet high standards by continually improving the service practices and processes of the university. 3.289 3.394 vs vs 3.284 3.175 vs vs 3.233 3.266 vs vs 8. develops and maintains effective working relationships with others. 3.210 3.421 vs vs 3.234 3.240 vs vs 3.350 3.350 vs vs 9. treats customers and staff with courtesy, respect, dignity, fairness, honesty, and presents a positive public image. 3.236 3.289 vs vs 3.185 3.187 vs vs 3.284 3.350 vs vs 10. communicates clearly and listens effectively to colleagues, subordinates and students. 3.210 3.315 vs vs 3.308 3.200 vs vs 3.321 3.344 vs vs 11. deals effectively with conflict, and avoids negative gossip. 3.263 3.315 vs vs 3.271 3.237 vs vs 3.204 3.183 vs vs 12. demonstrates knowledge of required laws, regulations, procedures, and rules related to the management of unit, department, and college. 3.263 3.289 vs vs 3.296 3.325 vs vs 3.292 3.341 vs vs 13. completes assignments in a thoroughly and timely. 3.210 3.342 vs vs 3.197 3.225 vs vs 3.175 3.158 vs vs 14. follows through on assignments and tasks. 3.289 3.289 vs vs 3.222 3.250 vs vs 3.167 3.208 vs vs 15. does necessary assignments without being asked, and if asked, does them as directed. 3.289 3.263 vs vs 3.259 3.225 vs vs 3.189 3.233 vs vs 16. engages effective and efficient planning to further the mission of the organization. 3.394 3.447 vs vs 3.209 3.250 vs vs 3.291 3.200 vs vs 17. does planning in a strategic and thorough methodology focusing on goals of the organization. 3.263 3.315 vs vs 3.345 3.362 vs vs 3.225 3.191 vs vs 18. displays leadership in the organization and promotes a shared vision. 3.315 3.315 vs vs 3.375 3.312 vs vs 3.225 3.158 vs vs 19. supports and promotes change management. 3.216 3.289 vs vs 3.296 3.237 vs vs 3.291 3.250 vs vs 20. displays an understanding that management is paid to do a job and that sometimes working extra is what is required. 3.368 3.394 vs vs 3.123 3.175 vs vs 3.250 3.241 vs vs 21. maintains appropriate budgetary controls; monitors activities, initiates timely and effective correcting actions, stays within budget, and makes appropriate budgetary recommendations. 3.263 3.342 vs vs 3.246 3.250 vs vs 3.150 3.075 vs vs 22. supports, promotes and upholds, both publicly and privately, the policies of the university. 3.236 3.315 vs vs 3.259 3.200 vs vs 3.235 3.250 vs vs 23. effectively and timely evaluates subordinates; encourages and initiates regular discussion of performance with subordinates. 3.263 3.421 vs vs 2.950 3.087 vs vs 3.193 3.117 vs vs 24. fosters the professional development of subordinates. 3.315 3.447 vs vs 3.137 3.153 vs vs 3.285 3.193 vs vs 25. comprehensively analyzes problems and develops effective and efficient solutions. 3.263 3.552 vs o 3.197 3.237 vs vs 3.175 3.141 vs vs 26. displays a positive attitude and shows concern for the organization as a whole rather than one’s own unit. 3.105 3.500 vs vs 3.197 3.337 vs vs 3.204 3.291 vs vs 27. understands and promotes the common good rather than what’s best only for one’s own operation. 3.243 3.432 vs vs 3.333 3.350 vs vs 3.292 3.350 vs vs average 3.260 3.356 vs vs 3.216 3.233 vs vs 3.222 3.229 vs vs © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 39 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 production during the implementation of four-day workweek. their commitment, knowledge of subject matter, teaching for independent learning, and management of learning are rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves very satisfactory. this could be so because the university is very particular about the evaluation of faculty who are observed at the beginning of school year by deans or chairpersons and evaluated before semester ends. the faculty members are rated by their immediate supervisor, co-teachers/ peers, students, and themselves. however, it can be seen from the table that during the implementation of four-day workweek, the ratings of faculty and students decrease. only the rating of middle-level managers increases with mean average of 2.919 falling under very satisfactory. this clearly states that the performance of faculty members by their superior is not affected by the new scheme (cabansag, 2013; and duque, 2014). with the results presented, it can be traced that duque (2014) proposed that there is a need to develop provisions, values, and programs that support balance in work that will propel maintaining job satisfaction and management to attain the csc (civil service commission)’s vision to be the asia’s prime for excellence in human resource and development of organization (cabansag, 2013; csc, 2014; and duque, 2014). see again table 6. table 7 presents that a total of 275 journals, researches, lecture notes, instructional modules, and designed materials have been produced by the faculty after the four-day workweek. this is in conformity with the responses during the interview. according to the respondents are as following here: they used friday to develop lessons/instructional materials (interview with respondent a, 6/7/2015). more instructional materials to be prepared (interview with respondent b, 8/7/2015). yes, because the longer time for extra job (interview with respondent c, 10/7/2015). yes, to work on the other important matters (interview with respondent d, 13/7/2015). yes. it allows employees to concentrate in developing lesson (interview with respondent e, 17/7/2015). yes, more time for the employees and students for their personal agenda (interview with respondent f, 20/7/2015). yes, because i can do my personal transactions/other tasks (interview with respondent g, 24/7/2015). however, there are indicators which are higher before the implementation like books and established income generating projects. there was increase in book publication before the implementation due to the project course book of ascu-sn (association of state colleges and universities – solid north). in addition, faculty members were also inspired to publish books, due to the promotion brought by the nbc (national budget circular) 461 5th cycle (wang & teter eds., 2017).6 publication of books resulted to the increase of income generating projects due to royalty, including the patented outputs of researches. there was no record on the developed multimedia courseware before and after the four-day workweek. for scholarships funded by the university, it decreased after due to the scholars who are still in progress in pursuing their studies (combs, 2010; comer, 2012; ashton, 2014; drexler, 2014; and moase, 2014). see again the table 7. 6see “chapter 7: position classification and compensation scheme for faculty positions in state universities and colleges”. available online at: https://www.dbm.gov.ph/ wp-content/uploads/2012/03/manual-on-pcc-chapter-7.pdf [accessed in alicia, isabela, philippines: march 11, 2018]. table 5: evaluation of performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff evaluators x qd f sig. interpretation middle level managers 3. 26 vs 0.165 .848 not significantfaculty 3.22 vs staff 3.22 vs © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 40 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek table 6: evaluation of the performance of faculty as rated by middle-level managers, students, and by themselves statements middle managers staff faculty student x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd instruction before after before after before after before after before after before after before after before after 1. identifies students’ needs, interests, problems, tendencies, etc. 3.218 3.161 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 3.447 3.389 vs vs 2.700 2.549 vs vs 2. prepares and follows a course syllabus based on the needs, interests and problems of students. 3.290 3.290 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 3.481 3.457 vs vs 2.746 2.553 vs vs 3. facilitates the learning process through active engagement in classroom tasks and activities. 3.218 3.322 vs vs 3.142 2.871 vs vs 3.525 3.491 o vs 2.847 2.709 vs vs 4. develops students’ analytical and creative thinking skills through purposive activities with focus on higher level of thinking skills. 3.312 3.322 vs vs 3.000 2.857 vs vs 3.444 3.381 vs vs 2.828 2.738 vs vs 5. designs alternative and innovative models of teaching for all types of students: regular, gifted and those with special needs. 3.343 3.322 vs vs 3.000 2..857 vs vs 3.377 3.254 vs vs 2.718 2.603 vs vs 6. makes oneself available for consultation, academic advising and other relevant functions that help improve the students’ well-being. 3.343 3.322 vs vs 3.000 3.000 vs vs 3.451 3.415 vs vs 2.824 2.673 vs vs 7. manifests a strong commitment to development of highly competent and qualified graduates by constantly improving his craft. 3.312 3.322 vs vs 3.000 3.000 vs vs 3.496 3.525 vs o 2.770 2.685 vs vs 8. uses various teaching methodologies and techniques in the pursuit of effective teaching and learning process. 3.125 3.322 vs vs 3.000 2.857 vs vs 3.429 3.491 vs vs 2.824 2.714 vs vs 9. attends to university affairs such as academic councils, commencement rites, foundation and university week activities and faculty development programs. 3.281 3.322 vs vs 3.000 2.857 vs vs 3.414 3.435 vs vs 2.792 2.727 vs vs average 3.272 3.301 vs vs 3.047 2.888 vs vs 3.452 3.426 vs vs 2.783 2.661 vs vs commitment 1. demonstrates sensitivity to students’ ability to absorb content information. 3.500 3.225 vs vs 3.166 2.857 vs vs 3.431 3.444 vs vs 2.798 2.639 vs vs 2. integrates sensitively his/her teaching objectives with those of the students in a collaborative process. 3.516 3.225 o vs 3.142 2.714 vs vs 3.451 3.432 vs vs 2.746 2.674 vs vs 3. makes himself/herself available to students beyond official teaching hours. 3.483 3.258 vs vs 3.142 2.714 vs vs 3.533 3.500 o vs 2.840 2.680 vs vs 4.coordinates students’ needs with internal and external enabling group. 3.500 3.225 vs vs 3.142 2.714 vs vs 3.444 3.355 vs vs 2.757 2.617 vs vs 5.supplements available resources 3.354 3.233 vs vs 3.142 3.000 vs vs 3.474 3.407 vs vs 2.700 2.636 vs vs average 3.466 3.232 vs vs 3.142 2..750 vs vs 3.467 3.428 vs vs 2.768 2.649 vs vs knowledge of subject matter 1. explain the subject matter without completely relying in the prescribed reading. 3.387 3.322 vs vs 3.428 3.000 vs vs 3.511 3.606 o o 2.804 2.825 vs vs 2. explains the subject matter with depth. 3.419 3.322 vs vs 3.285 3.000 vs vs 3.466 3.508 vs vs 2.795 2.745 vs vs 3. integrates topics discussed to concept previously learned by the students in the same course. 3.419 3.290 vs vs 3.285 3.000 vs vs 3.533 3.589 o o 2.837 2.786 vs vs 4. relates the subject matter to other pertinent topics. 3.419 3.387 vs vs 3.285 2.857 vs vs 3.552 3.564 o o 2.921 2.871 vs vs 5. raises problems and issues relevant to the topics of discussion. 3.290 3.387 vs vs 3.285 3.000 vs vs 3.459 3.491 vs vs 2.862 2.784 vs vs average 3.387 3.341 vs vs 3.314 2.971 vs vs 3.504 3.552 vs vs 2.843 2.810 vs vs teaching for independent learning 1. creates teaching strategies that allow students to practice using concepts they need to understand (interactive discussion). 3.290 3.290 vs vs 3.142 3.000 vs vs 3.385 3.290 vs vs 2.855 2.802 vs vs 2. provides exercise which develop analytical thinking among students. 3.387 3.290 vs vs 3.142 3.000 vs vs 3.363 3.290 vs vs 2.867 2.807 vs vs 3. enhances students’ self-esteem through the proper recognition of their abilities. 3.387 3.290 vs vs 3.287 2.857 vs vs 3.459 3.290 vs vs 2.849 2.810 vs vs 4. allows students to create their own course with the use of well-defined objectives and realistic studentsprofessor rules. 3.354 3.258 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 3.311 3.258 vs vs 2.787 2.777 vs vs © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 41 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 statements middle managers staff faculty student x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd x x qd qd average 3.354 3.277 vs vs 3.171 2.942 vs vs 3.387 3.277 vs vs 2.837 2.796 vs vs table 13 contd. management of learning 1. creates opportunities for extensive contribution of students (e.g. break class into dyads, triads or buzz/ task groups). 3.258 3.161 vs vs 3.285 3.000 vs vs 3.238 3.153 vs vs 2.732 2.622 vs vs 2.assumes roles as facilitator, resource, coach, inquisitor, integrator, referee in drawing students to contribute to knowledge and understanding of the concepts at hand. 3.322 3.322 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 3.229 3.169 vs vs 2.786 2.765 vs vs 3.designs and implement learning activities conditions and experience that promote healthy exchange and/ or confrontations. 3.290 3.161 vs vs 3.142 2.714 vs vs 3.288 3.245 vs vs 2.789 2.727 vs vs 4. re-structures learning and teachinglearning context to enhance attainment of collective learning objectives. 3.290 3.161 vs vs 3.142 2.714 vs vs 3.266 3.237 vs vs 2.773 2.754 vs vs 5. stimulates students’ desire and interest to learn more about the subject matter. 3.300 3.200 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 3.333 3.342 vs vs 2.882 2.788 vs vs average 3.296 3.203 vs vs 3.271 2.942 vs vs 3.269 3.229 vs vs 2.792 2.731 vs vs research 1. participates in formulating the research agenda for the university and for the college. 2.677 2.838 vs vs 3.142 2.857 vs vs 2.720 2.703 vs vs 2.810 2.707 vs vs 2. generates research paradigms to enhance instruction in their field of specialization. 2.677 2.774 vs vs 2.857 2.857 vs vs 2.550 2.644 vs vs 2.760 2.677 vs vs 3. encourages students to become creative, innovative and productive researchers. 3.000 3.000 vs vs 2.857 2.857 vs vs 2.762 2.837 vs vs 2.863 2.794 vs vs 4. publishes papers on basic and applied researches, materials development, feasibility studies, and others. 2.612 2.806 vs vs 2.857 2.857 vs vs 2.432 2.496 s s 2.795 2.680 vs vs 5. participates actively in local and international conferences; and publish articles/monographs in recognized and refereed journals and magazines. 2.709 3.000 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 2.483 2.496 s s 2.784 2.700 vs vs average 2.735 2.887 vs vs 2.914 2.828 vs vs 2.589 2.635 vs vs 2.802 2.711 vs vs extension 1. conducts in-service training programs to teachers, school administrators and other educators in both public and private sectors. 2.709 3.100 vs vs 2.857 2.571 vs vs 2.618 2.614 vs vs 2.850 2.720 vs vs 2. contributes in strengthening institutional ties and network with other national and international educational institutions. 2.709 3.000 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 2.644 2.674 vs vs 2.796 2.754 vs vs 3. involves himself/herself in the development and implementation of activities on literacy, political education, environment education, multicultural and values education. 2.833 3.066 vs vs 3.000 2.714 vs vs 2.898 2.844 vs vs 2.819 2.772 vs vs 4. participates in extension programs aimed at developing and implementing projects that help preserve indigenous cultures. 2.866 3.100 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 3.008 2.955 vs vs 2.867 2.767 vs vs average 2.766 3.066 vs vs 2.892 2.678 vs vs 2.792 2.772 vs vs 2.833 2.753 vs vs resource generation or production 1. develops scholarly works like books, magazines, journals, research articles, and monographs, lectures, modules, instructional materials for publication in educational journals. 2.548 2.967 vs vs 3.000 2.714 vs vs 2.398 2.333 s s 2.806 2.701 vs vs 2. designs, develop and share multimedia courseware and resources such as tapes, videotapes, powerpoint presentation and other courseware packages. 2.516 2.967 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 2.593 2.659 vs vs 2.780 2.741 vs vs 3. designs and produces materials for presentation and production in the performing arts. 2.451 2.900 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 2.483 2.417 s s 2.783 2.627 vs vs 4. establishes and manages other income generating projects. 2.600 2.833 vs vs 2.857 2.714 vs vs 2.432 2.388 s s 2.774 2.633 vs vs average 2.532 2.919 vs vs 2.892 2.714 vs vs 2.476 2.451 s s 2.785 2.675 vs vs © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 42 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek table 7: performance of faculty in resource generation or production before and after implementation of four-day workweek scholarly works before after c a m p u s s ch o la rl y w o rk s b o o k s jo u rn al s r es ea rc h l ec tu re s in st ru ct io n al m at er ia ls / m o d u le s d ev el o p ed m u lt im ed ia c o u rs ew ar e d es ig n ed m at er ia ls f o r p re se n ta ti o n e st ab li sh ed i n co m e g en er at in g p ro je ct s b o o k s jo u rn al s r es ea rc h l ec tu re s in st ru ct io n al m at er ia ls / m o d u le s d ev el o p ed m u lt im ed ia c o u rs ew ar e d es ig n ed m at er ia ls f o r p re se n ta ti o n e st ab li sh ed i n co m e g en er at in g p ro je ct s lagawe campus 11 7 22 2 1 0 0 1 0 3 15 2 4 0 0 0 main campus 6 38 134 8 4 0 1 4 0 39 152 16 6 0 1 1 potia campus 2 6 15 3 9 0 0 1 2 2 24 2 6 0 0 0 total 9 51 171 13 14 0 1 6 2 44 191 20 16 0 1 1 over-all total 265 275 table 8: performance of faculty as rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves evaluators x sd qd f sig. interpretation faculty 3. 15 0.39 vs 0.422 .656 not significantstudents 2.73 0.75 vs middle level managers 3.09 0.38 vs is there a significant difference in the performance of faculty as rated by middle level managers, students, and by themselves? table 8 discloses that the computed f-value of .422 at .656 is greater than .05 level of significance. this means that the performance of faculty members and students has no significant difference with the evaluation of middle level managers and by themselves. this clearly expresses that even during the four-day workweek the faculty members have satisfied their duties and responsibilities. this is confirmed by the consistent rating with qualitative description of very satisfactory. the result is derived from the proactive mentality inspired by the dynamic leadership of the university president, “to go beyond average and be radical in everything that they do”. further, middle level managers and students believe that the faculty are adaptable to any changes and equipped with proper knowledge to deliver quality education. their years in service justify that these faculty members are seasoned teachers in their line of specialization (cf cabansag, 2013; esteban, 2016). summary of findings. firstly, as regards respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of: reduction of monthly operation cost. the average © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 43 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 table 9: proposed action plan for effective implementation of four-day compressed workweek of ifsu (ifugao state university) system i. rationale president gloria arroyo issued administrative order no.103, series 2004 directing the adoption of austerity measures in government to meet the country’s fiscal targets, maintain its microeconomic stability and improve investor confidence. administrative order no.117, series 2005 followed providing adjusted official hours in departments, bureaus, offices and other agencies including government-owned and controlled corporations to lead in energy conservation, without jeopardizing the delivery of public service, mitigate the impact of oil price increases on government’s fiscal position and the country’s dollar reserves. ifugao state university (ifsu), the only government institution in cordillera administrative region (car) adopted a four-day workweek to save cost of operation, increase productivity of employees, and enhance the overall happiness of employees and development of the institution. csc resolution no.1401286 advised agencies implementing the program to submit six months or earlier after the start of implementation to assess the benefits and disadvantages of the scheme and determine its viability in the long term. anderson (1976) complemented that assessment can serve as a tool in examining the level of the system’s realization for improvement or termination of the approach, for enhancement of procedure and methods, establishment of the approach in other organizations, and allocation of a system’s procedure or theory. thus, this evaluation significantly covered the objectives of implementation as reflected in office order no.10 s. 2012, the performance of middle level managers and faculty as compared from the previous standard working days. finally, the discrepancy information gathered could serve as bases for improvement and in crafting action plan. ii. general objective this evaluation is done to reveal progress toward the objectives of the innovation and provide evidence if the set objectives are met. iii. specific objective develop an action plan for improvement of the implementation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university (ifsu) system. table 10: action plan title of activity rationale findings objectives/targets strategies/ procedures time frame person involved expected output 1. orientation on proper implementation of austerity measures. administrative order no.103, series 2004directed the continued adoption of austerity measures in government. the new scheme is implemented to reduce monthly operation cost. there is negligible reduction on the monthly operation cost on electricity and fuel. however, it is noted that the office supplies increased. to adopt a comprehensive plan in evaluating monthly operation costs. workshops in crafting comprehensive plan to monitor and evaluate electricity, fuel and supplies and synchronized monitoring scheme should be established. buildings with high electric consumption must be checked regularly. year round administration ifugao electric cooperative speakers from the department of energy. comprehensive plan to evaluate electricity, fuel and supplies. reduced electric consumption. organized / synchronized monitoring scheme. 2. moral recovery orientation: a tool for eliminating illegal conduct of out-of-job activities. the illegal conduct of out-of-job activities among employees lie on absenteeism and tardiness. it is imperative to monitor and implement sanctions to violators in consonance with csc resolution no.1401286. absenteeism and tardiness were not minimized during the fourday workweek. to eliminate illegal conduct of out-of-job activities particularly on absenteeism and tardiness. strictly monitor attendance of employees and implement the csc rule on attendance. year round directors, deans faculty and staff gender and development office of the university. eliminated illegal conduct of outof-job activities. improved attendance and punctuality. 3. seminar on revitalizing performance of middle level managers. middle level managers are key people to implement and supervise proper implementation of programs. so, they are expected to dispose properly their duties towards attaining greater heights and to achieve the vmgo of the university. middle level managers were able to adopt with the new scheme as reflected with evaluation results by their subordinates. to improve the performance of middle level managers and strengthen collaborative work between them and faculty. seminars, workshops, and continue to work cooperatively with others and keep others informed of necessary and factual information, maintain rapport and harmonious relationship with employees. year round vicepresidents directors deans chairpersons faculty and staff strengthened collaborative work. better performance of middle level managers. © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 44 leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek electricity consumption is lower during the implementation with 7,908.1 compared before the implementation with 8,605.9. the difference however is not significant as indicated by p-value of 0.167. the average fuel consumption is lower after the implementation with an average of 643.67 as compared before with 652.01. for office supplies, there is a noted increase of php (philippines pesso) 2,738,304 after the implementation of the four-day workweek. as regards respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of: enhancement of employees’ productivity and commitment. the productivity and commitment of middle-level managers and faculty have been enhanced much before and after the implementation of the four-day workweek with 3.362 and 3.302, respectively. they were able to present researches in research forum, used friday to develop ims (information management service) and able to accomplish given task in a longer period of time. as regards respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of: elimination of illegal conduct of out-of-job activities. the middle-level managers, faculty, and staff have sometimes eliminated illegal conduct of out-of-job activities before and after the implementation of the initiative. as regards respondents’ evaluation on the implementation of four-day compressed workweek in terms of: enhancement of employees’ job satisfaction. the employees’ job satisfaction was significantly enhanced after the implementation of the program with a p value of .014 and .045 respectively. with regard to performance of middlelevel managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and after the implementation of four-day workweek. the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and after the four-day workweek is very satisfactory. in relation to the significant difference in the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff. the computed f-value of .165 at .848 is greater than .05 level of significance. there is no significant difference in the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff. as regards the performance of faculty as rated by the middle-level managers, and by themselves after the implementation of the four-day workweek. the faculty members perform very satisfactory after the implementation of four-day workweek. with regard to the significant difference in the performance of faculty as rated by middle-level managers and by themselves. the computed f-value of .422 at .656 is greater than .05 level of significance. this means that the evaluation of the performance of faculty has no significant difference with the evaluation of middle level managers and by themselves. see also table 9 and table 10. conclusion the four-day workweek has reduced the consumption of electricity and fuel. conversely, consumption in office supplies shows a little increase. the employees’ productivity and commitment have been enhanced after the implementation of fourday compressed workweek. the illegal conduct of out-of-job activities is not absolutely minimized into its lowest level. the four-day compressed workweek has significantly enhanced employees’ job satisfaction. the performance of middle level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and during the implementation of the four-day workweek is commendable. the new scheme does not affect the performance of middle-level managers as rated by themselves, faculty, and staff before and during the implementation of the program. the performance of faculty during the implementation of four-day workweek as rated by middle-level managers, students, and by them is creditable. the four-day workweek does not affect the performance of faculty as rated by the middle-level managers and by themselves. the new scheme helps the faculty members increase their efficiency in producing more intellectual properties and outputs. the proposed action plan would improve the implementation and outcomes of four-day © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 45 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 workweek in ifsu (ifugao state university) system and to other institutions or agencies planning to implement the same. there is a need to cease the implementation of the program, because the objectives were not realized. however, if the administration wishes to continue, the following are recommended for more effective implementation: before the implementation of fourday workweek, a systems mechanism on how to monitor and evaluate the different areas and aspects should be developed and discussed to all concerned for information and strict compliance. conduct regular class supervisions to evaluate teaching competence of faculty. a conference must follow for feedback dissemination to ensure efficient and better teaching performance. human resource development office must strictly monitor attendance of employees. constitute employee assistance program and offer services that help employees through personal, family, financial or work related issues that may be affecting attendance and employee performance. employees showing exemplary performance should be given due recognition such as promotion and tenure. to establish and sustain harmonious rapport and camaraderie between and among administration and employees, meetings, conferences, retreats, and other related activites should be conducted regularly and reasonably. the administration should extend help to the faculty 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(2016). assessing basic education service delivery in the philippines. manila: world bank group and australian aid. available online also at: http:// educationdocbox.com/college_life/77794981assessing-basic-education-service-delivery-inthe-philippines.html [accessed in alicia, isabela, philippines: march 11, 2018]. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 57© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the authors: laily nurlina and eko sri israhayu are lecturers at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. for academic purposes, the authors can be contacted via e-mails at: march_nur@yahoo.co.id and ayuisrahayu@yahoo.co.id how to cite this article? nurlina, laily & eko sri israhayu. (2014). “bipa learning material development for empowering thailand students’ writing competence” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.57-66. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/bipalearning-material-development/ chronicle of the article: accepted (march 20, 2014); revised (may 30, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction wcu (world class university) is not only prestige to be considered higher quality than other university in central java, indonesia, but also a need. ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) launched its tagline by consideration to raise competition spirit with other universities. there are some mou (memorandum of understanding) signed by ump and other university to join cooperation on education. example: fiften south thai students study here and took different departments. some guest lecturers often come to give public lecturing and guide lecturer research in this campus and vice-versa we go to other campus to deliver lecture. one of the requirements being wcu is english mastery and international class which is used english as communication language, the international qualified facilitaties, wellprepared learning curriculum and learning process, many things to be a highest service. this condition will take long time to prepare international classroom, because not all of lecturers master english either written or oral, especially in teaching activity. thai students come and study here and ump does not have international class yet. so, bahasa indonesia (indonesia language) is needed as a communicative language to deliver lecture. bahasa indonesia has important role, either nationally or internationally, because foreign students are interested in studying here. the foreign learners study the bahasa indonesia as second language (foreign language) with the academic and practical laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu bipa learning material development for empowering thailand students’ writing competence abstract: thai students have come and studied at the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. so, “bahasa” indonesia (indonesia language) is needed as a communicative language to deliver lecture. “bahasa” indonesia has important role, either nationally or internationally, because foreign students are interested in studying here. the foreign learners study the “bahasa” indonesia as second language (foreign language) with the academic and practical purposes. bipa stands for “bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing” (teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) develops in ump to fulfill the need of foreign students. the study was aimed at analyzing language aspect difficulties on writing paper and developing bipa material to improve students’ writing competence. this article highlight the process nine thai students on their writing process. the data were collected through paper and writing task in first semester. the mistake classifications are word reduplication, the usage of “n”, “m”, “f ”, and “v”, english word, the confusing between “ng” and “g”, the affix mistakes, the mistakes of “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, and “o”. syllabus and bipa learning material to support them understanding “bahasa” indonesia well. most thai students tried hard to master “bahasa” indonesia for their study here.there are two suggestions to develop bipa learning material: it needs a good methodology and learning material; so, the teacher can manage it well and a further research beside the writing skill itself. key words: thai students, indonesian language, difficulties, foreign language, writing skill, syllabus development, and learning material. laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu, bipa learning material development 58 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com purposes (dardjowidjojo, 1994:3). it takes time to prepare students speaking and writing in bahasa indonesia, while they used to speak thai and malay languages before. the academic purpose are directed as knowledge to learn linguistic and literature, such as bahasa indonesia learnt by mahroso doloh from south thailand who took the indonesian education and literature program in ump. in 2014, mahroso doloh succeed to publish his own masterpice, thai – bahasa indonesia dictionary, which very useful for further thai students will study in indonesia. while the practical purpose is geared for the self-interest, example indonesian used as daily conversation with friends, lecturer, and to ease understanding of learning process. it shows by aisyah doloh, mirfat chehama, rosuenee islam, kareemah maming, sofiah samoh, iswandee sa-e, abdulloh makeh, saripah yakoh, and others. bahasa indonesia learning process for thai students in a course have conducted twice. the learning evaluation was documented in previous research by title “the analyzes of indonesian writing mistakes in narrative text: a study to find alternative bipa learning in ump”. the results shows that the thai students do not get any difficult to communicate in daily life. they can understand other people and they communicate by using simple indonesian terms. it means that the foreign students have good speaking ability of indonesian, but how about the writing ability? confusing, because their score of gpa (grade point average) are not good, even under average. malay language and bahasa indonesia are similar, but they are very different, especially in meaning context. they think that indonesian and malay languages have same vocabulary and grammar. one of the problems to boost their bahasa indonesia competence written and orally is they always speak thai and malay languages outside the course. by using informal conversation, we can find that the students got difficulty on writing paper and answering the test. the students can not write paper and express their idea, opinion, and argumentation. they know how to write it, the form, the systematics, but difficult to write their thought; so, their works still lack of coherence. it is quite frustating, because almost all of the subject demand the students competence on writing. the lecturer will not differ where do the students come from or their bahasa indonesia ability. all of the students must write paper and present them in front of the audience and then discuss the content. this problem needs to be solved soon, so the students will feel enjoy, motivate, and eager to achieve on studying. muhammadiyah university of purwokerto always receives south thai students every year. they will study about 3.5 – 4 years in indonesia. it is urgent to do research by using basic data of difficulties on writing to increase their competence. the purposes of this research are: (1) analyze language aspect difficulties on writing paper; and (2) develop bipa material to increase on writing paper competence (cf straus, 2009; and cresswell, 2010). it is expected that the result of research will help further foreign students to study in purwokerto, central java, indonesia. they can write and speak bahasa indonesia better than thai students today. picture 1: mahroso doloh and his thai – bahasa indonesia dictionary educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 59© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com literature review on the bipa teaching in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto. bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) has been implemented since september 2012 for south thailand students. this learning process is carried out without any preparation of syllabus, lesson plans, or teaching materials, so that its implementation is still limited to assist students in the preparation daily communication. the researchers as tutors taught them by taking various materials from magazine, newspaper, and so on. it was not focus on different students’ ability and contextual condition. the time for learning process took only 2 weeks up to 1 month for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. the students found the difficulties to understand and practice their bahasa indonesia well. they were confused to differ between bahasa indonesia and malay language. according to p. suyata (2000:6), the foreign students learn bahasa indonesia by having various purposes, from just want to communicate in daily life, such as talking to the driver, bargaining on selling and buying activity, until master indonesian language for official purpose, such as attending lectures or teach indonesian. they studied bahasa indonesia as medium language to master other knowledge such as in ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) did. thai students learnt bahasa indonesia as a communication tool, not as a language to be memorized or analyzed. indonesian language is functioned as a means of communication, both orally in daily life, written as the writing assignment, or other text. materials such as grammar are integrated in communicative learning, so it is easy to be accepted by foreign students. they practised speaking through shopping in a store, money changer, admission, and other places supported and encouraged them to speak (cf ellis, 1986; and kentjono et al., 2004). at the beginning of learning bipa, the objectives to be achieved by the tutor are to improve the ability to communicate in daily life, such as in the neighborhood as well as on campus. based on the learning outcomes that have been achieved, van eck explains that the goal of language teaching requires communication components, as follows: (1) the situation underlying the usage of language, including the role of speaker, background, and the subject; (2) linguistic activities of what will need to be carried out by the learner; (3) the language function will be implemented by leaners in the usage of language; (4) what the learner can be implemented on any subject; (5) the general notion of what would be handled by learners; (6) what specific concepts handled by the learner later; (7) any form of language used by the learner; and (8) the level of skill that would be manifested by learners (in suyanto, 2009). fiction or non-fiction writing needs ability to express idea in a sentence and understanding syntaksis to organize them in coherence idea. thai students got difficulties on writing, because writing skill covers very complicated competence and high level linguistics competence. language mistakes can be classified into close and open mistake. open mistake is language mistake in grammar that can be highlight in their sentences. picture 2: at thailand embassy: handover thai students to ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in 2013 laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu, bipa learning material development 60 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com close mistake is hidden, the sentence is well systematic grammar but incorrect semantics (cf hayes & flower, 1986; littlejohn, 1991; and sneddon, 1996). ismorosiyadi (2011) states that the paper is students’ scientific papers on a particular topic covered in the scope of a lecture. this paper is one of the requirements for completing a lecture, either in the form of literature review and the results of field lectures. another common opinion, we find that the paper is a systematic and comprehensive text in the form of outlines for a given problem, and is written with the approach of one or more specific disciplines, whether it elaborate on their opinions, ideas and discussion in the context of problem solving (hastuti, 1989). writing is an activity categorized as a form of communication. communication is an interaction process of ideas, thoughts, and ideas of one person to another. according to sembiring, there are four factors that cause students trouble of writing that is less reading, less practice writing, confusion in thinking, and ambiguity in the language (in hastuti, 1989). scientific writing skills must be possessed by students everywhere. according to suhardjono (2006:46), scientific papers have in common with other types, such as: (1) the area in question is located on scientific knowledge; (2) the truth of its contents refer to scientific truth; (3) the grain framework and reflects the application of the scientific method; and (4) physical appearance according to the manner of writing scientific papers. how the mindset of students trained in making paper? the graphic 1 shows the scientific writing skills must be possessed by students everywhere. on the defi nition of instructional materials. learning process needs learning resources and preaparation in the form of teaching materials. instructional or teaching material consists of a word that means teaching and teaching material or materials. implementation learning (teaching) is defined as the process of creating and maintaining an effective learning environment (sanjaya, 2008). while the material, according to paul s. ache, is the book can be used as reference material, or can be used as a writing material weighing (in nurgiyantoro, 2010). teaching materials are all forms of material used to assist educators in implementing the teaching and learning activities in the classroom. this material can be written or unwritten. according to k.j. eltis (1991), teaching materials is a set of material/ text covention students idea writing work language method paper graphic 1: the scientific writing skills of students educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 61© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com substance of learning (teaching materials) that systematically and well-arrangement, showing full figure from which students will learn competencies in learning activities. the function of teaching materials, among others: (1) guidelines for teachers who will direct all activities in procedural learning; (2) guidelines for students who will direct all the activities in the learning process; and (3) an evaluation tool achievement/mastery of learning outcomes (sanjaya, 2008). so, from the entire description can be interpreted that the material is a set of teaching materials systematically arranged so as to create the environment/atmosphere that allows students to learn. why do we need bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) teaching material preparation? teaching material is an important component in the implementation of learning, both educators and learners, so that both will be very helpful and easy to learn. teaching materials can be made in various forms according to the needs and characteristics of teaching materials that will be taught (widjono, 2005). bipa teaching materials are prepared with the purpose of providing instructional materials to suit the needs of students from thailand, who had studied for one semester at the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, by adjusting the majors and the problem to be addressed. besides teaching materials, bipa assist students in obtaining alternative teaching materials that are usually difficult and less appropriate to be used, and most importantly with the bipa teaching materials facilitate tutors and learners to carry out learning. a teacher who developed the teaching materials will have some benefits. first, they obtain teaching materials appropriate to the learning needs of the student or students. second, they are no longer dependent on the textbook sometimes difficult to get. third, teaching materials become richer, because developed using a variety of references. table 1: the function of teaching and learning material no. for teacher for students 1 time efficiency on teaching. students can learn without teacher or friends. 2 change from teacher to facilitator. students may study every where and every time. 3 learning process will be more effective and interactive. learn based on their choice. 4 study sistematically and arrange by their competence. 5 being autonomous students. source: tian belawati (2003:117). picture 3: the situation of bipa learning process laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu, bipa learning material development 62 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 graphic 2: comparison of writing competence fourth, increase the repertoire of knowledge and experience of the teacher or lecturer in writing instructional materials. fifth, teaching materials will be able to build effective learning communication between teachers/lecturers and students. many teaching materials will make bipa learning more interesting; learners will have opportunity to learn a lot more independent on the presence of the teacher’s explanation. they can study themselves and explore their knowledge by guiding the material. teacher facilitate them by giving some clear instructions and resources media learning like library, internet, and students to guide them. learning resources is information represent and keep in some media, able to help students as curriculum. it is unlimited whether printing, video, software, or combination that can be used by students. as pointed out by arief s. sadiman et al. that learning resource is anything as learning aid such as people, thing, message, material, technique, and background (sadiman et al., 2008:3). other argued that learning resource is any kind energy to be done by teacher separately or combining to improve effectiveness and efficiency learning purpose (arsyad, 2011). in this study, teacher creates syllabus, material, handout, and modul to encourage thai students’ writing competence, so they can fulfill the assignment better than before. this study took in the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, especially in bipa classes. it is held outside the regular lecture time + 4 months from issue identification process of writing a paper to the management of learning and teaching materials manufacture. the previous paper was analyzed, so we can find the mistakes on vocabulary and grammar. the variables in this study include the independent variable is “bipa teaching materials”; the dependent variable is “the ability to write papers”. the results are compared and analyzed errors – common errors; and the researchers developed a syllabus and teaching materials bipa learning. so, the product of this research is the syllabus and teaching materials bipa learning. the study is simple research and development method, so we need to examine the effectiveness of bipa material. results and discussion comparison of writing competence before and after study conducted using bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) teaching materials are showed in graphic 2. the graphic 2 shows that the differences score between before and after the learning process by using bipa material. we can see that every students gets the improvement score. the indicator writing score includes vocabulary, diction, grammar, systematic writing, and the contens. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 63© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 2: the mistake classification of paper writing no classification mistakes correction 1 kata ulang peparu paru-paru plan-plan pelan-pelan 2 n / m pansangan pasangan menyembabkan menyebabkan mamun namun menentapkan menetapkan lapiran lampiran 3 f / v fariasi variasi aktifitas aktivitas 4 istilah asing tisu-tisu jaringan diceraikan dipisahkan automatik otomatis 5 pengaruh bahasa melayu pemendaman rawatan dadah chomotherapy penundaan perawatan narkotika komeoterapi sesetengah ketumbuhan masalah pertumbuhan terbina terbentuk bahagian bagian 6 imbuhan terlekat melekat penelitian ini dengan berjudul penelitian ini berjudul mengaturan mengatur lebih menguntung lebih menguntungkan 7 g / ng melingdung melindungi tergangtung tergantung bagun pagi bangun pagi bersingungan bersinggungan mengunakan menggunakan menungu menunggu ditungjang ditunjang mingu minggu 8 a / i / u / e / o kerana karena mendetaksi mendeteksi menjelani menjalani kesihatan kesehatan kesimpolan kesimpulan picture 4: the enjoyable situation of bipa teaching-learning process laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu, bipa learning material development 64 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com definition of writing: 1. process to save language with its graphic signs 2. representation from expression language activities 3. the activity to bear mind and feeling through writing 4. to put down the graphic symbols that represent a language one understands, so that other can read these graphic representation. skill-getting skill-using activities 1) writing down: exercise includes reproduction material process that has learnt, focus on spelling and punctuation. 2) writing in language: learner writes in various grammar rule activity. 1) flexibility: learner starts to write in draft such as transformation exercise, sentences combining, sentences extension. 2) expressive writing: learner writes guided and free. planning-rescanning-revising good writer graphic 3: the learner as a good writer table 3: developing syllabi and material no basic competence description time 1 able to use simple words and phrases for example greeting, signs, and announcement in public places.  greetings.  address someone.  signs, announcement, etc.  simple conversation in public places. 6 meetings @ 90 minutes 2 know and understand banyumas culture and tourisms.  batik.  sokaraja traditional paintings.  baturaden. 2 meetings @ 90 minutes those table 2 shows some interesting cases such as: (1) diction is word choice and spelling for giving certain effect to speak and write something; (2) spelling is how to spell a letter and standar writing, usually phonology aspect about describing phonem and letter, morphologys aspect and syntax; (3) grammar or structure is combining meaning context to form meaningful sentences; (4) the influences of malay language or interference is using other language or interfering dialect to bahasa indonesia; (5) punctuation is graphic sign to use convensional to separate one thing to others that can influence meaning; and (6) ineffective sentence is sentence consist of words or phrases repeatedly and useless (cf hidayat, 1998). writing is communicative action as an effort to share observation, information, mind or idea, and experience to other people (cohen & riel, 1989). as a good writer, the learner can be described in graphic 3. the theory shows that the sequences of writing process and the students need to boost their vocabularies. john norrish reported as follows: [...] it was vital that people should be educated to construct grammatically acceptable sentence and be able to spell correctly […] because of this, a great deal of attention has traditionally been given to writing and error in the medium tend to be regarded as indicative of some type of failure (norrish, 1983:65). educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 65© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 4: the contents of syllabi no theme material 1 regards  say “assalamu’alaikum” can be used every time.  “selamat pagi/siang/sore/malam”depends on time.  differences greeting in indonesia and the students’ country.  speaking practise. 2 greetings  introducing greetings.  the usage “apa kabar?”  miscellanous/courtesy in daily life.  the different culture to greet in indonesia and students’ country. 3 sign, announcement, label, and its usage  introducing simple signs “parkir, dilarang parkir, belok kanan/kiri, belok kiri jalan terus” etc.  introducing announcement “dilarang merokok di sini, silahkan mengisi formulir, silahkan antri” etc.  introducing medicine, food, soap label, etc.  explaining the advantages each signs/label/announcement.  introducing campus and its environment. 4 number  1-100.  introducing currency rupiah.  introducing number, time, and calendar.  the differences culture, time, and discipline between indonesia and student’s country. 5 time  how to read 9.15 (sembilan seperempat/sembilan lima belas menit, etc)  the importance of coming on time.  shock culture about time. 6 time differences  morning/afternoon/evening/night, and the time .  introducing etiquette calling, sms, meeting, and the right time.  introducing special days in banyumas: birthday, independence day, ramadhan, etc. 7 visiting batik and traditional sokaraja paintings  batik banyumas has special motif which is called mengruyun, its size, picture, and colour different from other batik. students practise to “membatik” in gallery.  famous sokaraja paintings is naturalist and so interesting. students learn how the process and wide information about banyumas. 8 visiting baturaden  baturaden is tourist resort around 30 km from purwokerto. its cool weather attract to come surrounding peace and beautiful view to stay decorating colourful flowers. related to the difficulties of bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) teaching, d. sunendar pointed some problems, namely: (1) lack of good impression; (2) difficult to decide or found material; (3) teacher and learner trapped on grammar or structure; and (4) different character letter with bahasa indonesia (sunendar, 2000). those problems can be solved by developing syllabi and material to teach thai students as showed in table 3. from the details of the material, the students begin to understand the use of vocabulary and grammar in formal and informal communication as well as oral and written communication distinguish. development of syllabus and details of the material is then developed in the form of a simple module making it easier for students to study systematically. the ability to write gradually improved with the guidance of tutors informally as teaching bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) has been completed at the beginning laily nurlina & eko sri israhayu, bipa learning material development 66 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com of the academic year. students have studied the systematics used in the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, so that tutors do not need to be taught from the beginning. more emphasis on the use of vocabulary and grammar, because of the ambiguity between the indonesian and malay languages that be controlled by the students from thailand. conclusion this study concluded that the preparation of indonesian language learning is absolutely necessary for foreign students from thailand to minimize the difficulties of students when studying at the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, two errors – errors that commonly occur should continue – constantly guided, so that foreign students will not have too much difficulty in writing final project later (thesis) and three professors and academic advisor very big role in the success of foreign students for study at ump. suggestions can be given is a learning methodology and bipa (bahasa indonesia untuk penutur asing or teaching indonesian language for non-native speaker) requires proper teaching materials, so that teachers/ tutors are given a task to be really-really able to manage it and the two need to do further research on other language skills such as reading, talking, and listening to the repertoire of knowledge about bipa at ump more complete. previous research has been conducted on the subject of bipa which took narrative writing student from thailand. references arsyad, azhar. 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(2005). bahasa indonesia. jakarta: pt grasindo. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 159 yagnamurthy sreekanth, ph.d. is assistant professor at the department of secondary education ncert (national council of educational research and training), room no.222, ciet, sri aurobindo marg, new delhi 110016, india. he can be reached at: syagnamurthy@yahoo.com and sreekanth.ncert@nic.in dynamics of public and private sector participation in education: a perspective on india and beyond yagnamurthy sreekanth abstract: there has been a steady growth of private sector participation in education in india. there are also attempts at government level for public-private-partnerships. while traditionally, it was government’s obligation to provide education to all, the entry of private sector has brought with it a new market dimension. in the light of this, the present paper describes the role of public and private sectors’ in education, which appears to be complementary or diametrically opposite to each other. in the comparative study of these two prominent players in education, it has been observed that they are poles apart in terms of focus, methodology, assessment procedure, goal, intrinsic market and community oriented approach, management dimension, and expansion approach. in view of this, it may be more appropriate for the two sectors to exist independently to provide complementary role, rather than converging, which will be detrimental to themselves and to the stakeholders they serve. a better approach could be to provide empowered teaching community who could contribute for the cause of enriching the human resources. this is because a country like india with huge population needs to turn a liability into asset, which can happen through enrichment of human resource potential (students) through available human resource (teachers). key words: approaches to education, curriculum, public-private-partnership, perspectives of india, and participation in education. introduction the public and private institutions have a great role to play in mixed economies and welfare states. in india, while they worked in different and exclusive spheres, largely in the immediate post-independence era gradually they are converging to collaborate and compete with each other. the new delhi government has envisaged for “setting up of senior secondary schools with one-time funding, and profits to be ploughed back for upgrading infrastructure and setting up more such schools” (walia, 2009:12). the human resource development ministry of india has proposed “public-private-partnership (ppp) as an alternative to improve access to quality school education while ensuring equity and social justice” (seethalakshmi, 2009:16). yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 160 kapil sibal (2009:17), the minister for human resource development, was also emphatic that “there is enormous interest evinced by foreign education providers to collaborate with indian institutions both in the private and public sector to set-up a variety of educational enterprises in india”. the government of india has also proposed for opening up of accreditation for multiple accreditation agencies, mostly private, with their action being monitored by a regulator (mukul, 2010a:6). these attempts may be largely due to what shailaja fennel (2007:194) has outlined as “the failure of government sector to provide adequate schooling and a growing commercial interest in the education sector”. the mushrooming of private school sector is also attributed to lack of government schools, and desire of parents for instruction in english (tooley & dixon, 2007:16). it has also been ascribed to “increased opting out of public education by those who can afford to pay, and by liberalised regulatory frameworks that allow non-government providers to offer educational services” (lewin, 2007:41). the private sector has its proponents and vehement critics and both have their own view points as pointed by c.d. levy (2006:217) that “promoters glorify roles (e.g. access), while critics demonize roles (e.g. money making)”. in the light of the above, it is pertinent to assess the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of these public and private sectors of education to see the nature of services rendered by these sectors, the aims and objectives for which these sectors are working in the indian context and the manner in which they are perceived in other countries and what could be the future role of these two sectors separately and jointly. approaches to education at the outset government looks at education as an area in which development will lead to the overall growth of the economy and prosperity of the people. it is seen as an essential constituent for quality life for all. in view of this providing “basic education” has become a priority area with the aim to provide equal opportunities to all, which requires huge expenditure without anticipation for immediate and direct monetary gains. as observed by callaghan (in fitz & beers, 2002:140) that “the public education is diverse in its quality, somewhat inward looking and not tuned enough to the needs of industry and economy”. s. mehrotra and r.p. panchamukhi (2006:422) view that “the historical evidence from the now industrialised countries suggests that it was the public school system, which played a dominant role in universalising schooling”. this logically makes us believe that the public sector follows what may be called as “social needs approach”. it involves development of different areas of population through education, even in the most unviable conditions, in areas of social priority and of least priority and of different socio-economic sections of population. “the privately managed schools located in urban areas have restricted the entry to those who can afford hefty fees, the government-run schools in villages have to bear the brunt by providing education for all, as a welfare measure” (sreekanth, 2009:235). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 161 the social needs approach is governed by the intent to create and sustain a healthy society. the responsibility stems from the constitutional obligation of the democratically elected governments. with education gaining importance as a priority area and an important component of human development index nationally and internationally no country is expected to lag behind. consequently, the concern is on attaining and maintaining minimum standards across different areas, though excellence is desirable but secondary in terms of priority. as opposed to the perspective of public sector education’s social needs approach, the private sector is governed by “market demands approach”. education markets provide a conducive opportunity for the private stakeholders to participate and thrive. “the south-asian region shows an example of the demand-side development of private education” (kitaev, 2007:94). it involves service in the priority areas rather than all round development, covering the population who can afford rather than all those who need to be covered. priorities are set out on the basis of market demands, not always from the point of view of the community or societal interests as a partner but more as a client providing quality services. schools under private sector become centres for market interests as observed below: school commercialism serves three distinct functions. it provides corporations with a venue in which to market products and services. it also provides them with a podium from which to disseminate corporate ideas about topics important to their interests. finally, school commercialism becomes a vehicle through which corporations can deliver a broader ideological message promoting consumption as the primary source of well-being and happiness (molnar, 2006:632). it is also apparent that the private sector entry and sustenance is largely governed by the feasibility factor rather than accountability or providing access to education. feasibility emerges from optimal utilization and conservation of resources to make the activity productive and profitable. “the general superiority of market provision is based upon the efficiency and innovation gains associated with competitive markets” (adnett, 2004:389). these competitive markets have become immensely popular leading to the expansion of private sector. “education management organizations (emos), for profit and non-profit management companies engaged in takeover of public education are becoming big business in the usa and uk” (fitz & beers, 2002:137). the educational activity under private sector has to have independent selfsustenance, unlike the public sector which can draw the resources from one sphere and allocate on other. the accountability factor which the government sector is entrusted with to the democratically elected representatives is missing with private players and responsibility if any in the form of corporate houses is only to the shareholders who are interested in profiteering and to the fee-paying parents. the responsibility is very limited in nature because the private sector is not expected to set up schools in remote and inaccessible areas and for the children who cannot afford to pay fees. yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 162 under these conditions education becomes a “product” and its marketability depends on the quality of the product. the product is best marketed when the demand is enormous. this can be observed through “the tie-ups of employers and private educational institutions for placements, with the curriculum largely designed to meet the industry requirements” (gupta, 2010:16). the confederation of indian industry (tnn, 2010:10) views that “india has 54 per cent of population below the age of 25 and to reap the demographic dividend or head for a disaster depends on how educational reforms are in synchronous with global education system and meet global standards”. this is further supported by parents themselves. it has been observed that “parents themselves want their children to pursue careers that will earn them higher salaries” (rao, 2007:13). as a result all areas of education do not receive the same attention of private players because every product that emerges from different stream cannot be marketed profitably. for instance, graduation in medicine or engineering can be better marketed than a post-graduation in history or geography in india. in an empirical study of yagnamurthy sreekanth (2010:77) of the national talent search scheme awardees, it has been observed that “a very large percentage of students are opting for either medicine or engineering”. consequently, the socially most desirable areas of study and sections of population tend to benefit and other areas get least/no credit. the market interests give a clear and different direction than that of expected by the society and its culture. in india, for instance, educationists and linguists argue for mother tongue as a medium of instruction, as it helps child to cope up and connect with what is learnt from home to what is taught in school. however, as observed by s. mehrotra and r.p. panchamukhi (2007:130) that in “the private unaided schools the medium of instruction is almost always english. also, fees are so high that the schools can only be patronised by the upper, upper middle and, increasingly the nouveau-rich middle classes”. the other characteristic of this market demands approach is that it is based on the “outcome mode”. the quality is determined by empirical outcomes. the outcomes must be realistic, renewable, and projectable in order to sustain in the competitive field of education which is getting globalized. however, one need not always be suspicious of the private players’ participation in education, as it leads essentially to self-sustainability, institutional responsibility, and productivity which underlie the progress. as opined by igor kitaev (2007:93) that “apart from shifting the costs from the public purse to the user, supporters of privatization claim that the benefits will include greater effectiveness, greater efficiency, and enhancement of parents’ freedom to choose”. moreover, it is not the private players who are to be blamed for the skewed expansion of the courses. they are at the most, furthering the cause of the uneven development which is created in a democratic society and are merely responding to that. furthermore, the argument could be that, in the name of maintaining parity across streams/courses of academics a country may fail to perform in the areas which are the most sought after nationally and internationally. but all these arguments do not, however, justify the need to maintain an optimal balance of educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 163 different courses/streams which are ultimately essential for a mature, and holistic development of society. these two different approaches of the two prominent players in the field of education have provided for a complementary role in the field of education at different levels ranging from school to university. while at school level, the government is attempting to bring into fold all the children of remote and uncovered areas through universalization of elementary education (uee), the private sector is advancing the cause of more affluent, mobile and internationalized clientele through different courses (syllabuses) to suit the needs such as international baccalaurean (ib), indian council for secondary education (icse), central board of secondary education (cbse) and state and provision of high-tech facilities such as air conditioned classrooms with wifi connections etc. “while the government schools are run with classrooms wooden desks, chalk and duster, and a bunch of prescribed textbooks, some of globalized schools have interactive boards in the classroom with different software used to prepare study plans and digital labs for exchange of ideas” (rai, 2010:24). at the university level, it has led to division of courses into those which are marketable and which are not. while the public institutions continue with all the traditional as well as contemporary courses, the private institutions have selectively eliminated the unviable courses even when they have integrated universities or have become centres in specialized areas. the viability is based on the demand for the course in the employment market and for the courses where the demand exceeds the supply. curriculum under the two diametrically opposite approaches curriculum has its origins in the running/chariot tracks of greece. “it was literally, a course” (smith, 2000:18). as quoted by john kerr (in kelly, 1999:10), curriculum is defined as “all the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school”. in line with this, we may discuss the curriculum under the basic needs approach and market demands approach which also have diametrically opposite stand-points. the basic needs approach provides for “cooperative curriculum” whose characteristics are designed to realise the societal goals. the “competitive curriculum” under market demands approach facilitates “individualistic” mode of courses wherein individual excellence rather than cooperative and group accomplishment of tasks are given priority. even when cooperation is sought among few individuals, it is again based on the premise that each group of individuals are in competition with other groups of individuals, and who would do better than whom. this results in producing very capable individuals and not capable communities or societies. for individual interests do not always match with societal interests. this could be better explained through the political movements that have taken place during yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 164 pre-independence period where great sacrifices were made by students for attaining freedom. the societal interests were given priority over individual and the binding spirit was far more than divisive spirit across socio-economic classes of population. the society was largely governed by socialistic thinking and the capitalistic forces had not crept in and education was largely in the domain of public sector. as opposed to this, post-independence has thrived through liberal democratic, capitalistic approaches which have brought in more of individual prosperity and less of social welfare that is exclusively pursued with the efforts of government. the level of competition and cooperation is largely driven by respective ideologies. the great ideologies have also brought in their influences through curriculum in the classrooms. while the competitive curriculum is influenced by the capitalist ideology, the cooperative ideology is influenced by the marxist/neomarxist ideology. the cooperative curriculum brings in to its fold the objectives of egalitarian society, cooperation among children, welfare orientedness and emphasis on group learning etc. while the competitive curriculum focuses on individualistic nature of teaching learning, excellence, idea of competition with peers and goal oriented objectives. the most popular initiative that is widely practiced in the western world and beginning to spread to other developing countries is “school choice”. the school choice is seen as a “measure to encourage competition between schools and teachers as well as students and thus effect the efficient production of atomised, neo-liberal subjects” (kipnis, 2009:165). while government educational institutions are responsible for inclusive education under which they have to raise the level of standards of every student, the private institutions have the option of only fee paying and well performing students, so that it serves the interests of “marketability”. private schools go to the extent of classifying students on the ability bands and providing an enabling environment to the students based on their ability, so that they cherish under right environment. it is like grading the commodities on the basis of quality for having high returns. hence, cooperative and competitive curriculum also acts as both genesis and consequence for the prevailing social setting. it is a resultant of educational philosophy of the kind of institutions in which the students study. this further leads us logically to the state of educational outcomes of these dichotomised institutions. at one end of the spectrum the public education is based on the fundamental assumption of meeting the social criteria. on the other hand, the private education is based on the assumption of individualistic excellence. the resultant outcome is social and individual prosperity respectively. though at the outset one may consider that it does not have any contradictions as society consists of individuals and individuals have no place in the absence of society, it is not true. the crux of the issue is that a society which is highly individualistic in nature or completely un-individualized will be detrimental. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 165 learning patterns the cooperative curriculum and competitive curriculum have their impact on the students learning in the institutions where they pursue their studies. there are two possibilities for divisions between these two sectors of education. the first one is cooperation and competition that arises among students studying in the same grade/discipline/course in these two sectors and the second, among students who study in different grade/discipline/course. cooperative and competitive learning is possible among students who are pursuing same course, but in india it is competition which prevails more than that of cooperation in private sector education, as it will be discussed under the characteristics of two curriculums below. in institutions where different courses are pursued by students, it provides for a cooperative learning through regular interaction of students from different disciplines and of the same discipline. the segmented and discipline-oriented curriculum, where the courses are treated as watertight compartments lacking any interaction and collaboration does not encourage for cooperative learning. knowledge dealt in independent and unconnected manner would prove catastrophic in long term, as students fail to make connections between domains of knowledge. as viewed by saljo roger (2009:203) that “behaviours and cognitive processes no longer suffice as basic constructs for providing a coherent and interesting conceptualization of learning; there are many other issues that have to be considered such as time, situatedness, and reciprocity between individuals and cultural practices”. all this is possible when there is a systematic interaction of scholars in different areas of knowledge for understanding problems associated with regions which have vast differences in a country like india. this is necessary because in india at school level, after basic education students opt for sciences or liberal arts and not for both and as a result they lose contact with either of them. the same continues at higher education level also. this leads to a skewed understanding of the world realities and needs to be strengthened through interaction. shelley (as cited by the tribune, 2009:12) views that “it can be very useful if scholars are asked to attend relevant seminars in various departments in order to have a cross disciplinary and a broader view of their project”. it is not only the scholars, even those pursuing under-graduation and post-graduation need to know what is happening in other courses and streams. the cooperative learning is based on the unity of disciplines and domains of knowledge and positive inter-dependence of students. though for the purpose of teaching and research disciplines may be categorised in different ways ultimately the focus needs to be working for the “whole”. in contrast to this the private institutions encourage what may be called as “competitive learning” wherein the productive courses are severed from others resulting in greater deprivation to the students to see the things from holistic perspective. “educational institutions are investigated as distinct cases, whereas it is possible to understand them as competing and cooperating groups and individuals who interact in various ways, and form and deform in different configurations yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 166 and confirmations at different moments and places” (scot & usher, 1996:23). competitive learning not only alienates students from the holistic perspective but also incurs a huge loss to the students through denial of social-personal interaction which is a unique educational opportunity available to the students in schools/ colleges/universities. characteristics of the two curricular approaches the following table gives a description of different aspects of curriculum pursued by the private and public sectors in india. table 1 curriculum under public and private sectors sl.no. features of sector private public 1 curriculum competitive cooperative 2 focus individual group 3 methodology learner centred learning centred 4 assessment norm referenced criterion referenced 5 goal excellence equity 6 intrinsic feature market oriented community oriented 7 management decentralized centralized 8 expansion approach top-down bottom-up the aspect of competitive and cooperative curriculums has been discussed above. individual is the central point under competitive curriculum and group under cooperative curriculum, which in turn directs various other aspects such as methodology, assessment procedure, important goal and its intrinsic facet. the methodology of competitive curriculum is learner centred, which means it goes to any extent in making the learning acceptable to the learner. however, as pointed out by g. pugh, p. davies and n. adnett (2006:21) that “for-profit providers concentrate their innovation exclusively on those measured outputs specified in their contracts”. this also involves a great deal of expenditure on providing infrastructural facilities, teaching, and technological aids other visible features. ultimately, the user has to bear the expenditure and in addition to pay for the servicing agency for its services also, which depend on the location, reputation and field of study (course/stream). the learning centred cooperative curriculum, on the other hand, is based on the provision of bare minimum infrastructural facilities that the country/society can offer in view of the crunch of resources and the absence of returns from these services. it is learning centric because in government schools and colleges with textbooks being the only source of knowledge, students would not have access to any other information or learning materials. the teaching-learning is also educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 167 tuned to merely promoting the students from one level to another level, without necessarily leading to creation of value at each level due to large numbers present in the classroom, lack of accountability between the agencies providing the service (school/college) and the beneficiaries due to non-economical relationship and more organized and secure environment in which employees function. this is perceived to be the reason for large un-employable human population. the non-detention policy adopted and promoted in india up to grade viii, wherein the students are promoted to the next class without any qualifying criteria levels to be attained at the end of each academic year/session best illustrates this. however, all this does not mean that there is always a positive relationship between infrastructural and teaching learning facilities and learning. learning at times transcends all this and a poor classroom in terms of facilities may not necessarily be poor in terms of transaction. the norm referenced assessment under the competitive curriculum has its objective in providing comparative picture to each individual/student, which furthers competition. students right from the lower kinder garden stage are given grades/stars for their performance. this puts them at a high/low psychological esteem when they have not even started to get adjusted to the learning environment at school. the institutions also try to draw the best through competition and persistently sustain that spirit to advance the cause of these students for entry at higher levels. the cooperative curriculum is on the other hand based on meeting the criterion. criterion referenced under cooperative curriculum lead to attainment of self-referenced and unambitious goals. it does not create a spirit of animosity among students but also does not result in drawing out the best of them. the goal, therefore, is of attaining equity across different sections who are involved in the educational processes. the focus, methodology, and assessment lay foundation for the goals which are aimed at excellence and equity for private and public sectors respectively. excellence provides substance for the private sector in the competitive market arena. the competitive spirit is not merely a domestic phenomenon of private sector but also the outcome of international interaction. the developed world’s propagation of international testing such as programme for international students assessment (pisa), trends in international mathematics and science survey (timss) etc among themselves and also for introduction of the same in the third world nations is to put the nations on competitive pedestal and show them where they are on the educational arena. this is also echoed by m. forsey, s. davies and g. walford (2008:14) that “many states are implementing standardised test score regimens to gauge levels of learning among students and compare them across jurisdictions”. indeed, comparisons of these scores are increasingly internationalised. those institutions which do not provide an opportunity for excellence to the students would either perish or remain poor cousins of the other private sector institutions, serving the needs of those who fail to get absorbed in the best of the institutions. yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 168 hence, the key factor for private players is either “perform or perish”. on the other hand, the public sector continues to strive towards the goal of “equity” through inclusion (social and physical). the ultimate aim or intrinsic aspect that governs these institutional philosophies is mainly market orientation and community orientation respectively for the private and public sectors. the twentieth century has seen increasingly powerful efforts to transform the ideal of state run schools as democratising civic institutions into the ideal of schools as a consumerist market place. “in framing a global market place gats, education is not treated as a public trust but as a profit opportunity” (molnar, 2006:638). “the neoliberal human capital interpretation of education is only for economic productivity and employment” (walker, 2006:165). the market orientation is amply visible in india through the policies of the private institutions where in largely at school level these are english medium (with the main purpose of serving global markets), and at higher education level they are for market oriented courses (with large presence in the areas engineering, medicine, and management). the public sector on the other hand is interested in maintaining a delicate balance among all the courses/streams of study for a healthy and holistic development of the society, even at the cost of maintaining some unviable/uneconomical courses (courses with low teacher-student ratio etc in rural and remote areas, where private sector finds it hard to provide services). also, unlike the private sector, which is very selective towards its clients as the survey conducted by s. mehrotra and r.p. panchamukhi (2006:438) has confirmed that “schooling is gender-biased in terms of enrolment (against girls, who are a larger share of the children out of school) and does not help to redress the bias against the lower castes – it does not serve the interests of social equity”. the public sector has to cater to the needs of all and especially the disadvantaged like gender and caste categories. the management under the cooperative curricular approach is highly centralized in nature. the policies and practices related to curriculum, governance, and reforms are formulated at central or provincial level and passed on to schools. this is a most suitable approach for the public sector because eventually aspects such as reservation to the weaker sections, provision of welfare schemes such as mid-day meal to children, free textbooks, and uniforms etc are to be monitored centrally and the agencies implementing the schemes could be held responsible to the democratically elected government, only when they are implemented uniformly and through centralised structures. on the other hand, the management under the competitive curriculum requires instant, efficient, and effective local management system which can addresses the needs that constantly arise from the market demands. the following figures prepared on the data obtained from selected educational statistics of goi (government of india), 1970-2006, provide information of the schools. the figure 1 shows the schools under public/government sector as a percentage to the total including government, private-aided (schools under private management receiving government funds) and private-unaided (independent) educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 169 schools. it indicates that the emphasis of public sector is very high on primary (grade i – v) followed by upper-primary (grade vi – viii) and secondary (grade ix – xii). figure 1 this is very important from the point of view of public sector to provide basic education before making an attempt to provide higher education to the children. the primary focus is coverage and once that is achieved, it would attempt to provide further education. the public sector aimed at universalization of elementary education (uee), as the primary objective followed by the present attempt to rope in the children who completed elementary education to provide universalization of secondary education (use). however, there is a gradual decrease in percentage of government schools and this gap is being filled by private sector. in contrast to this the emphasis of private sector is on secondary followed by upper-primary and primary. the following figure provides information on the unaided private school sector and its growth across different levels i.e. primary, upper primary, and secondary. the focus of the private sector is not on basic education as it is quite evident from the figure below. however, there is an increase in the upper-primary percentage between 1986-1987 and 2005-2007 but in absolute terms it is much less than what it is at secondary level. this is mainly due to the fact that the educational enterprise is far more remunerative at secondary level than at primary level. yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 170 figure 2 individual versus social goals the above discussion indicates that there is an inconsistent relation between public and private players. this may also be dealt in terms of what is desirable from the point of view of individuals (private) and of state/society (public) as highlighted earlier. while the society/state’s aim of education in general and curriculum in particular is tuned towards realizing the social objectives such as realization of goals enshrined in constitution and of sustenance of welfare and democratic ideals, the individual orientation is always to excel in the domains which are the most sought after and prioritization of thought and action in realization of that. in line with the above, while the society requires development of all curricular areas, individuals tend to choose only those which have marketability. this results in a situation of dichotomy between societal demands and individual demands. an idealistic society requires a harmonious development across all sectors. the societal demands are largely altruistic in nature, while the individual’s are self-centred. india being a welfare state aspires to realise the goal of equality of opportunities through education. but, its democratic compulsions make the public sector not the sole operator, but one of the prominent stakeholders in education as the intervention of private stakeholders becomes inevitable. with the individual’s ability and the availability of choice becoming prominent it is possible for those who can afford to choose, what they desire and those who cannot, be dependent on government-run schools/institutions for education. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 171 the increased role of private players has resulted in priority to the individual interests over societal interests. this has been rightly explained by gary wilkinson (2007:268) that “those who support economistic arguments for school markets and parental choice, define school effectiveness purely in terms of academic attainment and ignore the social functions of schooling for civil society”. the liberalization, privatization, and globalization provide an opportunity for the individuals to have a lead and be assertive than the state/society. under these circumstances it becomes essential for the state to identify, plan, and pursue the implementation for all round development across different sectors, and also plug the loopholes created by the private sector. conclusion there has been a steady growth of private sector in education. also the influence of private sector on public sector education is unprecedented, as observed by yongmei ni (2009:571) that “the proponents of school choice feel that it helps to free schools from the constraints of both bureaucracy, and monopoly, creating market incentives that include traditional public schools to become more efficient”. the private sector’s growth becomes inexorable and the public sector which also indirectly benefits from the growth of private sector (through tax collection and reduced responsibility in education) will still have to concentrate on education of large sections of population and for the advancement of different streams/courses of education. however, defining quality as only that which is measurable, demonstrative, and commercial is not the only way of looking at it. the educational quality has been defined in varied ways ranging from provision of physical inputs to educational experiences with least cost factors. however, largely people conceive of quality only of those aspects which are physical and measurable. this is very vehemently argued by a. wolf, a. jenkins and a. vignoles (2006:535) as follows: during the last quarter of the 20th century the education policies of european and north american governments became increasingly directed towards immediate economic goals, especially in the post-compulsory, further, and adult sectors. this development reflected concerns over increased global competition and each country’s own economic performance and has been informed by a rather simplistic version of human capital theory. though there these are serious concerns about the human capital theory explained above, it is largely acceptable to educational planners, administrators, and other general public who are inclined to see pragmatic considerations and material gains for the “quality education”, rather than struggle for more altruistic, purposeful, ethical, and value laden education which is not quantifiable, and which makes education a meaningful and satisfying experience than mere gratifying one. “india, though economically growing, still in terms of numbers having 76 per cent of population living in poverty and with more people living on less than $1 a day in india than in sub-saharan africa” (ray, 2010:19). it is neither feasible nor yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 172 achievable for many to aspire for high quality of education as defined above and even the government cannot be accepted to provide it, if visualised from the point of view pragmatic people. a better approach could be to provide empowered teaching community who could contribute for the cause of enriching the human resources. this is because a country like india with huge population needs to turn a liability into asset, which can happen through enrichment of human resource potential (students) through available human resource (teachers). further, making the classroom transaction process rich by invoking much sought after techniques such as discussions, debates, critical pedagogy etc, which do not cost much is necessary. the networking of student community is another important measure which can bring remarkable improvement in learning. this can be done through regular interaction of university students with undergraduate students and undergraduate students with school level students and further across all these levels. this provides for effective human resource utilization at a time when there is an immense shortage of teachers at various levels. the private sector is also increasingly being roped into the social responsibility, which seems to be highly antithetical to its framework. however, the private sector also faces stiff competition with the proposed entry of world class private institutions into the education sector of the developing nations like india. it becomes imperative for the international private players also to follow the guidelines prescribed by the government such as lower cut-offs for the socio-economically weaker sections students at entry level, provision of subsidies, and other facilities as the private unaided schools have been mandated to follow at school level. however, it has been lamented that un-aided private institutions are not doing justice in fulfilling their responsibility towards weaker sections children as they are expected to do in return for the subsidized land allotted to them by the government of delhi. the human resource development ministry, in the meanwhile, has proposed to set up innovation universities under ppp, wherein it has been suggested to “weight the test scores with a measure for the socio-economic background of the candidates for admissions” (mukul, 2010b:17). even china established political performance as an important criterion for admission to postgraduate study. “students displaying outstanding leadership in political activities and agreeing to engage in political education after graduation could be offered admission without an examination” (pan, 2006:246). even in the developed world the inequalities persist in higher education despite tremendous progress, as observed by l. rosado, m. delia and m.e. david (2006:346) that the idea of the “demographic boom in the universities” does not mean that social class educational opportunities have changed and nor that inequalities in labour market opportunities have been eroded. also, in the relationship between public and private sector, it is always assumed that private sector is always in a position to give than take. ale jandra cardini (2006:395) observes that “in ppp, the private sector assumes of providing better value for educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2) 2011 173 money in procuring modern, high quality services as well as expertise, innovation and management of appropriate risks, but does not mention what public sector entails apart from those that benefit the private sector”. the above discussion provides the scope of functioning of the private and public sectors in education which taken in an ideal condition appear to be dichotomous in nature. “bringing public and private providers together when their objectives do not have considerable overlap, and often have conflicting objectives, raises doubts about the feasibility of such an arrangement” (levin, 2000:135). their coexistence in mixed economies is inevitable but their collaboration appears incoherent due to the goals that these two different sectors perceive. under these conditions, it would be highly inappropriate for the policy makers to view that there could be partnerships between the two without diluting their respective standpoints. if the public sector compromises more it will be ignoring its basic social responsibility of facilitating “equity” in a democratic society which will be detrimental to the very existence of the government and the underlying philosophy for which it needs to strive. as suggested by melanie walker (2006:183) that “getting education is a matter of social justice, and that schooling is a site for state intervention and public policy”. on the other hand, if the private sector compromises, its own existence which is based on promotion of merit and competition will be perilous. in view of this it becomes necessary that both the sectors work independently in their own spheres because in their union they produce something which would not be in their interest and in the interest of the groups for which they work. references adnett, nick. 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(2006). “certifying the workforce: economic imperative or failed social policy” in journal of educational policy, 21(5), pp.535-565. yagnamurthy sreekanth, dynamics of public and private sector participation in education 176 india, though economically growing, still in terms of numbers having 76 per cent of population living in poverty and with more people living on less than $1 a day in india than in sub-saharan africa. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 141 an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning among individual adult learners: a case study of india chetan b. singai abstract: poverty has become one of the major reasons for lack of motivation for participating in learning processes, especially among the adults. poverty has victimized many individuals to leave their education and opt for employment to sustain themselves and their family. lifelong learning as a process of learning can be of some relevance as a tool of motivation and participation in the learning among the individuals, where the individuals can be active in the labor market (enhancing motivation) and also participate in the learning process. the paper investigates the impact of poverty on lack of motivation to participate in education. the paper analyses the research problem by discussing the case of india, where two adult learners where interviewed. according to maslow’s hierarchy of needs model and cross – chain of response model provide as the theoretical perspective for the study to examine the issue of lack of motivation and participation among adult learners. the paper concludes by emphasizing on the fact that poverty does influence the adult leaner’s in india in terms of motivating them to participate in their education. this is able to be also argued that learning process involves need for motivation and participation unlike the traditional process of intellectual development. emotion (motivation) and sociality (participation) are very important elements for enhancing cognitive abilities (formal qualification) of an individual. key words: motivation, participation, poverty, learning, barriers for learning, and case of india. introduction the background for investigating the subject is the present scenario of larger economic underdevelopment and its impact on adult learners in india. in order to meet the global economic competition, social expenditures by the government have drastically reduced. economic development has been prioritized over other social policies in the country. today, 36 per cent of india’s population (rural and urban) is below poverty line (goi, 2007). poverty has become one of the major reasons for lack of motivation for participating in learning processes especially among the adults (ahl, 2006). basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter and so on are deprived to the large chetan b. singai is erasmus mundus masters in lifelong learning for policy and management, danish school of education, university of aarhus, denmark. he can be reached at: chetanbsingai@ gmail.com and www.chetanbsingai.blogspot.com chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 142 section of the population hitherto. poverty has victimized many individuals to leave their education and opt for employment to sustain themselves and their family. at present, only 8 per cent of the adult population is getting higher education in india, whereas in developed countries it is approximately 24 per cent (university of new delhi, 2007). it is an observed fact that lack of economic support to individuals’ leads to increase in number of adults to discontinue learning. poverty is so strongly embedded in the country that it cannot be eliminated almost immediately. lifelong learning as a process of learning can be of some relevance as a tool of motivation and participation in the learning among the individuals, where the individuals can be active in the labor market (enhancing motivation) and also participate in the learning process. individuals here refer to the adults. in order to analyze the possible solution to the problem of lack of motivation among adult learners in india, lifelong long learning is can be considered as an answer. lifelong learning is defined as “the process of learning which has both quantitative content (more learning for more adults) and also qualitative content i.e. adults must learn to change and develop rapidly in order to keep up the increasing demands/basic necessities within the society” (knud, 2003). but the paper is concerned to analyze the lack of motivation among adults to participate in the learning process, which enhances their personality and provides them with certain status in the society. the aspect of lifelong learning is considered as an alternative process of learning, which is opens up a strong prospect of larger research on the existing problem of lack of motivation for participating among adults in india. lll (life long learning) as a field of study is developing in india; it has not yet taken a complete conceptual formation hitherto. through theory and related to two individual case stories of adult learners in india, the paper analyzes the reasons for lack of motivation among adult learners to participate in the learning processes within the research question: “why and how does poverty causes lack of motivation for participation towards learning among adults in india?”. poverty for this paper has been understood in relative terms as “poverty line for the urban areas is rs. 296 or us$ 7.4 per month and for rural areas rs. 276 or us$ 6.9 per month, i.e. people in india who earn less than rs. 10 per day” (goi, 2005).1 further the report elaborates that poverty line is drawn with an intake of 2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100 calories in urban areas. if a person is unable to get that much minimum level of calories, then he/she is considered as being below poverty line. motivation for this study is defined as “a state of readiness of the individual which is self-directed and self-oriented, to participate in the process and accomplish the task” (beck, 1990). deficiency of this state among the individuals is understood as lack of motivation for participation among adults in india. 1at this level of earning, even in a poor country like india, survival on rs. 10 per day is a nightmare! this can actually be translated to rupees. 3650 per year i.e. us$ 75 per year. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 143 participation means “a learning activity, whether in organized classes or selfdirected, is not a single act but the result of a chain of responses, each based on an evaluation of the position of the individual in his or her environment” (courtney, 1992:125). different societies and cultures will have contrasting understanding of what it is to be an adult. the nominal definition of an adult has many variations like based on psychological, behavioral and other factors. however, world health organization defines adult “as an individual who is between the age group of 18 or over” (cited by ahl, 2006). this definition of an adult is discussed in this paper. the theoretical perspective this essay argues that motivation for participating in learning among adult individuals in india should not be regarded as something residing within the individual only. but motivation should be seen as relational concept. many barriers for motivation like situational or external barriers are something which is considered as important to address the research question. the main line of argument here is that participation depends on the extent to which a person has been able to meet a range of primary and secondary needs (see figure 1 below, maslow 1987) and the influence of positive and negative forces. for example, as basic primary needs are met (as one’s economic and social position “improves”), higher needs are activated, and the balance between negative and positive forces shifts. as a result people are more prepared to take part in educational activities. figure 1: maslow’s need based hierarchy model source: a. gambrel patrick & rebecca cianci (2003:145). chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 144 according to r.c. beck (1990), the higher social classes have a need for a form of learning which will satisfy the “higher needs”, as outlined by maslow’s theory (1987). while among the lower classes, whose needs are tied to brute survival needs; their needs are tied to jobs and the market place to meet these basic needs. this is an apt reference, which indicates clearly the behavioral tendency of adults with regard to their social status. economic well being, determines the social status of the individual. as mentioned above, the definition of poverty is based on the economic criteria, which categories people who earn less as below poverty line. contextualizing this, the paper below provides how this situation influences the choices or behavior of the individual towards by prioritizing their needs. an obvious means of attempting to explain the strength and direction of behavior (i.e. motivation) is to postulate that people experience certain physiological “needs” other theories attempt to develop understanding of the psychological process involved in motivation. considering the problem addressed in this paper, the paper focuses on the physiological needs as against psychological needs. a.h. maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1987) is one of the most referenced and discussed motivation theories. the above triangle in figure 1 (maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 1987) has two related aspects. first, it assumes that the needs are activated in a sequential manner with a need at a higher level emerging only when the next lower-level need has been satisfied. second, when a need is satisfied, it decreases in strength and ceases to dominate behavior; the next higher need in the hierarchy then increases in strength and assumes the control of behavior. it is understood that higher level needs develop when lower needs have been satisfied. however, the behaviorists’ stimuli response model critiques the motivation theory. according to them when individuals satisfy a particular need, it no longer acts as a motivator (ahl, 2006). further, a major problem arises in trying to infer from maslow’s theory is the length of time elapsing between lower need satisfaction and higher need emergence (mcgivney, 1993). this could be a long period, perhaps even several years, or it could be immediate, as when a person turns directly from satisfied lower need to an unsatisfied higher need. when i read about maslow’s theory (1987), i identify that it is concerned with the contents (i.e. specific needs) of human motivational systems. by this i can understand that individuals as mentioned by the hierarchy of needs model (maslow, 1987) when they move ahead from satisfying the lower order needs would require a new motivation for reaching the other needs in the hierarchy. an alternative, and complementary, approach to understanding motivation lies in examining the psychological processes that are involved in motivation (courtney, 1992). for instance, people will direct their efforts towards the goal which they value. however, the existence of valued goal is not sufficient condition for action; people will act only when they have a reasonable expectation that their actions will lead to a desired goal. the important role played by expectations in human behavior has long been recognized in academic psychology. the expectancy theory predicts that outcomes which have high expectations of being realized and which are highly valued will direct the person to invest a lot of effort in his/her tasks (courtney, educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 145 1992). thus, motivation should be understood in a relational terms considering both the physiological and psychological. it is both the external and the internal (content and process respectively) aspect of an individual which is an important aspect for stimulating motivation. following from the above discussion, i want to discuss a highly influential model – that of r.c. beck (1990) takes various elements from the theories just described and moulds them into a seven-stage process. it begins with the individual and ends with external factors. it is called the “chain of response” model because each of the stages is seen as links in a chain. according to s. courtney (1992:85), participation and motivation for learning over the years have become synonyms. for instance, motivation for participating in a learning process among the adults can itself be considered as a vital motivating factor among the individuals. participation in a learning activity, whether in organized classes or self-directed, is not a single act but the result of a chain of responses, each based on an evaluation of the position of the individual in his or her environment (courtney, 1992:125). the main elements in the chain of response model are: (1) self-evaluation, (2) attitudes about education, (3) the importance of goals and the expectations that these will be met, (4) life transitions, (5) opportunities and barriers, (6) information on educational opportunities, and (7) the decision to participate. it is understood that each stage influences another. “the more positive the learner’s experience at each stage, the more likely he or she is to reach the last stage – the decision to participate” (mcgivney, 1993:27). thus, motivation to participate in learning among adult learners is determined on the fulfillment of these basic/ primary necessities. individuals who cannot afford to fulfill these necessities are discouraged from participating in learning process, as the priorities of the individual change towards survival. to understand the process of learning, the theoretical underpinning of the concept of learning becomes important. it has be largely observed that learning as a concept or definition has/is undergone a paradigm shift in the contemporary era (knud, 2003:103). learning process determines the motivation and participation among adult learners. learning is defined as: […] all processes leading to permanent capacity change – whether they be physical, cognitive, emotional or social in nature – that do not exclusively have to do with biological maturation or aging. this means that the learning concept also extends to such functions as personal development, socialization, qualification and competence development, as the difference between these terms is mainly the point of view towards learning which is adopted (knud, 2003:104). according to illeris knud (2003), there are three interrelated dimensions of learning – cognitive, emotional and social (see figure 2 below for illustration). through the cognitive dimension, knowledge, skills, understanding, meaning and functionality are developed. through the emotional dimension, patterns of emotion and motivation, attitudes, sensitivity and mental balance are developed. through the social-societal dimension, potentials for empathy, communication, participation and sociality are developed. chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 146 figure 2: the process and dimensions of learning source: illeris knud (2003:109). also adopted from http://level3.dit.ie/html/issue1_murphy_figure2. html [accessed in new delhi, india: november 26, 2008 at 14.30 hrs). the above illustration (figure 2) provides us with an understanding that the traditional learning theories which emphasizes on cognitive dimension alone is of little help to understand the learning process comprehensively. it is the combination of cognition, emotion and social dimensions which conceptualize the process of learning as an adequate tool for understanding the learning process today (knud, 2003). this conceptualization can be argued that learning process involves need for motivation and participation unlike the traditional process of intellectual development. emotion (motivation) and sociality (participation) are very important elements for enhancing cognitive abilities (formal qualification) of an individual. however, according to maslow’s need based hierarchy model, unless the basic necessities of an individual are fulfilled, motivation for participating in learning activity is hindered. in addition to this, s. courtney (1992) argues that the learning environment is a vital aspect of enhancing participation among learners. thus, motivation and participation are two important elements for adult learners. the understanding of learning theory as defined by illerris knud (2003) supported with theories of motivation (maslow’s need based hierarchy, 1987) and participation among adult learners (cross theory of chain of responses), provides a sound foundation to answer the research question: “why and how does poverty causes lack of motivation for participation towards learning among adults in india?”. to substantiate the case of india (a developing country), the flowing discussion provides an understanding of the existing social hierarchies. in her discussion of education in the “developing world”, s. graham-brown (1991:50) lists a series of filters, both within the educational system itself, and in the wider economy and society, which tend to reproduce existing social hierarchies. as she comments, these filters are of different types and intensities depending on the goals and character educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 147 of particular governments and societies. about the educational filters, some forms of selection are cited as follows: ��those overtly defined by government policy: for example, exclusions based on race or language. ��those created by gaps in the education system (especially in rural areas). ��those caused by the inability of certain disadvantaged groups to enroll or to remain at school because of language, gender or the poverty or isolation of the community. (emphasis added) ��the way the formal education system selects through examinations – although it may be formally accessible to all, relatively few are expected to complete all its stages. ��the chances of an adult completing education depend on his or her socio-economic circumstances, including the economic situation of the family, the educational background of parents and the perceived relevance of education. (emphasis added) ��different types of education in a particular society are given differing social and economic values: for example, private/public, academic/vocational, formal/non-formal. ��the value placed on different types of work and skills: for example, manual as opposed to white-collar work (graham-brown, 1991:52). the above listing of selections draws our attention to social and structural factors which may affect motivation for participation in adult learning in india. to emphasize on the individual, i mean we have to ask the question what makes the individual to make choices – choice of participating in learning or his/her interest for non-participation. to address the research questions i would like to highlight that the vital barriers for non-participation can be qualified as “situational barriers”:2 lack of money – the cost of studying, the cost of child care and so on, lack of time, for example, because of job and home responsibilities and lack of transport to study venue. research methodology and analysis narrative case study method is employed to analyze the research problem. narrative case studies are qualitative procedures in which researchers describe the lives of individuals, collect and tell stories about these individuals, and write narratives about their experiences to situate research findings (cresswell, 2008). however, it is not possible to generalize the research finding from these tow case studies considering the number and diversity of the population in india. the following resources form as a foundation for theoretical and empirical data, as they provide a clear framework to analyze the research question: (1) maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, 1987; (2) cross theory of chain of response model as cited by r.c. beck, 1990; (3) illeris knud on comprehensive definition of learning, 2003; and (4) two narrative case stories of individuals from india, 2008. 2a situational barrier is defined as barriers arising from one’s situation at a given time (mcgivney, 1995). chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 148 acknowledging the practical difficulties in collecting the case stories from india, the case studies were collected and interpreted through telephonic conversation with the respective individuals. this was the major challenge in methodology, i was unable to practically observe the subjects emotions and behavioral trends during conversation. both the individuals referred in the case come from different region and context, but the common aspect among them is poverty. the collection of case story was based on the following inclusions: subjects/individuals understanding of learning, what are the hindrances/barriers for learning among the individual, what do they understand for lifelong learning, how does lifelong learning influence their process of learning. following are the two case stories as empirical data for this paper: a. case story one ms. meenakshi aged 24, residing in the district of pollachi, tamil nadu (south india). she comes from a very poor family background. she has completed her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from bharathiyaar university, with a top rank in the university. she has been one among the brilliant and hard working student in her school. however, from past 4 years she has discontinued her studies, and has been working in a pharmaceutical shop in her district. learning means attending school and writing exams regularly which contributes a certain qualification and helps to improve once personality. but today i am unable to learn by participating in school. my financial inadequacy is a major reason for my lack of motivation towards learning activity. it has made me to prioritize earning more than learning. my immediate motivation here is to look after my family and cater to family needs and necessities. if i am able to make some savings out my earning, i would be eager to fulfill my urge to continue my learning activities. lifelong learning might be a new trend in education, i don’t know much about this (interview with meenakshi, 2008a). b. case story two mr. linesh, aged 27, resides in the capital city of india, new delhi. he has completed his bachelor’s degree in social sciences from delhi university. his father died when he was 24 years old. since then he was discouraged from attending school as he could not afford his tuition and living expenditures. he had to take care of his family needs for survival. he has been working in a textile factory as a manual laborer from past 2 years. he has two sisters and a mother who are living on his income. learning is something which contributes for an individual’s ability to develop skills and competencies. for me learning is very important for enhancing my status in the society. i could not continue my higher education as my main concern was to meet my family responsibilities. lifelong learning as i understand it might be to do with learning throughout life time, but i consider fulfilling my basic needs first and then continue learning for my future. stabilizing my family life at this moment is important then developing myself (interview with linesh, 2008b). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 149 using adult and their lack of motivation in india as a base line and considering the case stories, as an empirical data this essay would examine the application and implication of the theoretical perspective mentioned above. i would like to contextualize my analyses with the case studies of two individuals from india who belong to below poverty line (bpl) in order to understand the process of lack of motivation for them to participate in the learning process. these case stories along with the theoretical perspective are intended to be used as resource for addressing the research questions as to find out how and why does poverty become a major reason for lack of motivation among adult learners in india. however, by analyzing two case stories it would be a hard task to have a general answer to the problem addressed in this essay. but we can appreciate the primary problem and solution of the most prominent hindrance for motivation among adult learners in india. following the above mentioned case stories, overcoming poverty which forms as one of the basic needs for an individual becomes very significant for motivation. in both the cases learning was conceptualized differently. for ms. meenakshi, “learning means attending school and writing exams regularly which contributes a certain qualification and helps to improve once personality” (interview with meenakshi, 2008a). for her learning is understood as a formal process. according to case story two: “learning is something which contributes for an individual’s ability to enhance skills and competencies” (interview with linesh, 2008b). for him learning is more of informal process which can be acquired given motivation to do so for self development. however, what is common between the two cases is their understanding of the importance of learning in their lives and more importantly we can decipher from both the cases that learning does contribute to his/her personality development. but this process of learning didn’t happen as they could not afford it. the cases provide us with an understanding that individuals set priority to physiological needs than other needs like education. they had no alternative other than earning; learning was something of additional need to them. as said by meenakashi, “my immediate motivation here is to look after my family and cater to family needs and necessities” (interview with meenakshi, 2008a). her choices were influenced by the external factors like poverty than on her intrinsic needs i.e. motivation to learn more. according to linesh (2008b), “i could not continue my higher education as my main concern was to meet my family responsibilities”; thus he could not continue his learning endeavor as his role of looking after his family was his main priority. working for basic needs was his immediate goal or motivation. as a.h. maslow’s theory (1987) posits that an individual will satisfy basiclevel of needs (physiological needs see figure 1 above) before modifying behavior for higher-level of needs. as understood by above participation in learning process is influenced by individuals’ internal and external factors (beck, 1990). the decision to participate in learning activity is based on the individual’s situational contexts. these situational contexts are strong motivational drivers among the individuals. as discussed above, barriers caused by the inability of the disadvantaged individuals due to chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 150 poverty, form as a vital input to substantiate the case studies (graham-brown, 1991). considering the above illustration of the case stories we can understand that poverty was a strong external force which caused lack of motivation for both of them to participate in learning process. their participation in learning process could enhance his/her capacity such as physical, cognitive and emotional/social (see figure 2 from illeris knud, 2003). individuals personal development was hindered as their priorities were in selfsustaining his/her family. thus, the understanding of learning discussed above, which enables individuals to a permanent capacity change was not realized in the above cases. if an individuals capacity is enhanced, a sense of self-satisfaction is realized which enables to achieve higher order needs (see figure 1). this perception is important because, if the individuals could not overcome their basic necessities (physiological needs) as mentioned by the maslow’s theory the motivation for higher order needs is not considered to be important (maslow, 1987). as understood by the above discussion of the theory and case stories, satisfying basic needs does form as a central motivation tool among adults. considering the description of the problem, theory and empirical data the analyses can be concluded by putting forth the finding that, poverty does cause lack of motivation for participating in learning process among adults in india. conclusion from the preceding case stories, it is evident that poverty causes for lack of motivation among adult learners in india. as described by a.h. maslow (1987) and as discussed above satisfying basic needs becomes the foremost priority for the individuals. the higher order needs like participating in the learning process, becomes a secondary motivation for the individuals. as understood by illeris knud (2003), definition of learning process we can conclude that poverty hinders an individual’s emotional and social status in order to enhance his/her intellectual ability. motivation for participation in the learning process is stalled by external barriers like poverty in an individual’s life stages (beck, 1990). however, it is not only the external barriers like poverty which can be concluded as a strong cause for lack of motivation. the reasons for lack of motivation are both internal and external, and also contextual and it differs from individual to individual. as i understand from this paper that poverty is so strongly rooted in india and its influence on individuals is so robust, i agree to the fact that poverty does cause lack of motivation for participating learning process among adults. but i don’t agree to the fact that it is the only factor influencing motivation given the changing culture and structure of indian society at present. perspectives the paper does conclude that poverty does in many ways causes lack of motivation for participation towards learning process among adults in india. however, in educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 151 this paper only the satisfaction of basic physiological needs is considered to be a motivating factor for participating in the learning process. it would be a good idea according to me to analyze the case of india by considering the psychological processes involved in hindering and enhancing motivation for participation in learning process among adults. analyzing the research problem with two case stories among the huge population of adults in india would not be adequate to come to any generalized conclusions. collecting multiple case stories would have provided more strong evidence of the problem and consolidate the research findings. it is my interest to do a larger research on what are the possible solutions to overcome the problem of poverty for lack of motivation? how vocational training programs in india, enhance motivation among adults in the existing labor market? references ahl, helene. (2006). “motivation in adult education: a problem solver or a euphemism for direction and control?” in international journal of lifelong education. taylor and francis. beck, r.c. (1990). motivation: theory and principles. new york: prentice hall, 3rd edition. courtney, s. (1992). why adults learn: towards a theory of participation in adult education. london: routledge. cresswell, j.w. (2008). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. london: sage publications. graham-brown, s. (1991). education in the developing world: conflict and crisis. london: longman. goi [government of india]. (2005). planning commission report. new delhi: government of india. goi [government of india]. (2009). planning commission. new delhi: government of india. interview with linesh and meenakshi (2008). knud, illeris. (2003). three dimensions of learning: contemporary learning theory in the tension field between the cognitive, the emotional and the social. malabar, florida: krieger. maslow, a.h. (1987). motivation and personality. new york: addison wesley longman. mcgivney, v. (1993). “participation and non-participation: a review of the literature” in r. edwards, s. sieminski & d. zeldin [eds]. adult learners, education and training. london: routledge. mcgivney, v. (1995). adult education in development: methods and approaches from changing societies. leicester: national institute of adult continuing education. patrick, a. gambrel & rebecca cianci. (2003). “maslow’s hierarchy of needs: does it apply in a collectivist culture?” in the journal of applied management and entrepreneurship, vol.8, no.2. university of new delhi. (2007). key facts and figures in higher education in india. new delhi: university of delhi press. chetan b. singai, an enquiry into the reasons for lack of participation in learning 152 it is evident that poverty causes for lack of motivation among adult learners in india. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 11 the development of core competencies at higher education: a suggestion model for universities in indonesia hadiyanto abstract: developing graduate core competencies in higher education has been becoming an actual and trend issue due to the greatest concerns of students, governments, and employers about the quality of higher education outcomes. higher education in indonesia should turn the policies and the curriculum of university from conventional objective to recent contexts of global changes and employment settings. university must develop a curriculum which is not only aim to develop students’ knowledge but also to develop students’ core competencies, namely communication skill, it (information and technology) skill, numeracy, learning how to learn, problem solving, working with others, and subject content competencies. the frameworks of core competencies development should be formulated and implemented and graduate “core competences” must become a measurement of quality to face the global competition. by this manner, intended outcomes of higher education namely employability, lifelong learning, and good citizenship will be attained. in other words, the universities in indonesia should envisage that every single graduate of the university posses the seven attributes. the seven skills could be carried out in delivering course content. finally, by equipping students with the core competencies they will succeed as professionals and responsible members of society. key words: core competencies, higher education in indonesia, policies and curriculum of the university, and global competition. introduction current changes in the global economy and job market require that graduates have initiatives and high skills, be adaptable to rapidly changing situations, and work well in teams and in different cultural environments. this requires major changes in the way universities educate their undergraduates, and increases emphasis on graduate and continuing education. the major restructuring program at higher education level in asia was conducted with emphasis on skills and technology. the aim is to enable graduates using global resources, global technology, and global talent to answer the future challenge (unesco, 2006:172). while in advance country, higher education had begins to promote and combine between knowledge and competencies or skills as a quality measurement of university outputs. skills development is shifted into curriculum content and developed during teaching learning process at university (dunne, bennett & carré, 2000). hadiyanto is a lecturer at the faculty of teacher training and education unja (universitas negeri jambi or state university of jambi) in sumatera, indonesia. he can be reached at: hadi_tesl05@yahoo.com hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 12 in indonesia, the new paradigm of higher education placed quality and relevance of higher education as the main priority and core of national higher education development (unesco, 2006:37). it is expected that by 2010, indonesia will have a competitive leverage due to the existence of highly reputable higher education institutions, and it is believed that a strong higher education program will lead to a nation’s competitiveness (directorate general of higher education of indonesia, 2007). in 2003, the national education ministry of indonesia stated that higher education has a critical role of producing qualified graduates, if quality higher education is the target to achieve. indonesia realizes that to improve the quality of its human resources both the problems of access and quality have to be taken into account in finding out their solution (directorate general of higher education of indonesia, 2007). in addition, the guidelines of higher education of indonesia stated that higher education aims to prepare students with knowledge and life skills and become a good citizenship that is willing to contribute in society life. it is expected that the students has ability to apply and develop their knowledge after graduate in order to improve the quality of life of society as also to enrich national cultural heritage (national ministry of education of indonesia, 2002). however, there is no a clear direction and guidelines how knowledge and life skills manifested in curriculum and teaching process. this article explores the model of knowledge and skills development in some countries and contributes an appropriate model of skills development, namely core competencies for universities in indonesia. the discussion commences with a review of core competencies development in others countries and then moving onto consideration of model of core competencies development in curriculum for indonesia, supported by current and latest references all around the world. the developing of core competencies in higher education there is growing trend for university in the world to align core competencies with the higher education curriculum. each country has its own model of core competencies. however, all models in some countries are specifically employment related, while in others greater emphasis has been placed on their social relevance. table 1 outlines the different labels being used for core competencies in various countries. the most widely used definition of core competencies or popularly referred to as key skills is the definition given by qualifications and curriculum authority (qca, 2002). qca believes that “key skills are the generic, transferable skills that the government and much of the industry consider to be essential for successful lifelong learning and a flexible workforce” (qca, 2002). however, in this paper core competencies will be used due to in the conceptual frame works of higher education in malaysia and indonesia use the term “competencies” to describe generic skills (brodjonegoro, 2002; and zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006). core competencies are skills that students need in order to become successful learners and successful employees in the field of their study and work and in other aspects of their life, and therefore are an important outcome of university education educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 13 (crsc, 2003:1-4). in relation to this, l. hodginson, n. jackson and h. lund (2000:7) explain that key skills involve one’s use of personal and cognitive skills and abilities with a purpose to carry out a variety of tasks and activities as well as in learning new things. gonczi et al., as also cited in m. leggett, a. kinnear and m. boyce (2004:296), clarify that a competence as “a combination of attributes underlying some aspect of successful professional performance”, for instances communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and computing. table 1 relevance term of core competencies used by some countries country terms used to describe core competencies united kingdom core skills, key skills, common skills. new zealand essential skills. australia key competencies, employability skills, generic skills. canada employability skills, generic skills. united states basic skills, necessary skills, workplace know-how. singapore critical enabling skills, competencies. france transferable skills. germany key qualifications. switzerland trans-disciplinary goals. denmark process independent qualifications. source: ncver (2003:6). the definition given by gonczi et al. seems to say that a competence is a blend or mixture of qualities which form the basis for successful performance in one’s career. hence, it is noted that one crucial fact is that core competencies indeed correlate with employability. zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006:3) agree also to defined core competencies as sets of skills or abilities acquired and developed during one’s course of study at higher education level and they are absolutely essential to meet three potential outcomes of higher education, namely the different needs and requirements of employers in the marketplace, lifelong learning, and good citizenship. core competencies in universities curriculum: a suggestion for indonesia the policy of national ministry of education of the republic of indonesia number 232/u/2000 about regulation of higher education in indonesia classify that universities are emphasizing students to acquire soft skills for instance ict (information and communication technology), social skills and interpersonal skills, and knowledge in their discipline. however, there is no a clear direction or model how the content of regulation interpret into curriculum and teaching practice. here, the writer attempts to reinterpret the regulation of indonesian higher education in more applicative manner by suggesting a model of core competencies development in curriculum of higher education in indonesia. hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 14 the model of core competencies discussed in this paper was adapted from the model developed by eric mayer (1992), qca (2002), and zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006). the model than supported by literatures review related to core competencies development at university from e. dunne, n. bennett and c. carre (2000), debra bath et al. (2004), and winston hodge (2007). the model of core competencies development will be discussed in three phases: curriculum of higher education, core competencies, and outcome of universities (see figure 1). a. curriculum of higher education the changes curriculum from conventional to the trend issue was reinforce by a number of studies in europe (dunne, bennett & carré, 2000; and qca, 2001). they show that the employers were not satisfied in relation to the implementation graduate attributes, capabilities, competencies, and the like at universities. the employers consider core competencies are important for higher education because they reflect how well graduate skills meet the expectations of job market. in addition, g. crebert et al. (2004:162), a survey was conducted which suggested that graduates in australia were under-equipped for employment. and core renewal steering committee, loyola university of chicago (crsc, 2004:16); and cassandra star and sara hammer (2007:245) suggested university to shift core competencies as a core curriculum. as a result, some advance and developing countries promote generic skills into core curriculum for personal and professional development due to the growing demand and the global workforce. the core curriculum is at the heart of the institution’s educational mission. it is critical for every university of excellence to periodically reexamine itself to ensure that curriculum goals and outcomes are meeting the needs of its students and society. similarly, faculty have the responsibility to examine the foundations of the core curriculum and to build on its past when developing the structure, pedagogy, and content of the core that will provide students with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that are needed for the challenges of the 21st century (crsc, 2004). the core curriculum will equip the undergraduate with some competencies and evident of real work (candy, 1995:97). for further discussion in this paper, core curriculum have seven competencies that students need to become successful higher education learners and successful employers in the fields of their study and work, and in other aspects of their life and therefore are an important outcome of university education b. the core competencies the core competencies or key skills have aroused consistently in the literature and central in discussion of generics skills both form academic and employers until today (bath et al., 2004:315; and star & hammer, 2007:240). in australia, the attention focused on skills has increased significantly since mayer committee 1992 proposed seven key competencies as a basis of employability skills that can be addressed by educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 15 formal education (sqa, 2003:6; and leggett, kinnear & boyce, 2004:295). the seven key competencies proposed by eric mayer (1992) are collecting, analyzing and organizing information, communicating ideas and information, planning and organizing activities, working with organizing activities, using mathematical ideas and techniques, solving problems, and using technology (cited in sqa, 2003:6). while in uk, the qualifications and curriculum authority (qca, 2002) defined communication, it (information technology), application of number, working with others, improving own learning and performance, and problem solving specifically as qca skills (www.qca.org.uk, 21/1/2007). ministry of higher education of malaysia (mohem) defines eighth specific competencies that students should demonstrate at the end of the program. the competencies are knowledge in specific fields, use of ict (information and communication technology), intellectual skills in critical thinking, knowledge seeking, problem solving and creative decision making, practical skills, and ability to communicate. similarly, winston hodge (2007:1), director training and development division of singaporean, moe points out eight cores kills and values are: (1) character development, (2) self management skills, (3) social and cooperative skills, (4) communication skills, (5) literacy and numeracy, (6) thinking skills and creativity, (7) knowledge application skills, and (8) information skills. however, core competencies discussed in this paper is more inspired by model developed by qca (2002), zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006), and peter washer (2007). core competencies consist of: (1) communication skills, (2) numeracy, (3) information technology or it skills, (4) learning how to learn, (5) problem solving, (6) working with others, and (7) subject specific competencies. first, communication skills. the skill need to enable graduates delivering their idea as individual or as group member and comprising a diversity of backgrounds in order to come out with a good decision, solution, and negotiations (morreale, osborn & pearson, 2000:1-3). communication skills refers to one’s ability to use active listening, writing skills, oral communication, presentation skills, questioning and feedback skills in order to establish successful communication (qca, 2002; sqa, 2003; washer, 2007; and jones, 2009). second, numeracy. numeracy is defined as the aggregate of skills, knowledge, beliefs, pattern of thinking, and related communicative and problem solving processes individuals need to effectively interpret and handle real-world quantitative situations problems (gal, 1997; zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006; and washer, 2007). third, information technology. technology skills refers to the ability of “individuals to apply technology such as computers, software applications, databases, and other technologies to achieve a wide variety of academic, workrelated, and personal goals” (sqa, 2003; acrl, 2004; and washer, 2007). ron oliver, jan herrinton and catherine mcloughlin (1999) stated that the use of technology in teaching and learning to provide many opportunities to teachers and learners develop their lifelong learning. fourth, learning how to learn. learning how to learn is defined as acquiring sets of skills and knowledge for one to learn efficiently and effectively in any hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 16 learning situation that one encounters (qca, 2002). learning features processes, understandings and skills that can be learned and taught. when one has gained mastery in learning how to learn, one can learn effectively and efficiently at any age. thus, this competence is thought to be of potential importance to the concept of lifelong learning and the self-managed learner (smith, 1982; zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006; and washer, 2007). fifth, problem solving. problem solving skills is defined as the ability of the individual to tackle problems systematically for the purpose of working towards the solution and learning from this process (dunne, bennett & carre, 2000; qca, 2002; sqa, 2003; zalizan mohamad jelas et al., 2006; and washer, 2007). the ability to solve problems will have a great impact on the success of the students’ “real life” endeavors. according to qca (2002), the purpose of this skills to enable the students tackle problems systematically at the working place towards the solution and learning from this process. sixth, working with others. working with others is defined as the ability of the individual to meet own responsibilities and work cooperatively in pair or group of people for the purpose of achieving shared objectives (qca, 2002; zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006; and washer, 2007). focusing on helping students to learn to become valued members of a team – which is one of the most vital skills that one should have for employability (qca, 2002; and sqa, 2003). the ability to work as a team member will give a great impact to produce new ideas and to find the way out in every situation of real work life. seventh, subject specific competencies. it is defined as one’s possession of knowledge, capabilities, and dispositions to organize and provide instruction at the appropriate level of the study which inter-relate with subject content taught (zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006; and washer, 2007). national centre for vocational education research (ncte) states that every graduate must have a specific subject knowledge related with his/her selected discipline and understand to linked to others disciplines and it can be applied in the real world integrated setting (ncte, 2003). according to eric mayer (1992), one should posses the subject content competency as his/her basic knowledge and capabilities. developing the seven core competencies in classroom and outside classroom will help promote students to become more effective and independent learners during their studies as well as enhancing their employment prospects on graduation. as a result, the graduate of university comes out with three major outcomes, namely employability, life-long learning, and good citizenship (qca, 2002; zalizan mohammad jelas et al., 2006; star & hamer, 2007; and washer, 2007). c. outcome of universities: employability, life-long learning, and good citizenship employability is seen as one’s possession of qualities and competences in order to meet the changing needs of employers and customers (qca, 2001; and washer, 2007). it is to do with “the capacity to gain initial employment, maintain employment, educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 17 and obtain new employment if required” (qca, 2001). catts ralph (2004) views employability as a synergic blend of personal qualities, skills including key skills, and subject understanding. peter washer (2007) believes also that personal qualities has a direct link to employability as well as being an influential factor in acquiring skills and subject understanding. meanwhile qca (qualifications and curriculum authority) highlights two important ways that individuals can realize their potentials in employment, namely their initial preparation for employment and their active management of their career development (qca, 2001). the role of higher education in life-long learning includes the development and maintenance of professional development of capacities for professional practice. only by situating core competencies, within the context of a discipline or profession, can higher order skills be achieved. the objective of developing life-long learners is their learning “becomes part of themselves” (ralph, 2004). meanwhile, j. stephenson and t. challis (1998) suggested that we were now in a situation where everyone was in a state of continuous learning. a review of literature affirms that good citizenship is given considerable attention as one of the desired outcomes of higher education. cassandra star and sara hammer (2007:9) identified “transmitting a common culture and common standards of citizenship” as one of the aims and objectives of higher education. before, j. stephenson and t. challis (1998) and qca (2002) had suggested several elements of citizenship in its aim to shape a democratic and civilized society through values such as “a commitment to the pursuit of truth, a responsibility to share knowledge, and the willingness to listen the alternative views and judge them on their merits”. figure 1 illustrates the model of core competencies development in curriculum of higher education. figure 1 theoretical framework adapted from e. dunne, n. bennet & c. carre (2000); qca (2002); zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006); and peter washer (2007). hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 18 what should higher education in indonesia do and current studies related to the importance of core competencies development at universities refer to literature review (mayer, 1992; qca, 2002; crsc, 2004; star & hammer, 2007; and washer, 2007), all agree that core competencies pedagogy is about the curriculum, teaching process, and assessment system at universities. the curriculum of university should encourage personal development of individuals with core competencies who are not narrowly focused on a discipline of knowledge (star & harmer, 2007:245). teaching process should demonstrated appropriate approach and method of teaching and learning, consistent with and support the attainment of core competencies as the learning outcomes. there must be a variety of teachinglearning methods that are enjoyable which will enable students to develop the range of intellectual and core competencies as well as positive attitudes. the teachinglearning methods must ensure that students take responsibility for their own learning and prepare them for lifelong learning. total dependence on the lecture method is not encouraged (qca, 2002; star & hammer, 2007; and washer, 2007). and finally, assessment methods should not merely assess the student’s discipline of knowledge but also assess core competencies and integrated between theory and practice (robley, whittle & murdoch-eaton, 2005:325). recent study in the practices of core competencies in malaysian universities conducted by zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006:2-11) reveals that lecturers emphasized highly on four core competencies, namely working with others, learning how to learn, discipline competency, and problem solving. however, moderate (average) emphasis was given for the communication skills, it (information technology) skills and numeracy skills. on the whole, the development of core competencies as reported by lecturer is average. looking from the students’ perspective on competency development reported that the overall core competencies reported by students to be at average level. students also perceive that communication skills, it skill, numeracy skills, learning how to learn skills, problem solving skills, working with others skills, disciplinarybased competency developed by university is at average level. the summary of employers’ interview in malaysia shows that there is consistency and a common trust that the graduates should have the seven core skills identified in this study which are useful for development. communication skills and working each others were put as strongly important in worker recruitment. a research conducted by g. crebert et al. (2004:154-155) on developing generic skills at university in australia reveal that majority of their graduate reported that they had had sufficient opportunities to develop their generic skills while at university. some of the graduate stated that communications skills, critical analysis, problem solving, and team works are more important for their career rather than to acquire content knowledge. meanwhile, m. leggett, a. kinnear and m. boyce (2004:304) found that students rank critical thinking, communication and numeracy at high important educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 19 out of eight skills suggested by academic staff. in addition, findings in students’ free responses reveal that critical thinking as the most important skills followed by finding information, time management, specific discipline skills (lab skills and techniques), writing skills, oral communication skills, and working effectively in a group. david billing (2003:346) conducted comparative study between uk (united kingdom) and usa (united states of america) about skills sought by stakeholders reports that uk rank communication skill as the top rank of generics skills that student need possess, followed by problem solving, numeracy, self management, continued learning (learning how to learn) and creativity, imagination, and innovation. in quite the different way, usa ranks critical thinking skills at the top rank while communication is at the second rank followed by personal, social and interpersonal skills, information management, leadership skills, proactive and it skills. both countries reveal that work experience skills are not important. curry et al. (2003:14) in australia conducted a survey at modern language departments of trinity college dublin, dublin city university, and waterford of technology, and indicate communication skills rated as the most importance skill with involve oral, written communication, and presentation skills. however, time management, managing one’s own learning, it skills, and other skills also rated as important skills. in singapore, p.j. forde (2000:86-87) found that the employers were concerned that some graduates displayed poor level of communication skills, working with others, critical thinking, problem solving skills, and discipline of knowledge. in conclusion, most employers in singapore expected graduates to have sufficient communication skills, critical thinking skills, technological skills, and working each others at their time of study at university. conclusion indonesia is facing the global challenges where the all working fields need employee to possess the core competencies in order to be able to compete in global economic development. to meet the global challenge, universities are in charge of in developing students’ core competencies: communication skills, it (information and technology) skills and numeracy skills, learning how to learn skills, problem solving skills, working with others skills, and subject core competency during the study period. the university in indonesia should envisage that every single graduate of the university posses the seven attributes. the seven skills could be carried out in delivering course content. finally, by equipping students with the core competencies they will succeed as professionals and responsible members of society. employability, lifelong learning, and good citizenship as quality measurement of university outcome could be attained. hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 20 references acrl [association of college and research libraries]. 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[accessed at jambi: august 29, 2009]. star, cassandra & sara hammer. (2007). “teaching generic skills: eroding the higher purpose of universities or an opportunity for renewal?” in oxford review of education, 34(2), pp.237-251. stephenson, j. & t. challis. (1998). the dearing report. uk: the higher education academy. also available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/york/documents/resources/heca/heca_ks23. pdf. [accessed at jambi: august 25, 2009]. unesco [united nations for education, social and cultural organization]. (2006). higher education in south-east asia. bangkok, thailand: unesco. also available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0013/001303/130338e.pdf.november.14. [accessed at jambi: may 15, 2009]. washer, peter. (2007). “revisiting key skills: a practical framework for higher education” in journal of quality in higher education, 13(1), pp.57-67. zalizan mohammad jelas et al. (2006). “developing core competencies at graduates: a study of effective higher education practices in malaysian universities” in summary report. kuala lumpur: faculty of education ukm [universiti kebangsaan malaysia]. hadiyanto, the development of core competencies at higher education 22 to meet the global challenge, universities are in charge of in developing students’ core competencies: communication skills, it (information and technology) skills and numeracy skills, learning how to learn skills, problem solving skills, working with others skills, and subject core competency during the study period. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 75© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the authors: suzana abd mutalib is a student at the faculty of education ukm (national university of malaysia); and dr. jamil ahmad is a lecturer at the faculty of education ukm, bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. for academic purposes, the authors can be contacted via e-mails at: suzanaalea@yahoo.com.my and jamil3191@yahoo.co.uk how to cite this article? abd mutalib, suzana & jamil ahmad. (2014). “the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment: a case study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.75-84. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/thegeography-teacher-practices/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 23, 2013); revised (april 1, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction formative assessment occurs every day in teaching and learning process. it is carried out continuously, integrated into the teaching and learning with a view of measuring the students’ level of understanding. it is emphasized to improve students’ learning with the hope to build on the wider potentials of the students (ishak, 2011). to ensure the implementation of formative assessment runs smoothly and accurately, teachers need to understand the concept of formative assessment as a whole (tomlinson, 2008). weaknesses and constraints in the application of formative assessment are due to teachers’ insufficient understanding of the concept and theory of formative assessment (black & wiliam, 1998; and william & leahy, 2007). a study by t. eckhout et al. (2005) found that there was a need for teachers to be trained in classroom-based formative assessment practices. the result of their study indicated that training can increase teachers’ confidence in different aspects of classroom assessment, including developing learning targets, developing and using different types of assessment, involving students in assessment, and communicating effectively about students’ achievement. based on the objective of providing a clear picture of the whole concept of formative assessment, experts have produced a variety of concepts, approaches, methods, strategies, suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment: a case study abstract: teachers need the necessary skills and further awareness and understanding in order to implement formative assessment activities effectively in their t&l (teaching & learning) process. formative assessment is an ongoing process during the process of teaching and learning. a proper implementation of the true concept of formative assessment will have positive impacts on students’ learning and motivation. this paper reports the findings of a qualitative study undertaken to determine whether formative assessment is accurately implemented as per recommendation of experts in the teaching and learning process of the subject of geography. data was obtained through classroom observations and interviews with two geography teachers. fieldwork was done at a secondary school in the state of perak, malaysia. overall, the findings of the study show both teachers practises formative assessment as recommended by experts. both teachers also displayed outstanding performance in their application of some of the concept of formative assessment. however, there are also rooms for improvements especially in the area of implementation of formative assessment activities. therefore, all concerned parties must sit together to discuss necessary steps that must be taken to ensure the implementation of high quality formative assessment. efforts must be undertaken to ensure that teachers are properly educated of the proper concept of formative assessment and its implementation in the classroom. key words: formative assessment, the implementation of formative assessment in teaching and learning process, formative assessment in geography. suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad, the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment 76 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and techniques for implementing formative assessment in the teaching and learning process. specifically for this study, the concepts, approaches, methodologies, strategies, and techniques of implementing formative assessment are included for the purpose of obtaining implementation guidelines which are more practical and informative in terms of characteristic. these include as follows: first, clearly stating the learning standards to students (black & wiliam, 1998; laud et al., 2010; stiggins, 2001 and 2002; and stiggins & chappuis, 2006). second, using the pre assessment strategy before beginning the teaching and learning process to diagnose the needs of the students (mctighe & o’connor, 2005). third, using appropriate formative assessment designs or techniques or activities to assess student learning. the technique used must be appropriate to measure the students achievement based on the learning standard. the level of activities also must be appropriate to the learning standard and students’ ability (stiggins & chappuis, 2006; and brookhart, 2007). fourth, provide the students with effective feedback to help enhance their learning (black & wiliam, 1998; overall & sangster, 2006; and hall, 2007). fifth, encourage self-assessment and peer assessment, especially to help achieve the learning objectives (black & wiliam, 1998; stiggins, 2002; mctighe & o’connor, 2005; and laud at al., 2010). sixth, proper management of teaching and learning time is important to make sure the application of formative assessment is smooth and effective (brookhart, 2007). seventh, encourage student-centred activities (cizek, 2010) and active participation of students in all activities (crooks, 1988; black & wiliam, 1998; scherer, 2005; stiggins & chappuis, 2006; and stiggins, 2008). eighth, use information derived from formative assessment activities to decide what to do next during the process of teaching and learning (stiggins, 2008; phelan at al., 2009; and laud at al., 2010). ninth, practise effective communication (stiggins & chappuis, 2006; and stiggins, 2008). statement of the problem, objective, research question, and methods one of the results of the transformation exercise on the national education system in malaysia recently has been the change in the national curriculum: from the integrated curriculum to the standard-based curriculum. the changes are being implemented in stages beginning with secondary one in 2011. the transformation brings about certain changes to the curriculum content and practices, including the assessment system. the change from summative assessment, which emphasizes tests and examinations, to formative assessment advocated by the concept of school based assessment (sba) has attracted many complaints from teachers, especially those teaching secondary 1 and secondary 2. there appears to be a feeling of confusion among teachers in conducting formative assessment during the process of t&l (teaching & learning). the age old practice of teaching and assessing pupils separately still holds sway among teachers who consider practices of formative assessment as something new and should be implemented separately even though all these concepts, approaches, methodologies, strategies, and techniques of implementing formative assessment have always been part of their teaching and learning (t&l) practices (black & wiliam, 1998; hall & burke, 2004; and brookhart, 2007). a research conducted by mohamad azhar & shahrir jamaluddin (2007) found that teachers generally use formative assessment activities as a teaching technique and not as an assessment technique. this is supported by suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad (2012) who noted that teachers tend to confuse and mix up formative assessment activities with t&l activities. zamri mahamod & nor razah lim (2011) found that teachers’ use of formative assessment activities, especially questioning techniques to enhance students learning, was still low. teachers do not realize that they are already practising formative assessment in their t&l process. in actual fact, they are applying the concept, approaches, methodologies, strategies, educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 77© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and activities of formative assessment every time they evaluate the status of their students’ level of understanding against the stated objectives. the same is also true when they use the information derived from practices of formative assessment to help them modify their instructions and to plan the next lesson. more information with regards to formative assessment practices is needed to alleviate teachers’ confusion and reservation in conducting formative assessment in the classroom. this is important, especially because formative assessment activities can also function as activities for the t&l process. teachers need “hands-on” experience on the use of formative assessment practices to guide them in their effort to conduct formative assessment successfully. presently, clear guidelines are not always readily available to teachers to help them distinguish between formative assessment practices and the process of t&l. teachers are sometimes not aware that both activities can move simultaneously, in tandem and are embedded to one another (stiggins & chappuis, 2006; azhar & jamaluddin, 2007; and brookhart, 2007). the distinction between the two, as asserted by d. fisher & n. frey (2009), is that formative assessment practices are used after the content and concept of the subject have been explained. the objective of this study is to examine the practices of formative assessment in the teaching and learning of geography in secondary schools before the implementation of the standard-based curriculum for secondary three. the study was conducted to clarify the question “how do teachers implement formative assessment practices during the process of t&l in the subject of geography in secondary three?” this study used a qualitative case study approach to address the research question posed. the method was chosen based on the desire to understand the phenomenon in depth (yin, 2003) and to get a clear picture (yusoff ed., 2004) of the application of formative assessment practices in the subject of geography for secondary 3. one secondary school, located in perak, malaysia was selected as the site for the study. the selection of the participants was done through purposive sampling to address the need of the researchers to explore, learn, and understand the phenomenon effectively. for this to occur the participants selected must possess good knowledge and information regarding the phenomenon being studied (merriam, 2009). selecting participants with these characteristics also helps to improve the credibility of the findings (patton, 2002). two geography teachers were chosen as participants in this study. they were chosen based on strict criteria: the participants must have at least more than ten years of teaching experience; must possess reliable and excellent knowledge about formative assessment; and must possess current and up to date information on the use of formative assessment techniques. data was collected through non-participant observations and interviews conducted in the classroom. this was to provide a true picture of the application of formative assessment practices in the t&l process (yusoff ed., 2004). the two techniques were chosen as data obtained from these two techniques could complement and strengthen each other (yusoff ed., 2004; bogdan & biklen, 2007; and merriam, 2009). information that was not clear or difficult to obtain during observations could easily be obtained through interviews (patton, 1987). data was analyzed in two stages. the first analysis was done during the field work; and, the second, a content analysis was carried out after the completion of the field work. manual frequency calculation technique was used to establish the patterns of formative assessment techniques often used by the participant (murad saleh, 2003). a matrix is used for inference analysis. the findings are descriptive with regards of practices of formative assessment (lebar, 2009) but cannot be generalized outside of the context, participants, and the study. the findings and discussions the practices of formative assessment being practiced by both teachers are based on the guidelines suggested by experts in the field. these include: suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad, the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment 78 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the use of pre-assessment strategy. oral questioning activities which functioned as pre-assessment strategy were carried out by both participants to commence their t&l (teaching & learning) process. open ended and closed ended oral questions were presented to students. teacher r asked a few questions connected to the previous lesson in order to gauge students’ level of understanding of the concept of contour. teacher r connected the students’ answers to the topic they were about to learn. teacher r started the t&l process by drawing three types of contours on the board. these are contour with lines closely grouped together, contour with lines sparsely grouped together, and contour with lines both closely and sparsely grouped together in alternating arrangement. using the drawing, teacher r conducted oral question activities with the students. teacher r: “if the lines are close to each other, then the slope is …” students: “steep”. teacher r: “if the lines are far from each other, the slope is …” students: “gentle”. teacher r: “if some of the lines are close to each other, followed by lines far from each other, then close to each other again, what type of slope is it?” students: “steps” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). satisfied with the students’ answers, teacher r proceeded to inform the students the topic of the lesson they were about to learn. “ok, today we are going to identify geographical shapes based on contour lines”. teacher s also used oral questioning technique as an induction set to start the t&l (teaching & learning) process. teacher s started by drawing two points on the board which were marked a and b. teacher s then asked the students four questions in a row without the students being given the chance to respond. teacher s: “what is the bearing from a to b?; how do we calculate the bearing?; where do we start measuring?; and is it point a or point b?” only after the fourth question did, the students get the chance to respond, “point b”. teacher s then asked another question followed by a respond from the students, “where do we put the compass points?” students: “b” (classroom observation note, 20/9/2013). teacher s then drew the compass points on point b. then, teacher s continued with the oral questioning activity, asking the students the location of north, south, east, and west on the compass point, while pointing to the drawing on the board. teacher s then proceeded to mark the points on the board based on the students’ answers. after that, teacher s asked more questions punctuated by students’ replies. teacher s: “where do we start measuring? n, s, e, or w?” students: “s” teacher s: “s to e or s to w?” students: “s to e” (classroom observation note, 20/9/2013). teacher s confirmed the students’ answers and demonstrated the measuring process which resulted in the reading of s47°t. teacher s then informed the students that for the lesson they were going to learn how to calculate bearings. about design of assessment. through observation, it was discovered that both teachers utilized five different formative assessment techniques in their t&l (teaching & learning) processes. four of the techniques, namely: seatwork, exercises, observations, and homework, were conducted after the teachers had given explanation of the concepts and contents of their lessons. the other technique, oral questioning technique, was used throughout, including during the stage of the lessons where both teachers were giving explanations of the concepts and contents of their lessons. the seatwork and exercise techniques were used to assessed students’ geography skills, where they were required to independently draw cross section of a geography location based on contour lines, calculate heights, and bearing on a topography map, calculate distance and size of a place based on the scale on a map, organize data, draw and complete different graphs, and interpret maps. the activities under these two techniques were set at a moderate to high levels which educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 79© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com require application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation skills. first students were involved in seatwork activities. after the teachers were convinced that the students have mastered the skills, the students were then given exercises. during these activities, both teacher r and teacher s conducted observations to assessed students’ level of understanding and mastery of the concepts and contents of the lessons. homework was then given as extra exercise when it was felt that the students have not mastered the concept and content of the lesson sufficiently. oral questioning was conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the lesson by both teacher r and teacher s. while giving explanation on the concept and content of the lessons, both teacher r and teacher s asked oral questions to gauge students’ level of understanding. they did this by asking questions designed to connect the concepts and contents of their lessons to the students’ previous knowledge from the previous lessons. during the middle stage of their lessons, both teacher r and teacher s used oral questioning to help make the flow of their lessons smoother. for example, teacher s started the seatwork activity by giving instructions and asking oral questions. teacher s: “draw two points, one slightly above the other, and mark this point as a. mark the lower point as b”. teacher s then walked around the class observing the students completing the task. satisfied that all the students had managed to complete the task successfully, teacher s then asked three oral questions one after another. “ok, now calculate the bearing from a to b. where do we put the compass point?” “is it on point a or point b?” the students responded with “b” (classroom observation note, 20/9/2013). teacher s then proceeded by giving instruction for students to start with the task of drawing the compass point on point b. this was followed by more oral questions punctuated by students’ responses. teacher s: “what do we do after that?” students: “connect the dots” teacher s: “then what do we do?” students: “put the projector on point b” teacher s: “now, can you count the bearing?” (classroom observation note, 20/9/2013). while doing this, teacher s moved around the class to observe how the students carry out the task. teacher s made immediate corrections and explanations whenever students made mistakes while completing the task, or when students gave different answers to the question. teacher s: “ok, some of you get 310, while others get 320. this is determined by the position of the points you drew. do you understand?” students: “yes” (classroom observation note, 20/9/2013). picture 1: geographical shapes based on contour lines u b b t s a picture 2: how to calculate bearings suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad, the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment 80 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com teacher s then presented other questions for the seatwork activity. teacher r also started the seatwork by giving instruction which was immediately carried out by the students. teacher r: “ok, now i want you to draw the contour lines. draw the outside lines first. make it a big, oval shape”. teacher r: “now draw the inside lines. draw three lines close together on the right hand side but far apart on the left hand side” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). teacher r also asked oral questions to check whether students had completed the task successfully before proceeding with further instruction related to the task. teacher r said, “now draw a line across the middle. mark the ends a and b”; and “now draw a cross section” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). teacher r then proceeded with oral questions to make sure the students had understood the concept and content of the lesson. students’ responses to each questions indicated their level of understanding of the lesson. teacher r: “what is the shape of the landscape? anybody knows?” students: “slope” teacher r: “ok. what is the value of the outside contour lines? is it high or low?” students: “low” teacher r: “ok, so how many?” students: “15 metres” teacher r: “what is the value between the contour lines?” students: “15 metres” teacher r: “ok, what is the value of the second contour line?” students: “30 metres” teacher r: “ok, how about the third contour line?” students: “45 metres” teacher r: “ok, what is the value of the fourth contour line?” students: “60 metres” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). about the feedback. both teacher r and teacher s frequently gave immediate feedback to their students, either orally or in written form on the board. observations carried out while the students were completing the tasks for seatwork and exercise provided them with information on the status of the students’ level of understanding and mastery of the skills related the topic of the day. this information was used to rectify any misunderstanding among the students through feedback. this was done by re-teaching the concept using different techniques, demonstration, or giving extra guidelines. a u b picture 3: count the bearing a b picture 4: learning the contour line educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 81© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com through oral questioning activities, both teacher r and teacher s provided feedback to their students very frequently that the activities became a dialog between the teachers and the students. while teaching the sub-topic of interpreting the topography map, teacher r provided feedback by connecting the topic to the immediate surrounding and the students’ general knowledge. teacher r: “if want to see an example of undulating landscape, look at the land around our school. for example, look at the heawood area behind the school. that is undulating. what can you find there?” students: “oil palm and rubber trees” teacher r: “why oil palm and rubber? what type of soil do we have over there?” students: “literate” teacher r: “ok. are any other reasons why it is suitable to plant rubber and oil palm over there?” students: “good drainage” teacher r: “good. rubber and oil palm need good drainage. do we plant oil palm and rubber in swamps?” students: “no” teacher r: “why?” students: “the drainage is not good” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). teacher r provided feedback as guidelines after the students had completed the task of calculating the size of a paddy field in a topography map. teacher r: “ok. we have learnt how to calculate the size of an area on a topography map? anybody still do not understand how to do it?” (no response from the students) teacher r: “ok. in order to calculate the size, we must do it step by step. it is easy. first, we count all the squares. second, we calculate the size of a square. third, we multiply the size of the square to the number of squares available” (classroom observation note, 19/9/2013). about the self and peer assessment. in order to solve the task given for seatwork, exercise, and homework, students could assess themselves to identify their weaknesses and misunderstanding related to the concepts and contents of the lesson. they could interpret their own achievement, whether or not they have mastered the knowledge and skills presented by the teacher. during the study, it was evident that both teacher r and teacher s assisted the students to do self-evaluation. they did this by frequently asking questions to gauge students’ level of understanding. these were open questions which allowed the students to assess themselves. these include: “do you understand?” “anybody does not understand?” “is everything ok?” “is it right or not?” “are you able to do it?” “does everyone understand?” (classroom observation notes, 19/9/2013 and 20/9/2013). both teacher r and teacher s also frequently asked those students who have mastered the knowledge and skills to assist other students who had not done so. through the oral questioning activities, the students were able to assess their own level of understanding apart from helping their friends to better understand the concept and content of the lesson. about the time management. during the study, it was clear that both teacher r and teacher s maximize the time use for teaching of concepts and contents of their lessons, while conducting formative assessment activities through oral questioning, seatwork, exercise, and observations. the time used for teaching of concepts and contents and the time used for formative assessment activities were adjusted in accordance to the length of time available for the lesson. in a two period lesson (80 minutes), the percentage of time allocated for formative assessment activities was higher compared to a single period lesson (40 minutes). about the students centred activities. through observation, it was established that both teacher r and teacher s actively involved students in the t&l (teaching & learning) process. in all the activities that the students had to undertake, both teacher r and teacher s acted as observers and facilitators to ensure the activities proceeded smoothly as planned. from the nine observations carried out, all the activities conducted were students centred and the students were actively involved. about the use of information from the assessment activities. both teacher r and teacher s used information derived from the suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad, the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment 82 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com formative assessment activities to provide feedback to the students and modify the t&l (teaching & learning) process to improve students understanding. while the students were involved in seatwork and exercise, both teacher r and teacher s moved around the class making observations of the students’ progress. both then provided necessary feedback accordingly, either to individuals or the whole class. at times, both teacher r and teacher s provided feedback by re-teaching the concepts and contents, demonstration, or simply through oral explanation. about the practising effective communication. both teacher r and teacher s practised effective two ways communication. for example, all instructions and questions were given verbally and students were given plenty of opportunities to respond, which they did. all responses given by the students were also responded to by both teacher r and teacher s, and clearly this had a positive effect on the students. this type of two ways communication is effective, easy to implement and especially suitable when there is a time constraint, such as teaching a difficult concept in a single or double period lesson. the formative assessment practices of both teacher r and teacher s were in accordance with good practices of formative assessment suggested by experts in the field. however, there are still rooms for improvements, especially in the area of implementation for both teacher r and teacher s. these include: first, specify the learning objectives, the students have to achieve. these objectives must be reflected in the content of the lesson as well as the teaching and learning activities as a whole. even if the objectives are not overtly stated, the students must be able to figure out these objectives through the learning activities conducted. they must have a sense of direction in terms of what they are supposed to learn and master. second, both teacher r and teacher s should utilize the pre-assessment strategy more effectively. this is because pre-assessment strategy enables the teacher to identify students’ weaknesses earlier and this gives him the opportunity to take the necessary steps to solve the problem during the lesson (mctighe & o’connor, 2005). during the study, even though both teacher r and teacher s utilized the pre-assessment activities, the potential of the strategy was not fully exploited. not enough time was spent on the activities to allow problems to be really identified and dealt with accordingly in the t&l (teaching & learning) process that proceeded. third, the formative assessment activities must be suitable to the learning objectives, especially with regards to the level of the questions and tasks given (black & wiliam, 1998; stiggins, 2001; and fisher & frey, 2009). during the study, even though the questions and tasks given for oral question activities, seatwork, exercises, and homework were largely relevant and helpful to students, there was perhaps a need to pay attention to the level of these questions and tasks. there was not enough variety in terms of the cognitive level requirement to answer the questions and tasks given. most of the questions and tasks were too straight forward and did not present too much of a challenge to the students. fourth, both teacher r and teacher s conducted formative assessment on individual students to assess students’ level of understanding as suggested by d. fisher & n. frey (2010). both the t&l (teaching & learning) process and the formative assessment activities conducted were student centred in nature (cizek, 2010); and students were actively involved. this was commendable as students’ active involvement in the t&l process would help them to understand the lesson better (crooks, 1988; black & wiliam, 1998; scherer, 2005; and stiggins & chappuis, 2006). also, the oral questioning activities help to improve the students inter and intra personal skills (hamm & adams, 2009). however, both teacher r and teacher s did not provide individual students with enough opportunities to provide feedback on the tasks they had completed. even though the tasks and questions were given to students to be completed individually, both teacher r and teacher s only elicited answers from the class as a whole instead of individual students. this means some of the students who may have had problems with the tasks and questions were not identified; therefore, denying them educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 83© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the opportunity of being given extra help and attention by the teachers. fifth, effective communications like asking questions and giving and following instructions provide teachers with the opportunity to respond to students’ problem (black & wiliam, 1998; and stiggins & chappuis, 2006). effective communication also allows students to provide feedback regarding what they have mastered. during the study, both teacher r and teacher s practised effective communication, but there are rooms for improvement in terms of implementation. both teacher r and teacher s could probably have spent more time on this stage to really be sure of the students’ real problem and understanding. conclusion with respect to the finding, it can be concluded that teachers need the necessary skills and further awareness and understanding in order to implement formative assessment activities effectively in their t&l (teaching & learning) process. data from the study indicates that there are rooms for improvements, with teachers’ insufficient understanding and awareness of the importance of formative assessment as a whole affecting the effectiveness of implementation. in relation to the study, apart from being a significant addition to previous studies on formative assessment, it has contributed significantly to the literature of formative assessment, especially in malaysia, where such materials are urgently needed. there is a real requirement for studies on formative assessment to be conducted in malaysia, in order to expose teachers to the concept. this is especially important as the school based assessment (sba), being implemented by the ministry of education in stages beginning with secondary one in 2012, is based on the concept of formative assessment. the study has also significantly provided a true picture of the importance and implementation of formative assessment in the classroom and how formative assessment can easily be integrated as part of the t&l process. this should dispel the notion among many teachers that formative assessment is difficult to implement and is nothing more than an extra burden to teachers. teachers should now be aware that when they apply the concept of formative assessment in their t&l process, they indirectly help to improve the quality of students learning. lastly, teachers must be aware of the importance of implementing formative assessment properly based on proper guidelines to ensure the assessment is of high quality and validity. this is very important because such assessments are capable of detecting changes in students’ academic achievements (stiggins, 2008). therefore, all concerned parties must sit together to discuss necessary steps that must be taken to ensure the implementation of high quality formative assessment. efforts must be undertaken to ensure that teachers are properly educated of the proper concept of formative assessment and its implementation in the classroom. references abd mutalib, suzana & jamil ahmad. (2012). “the use of formative assessment techniques in science subject in primary one: a case study” in proceedings the asian conference on the social sciences in osaka, japan. azhar, mohamad & shahrir jamaluddin. (2007). “assessment for learning practices in secondary schools” in journal of educational research, faculty of education of universiti malaya, 27(1), pp.19-54. black, p. & d. wiliam. (1998). inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment. london: school of education, king college. bogdan, r.c. & s.k. biklen. (2007). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theories and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. brookhart, s.m. (2007). “expending views about formative classroom assessment: a review of the literature” in j.h. mcmillan [ed]. formative classroom assessment: theory into practice. new york: teachers college press, pp.43-62. cizek, j.g. (2010). “an introduction to formative assessment: history, characteristics, and challenges” in h.l. andrade & g.j. cizek [eds]. handbook of formative assessment. new york: routledge, pp.3-17. crooks, t.j. (1988). “the impact of classroom evaluation practice on pupils” in review of educational research, 58(4), pp.438-481. eckhout, t. et al. (2005). “a method for providing assessment training to in-service and pre-service teachers”. paper presented at the annual meeting of the southwestern educational research association in new orleans, la. suzana abd mutalib & jamil ahmad, the geography teacher practices in implementation of formative assessment 84 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com fisher, d. & n. frey. (2009). “feed up, back, forward” in educational leadership, vol.67(3), pp.20-25. fisher, d. & n. frey. (2010). checking for understanding: formative assessment techniques for your classroom. usa: association for supervision and curriculum development. hall, k. (2007). “assessing children learning” in j. moyles [ed]. beginning teaching: beginning learning. england: open university press, pp.196-203. hall, k. & w. burke. (2004). making formative assessment work: effective practice in the primary classroom. maidenhead: open university press. hamm, m. & d. adams. (2009). activating assessment for all students: innovative activities, lesson plans, and informative assessment. united kingdom: rowman & littlefield education. ishak, na’imah. (2011). “school based assessment as transformation in educational assessment”. keynote speaker at the international seminar on measurement and evaluation (icmee 4) at usm [universiti sains malaysia] in pulau pinang, malaysia, on 9-12 october. laud, l. et al. (2010). “maximize student achievement with formative assessment” in ascd espress, 6(1). lebar, othman. (2009). penyelidikan kualitatif: pengenalan kepada teori dan metod (qualitative research: introduction to theory and methods). tanjung malim: penerbitan upsi [universiti pendidikan sultan idris]. mahamod, zamri & nor razah lim. (2011). “kepelbagaian kaedah penyoalan lisan dalam pengajaran guru bahasa melayu: kaedah pemerhatian” in jurnal pendidikan bahasa melayu, vol.1(1), pp.51-65. mctighe, j. & j. o’connor. (2005). “seven practices for effective learning” in educational leadership, 63(3), pp.10-17. merriam, s.b. (2009). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. san fransisco: jossey-bass. murad saleh, abd. 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(2009). “some aspects of the technical quality of formative assessment in middle school mathematics”. available [online] also at: http:// www.eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/ contentstorage01/0000019b/80/45/d2/9b.pdf [accessed in bangi, malaysia: april 10, 2014]. scherer, m. (2005). “reclaiming testing” in educational leadership, 63(3), pp.9-20. stiggins, r.j. (2001). student-involved classroom assessment. upper sadler river: merrill prentice hall, 3rd edition. stiggins, r.j. (2002). “assessment crisis: the absence of assessment for learning” in phi delta kappan, 83, pp.758-765. stiggins, r.j. (2008). “assessment for learning, the achievement gap, and truly effective schools”. paperwork presented in educational testing service and college board conference in washington, d.c. available [online] also at: http://www.ets.org/ media/conferences_and_events/pdf/stiggins.pdf [accessed in bangi, malaysia: april 10, 2014]. stiggins, r.j. & j. chappuis. (2006). “what a difference a word makes?” in journal of staff development, 27(1), pp.10-14. tomlinson, c.a. (2008). “learning to love assessment” in educational leadership, 65(4), pp.8-13. william, d. & s. leahy. (2007). “a theoretical foundation for formative assessment” in h.j. mcmillan [ed]. formative classroom assessment: theory into practice. new york: teachers college press, pp.2942. yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods. thousand oaks: sage publication, 3rd edition. yusoff, marohaini [ed]. (2004). qualitative research: fieldwork experience. kuala lumpur: um [universiti malaya] publication. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 185 resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house in bandung city, indonesia didin saripudin abstract: this study aimed to evaluate resocialization programme of street children at open houses in bandung city, indonesia. research design in this study was programme evaluation design using both quantitative and qualitative methods. this study used cipp evaluation model suggested by d.l. stufflebeam et al. (1971) by focusing on three of four components of cipp evaluation model, which were input, process and product. systematic random sampling was used to select respondents from 16 open houses in bandung. the sample of this study was 522 people consisted of 36 administrators/managers, 132 facilitators and 354 street children. the questionnaires data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and inference such as frequency, percentage, min, anova and multiple-regression using spss for windows version 12. interview and observation data were analyzed using r.c. bogdan and s.k. biklen’s analysis (1992). this study found that resocialization programme of street children at open houses in bandung, from the aspect of input, process and product, generally in the medium level, still had some weaknesses that should be handled. therefore, in the effort to reach the goal of street children’ resocialization programme at open houses, the improvement effort should be taken integratedly by all responsible ones. key words: programme evaluation, resocialization, street children, open house in bandung, and live normally as other children. introduction due to economic crisis that hit indonesia in the early 1997, the population of street children increased rapidly. the number increased year by year, the latest number recorded from census conducted was 150,000 of street children in all big cities around indonesia republic (suara karya, 27.11.2006). in bandung itself, there were about 4,626 street children (dinsos kota bandung, 2006). the result of observation conducted by depsos ri – adb or ministry of social affairs the republic of indonesia – asian development bank (1999), the factors causing street children phenomenon could be found out, as described in table 1. due to life needs and poverty pressure, most of street children had bear a responsibility to work and earn for their pocket money in their young age and they were frequently exploited by certain groups that gave them low wage. according didin saripudin, m.si. is a lecturer at the department of history education, faculty of social studies education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: saripudinupi@yahoo.com didin saripudin, resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house 186 to e.a.s. dewi (2004), the money earned was usually for their own needs or to lighten their family burden or to assemble with their friends. table 1: the causes of street children phenomenon num the causes percentage 1. help their parents to work 49.9 2. earn their pocket money 14.8 3. cannot continue their study 11.4 4. isolated from their family 5.1 5. keciciran and no place to work 4.9 6. search for new experience 2.6 7. want freedom 2.6 8. other causes: forced by their family; oppressed by their parents’ attitude; and search for some friends 8.7 in slum area occupied by low-economic status people, this phenomenon usually increased and created a new culture in a society, added with the condition of its surrounding. a group of children who did not study, isolated, and were not taken care by their parents would lead to the increase of their number in public places such as bus station, mall, public parks, cinema and other public places to assemble and have fun doing their activities together (horton & hunt, 1984). accordingly, didin saripudin (2005) stated that the group of street children usually involved in social deviation and criminality such as stealing, fighting, free-sex, homosexual, destroying, violating the law, creating noise and other disturbing behavior that disturbed public tranquility and violated the courtesy values. their behavior was done together with their friends who had similar fate and usually came from poor family (ertanto, 2003). according to t.l. silva (1996), supported also by undp and depsos ri or united nations for development programme and ministry of social affairs the republic of indonesia (1997), the street children should be recovered and given perfect protection in order to make them return to their right way, live normally as other children did, and enjoyed their rights as children through resocialization program. improvement and protection programs, as e.a.s. dewi (2004) stated, should be supported by knowledge, self-awareness and self-power in order to be able to face all challenge and obstacles in their daily lives. in indonesia republic, a transit house, commonly called rumah singgah or “open house”, had been built as the effort to handle and take care the street children. moreover, such open house model had been used in other countries (silva, 1996). according to undp and depsos ri (1997), m. ishak (2000), and e.a.s. dewi (2004), the excellence of open house is assumed to be able to do the previous model. open house was a place of street children to assemble, to be together in happiness and sorrow, to tell story, to seek their fortune and to get affection from the street educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 187 educators. because the position of open houses is in the central of city, the street children could be trained to adapt and live with the current development in the city and became the rest of urban people, beside sleeping, having meals and living there. at open houses, they are taught to accept and understand others, became big family and manage all their own needs with societal norm and values (silva, 1996; and soetarso, 2001). the purposes of open houses development were to help street children in dealing with their problems and to get the best choice to fulfill their life needs (undp & depsos ri, 1997:3). the specific purpose of street children resocialization programme was to make street children have good and positive life philosophy and behavior, to perform social behavior in line with societal values, to have ability of self-regulating and handle life obstacles. the aim and problem of study this study aimed to evaluate the resocialization programme of street children at open houses in bandung, indonesia from its input, process and product aspects, based on cipp evaluation model by d.l. stufflebeam et al. (1971). the input evaluation included resocialization curriculum, facilitator ability, street children facilities and infrastructure, and learning media aspects. the process evaluation included guiding and learning, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and public (ngo, non governmental organization), and programme monitoring aspects. meanwhile, the product evaluation involved the aspect of street children having good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, having the ability of self-regulating and the ability to deal with life obstacles. these evaluations were seen from two aspects. the first was how relevant the programme for the street children’s needs. the second was to evaluate how far the programme reached its goal. the evaluation of resocialization programme among street children at open houses would try to answer the following questions of study: (1) how far the relevance of input for the implementation of street children resocialization programme at open houses than administrator, facilitator and street children perspectives?; (2) how far the process of street children resocialization programme implementation at open houses than administrator, facilitator and street children perspectives?; (3) how far the street children resocialization programme at open houses reached its goal than administrator, facilitator and street children perspectives?; (4) what were the factors contributing the process implementation and the output of street children resocialization programme at open houses?;and (5) were there any problems faced and what recommendation was suggested to deal with those problems in street children resocialization programme at open houses? the method of study this study used cipp evaluation model stated by d.l. stufflebeam et al. (1971) by focusing on three of four cipp evaluation model components such as input, process didin saripudin, resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house 188 and product. systematic random sampling was used to select respondents from 16 open houses in bandung city. the sample of this study was 522 respondents consisting of 36 administrators, 132 facilitators and 354 street children. the instruments used in this study were questionnaire, interview format and observation list. three sets of questionnaire were provided in which set 1 was for administrators, set 2 for facilitators, and set 3 for street children. the index of alpha cronbach reliability for those three sets of questionnaire was between 0.70 to 0.87. the data of questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive and inference analysis such as frequency, percentage, min, anova and multiple regression using spss for windows version 12. the data of interview and observation was analyzed using r.c. bogdan and s.k. biklen analysis (1992). the finding of study the finding of study is able to elaborate as follows: first, the relevance of input for street children resocialization programme implementation at open houses. curriculum, facilitator, street children facility accessibility and learning media were the variable of input components in this study. table 2 showed entire min score for curriculum, facilitator, street children facility accessibility and learning media. generally administrator, facilitator and street children had positive score, in its basic level, on curriculum, facilitator, street children facility accessibility and learning media. table 2: entire min score of street children resocialization programme input relevance variable min score standar deviant interpretation curriculum facilitator street children facility accessibility learning media 3.22 3.46 3.24 2.73 3.18 0.60 0.67 0.71 0.75 0.94 average average average average average street children had more positive perception than facilitator and administrator. anova was used to explain the difference of administrators’, facilitators’ and street children’ perspectives on curriculum, facilitator, street children facility accessibility and learning media. it was found that there was significant difference among the perceptions of administrators, facilitators and street children on street children resocialization programme input relevance. second, the process of street children resocialization prog ramme implementation at open houses. guiding and learning, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and public (ngo), and programme monitoring were the variables of process components in this study. table 3 below showed entire min score for guiding and learning, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and ngo, and programme monitoring. generally educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 189 administrators, facilitators and street children had positive score, in higher level, on the involvement of parents and ngo, and programme monitoring; while in basic level on guiding and learning, and the involvement of administrators. table 3: entire min score of street children resocialization programme process at open houses variable min score standar deviant interpretation guiding and learning the involvement of administrators the involvement of parents and ngo program monitoring 3.48 3.33 3.73 3.82 0.65 0.78 0.81 0.68 average average high high street children had more positive perception than facilitator and administrator. anova was used to explain the difference of administrators’, facilitators’ and street children’ perspectives on guiding and learning, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and ngo, and programme monitoring. it was found that there was significant difference among the perceptions of administrators, facilitators and street children on the process of street children resocialization programme. third, the product of street children resocialization programme at open houses. the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles were the variables included in the components of this study product. table 4 below showed entire min score for the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles. entirely, administrators, facilitators and street children had positive score in higher level on performing social behavior in line with societal values; while in its basic level was on the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles. table 4: entire min score of street children resocialization programme product at open houses variable min score standar deviant interpretation the good attitude and life philosophy. performing social behavior in line with societal values. the ability of self-regulating. the ability to deal with life obstacles. 3.29 3.71 3.23 3.27 0.60 0.58 0.68 0.77 average high average average street children had more positive perception than facilitator and administrator. anova was used to explain the difference of perspectives on the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles. it was found that there was significant difference among the perceptions of administrators, didin saripudin, resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house 190 facilitators and street children on the product of street children resocialization programme. fourth, the factors contributing the process of implementation and the product of street children resocialization programme at open houses. the multiple regression analysis was used to determine the significance of independent variabel correlation and contribution on standard variable. in determining independent variable contributing the process of programme implementation, the independent variable consisted of curriculum, facilitators, street children facility accessibility and learning media. the variables of programme implementation included in dependent variable were guiding and learning, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and ngo and programme monitoring. independent variables such as curriculum, facilitators, street children facility accessibility and learning media were the contributing factors with the precision by 34% (0.34) on guiding and learning, precision by 27% (0.27) on the involvement of administrators, precision by 21% (0.21) on the involvement of parents and ngo, precision by 37% (0.37) on programme monitoring. in determining independent variables contributing the product of programme, independent variables consisted of curriculum, facilitators, street children, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and public, and programme monitoring. the variables of program product included in dependent variables consisted of the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles. independent variables such as curriculum, facilitators, street children, the involvement of administrators, the involvement of parents and ngo, and programme monitoring were the contributing factors with the precision by 58.40% (0.584) on the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, precision by 43% (0.43) on performing social behavior in line with societal values, precision by 55.50% (0.555) on the ability of self-regulating, precision by 38% (0.38) on the ability to deal with life obstacles. interview analysis: a. the problems of street children resocialization programme from the problems faced in implementing the street children resocialization programme at open houses, the respondents of interview gave quite different perspectives. the answer stated by administrator 1 was following here: the main problem we faced in this street children resocialization programme was the environment of street children that was less conducive and supporting, the internal factor of their family which was underprivileged and the lack of tutor to guide the street children. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 191 the example of answer stated by facilitator 2 was following here: the main problem we faced in this street children resocialization programme was the limited learning facility accessibility, the low interest of programme participants in following the activities at open houses and the lack of tutor. the example of answer stated by street children 1 in interview was following here: sometimes it was boring and stressful so we still followed our friends to walk around or hang out while drinking alcohol, sometimes our older friends forced us to earn money by singing at the street. b. recommendation of street children resocialization programme improvement the respondents of interview gave quite different recommendation to deal with the problems in street children resocialization programme. the answer stated by administrator 1 in the interview was following here: first, developing parents or other family guardian, such as giving the capital for business or giving training of various necessary skills, so that they might have business and got out of the poverty. second, increasing the cooperation among various parties, especially university and social department to add more tutor. the example of answer stated by facilitator 2 was following here: first was the increase of cooperation with responsible parties in the problem of street children service. second was the activities at open houses should be more activated and improved, and also more varied with recreation and art creativity activities. third was guiding and learning were done based on the condition of street children, did not do learning at the time that was impossible for the street children. the example of answer stated by street children 2 was following here: “the activities should be more interesting and varied and based on our needs”. table 5 showed the observation result about facilities and infrastructure. all open houses (100%) had activity room, bedroom, kitchen, toilet and cloth-drying area. three (60%) open houses had room for saving the goods of street children and playground. from the basic furniture aspect, five open houses (100%) had adequate chair, table and cupboard. from the basic supporting instruments, five open houses (100%) had kitchen utensils, cleaning devices, four open houses (80%) had bathing devices and three open houses (60%) had playing instruments. didin saripudin, resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house 192 table 5: the observation analysis of facility and infrastructure accessibility facility and infrastructure accessibility document available no document number percentage number percentage activity room bedroom goods saving room kitchen toilet playground cloth-drying area basic furniture: i) chair ii) table iii) cupboard supporting instruments: i) kitchen utensils ii) cleaning devices iii) bathing devices iv) playing instruments 5 5 4 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 100 100 60 100 100 60 100 100 100 100 100 100 80 60 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 40 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 40 table 6 showed the observation result of learning media which was printed and electronic media. from printed media aspect, all open houses (100%) had textbook and story book. four open houses (80%) had magazine and picture. from electronic media aspect, four open houses (80%) had television, four open houses (80%) had radio, three open houses (60%) had vcd/ dvd and one open house (20%) had internet access. table 6: the observation analysis of learning media learning media document available no document number percentage number percentage printed media: i) textbook ii) story book iii) magazine iv) picture electronic media: i) tv ii) vcd/ dvd iii) radio iv) internet 5 5 4 4 4 3 4 1 100 100 80 80 80 60 80 20 0 0 1 1 1 2 1 4 0 0 20 20 20 40 20 80 educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 193 discussion and conclusion the study finding showed that the curriculum of street children resocialization programme at open houses was done following the guidance from departemen sosial republik indonesia or ministry of social affairs the republic of indonesia. the curriculum only contained the core of guiding and learning that would be done. curriculum should be explained by tutor based on the street children’ needs. therefore, curriculum must be flexible that might contain the street children’ needs and wants. according to djudjud sudjana (1996), non-formal education curriculum, such as street children resocialization programme, should be flexible so that curriculum could fulfill different needs of programme participants. from the facilitators’ skill aspect, it showed that facilitator of open houses bandung consisted of knowledgeable and skillful facilitators in the field of street children tutoring. most of tutors (89%) graduated from smps (sekolah menengah pekerja sosial or junior high school for social worker). it was based on undp and depsos ri (united nations for development programme and ministry of social affairs the republic of indonesia) that required the minimum education of facilitator at open houses was smps graduate. the duty given to facilitator was adequate and in line with practical knowledge they had. but they still needed special and routine training, workshop or seminar to improve tutors’ knowledge and skill. the study finding showed that street children had different background, in which generally they experienced social deviation, either lightly or heavily. generally, they needed resocialization programme at open houses. according to e.a.s. dewi (2002), the effort to return their attitude and behavior to social norm was very important to do through resocialization activity. from the facility and infrastructure accessibility aspects, open houses in bandung had been adequate in minimum level. hence, djudju sudjana (1993) stated that facility and infrastructure accessibility would determine the success of process and output than non-formal education program. if facility and infrastructure accessibility was not adequate, it could surely disturb and lessen the success of non-formal education programme. from learning media aspect, it showed that media (printed and electronic) at open houses in bandung city had been adequate in minimum level. this finding was in line with the study finding of m. ishak (2000) showing that learning media was still lacking and needed to be added. the study finding showed that guiding and learning was done through social and mental guidance in which the street children were guided according to their needs. this finding was in line with undp and depsos ri (1997) that in resocialization to street children, the facilitators used the equality and friendship principles. although they were children, their experience at the street had made them mature. street children were positioned as subject of the change that had been occurred on them. it was also in line with the approach of a. bandura (1969) which developed three approaches to change individual or group attitude such as belief-oriented approach, affection-oriented approach and behavior-oriented approach. didin saripudin, resocialization programme evaluation of street children at open house 194 the study finding showed that administrators involved in all levels of street children resocialization programme at open houses. the finding was in line with the finding of e.a.s. dewi’s study (2004) in which the function of planning, organization, implementation, monitoring and evaluation were very important to be done by administrators if they want street children resocialization programme successful. the involvement of parents was usually by inviting parents and guardian of the children to come to open houses or the responsible people from open houses, usually tutor or administrator, came to the street children parents’ home (home visit). this study supported the study finding of sulistiati (2001) and soetarso (2001) showing that the important factor for the success of programme was the involvement of parents in the programme. the street children guiding was not separated from the effort to guide their family. the programme monitoring was very important to ascertain that street children resocialization programme at open houses could be done as what had been planned. accordingly, dinas sosial provinsi jawa barat or west java province social affairs institution (2001) stated the importance of programme monitoring in which programme monitoring was the activity to guide and direct the implementer of open houses about daily process and duty either in official administration or service administration. the study finding showed that there was difference of perceptions among administrators, tutors and street children about the good and positive attitude and life philosophy, performing social behavior in line with societal values, the ability of self-regulating, and the ability to deal with life obstacles. it described that there was still any space to make the responsible ones at open houses to improve the quality of street children resocialization programme input and process at open houses. the study finding was quite similar with the finding of e.a.s. dewi’s study (2004) showing that there was a change in most of street children after following the programme at open houses on their awareness of the importance of education for their future, the growth of self-confidence and their courtesy. supported by the study finding of m. ishak (2000) showing that street children who followed the program at open houses were usually able to solve the problems they faced, certainly if they were not able to solve the problems by themselves, the role of parents, relatives, teacher or tutor were needed to help solving the problems they faced. street children resocialization programme at open houses in bandung city still faced a lot of problems. the main problems were: first, the limited learning facility accessibility; second, the limited budget available; third, very poor street children family so they forced their children to earn some money; fourth, the lack of facilitator to guide the street children; fifth, the lack of expert who helped solving the problems of street children; and sixth, the follow-up of programme participants’ positioning for the participant who did not have home at all and family, in order not to make them return to the street. some of these study findings were in line with the finding of e.a.s. dewi (2004) that the budget for street children guiding was still lacking and still depended on the budget from departemen sosial ri or ministry educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 195 of social affairs the republic of indonesia, there was still no budget from regional government. in bandung city, the budget to handle the street children was still low. hence, a.n. sugiarta (2002) also stated his study finding that there were a lot of street children resocialization programme that had been implemented, but from human resources and facility and infrastructure accessibility, it was not prepared optimally so that the program did not run smoothly. from the main problems faced, some recommendations were suggested: first, increasing the cooperation with various parties than government institution, ngo, group and individual that were allowed to help in completing the facility accessibility and budgeting for the street children resocialization programme at open houses. second, developing parents or other guardian, such as giving them capital for business or giving training of various needed skill, so that they could try to have business and got out of the poverty and did not ask their children to earn for money at the street. third, increasing the cooperation with various responsible parties, especially university and dinas sosial kota/provinsi (city/province social affairs institution) to add more tutor and expert. fourth, increasing the cooperation with transit house and orphanage to send the programme participant after completely following the program at open house. references amir hasan. 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(1997). “international child health” in a digest of current information, viii(1). educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 191 interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement in english reading class endang kusrini abstract: the common problem found in reading was the students could not comprehend the text easily, because the students were passive. they never worked together in discussion or presentation. when the teacher asked them to read some texts and to find out the main ideas from the texts, most of the student could not or it easily. an interactive activity as a technique that is possible for them to improve their involvement in learning english, especially in reading class. this technique can help the students to comprehend the content of reading text in group; beside that, they can share, cooperate, and support each other, achive learning objective, and make the learning enjoyable. interactive activities will help the teacher to engage the students. teacher can use interactive activities in classrooms from high school to university. the choice of strategies is affected by a number of considerations: the level of the objectives, the abilities of the students, teacher teaching skills and preferences, the size of the class, and many other factors. however, since school is supposed to help students sharpen their higher-order thinking skills, strategies that promote active involvement in learning should be the goal of every teacher. interactive lecturing and structured discussions are methods that promote a degree of student involvement. key words: interactive activities, teaching-learning process, involvement the student, and reading comprehension in english. introduction there are four skills of english that should be mastered by students. one of the english skills that is crucial to be mastered by students is reading. by reading, students can improve their knowledge, get more information of around the world, and improve their critical thinking as well. beside that, the students increase their language, get new vocabulary, and learn grammatical rules. although there are many advantages of reading as mentioned above, most of students still have problem in following reading class. the common problem faced by students are they can’t comprehend the text easily and they tend to be passive in following the lesson. they never worked together in work discussion or presentation and they have low enthusiasm in doing assignment. they got difficulties in answering question. endang kusrini, m.hum. is a lecturer at the department of english education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, p.o. box 202, purwokerto, central java, indonesia. she can be reached at: endang_kusrini@yahoo.com endang kusrini, interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement 192 there are many factors that can influence the students’ problem above. some of them are low involvement in reading class and uninteresting technique of the teaching-learning process. the common problem found in reading was the students could not comprehend the text easily, because the students were passive, not involve in learning process. students have low involvement and motivation in learning english in reading class. when the teacher asked them to read some texts and to find out the main ideas from the texts, most of the student could not find it. they also could not answer the questions after reading text. by considering some problems happened in the teaching and learning process, the writer would like to apply an interactive activity as a technique that is possible for them to improve their involvement in learning english, especially in reading class. this technique can help the students to comprehend the content of reading text in group. beside that, they can share, cooperate, and support each other, increase learner participation, achive learning objective, and make the learning as enjoyable as well. what we are going to discuss in this papare is “how interactive activities are able to incourage the student’s involvement in reading class?” the important of teaching reading and the purpose of reading reading is a dynamic case, most particularly with the readers’ knowledge of the experiental content of the text (nunan, 1991:70). from this explanation, reading is a process of mind to get information and knowledge with comprehend all of the reading text. according to donald leu (1987), reading is a developmental, interactive, and global process involving learned skills. the process, specifically incorporates an individual’s linguistic knowledge, can be both positively and negatively influenced by non linguistic internal and external variables of factors. it means that reading is regarded as complex activity that involves various activities, such as knowing each symbol and analyzing the words into a meaning. reading comprehension needs an active thinking process in mind to comprehend and understand what has been read (falasifah, 2008:9). reading is a very important in a study and society, because there are many books, references, and instructions etc. which are writen in english. the students who have lack of reading skill will have difficulty in comprehending all those references. the student who only confines from his or her teacher at class without having an effort to read many references will not pass in time and succed. according to ramelan et al., reading: […] is good activities for the learners; reading is also something crucial and indespensable since the success of his study depends for the greater part on his ability to read. if his reading skill is poor, he is very likely to fail in his study or at least he will have difficulty in making progress. on the other hand, if he has good reading ability, he will have a better chance to succeed in his study at school (ramelan et al., 1990:i). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 193 ramelan et al. (1990: ii) also said even after leaving school, reading will be of much use for students by reading a lot of literary works on various kinds of subject their mind will be more developed in maturity. moreover, they will have to remember that there is no journey’s end for education oneself. from the statement above, we can conclude that reading is very important for students either at school or after they graduated from their study. as the students who get english lesson, reading is very important to english as a target language to build vocabulary. it is realized that reading skill or reading activity will open knowledge widely give more vocabularies and more information. further, the purpose of reading is looking for and getting information from books or texts. in reading, the students have to understand the idea the context and meaning of the texts on the passages. according to anderson, there are some purposes of reading, those are: (1) reading for details or facts: the students read the text to get or know the inversion that have been done by the writer or solve the problems of the writer; (2) reading for the main idea: the students read the text book to know “ why is the topic is good or intersting, then the problems on the passage, and make summaries of the passage”; (3) reading for the squence or organization: the students read the text to know “what is happening in each part of the passage in every episode and solving the problems of the text”; (4) reading to classify: the students read the text to classify some information or action of the writer in the text or paragraph; (5) reading for inference: the students read the text in order to find out the conclusion from the actions or idea in the text; and (6) reading to compare or contrast: whether having similarity with the readers or even contrast (cited by nurgiyantoro, 2001). the one important thing that needs to be considered is the component of reading, we know the component will support the success in comprehending reading material and contributing in important way to read. according to donald leu (1987:30-38), there are six components of reading: (1) decoding knowledge: refer to the knowledge readers’ use the determining the oral equivalent of the written word; (2) vocabulary knowledge: the knowledge about word meaning used to determine the appropriate meaning for a word in a particular context; (3) discourse knowledge: it means knowledge of language organization at units beyond the single sentence level, includes the knowledge of structural organization of different types of writing; (4) readiness aspect: it is traditionally refers to the student’s ability to read and understand a particular selection; (5) effectiveness aspect: in reading, the effectiveness aspect includes both interest and attitude, this is will increase motivation and facilitate reading; and (6) syntactic knowledge: it means knowledge of word order rules that determine grammatical function, and sometimes the meaning and pronunciation of word. endang kusrini, interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement 194 definition of students’ involvement and interactive activities in teaching reading “involvement” is the act teacher of sharing in the activities of a group; the teacher tried to increase his students’ engagement in class activities (http://www.the.free.dictionary. com/involvement, 10/11/2011). “involvement” is also state of being involved, take part in an activity or a situation (hornby, 1994:663). students’ involvement refers to the students who are actively involved in every activity which is conducted in class. this means that the focus is on the students or learner centeredness. since learning english as a second language is an interactive process between teacher and learner, teachers need to acknowledge the complexity and variety of social and cultural needs of their students. learner centeredness will be seen as a broadly based endeavor designed to gear language teaching in terms of both the content and the form of instruction, around the needs and characteristics of learners. to make students more understand about the lesson, they need to be actively involved in the activities. it is because the students’ involvement has a big contribution to the effectiveness of teaching and learning process. the students are more likely to learn if they take an active part in practice geared to reach an instructional objective. teacher tasks is to select activities through which students can master course objective: lessons, discussions, written exercises, reading assignments, test, group work, individualized instruction, field trips, observations, experiments, and other kinds of experiences maybe necessary for students to learn the things the teacher wants them to learn. the choice of strategies is affected by a number of considerations: the level of the objectives, the abilities of the students, teacher teaching skills and preferences, the size of the class, and many other factors. however, since school is supposed to help students sharpen their higher-order thinking skills, strategies that promote active involvement in learning should be the goal of every teacher. interactive lecturing and structured discussions are methods that promote a degree of student involvement. students’ involvement refers to the students who are actively involved in every activity which is conducted in class. this means that the focus is on the students or learner-centered. on the encourage students to involve in the class. how to encourage students’ involvement in the class, here they are: (1) ask friendly questions, “who can help me out on this?”, listen carefully, and find something good to say about even “incorrect” or off – base replies; (2) one instructor suggests having students “take a minute” to list ideas, steps, nothing that one student have something written down, and it seems easier to engage students; (3) have an open question or polls section at some point during each class; (4) building expectation into the syllabus will help let the students know how important involvement is; (5) give extra credit in a variety of ways, so that all personality types are accommodated; (6) at a recent discussion, teachers agreed that the key to promoting interaction is patience; and (7) several teachers suggest paying particular attention to your verbal and nonverbal feedback. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 195 on the causal factor of students’ involvement low. according to sudikin, at least there are three factors that cause students’ involvement low in teaching and learning process, they are: (1) students haven’t been able to formulate his/her ideas independently; (2) students haven’t dared to express an opinion or idea for other; and (3) students are not accustomed to compete in expressing their opinion or idea with their friends (cited in http://www.dit.ie/dit/lifelong/adult/adlearn_chars.pdf, 10/11/2011). the mistakes above are not burdened for the students, but the teacher responsible that problem above. sometime, teacher aware or unaware had implemented and authoritative and avoids questions from students as a recorder, an accept on, and a memorizing. based on the explanation above, the teacher need positive respond concretely and objectively to improve students’ involvement in teaching-learning process through interactive activities. strategies for increasing and maintaining active learners’ involvement are important to establishing and effective classroom. students who are actively involved in learning activities benefit more from learning time. learner involvement includes time spent listening to the teacher, time spent attending to activities, and most importantly time actively participating in learning by asking and answering questions. active learning through paired and group activities during a class session can promote involvement in learning. asking students to reflect on their learning experiences through students’ feedback or learning journals also promotes greater involvement. students who are learning english maybe reluctant to participate in classroom discussions and activities. a positive, supportive environment has tremendous impact on student comfortable, motivation, and success. these strategies can make classroom a more involved in class instead of just receiving the material passively, the students will be more interesting in following the lesson. meanwhile, interactive activities are an important aspect of distributed learning situation. interactive activities for the classroom help to engage the students. teacher use interactive activities in classrooms from preschool to university. successful interactive should challenge the ways students think and encourage them to do a more in-depth study of the topic. some interactive activities, such as simulation work best at a group level. others can be done on a computer and allow students to work at their own level. interactive activities for individual students are a great tool for students who are either ahead or behind the class (cited in “how to create interactive activities for the classroom?” at http://www.ehow.com/ how6678977create-interactive-activities.classroom.html, 10/11/2011). furthermore, michael moore and greg kearsley (1996) suggest that there are three basic types of learner interaction. each of these three types in an integral part of a comprehensive online course. in different situations, the balance between the three main components may be represented as an organism as a whole, especially with regard to its vital processes or functions through three points of a triangle of varying configuration. first, learner to content. one basic model represents the common situation where the subject is at the top, indicating that it determines the structure of the endang kusrini, interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement 196 teacher and learner relationship, but the teacher comes next — the servant of the subject, but the master/mistress of the learner. very broadly speaking, this may be consistent with cognitive approaches to learning. let’s see the diagram below: training is the planned process of engaging the learner with the content. effective organization and presentation of the content will guide the learner as they process the information into their own schemas. guidelines for supporting learner to content interaction include: (1) provide an overview or visual map of the course content; (2) organize materials to support the sequence of the course objectives; (3) include the student guide that explains how to work through the content; (4) link to additional or supplementary resources; and (5) incorporate self-grading quizzes, thought provoking questions, or active practice exercise. second, learner to instructor. in another variant, on the other hand, the teacher is clearly in the dominant position, managing the relationship between the subject and the learner. socially, either the interests of the learner or the demands of the subject or both may be subordinated to the requirements of the teacher. let’s see the diagram below: educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 197 the foundation for learner to instructor interactions is the inclusion of well-developed questions. these questions should guide learners from basic knowledge and recall of material to the application and synthesis of material. thus, the questions should: (1) be planned and sequenced to support the learning objectives; (2) keep the learners alert and attentive stimulate thinking; (3) provide testing cues; (4) guide learner thoughts; and (5) help determine learners’ levels of understanding. third, learner to learner. it can be contrasted with a further pattern, which is more analogous to supervision of a dissertation or thesis: the relationship between learner and subject is close, and the two are in a dominant position. the role of the teacher is simply to provide a service to the learner’s work with the subject. as you might expect, this is consistent with humanist approaches. collaborative learning is powerful and enriching learning experience. let’s see the diagram below: this type of interaction encourages the development of an online learning community that supports the sharing of goals, interest, and knowledge among learners. web-based activities that support learner to learner interactions include: (1) threaded discussions; (2) group projects and presentations; (3) serving as a discussion moderator; (4) synchronous discussions or virtual chats; and (5) “whiteboard” design project. types and steps of interactive activities the chart below lists the activity types found in “classic classroom activities book: the oxford picture dictionary program” by: renee weiss, jayme adelsongoldstein and norma shapiro (2006). endang kusrini, interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement 198 activity grouping description round -table label small groups students work cooperatively to label picture vocabulary items and check their accuracy. survey small group students ask and answer questions about personal preferences and work individually to record the result on a graph. mixer whole class students get acquainted as they ask and answer yes/no questions with six classmates and write the responses on an activity sheet. information exchange pairs an information gap activity where students ask and answer questions to the answers on complementary activity sheets and then work together to check their accuracy. double crossword pairs students ask for and give clues to solve a crossword puzzle and then work together to check their work. picture differences pairs students study two almost identical scenes and work together to identify and list the differences on a chart. drawing dictation pairs students take turns describing and drawing pictures according to their partners’ directions. role play small groups students read and assign roles and topic-related conversations, create original dialog, and act out a situation. take a stand pairs students read and analyze topic statements, choose a “pro” or “con” position, create original statements and discuss their opinions. board game small groups students play a game to review previously learned vocabulary taken from an entire unit. (source: http://www.the.free.dictionary.com/involvement, 10/11/ 2011). these activities are appropriate to all levels with the exception of role play and take a stand which work best in beginning-high or intermediate-low classes. each activity is self-contained, so we may randomly choose any activity in the unit in classis classroom activities book, or we can work sequentially within each unit. within each unit, the activities ordered from easy to more challenging in terms of student task and participation. the advantages of using interactive activities teaching learning process are: (1) can create a presentation that will excite and engage students; (2) can increase learner participation; (3) achieve learning objectives; (4) make the learning as enjoyable as possible; and (5) can introduce teamwork skill. furthermore, there are 9 steps to using interactive activities successfully by christie sterns in “training make cents inc.: 425 seriously fun ways to enhance learning” (2008). those are: first, having a clear objective for using the activity. interactivity increases the time needed to teach something, so it’s not about being interactive just because books tell to you. interactivity should have a purpose, which is to teach or reinforce an important learning point. with the exception of energizers, you should tie all educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 199 interactivity to your content and place it strategically in your agenda to drive home a learning message. second, preparing for the activity. read through the activity to make sure you understand the flow and purpose, and plan how you will introduce it. third, setting the mood. obtain the materials you need and arrange furniture and equipment to achieve your best results. fourth, beginning with enthusiasm and warmth. let participants know that they are in for some great learning while having fun. fifth, explaining the purpose of the activity. let them know why you are doing it and what kind of participation you expect, such as working alone or in teams. sixth, giving clear direction. clearly explain the steps in the activity to avoid frustration. if many steps are involved, especially if participants will be moving around the room, explain one step at a time and have the participants complete that action. if you provide all the instructions up front, by the time you finish, participants won’t remember the first step and you will waste time repeating yourself. seventh, runing the activities. as the activity progresses, encourage and support the participant and answer the questions. also watch body language and facial expressions to see their reactions to the activity. are they laughing and having fun, or confused and frustrated? intervene when necessary. eighth, watching the clock. if an activity is timed, warm the participants every so often: “you have two minutes left”. then be sure to give them the full two minutes. don’t cut them off at one minute or let them have another five minutes. ninth, debriefing the activity. guide the participants to link what they learned to their behavior on the job. answer questions and lead a discussion when appropriate. conclusion interactive activities are an important aspect of distributed learning situation. interactive activities for the classroom help to engage the students. teacher use interactive activities in classrooms from pre-school to university. there are three basic types of learner interaction. each of these three types is an integral part of a comprehensive online course: (1) learner to content; (2) learner to instructor; and (3) learner to learner. types of interactive activity such as round-table label, survey, mixer, information exchange, double crossword, role play, take a stand, and board game are appropriate to all levels with the exception of role play and take a stand which work best in beginning-high or intermediate-low classes. the advantages of using interactive activities, we can: (1) create a presentation that will excite and engage students; (2) increase learner participation; (3) achieve learning objectives; (4) make the learning as enjoyable as possible; and (5) can introduce teamwork skill. endang kusrini, interactive activities as an alternative to encourage students involvement 200 references arikunto, suharsimi. (1999). dasar-dasar evaluasi pendidikan. jakarta: bumi aksara. arikunto, suharsimi. (2002). prosedur penelitian. jakarta: rineka cipta. article “how to create interactive activities for the classroom?” at http://www.ehow.com/ how6678977create-interactive-activities.classroom.html [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. burns, anne. (1999). collaborative action research for english languageteacher. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. falasifah. (2008). students’ activeness in reading class using thinkpairshare technique. purwokerto, indonesia: ump [universitas muhammadiyah purwokerto]. hornby, a.s. (1994). oxford advance learners dictionary of current english. oxford: oxford university press. leu, donald. (1987). effective reading instruction in elementary grades. london: merril publishing company. meleong, lexi j. (2000). metodologi penelitian kualitatif. bandung: pt remaja pustaka. moore, michael & greg kearsley. (1996). distance education: a system view. new york: open university press. nunan, david. (1991). research method in language learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. nurgiyantoro, burhan. (2001). penilaian dalam pengajaran bahasa dan sastra. yogyakarta: bpfe. ramelan et al. (1990). “reading practice for reading: how to create interactive activities for the classroom?” in http://www.ehow.com/how6678977create-interactive-activities classroom.html [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. sterns, christie. (2008). “training make cents inc.: 425 seriously fun ways to enhance learning” in http://www.dit.ie/dit/lifelong/adult/adlearn/chars.pdf [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. syah, muhibbin. (2004). psikologi pendidikan dengan pendekatan baru. bandung: remaja rosda karya. website: http://www.dit.ie/dit/lifelong/adult/adlearn_chars.pdf [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. website: http://www.the.free.dictionary.com/involvement [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. weiss, renee, jayme adelson-goldstein & norma shapiro. (2006). “classic classroom activities book: the oxford picture dictionary program” in http://www.the.free.dictionary.com/involvement [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: 10 november 2011]. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 111 the use of quality pedagogic language in the teaching of english in indonesian setting didi suherdi abstract: the implementation of new curriculum into the teaching of english in indonesia requires new ways of doing classroom practices. this article is intended to prtesent the result of a research conducted by a team of researchers (suherdi, yusuf & muslim, 2007) in an sma (sekolah menengah atas or senior high school) in bandung, west java, indonesia to ascertain the effectiveness of the use of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ achievement in english. for that purpose, an experiment has bee done in a first grade class. using a quasiexperimental design, the class has been taught using the language thus far used by the teacher in the first six meetings, and using the quality pedagogic language in the following six meetings. prior to the first meetings, a pre-test was conducted to ascertain students’ learning achivement before the treatment. then, a post-test was conducted at the end of the experiment. the result of the data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test means in the english competence, and no difference in those of their effective factors. possible explanations to these unlinear patterns of findings have been presented and relevant recommendations have been given both for theoretical and practical aspects of english teaching, especially in schooling system. key words: pedagogic language, teachers’ questions, feedback, pauses, discourse analysis, affective factors, and teaching of english. introduction the implementation of new curriculum into the teaching of english in indonesia requires new ways of doing classroom practices. its emphasis on the mastery of communicative competence has put more burdens for the teachers, especially in meeting higher demands of the competence-based nature of the curriculum. responding to this innovation, teachers give various reactions, ranging from giving a warm welcome to active resistance. however, in terms of its percentage, the numbers are far from balanced: those with a warm welcome are far below those with resistance. this kind of reaction is not surprising. the new philosophy underlying the new curriculum is naturally new to the teachers. furthermore, the high demands of communicative competence in the parts of the teacher are not readily answerable. prof. dr. h. didi suherdi is a senior lecturer at the department of english education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: suherdi_d@yahoo.com didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 112 they were not prepared for this kind of situations. they were taught in grammarbased english teaching. to make it worse, efforts for introducing new ways of teaching to the teachers have not been sufficiently done by those responsible for the implementation of the curriculum. this gap has brought about serious problems in the english teaching settings. the most striking one is the gap between the teaching at schools and the national exam.while in the plan of teaching practice, some teachers keep going with grammar-oriented teachings, the national examination is beginning to take competence-based forms. this gap will be increasingly wider unless some efforts to cover it done in a proper way. for that purpose, an alternative has been selected and research to ascertain the effectiveness has been conducted. the alternative taken in this case is improvement of the language used in the teaching-learning processes. in other word, some better-prepared and better-chosen medium of instruction has been developed and implemented in the teaching of english. this alternative has been taken based on the belief that education is basically a dialog between teacher and students. this research is intended to be a continuation of a long series of research projects that has been the focus of the writer’s interest for these 13 years. all these began with the writer’s master thesis in the university of melbourne, australia, exploring the language used by a teacher and a number of students in an esl (english as second language) class; followed by similar projects in foreign language contexts (suherdi, 2006); and a comparative analysis between the characteristics of efl (english as foreign language) and esl discourse (suherdi, 1999). similar studies have also been conducted in the teaching of bahasa indonesia (suherdi, 2000; and suherdi, 2005); and based on the same data, teachers’ contribution has been identified and classified (suherdi, 2007). as shown in the figure, the study reported in this article has a very long history under the umbrella of discourse analysis study. the use of the term “pedagogic language” is not yet popular in the literature, except in theodor d. sterling and seymor v. pollack (1974), in a more restricted scope than what is being meant in this research, i.e. in computer programming language. in this research, “pedagogic language” has been used to refer to the language used by the teacher and the students in the teaching-learning processes in the effort of achieving the expected learning goals. this excludes any dialog between teachers and students beyond the effort of achieving the expected learning goals. the influence of quality pedagogic language on students’ achievement has been studied by many researchers since the beginning of the 20th century. as stated by donald c. orlich et al. (1985) that in 1912, rommiet stevens observed the life and language of a class and reported that the teacher used a large amount of questions reaching the average of 395 a day. two-third of this large number requires low intellectual level thinking. donald c. orlich et al. (1985) also reported another research with relatively similar result, i.e. that of clegg. the tendency of using low intellectual level questions is also reported by davis and hunkins (as educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 113 cited by orlich et al., 1985). analyzing three textbooks, they found that 87% of the questions contained in the books belong to recalling, 9% to comprehension, and 4% to application. none of them addresses analysis, sithesis, and evaluation ability. these imbalances may be considered to be the main causes of less developed capacity of students’ cirtical thinking. the second category of important pedagogic language element is teacher’s feedback and pauses. feedbacks and pauses are very important in ascertaining students’ success. in this relation, thomas l. good and jere e. brophy (2000) reported the result of mary budd rowe’s research on the use of two kinds of pauses. in her research, pauses are categorized into pause 1 and pause 2. pause 1 happen after teachers’ questions, and before students’answers or teacher’s further comments; whereas pause 2 happen after students’ answers and before teachers’ reactions. mary budd rowe reported that the two kinds of pauses last only one second. in the mean time, it is believed that pauses that last three to five seconds will invite better and more accurate answers as well as more active participation. previous research shows that the majority of questions posed by teachers are display questions (ellis, 1994); and most of the questions posed require low order thinking (orlich et al., 1985). in the mean time, many educators believe that referential questions encourage students to think harder and more critical (nunan, 1989; and thornbury, 1996). according to s. thornbury (1996), referential questions can reach those areas that cannot be reached by other kinds of questions. last, but not least, my research on the questions used in less classes effective classes found that out of the whole number of questions posed by the teacher 75% are display and checking, and only 22% are referential (suherdi, 2007). however, less developed pedagogic language, may it be referential, display, checking, or other, is very likely to lead the teaching-learning processes to less developed students’ learning. on the contrary, well-developed pedagogic language will lead to well-developed learning. hence, investigating the effect of welldeveloped pedagogic language on students’ achievement is not only relevant but also theoretically motivating. through the investigation, some relevant questions may be answered, i.e. (1) whether or not that kind of instructional language can be developed in the context of the current research?; (2) what makes it effective or otherwise ineffective?; and (3) are there any distinctive features of effective pedagogic language? answering all those questions is beyond the capacity of a research project. for that reason, this research will take effectiveness of well-developed pedagogic language in improving students’ learning achievement as well as their affective factors as the focus. methodology: sample and design to ascertain the effectiveness of well-developed pedagogic language in improving students’ learning achievement, as well as their affective factors, a quasi experiment didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 114 has been carried out in time series design in a grade 10 class in a university laboratory senior high school. in the experiment, teaching-learning processes were carried out in two different levels of pedagogic language quality. the language thus far used by the teacher (then referred to as conventional level of pedagogic language or conventional language) was used in the first six meetings, and betterdeveloped pedagogic language (then referred to as well-developed language) was used in the next six meetings. to get a clear idea of the design, a diagrammatic representation is presented in figure 1 as follows: conventional language well-developed language figure 1: a time series design in the use of pedagogic language in the teaching of english as a foreign language in an indonesian context tests and questionnaire administration were conducted to obtain the data of students’ achievement in the first and second half. the data in the first half was used to indicate students’ achievement in the teaching-learning processes using conventional language and those in the second to indicate their achievement in the processes in which well-developed language was used. in terms of the background, the majority of students come from less supportive environment as far as learning english is concerned. out of 35 students in the class, only six come from fairly good environment, the rest come from less supportive, four of them even from the least supportive environment. in percentage, the whole number may be presented in figure 2 as follows: persentase sebaran skor kualitas dukungan lingkungan terhadap siswa dalam belajar bahasa inggris 0% 17% 29%43% 11% very good good fair poor very poor figure 2: percentage of students’ environment supportiveness to english learning t3 tn t7 t8 tn t9 t1 t2 educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 115 the figure shows that only 17% of the students get good support from the environment; 29% get fair support; 43% or the majority get less supportive; and 11% get the least supportive environment, as far as english learning is concerned. on the teaching-learning processes the main difference in the use of pedagogic languages in the two settings involved may be illustrated by the following segments of classroom verbal interactions. t: “ok. yes. can you give me an example?” ss: “between, next to, beside, behind, under, above, in the corner of, on the left side” (teacher writes between, beside, behind, above, under on the whiteboard). t: “one by one. one by one”. ss: “across”. t: “across, ok” (teacher writes across). ss: “on the left side, on the right side” (unclear). t: “across. what else?” ss: “on the left side, on the right side, in front of ”. t: (write in the corner, on the left side, on the right side). “what else?” ss: “in front of, in the corner of, in the middle of ”. t: (write in front of). “what else?” ss: “beside, next to”. this segment is taken from one of the pedagogic conversations taking place in the first half of the experiment. the teaching-learning processes in this half were dominated by questions and answers, i.e. teacher’s questions followed by students’ answers. the majority of the questions required one-word answers, or a group of discrete concepts. in the mean time, the processes in the second half were dominated by examples of some communicative activities, practices, and students’ performing communicative activities. to illustrate, a segment of the classroom verbal interaction has been chosen and presented below. instead of asking the students to make 10 sentences using the previously taught prepositions, the teacher asked them to tell their friends to describe their school. for that purposes, the teacher gave some models prior to the tasks assigmnet. t: “today, we’ll try to explain to your friend about our school map. our school map”. t: “there are some places here. there are so many classes. what is it? this is field, teachers room unfinished building” (pointing to the map). t: “now, ssh ... what you have to do?” s: “yes, it is”. t: “is to explain about the map”. t: “now, i will give you an example how to (cough) explain it to your friend. you just explain five places that’s around our, (coughing) i’m sorry, our school. for example, listen to me carefully. the first thing what you have to say is i am standing on the field or whatever place just choose eee ... whatever you want you can stand on field, in front of the class choose whatever you want, i will give you an example i am standing on the field. on the right side of me is the teacher’s room. on the left side of me is the unfinished building. behind me is the toilet and across the field is the classes”. didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 116 as is clear in the segment above, there is a modeling phase done by the teacher in his effort to give a clear idea of the text being taught. some group works then followed, and finally he asked the students to describe their school to their friends. here is one of the instances in which students perform their communicative activities. t: “i wonder why you are so noisy when he come forward. something wrong with him? ok, listen (unclear). go ahead”. s6: “i’m standing in the front of, in front of teacher room”. t: “the teacher’s room. ok, go on”. s6: “and beside me konseling room, ya pa ya?” t: “counseling room”. s6: “and … councelling room, and on beside …”. t: “on …?” s6: “on the right side me class ten, a ten e, and in corner me”. t: “ok, in the corner”. s6: “the canteen”. t: “is canteen”. s6: “is canteen (laugh) and the corner … (laugh unclear) and on ... it’s … the corner ... the corner file”. though interrupted by clues and helps given by the teacher, the student’s text is more intact and natural than making 10 discrete sentences using the prepositions given. the illustration is intended to show the difference of the pedagogic language quality in the two halves of the experiment. result on the english test scores. the scores resulted from the tests have been summarized and presented in this section. the scores from the first half are presented in table 1 and the scores form the second half in table 2 as follows: table 1: summary of scores from the tests in the first half scores frequency percentage percentile 22-26 3 8.8% 8.8% 17-21 8 23.53% 32.33% 12-16 15 44.12% 67.45% 7-11 8 23.53% 100% in table 1, it is indicated that out of 34 students, 3 or 8.8% get scores between 22 and 26; 8 or 23.53% get scores between 17 and 21; 15 or the majority get between 12 and 16; and 8 get between 7 and 11. in the mean time, the scores from tests in the second half are as follows: educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 117 table 2: summary of scores from the tests in the second half scores frequency percentage percentile 22-26 4 11.1% 11.1% 17-21 19 52.7% 63.8% 12-16 13 36.1% 100% as indicated in the table, out of 36 students, 4 or 11.1% get scores between 22 and 26; 19 or 52.7% get scores between 17 and 21; 13 or 36.1% get between 12 and 16; and none of them get between 7 and 11. on the affective factors questionnaire scores. the scores resulted from the questionnaire have been converted, summarized, and presented in this section. the scores from the first half are presented in the following tables. the whole data resulted from the questionnaire are grouped into three, i.e. attitude, self-efficacy, and motivation. first, attitude towards learning english. the data of students’ attitude towards learning english in the first half are presented in table 3, while those in the second half in table 4. as indicated in the table, out of 35 students, none belong to the group with very positive attitude (very good); only 3 or 9% belong to group with positive (good) attitude; 7 or 20% belong to the group with fairly positive (fair) attitude; 15 or the majority of the students belong to less positive (poor); and 10 belong to the least positive (very poor) attitude. table 3: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the first half scores frequency percentage percentile very good 0 0 0 good 3 9% 9% fair 7 20% 29% poor 15 43% 72% very poor 10 29% 100% table 4: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the second half scores frequency percentage percentile very good 0 0 0 good 12 33% 33% fair 6 17% 50% poor 6 17% 67% very poor 12 33% 100% didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 118 in the mean time, the data from the second half, as shown in table 4, are as follows: out of 36 students, none belong to the group with very positive attitude (very good); six students or 17% belong to each of the groups with positive and fairly positive (good and fair) attitude; and 12 or 33% belong to the least positive (very poor) attitude. second, students’ self-efficacy in learning english. the data of students’ self-efficacy in learning english in the first half are presented in table 5, while those in the second half in table 6. as indicated in table 5, out of 35 students, none belong to the group with very high self-efficacy; only 2 or 6% belong to group with high self-efficacy; 7 or 20% belong to the group with fairly high self-efficacy; 17 or the majority of the students belong to low (low); and 9 belong to very low (very low) self-efficacy. table 5: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the first half scores frequency percentage percentile very high 0 0 0 high 2 6% 6% fair 7 20% 26% low 17 48% 74% very low 9 26% 100% in the mean time, the data from the second half, as shown in table 6, are as follows: out of 36 students, none belong to both groups with very high and high self-efficacy; twelve students or 33% belong to the group fairly high self-efficacy; 8 or 22% belong to low self-efficacy; and 16 or 45% belong to very low self-efficacy. table 6: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the second half scores frequency percentage percentile very high 0 0 0 high 0 0 0 fair 12 33% 33% low 8 22% 55% very low 16 45% 100% third, students’ motivation in learning english. the data of students’ motivation in learning english in the first half are presented in table 7, while those in the second half in table 8. as indicated in the table, out of 35 students, none belong to the group with very high motivation; only 2 or 6% belong to group with high motivation; 6 or 17% belong to each of the groups with fairly high and low motivation; and 21 or the majority of the students belong to very low motivation. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 119 table 7: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the first half scores frequency percentage percentile very high 0 0 0 high 2 6% 6% fair 6 17% 23% low 6 17% 40% very low 21 60% 100% table 8: data distribution of students’ attitude towards learning english in the second half scores frequency percentage percentile very high 0 0 0 high 0 0 0 fair 4 11% 11% low 7 19% 30% very low 25 70% 100% in the mean time, the data from the second half are as follows: out of 36 students, none belong to both groups with very high and high motivation; four students or 11% belong to the group fairly high motivation; 7 or 19% belong to low motivation; and 25 or 70% belong to very low motivation. analysis the test scores presented in section above have been analyzed using some statistical tests; and to test the difference of the the means of the two distributions, a student’s t-test has been administered and resulted in the following scores: english competence t = -2.9509 attitude t = -1.6514 self-efficacy t = 1.1398 motivation t = 1.7629 the test result shows that the difference between the mean of the scores of students’ english in the first half data distribution and that of the second half is significant at the level of significance of .05. this is indicated by the fact that the observed t-score (-2.9509) is larger than the tabled-t (1.658). this means that hypothesis on the effectiveness of high quality pedagogic language in improving students’ english competence is accepted. in the mean time, the test also shows that the difference between the mean of students’s attitude towards learning english the first half data distribution and didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 120 that of the second half is not significant at the level of significance of .05. this is indicated by the fact that the observed t-score (-1.6514) is slightly smaller than the tabled-t (1.658). thus, contrary to the result of the t-test for english competence, this result shows that the hypothesis on the effectiveness of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ attitude towards learning english is rejected. the same result applies to the test of the difference between the means of the scores of self-efficacy. the result shows that the difference between the mean of the first half data distribution and that of the second half is not significant at the level of significance of .05. this is indicated by the fact that the observed t-score (1.1398) is smaller than the tabled-t (1.658). again, this means that the hypothesis on the effectiveness of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ selfefficacy in learning english is rejected. surprisingly, an unexpected significant difference was found in the test for the difference of the means of students’ motivation in learning english. the calculation shows that the mean of the first half data distribution is larger than that of the second half, and the difference is significant at the level of significance of .05. this is indicated by the fact that the observed t-score (1.7629) is larger than the tabled-t (1.658). this means that the hypothesis on the effectiveness of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ motivation in learning english cannot be accepted. instead of improving students’ motivation, it made their motivation worsened. discussion the result of the analysis shows very interesting findings, especially the unlinear patterns of the effectiveness of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ english competence and their affective factors. as has been shown in the previous sections, students’ english competence in the second half is better than their competence in the first half. this may indicate that there is a significant improvement in their english competence after they were taught using quality pedagogic language. however, this is not the case for the improvement of their affective factors. improvement in students’ attitude is not significant, and, surprisingly, there is a worsening tendency in students’ self-efficacy. the worst fact is that there is a significant decrease in their motivation. these findings clearly need deeper analyses. seeing the dynamics of the development of the students from different levels of attainment, the patterns are not only interesting but also enlightening as far as the intricacy of students’ sophisticated nature of learning is concerned. for that purpose, students’ levels of attainment will be used as the basis of analysis. the first level, i.e. students with very good and good achievement, has the following patterns. in this level, a very large increase in number takes place. the increase coincides with the increase in number of students who belong to the group with positive attitude. this increase, however, is not accompanied by the increase in the number of students with high self-efficacy and high motivation. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 121 in the second level, i.e. students with fair achievement, the patterns are as follows: the increase of the number of students with fair achievement is large, accompanied by a large increase in the number of students with fairly high selfefficacy. however, it is accompanied by a slight decrease in the number of students with corresponding levels of attitude and motivation. in the lower levels, i.e. students with poor and very poor achievement, there is a significant decrease in the number of students with less positive attitude, low selfefficacy, and low motivation, which might mean good news. however, seeing that the decrease in the number of the students in english competence is accompanied by increases in the number of students with these lower levels of attainment in the development of attitude and self-efficacy, and significant increase in terms of motivation, this is very likely a bad news. it may mean that in the lower level, the development tendency is towards worsening levels. to sum up, the data show that there is a significant improvement in students’ english competence, an insiginificant improvement in students’ attitude towards learning english, an insignificant drawback in students’ self-efficacy, and a significant drawback in students’ motivation in learning english. possible explanation of these unlinear patterns is clearly needed. the first possible explanation is that the development of english competence may be very well influenced by the increased quality of pedagogic language which provides balanced and more firm scaffolding for them to develop better learning, while the development of students’ attitude is caused by their excitement of being exposed to new learning patterns, especially for those in the upper levels. however, the higher demands posed by the competence-oriented models of teaching caused them to feel still very far away from the learning target. this feeling, for some students to a significant extent, leads to discouragement which, in turn, may be the causes of low motivation, especially for those in the lower levels of achievement. other possible explanation is that because, for some reasons, the experiment time is relatively too short, the development of students’ attitude which is still underway has not come to its full attainment. in the mean time, the decrease of students’ self-efficacy and motivation may be exemplified by an analogy of an operation procedure applied to a patient with dangerous tumor. the best probability for the patient is totally cured and lives more healthy life. however, this probability is weakening when the operation has to be ceased on the way. in other words, the cutting of time span due to prolonged holiday around iedul fitri may have rendered the development immature. providing that the time is sufficient, better development will be in effect. conclusion this article has succeded in presenting the result of a research projects focusing on the effectiveness of quality pedagogic language in improving students’ achievement, didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 122 both in english competence and in affective factors development. while the first dependent variable, i.e. english copmpetence, was significantly improved, the second was not. alternatives of possible explanations have been presented to help clarify these unlinear patterns of development. based on those findings, it is suggested that experiment with sufficient time allocation needs to be conducted. in addition, research on time needed to reach significant development of affective factors in learning new and more challenging or demanding ways of learning as well as on conducive patterns of pedagogic language is also urgent. references berry, margaret. 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(1987). questions, questioning techniques, and effective teaching. washington, d.c.: national education association. didi suherdi, the use of quality pedagogic language 124 the students’ english competence in the second half is better than their competence in the first half. this may indicate that there is a significant improvement in their english competence after they were taught using quality pedagogic language. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 111 proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university based on entrepreneurial paradigm ramlee b. mustapha abstract: the emergent entrepreneurial paradigm has led to the increasing role of the research university in knowledge innovation, hence making entrepreneurial research university a global phenomenon. research universities are expected to provide intellectual innovations for the economic and societal advancement. it is argued that to ensure an effective achievement of research university’s objectives, appropriate definition and model must be identified. this article attempts to propose a generic model of knowledge innovation for the research university. it identifies the definitions of the research university, knowledge innovation, and best practices of the established research universities. it then looks into the process of knowledge creation and innovation in research universities. based on the review of literature, this article proposes a model of knowledge innovation for the research university by integrating knowledge innovation framework and the simplified triple helix model. the focus of this article, however, is on the knowledge innovation. knowledge innovation is most relevant in the context of research university. literature also indicates that there are two forms of innovation, namely, incremental and radical innovations. key words: knowledge innovation, research university, triple helix model, and entrepreneurial paradigm. introduction knowledge innovation in today’s hyper competitive market could enhance organization’s competitive edge (drucker, 1993; and tucker, 2002). this also applies to universities – institutions in the knowledge-intensive sector (oecd, 1998) – that need to respond to market demands just like any other business (rowley, 2000). an academic revolution toward entrepreneurial paradigm is now a global phenomenon. capitalization of knowledge in the increasingly recognized knowledge-based economy has called for a new mission and governance of research universities (etzkowitz, webster & henley, 1998; and etzkowitz, 2004). the entrepreneurial paradigm has permeated the elite ivory towers and gradually re-orienteering the traditional roles of university from intellectual powerhouse to preparing students for job market and research “products” for sale in the knowledge professor dr. ramlee b. mustapha is a lecturer at the faculty of education ukm (national university of malaysia); and also as the director of the centre of excellence for learner diversity (celd) at the faculty of education ukm, 43600 bangi, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. he can be reached at: drramlee@yahoo.com ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 112 economy. with the challenge for universities to consider the changing paradigm, university administrators and stakeholders should understand the new roles of entrepreneurial university. as a hyper-research university, entrepreneurial university takes a strategic view of its own direction and priorities; engages an active role in capitalization (commercialization) of knowledge; and plays a proactive role in improving the efficacy of its regional innovation often with collaboration with industry and government agencies (etzkowitz, 2004). the concept of entrepreneurial university is much discussed among the academic circles and there are some scholars who believe that the idea is a deviation from the previously accepted teaching and research mission (lyotard, 1979; pelikan, 1992; readings, 1996; and shumar, 1997). the idea was controversial: for some academics, the introduction of entrepreneurship as an academic mission is an antithesis to the philosophy of university itself. the debates about entrepreneurial university require a separate forum and it is beyond the scope of this article. based on the vast literature, we have accepted the assumption that the entrepreneurial paradigm has led to the increasing role of university in knowledge innovation. however, there was a lack of a working model for the research university to operationalize the process of knowledge innovation. the classic linear model of knowledge innovation is inadequate because the nature of innovation itself is inherently non-linear (kline, 1985; and kline & rosenberg, 1986). further, the standard linear model did not take into account the involvement of key stakeholders: university, industry and government as postulated by the triple helix model (etzkowitz & leydesdorff eds., 1997). despite the entrepreneurial interest of research universities, the gap between the knowledge innovation framework and the collaboration of the stakeholders signifies the knowledge impasse in the current literature. thus, this article proposes a generic model of knowledge innovation for research university based on the critical review of the relevant literature. increased industry involvement in knowledge innovations augurs the global trend for applied research to address real world needs. in other words, knowledge innovation had spurred collaborative r&d (research and development) in industry, technology transfer from universities and government laboratories to the private sector, cooperative r&d agreements between government laboratories and industrial researchers, greater protection of intellectual property right (ipr) to inventors and industrial researchers, provision of tax credit, smes innovative research grants and universities and government research and extension centers (premus, 2002). nevertheless, the disparity between university and industry is still wide due to philosophical differences. philosophical differences historically, universities were founded on the principles of liberal arts, jurisprudence and theology, but eventually transformed into divisions; naturals and applied educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 113 sciences, and later further broadened into multiple disciplines, including the social sciences and humanities and the specific fields of knowledge and thoughts (gray, 2001). the research functions took on a new dimension when scientific and technological knowledge is added to the curriculum hence challenging the relationship between research findings and their economic value. originating as a medieval institution for the conservation and transmission of knowledge, university has evolved over the centuries into an institution in which knowledge is also created and put into use (etzkowitz, 2004). during the 20th century, modern universities have emerged with their institutional autonomy directed more at serving the broader community besides preserving academic tradition of teaching and research. when the students, government and industry are treated as potential clients, efficient and cost effective delivery of graduates and research activities is a primary value to the university systems. many universities have added a third mission to the long-standing tandem of teaching and research, that is, service to the community. such change urges universities to focus attention as centers for lifelong education and centers for scientific services to the community (oecd, 1998). another distinguishing element that differentiates university from the rest of the world is the principle of academic freedom – notably the freedom of inquiry and research, freedom of teaching, and freedom of expression and publication. these freedoms enable the university to advance knowledge and transmit it effectively to the students and to the public (atkinson, 2004). in academia, there is no “secret” research. researchers live by the publish or perish rule, and research is conducted for public benefit. in corporations, however, the rule is publish and perish; the goal is return on investment, and research is conducted for shareholder benefit (wallenburg, 2004). part of a university’s objective is to ensure the greatest public benefit is derived from university research. this sometimes involves commercialization of research discovery, because the public seldom use raw research findings; they use products. the values and goals of a university are fundamentally different from those of a profit-seeking business. one of the greatest concerns of traditional academics is regarding those universities that compromise their academic integrity in an effort to suit the corporate interests. the more a university acts like a profit-seeking business, the bigger the risk that its core responsibilities ─ teaching and conducting basic research may become marginalized (sample, 2002). as a result of the philosophical differences, some quarters raised concern on the effect of university-industry partnership on fundamental research; challenging the basic responsibility of a public university – as an engager in basic research. while university research is directed by curiosity for knowledge, industry pays for research that benefits them and their shareholders. university gears for open communication for research results, while for companies, the protection of propriety information is necessary for the goal of financial return (fassin, 1991; and shenhar, 1993). university scientists’ responsibilities are often unclear – national normative policies are often not available. all these contradictions might ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 114 warrant a specific legislation if the public views negatively on the conflict of interests on the relationship between university scientists and industry. therefore, an effective model of university-industry partnership with regards to knowledge innovation and propriety is needed. in the post-capitalist and post-modernist era, knowledge innovation has become the industrial religion through which firms believe it could increase market share and profits (valery, 1999). university, however, must be cautious not to go overboard. according to s.b. sample (2002), research university funded by public fund is believed to be more suited to undertake a limited role in commercialization of research findings. if public university as a research university aggressively engages in commercialization, its teaching, basic research, social responsibility and community services agenda might get distorted. nevertheless, the role and function of a university is evolving within an overall tradition. innovation does not necessarily mean a break with tradition. rather, it should mean incorporating new approaches within the academic tradition (sample, 2002). defining research university so far, there is no universally accepted definition of a research university. association of american universities (aau), which represents 60 leading public and private research universities in the us and canada, states the aau is an organization of research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education and to promote the improvement and advancement of graduate education, including best practices and procedures (http://www.aau.edu/ research/phs9.21.00.html, 10.11.2009). carnegie foundation used a classification of doctoral-granting institution to characterize “research university” which comprised institutions that award a substantial number of doctorates across a wide range of fields (http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classification/cihe2000/ background.htm, 10.11.2009). s.b. sample (2002) defined research university as a research institution in which original research and scholarship are an integral part of the university’s mission. in essence, a research university emphasizes as its primary mission the conduct of research and the training of graduate students (wisconsin technology council, 2004). in the united states, the first research university was johns hopkins university, established in 1876 modeled after the university of gottingen in germany (wisconsin technology council, 2004). traditionally, research university emphasizes on teaching and conducting basic research. however, for the past three decades, many research universities have begun to aggressively involve in applied research. entrepreneurial university takes one step further ─ to actively engage in knowledge capitalization and commercialization. thus, a research university can be considered as a knowledge-based organization where the knowledge creation (basic research) and innovation (applied research) is the major part of the system. it is the epicenter for creating new knowledge. entrepreneurial university is a special type of research university which we called a hyper-research university. hyper, because it did not fit the traditional educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 115 humboltian model of a university. the 19th century prussian scholar, wilhelm von humbolt emphasized that a university should be based on the principle academic freedom. the freedom to explore research of the scholars’ own choice: at whatever cost it is essential for society to have a group of researchers beyond any government control to explore scientific questions (lotz, 2004). this model never envisions that “knowledge” should be commercialized. entrepreneurial university transcends beyond the traditional realm by actively involved in the capitalization of knowledge that many traditional research universities shy from. h. etzkowitz (2004) defined entrepreneurial university as a university that interacts closely with the industry and government and actively involves in capitalization of knowledge. commercializing intellectual property is a norm in an entrepreneurial university. the proposed model of knowledge innovation in this article can be applied to both research and entrepreneurial universities. basic versus applied research fundamental or basic research studies certain phenomena for the sake of advancement of knowledge. it is often exploratory and driven by researchers’ curiosity. on the other hand, applied research is conducted to solve specific problems which often require urgent solutions. nevertheless, the border between basic and applied research is not always clear. basic research is still playing an important role in r&d, because it is a source of many new knowledge that has revolutionized contemporary civilization. key channels through which university research impact industrial r&d include published papers and reports, public conferences and meetings, scholarly critiques, research exchange, and consulting (cohen, nelson & walsh, 2002). proponents of basic research argue that in the long-run, universities contribute more effectively to the economic development of the state by focusing on education and basic research that support the subsequent effort of private sector research, rather than universities involve themselves in commercial research (rolnick & grunewald, 2001). this argument proposes that a mechanism to transfer universities research into commercial innovation is more resource effective than the resources consume in actually doing commercial research. this ideal is consistent with the taylorist’s classic principle of job specialization where productivity is competence-related. a. rolnick and r. grunewald (2001) also claim that the quality of graduates and scholarly journal articles overrides the number of patents produced as the final measure of how a university should be judged. this vantage point is linked to the separation of the real role of universities against the commercially oriented research undertaken by private sector. in today’s business environment, managing time-to-market and launch-tomaturity have become a key competitive advantage in delivering end products. many studies have been conducted on the strengths and weaknesses of innovation speed (lieberman & montgomery, 1988; crawford, 1992; eisenhardt & tabrizi, 1995; and kessler & bierly, 2002). in an ever-competitive world, the speed of ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 116 commercialization of an innovative idea might be far more important than perfecting the innovation. the importance of speed in high-tech markets is driven by increasing competition and the continually evolving expectations of customers (doyle & saunders, 1985). literature has also shown that radicalness of an innovation is critical for organizational survival (christensen, 1997; thomond & lettice, 2002; and veryzer, 2005). both elements ─ radicalness and speed of innovation ─ seem to be equally important. if both forces were present in an organization, innovation culture would thrive in the long-term. entrepreneurial initiators need commercializers while conversely; effective commercialization is greatly influenced by radicalness of entrepreneurial ideas to be successful. the dual-stage process are interactive and reinforcing each other. for example, the cambridge phenomenon ─ high percentage of entrepreneurs living in surrounding the areas ─ suggests that the university and business relationship remains a cornerstone of entrepreneurial paradigm. people are basically like to stay in a place or work with an organization where their entrepreneurial ideas get translated into commercialized products. in the context of university-originated innovation, the intensity of the innovation is contingent upon the extent of innovation-related activities promoted by the university. not surprisingly that the number of universities in a region affects the intensity of research and innovations. for example, the number of patents produced in france is related to the corporate expenditure on r&d as well as university research in that territory (piergiovanni & santarelli, 2001). accordingly, university research is the most crucial external source of knowledge for innovative activities of manufacturing firms in france. from the discussion, we can delineate that basic research, innovation and entrepreneurial activities are needed in a new knowledge construction. therefore, it is important to strike a reasonable balance between basic and applied research. university-industry collaboration and research and development (r&d) according to g. holton and g. sonnert (1999) and s. chung (2001), the spirit of the university-industry cooperation has a common thread with the so-called jeffersonian research mode. it has recently been argued that the confining dichotomy of basic research in academe (newtonian mode) versus applied research in industry (baconian mode) may be reconciled through a third form ─ the jeffersonian mode. the jeffersonian hybrid model suggests a research activity driven by fundamental, practical, and societal needs to be carried out under the condition of collaboration and partnerships. jeffersonian approach to research would provide a strong raison d’etre for future university-industry collaboration. numerous authors have argued that the industry’s involvement in the university research agenda is important, not only for the firms and the university but also for national development and competitiveness (bower, 1992; atkinson, 1999; santoro & chakrabarti, 1999; and etzkowitz, 2004). due to the rapid change in knowledge educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 117 advancement, the nexus between universities and industries should be reinforced to sustain competitive edge. however, the partnership between university and industry can potentially pose a number of challenging problems (chung, 2001). thus, if the partnership is to be effective, several elements should be considered as follows: (1) universities must not lose sight of their ultimate aims of teaching students and performing basic research ─ unless universities retain their culture, base of fundamental research, and educational mission, they will not have a value to bring to the partnership; (2) university researchers should not be discouraged from publishing or disseminating their research results due to propriety claims to these results made by their industry partners; and (3) the private sector entities that partner with universities should not view their university partners as fullfledged substitutes for their own research programs. the dynamism of globalization ─ in terms of international competitiveness ─ has forced many firms to rethink their global strategies. the viable way to survive in the future economic battlefield is to become actively involved and committed to an ongoing process of new knowledge creation and innovation. this may require the industry to rely on the research university as the center for knowledge generation and creative innovations to promote new technologies. in reciprocal, university is in need of private sector’s support to sustain cutting-edge fundamental research. in sum, university-industry symbiotic collaboration has fast becoming the sine qua non of the 21st century. meanwhile, research and development (r&d) is considered as a major source of knowledge innovation. economic theories (schumpeter, 1911 and 1943; solow, 1956 and 1957; and romer, 1986 and 1990) seem to point to innovation as the major source of productivity in the long run. although the relationship between r&d and innovation is complex and nonlinear, it is clear that substantial advances in knowledge innovation will not take place without rigorous and systematic r&d (guellec & van pottelsberghe de la potterie, 2004). oecd (1993) defined r&d as creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge and the use of this stock of knowledge to develop new applications. numerous empirical studies have been conducted to determine the effect of r&d on economic productivity and, in general, the findings show positive impact (niininen, 2000; guellec & van pottelsberghe de la potterie, 2004; and graversen & mark, 2005). the corpus of literature on r&d spillovers has developed significantly, as reviewed by griliches (1992). bayoumi et al. (1996) examined the roles of r&d, international r&d spillovers, and trade in enhancing economic productivity. the study found that a country can raise its total factor productivity by investing in r&d. countries can also improve their productivity by trading with other countries that have large stocks of knowledge from their cumulative r&d activities. empirical evidence also suggests that r&d increases a firm’s “absorptive capacity” ─ its ability to absorb spillovers from other firms ─ as well as contributing directly to profitability (leahy & neary, 2004). this shows that inducing knowledge innovation through well-planned r&d is critical for productivity and economic growth. ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 118 since the passage of bayh-dole act in 1980, the number of patents issued to american research universities has risen dramatically. this us federal law gave universities the right to claim title to inventions made on their premises and to license their intellectual properties to clients. before 1980, fewer than 250 patents were issued each year to universities in the united states. in 2002, the number had bloated to 3,673 patents issued to 219 filing institutions (wisconsin technology council, 2004). cases on university research spin-offs in business terms, “spin-off ” means a new company that arises from a parent organization. a spin-off company is formed by individuals who were former employees of a parent organization and involves a core technology that is transferred from the parent company (carayannis et al., 1998). hence, e.b. roberts and d.e. malone (1996) identified four principal entities involved in a spin-off process: (1) the technology originator; (2) the parent organization as licensing office; (3) the entrepreneur; and (4) the venture investor as the fund provider. university research plays a major role as the new knowledge originator to bring the “technology” from basic research through the stages of the innovation-development process to the point at which the transfer of technology can begin, and the new product can be successfully developed. technology, research or science parks associated with research universities are leading examples of “incubator environment” designed to nurture spin-offs (davenport, carr & bibby, 2002). the success story of silicon valley is a show case of a close relationship between university researchers and commercial investors. the role of stanford university, and that of its visionary vice-president, frederick terman, was critical to jump-start silicon valley. the rise of stanford’s researchers to the forefront of academic excellence has enormous impact on the take-off of the silicon valley’s microelectronics industry. one of terman’s most successful direct influences on the silicon valley performance was his role in launching hewlett packard. in 1954, hewlett packard built its company’s headquarters on one of the choicest pieces of land on the campus’s stanford industrial park (rogers & larsen, 1984). like stanford, massachusetts institute of technology (mit) is an elite research institution. the transformation at mit was catalyzed by its research centers, which were originally funded by the federal government, and increasingly later by private companies (roberts, 1991). a study by bank of boston (1997) identified 4,000 mit’s spin-off companies that employed 1.1 million people, and generated $ 232 billion in worldwide annual sales. the bank of boston’s study of spin-off from mit points to the key role of university-based research centers in creating jobs and wealth through their spin-offs. other names connected to mit on academic spillover are general electric and siemens. accordingly, h. etzkowitz (2004) argues that mit is a prime example of an entrepreneurial university even though it was regularly stated that mit is an academic anomaly. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 119 in the state of north carolina, the research triangle park supported by duke university, university of north carolina, and north carolina state university is another success story. the business start-up rate in the research triangle park is the highest in the state, the unemployment rate the lowest, and per capita income and average wages are above the state average. the park housed more than 100 companies employing more than 36,000 people. major companies such as ibm, nortel, motorola, dupont, harris microelectronics, and sas have operations in research park (o’hare & pitney, 2002). comparatively small university, the university of new mexico (unm) ranked 37th among all us public universities in r&d expenditure in 1996. the unm’s leaders hope to create a technopolis (center of a high-technology area) in albuquerque, and unm officials expect their university to be the key player in this process. up to 1997, 19 new companies had spun out from 14 of the 55 research centers of unm. some of them are asian technology infrastructure program, khoral research, nenopare, and scb technologies. an interesting finding on unm that supports technology transfer is that most research centers are founded by the entrepreneurial faculty members who have the greater autonomy and ability to capitalize on a need for multi-disciplinary research (steffensen, rogers & speakman, 2000). in sweden, advanced engineering firms have established new technologies developed by university research. in the computer industry, saap (the swedish aircraft and automobile producer) through a strategic venture with ericsson, obtained sophisticated digital mobile telephone technology from its military aircraft electronics and moved rapidly to become the big player in the market (eliasson, 1996). the following generation spillover, ericsson together with hewlett-packard successfully used the military aircraft technology for telephone system control and volvo aero in advanced aircraft engine components. the swedish health care industry has also benefited from the university research. both gambro (now incentive), specializing in dialysis equipment and treatment, and elekta, specializing in radiation brain surgery, are making inroads into the care market by building specialized private clinics (eliasson & eliasson, 1996). korobio was founded by a university’s business spin-off and a pharmaceutical company to screen potential substances in biotechnology and to identify promising candidates for resourceintensive clinical testing (oecd, 2000). a growing number of universities are willing to use small portion of their endowment funds to capitalize new firms often in association with other investors (etzkowitz, 2004). technology transfer and triple-helix model another area in which universities, governments, and businesses should work together is technology transfer. technology transfer from government labs and research universities serves to foster economic growth for metropolitan regions in the united states (rogers, takegami & yin, 2001). in 1999, technology transfer ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 120 from universities to industry contributed $ 38 billion to the economy, creating over 300,000 jobs and forming hundreds of new companies in the united states (hall & scott, 2001). studies have shown that university research spillovers are subjected to geographical location and significant to certain industries such as in the electronic and instrumentation sectors (anselin, varga & aes, 2000). e.m. rogers, s. takegami and j. yin (2001) identified five different technology transfer mechanisms from universities to business entities: spin-offs, licensing, meetings, publications, and cooperative r&d agreements. the two most common are spin-offs and technology licensing. technology transfer is a sophisticated and often complex process. it needs significant resources and infrastructure to make it work well. there is a need to set up a technology-transfer infrastructure in universities that recognizes the realities of the business world. much of the technology transfer involves working at the application stage – applications unforeseen by the researchers who originally developed the knowledge or technology (sample, 2002). great innovation needs to be championed and nurtured for a long period (valery, 1999). these three classic examples epitomize the nature of technology transfer, as follows: • gottfried wilhelm leibniz, a german philosopher and mathematician, laid the foundation for the binary system of numeration in the late 17th century. without his pioneering fundamental work, the great 20th century invention of a computer would never be materialized. leibniz’s advances in basic mathematical research had no direct economic pay-offs, neither to him nor to his employer (hernes & martin, 2000). • harry g. steenbock, a professor at the university of wisconsin, discovered in 1925 that adding vitamin d to milk could prevent rickets. the wisconsin alumni research foundation (warf), a non-profit foundation, was formed to commercialize his discovery. since that time, warf has grown and increased its grants to the university of wisconsin through many innovative technologies developed by highly creative and respected on-campus researchers. within seven decades since professor steenbock’s breakthrough, over 3,000 discoveries have been disclosed to warf. based on these disclosures, warf has obtained over 1,000 patents and over 1,500 foreign equivalents and has granted an excess of us $ 450 million in university funds (hernes & martin, 2000). • researchers at nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory invented a circuit board for space applications with unique properties – it could be subjected to high temperatures on one side and freezing temperatures on the other and still functioning electrically. the researchers tried to market this circuit board but there are no takers. later it was discovered the fact that there was something else about the circuit board that could lead to commercial interest – it was the lightest circuit board ever made. the researchers initially didn’t care about the weight, but the marketplace did (sample, 2002). besides technology transfer, clustering and localization are crucial aspects. anecdotal evidence shows that a number of countries and their policymakers are keen to adopt policies which will encourage clustering and create, for example, new “silicon valleys” in new places and in different industries (cowan & jonard, 1999). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 121 the multiple reciprocal relationships generated by accelerating convergence of academic research, industrial sponsorship and governmental support have given rise to a new model for knowledge innovation process. a spiral model of universityindustry-government (u-i-g), known as a triple-helix model, was developed by h. etzkowitz and l. leydesdorff eds. (1997). this model transcends the previous modes of separation into a triple helix of overlapping, yet relatively autonomous sphere (etzkowitz et al., 2000). this tri-lateral interaction is increasingly interwoven in a spiral pattern of linkages emerging at various stages of the innovation process. according to etzkowitz et al. (2000), there are four processes involved: (1) the first is internal transformation in each of the helices; (2) the influence of one institutional sphere upon the others; (3) the creation of a new overlay or interfaces of the trilateral linkages; and (4) the recursive effect of these inter-institutional network of academia, industry, and government. nevertheless, the triple helix model, in our opinion, that drew from the idea of double helix of dna is a complex structure to be applied in describing university-industry-government partnership. as admitted by l. leydesdorff and h. etzkowitz as follows: in contrast to a biological double helix, a triple helix is by nature unstable. it remains an emerging construct on top of the underlying communications (leydesdorff & etzkowitz, 1996:4). thus, in our model, we used a simplified version of triple helix model by simply hypothesizing that as long as there is a u-i-g entity (in what whatever forms or mechanisms) that supports and sustains research for knowledge innovation, we assume that knowledge innovation effort will move forward. epistemology of innovation and what is knowledge innovation? according to b. lundvall (1992), innovation is fundamental and inherent phenomenon of modern capitalism. innovation is a process that is accumulative and it is surrounded by uncertainties (lundvall, 1992). with the uncertainties, mapping the nature of innovation is a difficult task because the complexity of the idea (mahdjoubi, 1997). thus, innovation has diverse meanings depending on who is talking and in what contexts; akin to the classic metaphor of four blind men describing an elephant ─ each man conveys partial truths but not the whole truth. in the simplest term, e.m. rogers (1995) defined innovation as an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or a unit of adoption. theory of innovation has evolved since the seminal work of j. schumpeter (1911) in his book, the theory of economic development. according to r. cowan, n. jonard and j. zimmermann (2004), one of the long standing legacies of schumpeter is the belief that innovation was a central aspect of a dynamic economy. giving special emphasis to the role of technological competition and the entrepreneurial ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 122 function, schumpeter is regarded as the founding father of innovation studies. through his “creative destruction”, j. schumpeter (1943) considers innovation as both creator and destroyer of corporations and entire industries. many have followed in his wake, adding new understanding to the phenomena relevant to innovation and economic growth. literature reveals that there are many types of innovation – knowledge innovation, technology innovation, organizational innovation, institutional innovation, social innovation, economic innovation, process innovation, and product innovation. the focus of this article is on the knowledge innovation. knowledge innovation is most relevant in the context of research university. literature also indicates that there are two forms of innovation, namely, incremental and radical innovations. incremental innovation (freeman, 1992) occurs more or less continually, in any industry or service activity, although at varying rate in different industries and at different times. radical innovation, on the other hand, is a fundamental departure from previous production practices and involved discontinuity of the earlier technology (utterback, 1994). thus, radical innovations are much more risky than incremental innovations especially for established firms (tushman & anderson, 1986). before we can define what is knowledge innovation, one has to characterize what is knowledge? the complexity of defining knowledge is obvious, because it has multiple meanings depending on the contexts and perspectives. as g. delanty argues as follows: knowledge can consist of professional knowledge; it can take the contrasting form of lay knowledge in which local or everyday knowledge confronts expertise. knowledge can be equated with science or academic knowledge or can be seen as culture or praxis. there is also a sense of self-knowledge, that is, knowledge as bildung, or self-cultivation. knowledge, too, can take the elevated form of wisdom, in contrast to either doxa, the world opinion, or logos, the world of science (delanty, 2003:71). since this study deals with knowledge innovation derived from research so the appropriate definition of knowledge, in this context, is a scientific knowledge that has gone through rigorous experimentation and validation process. hence, h. chuanqi (1988) defined knowledge innovation as the process of creating new scientific knowledge through r&d. it also involves the process of application, transmission (diffusion) and use of the new knowledge. this is an acceptable definition for our purpose. since innovation is highly non-linear process; the model of knowledge innovation should exemplify non-linearity. it is more productive to view innovation as non-linear, where basic research problems can come out of practical issues as well as problems in a discipline and vice versa (etzkowitz, 2004). proposing a new model of knowledge innovation the initial knowledge innovation model was a linear model developed by a group of mit researchers (etzkowitz, 2004). in the linear mode, innovation is assumed educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 123 to proceed sequentially from fundamental discovery (basic research) to applied research, and then to development and marketing. the classic linear model of knowledge innovation, however, is inadequate because the nature of innovation itself is inherently non-linear (kline, 1985). later, several non-linear models ─ including interactive, cyclic, systemic, and neural models of knowledge innovation have been published in literature such as stephen klien’s chain-linked model (kline & rosenberg, 1986); ralph gomory’s circle model (gomory, 1992); alicbranscombe’s model (branscomb et al., 1992); and the neural net model (ziman, 1991). the stephen kline’s chain-linked model is the most cited non-linear innovation model. kline argues that the inadequacy of the linear model necessitates the introduction of a more complex model in order to understand the nature of innovation. the chain-linked method emphasizes the socio-technical nature of industry and technology and the necessity view it as a complex system. in the model, the first path of innovation process ─ the central chain-of-innovation ─ begins with the design component and continuous through development and production to marketing components. the second path is a series of feedback loops (mahdjoubi, 1997). cyclic model guru, ralph gomory introduced an alternative model to the linear model or what he called a ladder model. ladder type of innovation refers to the sequential process on an innovation that descends from science downward “step by step” into practice. the cyclic model, on the other hand, refers to a repeated, continuous, and incremental improvement built into a series of dynamic design or manufacturing cycles. alic-branscomb’s model regards innovation as a social process involving the application of knowledge, together with other inputs, to design, develop, create, and market final products. the output of innovation can include intangible service products as well as physical objects and systems. the output of innovation can include intangible service products as well as physical objects and systems. the artifactual products should be viewed as derivative, the consequence of research, design, development, production, and marketing activities. but when coupled with design, development implies the steady refinement of concrete products, processes, and system through an iterative process of conceptualization, preliminary design, analysis, testing and redesign. this is basically an iterative process model ─ a derivative from the linear model. ziman’s neural net model of innovation, mapped from brain analogy, introduced connectionist and parallel processing model. both the cognitive space and the organizational space are self-organizing neural net patterns of the kind to be found in a living brain, where the nodes are neurons or nerve cells, connected both locally and over long distance by fibrous dendrites and axons, and are organized in layer structures. this connectionist model suggests that “a layered system of many signal-processing units, interconnected and interacting in parallel within and between layers, has some remarkable properties” (ziman, 1991:74). by allowing each node to respond to incoming signals, a neural net can learn pattern recognition. the mind invents ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 124 and imposes patterns where none existed previously. the same may be said about the organizational network: “[…] parallel regions in the network search for similar patterns, some of which can be combined to demonstrate the presence or absence of higher order patterns” (coward, 1990:59). it is in the invention of those higher order patterns that creativity lies. both in our cognitive and organizational spaces, different neural nets extract different patterns and combine them to produce and integrate recognizable wholes. to build the ability to analyze and respond to radically different types of experience requires a transformation of the patterns, a creation of new “regions”, the mobilization of “unused neurons” and the development of new connection sensitivities: (1) to support patterns-extraction experiences that are analogous to those the brain or organization has experienced but reframed somewhat, perceived in a slightly different way; and (2) to generate pattern cascades from previously disparate regions of experiences, to make new cascade patterns (coward 1990; ziman, 1991; and paquet, 1997). in a related concept, knowledge management has several models. accordingly, t.h. davenport, d.w. de long and m. beers (1998) examined corporate knowledge management initiatives. they identified knowledge management project involved in the creation of knowledge repositories, improve knowledge access, enhancement of knowledge environment and to manage knowledge as an asset to the organization. hence, m. damarest (1997) views knowledge management from a social environment perspective that has impact within the organization. his model identifies four phases of knowledge construction, knowledge dissemination, knowledge use, and knowledge embodiment, as a knowledge management project. all these models have contributed, to some extent, in describing the process of knowledge innovation. nevertheless, the complexity and heterogeneity of innovation make it difficult to formulate generalizations (mahdjoubi, 1997). previous linear and non-linear models were either too complex or too simplistic to be applied in practical terms. for example, etzkowitz-leydesdorff ’s triple helix and ziman’s neural net models are too complicated to map and the linear model is one-dimensional flow. thus, the proposed model is to fill the gap by introducing dynamic yet generic model of knowledge innovation. based on m. damarest (1997) and the simplified triple helix model, we propose a knowledge innovation model comprising of five domains, i.e. (1) knowledge construction or basic research; (2) knowledge innovation or applied research; (3) knowledge diffusion or commercialization; (4) knowledge use or post-commercialization; and (5) feedback mechanism. for further description, see figure 1. we hypothesize that in order to support and sustain knowledge innovation process, a credible u-i-g support has been put in place and functioning at an effective level (the simplified triple helix hypothesis). first, knowledge construction (basic research). based on figure 1, the model begins with the knowledge construction phase which usually happens in university or government laboratories. basic research is also critical to firms in educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 125 figure 1: generic model of knowledge innovation certain industries particularly the manufacturing sector. the interactive model brings interaction between basic research and applied research, vice versa. the phase of basic research can move to applied level (knowledge innovation level) if there is a sufficient knowledge base and if there is a need or demand to transform the basic research findings to a more practical and usable “product”. the flow between knowledge creation and knowledge innovation is not static. it may go back and forth depending on the feedback received regarding the new discovery and how it could be improvised to a more sophisticated and real-life functional level. in every stage of the model there is a feedback mechanism. in this model, feedback is central to the process; and that is why the feedback loop is placed in the center of the model. second, knowledge innovation (applied research). in most of the cases, the knowledge innovation phase is context-specific. knowledge innovation can be carried out in a joint applied research between university and industry (or government) in order to produce viable results that can benefit the clients and other stakeholders. it is also an interactive process. for instance, the potential of an interactive model became apparent during the second world war (1939-1945), when scientists working on strategic problems in wartime research projects such as radar and surveillance systems for the military, who believed that they had put aside their academic pursuit (basic research). later, they found that the project has spawn new theoretical derivatives that they have to revert back to basic fundamental research. as mentioned earlier, in order for this model to work, cooperation among all parties (u-i-g) must be put in place to ensure the process of knowledge creation feedback university-industry-government knowledge creation knowledge innovation knowledge diffusion knowledge use university-industry-government consumers ramlee b. mustapha, proposing a new model of knowledge innovation for research university 126 and innovation is going at the appropriate pace. mechanisms to assess or evaluate knowledge flow must be rigorous enough to enhance knowledge innovation. new knowledge may be created at each stage but this on its own will not necessarily drive the project to the next stage. third, knowledge diffusion (commercialization). the production and diffusion of knowledge has long viewed as a vital component of economic growth (cowan & jonard, 1999). knowledge, when created, is not globally available. that is why dissemination or diffusion of new knowledge is important. hence, e.m. rogers (1995:5) defined diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”. further, the diffusion process involves the spread of a new knowledge or technology from its source to potential adopters. the commercialization of research findings is expected to occur at the end of the knowledge innovation phase (applied research). the process operates in tandem, often through the university’s technology transfer office, moving relevant knowledge and technology out of the university and its liaison office and bringing problems in ─ an interactive process is generated in which each phase interacts with the other. in order to generate and refine the new knowledge, evaluation mechanism is needed to diagnose the weaknesses and drawbacks of the “knowledge” (usually in the forms of technologies and products). fourth, knowledge use (post-commercialization). final stage is the knowledge use or post-commercialization phase. this is the real litmus test for the final “product”. if the “product” is accepted by the users then it will circulate in the market but if it was found “defective” or useless then it will be either discarded (discontinued) or recycled back for improvement. this interactive-cyclic process of knowledge innovation exemplifies charles darwin’s classic theory of the “survival of the fittest”. the plethora of new artifacts that are invented and put on the market, only the superior few that eventually survive (ziman, 2000). conclusion knowledge innovation in a contemporary hyper competitive market could enhance an organization’s competitive edge. an academic revolution toward entrepreneurial paradigm is now an emerging phenomenon. capitalization of knowledge in the increasingly recognized knowledge-based economy has called for new mission and governance of research universities. with the challenge for universities to consider the changing paradigm, university administrators and stakeholders should understand the new roles of entrepreneurial university. knowledge innovation is critical in an entrepreneurial university. this article proposed a generic model of knowledge innovation based on knowledge innovation framework and the simplified triple helix model. this model hypothesizes that sustainable support and collaboration from industries and government are needed to facilitate research universities to actively involved in knowledge innovation. research has shown that universities with a long tradition of ties with industry and having high quality educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 127 research tend to generate more knowledge innovations. this means that synergistic and sustainable partnership and adequate funding improve quality of university research thus make it easier to transform universities into innovators. references anselin, l., a. varga & z. acs. 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(2000). technological innovation as an evolutionary process. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 103© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti description of the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process using the lesson study abstract: the learning process, which was made by the model observer lecturers, was success in increasing the students learning process. based on the result and the discussion of some researchers, it can be concluded that the learning process, in the basic subject of mathematics learning process through applying “lesson study”, can help in increasing the learning students’ motivation. the learning model modification was done based on the students need. meanwhile, the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are needed in the learning process. the intrinsic motivation is the encouragement coming from the students themselves, such as the desire and the willingness to be success, the encouragement and the learning need, and the dream of the future. the extrinsic motivation is the encouragement coming from the outside of the students themselves, which are shown by the existence of the reward, the interesting activity, the conducive learning environment in the learning process, so that the students are able to learn well. this research aimed at describing the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process through applying the “lesson study”. the research consisted of 4 cycles, and every cycle consisted of 3 steps, they are “plan, do, and see”. the subject of research was the class d mathematics education study program students of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in academic year 2012. the data were got from the observation sheet, video recording, and questionnaire. the data analysis techniques were data reducing, data presenting, and concluding. the research showed that the students learning motivation was different in every cycle and the highest average motivation score was the fourth cycle. key words: learning motivation, lesson study, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, basic subject of mathematics, and students learning process. about the authors: anggun badu kusuma, m.pd., fitrianto eko subekti, m.pd., and reni untarti, m.pd. are the lecturers at the department of mathematics education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. the authors can be reached at: anggun.badu@gmail.com, efitrians@ymail.com, and reniuntarti@gmail.com how to cite this article? kusuma, anggun badu, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti. (2015). “description of the students learning motivation in the subject of mathematics learning basic and process using the lesson study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.103-110. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/description-of-the-students-learning-motivation/ chronicle of the article: accepted (january 9, 2015); revised (february 10, 2015); and published (february 28, 2015). activities and the reason why they do this thing (brophy, 2010). the factors influencing the learning motivation, such as the individuality factor, the class condition, the cultural-social, and the internal factor (dembo, 2014). furthermore, these factors can be categorized into two major factors, they are: internal factors and external factors. motivation coming from the internal factor influence is called as an intrinsic’s motivation; meanwhile the one coming from the influence of the external factor is called extrinsic’s motivation (woolfolk, 2007). intrinsic motivation is the natural preference to find and to defeat a chalange during someone is trying to chase the introduction motivation is the combination between feeling in grabbing and arising the succeed encouragement (johnson & johnson, 1987). motivation can change the activities that are done by the students in the learning process. the lecturers can’t ask the students to study, but they can create the studying motivation by changing the condition of the learning environment and the students’ psychology. by having this motivation, someone can have this encouragement to do something (hook & vass, 2000). the arising of the learning motivation can come from the students’ subjective experiences, which is connected by the involving of the learning anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti, description of the students learning motivation 104 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com individual longing (woolfolk, 2007). when the students are motivated intrinsically, they don’t need the appreciation, the punishment, or even the command coming from someone else to do the activity. the motivation coming from the principal willingness or the satisfying toward the success that encourage someone in doing the activity and it comes from the individual involving in doing something is called intrinsic motivation (cohen & swedlik, 2005). in another one, the power that encourages someone coming from the appreciation, such as the salary, the bonus, or even the obstacle such as loosing job, embracement in the social live, is called extrinsic motivation (cohen & swedlik, 2005; and arends & kilcher, 2010). the students will be motivated, when they are given with the choice, are happy in facing the challenge which is suitable with their ability and get the reward consisting the information that is not used as the control. there are some types of motivation that can be used in the learning process, such as: (1) the score giving; (2) the reward giving; (3) the ego-involvement; (4) the assessment giving; (5) the product showing; (6) the cooperation encouraging; (7) the compliment giving; (8) the warning giving toward the bad students; (9) the competition giving; (10) the learning willingness encouraging; (11) the challenging assignment giving; and (12) the interest arising (zaim et al., 2009). based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are needed in the learning process. the intrinsic motivation is the encouragement coming from the students themselves, such as the desire and the willingness to be success, the encouragement and the learning need, and the dream of the future. the extrinsic motivation is the encouragment coming from the outside of the students themselves, which are shown by the existence of the reward, the interesting activity, the conducive learning environment in the learning process, so that the students are able to learn well. by having the motivation, the students can develop the activities and initiative, can aim and maintain the perseverance in doing the learning activities. the students should have the learning motivation in the learning process. the learning motivation is absolutely needed since by having the strong motivation, the learning process will run well and the product will be satisfying. meanwhile, the class condition in the learning process of class d at the study program of mathematics education fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, in academic year 2012, showed that the students didn’t focus, most of the students were passive, and there were only some students who had strong motivation that could be shown by their active participation during the learning process. the problem above should be overcame. in order to encourage the learning motivation, the teachers can foster the students’ extrinsic motivation, so that the students can encourage the intrinsic motivation as well (cf suherman et al., 2003; and aida & wan, 2009). cooperative learning and lesson study one of the learning processes that can be used to encourage the students learning motivation is the use of cooperative learning. in this learning process, the students can cooperate to learn and to be responsible toward their advancement of cooperative learning (slavin, 1995; johnson & johnson, 2002; and jolliffe, 2007). the cooperative learning includes the students’ small group activity, which works together as a team to solve the problem given and to reach the same goal (suherman et al., 2003). moreover, this learning process is often used as the success learning model for the teamwork, which has the heterogeneous members (sapon-shevin, 2004; and dimyati & mudjiono, 2009). there are 5 elements belonging to the cooperative learning, such as: (1) positive interdependence, it is the cooperative bond among the students to reach the common goal and the existence of the bond among the students in a group; (2) individual accountability, it is the individual responsibility in the cooperative learning, that is to help their friends who need helps and also they do not only be a follower for their friends’ product; (3) interaction, it is the interaction educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 105© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com among the students in their group to help each other to be success in the learning process; (4) interpersonal and small group skill, it is the ability that asks the students not only to learn the material given but also they should have the interaction with the others in their group, and also how the students act as the member of a group and how to deliver their idea; and (5) group processing, it is the element which believes that the cooperative learning cannot run without the group process (johnson & johnson, 2002). the advantages of the cooperative learning are: (1) positively dependence; (2) the acceptance of the individual differences; (3) the students engaging in planning and managing the class; (4) the relaxing and fun class; (5) the friendship relation between the teachers and the students; and (6) the sufficient chance to express the joyful feeling (isjoni, 2010). it can be concluded, from the explanation above, that the cooperative learning is one of the methods focusing on the students center emphasizing the collaboration among the groups aiming at the success learning product for the individual or group as well. by having the responsibility, it is hoped to encourage the students learning motivation to grab the common succeed. the quality of the learning can always be controlled and also be risen by doing the planning, applying, and evaluating continuously. the lesson study is one of the ways to rise the quality of the learning, since it has 3 steps: plan, do, and see. the lesson study applies the leaning community concept that motivates each other to learn more knowledge (syamsuri & ibrohim, 2012). besides, the lesson study is a method for analytical case for the learning process in order to help the professional development for the teachers and give the chance for the teachers to help each other in learning process in the class (kemendiknas ri, 2012). the advantages of the lesson study, as an alternative way to heighten the learning process, are: (1) the implementation of the lesson study based on the professional knowledge taken from the practice and the learning result; (2) focusing of the students learning quality; (3) the learning aim becomes the main focus; (4) used as the learning development; and (5) making the teachers as the learning research (syamsuri & ibrohim, 2012). another advantage of the lesson study is having a role to develop the learning system and the teacher’s professionalism (susilo et al., 2009). the mathematics learning basic and process is one of a compulsory subject that should be taken by the students at the study program of mathematics education fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, in the fourth semester. this subject consists of the material about how to plan a mathematics learning process in the high school based on the valid curriculum in that time. the used curriculum is curriculum 2013, so that it can motivate the students since this curriculum is a new curriculum and the students do not get the material of this curriculum yet from the other subjects. aim and method of the research the aim of the study is to help in developing the students’ motivation of the class d at the study program of mathematics education fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, in academic year 2012 using lesson study. the learning model that was used in the first meeting was the cooperative learning model. the model was used in the next meeting was the modification of the cooperative learning model that was suited by the result of the cycles in the step of lesson study. this research belongs to the qualitative description research based on the lesson study learning step. this research was conducted on the even semester in academic year 2013/2014 in the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. the subject of the research was the fourth semester class d students at the study program of mathematics education fkip ump in year 2012, who studied the process basic of mathematics learning subject on the even semester in academic year 2013/2014. anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti, description of the students learning motivation 106 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the research implementation was conducted in 4 cycles, with the steps of the cycles were: first, plan. this step aimed at planning the learning process, so that it can give the solution toward the problem and the events happened in the learning process done by the role lecturer. the model lecturer and four observer lecturers plan the learning process. before doing the plan, the model lecturer gives the teaching instruments to the observer lecturers and, then, the instruments are evaluated. the teaching instruments consist of lesson plan, class seat layout, learning observation sheet, and learning motivation observation sheet. the learning process focuses on the students in order to encourage the students learning motivation. second, do. this step aimed at implementing the learning process using the plan that has been made in the previous step. in this step, the model lecture implement the learning process based on the evaluation from the first step. the handbook for the model lecturer and the students in the learning process is lesson plan, which is agreed in the first step. in this step, the role of the observer is to take note the student’s activities, which take the attention and take note the students learning motivation improvement. the guide for the observer in doing this observation is the class seat layout of the students, lesson plan, the learning observation sheet, and learning motivation observation sheet. third, see. this step aimed at to do the reflection and evaluation toward the learning implementing in the second step. this step begins with the explanation from the model lecturer of what he/she did in the learning process. the model lecturer gives the selfreflection about what he/she has felt and what has happen during the learning process. he/ she gives the obstacles which were got in the learning process. the next activities in this step are continued by giving the explanation by the observer lecturers of what they have been found in the learning process in the second step. the finding may be the positive and the negative as well toward the learning process and the students learning motivation. fourth, suggestion. the next activity in this step is the suggestion giving from the observer lecturers toward the problems happen. the suggestion, moreover, will be made in the form of lesson plan by the model lecturer and then it is used as the evaluation substance in the “plan” step for the next cycles. the data collection techniques, which are used, are following here: first, observation. the observation is conducted during the learning process in which in the “do” step. the observation is done by four observers lecturer. the observation guides, which are used, are the learning process observation sheet and the learning motivation observation sheet. the observation sheet consists of some questions about the learning process, the students learning motivation, and the finding by the observers during the learning process. second, questionnaire. the questionnaire is given to the students in order to know the students learning motivation after the learning process. the questionnaire that is used consists of some closed questions to describe the intrinsic and the extrinsic motivations of the students. the questionnaire is filled by giving the check mark in the column given based on the suitable answer of the students. the column consists of 4 types of scores, such as: score 1 means that it’s never done; score 2 means that it’s rarely done; score 3 for often; and score 4 for always. third, documentation. the documentations, which are used, are in the form of video, photograph from every steps “plan, do, and see”. the data which is got will be analyzed qualitatively using the data reduction, data presenting, and concluding. the data reduction is directed to the students activities connected to the learning motivation and the new findings which are interested in the learning process. the result of the data reducing, then, is shown in the data presenting in the form of a picture or some explanation. the next step of analysis is making the conclusion by considering and joining all of the data. the research result and discussion based on the research, and it was got the data, which were about the learning educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 107© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com motivation of the students and the solution given to overcome the problem risen in every cycles. the data taken from the questionnaire about the students learning motivation are presented in figure 1. the learning model changing was done in every learning process, as shown in table 1. the description of the students learning motivation was summarized based on every cycle in the learning process done. the description of the students learning motivation in every cycle is given as follows: cycle i: plan. the main discussion in this step for cycle i was the learning process model that would be implemented in the step “do”. the learning process, which was implemented, was the cooperative learning process which had been modified. the modification was located in the discussion section. it was done in order to know the students condition and the motivation toward the learning process. the next modification was in the discussion presentation outcome. the material which was presented by the students came from the partner of every student, so they didn’t present their own material. it meant that the students could be motivated in doing the discussion, besides they were given a chance to learn their own material and their partner’s material as well. do. the action done in the step “do” was suited with the lesson plan which was made, but there were some students who still needed more explanation about the learning process. it was caused by the use of this new learning process for the students, so that they needed more time to adapt it. there were two forms of discussion rising during the learning process. the first form was done in pairs; and the second one that was done in a group with one student became the leader in the discussion, meanwhile the others would respond to it. see. the student’s motivation could be considered as good in a whole, but there were figure 1: the average of the students learning motivation based on the questionnaire table 1: the changing of learning model step cycles changing of learning model cycle i 1. the discussion form was decided by each groups. there were 2 forms of discussions, they are 2-3 students coupled form and a group (5 students, one student as the speaker and 4 others as the audiences). 2. the presentation was done randomly. the role of the presentation was that the group who had been chosen randomly would present their paper pair. 3. each of the learning process consisted of 2 presentations in which the drawing of cycle i was done in the beginning of the learning process. cycle ii 1. the drawing of the second group was done after the presentation of the first group. 2. the form of the group discussion was done in pair. 3. it was done by arranging the seat position and the discussion pair member. cycle iii it was given an ice-breaking activity as the interlude during the discussion. cycle iv 1. before the learning process, the students were asked to make a mind mapping. 2. the ice-breaking was done once that was after the first presentation was done, before the second presentation would be done. the ice-breaking was given in the form of physical activity guided by the lecturer. anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti, description of the students learning motivation 108 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com some students who still needed more attention. the discussion of pairs 1 and 5 were done by some students only, meanwhile the other students were passively became the listeners. for example, during dyah ratna did the presentation, eddo just kept silent. the more explanations for every indicator were presented as follow: first, the existence of willingness to be success. most of the all groups had the eager to succeed. it could be seen from the students who were very active during the discussion, not only in the group but also in the class discussion. in the contrary, in the end of the learning process, widan and bangkit were doing their own conversation instead of paying attention to the material, even their seat were far each other. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to good criterion. second, the existence of the encouragement and the necessity of learning. almost all of the students were motivated actively to give their opinions, or to have a discussion, and then to take note the result of the discussion in the learning process. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to good criterion. third, the existence of hope or future dream. the students also had their hope or their own dream to reach. for instance, arum wanted to know in solving the obstacle of the curriculum 2013 implementation, moreover they also wanted that this curriculum could be implemented maximal. despite of it, there was a student who was passive and didn’t have any hope and it could be seen from his/her act during the learning process which was lazy and didn’t seem enthusiastic. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to very good criterion. fourth, the existence of reward in the learning process. the reward was given to the students who were being active or giving their opinion by giving them the additional point based on the name and the students number mentioned. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to good criterion. fifth, the existence of the interesting activity in the learning process. this activity was considered as the interesting activity by the students, who liked to give their opinion since they would have a chance to give their opinions or their ideas. in the contrary, for the students who were passive, this activity was not interested to them. they would be active when the lecturer asked them to give their opinions or ideas. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to good criterion. sixth, the existence of the conducive learning environment. the good environment would give the students the chance to experience the good learning process. moreover, this environment gave the wide chance for the students to develop their skills, beside in mastering the learning material. the learning processes were so various, such as having one presenter in a group (dyah and eko); doing face to face (dona and arum); and doing discussion (windarti, ita, and yuni). the learning environment was shown surprisingly in this cycle. taken from the students’ questionnaire, this indicator belonged to good criterion. cycle ii: plan. the changings, were done in the cycle ii, were: (1) the second drawing of the group, which would do the presentation, would be done after the presentation of the first group; (2) during the discussion session, the students who delivered the question and also answered it, were asked to stand; (3) group discussion was done in pair, since in a big group there were some students, who were not actively involved in the learning process; (4) there were some students who still needed more attention, such as fuad, eddo, and nur arif; and (5) the lecturer arranged the students seat and the discussion partner. do. there were some groups that weren’t suit with the model lecturer’s command. the groups, which didn’t do the pair discussion, were group 2 & 6 and group 3 & 4. the students, who needed more attention, had become more active in the discussion, such as nur arif and eddo, moreover fuad could speak actively even still reading the summary. the effort of the lecturer, in trading the member of the group, showed the significant result to fuad, and the students who were not actively involved in the learning process. there educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 109© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com was a student who needed more attention in this cycle, named m. arif. m. arif was similar with fuad in delivering the material, in which both of them were reading the material without understanding what they explained about. it could be seen when they looked so confuse to follow the discussion session. see. the student’s motivation in this step was better than the first cycle. the further explanations in every indicator were presented as follow: first, the existence of willingness to be success. the students had the eager to be success and it could be seen from the students who were actively involved by delivering some questions to the presenter. the students’ questionnaire showed that this indicator was considered as good. second, the existence of the encouragement and the necessity of learning. this condition could be seen from diah, the student who gave the idea to complete the answer, and also the other students also gave their opinion during the discussion. third, the existence of hope or future dream. many students were involved actively in the learning process, despite of it, there were some students who did their own conversations, such as yuni and retno. the students’ questionnaire showed that this indicator was considered as very good. fourth, the existence of reward in the learning process. the rewards given were the applause and the additional score for the students who got involved in giving their opinion. fifth, the existence of the interesting activity in the learning process. the interesting activity, which was done, was showing the report of the discussion about the students who delivered their opinions or ideas without the request of the lecturer. sixth, the existence of the conducive learning environment. the good environment would give the students the chance to experience the good learning process. it could be seen from the act of the students who were enthusiastic and the ability they had in following the learning process. then, the condition became different when the second presentation began. the enthusiasm of the students, during the second presentation, was lower than the first presentation. it might happen because the students felt boring. cycle iii: plan. in this cycle, there was a different from the previous cycles. it was given the ice-breaking in the discussion session as the interlude. the ice-breaking consisted of the physical activities, which were guided by the lecturer and the video which was shown in the front of the class. do. the group discussion had been done in pair. there was a student who was lack of concentration named indah. the implementation of ice-breaking run well, but it didn’t work when it used the video. after watching the video, the students didn’t focus on the learning process, they still were attracted with the video. the video, which was watch, was about the mistakes done in the senior high school learning process. see. all of the indicators in the learning process were done appropriately. the students’ motivation in delivering their opinions was rising. there was a student who was lack of concentration named indah, because she was lack of preparation in attending the learning process. it could be seen that in the group discussion, she always read the material from her laptop. if the students’ answer was not appropriate with the learning aim, the lecturer would ask other students to deliver their opinion and also would deliver her/his opinion to complete the answer. all of the discussion sessions run well, but one discussion which was done after the second ice-breaking and the video watching was not run well. it happened because the video watched decreased the students’ concentration in the learning process. cycle iv: plan. in this step, it was given the innovation by asking the students to make mind mapping as homework. so that the students would not read their material, but they would read their mind mapping during the discussion session. the ice-breaking was done once only, and it was done after they had the first presentation before they did the second presentation. the ice-breaking was physical activities guided by the lecturer. do. the students were motivated to give their opinion. even indah was also motivated anggun badu kusuma, fitrianto eko subekti & reni untarti, description of the students learning motivation 110 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com in the discussion session. the mind mapping of the students could help them in the discussion session. see. all of the indicators of the learning motivation were done appropriately. the students were actively involved in the learning process. based on the students’ questionnaire, there were six questions given to the students and they belonged to very good. the activity, which needed to be modified, was the mind mapping making. some of the students didn’t make the mind mapping appropriately, moreover some of them still made it in the form of material summary. conclusion the learning process, which was made by the model observer lecturers, was success in increasing the students learning process. based on the result and the discussion of the research, it can be concluded that the learning process in the basic subject of mathematics learning process, through applying “lesson study”, can help in increasing the learning students’ motivation. the learning model modification was done based on the students need. this 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(2007). educational psychology. new york: person educational, inc., tenth edition. zaim et al. (2009). “pembelajaran di sekolah dasar dan menengah” in jurnal guru, vol.6, no.2. © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 25 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(2), february 2019 © 2018 by minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare i educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 11(1), august 2018 volume 11(1), august 2018 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] mohammed sabrin, a comparative policy analysis of elementary teacher education in the top performing asian timss countries. [1-16] nur anisah jamil, differences in student self-efficacy by gender. [17-28] leudane l. lonez & nicette n. ganal, an evaluation of four-day compressed workweek of ifugao state university system: basis for action plan. [29-48] mohammed alhaji yusuf & norhasni zainal abiddin, relationship between training and job performance to enhance human resource development. [49-58] jerick c. ferrer, financial capability of public school teachers in the philippines. [59-78] info-edu-tainment. [79-88] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare volume 11(2), february 2019 p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x contents foreword. [ii] ronald ganiban, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., antecedents of teacher empowerment. [89-108] syarifah setiana ardiati, effectiveness mindful teaching to improve teacher happiness. [109-126] abdorrakhman gintings, the correlation between the understanding on children with special needs and teaching profession with the performance of pre-service teacher in internship program at school for persons with disability. [127-138] min shen, examining the implementation of a flipped chinese classroom in a university in brunei darussalam: a mixed method research. [139-156] cicih sutarsih & udin syaefudin saud, the implementation of professional learning community for elementary teachers. [157-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-180] educare: international journal for educational studies will provides a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, and expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online), was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar the readibility of the arabic textbook for the students of senior high school in indonesia written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati abstract: textbooks are essential parts in learning process for students and even teachers. textbooks are considered to be the basic foundations of courses. textbooks may not contain all aspects needed in the teaching and learning process, but their existence as teaching sources is still paramount. this study is aimed at analyzing the readability level of an arabic textbook for eleventh graders and identifying the factors influencing the readibility. to achieve the aim of this study, a cloze test was used to measure the level of readability of the textbook. this study is a descriptive quantitative approach. a questionnaire was also employed to identify the factors that influence the readability level of the book. this study involved 36 students of grade xi of sma pgii (sekolah menengah atas, pendidikan guru islam indonesia or senior high school, indonesia muslim teacher education) 2 bandung, west java, indonesia, in the school year of 2016/2017. three passages from the book entitled “al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat” [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) were randomly chosen as a sample. the results of the study show that the level of readability of the book was medium with a percentage of 40.6%. this suggests that the book can be fairly easily used and understood by students and they can interact with the book. guidance and assistance from a teacher is advisable. this medium level of readability is generally caused by the reader factor, specifically the students’ reading skill. key words: level of readability; arabic textbook; arabic language teaching. introduction textbooks are essential parts in learning process for students and even teachers. textbooks are considered to be the basic foundations of courses. textbooks may not contain all aspects needed in the teaching and learning process, but their existence as teaching sources is still paramount (okeeffe, 2013; casper et al., 2014; and gunantar, 2017:173). textbooks serve as a link between educators and learners resulting in twoway communication in learning (husein, sahrani & syamsiyah, 2012:x). this twoway communication is essential in learning, because as e.n. inah (2015) puts it as following here: about the authors: dr. yayan nurbayan is a lecturer at the faculty of language and literature education upi (indonesian university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. ihwan rahman bahtiar, m.pd. is a lecturer at the faculty of language and art unj (state university of jakarta), jalan rawamangun muka, east jakarta, indonesia. for academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mails address at: yayannurbayan@upi.edu and achita.weng@gmail.com suggested citation: nurbayan, yayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar. (2019). “the readibility of the arabic textbook for the students of senior high school in indonesia written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august, pp.25-38. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi with issn 1979-7877 (print) and issn 2621-587x (online). article timeline: accepted (april 21, 2019); revised (june 22, 2019); and published (august 31, 2019). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 26 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook […] in the world of education, the learning process will be effective if communication and interaction between teachers with students occurs intensively (inah, 2015:152). textbooks also serve as a technical translation of the implementation of a curriculum (elsaib, 2008:22). according to r.h.z. thamus (2002), and other scholars, they are a reflection of the progress of one country’s civilization and its ideological representation (thamus, 2002:40; gurevitch et al. eds., 2005; and lorenzo, 2014). a similar statement was also echoed by s. asyrofi & t. pransiska (2016), and other scholars, that a textbook is like a vessel, whose contents are science and ideology to be presented and instilled to students, teachers, and other readers (asyrofi & pransiska, 2016:5; brun, 2016; and loewen, 2017). to put it simply, we can conclude that textbooks play a key role as: [...] media and learning resources so as to present science and life values related to basic competencies taught to learners (rediati, 2015:2). based on the above statements, it is clear that a textbook is an obligatory component to ensure the success of learning. its existence will continue although technological progress has spawned a variety of new teaching resources and learning media (cf fauzan, 2011; eady, 2013; and hepp, fernandez & garcia, 2015). given the central role of textbooks, each educational unit must ensure the availability of textbooks in their respective institutions. the obligations are very clearly stated in the government regulation no.19/2005 on the national standard of education, chapter vii, article 42, which reads that every educational unit shall have facilities covering furniture, educational equipment, educational media, books, and other learning resources, consumables, as well as other equipment needed to support a regular and continuous learning process (cf kemdiknas ri, 2005; sayuti, 2015; and moec ri, 2016). due to the primacy of textbooks, educators should carefully and critically choose the textbook to use. they need to pay especial attention to the suitability of the content and language of the book with the level of learners. in this context, a.e. momeni & a.k. al-momani (2011), and other scholars, revealed that a textbook is not an ordinary book written for every reader, but it is composed and suited to the readers’ age and ability to think (buzzetto-more, sweat-guy & elobaid, 2007; momeni & al-momani, 2011:560; and loewen, 2017). the suitability of the contents of the book and language with the level of ability of the readers is what is generally termed as readibility. in this respect, a. wawan jatnika (2007) and other scholars viewed that a good textbook not only contains material that in accordance with the curriculum, but it must be written with a high degree of readibility (jatnika, 2007:196; muslih, 2010; and muniroh, 2018). by definition, readibility is conformity between a book (a text) with the reading ability of the readers. this accords with f. meqdadi & a. al-zubi (2005)’s definition of readibility as: مدى ملاءمة لغة المحتوى لمادة تعليمية مقدمة في كتاب لقدرة الطلبة القرائية ]...[ translation: […] the suitability of the contents of a book with students reading skill (meqdadi & al-zubi, 2005:213). this is also in line with h. dalman (2014) and other scholars’ definition that readibility is the extent to which a book/a text is suitable for particular readers seen from complexity point of view (dalman, 2014; bailin & grafstein, 2016; and yulianto, 2019). in arabic, readability is defined as maqru’iyyah or inqira’iyyah. it is a concept refers to the level or degree of difficulty for a reading material (husna, 2016; halim et al., 2017:949; and hussain & mamat, 2019:1673). while both terms are acceptable equivalents for readibility, k.h. abu amshah (2015) contends that is a more accurate equivalent to denote readibility than (amshah, 2015:3). this is based on the following morphological analysis on the two terms: © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 27 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 firstly, the word derives from the word from the template which signifies or to leave an impression on a particular action. that is why when we say or “(if) i read a book, then the book is readable”. what that sentence means is a book that one reads is a book worth reading (amshah, 2015). secondly, the word from its form is mashdar shinâ’iy categorized into the group of isim maf ’ūl. and isim maf ’ūl itself denotes objects undergoing actions. mashdar shinâ’iy serves to signal the characteristics of isim (nouns) that it modifies. since is isim maf ’ūl, the word in question simply means the occurence of a reading process without regard to whether what is read is easy or difficult (amshah, 2015). based on the above analysis, k.h. abu amshah (2015), and other scholars, prefered to adopt the word as the equivalent for readibility in arabic, because in the term signifies that the text is: (1) readable; (2) appealing; (3) uses an attractive and harmonious writing style; and (4) interesting (cf tabatabaei & bagheri, 2013; amshah, 2015:3-4; and rohmatillah, 2017). readibility is a factor to be considered in the preparation of textbooks because, according to m. habib allah (2009) and other scholars, the suitability of a text with its readers will encourage the readers to acquire the knowledge contained in the reading and will increase the readers’ attention to what they read (habib allah, 2009:160; bailey, 2011; and rohmatillah, 2017). similarly, o. thomas & l. holly (2004), and other scholars, point out that the appropriateness between textbook readability and students’ reading ability will help the students succeed and maintain their motivation in reading (thomas & holly, 2004:239; bahrudin, 2016; and rohmatillah, 2017). the results show that a high level of textbook readability can improve understanding, reading speed, seriousness, and motivation to read up to 65% (mahmoud, 2012:90; rohmatillah, 2017; and brysbaert, 2018). considering that good readability positively affects the readers’ ability and motivation of reading, y. abu gehjouh (2009), and other scholars, emphasized that readibility is an important aspect that the author of the textbook needs to consider in setting the teaching material specifications for the instructional material presented according to the age and needs of the reader, which can later develop students’ thinking skills as readers (dubay, 2006; gehjouh, 2009:192; and rohmatillah, 2017). although the issue of textbook readability is crucial, studies related to the readability of arabic language textbooks are relatively scant, especially one that also examines the factors that influence readibility (cf dubay, 2004; abubaker, 2013; and bailin & grafstein, 2016). in terms of factors, h. alnagy (2002), and other scholars, mentioned that readibility was influenced by two factors: the reader him/herself and the reading factor. firstly, the reader factor includes two other factors, namely the ability to read and motivation in reading. secondly, the reading factor includes several other factors: typography, word choice, sentence structure, and systematic presentation (alnagy, 2002:530; rohmatillah, 2017; and sholihah, 2018). based on the above background, especially the primary importance of examination of the readability of arabic language textbooks, the present research fills the gap by looking into arabic textbook readability in order to measure the readibility level of arabic textbooks at a high school level and identify the factors that influence the readibility. methods this is a descriptive quantitative approach (cf creswell, 2003; williams, 2007; and rasi et al., 2017). the research took place in sma pgii (sekolah menengah atas, pendidikan guru islam indonesia or senior high school, indonesia muslim teacher education) 2 bandung, west java, indonesia. the samples involved in this study were 36 randomly chosen students of grade xi. the instruments used in this study were tests and questionnaires (creswell, 2003; williams, 2007; and wilkinson & © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 28 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook birmingham, 2014). the type of test used was cloze test on three different parts of a passage: the beginning, middle, and end. three passages were selected as research texts, then a test of readibility for each passage was undertaken. the cloze test procedure involves taking a text and deleting parts of it in either a random or fixed pattern. the deleted words in the texts are every 5th to 7th. the next step is the assessment and scoring (haywood & tzuriel eds., 1992; creswell, 2003; and williams, 2007). the following assessment formula was used: the following presents e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969)’ scoring system, as cited also in j.w. cunningham & r.j. tierney (1979) and wahidmurni (2017), shown in the table 1. scoring was initially done on passages, then onto the book as a whole. the final phase was the analysis of why the readibility test results have a high/medium/low level of readability. the questionnaire was used to ascertain the factors that affect the readibility level of the textbook entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) under investigation. it consisted of 16 questions using rensis likert (1932) scale, and included two factors that affect readability, i.e. the reader factor and the reading. the questionnaire was distributed to the respondents of this research. the scores obtained for each item were calculated, then mean scores and percentages were counted. from these scores, which factors are the most dominant which affects a certain level of legibility of textbooks can be readily identified (likert, 1932; arifah & afidati, 2012; and joshi et al., 2015). prior to use, the two instruments were tested in advance of validity and reliability. to test the instrument, three doctoral experts were consulted to request corrections, assessments, and validation of the test instrument to be tested to the learners. once declared feasible, test items were verified using a test-retest or consistency of results testing the measure with the same subjects twice (cf sullivan, 2011; joshi et al., 2015; and leavy, 2017:116). calculated using l. cronbach (1951)’s alfa technique with spss (statistical package for the social sciences) 23, the results of the reliability test indicate that the test was declared reliable, because the value is 0.964 or greater than 0.6, as per the cutoff point posited by uma sekaran (2003); andrew garth (2008); and d. priyatno (2014:66). like the test instrument, the questionnaire was also tested for its validity and reliability. after calculated by karl pearson (1895 and 1948)’s correlation method, the validity test results show that the questionnaire was valid to be used as the research instrument, because the score of each item is greater than 0.361. as for the reliability level, the test results indicate that the questionnaire is declared reliable because the value is 0.741 or greater than 0.6 (cf pearson, 1895 and 1948; nikolic et al., 2012; and chee, 2013). findings and discussion readibility level. as stated earlier, to gauge the readibility level of the textbook entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written table 1: readibility level scores readibility level > 60% high 40% -60% medium < 40% low source: adapted from e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969); j.w. cunningham & r.j. tierney (1979); and wahidmurni (2017). © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 29 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) under study, cloze tests on three passages were administered to the student participants (taylor, 1953; arifah & afidati, 2012; and brown, yamashiro & ogane, 2017). what follows is a cloze test on passage 1; and then see also the table 2. from the table 2, it is clear that the mean score of the students’ correct answers in the first passage is 5.39 of 11 omitted words, or 49%. based on e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969)’s assessment criteria, the level of legibility of this passage is at a moderate level (40% -60%). with this level, m.g. bogdanoff & r.c. katz (1983); k. buqahoos & a. ismail (2001); and m. jawarneh (2008) hold that the students can basically access the text, but they still need guidance or assistance from the teacher in reading and understanding the text (rankin & culhane, 1969; bogdanoff & katz, 1983; buqahoos & ismail, 2001:117; and jawarneh, 2008:128). the following is a cloze test on passage 2; and then see also the table 3. the table 3 reveals that the mean score of the students’ correct answers in the first passage is 4.97 of 11 omitted words, or 45.2%. based on e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969)’s assessment criteria, the level of legibility of this passage is at a moderate level (40% -60%). with this level, as m.g. bogdanoff & r.c. katz (1983); k. buqahoos & a. ismail (2001); and m. jawarneh (2008) mentioned, the text was still accessible, but assistance from the teacher in reading and understanding the text was necessary (rankin & culhane, 1969; bogdanoff & katz, 1983; buqahoos & ismail, 2001:117; and jawarneh, 2008:128). the following is a cloze test on passage 3; and then see also the table 4. the table 4 reveals that the mean score of the students’ correct answers in the first passage is 4.25 of 14 omitted words, or 45.2%. based on e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969)’s assessment criteria, the level of legibility of this passage is at a low level (< 40%). meanwhile, m.g. bogdanoff & r.c. katz (1983); k. buqahoos & a. ismail (2001); and m. jawarneh (2008) argued that with this level that the students cannot read and understand the text unless there was guidance and assistance from their teacher/mentor (rankin & culhane, 1969; bogdanoff & katz, 1983; buqahoos & ismail, 2001:117; and jawarneh, 2008:128). general readability level. to measure the readibility level of the entire content of the arabic in question, the mean scores of the previous three tests were counted, which generates the following data in table 5. from the table 5, we can see that the mean د َنِبْيل َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ ْسَرة السَّ ُ أ مٌّ ُ َباَحَة أ ِة الَمْدَرَسِة الّسِ اَنِويَّ َّ ٌة اْسُمَها الث َ ف ل ُمَوظَّ وَّ َ َدة الأ ّيِ ُخوَها السَّ َ بُّ أ حِ ُ بُّ ي حِ ُ ت ُهَما َ د َنِبْيل َو2(... َمْيُموَنة ل َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ َدة َمْيُموَنة. السَّ ّيِ ُه َزْوَجة 1(... السَّ َ د َنِبْيل ل َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ د َنِبْيل. السَّ َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ ْسَرة السَّ ُ َهِذِه أ ْرَحان. َ ي اْسُمَها ُسَعاد َواْبٌن َواِحٌد اْسُمُه ف انِ َّ ة َوالث حَ ْ ِري َ َتاِن 3(... اْسُمَها ف َ ن ْ َتاِن اث ْ ِبن َدة َمْيُموَنة ّيِ ِب. َو السَّ ُ ت ُ ك ْ . ُهَو 4(... ِقَراَءَة ال دٌّ جِ ُ ٌب م َ ِة. ُهَو أ وِميَّ ُ َطِة الُحك ُمَتَوّسِ ْ ٌس ِبالَمْدَرَسِة ال د َنِبْيل ُمَدّرِ َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ السَّ . ْدِبِيَر الَمْنِزِليَّ بُّ التَّ حِ ُ ٌة. َوِهَي ت َ ِطْيف َ ِة. ِهَي 6(... ل وِميَّ ُ حُك ْ 5(... ِبالِإَداَرِة ال َطاِلٌب ْرَحان َ ف ...)8 ِة. الِقصَّ َو ِكَتاَبَة َ ة َ ُمَراَسل ْ ال ...)7 ُمِطْيَعٌة، َماِهَرٌة ٌت ْ ِبن ِهَي ة. وِميَّ ُ حُك ْ ال َجاِمَعِة ْ ِبال َطاِلَبٌة ة حَ ْ ِري َ ف ِة. ِهَي اْبَنٌة َصِغْيَرٌة ٌة ِب11(... الِاْبِتَداِئيَّ َ ِمْيذ ْ ِتل َ ا ُسَعاد ف مَّ َ َدِم. أ َ َرَة الق ُ بُّ 01(... وَك حِ ُ ِشْيٌط، ي َ ٌد ن َ َبالَمْدَرَسِة 9(... . ُهَو َول بُّ الَمْوِسْيَقى. حِ ُ ْجَتِهَدٌة، ت ُ م َدم. َ َرَة الق ُ بُّ ك حِ ُ ْسَرُة ِفي َبْيٍت َبِسْيٍط.ِمْثِلي. ُهَو ي ُ ُن َهِذِه الأ ُ ْسك َ ْسَرٌة َسِعْيَدٌة. ت ُ د َنِبْيل ا َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ ْسَرُة السَّ ُ أ passage 1: from the cloze test above, the following scores obtain © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 30 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook of the students’ correct answes of the three passages is 14.61 of 36 omitted words, or 40.6%. based on e.f. rankin & j. culhane (1969)’s assessment criteria, the level of readibility is moderate (40% -60%). from the above measurement results, two things emerge as follows: firstly, the textbook entitled al-lughah alarabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) for senior high school students grade xi can be read, understood, and learned by the students; guidance and assistance of the teacher/mentor in order to help the students access the textbook content is advisable. the readibility level employed here refers to the one proposed by k. buqahoos & a. ismail (2001); m. jawarneh (2008); and a. abu salit (2007), as following here: low level (frustration), i.e. readibility level with a percentage below 40%. this level of table 2: frequency of students’ correct answers on passage 1 no student name frequency of correct answers percentage (%) number of omitted words = 11 01. student 1 11 100% 02. student 2 9 82% 03. student 3 1 9% 04. student 4 3 27% 05. student 5 8 73% 06. student 6 3 27% 07. student 7 2 18% 08. student 8 1 9% 09. student 9 1 9% 10. student 10 3 27% 11. student 11 5 45% 12. student 12 3 27% 13. student 13 5 45% 14. student 14 11 100% 15. student 15 1 9% 16. student 16 9 82% 17. student 17 5 45% 18. student 18 6 55% 19. student 19 6 55% 20. student 20 7 64% 21. student 21 11 100% 22. student 22 5 45% 23. student 23 7 64% 24. student 24 7 64% 25. student 25 9 82% 26. student 26 6 55% 27. student 27 0 0% 28. student 28 3 27% 29. student 29 1 9% 30. student 30 5 45% 31. student 31 7 64% 32. student 32 7 64% 33. student 33 11 100% 34. student 34 6 55% 35. student 35 6 55% 36. student 36 3 27% total 194 mean 5.39 49% © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 31 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 ة ْعَماِلي الَيْوِميَّ َ أ َر َبْيِت َتَيسَّ ْ ي ال ِ ّ ِة ُيَصل َ لا َعْوَدِة الصَّ ْ َهُب ال ْ ِة َتذ َ ْرف ُ ًة غ َ ِخي َخِفْيف َ ْصِف ِفي أ َوالّنِ َمْسِجِد َمَع 3( ْ ى ال َ ْذَهُب ِإل َ اِبَعِة 2(... أ َعِة. َوِفي الرَّ َ ِة الُمَطال َ ْرف ُ َدْرِسي 1(... غ ُ َرأ ْ ق َ مَّ أ ُ ث ُ أ َتَوضَّ َ اِبَعة. أ اَعِة الرَّ ْيِقُظ ِفي السَّ َ ْست َ أ ُيوِف. َة الضُّ َ ْرف ُ ِتي َوغ َ ْرف ُ ُس غ ُ ن ْ ك َ مَّ أ ُ ث َ ْرآن ُ الق ُ َرأ ْ ق َ ْجَر ُهَناَك. َبْعَد 4(... أ َ ف ْ ي ال ِ ّ ... َوُنَصل ِمَن ...)6 َوَبْعَد َجَماَعًة. ْجَر َ ف ْ ال و5(... الَمْسِجِد ى َ ل َ إ َهُب ْ َيذ مَّ ُ ث ْيِل، َّ الل ِة َ َصلا َداِء َ لأ اِلَثَة َّ الث اَعَة السَّ ْيِقُظ َ َيْست َ ف ِبي َ أ ا مَّ َ أ َياَرة. السَّ ُ مَّ َيْغِسل ُ ُض ِرَياَضًة 7(... ، ث الَمْسِجِد، َيَتَريَّ ى َ مَّ 01(... ِإل ُ ْرآِن ث ُ ق ْ َما 9(... ِمْن آَياِت ال ُ َرأ ْ ِة َتق َ لا َوَبْعَد الصَّ ِفي 8(... . ي ِ ّ َوُتَصل ُ أ مَّ َتَتَوضَّ ُ اِبَعة، ث ِفي الرَّ ي ّمِ ُ ِفي أ ْيِقُظ َ ْست َ َوت ْخِتي. ُ ْسَرِة َمَع أ ُ ُطْوَر ِللأ ُ ف ْ الَمْطَبِخ، ِلُتِعدَّ ال ِخي َ ى الَمْدَرَسِة َماِشًيا َمَع أ َ ْذَهُب ِإل َ مَّ أ ُ َعاِم، ث ُطْوَر َمًعا ِفي 11(... الطَّ ُ ف ْ ال ُ َناَول َ ُن َنت حْ َ اِدَسة. ن ُطْوُر َجاِهٌز ِفي َتَماِم السَّ ُ الف ْخِتي. ُ َوأ passage 2: from the cloze test above, the following scores obtain ْيِف ة ِفي الّرِ َ الُعْطل َمْشُرْوَبات – َبْعَد ْ َمْزَرعة ِْطَعام ال ْ َعصاِفْيَر ِمَن ال ْ ِثْيَرة ال َ ي َنَضُعْذَهُب َخْضَراء ك ِق ِفي الَمِدْيَنِة َجّدِ ْ ل الطَّ َو ....)1 ِلِزَياَرِة ُهَناَك َ ة َ ُعْطل ْ ال َضْيَنا َ ق ْيِف. الّرِ ِفي ي َجّدِ َبْيِت ى َ ِإل ْخِتي ُ َوأ ي ّمِ ُ َوأ ِبي َ أ َمَع َذَهْبُت الَماِضي ْسُبوِْع ُ الأ ِفي َمَزاِرُعَها َو خْصَبة َراِضْيَها َ أ . ...)4 َعِن َبِعْيَدٍة َهاِدَئٍة ْرَيٍة َ ق ...)3 ي َجّدِ ُن ُ ْسك َ ي اِفي. الصَّ َماِئِه َو ...)2 ِبَهَواِئِه َع َتَمتَّ َ ِلن اِئِهَما. َ َرْحَنا ِبِلق َ ُن ف حْ َ ُضْوِرَنا، َون ي ِبحُ تِ ي َوَجدَّ رََح َجّدِ َ ة َوَمَواِشْيَها 6(... . ف َ 5(... َو َمَناِظُرَها َجِمْيل ي، َوَجّدِ ِبي َ أ َمَع الَمْزَرَعِة ى َ إل ...)8 مَّ ُ ث َباِكًرا، َصَباًحا ْوِم النَّ ...)7 ْيِقُظ َ ْست َ أ َيْوٍم ِ ّ ل ُ ِفي ك يَّاٍم. َ أ َمَسَة َ خ ْرَيِة َ ق ْ ال ِفي َنا ْ ث َ َمك ٍر َ َنٍم َوَبق َ ى ِإْطَعاِم الَمَواِشي ِمْن غ َ ي َعل َساِعُد َجّدِ ُ َهاِر أ . َو ِفي النَّ ُرزَّ َ َسَدْت الأ ْ ف َ ِتي أ َّ َماَد ِفْيَها َوَنْطُرُد 01(... ال 9(... السَّ ْعَشاِب. َ َوَجاُمْوٍس ِبالأ َذِلَك َوَبْعَد الَمْطَبِخ. ِفي ْطِعَمِة َ الأ َوَطْبِخ َواِسَعِة ْ ال َوَساَحِتِه َبْيِت ْ ال َتْنِظْيِف ى َ َعل ي تِ َوَجدَّ ي ّمِ ُ أ َساِعُد ُ ت َ ف ْخِتي ُ أ ا مَّ َ أ ى 41(... َ َجد َعل ْ َساِعُد ال ُ َشِبْعَنا، ن ْ ن َ َها َمًعا. 31(... أ ُ َناَول َ ي ِفي 21(... َوَنت ِبي َو ِلَجّدِ َ ِت َو 11(... ِلي َو لأ َ ْولا ُ ك ْ ِضُر الَمأ حْ ُ ت ِرِحْيَن َمْسُروِرْيَن. َ ى َبْيِتَنا ِفي الَمِدْيِنِة ف َ يَّاٍم، َنُعْوُد ِإل َ ْمَسُة أ َ َحَيَواَنات. َوَبْعَد خ ْ ال passage 3: from the cloze test above, the following scores obtain legibility indicates that the students cannot read and understand the reading (the book) except with the help and guidance of the teachers. medium level (instructional), i.e. the level of readibility with a percentage of 40% to 60%. this level of legibility indicates that the students can read and understand the reading (the book), but they still need teacher guidance and assistance in interacting with the reading material. high level (independent), i.e. the level of legibility with a percentage above 60%. this level of legibility indicates that the students can read and understand the reading (the book) independently without the teacher’s guidance and assistance (buqahoos & ismail, 2001:117; jawarneh, 2008:128; salit, 2007:27-28; and arifah & afidati, 2012). secondly, the textbook entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 32 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook table 3: frequency of students’ correct answers on passage 2 no student name frequency of correct answers percentage (%) number of omitted words=11 01. student 1 11 100% 02. student 2 6 55% 03. student 3 0 0% 04. student 4 6 55% 05. student 5 10 91% 06. student 6 6 55% 07. student 7 0 0% 08. student 8 6 55% 09. student 9 6 55% 10. student 10 1 9% 11. student 11 6 55% 12. student 12 6 55% 13. student 13 10 91% 14. student 14 6 55% 15. student 15 0 0% 16. student 16 6 55% 17. student 17 0 0% 18. student 18 5 45% 19. student 19 5 45% 20. student 20 6 55% 21. student 21 11 100% 22. student 22 10 91% 23. student 23 6 55% 24. student 24 6 55% 25. student 25 4 36% 26. student 26 5 45% 27. student 27 1 9% 28. student 28 0 0% 29. student 29 0 0% 30. student 30 4 36% 31. student 31 5 45% 32. student 32 6 55% 33. student 33 3 27% 34. student 34 6 55% 35. student 35 4 36% 36. student 36 6 55% total 179 mean 4.97 45.2% and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) did not match the level of reading ability of students of sma pgii (sekolah menengah atas, pendidikan guru islam indonesia or senior high school, indonesia muslim teacher education) 2 in bandung, west java, indonesia, grade xi. this can be seen from the average percentage of their correct answers, reaching only 40.6%. according to a.q.m. sulaiman (2002), and other scholars, an arabic textbook is considered to be in accordance with the content and language, if the percentage of students correct answers reaches 90% (sulaiman, 2002:19; schmitt, jiang & grabe, 2011; arifah & afidati, 2012; al-mohsen, 2016; and akmaliyah & ratnasih, 2017). influential factors in readibility. as aforementioned, the level of readibility of the book entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 33 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 table 4: frequency of students’ correct answers on passage 3 no student name frequency of correct answers percentage (%) number of omitted words = 11 01. student 1 14 100% 02. student 2 6 43% 03. student 3 0 0% 04. student 4 5 36% 05. student 5 5 36% 06. student 6 5 36% 07. student 7 0 0% 08. student 8 5 36% 09. student 9 5 36% 10. student 10 0 0% 11. student 11 5 36% 12. student 12 6 43% 13. student 13 6 43% 14. student 14 5 36% 15. student 15 6 43% 16. student 16 5 36% 17. student 17 0 0% 18. student 18 5 36% 19. student 19 0 0% 20. student 20 0 0% 21. student 21 14 100% 22. student 22 6 43% 23. student 23 3 21% 24. student 24 3 21% 25. student 25 5 36% 26. student 26 3 21% 27. student 27 0 0% 28. student 28 0 0% 29. student 29 0 0% 30. student 30 5 36% 31. student 31 5 36% 32. student 32 5 36% 33. student 33 5 36% 34. student 34 6 43% 35. student 35 5 36% 36. student 36 5 36% total 153 mean 4.25 30.4% arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) under investigation is at a moderate level, meaning the students can still access the contents of the book, but they need some guidance and direction from the teacher/mentor. this raises questions, e.g. what factors cause this level of readibility of the textbook? why not be at a high level as proposed by a.q.m. sulaiman (2002:19)? is the content too complicated for the students? or the quality of the printed book is not good making it difficult for the students to read and study it? or perhaps the students’ reading ability is low? to address these questions, questionnaires were distributed to 36 respondents. the questions posed to the respondents in the questionnaire included three factors. firstly is to do with readers, such as reading © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 34 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook ability, reading motivation, reading interest, and previous reading experience. secondly are reading factors, such as material, linguistic structure, diction, and selected themes. thirdly are layout factors, such as the size and type of front, the selection of images and graphics, as well as the quality of printed textbooks. from the questionnaire, the following results obtain: (1) only 46% of the students are able to read arabic texts; (2) around 73% of the students have strong motivation to read and study the arabic texts contained in textbooks; (3) around 74% of the students stated that the letters used in textbooks are easy to read in terms of size and type; (4) around 81% of the students stated that the spacing between words and sentences in the textbook is good, not too tight; (5) around 82% of the students stated that the print quality of the letters and images is good and clear; (6) around 69% of the students stated that the vocabulary found in the text has been studied previously and is not difficult to pronounce; (7) around 61% of the students stated that the sentence patterns used in reading text are easily recognizable; and (8) around 80% of the students claim to be able to understand the sequence of material presentation in the textbook. from the data above, we can see that the level of readibility of the textbook entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012) is at a moderate level, due to the students’ reading ability itself. this can be seen from several indications and arguments that reinforce the statement. firstly, based on the questionnaires, only 46% claim to be able to read and understand arabic texts. this is the smallest percentage compared to that of other questions. on the other hand, the results of student reading ability tests reveal that 17 out of 36 students (47.22%) were at the level of “frustration” or low reading ability; 12 out of 36 students (33.33%) were in the ability level “instructional” or moderate; and only 7 of 36 students (19.44%) were at an “independent” or high level. the students’ reading ability can be clearly seen in the figure 1. secondly, the respondents gave a positive value to the related content and layout of the book entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012). this can be seen from high percentages of their positive responses to questions related to the content and packaging of the textbook. in addition, the results of previous research studies by t. murni (2015), and other scholars, concluded that in terms of content, language, and lay out, the textbook under studies is very good and in accordance with the ideal textbook criteria prescribed by bsnp (badan standar nasional pendidikan or national body for educational standard) in jakarta, indonesia (cf arifah & afidati, 2012; hanifah, 2014; murni, 2015; moec ri, 2016; and yulianto, 2019). conclusion based on the above data and discussions, the following can be concluded that the level of readibility of the textbook entitled al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat [arabic language for senior high school and equivalent] written table 5: the counted three tests no. passage mean of the correct answers percentage (%) readibility level 01. د )َنِبيل َحمَّ ُ د م ّيِ ْسَرة السَّ ُ )أ 5.39 49% medium 02. ة( ْعَماِلي الَيْوِميَّ َ 4.97 )أ 45.2% medium 03. ْيف( ة ِفي الّرِ َ )الُعْطل 4.25 30.4% low readibility level 14.61 40.6% medium © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 35 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 12(1), august 2019 by zakiyah arifah & nadia afidati (2012), under examination, is at a medium category; meaning that this textbook can be read, understood, and learned by students, but they still need the direction and guidance from the teacher to better understand the book. this medium level of readibility can be attributed to the students’ reading ability. it can be seen from the student level of reading ability that is at a low level although the contents, systematic presentation, typography, and the language of the textbook is perceived good. departing from the above conclusions, the researchers give some recommendations as follows: firstly, teachers and educational agencies should choose textbooks with a high level of readibility, due to their high level of ease to read and understand; secondly, a teacher is advised to conduct a readibility test before deciding to use a textbook in learning and teaching activities; and thirdly, aside from assessing the readibility of textbooks to be used, teachers need to improve students’ reading skills so that good teaching materials can be studied well by students.1 1statement: we confirm that this article has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration in whole or in part by another journals. this article is also not product of plagiarism. so, we have no conflicts of interest to declare it. references abubaker, azza a. (2013). “factors influence reading from screen of arabic textbook for learning by children aged 9 to 13”. unpublished ph.d. thesis. uk [united kingdom]: school of computing and engineering, the university of huddersfield. available online also at: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ id/eprint/19509/1/thesis_azzaa.pdf [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: august 10, 2018]. akmaliyah & teti ratnasih. (2017). “teaching arabic by gender perspective at pesantren darunnajah” in jpi: jurnal pendidikan islam, volume 3(1), pp.69-78. available online also at: https://media.neliti.com/ media/publications/122470-en-teaching-arabicby-gender-perspective-at.pdf [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: august 24, 2018]. al-mohsen, abeer. (2016). “arabic teachers’ perception of an integrated approach for teaching arabic as a foreign language in colleges and universities in the united states” in doctoral dissertations, no.310. available online also at: https://repository.usfca. edu/diss/310 [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: august 24, 2018]. alnagy, h. (2002). “mustawa maqrü`iyah wa darajah isyrākiyah kitāb al-lughah al-‘arabiyah li al-shafi al-sādis al-ibtidā`i fī al-imārāt al-‘arabiyah almutahidah” in jurnal nadwah al-minhāj, volume 19(20), pp.515-552. amshah, k.h. abu. (2015). “al-maqrü`iyah: mā haituhā wa ahamiyatuhā wa tharīqatu qiyāsiha”. available online at: www.alukah.net [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: 5 august 2018]. arifah, zakiyah & nadia afidati. (2012). al-lughah al-arabiyah: bahasa arab untuk sma dan sederajat. figure 1: student skill in reading the arabic texts © 2019 minda masagi press owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia p-issn 1979-7877, e-issn 2621-587x, and www.journals.mindamas.com/index.php/educare 36 yayan nurbayan & ihwan rahman bahtiar, the readibility of the arabic textbook malang: misykat indonesia. asyrofi, s. & t. pransiska. (2016). penulisan buku teks bahasa arab. yogyakarta: penerbit ombak. bahrudin, d.v. (2016). “the effect of textbook readability on students’ reading comprehension” in wacana didaktika, volume 4(1), pp.42-54. available online also at: https://doi.org/10.31102/ wacanadidaktika.4.1.42-54 [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: august 10, 2018]. bailey, stephen. 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(2019). “an analysis on readability level of english reading texts for eighth grade students” in j-shmic: journal of english for academic, vol.6, no.1 [february], pp.81-91. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 i© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a volume 10(1), august 2017 print issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [ii] olusola angelina thomas & maruff akinwale oladejo, teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict (information communication technology) integration in nigerian teacher education programme. [1-10] dinn wahyudin & andi suwirta, the curriculum implementation for cross-cultural and global citizenship education in indonesia schools. [11-22] endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia. [23-32] dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing. [33-42] roldan s. cardona, teachers and students’ knowledge, beliefs, and observations on the implementation of grades 7 and 8 k-12 mathematics program. [43-52] info-edu-tainment. [53-62] educare: international journal for educational studies will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 ii © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. in every country, higher education institution plays an essential role in society by creating new knowledge, transmitting it to students and community, and fostering innovation in all fields of science for the benefit of the country. in indonesia, for example, the role of higher education institution is represented by “tri dharma” (three obligations) of higher education: applying education, conducting research, and serving community. in the last two decades, a great deal of attention has been directed towards developing research in higher education institution, included in pre service teacher education in indonesia, and in all over the world. teacher education is clearly an essential element for the improvement of education by producing highly future qualified teachers. many countries identify the production of high quality of future teachers as the goal and focus of their teacher education programs. quality teaching in higher education matters has impacts for improving student learning outcomes. but fostering quality teaching can be influenced by many factors. one among important factors is how teacher education institutions can take benefit of the product of educational research. research in education is necessary in order to provide basis for educational planning as well as curriculum implementation in the classroom. i believe that it is one of the main things that should be done by teachers and all educators in curriculum implementation. in this case, it means that all educators, included lecturers in higher education institution, shall possess ability in planning and conducting research, and use it for the benefit of education program. it is called research based education. as a result, i think, research in higher education institution, especially in teis (teachers higher education institutions) in indonesia, have taken a lead to promote and encourage all academic faculty members to conduct researches as tools for improving output of education. research on education has become one of the most important fields in education in indonesia. in general, research, included research in education, is a systematic process of collecting and analyzing information and related data to increase understanding of a phenomenon of study, especially in teaching-learning activities. it is believed as basically a vehicle or tools in order to produce systematic and analytical knowledge and information designed to aid the understanding of educational phenomena. it means the essence of research of education is intended for decision making in planning and practices of educational changes essential for educational reform. it is called a research based education that the findings of research as basis for improving of instruction. it is now well established that the quality of teacher education is perhaps the most important factor for improving educational outcomes for students. increasing academic requirements for higher levels of learning necessitate better qualified teachers. high quality teachers are described as having some combination of the following attributes: pedagogical knowledge, subject area content knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for effective teaching, strong understanding of human growth and child development, effective communication skills, strong sense of ethics, and capacity for renewal and ongoing learning. in this case, it is obvious that a qualified teachers as well as lecturers are those who have fulfilled several competencies, included academic competencies, professional competencies, social competencies, and personal competencies. having capability of educational research for teachers and lecturers are compulsory. it is a passport to be a high quality of teachers and lecturers. they have succeed combining research based education with pedagogical knowledge, subject content knowledge for the benefit of curriculum implementation or teaching learning activities in his or her own classroom activities. this new edition of educare journal publication provides all readers concerning some topics or articles related to the essence of research on education. it is intended that hopefully, all readers have same perception concerning to the importance of research. the essence of research based education is actually how teachers and faculty members take benefit for their research they have conducted as basis for improving of instruction. the article written by scholars of nigeria, for example, discusses pertaining the teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict (information communication technology)’s integration. the scholars of indonesia ownself discourse not only on teachers’ perceptions on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing; and the curriculum implementation for cross-cultural and global citizenship education in indonesia schools; but also related to curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia. while a scholar of the philippines is concerning on teachers and students’ knowledge, beliefs, and observations on the implementation of grades 7 and 8 k-12 mathematics program. in this context, i think, all articles are very valuables for sharing and caring among the teachers as well as the lecturers in southeast asian countries. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 30, 2017. prof. dr. dinn wahyudin a guest editor of educare journal; and lecturer at the studi program of curriculum development sps upi (school of postgraduate studies, indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare august 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 27 rita destiwati, m.si. is an english lecturer at the telkom polytechnic, jalan telekomunikasi, terusan buah batu, bandung, west java, indonesia; and junardi harahap, m.si. is a lecturer at the department of anthropology, faculty of political and social sciences unpad (padjadjaran university), jalan raya bandung-sumedang km.21, jatinangor, west java, indonesia. the authors can be contacted via e-mail at: ritadestiwati@gmail.com and junardi_harahap@unpad.ac.id introduction the school can show point to a garden where plants grow freely. the educational objectives, according froebel, is the development capacities naturally of a child and the forces associated with nature, and it is re-appointment the natural impulses. froebel, then, divided education in several steps, they was namely children, adolescents, and youth. froebel argued that schools should provide children the natural environment and healthy; so, it can invite interest and attention of children (cited by hamalik, 2003). even since childhood, politeness seeds had grown since baby living from parent examples. the way of children learning is in the absorption of information through the senses. childhood ended when the child has been able to express themselves through the words, singing, body movements, and the pictures. although there are various ways to self-expression, but the highest is the game. childhood is a training period to improve skills in various games. at this time, the child wants to know the outcome of the game, they also want to know how things happened, like singing, listen the stories, and the movement activities. children can not stay silent. here, the role of teacher is to facilitate the child through the game, so that he/she can achieve some social and moral values of society. the 4 to 6 years old is a sensitive period for children. children began to be sensitive to receive the full potential development efforts. sensitive period is the maturation period of physical functions and psychological. this period is the time to lay the first foundation in developing the physical abilities, cognitive, social emotional, self-concept, discipline, independence, artistic, moral, and religious rita destiwati & junardi harahap implementation of competency-based curriculum in bandung natural school abstract: competency-based curriculum is a new curriculum in indonesia; it is as perfecting of curriculum before. the kbk (kurikulum berbasis kompetensi or competency-based curriculum) mission is unifying curriculum that can touch whole aspects of children needed, one to each other is related; it is not separation but it can also reflect to skill dimension with interested theme. meanwhile, at this time, the development of children creativity is determined by the closeness of teachers, one is determined by the applicable curriculum. in the field, the problems have also been faced by both principals or managers and teachers or educators regarding kbk socialization issues. this research tries to answer about how the implementasion of competency-based curriculum in bandung natural school generally as well as specifically? the research uses qualitative method through descriptive approach, observation, deep interview, and library study. the outcome of this research shows that set up of communication in kbk application at bandung natural school is more based on autonomy in written form and non-written; the process of communication in kbk application at bandung natural school is the best collaboration between theory of learning in the class with adventure and exploration on the nature; media of communication that is used on bandung natural school is hand-phone, e-mail, letter, michrophone, publishing, and connecting book; and the supporting factor is the qualities of teacher, while the inhibiting factor is being act of challenging as taking care of children problem. key words: competency-based curriculum, media, teacher and student, professional skill, and bandung natural school. rita destiwati & junardi harahap, implementation of competency-based curriculum 28 values. the development efforts must be done through playing by learning or while learning by playing. the development process is possible at the age 6 to 12 years old which are said the schooling period. at this time, the development of children creativity is determined by the closeness of teachers, one is determined by the applicable curriculum. about the competency-based curriculum kbk (kurikulum berbasis kompetensi or competency-based curriculum) is a new curriculum and it is the perfecting result of improvements to the previous curriculum. basically, the kbk mission is a full curriculum that can “touch” every child needs aspect, interrelated, not compartmentalized; it can also reflect the skills dimensions by presenting the interesting themes. kbk was established by the department of national education in july 2004. in the field, the problems have also been faced by both principals or managers and teachers or educators regarding kbk socialization issues. the concept of competency-based curriculum was based on the decree no.232/u/2000 minister of national education. the contents of the decree states that education system should be changed more curriculum-based competencies. in decision of minister no.045/u/2002 reiterated that competence is a set of smart action, full of responsibility that has a person as a condition to be capable by the society in carrying out tasks. in other words, competence is the fundamental advantage of an individual that reflects his attitude. basically, the curriculum is only seen as a basic reference that must be further translated by the teacher to see the potential of each child. teachers act as facilitators and the students are as subjects. students must be actively present their ideas, find solutions to problems encountered, and determine what steps to take. be aware that kbk demands a paradigm shift from the teacher. teachers do not longer rely on old paradigms which it is as link of activity and purpose of change. no more events of “chalk and talk” and students only sit, listen, and quote. there is a fundamental change in concepts, methods, and strategies in teaching, including assesment. kbk requires teachers to become familiar with information technology, internet access; familiar with science and technology and art; and understanding the relationship between field of study with the other field of study, especially it can be application to real life. the evidence suggests that the quality of teachers in indonesia are still far from sufficient to make a fundamental change in the nature of this competency-based curriculum. the quality of human resources is the order 109 of 179 countries by human development index. based on observation, understanding to application of kbk still far from expectations. even nationally are not available tutors who really understand the principles and application of this kbk completely. the teachers do not even know yet the teaching with the use projects that combine several subjects at once. thematic teaching is unfamiliar heard by the teacher. this curriculum is only partially understood well, so it is partially implemented. inability to understand the underlying approach of this curriculum makes the teachers does not try to change their old teaching patterns fundamentally. they have not been able to implement the kbm in a joint project with teachers from other subject areas. teachers do not understand the subject’s constellation who taught in the relationship and connection with other subjects and they still see the various fields of study and its own separately without any relationship with other subjects. teachers still see the study field from “text”, not “context”, for the ctl (contextual teaching-learning) method is still a discourse and not to be knowledge yet, just skills for teachers (suderadjat, 2002; and ahmadi & prasetya, 2005). the macro caused the national or local teachers who are not placed as strategic human resources to make a change (compared with neighboring countries). besides the teacher’s quality is still low, they are still underpaid. it is contrast in japan, although not a profession with the highest incomes, the teacher is a citizen of honor in which is all other professional respect for him. preparation to change the kbk is too educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 29 hasty; it means that teachers and schools are not substantially involved in the design of kbk. teachers and schools in implementation are not prepared to be the bearer of change. in addition, they have limited ability to socialize the kbk in seminars and trainings. teachers rarely receive training from both the government and foundations where they work. the fundamental problem is also seen to the competencies that are still seen as narrowly as an attempt to provide vocational skills to enable students to be involved directly in life middle. kbk aligned with life skills program that happened to be launched almost simultaneously with this kbk. method the study was conducted at bandung natural school, because bandung natural school had previously implemented competency-based curriculum. this can be seen clearly from the methodology of education is done quality of teachers, the intensity of the meeting, facilities, and restrictions on the number of students in one class. so, the achievement of targets to be achieved in accordance with the approach kbk implementation faster (destiwati, 2010). this study will use a qualitative approach. reasons for using this method are to be able to describe the properties of individuals and groups in bandung natural school. this research is a case study. according to deddy mulyana (2000:201), case study is a comprehensive description and explanation of the various aspects on an individual, group, and society. in studying the maximum extent possible on an individual, a group, or an event, the researcher aims to provide a complete view and depth a subject under study. the nature of the data from case studies is able to maintain the integrity of the object, meaning the data collected in order to learn the case study as an integrated unit. the purpose of case study, according to robert k. yin (1995), is to provide detailed description of the background, characteristics, and distinctive characters of the case. while the qualitative approach is useful to describe a reality in the society (bugir, 2004), with the stated purpose of qualitative research is to attempt to understand phenomena in such a way and does not require quantitative, or because the symptoms are not possible to measure accurately. to understand these phenomena, it is necessary to learn according to sociocultural context. this is because, firstly, approach which will be examined relating to the understanding of social phenomena in the public culture. secondly, this research seeks to understand the social context in the community. according to jurgen habermas (1993) and uchyana onong effendy (2000), qualitative methods more freely to find uniqueuniqueness, because they put the object as creative and dynamic players. this research problem is a process; therefore, the things that need to be studied are real. data on these processes is obtained through careful observation and specific. in order to test, the observations necessary to have replicated more specific observations for the second and the results compared. comparison between single event and other events made case that then need to be deepened through the interview method. researchers put into the group. it is expected that researchers are able to better understand what is perceived by the group and to be observed more in the behavior developed by the group. in addition, through a direct jump to join the group studied, researchers hope to be able to understand the culture. interviews were conducted to obtain information about the things needed from informants by talking face to face with the person. in-depth interviews and open use of questions based on the guidelines containing grains or main idea of the outline of the questions that will be presented (fisher, 1978). results and discussion about the communication pattern. communication patterns that occur at bandung natural school are the communication pattern of competency-based approach that is always inherent in all activities of the students and teachers at bandung natural school. competency-based education at bandung natural school is education that not only emphasizes the students to learn facts, rita destiwati & junardi harahap, implementation of competency-based curriculum 30 concepts, or principles, but they also must be skilled to be able to apply knowledge in dealing with life and technology. patterns of communication in the implementation of competency-based curriculum, which applies at bandung natural school, can be described that the principles of the kbk (kurikulum berbasis kompetensi or competency-based curriculum) in bandung natural school are: (1) focusing on students, i.e. the orientation focused on student learning, students as subjects of learning, and differences and speed in learning of student’s attention; (2) integrated learning, i.e. integrated management learning done and learning comes down to one goal to reach the standard capabilities of graduates; (3) individual learning, i.e. opportunities for individual in learning process; (4) complete learning, i.e. refers to the exhaustiveness learning and renovation of the basic skills to the next basic skills; (5) troubleshooting, i.e. referring to the problem solving activity that happens in society and contextual learning approach; (6) experience-based learning, i.e. learning is carried out through certain experiences to achieve certain basic skills; (7) teacher role, i.e. the teacher’s role is not only as instructors but also as a facilitator; and (8) others according to the demands of development (devito, 1977; yusuf, 1989; liliweri, 1994; ekomadyo, 2005; and goldberg & larson, 2006). about the communication rule. competency-based education emphasizes the ability of rules that must be possessed by graduates of an education. competence, often called the standard of competence, is a general ability that graduates must master. competence, according to hall and jones, is a statement which describes the appearance of certain ability unanimously that represents a blend of knowledge and skills that can be observed and measured (cited in yamin, 2005). competencies and skills are graduates of primary capital to compete at the global level, because the competition is happening the human resource capacity. therefore, the application of competency-based education is expected to produce graduates who can compete at the global level. the implications of competency-based education are the development of syllabus and competencybased assessment system. competency-based education paradigm, that includes curriculum, learning, and assessment, is emphasizing the achievement of learning outcomes in accordance with the standards of competence. the curriculum includes teaching materials given to students through the learning process. learning process carried out by using the principles of learning that includes development of material selection, strategy, media, assessment, and resources or learning materials. the level of success achieved by students learning can be seen in the ability of students in completing the tasks that must be controlled in accordance with certain procedures standards. “the key point is independence, so they later can face the future. from there, we build bandung natural school. morality, leadership, and mastery of science can face the future” (interview with principal of bandung natural school, 25/7/2012). about the use words and instruction. before we go into the problem above, it is necessary to understand taba, in his book curriculum development: theory and practice in 1962, whose defines the curriculum as a plan for learning something that is planned to be studied by students (cited in zais, 1976; and mulyasa, 2005). meanwhile, another view saying that the curriculum as a written document containing a plan for students during learning at the school (beauchamp, 1975). provides limitations on the curriculum as a set of plans and arrangements concerning the content and teaching materials and methods used to guide teaching and learning activities. this formulation of the curriculum implies that the curriculum includes plans, content and teaching materials, and ways of teaching learning activities. based on the above understanding of the curriculum is not only a document that contains an outline of goals and teaching programs. however, the meaning of the curriculum will mean that after the relevant translated in the form of teaching and learning process as a form of curriculum system operational. j.p. miller and w. seller (1985) suggested educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 31 that a curriculum is the flexibility contains two positions. in the first position associated with flexibility as an educational idea for the training. thus, the theoretical position that must be developed in the curriculum is as a plan. the second notion is a rule of curriculum developers. presence of this developer position is very critical matter because of changes in educational or training ideas. in terms of curriculum developers, the flexibility rule is defined as a trait or characteristic of the curriculum should provide opportunities to accommodate any new ideas or improvements on existing ideas before. in the sense of a curriculum document should have the qualities of adaptability in the event of a change to an idea of the changes to the document in line with the magnitude of change that idea. this is required because the community continues to grow and demands on what they want from education flourished. the curriculum should be able to change in accordance with the demands of technological progress for society and the nation does not become obsolute. thus, the curriculum should be able to explain: (1) what should be taught; (2) why are taught; (3) how to teach it; and (4) how do we know if someone has studied it? these four basic questions need to be understood by teachers as curriculum developers in the classroom (drost, 2005). the curriculum is defined as the reference standard set forth in the form of a written document that includes: objectives, materials, organize learning experiences, and evaluation. the implications of this understanding requires the ability of teachers to translate the curriculum into teaching and learning activities, and the ability to develop evaluations of teachers for student learning outcomes studies. understanding the diversity of curriculum implementation is given by the experts showed great interest to the real nature of the curriculum. the success of implementation is described as a process of mutual adaptation between the user and institutional conditions. implementation of the curriculum is a dynamic process involving the role of citizen learning and teaching staff in time and space. r.s. zais (1976:18) defines the application or implementation as “putting into effect the curriculum that was produced by the construction and development process”. implementation is intended as an activity based on the curriculum to match with the expected plan. fullan, as cited in j.p. miller and w. seller (1985:246), defines implementation as a process to implement ideas, programs, or a set of new activities in the hope that others can accept and make changes. j.p. miller and w. seller (1985), then, suggest the implementation of the curriculum absorbed materials and new beliefs that exist in the curriculum that integrates the activities of teaching staff. this conception reflects that teachers occupy key positions in the curriculum implementation activities. conception of implementation adopted in this study is the implementation of the curriculum in the classroom learning activities. activities in the classroom are the main target of a curriculum. the position of teachers, as curriculum developers in the classroom, is very important and strategic in the effort to implement training curriculum. on the other hand, the curriculum is a very important part to be known by teachers in efforts to achieve the learning objectives for learning citizens. this condition is emphasized by george a. beauchamp (1975:164) that the main task in curriculum implementation is to arrange the school environment in such a way that the curriculum is used by teachers as a point of departure for their teaching. the curriculum becomes a working tool for teachers as they develop their instructional strategies. this is the point where the massage of the curriculum planner is communicated to and interpreted by the teacher for a specific group, or for group of pupil. in the learning process occurs curriculum implementation process. j.p. miller and w. seller (1985:13) said that in some cases, implementation has been identified with instruction. based on this view, the curriculum in the dimensions of this activity is intended to promote and realize the nature of the curriculum ideas written into the actual potential by conducting a series of activities in the form of learning. implementation of learning at sekolah alam rita destiwati & junardi harahap, implementation of competency-based curriculum 32 bandung (bandung natural school), there are in the forms of communication below: communication is the communication, we do is mutual understanding. human communication is usually expressed. we do with non-verbal language. evaluation of what we do with the hide-and-sound, we are calm. with non-verbal, if we are fussy they seemed depressed (interview with principal of bandung natural school, 25/7/2012). about the communication process. the process of communication that occurred in bandung natural school is good partner collaboration between theoretical classroom learning with adventure and exploration in the wild. bandung natural school has a natural school environment in the north of bandung, a scenic expanse of paddy fields and hills, and adjacent to the forest and river curug dago cikapundung. visits in a show class kindergarten were watching the growth of bean and saw the bee’s body shape by using a magnifying glass. while in other classes, elementary school children were playing designing ship-callused. in another corner of the classroom, they will be, some children were having a discussion about how to love animals. also seen in the field of children who have completed all the subjects, were playing ball, fishing in the pond, or cool to read books in the library. communication is communication done a lot of direction. so, our communication styles, teachers are not the only source of learning. they could be more intelligent than their teachers. we provide closeness with them, and the distance is very close (interview with teacher of bandung natural school, 18/7/2012). conditions studied in bandung natural school reflect the unique learning styles and different from the school in general. school educators at the bandung natural school have a unique perspective on bandung natural school students, that every child is unique. every child has unique properties that cannot be equated to one child with other children (interview with teacher of bandung natural school, 18/7/2012; and with principal of bandung natural school, 25/7/2012). about the media communications. media in communication is used at bandung natural school is nature itself. such as mutual assistance in activities to clean trash from dago pojok to bandung natural school students and teachers. mutual cooperation was held goal to train children to care for the environment, care about the environment now becomes our problem, because it starts with the human habit of littering simple so that children are invited to take the child care on that. the second for the special classes’ implementation of this activity has specific targets is to identify organic garbage and trash and how to overcome unorganic. just some time ago not only know the type of garbage, but to the combustion process. to this day, the child is only invited to take the trash and put in garbage cans and there are also additional charges of scouting charge, charges for specific codes, and code breaking found the meaning, who managed the teacher giving rewards to students who had solved the meaning of a particular password. every time held events like this, have certain themes, themes for solving current problems; and some time ago a theme familiar with organic waste, burning, and the classes tailored to the particular theme and class themes with curriculum tailored to be achieved. as its name implies, it is used as a medium of nature and the media of this nature be the object of education in our sense of exploration in the educational process and as a testing tool, as a substitute as a laboratory (interview with principal of bandung natural school, 25/7/2012). because nature is provided as the greatest laboratory, so that we can explore that world through the media first, which we use nature as a medium for learning and exploring nature as much as possible based on the subjects you want to achieve. for example math, counting the number we use natural media and instead use the alternative that we buy like a class that calculates the purchased equipment but can use the stones here are comparable and widely known, traveling and so we use the class rooms of the pond, rice fields. nature is used as an evaluation, including art and science of all kinds (interview with teacher of bandung natural school, 18/7/2012). educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 33 nature as a media production can be managed; we use production capital such as the fish we harvest and sale, our rice harvest and sale. nature as a means of human development, human interaction maximum mean to nature even children can have an attitude or a good skill against nature. in connection with parents, at sekolah alam bandung (bandung natural school) have regular meetings with parents to discuss the evaluation of learning and child development problems, learn to plan ahead a month. “we use nature as media at sekolah alam bandung. so that children are able to explore the nature” (interview with teacher of bandung natural school, 18/7/2012). about the supporting factors of communication. supporting factors contained in bandung natural school is a factor of qualified teachers and professionals in sekolah alam bandung (bandung natural school). “for us, factor is the existence of teachers who have a commitment to curriculum development” (interview with principal of bandung natural school, 25/7/2012). teaching profession, according to the law on teachers and lecturers, must have professional principles as set forth in article 5, paragraph 1, and its example. professional teachers and lecturers are specific occupations that require professional principles as follows: (1) having the talent, interest, spirit, and idealism calls; (2) having educational qualifications and educational background of its tasks; (3) having the required competencies of its tasks; (4) comply with professional code of ethics; (5) having the rights and obligations in implementing the tasks; (6) obtaining income determined in accordance with work performance; (7) having the opportunity for sustainable profession; (8) obtaining legal protection in doing professional task; and (9) having a professional organization that are legal entities (nasution, 1986; suparno, 2000; suderadjat, 2004; and waspodo, 2005). conclusion based on the analysis in this study, several conclusions can be drawn that communication patterns that occur at bandung natural school are the communication pattern of competencybased approach that is always inherent in all activities of the students and teachers at sekolah alam bandung (bandung natural school). about the rules of communication, competency-based education emphasizes students’ self rule in the ability of graduates should possess a level of education. competence is often called the standard of competence and it is a general ability that graduates must master. the process of communication that occurred in bandung natural school is a very good collaboration between theoretical classroom learning with adventure and exploration in the wild. bandung natural school has a natural school environment in the north of bandung, a scenic expanse of paddy fields and hills, and adjacent to the forest and river curug dago cikapundung. media of communication used at bandung natural school is nature itself. such as mutual assistance in activities to clean trash from dago pojok to bandung natural school students and teachers. inhibiting factors for the natural school is a challenge, such as a lack of parenting well as students at home. from the analysis of teachers and psychologists at bandung natural school was 10% of the overall student experience bandung natural school parenting poorly in his/her home. while supporters of the quality factor of the school teachers a good nature. references ahmadi, abu & joko prasetya. 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(1976). curriculum: principles and foundations. new york: harper and row publisher, inc. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 15 assoc. prof. dr. norhasni zainal abiddin is a senior lecturer at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies upm (university of putra malaysia), 43400 serdang, selangor, malaysia; and dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad is rector of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. e-mail: nonieza99@gmail.com and tukiranump@yahoo.com the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture: issues and challenges norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad abstract: recently, involvement and sound achievements of today’s generation of youth in the commercial agricultural sector are increasingly strong and on the increase, even though the percentage is still very small. thus, this article is aimed to examine the key factors that drive the youth to venture into commercial agriculture; graduates’ perceptions towards commercial agriculture; the contributing factors and why many young people refuse to venture into commercial agriculture; and trainings and skills needed as well as personal attributes of successful commercial agricultural entrepreneurs. this is a qualitative study with in-depth-interviews of five respondents among youth graduates. results of this study have answered all of the research questions as well as identified a new finding which is the roles of informal mentor in helping the respondents to successfully venture into agriculture commercially. respondents participated in virtual mentoring for direct access of information from the informal mentors who supervised and assisted them in starting up their first ground of commercial agriculture and throughout their success. finally, based on the interviews, conclusion can be made that changes in time, respect, comprehensive supports, and incentives offered by the government agencies are vital in motivating young farmers to be successful agricultural entrepreneurs. key words: youth generation in malaysia, mentor, mentoring, agriculture, graduate students, entrepreneur, and business. introduction commercial agricultural sector in malaysia until these days is still lack of young people, especially educated youth and university graduates. this young workforce is needed by the malaysian government in the process of improving the agricultural industry, modernizing agro-based industries, and developing skilled workers of the commercial agricultural sectors. hence, graduates youth who decided to venture into commercial agriculture can be considered as special and commendable. there are many factors that drive the youth conscious decision to venture into agriculture and what is certain, today’s generation of youth with diplomas and degrees in other fields began to realize that the mentality of professional careers norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad, the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture 16 as the main wage earner must be left behind. in line with the government serious commitment to attract the graduates to become agricultural entrepreneurs; and, so, this study has approached successful graduates agricultural entrepreneurs to share their insights and experiences in the field of commercial agriculture and to get valuable inputs to be used as examples by the next generation of agricultural youth, as well as for those who are still thinking to venture into commercial agriculture and also for the stakeholders. this article summarises the results of a research project which tried to answer the following questions: (1) what are the driving forces that influenced the respondents’ decision in venturing into commercial agriculture?; (2) what are respondents’ perceptions towards commercial agriculture?; (3) what are the contributing and rejecting factors of youth involvement in the commercial agriculture?; (4) what types of training and skills needed?; and (5) what are personal attributes of successful commercial agricultural entrepreneurs? youth and agriculture in malaysia a survey conducted by the ministry of higher education in malaysia showed that of 22,016 working graduates under reviewed, only 2.8% is self-employed. similarly, only 1.4% of 11,313 of diploma holders are self-employed (fama-lp3, 2007a). in an effort to promote entrepreneurship in higher education, entrepreneurship courses are offered by universities, polytechnics, and community colleges across the country. the courses are aimed to cultivate business theories and good entrepreneurship values in students, as well as to develop knowledgeable and capable graduates in terms of technology. based on the definition of youth by the ministry of youth and sports that “youth” refers to those aged between 15 and 40 years old, based on a number of reasons made by the malaysian youth council (kbs, 1995). they are deemed to have matured and able to think positively. entrepreneurs are defined as those who take risks, opportunities, and, above all, are innovative. agriculture is a very broad field which includes efforts of farming, planting, fisheries, and downstream agro-based or agro-processing industries. commercial agriculture refers to farming activities which are undertaken in the form of plantation productivity on a large scale, the total cultivated land area is large, viable and developed with potential crops for sale which ensure profitable income and value added to the land used for commercial returns. the government hopes to attract many young people into the sector, and to produce full-time young farmers and successful agricultural entrepreneurs. at present, there are successful young agricultural entrepreneurs to prove that agriculture is a profitable business, but the number or percentage involved in this area is still too small (aidit & husnizam, 2005). thus, there are young farmers who gave up half way due to certain constraints and some agro-based agencies provide only short term formal assistance. the key points to be successful agriculture educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 17 entrepreneurs are initiatives and mental strength in facing the challenges of the business as well as personal strength. personal traits needed to become successful entrepreneurs according to j.l. glick-smith (2008), there are 12 main characteristics or traits required for those who want to succeed in their own business, they are as follow: (1) good health; (2) comfortable with the environment where they have the maximum authority and responsibility, as they do not work well in traditional structured organisation; (3) highly self-confidence; (4) high energy level and never ending of sense of urgency or impatient to do or to complete something; (5) comprehensive awareness; (6) realistic outlook; (7) having superior conceptual abilities; (8) low need for status; (9) objective approach; (10) emotional stability; (11) attraction to challenges; and (12) describe situations by numbers. a. chuck and s. defiore (2008) laid out certain traits that make a person succeed in their business. the traits need to be first evaluated before one decides to launch into one’s own business. according to a. chuck and s. defiore (2008), a successful entrepreneur: (1) is a goal setter who continuously develops new goals and works to achieve them; (2) knows his own strengths and weaknesses; (3) knows how to maximise opportunities; (4) knows the business inside out and understands the competitions/competitors ; (5) knows how to effectively manage the budgets and finances; (6) strives for excellence; (7) enjoys the business; (8) has high determination and work hard; and (9) gets help when necessary and he knows where and when to get help. a research conducted by d. gray (2008), on successful businessmen, had indentified the common traits of successful entrepreneurs, they are: individualistic, optimistic, and possess high capabilities in problem solving. d. gray (2008) added that successful entrepreneurs should have special traits as follow: first, tenacity and orientation drive. this means that entrepreneurs need to set clear goals and continuously evaluate the goals and change the goals based on personal interest, talents, and business needs. a successful entrepreneur will always work on new goals to challenge himself and his business. second, the ability to sustain the business. successful entrepreneurs are not afraid of failure and learn from the failure to rebuild. third, risks taker. they are able to indentify risks and able to make good judgement of the risks. successful entrepreneurs enjoy the risks in order to achieve their goals realistically. but the degree of risk taking is varies and based on the areas of businesses. fourth, independent and posses the overpowering need to achieve. many businessmen have the ability to lead and always want to be in control. as leaders, they are highly disciplined as well as proactive in managing their own activities towards the successful path. they maintain good contacts and extending certain relationships in the hope to get lots of information in problem solving. norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad, the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture 18 fifth, posses the ability to get things done. successful entrepreneurs possess the ability of self-control especially in handling problems, failures, and uncertainties. they also have the common sense of accepting failures and problems as parts and parcels of the business. sixth, possess the ability to implement ideas creatively. as they are persistent and hardworking, they eventually become innovative. they have creative thinking ability as well as unique insight and always able get things done in a different way or find different approach for certain things. seventh, goal setting. successful entrepreneurs set their own goals and mission which motivate them into the business. they know that their actions lead to certain outcome. their missions need to be profitable, and their products or services are unique. according to d. tucker (2008), successful entrepreneurs need to have the following traits or characteristics: (1) they are careful and concern about money since they were children; (2) they are competitive by nature in terms of school participation, active in sports, and competitions; (3) they trust their own capabilities and have high energy; (4) they are risk takers; and (5) they have abundance of new ideas and new approaches to upscale their business profits as well as never afraid to put forward new ideas. and such, those traits are seen as the fundamental factors for those who are involved in businesses including commercial agriculture. in the context of this study, individuals who possess those traits will have the driving force to venture into commercial agriculture even though they have sound academic achievement. without those traits, it is impossible for the young entrepreneurs to face the challenges and to take certain risks of the agricultural business. respondents’ personal justifications will be discussed further in the findings of the study. formal and informal mentors according to s.g. weinrach (1979), the relationship of a mentor and his/her mentee normally initiated spontaneously and without realizing it, a mentor already contributes towards career success of his/her mentee. in formal mentoring, a mentor is formally introduced or assigned to his/her mentee by the coordinator of a structured program with time expectation; this sometimes may cause awkwardness. however, the relationship of informal mentoring tends to be longer as it is structure free and without any formal or written obligation. it is more to help and nonprofit. meeting is not programmed and it is scheduled when necessary; and the interaction can be done through various sources of communication tools such as via the internet and telephone. the relationship of a formal mentoring is structured for certain period of time based on maybe between 6 months to a year contract. the meeting between the mentor and his/her mentee is scheduled and pre-determined in the agreement contract, which is signed by the both parties. on the other hand, the relationship educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 19 pattern of informal mentoring is more casual but motivational in guiding the mentee. there is a sense of kinship in a conducive communication, even without proper recognition as the present of the mentor is merely to help. the primary function of informal mentoring is to provide a significant contribution in terms of career advancement and psychosocial. the roles of the mentor in career success are: (1) to guide; and (2) to expose. in guiding his mentee, a mentor advises, assists, recommends, or counsels his/her mentee to learn something new as well as for career advancement. a mentor also exposes his/her mentee on long term benefits by sharing his professional knowledge and indirectly provides information on types of future occupations for the mentee. a mentor also encourages his/her mentee to move forward in his career. in terms of psychosocial functions, the mentor’s primary role is to strengthen the friendship and be a role model. the closeness of the relationship is based on mutual helps for mutual benefits. as a role model, a mentor is seen as an idol that inspires the mentee to strive harder to be as successful as his/her idol. hence, career advancement is the main concern of informal mentoring compared to formal mentoring. similarly, pitts observed that people running their own businesses can’t see the wood for the trees (cited by osipow, 1983). the problem being that they find it difficult to stand back and reflect on the problems they are experiencing, getting too tied up with the urgent, and immediate actions and not leaving time to take the bigger picture, strategic view into consideration. engaging with a mentoring relationship can allow the entrepreneur to step into “pools of reflection” and to see situations more clearly and from different perspectives. it is particularly difficult for small businesses to find time to reflect (super, 1957; brown & brooks, 1984; and mohd noah, 2001). generally, this article is aimed to identify the roles of informal mentors on the young graduates who are the novices in managing commercial agriculture projects. research methodology respondents of the research are five young successful farmers of the commercial agriculture, who started off the business gradually from small scales. the entrepreneurs were selected based on the following criteria: (1) respondents are youth at the age range of 15 to 40 years old, as defined by the malaysian ministry of youth and sports; (2) successful in the field of agriculture and in setting up downstream agro-based industries as well as those who gained net income more than rm 3,000 per month; (3) posses business assets, for example have more than 10 acres of land; (4) university graduates; and (5) previously worked in the public or private sectors. all selected respondents are graduates youth with different farming activities. the respondents are ho (landscaping and ornamental plants); ka (vegetables fertilization); fz (mango planting); sy (planting lemon grass, bananas, coconuts, and goat livestock); and hk (mushroom cultivation). norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad, the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture 20 this study uses qualitative methods to obtain data through in-depth interviews of five young entrepreneurs to gain information and to answer the research questions. the questions are semi-structured. the purpose of in-depth interview is to elicit depth of information as opposed to surveys and questionnaire. in-depth interview also allows the interviewer to deeply explore respondent’s feelings and perspectives on a subject. research findings first, contributing factors in making decision to venture into commercial agriculture. respondents decided to become agricultural entrepreneurs because of: (1) interest; (2) influence and previous work experience before venturing into agriculture; and (3) family influences with the background of commercial agriculture. those three aspects are indentified as the prominent factors to reshape the attitudes, characteristics, perceptions, and positive outlook of the respondents towards agricultural sectors. it also began with an awareness of the shortage of bumiputra or native of country’s youth who seriously consider farming as a solid career (fama-lp3, 2007b). it is true and proven by the respondents that interest motivates individual to move forward. interest and the need to be self-employed had influenced and motivated the respondents to change the paradigm in becoming successful entrepreneurs in the field of commercial agriculture. their experience as wage earners had also influenced the respondents to venture into this sector commercially. the respondents also overcame skeptical and narrow insights on the agricultural sector. apart from that, their self-confidence and determination to succeed in the industry had made them strong, competent, creative, and innovative in finding new technologies and making changes. however, family involvement and agricultural background are somehow playing some roles in influencing the respondents to venture into commercial farming sector themselves. second, perceptions of commercial agriculture. the aspect of respondents’ perceptions on commercial agriculture can be divided into four main themes, as follow: (1) marketing facilities and potential; (2) media publicities and cropping period; (3) systematic plans of projects; and (4) the perceptions of the community. most people and the youth are still sceptical with the concept of young farmers and they are still concern with the prospect. and, thus, comprehensive efforts are needed to attract the youth venturing into the sector. among others of the negative perceptions towards agricultural sector are limited marketing and potential of commercial agriculture, uncompetitive and perishable for commercialisation, and lack of media publicity to promote agriculture as a solid career and as a profitable platform. in addition, certain agro-based activities need a long production period or planting time which can double up the operational costs, which do not promise a better profit. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 21 respondents agreed that perceptions towards commercial agriculture can be changed through systematic planning. with proper and detail planning, agricultural business will be successfully launched into a profitable business project. this in the long run will gradually change negative mentality and narrow perceptions of the community to be more and wide-open at the potential for those indulging in agriculture. they have to shift the old paradigm and stigma which regarded agricultural sector as sustenance of life and to realize that agriculture is a profitable business and they can become successful entrepreneurs in the field of agriculture. all of these will be achieved through careful planning, strategies, determination, and preseverance. at present, there is a promising development in malaysia when university students are introduced with the basic knowledge of business and entrepreneurship during their studies. the purpose is to widen and change the mentality of the graduates that they can no longer rely on the work as wage earners. the unemployment rate will be reduced if more university graduates decided to become entrepreneurs. the study of “agriculture and men” is now compulsory for all university students in malaysia. due to several awareness campaigns and promotions, the perception of university leavers has changed little by little and the educated youth of today are more open on the potential of agriculture as a profitable and solid career (famalp3, 2007c). third, key factors of youth involvement in commercial agriculture. there are always two contradicting factors in every effort, the attracting and rejecting factors. careful consideration is needed in answering the third research question on those two contradicting key factors in influencing youth involvement in the commercial agriculture. this is important for the success and sustainability of the youth agricultural development programs. another vital element is their mental strength. they are two contradicting key factors indentified from the responses of the respondents that influenced them in venturing into commercial agriculture, as follow: (1) family factor; (2) financial factor; and (3) facilities factor. supports from family and friends would help an individual to succeed. all of the respondents agreed that their success is due to undying support from the family members. in terms of financial, they need to have the capital and be able to develop appropriate financial stability in starting up agricultural ventures. financial stability will empower them to have control over the resulting financial returns from their activities. while a significant number of young people are involved in independent agricultural activities and providing agricultural support to their families, it was also noted that the young entrepreneurs benefit from communal agricultural sources, either through the traditional financial and banking systems, government agencies, and investors. those are their immediate support groups; however, the birocracy and unnecessary long process of getting the financial supports will dampen the spirit. another obstacle is the operational costs which are getting higher despite the static selling prices. norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad, the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture 22 government, through existing agencies led by the ministry of agriculture and agro-based industry and ministry of youth and sports, really shows the commitment to open up opportunities for university graduates to venture into commercial farming. meanwhile, there are many facilities and support provided by various government agencies, including technical assistance and advisory services on a regular basis, to enable the young farmers get the work done as well as to attract more youth to venture into this field (fama-lp3, 2007d). they also learn and benefit from this communal agriculture support systems, such communal endeavours help the youth to build up self-esteem and a sense of community. this emphasis the importance of immediate support groups for the young farmers and also highlights the need to improve the institutional “enabling environment” provided by these groups if young people are to developed as agricultural entrepreneurs. fourth, training and skills. basic knowledge is essential in starting up a new business, and the knowledge is gained through the following: (1) formal training and skills; (2) previous working experience; (3) extra knowledge and mentoring; and (4) communal agricultural groups either through the local traditional systems, advisory services, or as members of agricultural groups. becoming young farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs is not an easy job; it needs times, energy, and financial stability. managing a farm is challenging, which involves crops or livestock management as well as farm labours. and, thus, the young people not only need determination and strong-willed, but valuable information. this means, comprehensive trainings and skills programs for young farmers are vital, in addition to their experience in farming activities. the common scenario and main efforts of the government are in attracting the young inexperienced people to venture into commercial farming. however, in the process, the government and support system are neglecting the present and successful farmers. and such, the concept or system of mentor-mentee is a very good method to be applied to young entrepreneurs who want to venture into commercial farming. successful farmers should provide guidance and assistance to the new entrepreneurs, formally and informally. however, incentives should be given to those experience entrepreneurs who willing to guide the young ones in starting up the business in various management and technical aspects. successful and experienced farmers should be the mentors in the youth agricultural development programs. fifth, personal traits of successful agricultural entrepreneurs. there are six main themes of traits indentified as essential in successful agricultural entrepreneur, as follow: (1) knowledgeable; (2) high determination; (3) self-discipline in time management; (4) proactive; (5) smart and creative; and (6) risk takers. entrepreneurs need to possess those traits to help them uphold the business, especially when they are facing hard times and in the verge of failure. it is proven by all of the five respondents that agricultural entrepreneurs will only succeed in their commercial agricultural ventures, if they are risk takers who have business knowledge, determination and resilience, self-discipline, and also good time management. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 23 a part from those, young farmers need to have their own mission and vision. they need to be creative and innovative, especially in marketing and promoting, rebranding, and labelling their products. they also need to be smart in finding new business ventures for their agricultural products. conclusion producing agricultural entrepreneurs is a comprehensive and long term process. coordinated implementation programs are needed by implementing a package of development strategies, along with skills and entrepreneurship trainings; providing infrastructure and business premises; financing; product development; fiscal incentive, credits supports, application of new technologies; and comprehensive infrastructures. the main problem now is the shortage of agricultural talents among young people. therefore, hopefully the implementation of certain programs would be able to attract young people, especially the graduates into the sector. the ministry confidents that through careful planning, structured programs, and mobilization efforts of all parties are able to make the agricultural sector favored by the young people. the five agricultural entrepreneuers, selected as respondents of this study, are university graduates with diplomas and masters degrees. based on their educational background and qualification, they can no longer be considered as traditional farmers. they are young educated farmers who no longer rely on the work of wage earners, they have decided to shift from the old paradigm to become successful entrepreneurs in the field of agriculture. they are the role models for the educated youth to be more open on the potential and to grab the opportunities provided by the government for those interested in venturing into agriculture. however, venturing into commercial agricultural is a pure challenge which needs smart handling. those interested in indulging into commercial agriculture need to be ready in facing common difficulties, especially physical challenges, financial constraints, and crops problems. on the other hand, determination, strength, and preverance will overcome those challenges. this is proven by all of the respondents, who are now successful entrepreneurs. today’s globalization and modernization era and working culture witnessed the information is easily accessible just at the fingertips on the new development and networking. these facilities and modernization aspects allow the respondents to update on the progress of agriculture. their knowledge, educational profiles, and spirit would give them strength to venture into the business with new brilliant and creative ideas of agro-business. sharing of information, skills, and knowledge with others in the same business is a good way to be successful agricultural entrepreneurs. family and community are the two dominant entities in decision making to those who decided to venture into agrobusiness. however, they are no longer key constraints, as the main catalyst is the person himself, who should posses self-determination and confidence, as well norhasni zainal abiddin & syamsuhadi irsyad, the involvement of graduates youth in commercial agriculture 24 as competetive, innovative, and creative in their strives to succeed in their ventures. based on the interviews, conclusion can be made that changes in time, respect, comprehensive supports, and incentives offered by the government agencies are vital in motivating young farmers to be successful agricultural entrepreneurs. references aidit, g. & y. husnizam. 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(1979). trait and factor counseling: yesterday and today. new york: mcgraw hill. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 137 school leadership in global perspective: a study of the influence of organizational culture, ability, and motivation based on geoleadership model towards leadership capacity in realizing intelligent school at catholic junior high schools in west java, indonesia sherly iliana iskandar abstract: indonesia is a part of the world in the process of globalization. ready or not, indonesia is involved in the changing of competition paradigm, from material to knowledge competition. this demands the government and educational institution to be ready with strategy and global vision in taking needed steps for adjustments and changes. this quantitative study on 130 catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia, about the influence of organizational culture, ability, and motivation based on geoleadership model towards leadership capacity, is conducted in responding to the radical impact of globalization to all aspect of life, including education in indonesia. it is urgently needed to find a model of educational leadership to create intelligent school as an appropriate school for this situation. the result of the study showed that ability has the strongest influence (48.23%) to leadership capacity, followed by motivation (32.37%), and organizational culture (16.34%). recommendation for catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia is improving ability, motivation by training, and improving organizational culture by creating a conducive working climate to develop leadership capacity in realizing intelligent school. key words: organizational culture, ability, motivation, geoleadership model, leadership capacity, and intelligent school. introduction globalization is often defined as “worldly”. an entity, no matter how small, is delivered by anyone, anywhere, and anytime spread throughout the world. inevitably, all countries and nations are involved in this process. globalization dr. ir. sherly iliana iskandar is a cum laude ph.d. graduan of the educational administration program at school of postgraduate upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. she can be reached at: shc@melsa.net.id sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 138 cannot be avoided; it seeps through all aspects of life: economics, politics, sosioculture, and education. the advances in education, information and communication technology have eliminated the borderline of countries. according to naisbit, it is marked by the fast paced and everchanging external and internal environment without a specific pattern (cited by hartanto, 2009:3). indonesia is a part of the world in the process of globalization. ready or not, indonesia is involved in the changing of competition paradigm, from material to knowledge competition. this demands the government and educational institution to be ready with strategy and global vision in taking needed steps for adjustments and changes. one of them would be that education, especially junior high school as part of basic education, needs to prepare school leaders physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, because having qualified human resources can bring positive impact on education (school) in facing the globalization era. “the greatest challenge facing leaders in this era of globalization is working effectively through cultural barriers to achieve business goals and objectives” (wibbeke, 2009:xvii). although insignificant when compared to continuous and fast changes resulted from globalization, education in indonesia has been changing since its independence day until now. catholic school is one form in which the catholic society participates in the process of developing the intellectual life of the indonesian youth through education based on pancasila (five pillars of the indonesian nation-state) and undang-undang dasar 1945 (constitution of the republic of indonesia), with their own uniqueness. however, educational institutions need to keep doing self reform to keep their existence in this era. the ability for catholic schools to survive in this globalization era is determined by the ability of their human resources, especially their school leaders in adapting themselves the changes. this is supported by e.s. wibbeke (2009:21), who states that globally, societies are changing and so are organizations. globalization and other changes create a new business (read as organization) climate, which requires different competencies from leaders. there are some factors that slow down the development or improvement of education, i.e. school leaders who take a long time in responding and making plans to change. there are even a number of apathetic headmasters towards the changes happening in this era. the department of national education of indonesia estimated that 70% out of 250 thousand school leaders in indonesia have weaknesses among others managerial competence and supervision (susanti, 2008). about leadership, s.d. weiss, v. molinaro and l. davey (2007:3) said that building leadership capacity is mission critical. this is the conclusion of more and more senior executives who are making the connection between leadership capacity and competitive advantage. furthermore, a. harris and l. lambert (2003:5) also stated that the capacity building is concerned with developing the conditions, skills and abilities to manage, and facilitate productive change at school level. school leaders have important and strategic roles in the improvement of educational quality. therefore, school leaders must have broad views and are able to communicate and to interact across culture and language. leaders of today face educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 139 new challenges, including communicating and interacting across regional, national, ethnic, cultural, language, and legal boundaries; dealing with and implementing continual change; coping with increased ambiguity; negotiating and resolving conflict; and motivating a multicultural workforce (wibbeke, 2009:2). leaders are expected to be learners of organizational culture and have the ability to manage it. besides that, school leaders must have good physical and intellectual abilities and high motivation for the acceleration of the improvement of work performance of each member of the organization. as stated by gibson, ivancevich and donnely (1996:98-99) that an employee’s behavior is complex because it’s effected by diverse environmental variables and many different individual factors, experiences, and events. in response to the above statement, e.s. wibbeke (2009:17) recommends “geoleadership model”: leaders in the globalization era need to have the competences i.e. care, communication, consciousness, contrast, context, change, and capability or known as 7cs. it is supported by t.a. razik and a.d. swanson (1995:1) that such leadership springs from understanding the realities of the world as a suprasystem. and intelligent school is assumed as the appropriate model for this changing complex situation. issues related to education and globalization have motivated me as a researcher to identify several school leaders’ aspects in the catholic junior high schools wich are organizational culture, ability, motivation which are assumed to have significant contribution towards leadership capacity.1 it is realized through orientation and elaboration which are in line with the values that grow and develop in the movement of the changes as the effect of globalization. literature review on the intelligent school. intelligent school is a continuous, lifelong process, which starts well before its pupils arrive at school and continues each day as they walk out of the door and long after they graduate from school (macgilchrist, myers & reed, 2004:50). intelligent school knows why learning is so important. it provides opportunities for learning and provides opportunities for that learning to be put to good use – that is, used intelligently to maximize pupils’ progress and achievement (macgilchrist, myers & reed, 2004:107). “we believe that learning and teaching are at the heart of school improvement. they are the core business of schools” (macgilchrist, myers & reed, 2004:xvi). in globalization era, school effectiveness has new meaning, focuses on pupil’s progress as well as outcomes of learning the value schools, add to the progress of the pupils. to reach the value added school, b. macgilchrist, k. myers and j. reed (2004:113) recommended nine intelligences as a framework for sustained school 1promoter of this dissertation (research) is prof. dr. h. djam’an satori; co-promoter i is prof. dr. h. abdul azis wahab; and co-promoter ii is prof. dr. h. abin syamsudin makmun. i’d like to thank sincerely to them for guiding and suvervising me in writing this dissertation. however, all contents and its interpretations in this dissertation are becoming my own academic responsibility. sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 140 improvement. those are: (1) ethical intelligence or ethq: justice, respect for persons, inclusion, and rights and responsibilities; (2) spiritual intelligence or sq: search for meaning, transcendency, sense of community, and interconnectedness; (3) contextual intelligence or cq: internal, local, national, and global; (4) operational intelligence or oq: strategic thinking, development planning, management arrangements, and distributed leadership; (5) emotional intelligence or eq: self-awareness, awareness of others, managing emotions, and developing emotional literacy; (6) collegial intelligence or coq: commitment to a shared purpose, knowledge creation, multi-level learning. and trust and curiosity; (7) reflective intelligence or rq: creating time for reflection, self-evaluation, deep learning, and feedback for learning; (8) pedagogical intelligence or pq: new visions and goals for learning, teaching for learning, open classrooms, and going against the grain; and (9) systemic intelligence or syq: mental models, systems thinking, self-organization, and networking. on the leadership capacity. five assumptions of leadership: (1) leadership is not trait theory; (2) leadership is about learning that leads to constructive change; (3) everyone has the potential and right to work as a leader; (4) leading is a shared endeavour; and (5) leadership requires the redistribution of power and authority. these five assumptions form the conceptual framework for leadership capacity building for school improvement. together, they advance the ideas that are essential if we are to develop sustainable, self-renewing, and improving schools (harris & lambert, 2003:20-21). leadership capacity means broad-based, skillful involvement in the work of leadership, that means the leader understood the shared vision in the school, the full scope of the work underway, and were able to carry it out, and also have commitment to the central work of self-renewing schools (harris &lambert, 2003:13-14). again, a. harris and l. lambert (2003:xvii) said, as so far described, that distributed leadership capacity can be seen as being an amorphous concept. its purposefulness (and its accountabilities) comes from tightness around values (shared beliefs), moral purpose (the urgency to act and to achieve together for higher order purposes), shared professional capital (the combined and shared and expanding knowledge-base), and the social capital (relationships and trust). meanwhile, s.d. weiss, v. molinaro and l. davey (2007:29) also stated that leadership capacity will demand attention and action on the part of executives and all leaders. however, the challenge they will face is that the traditional approach to build leadership capacity is no longer effective. organizations need to discover a new approach to define, measure, and build leadership capacity. hence, s.d. weiss, v. molinaro and l. davey (2007:32) think that the lack of the required leadership capacity is damaging organizations’ ability to expedite their strategic direction effectively and at the desired speed. in some cases, it has altered strategy entirely. as a result, businesses must build a meaningful leadership solution that generates the leadership capacity required to meet current and future business needs. in response to this challenge, a business needs to have a good grasp of the leadership capacity required and the nature of their leadership gap. unfortunately, educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 141 we find that many leaders and their organizations are still holding a traditional approach to leadership, one that focuses on building the skills of a few individual leaders at the expense of building the leadership capacity of the whole organization. further, s.d. weiss, v. molinaro and l. davey (2007:33) recommended that the purpose of leadership solution is to outline precisely what is required to build leadership capacity in organizations and to identify what individual leaders will need to bridge the leadership gap. building leadership capacity requires a dual response from both individual leaders and their organizations. leaders must take personal responsibility for behaving holistically, and organizations must encourage the development of leadership capacity by implementing supportive practice and by fostering a strong leadership culture (weiss, molinaro & davey, 2007:35). on the geoleadership model. in a landmark study on intercultural study of leadership competence, leading intercultural experts from around the world participated in a consensus building effort to determine the critical competencies for intercultural leadership and in how leaders can acquire them (wibbeke, 2009:18). these fast changes demand organizational sensitivity and leaders to respond to all kinds of obstacles in order to exist in the global competition to reach the objective of the organization. accordingly, e.s. wibbeke (2009:19-20) suggests the seven key principles of a new leadership paradigm, which are: first, care: global business leaders should hold and maintain equal concern for the bottom line and for stakeholder groups. while we can agree that one objective of business is profit creation, we also believe that a longer (term) and broader (social systems) serve business, ultimately. second, communication: in order for business leaders to lead effectively in intercultural situations, such leaders necessarily must engage and interact with those cultures in whose countries they work, if not with many cultures. closely related to context is that leaders must reach out to people in other cultures with a desire to understand and appreciate that culture and its people. leaders must learn communication skills that promote listening and open respectful dialog. third, consciousness: in today’s global economy, a person filling the role of leader and manager needs to develop self-awareness. a leader’s awareness must be expandable as contexts shift around them, such that the leader becomes clear of a personal cultural background and bias relative to that of other people. building consciousness means being able to expand your awareness. fourth, contrast: leaders must be able to work comfortably and effectively with ambiguity. developing a tolerance for working with contrasting perspectives, methods, and with differing value systems is critical. working in ambiguous contexts requires patience and consciousness. working at such a high level of consciousness means that leaders must be able to perceive multiple levels of meaning simultaneously. fifth, context: global business leaders must develop the ability to perceive, discern, and adapt to the situations within which they work, and to suspend sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 142 judgment. this means that all global business leaders must attend to the situation in which they find themselves. leaders need to understand each culturally learned behavior in the context of where that behavior originates and appears. sixth, change: postmodern organizations require adaptive leaders, leaders who demonstrate flexibility in adapting to dynamic cultural environments. intercultural leaders must shift from the old mechanistic mindsets of the industrial era to the flexible adaptive perspective of organizational life as what it is a complex sociocultural system. seventh, capability: in order for a leader to be effective in intercultural situations, there must be development of sufficient personal and organizational capability. intercultural competence requires that leaders are able to assess their own and others’ capability and build it where there is deficit. most important is the leader’s influence in facilitating an organizational culture capable of intercultural learning agility. on the organizational culture. an organization is formed for specific purposes based on a set vision and mission. therefore, the success of an organization is determined by its capability in attaining its purpose through organizational performance which is influenced by internal and external factors. internal factors influence the organizational performance, where the organizational culture plays a dominant part, while external factors are the culture of multicultural societies with cultural diversity that heavily influence its organizational culture and the organization itself (samovar, porter & edwin, 2010:328). for an organization with strong norms, it will influence the action of each of its members and will think of what he or she must do and think when at work. therefore, it is inevitable for the organization to interact internally and externally where culture exists, although not instantly but through a long process where ethnic, national, and other cultures also weld in it. in general, alvession describes that cultural organization as organizational culture is defined as shared philosophies, ideologis, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitude, norm, and value (cited by jazzar & algozzine, 2006:27). organizational culture is an attempt to get at the feel, sense, atmosphere, character, or image of an organization. it encompasses many of the earlier nations of informal organization, norms, values, ideologies, and emergent systems. general definition of organizational culture is a system of shared orientations that hold the unit together and give it a distinctive identity (hoy & miskel, 2008:177). the research conducted by reilly, chatman and caldwel in 1991 showed that there are seven main characteristics which, as a whole, is the nature of cultural dimension of an organization (cited by robbins & judge, 2009:585-586). they are as follows: (1) innovation and risk taking: the degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks; (2) attention to detail: the degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail; (3) outcome orientation: the degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve those outcomes; (4) people educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 143 orientation: the degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization; (5) team orientation: the degree to which work activities are organized around teams rathers than individuals; (6) aggressiveness: the degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing; and (7) stability: the degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth. on the ability. according to s. robbins and t.a. judge (2009:79), ability means the capacity of an individual’s ability to perform various tasks in a job. ability is a current assessment of what individuals can do. the overall ability of an individual basically consists of two factors: intellectual and physical. intellectual abilities are abilities needed to perform mental activities – for thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. people in most societies place a high value on intelligence and for good reason. physical abilities are the capacity to do task that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics. this is also noted by m.j. ivancevich, r. konopaske and t.m. matteson (2005:85-86) which said that ability is a talent for someone to perform physical or mental tasks, while skill is a talent learned to perform a task. the ability of a person is generally stable for several times. skills change with trainings or experiences, because people can be trained to have skills. furthermore, abin syamsudin makmun (2007:54) elaborated ability in two categories: potential ability and actual ability. it was explained that potential ability refers to the aspect that is still contained within the person that he acquired by hereditary (innateness), which may be: general intelligence and specialized basic ability in certain areas (talent, attitudes). while, actual ability shows the aspects of skills that can be demonstrated and tested because it is the result of learning concerned with how to materials and ways that the learner has passed through (achievement). in other words, actual ability can be trained. on the motivation. motivation, as something that gets us going, keeps us moving and helps us complete tasks. motivation is the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained (pintrich & schunk, 2002:5). mcclelland said that these learned needs represented behavioral predispositions that influence the way individuals perceive situations and motivate them to pursue a particular goal. mcclelland and his associates, particularly john atkinson, also investigated three of murray’s needs: achievement, affiliation, and power. in the literature, these three needs are abbreviated nach, naff, and npow (cited by luthans & davis, 2003:39). when a very strong need appears within someone, that need motivates him to use behavior that can give him satisfaction. the need for achievement as behavior directed toward competition with a standard of excellence (luthans & davis, 2003:39). the need for affiliation as a desire to establish and maintain friendly and warm relations with other individuals (luthans & davis, 2003:41). the need for power as the need to control others, to influence their behavior, and to be responsible for them. sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 144 in his research on the need for power, mcclelland describe “two face of power”. the need for power can take the form of personal power, in which individuals strive for dominance almost for the sake of dominance, or social power in which individuals are more concerned with the problems of the organization and what can be done to facilitate goal attainment (cited by luthans & davis, 2003:42). the main theme of mcclelland’s theory is that these needs are learned through adjustment to someone’s environment. gardner, in educational leadership, declares that the key challenges of leadership: long term, big picture thinking with an expansive reach (cited by fullan, 2007:1). it’s leaders’s responsibility to articulate and highlight intangibles like vision, values, and motivation. meanwhile, conger and kanungo declare that the distinction between leaders and managers, contending that motivation is the ”very essence” of true leadership, coupled with the ability to leaders to build an emotional attachment with their followers (cited by gorton, altson & snowden, 2007:6). research methods the method of research used is quantitative method (cresswell, 2008). the research is carried out in order to obtain a causal model of organizational culture, ability, and motivation based on geoleadership model influence on leadership capacity in realizing intelligent school of catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia. it was done by identifying, describing, and assessing the organizational culture, ability, and motivation of the leaders based on geoleadership model i.e. care, communication, contrast, consciousness, context, change, and capability; and to analyze their influence on the leadership capacity in realizing intelligent school of catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia. the independent variables are organizational culture, ability, and motivation; while the dependent variables are leadership capacity and intelligent school. data collection using a 1-5 likert-scale questionnaires produces data with ordinal measurement scale. in order to be processed by path analysis that uses the interval-scale data, the data obtained in ordinal measurement scale was first transformed into a scale of measurement range by using the help of successive intervals method of application in microsoft excel, then the number of interval scale items was used for every variable of the study. the results of research was processed by means of path analysis that uses the help of statistical package for social science (spss) software version 14 (allen, 1984). research samples are total samples of 130 catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia. research results first, on the correlation model of the influence of organizational culture, ability, and motivation to leadership capacity and leadership capacity to intelligent school. the model is shown below: educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 145 x1 y x2 x3 r2yx1x2x3 = 0.969 r yε = 0.175 r yx2 = 0.501 r yx3 = 0.340 rx1x2 = 0.916 rx2x3 = 0.897 rx1x3 = 0.940 z r zy = 0.866 r zε = 0.500 r yx1 = 0.172 r2zy = 0.750 structural model (2) structural model (1) figure 1: path analysis of connecting structural model notation : ε = other variable not included in the research. ρ yxi = the influence of x i to y, where i = 1, 2, 3. ρ zy = the influence of y to z. r xixj = correlation between x i and x j , where i, j = 1, 2, 3. x 1 = organizational culture. x 2 = ability. x 3 = motivation. y = leadership capacity. z = intelligent school. r2 yx1x2x3 = the influence of x 1 , x 2 , and x 3 all together to y. r2 zy = the influence of y to z. tables below are also concerning on the correlation model of the influence of organizational culture, ability, and motivation to leadership capacity and leadership capacity to intelligent school. table 1: path coefficient, influence of variable x 1 , x 2 , x 3 to y variable path coeficient t sig. organizational culture (x 1 ) 0.172 3.284 0.001 ability (x 2 ) 0.501 12.448 0.000 motivation (x 3 ) 0.340 7.165 0.000 sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 146 table 2: correlation coefficient between variable x 1 , x 2 , and x 3 pearson correlation organizational culture (x 1 ) ability (x 2 ) motivation (x 3 ) organizational culture (x 1 ) 1.000 0.916 0.940 ability (x 2 ) 0.916 1.000 0.897 motivation (x 3 ) 0.940 0.897 1.000 table 3: calculation result of the influence of x 1 , x 2 , x 3 variables to y description interpretation of the influence (%) to leadership capacity total organizational culture (x 1 ) ability (x 2 ) motivation (x 3 ) direct 2.96 25.07 11.59 39.61 indirect 13.38 23.16 20.78 57.33 total 16.34 48.23 32.37 96.94 table 4: path coefficient, influence of variable y to z variable path coeficient t sig. leadership capacity (y) 0.866 19.579 0.000 table 5: calculation result of the influence of x 1 , x 2 , x 3 variables to z through y description interpretation of the influence (%) leadership capacity (y) intelligent school (z) organizational culture (x 1 ) 16.34 74.97 12.25 72.67 ability (x 2 ) 48.23 36.16 motivation (x 3 ) 32.37 24.27 second, on the structural relation model of the influence of aspects of geoleadership model in organizational culture to leadership capacity. table 6 below is found that care, communication, contrast, and capability have significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05. beside that, it is found that consciousness, context, and change have no significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 147 table 6: path coefficient, aspects influence of organizational culture variable to leadership capacity aspects of organizational culture variable path coefficient t sig. care 0.093 2.015 0.046 communication 0.092 2.391 0.018 contrast 0.140 3.334 0.001 capability 0.090 2.430 0.017 based on the result of calculation between the independent variable and the structural parametre values, the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable which has direct or indirect characteristic can be determined as follows: table 7: calculation result of aspects influence of organizational culture variable to leadership capacity description interpretation of the influence (%) to leadership capacity total care communication contrast capability direct 0.87 0.84 1.97 0.81 4.49 indirect 6.45 5.49 8.57 5.18 25.69 total 7.32 6.33 10.54 5.99 30.18 thus, the degree influence with organizational culture based on care, communication, contrast, and capability is 30.18%. these show that the higher degree in organizational culture based on care, communication, contrast, and capability collectively will have an impact on improving leadership capacity at the catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia. third, on the structural relation model of the influence of aspects of geoleadership model in ability to leadership capacity. table 8 below is found that care, consciousness, change, and capability have significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05. beside that, it is found that communication, contrast, and context have no significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05 and up to � = 0.10 tolerance. table 8: path coefficient, aspects influence of ability variable to leadership capacity aspects of ability variable path coefficient t sig. care 0.115 2.850 0.005 consciousness 0.150 3.521 0.001 change 0.077 1.810 0.073 capability 0.121 3.036 0.003 sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 148 based on the result of calculation between the independent variable and the structural parametre values, the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable which has direct or indirect characteristic can be determined as follows: table 9: calculation result of aspects influence of ability variable to leadership capacity description interpretation of the influence (%) to leadership capacity total care consciousness change capability direct 1.32 2.24 0.59 1.47 5.62 indirect 8.09 10.24 5.72 8.42 32.47 total 9.41 12.48 6.31 9.89 38.09 thus, the degree influence with ability based on care, consciousness, change, and capability is 38.09%. these show that the higher degree in ability based on care, consciousness, change, and capability collectively will have an impact on improving leadership capacity at the catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia. fourth, on the structural relation model of the influence of aspects of geoleadership model in motivation to leadership capacity. table 10 below is found that contrast, consciousness, context, and capability have significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05. beside that, it is found that care, communication, and change have no significant direct influence on the variables of leadership capacity at level significance � = 0.05. table 10: path coefficient, aspects influence of motivation variable to leadership capacity aspects of motivation variable path coefficient t sig. contrast 0.144 3.052 0.003 consciousness 0.088 2.334 0.021 context 0.123 2.849 0.005 capability 0.193 4.288 0.000 based on the result of calculation between the independent variable and the structural parametre values, the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable which has direct or indirect characteristic can be determined as follows: educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 149 table 11 calculation result of aspects influence of motivation variable to leadership capacity description interpretation of the influence (%) to leadership capacity total contrast consciousness context capability direct 2.07 0.77 1.52 3.73 8.09 indirect 9.34 5.48 8.02 11.74 34.58 total 11.41 6.25 9.54 15.47 42.67 thus, the degree influence with motivation based on contrast, consciousness, context, and capability is 42.67%. these show that the higher degree in motivation based on contrast, consciousness, context, and capability collectively will have an impact on improving leadership capacity at the catholic junior high schools leaders in west java area in indonesia. discussion in the result of research at the catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia, it turned out that the variable which has the highest direct and indirect influence on leadership capacity of school leaders is ability, stronger than organizational culture and motivation. this is in accordance with the opinion of a. harris and l. lambert (2003:5) that capacity building is concerned with developing the conditions, skill, and ability to manage and facilitate productive change at school level. ability variable based on geoleadership model gives positive and relatively strong influence towards leadership capacity at catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia (48.23%). the significant part of ability that has relatively big influence is the inductive reasoning skill based on aspects of geoleadership model, i.e. care, consciousness, change, and capability. in catholic junior high schools, to perform their capacity effectively leaders are expected to think thoroughly and be sensitive to students, teachers, and parents from all kinds of culture by having the ability of: (1) estimating own and others’ ability and correct it when needed; (2) being aware of and always follow changes that happen; (3) care, sensitivity, and respect to other various cultures; and (4) adapting to various environments basically, successful change is a function of how well an organization’s internal capabilities – its management capacity, culture, processes, resources and people – match the requirements of its external environment (jarrett, 2009:8). these abilities need to be supported by organizational culture and motivation which should be a resonance that gives a thrill to the institution to make all parties concerned aware of acting proactively to change. sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 150 motivation variable based on geoleadership model gives positive, significant, and relatively moderate influence towards leadership capacity at catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia (32.37%). in this context, m. jazzar and b. algozzine (2006:42) said that one of the leading challenges in education remains the implementation of effective human motivational strategies to enhance performance and accountability. in research at catholic junior high schools, the parts of motivation i.e. the need of power and affiliation based on aspects of geoleadership model namely contrast, consciousness, context, and capability have quite a large influence towards leadership capacity. to perform, effective leaders must have abilities to: (1) take responsibility; (2) influence people, change the situation to have positive impact on the organization; (3) manage employees based on motivational pattern; (4) have social relationship with others; (5) understand the working attitude and the behavior for the sake of the organization as a whole; (6) grow mind set and estimate own and others’ ability and then correct them when needed; and (7) show flexibility in adapting to dynamic cultural environment. therefore, motivation is a strong driving force which leads to behaviors that reflect high performance within organizations to manage and also to be aware of the condition of the organizations’ members. r.l. daft (2008:226) states that motivation refers to the forces either internal or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. employee motivation effect productivity, and so part of a leader’s job is to channel followers’ motivation toward the accomplishment of the organization’s vision and goals. organizational culture variable based on geoleadership model gives positive and significant and relatively weak influence towards leadership capacity at catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia (16.34%). this is in accordance with the opinion of a.j. dubrin (2010:385) that the leader with the skills and attitudes to relate effectively to and motivate people across race, gender, age, social attitudes, and lifestyles. to influence, motivate, and inspire culturally diverse people, the leader must be aware of overt and subtle cultural differences. the most influential part of organizational culture is people oriented value based on aspects of geoleadership model which are: care, communication, contrast, and capability. in catholic junior high schools, to realize their leadership capacity leaders must show abilities to: (1) be aware and always follow changes; (2) feel, see, and adapt to situations; (3) have competitive attitude by measuring own ability and others in achieving the organization’s goal; (4) put forward the stability of the organization by being sensitive, careful and respectful to other various cultures; (5) make decisions by taking people in the organization into account; and (6) work effectively in ambiguous situations. these indicate that organizational culture cannot be separated from leadership in an organization, because organizational culture is being kept and developed continuously by leaders of organizations to achieve the organizations’ mission related with the process of decision making. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 151 in reality, organizational culture has the smallest contribution, it is influenced by the facts that: (1) the majority of teachers come from particular ethnic groups and have their own respective traditional culture; (2) teachers tend to work in a traditional way, following a pattern that has already existed in the organization, and are slow in making changes; and (3) organizations tend to maintain regular mind set and activities. this is in accordance with r. gorton, j. altson and r. snowden (2007:32) that ethical consideration, values, organizational culture, and climate are additional elements that bring impact on decision making. leadership capacity variable gives positive, significant, and strong influence towards the intelligent school at catholic junior high schools in west java area in indonesia, (74.97%). the crucial point is that in order to build leadership capacity, there needs to be a focused and continued emphasis on the leadership capabilities of those within the school community parents, pupils, and teachers (harris & lambert, 2003:90). according to tschannen-moran that principals can also build or damage trust by how they engage around the instructional matters of the school (cited by fullan, 2007:104). conclusion and recommendation ability based on geoleadership model has the strongest total influence on leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools and the geoleadership aspects which have significant influence are care, consciousness, context, and capability. motivation based on geoleadership model has the second stronger total influence on leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools, and the geoleadership aspects which have significant influence are context, change, and capability. organizational culture based on geoleadership model has the weakest total influence on leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools, and the geoleadership aspects which have significant influence are care, contrast, consciousness, context, and capability. ability, motivation, and organizational culture collectively have moderate direct influence on leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools, while its indirect influence is stronger than the indirect influence. thus, the total influence of organizational culture, ability, and motivation collectively on leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools are very strong. leadership capacity has strong direct influence on quality of the intelligent school in catholic junior high schools. ability, motivation, and organizational culture collectively have relatively strong indirect influence on quality of the intelligent school through leadership capacity in catholic junior high schools. based on the study result, some recommendations are suggested as follows: first, realizing leaders’ abilities by training and seminars in leadership, management, problem solving, decision making, communication, and also in making research about internal and external data, so they can understand global situation and its influence towards changes happening within the organization. sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 152 second, developing the ability of the leaders in decision making and conducting the right action by considering the situation and condition within the organization and the community with different cultures which also develops the flexibility in thinking and action. third, developing motivational 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(2009). global business leadership. new york: elsevier inc. sherly iliana iskandar, school leadership in global perspective 154 indonesia is a part of the world in the process of globalization. ready or not, indonesia is involved in the changing of competition paradigm, from material to knowledge competition. this demands the government and educational institution to be ready with strategy and global vision in taking needed steps for adjustments and changes. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 63 school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level in malaysian primary schools najeemah mohd yusof1 abstract: teaching is a profession that needs knowledge and the practice of psychological knowledge because this career relates directly to human. it is said that a long condition of stress could cause an individual to retreat from his/her work whether in physical or psychological way. thus, a step to control the emotion was necessary for every individual. the purpose of this research was to investigate the leadership style of principals in relation to the stress level of teachers. the leader behaviour description questionnaire (lbdq) measuring instrument was applied to measure the dimensions of principals’ leadership style, initiating structure, and consideration. the teachers’ stress measuring instrument was used to measure the stress level of teachers based on principal leadership style. sample consists of 200 teachers from primary schools in malaysia. the data was analysed based on descriptive and inferential statistics. the findings showed that teachers had high opinion of principals. moreover, there was a significant relationship between teachers’ stress level and the structural and consideration dimensions of the principals’ leadership style. it was also discovered that the teacher’s stress level had an influence with the style of headmaster’s leadership. the factor that was identified as the main factor for work stress among the respondents was the discipline problem among student, this was followed by the factors of the restriction of time and source, appreciation factor, and interpersonal factor. key words: school principal leadership, teachers, stress level, school leadership management, and human capital development. introduction education is an important asset to all individuals and very crucial in the development of a country. human capital development becomes a main drive for the success of a country. creating a well-balanced human capital in facing the globalisation effect requires a suitable leadership that meet with the current needs. a human capital that is being developed must be balanced from physical, emotion, spiritual, intellect, and social. therefore, the style of leadership of the headmaster is a foundation to the development of students through the teacher’s educating under his/her leadership. the teacher’s responsibility is becoming more challenging not only from the education world itself but also from the society that has put great expectations on the headmaster and teacher. emotional stability is najeemah mohd yusof is a lecturer at the school of educational studies usm (science university of malaysia), usm campus, 1180 minden, pulau penang, malaysia. she can be reached at: najineen@usm.my najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 64 needed in executing all the responsibilities that are given. a good quality of school leader becomes a main drive for the excellent schools. the leader should be able to arrange a strategy according to the intent of the national education philosophy, education development objective, 2001-2010, and further paralleled with the desire into the direction of realisation of vision or wawasan 2020 in malaysia. in this context, the leadership of teaching which involves the element of knowledge and the process of conveying knowledge in teaching and learning, translation, and operational curriculum, staff development, observation process, and supervising, curriculum development and group development is being understood and practiced by every party that is involved especially the leadership level in the school (haron md isa, 2002). in developing the world-class education system, there are many changes and upgrades that should be done by the ministry of education to strengthen the education in this country. the seriousness in pioneering and designing to strengthen the available education system will bring the direct or indirect affect to the main driver of the education world that is the teacher. the positive aspect will give spirit to the teachers. whereas, the negative aspect will bring to the existence of negative phenomena to the teacher him/ herself. this state will contribute to the anxiety of mental health, especially the stress among teachers. the human life in this century is seen as the challenging and complex conditions. the diversity of attractive and challenging life is to satisfy the needs of human. this state has catalysed the emerging of stress phenomenon that needs special attention to be understood. now, stress is a phenomenon that is frequently mentioned as a big threat to the multi-dimensional that has strong influence towards human life (hatta sidi & mohamed hatta shaharom, 2002). accordingly, r. bloona (2000) showed that this phenomenon is now at everywhere. it has become an element in the life journey of every individual. besides that, stress phenomenon among the teachers has enclosed all aspects of teacher’s life. it must be related to the cause of individual stress, symptoms that are shown and how a teacher handles the stress in his/her life according l.a. slavin et al. (1991). as a unique human group, stress among the teachers should be viewed from occupation aspect and personal life overall. a teacher that has his/her own personal life is different with other careers. stress that exists in this profession will also affect the teacher’s life. the same thing also happens to the performance of work when the personal life of a teacher is affected by stress. background of the study the study about stress that is experienced by teachers was given attention. according to mohd taib dora and hamdan abd kadir (2006), from the study that was conducted by university of manchester institute of science and technology discovered that the teacher’s occupation has a high stress rate, at scale 6.2 from the stress scale 0 until 10. this high level of teacher’s stress is contributed by the educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 65 change and competition of education world in facing the globalisation era. the teachers feel compelled to carry out the duty to fulfil the expectation from many parties such as school organisation, headmaster, the office of district education, department of state education, ministry of education, and also the expectation from students, parents, society, and country. the possibility for the style of headmaster’s leadership in school indirectly caused the teacher’s work stress can be measured whether high or low. there are many types of style of headmaster’s leadership that used different approach and theory such as characteristic approach, habit, contingency, and contemporary theory. the style of headmaster’s leadership follows the habit theory can be seen from the study made by ohio state university, michigan university, and management grid. the study of ohio state university found out that the style of headmaster’s leadership from two dimensions: structural dimension and considerate dimension. the study of michigan university discovered that the habit of headmaster’s leadership was producing oriented – duty. whereas, the management grid by robert t. blake and jane mouton (1999) concerned on human and producing. headmaster plays an important role at primary school because his/her leadership style can influence the teachers at school. the success of a headmaster in guiding the teachers can be differentiated in style theory or leadership-oriented. this theory can be applied by the headmaster to identify whether his/her leadership at school is based on considerate style or concerning the structural duty. the study of ohio state university found out that the style of headmaster’s leadership from two dimensions: structural dimension and considerate dimension. the style of considerate dimension displayed that a leader should has a good relationship with his/her workers. the leader should also confident with his/her worker’s ability, respecting ideas, listening to other’s views, and giving attention towards the feeling of workers. the style of concerning the structural duty emphasised on how a leader defines his/her role and structures his/her duty and how is the duties being handled. apart from the style of headmaster’s leadership, in west countries are very concerned with works stress among the teachers where the problem has been given attention since two decades ago. this matter can be proved by a lot of stress studies that were conducted on the teachers (kyriacou & sutcliffe, 1978 and 1979). in this context, c. kyriacou and j. sutcliffe (1978 and 1979) emphasised that over-period stress can weaken the mental and physical and also able to significantly weaken the teacher’s career and the performance of student because stress is said that can harm the quality of teaching and teacher’s commitment. whereas in malaysia, the study about work stress among teachers has attracted many researchers such as siti radziah (1982), ahmad shakri (1998), and helen malaka et al. (2005). thus, it is hope that this study about the relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership and teacher’s stress can be done with details so that it can be used as a reference in the future. najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 66 evidences from the study of teacher’s stress showed that this problem is at a level that needs an attention. the teachers are well aware that small stress, that is given in executing their duty, will give benefit and affect the performance of work. but, excessive amount of stress will reduce the performance of work and harm the health, especially from the mental and physical of a teacher. besides that, the decreasing in the work satisfaction of the teachers also causes the deteriorating in work quality, increasing in psychological confusion and work stress among the teachers (simon, 1978). these aspects can influence the spirit, motivation, and willingness of the teachers to maximise their teaching potential (borget & fazlon, 1991). the negative effect from the stress is not only a personal problem that must be endured by the worker him/herself, but stress is a problem to employer, organisation or government, and also harms the mental and physical health of this group (hassan bin hashim, 1994). from the relation aspect, stress and the style of headmaster’s leadership have compensation relationship. in teaching profession, teachers reported that a high level of work stress causes a low level of work satisfaction (simon, 1978; and kyriacou & sutcliffe, 1979). the personality influence towards work stress can be seen through many models that put the personality as main prediction or indicator for work stress. these models stated that the interaction between many personality traits and types of occupation can create work stress (feidler, 1994). according to r. bloona (2000), personality trait has genetic element that create the individual difference in facing the psychological reaction. objectives, research questions, hypothesis, and purpose of the study the objectives of this study are: (1) to identify the style of headmaster’s leadership through the teacher’s view; (2) to identify the level of teacher’s stress; and (3) to identify whether there is a significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership and teacher’s stress. the research questions of this study that are need to be answered are: (1) what is the style of headmaster’s leadership through the teacher’s view?; (2) what is the level of stress?; and (3) is there any relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership and teacher’s stress? the hypotheses of this study are: (1) ho 1 = there is no significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership and the level of teacher’s stress; (2) ho 1.1 = there is no significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership or structural dimension and the level of teacher’s stress; and (3) ho 1.2 = there is no significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership or considerate dimension between the level of teacher’s stress. finally, the purpose of this research was to study about teacher’s stress towards the style of headmaster’s leadership at eight schools in the west coast of malaysia. this researcher also wanted to find a strong relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership and teacher’s stress at school. for understanding and educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 67 supporting the purpose in this research, the diagram on framework for the concept of study is as follows: literature review on the leadership styles. according to f.e. feidler (1994), the style of leadership is a structural need that motivates the leader’s behaviour in many different of leadership situations. ainon mohd (2005) also said that the difference in the style of leadership has an important impact on the productivity of the individuals that is lead. therefore, the knowledge about the style of leadership enables a leader to become more confident and expert in management, administration, and leadership. the style of autocracy, democracy, and laissez faire were introduced by k. lewin, r. lippit & r.k. white (1994). the characteristics for autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire style as the following: first, characteristics of autocratic style are: (1) the leader determines all the policies; (2) the techniques and steps to achieve the goal are directed by the leader, there is one goal only from one moment of time until future which always uncertain; and (3) the tasks and colleagues are determined by the leader; (4) the leader is personal in giving a praise or critic towards the work of every member without giving any objective reason. he/she does not involve in group activities unless when showing something. second, characteristics of democratic style are: (1) all policies are determined by a group of people that is formed and supported by the leader; (2) all activities that will be noticed by the members, will understand from the explanation given about the common steps in first discussion. if the group needs a technical advice, the leader will give two or three alternative procedure that can be chosen by the group; (3) the groups are free to work with anybody they like and the division of task is handed over to the group; and (4) the leader tries to behave with objective in giving a praise and critic. he/she involves in the group activities with high spirit and also does not intervene in the work matter. najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 68 third, characteristics of laissez faire style are: (1) the leader gives an autonomy in the way of working; and (2) the leader only intervenes when an opinion is asked. the style of autocracy, democracy, and laissez faire are differentiated by the level and role of a leader on his workers. the leader with autocratic style is more likely to give a command, task-oriented, and centred to the leader. the leader with democratic style allows the chief and his/her workers to move and work together in making decision. the leader with laissez-faire style shows that there no role for a leader in an organisation. style for concerning the structural task explains how far a leader defines his/her role in determining the structure towards his/her task. the headmaster also arranges the work of his/her staff. this type of headmaster always orders group activities, makes a work list of his staff and tries new ideas. these measurements create work satisfaction. the considerate style explains how far a headmaster has a good relationship with his/her staff and teachers. this style needs the headmaster to feel confident on the ability of teachers. the headmaster should be concerned, respecting ideas, hearing opinions, and considering towards the feeling of teachers and staff. these measurements need two-way communications and can produce work satisfaction. these two dimensions, when is combined, will form four types of behavioural style that contain whether high or low in both dimensions or whether high or low in one of the dimensions. on the definition and concept of stress. tccdt (times chambers combine dictionary thesaurus) in times language dictionary (1995) defined stress as anxious feeling that is experienced by a person that is caused by certain events that happen in life. stress is also an individual reaction whether from physical or emotional aspect or both aspects that can cause disturbance not only to psychology but also physical. it means that stress can cause a negative effect to a person. the word stress actually originated from the word eustres that carry the meaning for adapting ourselves or stress build-up. this word also originated from the word “distress” that means cannot adapt or can harm ourselves. thus, stress is a situation that disturbs or builds our daily life. stress, from the view of language, also carries the meaning for the pressure where it is a nature of life (harunsani zakaria, 2006). stress is a frequent phenomenon that is mentioned as a big threat towards the mental health of universal human. as a unique human group, stress among the teachers should be viewed from occupation aspect and personal life overall. a teacher that has his/her own personal life is different with other careers. stress that exists in this profession will also affect the teacher’s life. the same thing also happens to the performance of work when the personal life of a teacher is affected by stress. this statement is supported by hans selye (1990) who shows that it is very difficult for a person to forget family problem at home when working. and also if there is a problem at workplace, it is not difficult for that individual to think about the problem when he is together with his family. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 69 diagram 1: several types of pressure that is faced by human. (source: hans selye, 1990) on the factors for teacher stress and stress theory. the behaviour and personality of a person will decide his/her ability to confront with stress. however, the ways of confronting or handling the stress cannot be applied effectively without knowing the factors that cause the stress problem. in the teaching profession, stress is an inevitable problem that will be confronted by to those who are called teacher. this profession contains a lot of work situation elements that can cause stress problem especially when the person needs to face with lots of students all day (noorazifah bt md suandi, 2008). among the factors that cause teacher’s stress are depersonalisation, self success, lacks of emotion, heavy workload, interpersonal relationship, and work environment. depersonalisation is referred to the state of emotional of a teacher such as the way of communicating with student and how a teacher overcomes his/ her student’s problem. self success is referred to the way of a teacher achieves the success in making his/her students achieves a good result in examination. lack of emotion is referred to the strong feeling of a teacher in carrying out his/her duty without feeling angry, sad, and sentimental. work environment such as condition of class environment and study facilities also affects the teachers in carrying out their duty. harun arrasyid haji tuskan (2006) said that stress problem is caused by the physical and psychological state. the physical state that is dirty, noisy, crowded whether at house or workplace and physical disease that is experienced contributes to the feeling of pressure to an individual. stress that is caused by psychological factor exists if the change needed an adaptation such as: (1) a change at workplace such as employer, colleague, or a new environment; (2) starting a marriage; (3) losing of beloved person or property; and (4) feeling afraid or threatened. for example, coming late to workplace, feeling guilty to the things that has been done, or fail to fulfil the target. najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 70 according to mohd azhar abd hamid (2004), the elements that cause the stress problem in human life are: (1) stress factor that is self external factor and self inner factor. self external factor of an individual consists of organisation or employer factor, occupation, career, and social relationship. self internal factor is disappointment, anxiety, losing, loneliness, failure, and lack of source; (2) building of behaviour; and (3) individual reaction and the meaning of his relationship with stress factor. meanwhile, according to dr. hans selye, the founder of stress theory, stress is a reaction symptom that is not specified by an individual towards the burden that comes in the anxiety shape, that is caused by a challenge, threat, or change that needs a response (selye, 1980). there are four theories from mohd salleh lebar (1994) that related with the concept of life pressure, namely: (1) stress from the angle of psychodynamic theory; (2) view of behaviourism about stress; (3) mind and stress; and (4) biological influence towards stress. on the stress from the angle of psychodynamic theory, sigmund freud introduced the theory of psychodynamic that relates the anxiety with stress that is experienced by human. a person that experiences the stress will also experience psychodynamic, a disease that is related to mental-emotion disturbance and physical pain. the signs of this disease are asthma, migraine, high blood pressure, and pale. meanwhile, about view of behaviourism towards stress, according the view of behaviourism, human that confronts the stress will have several behaviour like does not perform the job with systematic, smokes heavily or increase the intake of alcohol, taking a lot medications to cure the stress, easy to forget about something, grasp in fist without any intention, increase or decrease in appetite, and biting the nail or pluck out the hair. variable and instrument of study in this study, there are two variables: dependent variable and independent variable. the dependent variable of this study is the level of teacher’s stress. the level of teacher’s stress is given in a level whether it is low, moderate, or high. the decision for the teacher’s stress level is made based on the min score of the respondent towards stress level that is felt from the style of headmaster’s leadership. the independent variable of this study is the factors of respondent’s demography such as sex, age, teaching experience, and marital status. these independent variables will affect to the dependent variable. according to mohamad najib ghafar (1998), the instrument in the form of inquiry was easy to handle after well built and the data was easy to be processed for analysing. the instrument of this study was divided into three part: part a (demography), part b (inquiry about the style of headmaster’s leadership), and part c (inquiry about the level of teacher’s stress). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 71 independent variable dependent variable diagram 2: the relationship between independent variable and dependent variable part c represented an inquiry about the level of teacher’s stress that was built by researcher with the way of modifying all items in part b and it was adjusted with the level of teacher’s stress. part c contained items to get the information about teacher’s stress level according to the item for the style of headmaster’s leadership that was practiced whether it was structural or considerate dimension. this inquiry contained 30 items to measure the level of teacher’s stress in confronting the style of headmaster’s leadership based on two dimensional leaderships given. every item contained five optional answers that had the degree of agreeing in the form five-point scale. the position of the scales were 1 (no pressure), 2 (slight pressure), 3 (fair pressure), 4 (absolute pressure), and 5 (extreme pressure). the negative items were coded back in the form of positive and the mark was given as follows: 1 (extreme pressure), 2 (absolute pressure), 3 (fair pressure), 4 (slight pressure), and 5 (no pressure). table 1: total score for teacher’s stress level stress level point min highest score 150 5 lowest score 30 1 table 2: answer scale for the teacher’s stress level enquiry work pressure level point positive question negative question no pressure 1 5 slight pressure 2 4 fair pressure 3 3 absolute pressure 4 2 extreme pressure 5 1 najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 72 the determination of teacher’s stress level can be seen from the min obtained. the minimum score is determined by calculation method. every item had 1 until 5 points. the total minimum score for the teacher’s work pressure is 30 points (30 items x 1 point). the total minimum score is used to determine the teacher’s work pressure level either the highest or the lowest. findings of the study on the descriptive analysis of level of the headmaster’s leadership style or structural dimension is able to be seen in the table as follows: table 3: descriptive analysis of level of the headmaster’s leadership style or structural dimension item number description frequency & percentage (%) min tp jj ss kk s 1. he ensured that his attitude was easy to be understood by teacher. 0 0 66 134 0 4.33 0.0 0.0 33.0 67.0 0.0 4. he was easy to try new ideas with teacher. 0 1 4 134 61 4.28 0 0.5 2.0 67.0 30.5 6. he administered with compulsion. 2 4 3 131 60 4.22 1.0 2.0 1.5 65.5 30.0 8. he criticised the works of teacher that was not good enough. 0 4 3 122 71 4.30 0 2.0 1.5 61.0 35.5 9. he spoke in the way that cannot be questioned. 1 1 1 128 69 4.32 0.5 0.5 0.5 64.0 34.5 12. he decided certain tasks for every teacher. 0 0 2 109 89 4.44 0 0 1.0 54.5 44.5 13. he decided the work schedule that was need to be executed. 0 0 1 116 83 4.41 0 0 0.5 58.0 41.5 14. he maintained a regular achievement. 0 1 1 121 77 4.37 0 0.5 0.5 60.5 38.5 18. he concerned the all works that were given must be met with deadline. 1 4 0 121 74 4.32 0.5 2.0 0 60.5 37.0 20. he encouraged teacher to use a same work procedure. 0 2 3 123 72 4.33 0 1.0 1.5 61.5 36.0 22. he made sure that all teachers understood his role in school. 1 0 3 117 79 4.37 0.5 0 1.5 58.5 39.5 educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 73 24. he asked teacher to follow all the rules and work conditions that had been fixed. 1 0 1 115 83 4.40 0.5 0 0.5 57.5 41.5 26. he explained to all teachers his expectations. 1 0 2 121 76 4.36 0.5 0 1.0 60.5 38.0 28. he decided that all teachers must perform their duty with full commitment. 0 0 2 114 84 4.41 0 0 1 .0 57.0 42.0 30. he made sure that all teachers’ tasks were adjusted. 1 1 1 97 100 4.47 0.5 0.5 0.5 48.5 50.0 overall min 4.35 table 3 above shows that the distribution of respondents’ perception towards the style of the headmaster’s leadership according to structural dimension. the result of analysis shows that all items displayed min value at a high level. from the analysis, it is discovered that the min value of every statement is from 4.22 until 4.47. the overall min value of item for structural dimension is 4.35 which was a high level. it pictures that all the headmasters of school from this study practices a high style of headmaster’s leadership with structural dimension. from the result of study, it is known that a high style of headmaster’s leadership can cause the teachers in school to be pressured and indirectly affect the performance of teacher during teaching in class. table 4: descriptive analysis of the style of headmaster’s leadership or considerate dimension item number statement frequency & percentage (%) min tp jj ss kk s 1. he offered personal help to teachers. 8 14 53 104 21 3.58 4.0 7.0 26.5 52.0 10.5 3. he did several works to make himself comfortable as a member of school society. 3 14 45 109 29 3.74 1.5 7.0 22.5 54.5 14.5 5. he was easy to be understood. 7 18 58 79 38 3.62 3.5 9.0 29.0 39.50 19.0 7. he was willing to spend time to give an attention to teacher. 7 21 46 91 35 3.63 3.5 10.5 23.0 45.5 17.5 10. he loved to be alone. 26 31 33 84 26 3.27 13.0 15.5 16.5 42.0 17.5 11. he cared about the welfare of teacher. 7 13 47 100 33 3.70 3.5 6.5 23.5 50.0 16.5 najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 74 15. he was unwilling to explain all his actions. 16 31 41 85 27 3.38 8.0 15.5 20.5 42.5 13.5 16. he acted without negotiating with teacher. 10 28 39 91 32 3.54 5.0 14.0 19.5 45.5 16.0 17. he supported all teachers’ action. 3 22 49 91 35 3.67 1.5 11.0 24.5 45.5 17.5 19. he assumed that all teachers were same level with him. 12 24 50 79 35 3.51 6.0 12.0 25.0 39.5 17.5 21. he was ready to make a big change. 3 15 39 94 49 3.86 1.5 7.5 19.5 47.0 24.5 23. he was very warm and friendly to all teachers. 10 10 45 103 32 3.69 5.0 5.0 22.5 51.5 16.0 25. the teachers were comfortable when discussing with him. 5 19 52 90 34 3.65 2.5 9.5 26.0 45.0 17.0 27. he executed the suggestions that were put forward by teachers. 6 14 57 89 34 3.66 3.0 7.0 28.5 44.5 17.0 29. he got a permission from the teachers first before continuing an important work. 5 27 47 63 58 3.71 2.5 13.5 23.5 31.5 29.0 overall min 3.58 table 4 above shows the distribution of respondent’s perception towards the style of headmaster’s leadership according to considerate dimension. the result of this analysis shows that all items displayed a high min value. from the analysis also, it is found out that every min value of the statement is around 3.27 until 3.86. the overall min of item for considerate dimension is 3.57 which is a high value. in the style of headmaster’s leadership, considerate dimension aspect with teacher is very important. a headmaster that is caring for each teacher’s welfare and becomes a good listener to the teachers especially in helping the teacher’s problem will create a more effective learning environment. table 5: descriptive analysis of teacher’s stress level item number statement frequency & percentage (%) min nh lp fp ap ep 1. he did not offer any personal help to the teachers. 2 80 74 43 1 3.20 1.0 40.0 37.0 21.5 0.5 2. he did not ensure that his attitude to be understood by the teachers. 6 102 56 31 5 3.37 3.0 51.0 28.0 15.5 2.5 3. he did several works to make himself comfortable as a member of school society. 18 97 63 19 3 3.54 9.0 48.5 31.5 9.5 1.5 educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 75 4. he was proactive in trying new ideas in his administration. 11 107 39 37 6 3.40 5.5 53.5 19.5 18.5 3.0 5. he was hard to be understood. 11 80 45 48 16 3.11 5.5 40.0 22.5 24.0 8.0 6. he administered with compulsion. 17 77 35 40 31 3.05 8.5 38.5 17.5 20.0 15.5 7. he did not spend any time to give an attention towards teacher. 16 80 50 46 8 3.25 8.0 40.0 25.0 23.0 4.0 8. he criticised the works of teacher that is not good enough. 11 85 40 47 17 3.13 5.5 42.5 20.0 23.5 8.5 9. he spoke in the way that cannot be questioned. 11 84 40 38 27 3.07 5.5 42.0 20.0 19.0 13.5 10. he did not like to mix with the school society. 13 90 39 39 19 3.20 6.5 45.0 19.5 19.5 6.5 11. he did not care about the welfare of the teachers as an individual. 17 92 39 39 19 3.31 8.5 46.0 19.5 19.5 6.5 12. he did not decide certain tasks for every teacher. 18 89 49 37 7 3.37 9.0 44.5 24.5 18.5 3.5 13. he did not decide the work schedule that is need to be executed. 23 81 50 40 6 3.38 11.5 40.5 25.0 20.0 3.0 14. he did not maintain a regular achievement. 10 89 52 44 5 3.28 5.0 44.5 26.0 22.0 2.5 15. he was unwilling to explain all his actions. 11 73 46 55 15 3.05 5.5 36.5 23.0 27.5 9.5 16. he acted without negotiating with the teachers. 7 83 36 55 19 3.02 3.5 41.5 18.0 27.5 9.5 17. he did not support all the actions that had been done by the teachers. 6 88 41 45 20 3.08 3.0 44.0 20.5 22.5 10.0 18. he did not concern all the works that were given must be met with the deadline. 14 95 39 40 12 3.30 7.0 47.5 19.5 20.0 6.0 19. he assumed that all teachers were not at same level with himself. 12 72 71 35 10 3.21 6.0 36.0 35.5 17.5 5.0 20. he did not encourage all teachers practiced the same work procedure. 10 84 44 58 4 3.19 5.0 42.0 22.0 29.0 2.0 21. he did not ready to make a big change. 16 80 48 51 5 3.49 8.0 40.0 24.0 25.5 2.5 22. he ensured that all teachers understood his role at school. 23 89 54 31 3 3.49 11.5 44.5 27.0 15.5 1.5 najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 76 23. he was not friendly and warm. 3 80 47 47 23 2.97 1.5 40.0 23.5 23.5 11.5 24. he asked teacher to follow all the rules and work conditions that had been fixed. 15 83 36 50 16 3.16 7.5 41.5 18.0 25.0 8.0 25. he was not easy to discuss with teacher. 14 70 42 47 27 2.99 7.0 35.0 21.0 23.5 13.5 26. he did not explain to teacher his expectations. 10 90 46 44 10 3.23 5.0 45.0 23.0 22.0 5.0 27. he did not execute all the plans that is bring forward by the teachers. 9 74 60 52 5 3.15 4.5 37.0 30.0 26.0 2.5 28. he did not make sure that all teachers performed the duty with commitment. 11 85 56 42 6 3.27 5.5 42.5 28.0 21.0 3.0 29. he did not get a permission from the teachers before continuing an important work. 9 76 50 49 16 3.27 5.5 42.5 28.0 21.0 3.0 30. he did not adjust the teacher’s task. 10 76 57 40 17 3.11 5.0 38.0 28.5 20.0 8.5 overall min 3.20 table 5 above shows the distribution of respondent’s perception to the teacher’s stress level in school organisation. the result of analysis shows that all items displayed an average level of min value. from the analysis, it is found out that every min value of the statement is around 2.97 until 3.54. the overall min of item for teacher’s stress level is 3.20 which is a moderate level. this shows that not all teachers can handle the pressure when there is a change at school. the result of analysis showed that every teacher had a medium preparation for preparing any pressure that has to be faced. therefore, teacher’s stress still exists if the school party, like the headmaster that is stressed, will cause an emotional problem among the teachers at school. table 6: analysis of result for the level of style of headmaster’s leadership and teacher’s stress at school (findings of descriptive analysis) variable average min level the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural dimension) 4.35 high the style of headmaster’s leadership (considerate dimension) 3.58 high teacher’s stress level 3.20 moderate educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 77 table 7: the scale of stress level (findings of descriptive analysis) scale category 1.00 – 2.33 slight pressure/low 2.34 – 3.66 fair pressure/moderate 3.67 – 5.00 absolute pressure/high from the overall analysis above, it is found out that the level for the style of headmaster’s leadership in structural dimension and considerate dimension are at a higher level as shown in the table 6. only teacher’s stress level is at a moderate level or fair pressure as shown in table 7. on the other sides, inference analysis was used to obtain a result of hypothesis experiment that was built by researcher. one of the statistics that was used was pearson correlation. results are shown in table below. table 8: analysis of result for the relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership with teacher’s stress variable stress p definition style of headmaster’s leadership 0.455 0.000 moderate correlation, the connection is strong and firm. style of headmaster’s leadership (structural dimension) 0.433 0.000 moderate correlation, the connection is strong and firm. style of headmaster’s leadership (considerate dimension) 0.413 0.000 moderate correlation, the connection is strong and firm. *significant at level p≤0.05 table 8 above showed that there is a significance relationship between teacher’s stress with the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural and considerate dimension), that is every relationship shows its own significant value 0.000 which is less than the level of significant (0.05). based on the table above, it is discovered that a connection between teacher’s stress and the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural and considerate dimension) has a moderate correlation value, strong and firm connection. and also the connection between teacher’s stress and the style of headmaster’s leadership has a moderate correlation value, strong and firm connection. discussion, implication, and conclusion of the study the first objective of this study was to identify the style of headmaster’s leadership from the teacher’s view whether structural or considerate style. the result of this study found out that the style of headmaster’s leadership from the view of 200 respondents among the teacher’s was a high level at structural style (min = 4.35) and considerate style (min = 3.58). this result is supported by the study that was najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 78 conducted by suaidah ahmad (1983) who had found out that the percentage of headmasters that practiced the act of consideration and structural main drive was high. while the second objective was to identify the level of teacher’s stress. the result of this study discovered that the level of teacher’s stress according to the view of 200 respondents among the teachers was at a moderate level or absolute pressure (min = 3.20). the third objective of this study was to identify whether there was a significant relationship between the styles of headmaster’s leadership with teacher’s stress. therefore, there was a relationship between the styles of headmaster’s leadership with teacher’s stress. according to rowntree, as cited in mohamad najib ghafar (1998), this value showed a moderate relationship. the result of this study supported sadri hj kormin’s study (1998) who had found out that the headmasters tend to have a positive relationship with the teacher’s work pressure. suaidah ahmad (1983) also discovered that the behaviour for structural main drive was related to the pressure in a positive way. the level for the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural and considerate dimension) was at a high level. only the level of teacher’s stress at a moderate level. the result for the hypothesis experiment that was conducted discovered that all hypotheses for this experiment were rejected. the result of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural and considerate dimension) with teacher’s stress. this study was conducted as an effort to increase and expand more knowledge about the style of headmaster’s leadership from the dimension that emphasised on structure and consideration and its relationship with the level of teacher’s stress according to the style of headmaster’s leadership. this matter needs to be known to observe the level of teacher’s stress according to the style of headmaster’s leadership through the view of teacher. this matter is necessary for the party that is related with education program whether school, district education office, state or ministry to plan a preventing program so that the teacher’s stress is in a controlled situation. this part will discuss the implication and conclusion of the study. based on the study, it was discovered that the style of headmaster’s leadership in both dimensions, structural and considerate was high according from the teacher’s view. some of the items in both dimensions have min. value around 3.00 until 4.00. this showed that the headmaster in schools, that are studied, had practiced a high style of headmaster’s leadership in both dimensions. this study also found out that there was a significant relationship between the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural dimension) with the teacher’s stress level (r = 0.433 and p = 0.000). this relationship was at a high level which meant the higher the style of headmaster’s leadership (structural dimension), the higher the teacher’s stress level. however, the level of teacher’s stress was different according to the items in the inquiry form since the relationship was at a moderate correlation only. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 79 this study discovered that there was a significant relationship between the styles of headmaster’s leadership (considerate dimension) with the teacher’s stress level. the result of this study found out that whatever the style of headmaster’s leadership, there is must for a teacher feels an extreme pressure. this was shown by the result of study that showed a high level (r = 0.413 and p = 0.000). the relationship was a moderate correlation and had strong and firm connection. it explained that why the relationship between the styles of leadership for both dimensions with teacher’s stress level was at a high level and there was a significant relationship. according to the study that was conducted by azizi yahya shahrin hashim et al. (2007), it was discovered that the teacher’s stress level had an influence with the style of headmaster’s leadership. the factor that was identified as the main factor for work stress among the respondents was the discipline problem among students (min = 3.43). this was followed by the factor of the restriction of time and source (min = 2.97), appreciation factor (min = 2.90), and interpersonal factor (min = 2.85). teaching is a profession that needs knowledge and the practice of psychological knowledge because this career relates directly to human. watts and short, as cited by noorazifah bt md suandi (2008), said that a long condition of stress could cause an individual to retreat from his/her work whether in physical or psychological way. thus, a step to control the emotion was necessary for every individual. according to mohd azhar abd hamid (2004), the first step in adapting to the stress was to identify the level of pressure that was experienced. this step can be done by understanding the process and effect of pressure, identifying the main causes of pressure, identifying and knowing when the pressure occurs or will occur, creating several ways to overcome the pressure, training ourselves to overcome the pressure with the way that is already determined, and knowing the form of pressure that can help us to expand our potential. an individual needs to know him/herself first so that he/she can handle the pressure that is faced. the ability to know ourselves and handling the pressure will make an individual can overcome any form of pressure in the state of stable emotion. references ahmad shakri. 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(1995). times language dictionary. singapore: federal publications. najeemah mohd yusof, school principals leadership and teachers’ stress level 82 teaching is a profession that needs knowledge and the practice of psychological knowledge because this career relates directly to human. it is said that a long condition of stress could cause an individual to retreat from his/her work whether in physical or psychological way. thus, a step to control the emotion was necessary for every individual. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 229 indonesian gramatical interference towards the students’ spoken and written english pudiyono abstract: this research aimed to find out: (1) interference forms of indonesian grammar towards the students’s spoken and written english competence; and (2) grammatical factors influencing grammatical indonesian interference towards the students’s spoken and written english competence. the research method used was “metode simak dan catat” or observation and note taking mathod. this method was applied by notifying any expressions being interferenced from any academic activities. therefore, the data were collected from students’ academic activities such as writing practices, reports, structured academic assignments, and also from discussion, seminars, and presentations. after the data had been collected and analyzed, they went into two main classifications. those were sentencial interference (63.16%) and phrasal interference (36.84%). further analyses showed that sentencial interfernce came into several sub-classifications such as the following: (1) sentence pattern s + very + verb + object, 31.21%; (2) sentence pattern of noun + adjective, 12.2%; (3) sentence pattern of unapppropriate form, 6.57%; (4) sentence pattern of unintended or “ketidaksengajaan”, 5.3%; (5) impersonal it sentence pattern, 3.94%; and (6) active-passive sentence pattern, 3.94%. meanwhile, phrasal interference came with 36.84% data and was classified into the following: (1) unorderly arrangement, 11.84%; (2) adverb formation, 5.3%; (3) inappropriate number, 9.2%; and (4) miscellaneous, 5%. furthermore, the grammatical factor which influenced the indonesian interference towards the english learning, both spoken and written, was the fact that the english language learners had little imposure and practice which made them difficult to internalize english linguistic knowledge they learned. key wods: sentencial interference, phrasal interference, linguistic environtment, grammatical patterns, acceptable patterns,”bahasa” indonesia, and english language. introduction english learning in indonesia, from time to time, has not been considered a success. the complaints on this unsuccessful result keep echoing in almost all parts of the indonesia archipelago. unfortunately, the failure of this english learning happened in almost all education levels, since english is introduced in elementary school, junior high school, up to university level. such complaint also happened to the special department responsible for running english college, english department of teacher training college. pudiyono, m.hum. is a lecturer at the department of english education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto, central java, indonesia. he can be reached at: pudiyono_12@yahoo.co.id pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 230 the fact that english is considered and treated as a foreign language in indonesia could be the core reason for all of these mishaps. social and formal environments do not obviously give encouragements to lead the success of this learning. students find quite a few social and cultural environments which encourage them to feel that they need to develop their english. even though, frankly speaking, english is officially considered as the first international language in this archipelagic country in which it turns out as well that through the fast technology development the need to master the language increase much a lot from time to time. another factor which brings english learning into the worst condition is the fact that people do not use english as a means of communication in this country, neither in the form of formal nor informal gatherings. therefore, the use of indonesia language even becomes the only choice as the means of communication formally and informally in everyday events. it does not surprise us that the use of the indonesian language becomes much stronger and more dominant in all aspects of life. by the fact of the indonesian language use which becomes much stronger and more dominant, another problem followed that the english language they use in the linguistic encounters was much interfered by their indonesian language. the interference happened in all learning of language aspects, including phonological, morphological, and grammatical aspects. the interference did not just happen in spoken communication, but this also happened in the written communication as well. this research accomplished to find out the interference of indonesian language to the english learning which only focused on the oral and written grammatical interference. writing skill is considered as a unique skill, especially when related to the second language learning. writing skill is not only considered as the delta of adjoining all language aspects for people to learn a language, such as vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, but this skill also needs a media by which people have to express their ideas. in the context of the second language learning, people do not have necessary need which pushed them to do writing skill. therefore, it is not easy for everyone to develop the writing skill. the problem of this writing skill became even worse, especially for students who have academic tasks such as term paper, final academic scientific writing. the problem does not only deal with the students’ problem in using correct english patterns, but it also deals with the fact that the first language, indonesian language, interferes their english learning as the second language. they often express their opinions and ideas just merely like that when they express in indonesian language without considering the english grammar input correctly. with this mind-set, the language products they produced were not acceptable; therefore, people did not understand the writing products they made due the grammar irregularities. this research focused on the following problem as to: (1) find out the interference forms of indonesian grammar to the english learning, both oral and written english; educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 231 and (2) find out grammatical factors influencing people to have interfered english, both oral and written. theoretical review on the second/foreign language learning. language acquisitions in human life have become interesting phenomena to observe. when we observe in depth, the first language learning (mother tongue) happened as a natural learning. the learning proceeded gradually in line with the development of the natural physical growth of people. besides that, coming into the curious stage of life, children have got the highest and most productive time not only to digest and master the grammar of the mother language, but to also that language perfectly in accordance with their age. therefore, the fist language acquisition is far much better that the second or foreign language one. let alone, socio-culturally, the second or foreign language learning does not have equal support from the environment which encourages the learners to adapt the situation perfectly as they have when they learn the first language. in the society which develops more and more pluralistic, it is not enough for someone to master just one language. there are many reasons why they have to study and master one language, either considered as a foreign or second language. a foreign language learning is conceived whenever people do not learn the language by its origin. s.m. gass (1989:26) stated that foreign language learning takes place when the language to be learned is not the native language of the society; for example, learning english as a foreign language in japan. second language learning takes place in a country when that language is spoken. with such a statement, it is quite clear that learning english in indonesia can be considered as learning a foreign language. either second language learning or foreign language learning will certainly bring significant success for the learners. people will not only learn and achieve the success of communication in the international forum on all aspects of life and science, but they will also learn how to achieve the language itself. again, s.m. gass (1989:3) further insisted that the study of second language acquisition was a viable topic of study in and of itself; its justification no longer came from the concern of language pedagogy. instead, its justification came from the insight that it provided about the nature of the process of acquisition. there are many factors which contribute to the success of learning a second language. besides socio and cultural factors, the first language acquisition also influences the success of a second foreign language. this condition is also highlighted by j.p. harmer (1990) as saying that the second language acquisition is much influenced by the first language acquisition. j.p. harmer (1990:215) also said that l2 (second language) acquisition is considered to be completely determined by previous cognitive and linguistic knowledge. research result showed that people could possibly use interactive strategy taken from achieving the first language (mother tongue) to that of learning the second or foreign language. this pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 232 is as what j.p. harmer (1990:220) stated as saying that the successful strategies used in mastering the first language people use them much for their second or foreign language. within this context, sridhar stated that the first language interference can be used as the learning language strategy and can be taken as an input in learning either the second or foreign language (cited by ramelan, 1991). because of having different language learning sources, the transfer of language rules and interference of the first language have different stages from one language learning to another language learning. the transfer of language rules happen whenever there are similarities between the first language and the second or foreign language. interferences may come out whenever the learners find some irregularities between those two languages. however, zoblin (1990:65) underlined that the transfer and interference may develop well when the language learner “has little contact with l2 speakers in natural setting“. therefore, within this context, nababan (1991:31) clearly stated that indonesian language interferes much the second or foreign language learning in indonesia, by saying that in indonesia, the enveloping language is indonesia in the major cities and the local vernacular and indonesia in the smaller towns. as a foreign language, english does not certainly give facilities to the people learning the language to master it fast. as pointed clearly by suwarsih madya (1991:67) stating firmly that indonesian students benefit very little from the environment. besides the unfavorable environment, the clear difference between the first and the foreign language will certainly serves as the source of interference. the first language acquisition which interferes the second or foreign language learning is considered as the habit interference. on the grammatical interference. interference happens in a linguistic production, especially in the use of second or foreign language which is caused by the first language acquisition. s.p. corder (1980:65) stated that another attitude to errors is that they are all the result of the influence of the mother tongue on the learning process “interference” as it was called from the habits of the first language. from the linguistic forms view point, language interference can be classified into several types. those are phonological, morphological, and grammatical interference. the communication necessity seems to stress that grammatical interference poses the most significant contribution. the ungrammatical sentences will certainly pose problems to the listeners which in turns they will bring about problems or misunderstanding. therefore, the successful performance of someone depends very much on the knowledge and fluency of the second language. to make it worse, the aspects of the two languages are certainly not similar or identical. grammar involves other aspects to learn as s.m. gass (1989:12) stated the following that “grammar is not monolithic”. rather, it is a module that interacts with other modules, such as conceptual knowledge, pragmatic knowledge, and perception; and is governed by human processing constrains. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 233 however, someone’s language knowledge is not always identical to that of the art in producing or expressing the language using that knowledge. it is quite possible that much knowledge will not surely lead language learners to produce proper and acceptable language. s.m. gass (1989:19) reiterated that humans have knowledge of language quite apart from their ability to use that language. it has high possibility that knowledge will not go hand in hand with the ability. but it is exactly correct that ability expresses knowlwdge, especially when it comes to the grammatical knowledge. again, s.m. gass (1989:5) underlined that a theory of language acquisition must be constrained by knowledge of what a grammar consists of, and a grammar of a language must be something that humans are capable of constructing, given the general characteristics of the information available to the learner. in the process of second language learning, s.m. gass (1989:5) stated “utterances which are ungrammatical or otherwise ill-formed, when judged by the generally accepted rules of the language they are learning”. those unacceptable expressions ares used and learned whether they belong to mistakes of interference or non-interference. principally, there have clear different characterictics between mistakes caused by interference and those mistakes casued by non-interference. this difference leads us to have through understanding on the causal factors. further, s.m. gass (1989:6) clarified as stating that in second language acquisition, learners are confronted with the dynamic interplay of the two (or more) linguistic systems. for further development, judith chun clarified that interference has then developed into a study which is well known as error analysis (cited by madya, 1991). this later on will give significant contribution to the development of language learning. error language learning will certainly lead us to have the skill to identify learning strategy through analyzing errors language learners make both on spoken as well as written language. judith chun stated, further, that error analysis will obviously help language teachers access and learn students’ progress more critically through remedial assignments given to students in developing their language learning (cited by madya, 1991). within this context, language learners will be able to anticipate or even avoid mistakes they most commonly do. this will help a lot not only for him but for the sake of designing further language lessons. with such this description, it is not surprising that students’ mistakes in learning the language have now become the focus in the trend of learning the second or foreign language. it is also reasonable that within these years, error analysis has been one of the compulsory subjects students have to learn. the helpful relevance on the error analysis and the strategy to plan learning material on the second or foreign language learning has made error analysis as the the source of reasearches considered significant as stated by ho peng (cited by ramelan, 1991). considering those several descriptions on the language interference above, it can be concluded that the difference of language systems will result in producing language interference in the use of a language or in second or foreign language pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 234 learning. grammatical interference plays a very important role and much discussed in the language learning as grammar becomes the most strategic factor in making or expressing a sentence or utterance. therefore, this research only focused on the grammatical interference. result and discussion this chapter discusses the way the data were achieved and how they were analyzed in this research. after the data had been gathered or collected, the data analysis was done by grouping them referring to the structural patterns/forms of each data. through the structural forms or patterns, the data were then classified into two main classifications. those were data belonging to sentencial structure dan phrasal structure. however, the data were not classified in accordance to the way how the data were achieved or from the data sources whether from oral or written source as the main goal of this research was to know the typical interference in learning a second or foreign language. the data sources were not the main points or goal in this research analysis. on the types of sentencially grammatical interference. the type of grammatical interference on the sentencial structure was in the form of linguistic mistakes highy influenced by the first language acquisition in the form of sentencial interference. therefore, the final results achieved from the data analysis were in the form of structural mistakes of english sentences. further, analysis showed us that sentencially grammatical interference was classified into two subtypes, either in the form of full sentencial interference or partial sentencial interference. the sentencially grammatical interference taken from this research can be presented in detail as the following: first, sentencially grammatical interference: s+sangat+verb+object. this type of sentencial interference in kind of this sentence pattern has the most number of data. this typical interference cound be the most common mistakes students make in their engish learning. it can be concluded that this typical interference dominated the number of data reaching more than 23% of the total data. with such pattern, indonesian speakers express indonesian utterances acceptably. the utterance can be as the following: “dia sangat mencintai adiknya”. with such grammatical pattern as the example, an indonesian learning english could possibly express the idea just like in that indonesian pattern as the following: “she very loves her brother”. of course, such an utterance is not grammatically acceptable in english. the english grammatical rule tells us that the word very cannot be used to explain a verb as in “very loves”. very in english is used to modify an adjective. therefore, the morpheme very is linked directly before an adjective, for instance: very busy, very beautiful, very angry, very important, very much, very little, very handsome, etc. in short, the word very can’t stand alone. on the contrary, the word which can be used to modify an english verb is very much. but, such expressions usually come after the verb concerned. in another word, the structural order would be verb + educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 235 very much. so, indonesian sentence mentioned earlier “dia sangat mencintai adiknya” has the similar expressions in english as “she loves her brother very much”. in detail, the following is the list of data belonging to this type of interference: i was very regret because i didn’t care with my parents. at that time, i very liked horror films. i very enjoyed when i was watching it. i went to home because i was very miss with my parents and my cousin. i have many friends that very care and love me. i very like music because music can help me forgetting to my sadness and bareness. i am very like r & d because r & d music is very enjoyable when i listened to it. she is very like children. he very enjoy with his lived. i very much enjoyed the party. he very cares to me. i want with her together and i very loved her. how i very hate this city? the tourists very enjoy stay in borobudur temple. when i was a little girl, i have many friends that very care and love me. i have special figure who very influence my life. all students love her and other teacher very respected her. commonly, environment surrounded the teenagers in bandung very influence to teenager development and behaviors to days. second, sentencial interference nominal 1 (nominal + adjective). most indonesian students learning english have the understanding that the sentence pattern of nominal + adjective is the productive sentence pattern by which it can generate by no means acceptable english sentences. they don’t generally know that such sentence pattern is an english sentence pattern interfered by the indonesian sentence pattern. that sentence pattern is in fact still understandable, especially to the indonesian speaking community learning english. but to english speaking people, such sentence pattern sounds very strange. the following sentence data shows how students learning english have tried to express their ideas in english. however, as a result, their sentences were much interfered by the indonesian grammatical patterns. the sentences are as the following: he is falling down and his hand is broken. mom, my paper is left on my desk at home. they said that my leg was broken. hasti’s hand was broken. the sentence “he is falling down and his hand is broken” has several grammatical mistakes. the sentence should be expressed in “the past tense”. but the part of the sentence which shows us grammatical interference is on “his hand is broken”. that english sentence comes from the indonesian language: “tangannya patah”. to make the english sentence acceptable, such idea should be expressed into “he broke his hand” with the grammatical pattern “subject + verb + object”. so, such an idea could be expressed in complete into “he fell down and he broke his hand”. pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 236 the next sentence, “mom, my paper is left on my desk at home” has similar pattern case. the source of mistakes does not come from language interference, but it also comes from the incorrect tense as well. that sentence should also use past tense. the sentence pattern should use basic pattern “subject + verb + object”. therefore, the sentence then should be as the following “mom, i left my paper on my desk at home”. from the indonesian concept, such english sentence patterns “mom, i left my paper on my desk at home” sounds unusual and funny. such pattern seems to inform us that the subject or the doer did the activity on purpose or by design. and that’s the idea of grammatical arbitratiness in english language which could be understood differently by other language users, such as indonesian. third, sentencial interference nominal 2 (nominal + adjective). indonesian sentence pattern (nominal + adjective) as in the following examples: “kita perlu …”; “mereka sangat sulit untuk mendapatkan …”; and “dia tidak perlu untuk …” is an acceptable sentence pattern of indonesian language. but the case would pose different matters when such pattern then is transfered into english within the same pattern. english grammatical patterns do not have such pattern. therefore, when it is expressed into english into: “we are necessary …”; “they are very difficult to get …”; and “he is not necessary …”, of course, those sentences are not grammatically correct in english. the correct english grammatical pattern people can use is “impersonal it”. this can be used to express ideas or opinion which is properly related to the situation. the correct pattern is: “it + be (is, was) + adjective + for + pronoun + to …”. the example which can illustrate the situation is as the following: “it is necessary for you to study hard before you get the exams”. the following list shows english sentences which are interfered by the indonesian grammatical patterns: we were very difficult to get them. we are too late to get the information. the society isn’t easy to avoid the influence from the culture of other society. those sentences can be revised easily using that english sentence pattern into the following: it was very difficult for us to get them. it is too late for us to get the information. it isn’t easy to avoid the influence from the culture of another society. fourth, gramatical interference without linking verbs. this type of interference is a complex interference which has no clear grammatical patterns such as those discussed earlier. however, the form of interference can be analyzed easily that those sentences do not have complete sentence structure. in that case, such sentences are considered as uncomplete sentence and, therefore, those sentences are accepted as unacceptable utterance. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 237 the sentences belong to sentences which are interfered by the indonesian concept without paying attention to the accepted english grammatical patterns. the speakers just express the english sentences by translating word to word from indonesian into english without refereeing to the basic english sentence patterns. their ignorance of the speakers to the existing patterns was due to the limited linguistic knowledge of english. another factor leading to the interferent mistakes shows the fact that the data was commonly taken from oral data. it is possible that the speakers uttering the expressions were under psychological pressures which lead them to have no chance to revise their ideas into the acceptable sentences. the following example underlined the statement: “she very closed with me”. that expression could be concluded as one interfered by the indonesian grammatical pattern in such a way that leads to be unacceptable sentences. the indonesian sentence which interfered could be: “dia sangat dekat dengan saya” into “she very closed with me”. the speaker did not only recoqnize that the sentence was not grammatical; he/ she did make a wrong diction by taking the word “closed”. “closed” lexically means “tertutup”, while “dekat” shold be expressed into “close”. inappropriate choice of words was the word “with” which was the interferent of the word “dengan”. yet, the correct choice of the word “dengan” should be “to”. therefore, the correct sentence of “dia sangat dekat dengan saya” would be expressed as “she was very close to me”. the complete data of the sentences in the case alike are in the following list: she very closed with me. i was shock because my ip in this semester very bad. my pa very angry with me. she cry when meet me and talk all of her problems. have long we not meet. how far from here? i will tell it about when i holiday in semarang. fifth, active-passive grammatical interference. an active-passive grammatical pattern is one of the factors leading to language interference in learning english. this means that the language learners tend to produce active-passive sentences in line with the indonesian trend in making sentences without any reference to that of the english patterns. this leads them to produce english expressions which are unacceptable to the english community. in the communication culture, not all passive sentences are well accepted. usually, english speaking people tend to use active sentences and, therefore, avoid using passive ones. active sentences are more welcome than that of the passive ones. the following example is more acceptable: “i have taken the medicine” than that expressed in the passive ones: “the medicine has been taken by me” to mean that the same thing that he has taken the medicine. several sentences were on the spot in this research stressing that students learning english as the subject of the research did not understand well using the activepassive sentences. as the example: “it (back to campus) is made me can forgot pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 238 my problems”. the idea should not be expressed in the passive voice as this only makes the listener find the sentence more difficult to catch. the idea can then be express into: “coming back to campus has made me forget my problems”. this type of interference does not have large distribution. yet, that shows us enough evidence that we have to pay good attention to this language fenomena in order to have good communication skill using the language we learn. the following sentence also points out that the speaker has been interfered by the indonesian language badly that the sentence is totally unacceptable: “because she very loved by her cousin”. indonesian concept which interfered the english could be the following: “karena dia sangat dicintai oleh keponakannya”. such concept was, then, transferred into unacceptable english above. when the speaker has good knowledge and ability, he would then express that into an active sentence. therefore, the acceptable expression would be as the following: “because her cousin loved her very much”. the whole sentences belonging to this type of active-passive interference can be presented as the following: it (back to campus) is made me can forgot my problem and i can do my live better. and my friend is very cool because all of my story is listen of my friend. because she very loved by her cousin. she is a smart girl, without it is also beautiful. sixth, grammatical interference in parallelism. this type of interferent mistakes is quite common for students in learning english. students learning english have no similar concept found bahasa indonesia as they have to learn in english. students learning english find quite many forms for certain lexis. english shows that there are many forms of verbs by which each has its own different function. for example, the verb “break” has the forms of: break, to break, breaking, broke, broken. these different forms bring about problems for the learners. the following is an example of such interferent mistake: they are just having fun, example: watching tv, sleeping in the boarding house, shopping in the mall, take a walk, or make a date with boy friend or girl friend. this typical errnoues expression is much interfered by the indonesian concept that indonesian grammatical patterns do not have various forms of the verb like those in english. therefore, to correct this type of mistakes is not too difficult. to do that, we just change the verbs which are not parallel into the correct ones proportional to the context the sentence needs. the following is the correct version of the sentence: they are just having fun, example: watching tv, sleeping in the boarding house, shopping in the mall, taking a walk, or making a date with boy friend or girl friend. on the grammatical interference in phrases. this type of interference can be classified into phrasal interference. this has the argument that the english mistake educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 239 students make does not necessarily contribute to the central or core sentence. this type of interference relates much to the word formation, choice of words or diction, word order, and agreement between number and the modifier which comes before the word concerned. to show in detail, the following presents the complete types of such interference on phrases: first, word-order grammatical interference. this type of interference relates to the fact that indonesian word order is very much different from that of the english. therefore, students learning english should much pay attention to word order pattern of english and the difference between the indonesian and english word order patterns. it is quite often that indonesian word orders interfere the english sentences the students produce. unfortunately, the word order patterns of both english and indonesian are considered arbitrary. therefore, there is no logical argument which can lead to have easy description for language learners to understand easily. “i and my friend” is an example of word order which is interfered by the first language, indonesia language. this type of expression on word order is considered unusual in english, which is, of course, unacceptable found in this research. indonesian word order confirms that it is just common to express the writer or speaker as the first to mention, like “saya dan ibu” or “i and my mom” and “saya dan kawan-kawan” or “i and my friends”. these examples underline that most students learning english produce similar word order in english, which is of course, errornous. more data on this type of mistakes are on the following list: i and my friend. i am and my friend. me and my sister. me and my family. i with three my boarding house’s friends. me and my friends. i and my family. after i and my family finished my lunch. everyday after went to school, i and my friend play in the garden. it is just easy to correct such mistakes as long as the students learning english have known well the word order pattern in english. to correct this mistake can be done just by change the word order. second, grammatical interference in adverbs. this type of interference happens when the learners just translate a pair of indonesian words into english without referring to the grammatical rules in english. certainly, the english expressions produced do not have acceptable meaning, because such pair of indonesian words has already got its own similar expression. therefore, the students do not have to translate such indonesian expression into english using their own expressions. the frequent expression which interferes students’ english is adverb. an adverb is a word which modify a verb, therefore, english adverb is usually transferred pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 240 into “dengan …”. for example, an expression “ia membaca dengan perlahan-lahan” will be expressed into english “he read with slow”. the correct sentence for that expression is “he read slowly”. the following sentence “we make sentences with good” has the same linguistic phenomena. students, then, translate that into an adverb “with good”. that must come from the indonesian interference “dengan baik”. therefore, to correct such mistakes, students can just change the expression “with good” into “well”. the expression “well” is the adverb form of the adjective “good”. so, the correct sentence of the expression above would be the following: “we make sentences well”. another form of interference is on the choice of word or diction. the wrong diction of the utterances will bring about problem for the listeners. the form of interference is obvious as in the following sentences: as long as in the trip, we are very happy. as long as holiday, i was very bored because i didn’t do many activities. the interferent mistakes on the above sentences can be stemmed from the indonesian grammatical concept. it seems the speaker is about to say: “sepanjang perjalanan, kita sangat senang”. the word “panjang” is usually translated into english “long”. that’s the reason the speaker says “sepanjang” into “as long as”. such choice of words was not exactly perfect. the idea “selama liburan” or “sepanjang perjalanan” has the equivalence into “during” in english. third, grammatical interference in agreement. the next form of interference refers to the relationship between one word to another word on their agreement. therefore, people call it interference on agreement. grammatical atreement does not exist in indonesian language. therefore, students learning english frequently make this type of mistakes, especially beginners. that trend happens because the english rules have not internalized into their linguistic concept. so, what they can do in trying to express their ideas into english is expressing the ideas using their indonesian concept. agreement concept in english refers to the noun quantifier and the noun forms which come after the quantifier. for example, quantifier some, few, many, two, a lot of or lots should usually come before plural nouns, like: students, books, mistakes, classes, boys, ladies, etc. then, some examples of their combinations would be like few students, many books, a lot of mistakes, some boys, etc. indonesian language does not have such linguistic rules. therefore, when the situation comes, indonesian students learning english would tend to produce such interferent expressions. one of the examples is like the following: “my boyfriend is very handsome, cute, and a clever boys”. the sentence above has several mistakes. the fist mistake is on the interferent expression pointing to the article “a”. that article should only be followed by a singular noun “boy” not “boys”. the next problem is the student’s failure in arranging those multiadjectives into one correct phrase as the following: “a very handsome, cute, and clever boy”. the sentence would then be like this: “my boyfriend is a very handsome, cute, and clever boy”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 241 the following data also shows similar problems; no correct agreement between the subject of the main sentence and that of the sub-sentence. the problem will certainly disturb the understanding of the listeners or the speaking partner. therefore, the agreement between referents must undoubtedly be considered well. the sentence in point is as follows: “as we know if the woman go to supermarket, they will spend a lot of time to chose something which they will purchase, like me”. the agreement of referents on the sentence above is between the woman as the subject of the sub sentence and the subject of the main sentence “they” in “they will spend” and “they” in “they will purchase”. they don’t agree to each other because “the woman” is a singular noun, while “they” refers to plural noun. another problem is on the use of the article “the”. the correct article should be “a” as the expression does not show the definite subject to talk. so, the correct version of the sentence would be: “as we know if a woman, like me, goes to a supermarket, she will spend a lot of time to choose something which she will purchase”. the following is the complete data found to have similar case discussed in this research. the disagreements found in this analysis in each of the sentences are shown by italizing the words: my boyfriend is very handsome, cute and a clever boys. as we know if the woman go to supermarket, they will spend a lot of time to choose something which they will purchase, like me. a sweet memories when i was a little girls. she is beautiful girls and can sing well. i was very bored because i didn’t do many activitie. fourth, grammatical interference in diction. the form of this type of interference refers to the failure of the students learning english to identify the question they are to ask. they fail to reflect to their ability whether the question they will ask may need a “yes” or “no” answer or those questions need further clarification depending on the question word they use. basically, a question could either go to a yes or no question or a question word question. interstingly, indonesian language does not offer any choice as that of english. in indonesian, those two types of questions both use the question words “apakah” or “apa”. “apakah” and “apa” are considered similar or synonymous. the following are examples to clarify the statement: “apakah kamu menyukai dia?” or “do you like him?” and “apa yang kamu sedang pelajari?” or “what are you studying?”. those two questions look alike. both begin with the question word “apa”. yet, basically they refer to different ideas. the question “apakah kamu menyukai dia?” is enough to have yes or no answer. this question is considered to be a “yes/no question”. the other question “apa yang kamu sedang pelajari?” is not enough to have a yes or no answer. therefore, that question needs a clarification referring to the question word “what”. this type of question is generally considered as “question word question”. the question form referring to the question “apa” brings language interference to students learning english to formulate the correct questions. they most readily pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 242 use “what” to mean “apa” in whatever situation; whether a yes or no question or question word question. the following list shows the complete data found in this research. the list is as follows: whether susi study in ump, too? what is the right? what are you like me, too? in there, whether you have get a job? those four questions are yes or no questions. but, due to the fact that the speakers are much interfered by the indonesian concept, each of those questions begin with the question word “what” or “whether” as the interference of the question “apa” or “apakah”. to correct those sentences, language learners have to change the question word “what” to that of the correct auxiliary appropriate to the tense of each of the sentence. fifth, miscellaneous grammatical interference. the next type of interference refers to the active-passive used in the infinitive forms. the form of active-passive infinitive is much interfered by the indonesian grammar. the interfered forms can be seen on the following expressions: “there are many places to be visited together” and “the paper has to collect in that day”. the expression “to be visited” comes from the interference source “untuk dikunjungi” which sounds passive. yet, to express that idea correctly, language learner just uses “to visit”. so, the correct sentence would be: “there are many places to visit together”. the next interference form refers to the habit of translating word to word sentences into english ones using indonesian concept. this is due to the reason that students have the trend to express their indonesian ideas into english without considering or referring the use of english grammar. as the example is of the following sentence: “reason me choose study in purwokerto is for getting experience”. the words in italics are expressions interfered by the indonesian concept: “alasan saya memilih belajar di purwokerto adalah …” which then is translated into “reason me choose study in purwokerto is …”. this should be “the reason i chose to study in purwokerto is ...” or “my reason in choosing to study in purwokerto is …”. the next expression is also interfered by the indonesian concept. the idea “saya bingung” is just translated word to word into “i confused”. bingung is an adjective. the correct pattern of the correct combination when combined with the subject needs a linking verb “am”. the correct sentence would go into: “i am confused”. conclusion and suggestion from the data analysis, it can be concluded that the grammatical interference of bahasa indonesia into english can be classified into two main classifications. those were grammatical interference on sentences and phrases. grammatical interferences on sentence forms can also be classified into sub-classifications as those in the educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 243 following: sentence pattern s + very + verb + object (31.21%); sentence pattern of noun + adjective (12.2%); pattern of unapppropriate form (6.57%); sentence pattern of unintended or ketidaksengajaan (5.3%); impersonal it sentence pattern (3.94%); and active-passive sentence pattern (3.94%). meanwhile, phrasal interference rose with 36.84% data and were classified into the following: unorderly arrangement (11.84%); adverb formation (5.3%); inappropriate number (9.2%); and miscellaneous (5%). furthermore, the grammatical factor which influenced the indonesian interference towards the english learning, both spoken and written, was the fact that the english language learners had little imposure and practice that made them difficult to internalize english linguitic knowledge they learned. therefore, to make the english grammar internalize in the students’ mind-set, they have to get much linguistic imposures, both in spoken and written environtment. references corder, s.p. 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(1969). guru dan pendidikannja. djakarta: ditdjen [direktorat djenderal] pendidikan guru dan tenaga teknis p dan k [pendidikan dan kebudajaan]. sutopo, h.b. (1996). metodologi penelitian kualitatif. surakarta: uns [universitas negeri solo] press. zoblin. (1990). bilinguality and second language acquisition. new york: cambridge university press. pudiyono, indonesian gramatical interference 244 the fact that english is considered and treated as a foreign language in indonesia could be the core reason for all of these mishaps. social and formal environments do not obviously give encouragements to lead the success of this learning. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 129 mr. ajit mondal and dr. jayanta mete are a research scholar and an associate professor at the department of education, university of kalyani, kalyani, west bengal, pin-741235, india. the authors can be contacted via their e-mail at: mondalajit.edn@gmail.com and jayanta_135@yahoo.co.in introduction peace, however, is an elusive concept having different interpretations in different cultures as well as different connotations for the spheres, in which peaceful processes are applied. it ranges from inner peace to outer peace. consequently, the interpretation of peace ranges from absence of war, and society without structural violence to liberation from exploitation and injustice of any kind, ecological balance and conservation, and peace of mind, etc. education for peace, therefore, includes a variety of issues like human rights education, environmental education, international education, conflict resolution education, development education, etc. education for non-violence and peace includes training, skills, and information towards cultivating a culture of peace based on human rights principles (delors, 1996; and unesco, 2008). in india, education for peace programmes have traditionally been concerned with promoting certain core values (pandey, 2007). mahatma gandhi envisaged a non-violent society, which would be free from exploitation of any kind and can be achieved through the instrument of education. in gandhian concept of peace, truth and non-violence are important. the educational policies of the country lay stress on combative obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition, and fatalism; and promote some core values such as india’s common cultural heritage, ajit mondal & jayanta mete education for peace in the light of national curriculum framework – 2005 abstract: we live in an age of unprecedented levels of violence, with constant threats posed by intolerance, fanaticism, dispute, and discordance. ethical action, peace, and welfare are facing new challenges. a strong need is being felt by educationists, philosophers, scientists, and political leaders to rejuvenate the human values, which may bring long lasting peace on this planet. the purpose of education goes beyond the propagation of knowledge. j. delor’s report (1996) on learning to live together as the central pillar of education proposes that education must be geared to promote a culture of peace, tolerance, democratic values, human rights, and duties among students. with the reality of the alarming increase in violence in school life, the national curriculum framework (ncf) – 2005 strongly advocates education for peace at all levels of schools. in this backdrop, the present paper tries to epitomise the concept of education for peace in the light of ncf – 2005. peace and living together have been integral part of indian way of living and manifested in its constitution through various articles. it firmly believes that inculcation of certain values among younger generation would help them to exist in the dynamic socio-cultural fabric with peace, harmony, and prosperity. in the final section, approach, strategies, activities, and teacher’s role in education for peace in the landscape of school education are also addressed as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. key words: education, peace, human values, harmony, tolerance, democracy, national curriculum framework, and india’s government and society. ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 130 egalitarianism, democracy, secularism, equality of sexes, inculcation of scientific temper, etc. peace and living together have been integral part of indian way of living and manifested in its constitution through various articles. it firmly believes that inculcation of certain values among younger generation would help them to exist in the dynamic socio-cultural fabric with peace, harmony, and prosperity. this is the reason why all commissions and committees on education in india, like the radha krishnan commission (1948–1949), mudaliar commission (1952–1953), sri prakasha commission (1959), sampurnanand commission (1961), kothari commission (1964–1966), rammurti committee (1992), and chavan committee (1999) make important recommendations for incorporation of value education at all levels of education. consequently, the national curriculum frameworks of 1975, 1988, and 2000 had adopted a value-oriented approach to integration of peace concerns in education (udaykumar, 2009; and mondal, 2011). a major shift in this approach is witnessed in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, which considers that value education is subsumed in education for peace, but is not identical with it. the national focus group on peace education constituted in the context of ncf–2005, in its position paper on education for peace says, as follows: peace is a contextually appropriate and pedagogically gainful point of coherence for values. peace concretizes the purpose of values and motivates their internalization. without such a framework, the integration of values into the learning process remains a non-starter. education for peace is, thus, the ideal strategy for contextualizing and operationalising value education (ncert, 2005:1). while accepting the traditional approach of integration of various peace related values and concern in school curricula, it further adds that education for peace must be a concern that permeates the entire school life – curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacher pupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. the rationale and objectives of the study need and importance of peace is understood by the increasing conflicts and violence in the society. conflict violence and war are the products of individual mindsets, which have got condition to violent and aggressive ways. the mindsets are shaped by education, and effective education should produce non-violent and peaceful individuals. the action for nurturing and peace building must be located in the educational system. the national curriculum framework (ncf) – 2005, by ncert (national council of educational research and training), asserts that education must be able to promote values that foster peace, humanness, and tolerance in a democracy; and the values of equality, justice, freedom, secularism, and multicultural society. the aims of education enunciated in the ncf include developing commitment concern for others well beings. the ncf speaks of the compelling need for peace education, clearly stating that education must be oriented towards values associated with “peaceful and harmonious coexistence” (ncert, 2005:9). this framework also proposes that values of peace education must be integrated into all aspects of education. the researchers intend to review the approach and strategies for education for peace as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. it is also necessary to review how to integrate peace education across the curriculum made by the ncf – 2005. the present paper is a modest attempt in this direction. the following are major objectives of the present investigation: (1) to epitomize the concept of education for peace in the light of ncf – 2005; (2) to analyze the approach and strategies for promoting education for peace in the school environment; (3) to explore the ncf guidelines for integrating peace education in the curriculum; (4) to analyze the teacher’s role in integrating education for peace in the subject content; and (5), finally, to sketch out some co-curricular activities through which education for peace can be realized as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 131 review of literature, method, and sources of data some of the related studies are reviewed below with a view to carrying out the present investigation. james smith page (2004) explored some philosophical foundations for peace education and the possibility that such foundations might be located within: (1) virtue ethics, (2) consequentialist ethics, (4) conservative political ethics, and (5) the ethics of care. each of the above is important, although ultimately a thorough basis for peace education can only be established through an integrative approach to the above foundations, an approach that mirrors much of the emphasis within un (united nations) and unesco (united nations of educational, scientific, and cultural organization) initiatives to encourage a culture of peace. s. pandey (2007), in his study, emphasized on education for peace, not as a part of value education as traditionally been integrated in schools, but as an independent value in itself. he showed the paradigm shift in the approach towards learning for promoting the culture of peace as, both, the constructivist approach; and peace education are associated with the humanistic philosophy which is dedicated to developing more mature and self-directed learner – a pre-requisite for living together. he also opined that the epistemological shift suggested in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005 provides greater opportunity to promote the culture of peace than ever before (pandey, 2007). priyadarshani rajagopalan (2009) interpreted the peace education guidelines laid down by india’s ncf – 2005 as five facets of peace education (values embedded in lessons and activities, cultural and social awareness, sensitivity to differences, a pro-active approach and effective, and developmentally appropriate follow-up activities). he also reviewed the suggestions made by the ncf on how to integrate peace education across the curriculum (rajagopalan, 2009). dharmendra kumar & kr. sudheer pundeer (2012), in their study, pointed out some ways and means to incorporate peace feeling at all levels of schooling, and how peace as a way of life can be inculcated in the classroom and in various extra-curricular activities of the school and in daily life situations. benudhar chinara (2012) made an attempt to show how to educate the self of a teacher on peace, i.e. orienting self into a culture of peace, carrying out a self-dialogue on peace values, and practicing peace through universal ethics, who in turn can empower the selves of the student mass to choose the ways of peace, and in the process the entire society may get transformed to yield the greatest good for all, ensure sustainability of both humans and nature, and result in welfare of the entire society. the present study is basically analytical in nature based on official documentary evidence. the national curriculum framework – 2005, national focus group on education for peace, executive summary of national focus groups position papers written by national council of educational research and training have been used as primary sources of data in the study. various articles published in the journals and books written on peace education have been taken as secondary source of data. education for peace and ncf – 2005 the purpose of education goes beyond the propagation of knowledge. education is now a significant dimension of the longterm process of building up peace: tolerance, justice, intercultural understanding, and civic responsibility. however, education as practiced in schools often promotes forms of violence, both real and symbolic. under these circumstances, education needs reorientation and, therefore, the school curriculum takes priority. according to the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, peace, as an integrative perspective for the school curriculum, is an idea whose time has come (ncert, 2005). education for peace is different from peace education. in the latter, peace is a subject in the syllabus. in the former, peace becomes the shaping vision of education. this implies a paradigm shift in the total transaction of education. education for peace, as distinguished from peace education, ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 132 acknowledges the goal of promoting a culture of peace as the purpose shaping the enterprise of education. if implemented with vigor and vision, education for peace can make learning a joyful and meaningful experience. the ncf – 2005 is more vocal and direct towards the need of promoting peace through education than the earlier curriculum reform attempts where the concept of peace was subsumed in value education. the ncf – 2005, in its position paper on education for peace proposes, elaborates that: education for peace is education for life, and not merely training for a livelihood. equipping individuals with the values, skills, and attitudes they need to be wholesome persons who live in harmony with others and as responsible citizens is the goal of education for peace (ncert, 2006:1). according to niharika panda (2013), peace education may be defined as the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills and behavior to live in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the natural environment. historically, moral instruction and value education were the precursors of education for peace. they share much in common. religion, according to the national curriculum framework for school education (ncfse) in 2000, is a source of value generation. values and attitudes are the building blocks of the culture of peace (ncert, 2000). what, then, is unique to education for peace? education for peace calls for a significant reduction, not an increase, in curriculum load. peace embodies the joy of living. learning, from the peace perspective, has to be a joyful experience. joy is of the essence of life. peace is not unrelated to pace. today’s world, hurry and worry sour the joy of learning and undermine learning and the harmony of life. it is a serious matter that schools, which are meant to be the nurseries of peace, become transmission points for violence. education for peace contextualizes learning. it calls for a liberation of learning from the confines of the classroom and its transformation into a celebration of awareness enlivened with the delight of discovery. ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005 says as follows: education for peace seeks to nurture ethical development, inculcating the values, attitudes, and skills required for living in harmony with oneself and with others, including nature. it embodies the joy of living and personality development with the qualities of love, hope, and courage. it encompasses respect for human rights, justice, tolerance, cooperation, social responsibility, and respect for cultural diversity, in addition to a firm commitment to democracy and non-violent conflict resolution. social justice is an important aspect of peace education. the concern for equality and social justice, which refers to practising non-exploitation towards the have-nots, the poor and the underprivileged and creating a non-violent social system, is the hallmark of education for peace. similarly, human rights are central to the concept of peace. peace cannot prevail if the rights of individuals are violated. basic to human rights are the values of non-discrimination and equality, which contribute to building a culture of peace in society. these issues are inter-related. peace education is, thus, a host of overlapping values (ncert, 2008:61-62). education for peace, thus, empowers individuals to clarify their values; to enable them to take conscious and deliberate decisions, taking into consideration the consequences of their actions; to choose the way of peace rather than violence; and to enable them to be makers of peace rather than only consumers of peace. education for peace, therefore, an essential component of holistic education that aims at the comprehensive development of persons. major frontiers of education for peace. ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, in its executive summary, points out the major frontiers for education for peace in the indian context. this is done with reference to the two major goals of education, namely: education for personality formation and education to foster responsible citizens (ncert, 2008). the major frontiers of education for peace are: (1) bringing about peace-orientation in individuals through education; (2) nurturing in students the social skills and outlook needed to live together in harmony; (3) reinforcing social justice, as envisaged in the constitution; (4) the need and duty to propagate a secular culture; (5) education as a catalyst for activating a educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 133 democratic culture; (6) the scope for promoting national integration through education; and (7) education for peace as a lifestyle movement. for realizing the education for peace, some strategies can be developed as follows: first, simplistic approach to moral behavior. at the time of teaching values, teacher needs to move away from mere talk, to a meaningful discussion of experiences and reflections. the teacher needs to draw out the children, gain their confidence, and avoid using threatening language or hostile body language. teachers should make deliberate attempts to infuse and reinforce the importance of peacerelated values that are commensurate with the textual material taught in school and the developmental stages of children. second, using appropriate strategies for understanding peace related values. strategies like questions, stories, anecdotes, games, experiments, discussions, dialogues, clarification of values, examples, analogies, metaphors, role playing, and simulation are helpful in promoting peace through teachinglearning. the teaching and practice of ethics go from the personal sphere to social and community-oriented thinking and then link up with global perspectives. third, presenting lesson or topic from a humanistic and positive perspective. every peace-laden topic or lesson (hidden or explicit) needs to be transacted with deliberate planning from a positive and humanistic perspective. the methods of teaching should be creative, child-centred, largely experiential, and participatory. these include creation of appropriate learning experiences, discussion, debates, presentation, and group and cooperative projects, depending on students’ maturity levels and the subject content. approach to education for peace. in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, education for peace is not envisaged as a separate subject that would further augment curriculum load, but a perspective from which all subjects are to be taught. an integrated approach to education for peace is the ideal, especially since peace is an integrative and allembracing concept. the integrated approach must be reflected in the totality of educational programmes in schools and must permit the school curriculum and co-curriculum (ncert, 2005). ncf – 2005, in its executive summary, made some suggestions with respect to curriculum contents. they are as follows: first, the primary school years could focus on laying the value foundations for personality formation and the development of the social skills necessary to live together in harmony. focus could then shift gradually to a perspective on peace, especially to enable students to understand the value-foundations of peace. the area of special emphasis here is the need to promote skills for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. second, in the upper primary years, students could be enabled to view the culture of peace from the perspective of indian history, philosophy, and culture. third, thereafter, education for peace could focus more on citizenship education. a brief introduction to the basic features and ethos of the constitution is what is envisaged here. the emphasis may shift, thereafter, to “peace as a lifestyle movement”. students can be made aware of the need to for lifestyles conducive to the integrity of creation and stability of society. the various challenges to national unity can be the focus thereafter. the main emphasis here must be on promoting an attitude of respect for diversity and difference. students also need to be made aware of the various hindrances to unity. fourth, at the plus two level, the foci of education for peace could be : (1) understanding the logic, modes and expressions of violence; (2) skills for an objective understanding of issues; and (3) developing a global perspective on peace (ncert, 2008:57). integrating peace in the curriculum – the ncf guidelines. the ncf (national curriculum framework) proposes that the values of peace education must be integrated into all aspects of education, including teacher training, curriculum, student-teacher relationships, and examinations. in other words, as stated in the ncf, peace education is not an add-on-subject per se but a way of making all the subjects in the curriculum peace-oriented. the ncf guidelines for ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 134 integrating peace education in the curriculum have three main areas of focus: teacher training, content, and peace activities for students. first, on the teacher training. the ncf (national curriculum framework) suggests, “no reform, however well motivated and well planned, can succeed unless a majority of teachers feel empowered to put it in practice”. teachers being the central to the entire gamut of all relationships at school, their orientation is most crucial (ncert, 2007). suggestions for teacher include sensitizing teachers to their own biases so that they can set aside judgments while dealing with students. the emphasis is on how teachers can create a non-threatening environment by treating students with respect and thereby help them feel/confident and comfortable. teachers need intensive training so that they can address issues in a fair and unbiased way and become good role models of peace. another suggestion is to include discussions and dialogues in everyday processes, thereby setting the stage for respectful communication between students and teachers. historically, value education has focused on encouraging desirable behavior; here, the emphasis is on creating an environment that will also offer an opportunity to discuss undesirable feelings and thoughts (rajagopalan, 2009). differences between students should be used constructively to support peer learning. a true society is made up of individuals with varied levels of skills and strengths; classrooms and school community should reflect this diversity and value each person’s contributions. the ncf emphasizes on interdependence and the need for children to be aware of it. teachers should also be encouraged to contextualize lessons to suit the current situations in the child’s immediate environment. second, on the content. throughout the ncf (national curriculum framework), there is a strong focus on the content a child is exposed to. the language used in texts and other media should be checked to determine age appropriateness and relevant context. the idea is to select appropriate texts that convey positive values and do not subscribe to any bias or misrepresentation. this is recommended across subjects and can be used both in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities like book or science clubs. third, on the peace activities for students. the ncf (national curriculum framework) guidelines also suggest activities that call for cooperation and team work as opposed to individual assignments that only foster competition. projects that require group effort will allow children to work towards a common goal while retaining their individuality through their unique contributions. suggested peace activities in the ncf can be broadly categorised into three major themes. the first deals with awareness of issues and the impact of actions at a universal level. for example, helping children realize the impact of wear and tear on a leaf that is passed around the classroom, representing the damage to the environment. the second encourages children to express their own views, be open to other perspectives and build empathy through discussions. the third category gives space for reflecting on issues and organizing events and forums to debate or change policies at their level. for instance, thinking of laws that they might put into action if they were peace lawyers of the country. all of these can be achieved by structuring activities with a purpose and providing space for choice. teaching-learning activities for education for peace: teacher’s corner. education has to ensure peace, according to national curriculum framework for school education (ncert, 2000:34-35); develop peace loving personality, according to curriculum framework for quality teacher education (ncert, 1998); and is vital for the effectiveness of promoting a culture of peace, according to national curriculum framework – 2005 position paper (ncert, 2006:5). national curriculum framework – 2005 position paper (2006 : 9) acknowledged “teachers as peace builders” and stressed further that the success of the initiative for education for peace substantially depends on the vision, motivation, skills, and awareness of teachers (ncert, 2006:23). teachers who carry out education for peace have to educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 135 cherish its values, hold comparable attitudes, and exhibit similar behavioral tendencies’. teachers as self-reflecting and self-performing individuals thus can play a crucial role for promoting peace in students in the context of global commitment to peace. their personal commitment and firm determination to the promotion of peace has to be absolute. ncf – 2005 suggested some examples of teaching-learning activities for integration in the subject content. children could be asked to: (1) demonstrate the many ways in which one can show respect to elders at home and in school, in subjects of environmental studies or language; (2) express the meaning of the word “cooperation” in different subject, in subject of language; (3) imagine a peaceful world and what would it be like, in subject of social science; (4) write a story on tolerance, sensitivity to others, etc., in subject of language; (5) compose a poem or a song depicting values like honesty, hard work etc., in subject of language; (6) organize field visit to local orphanages or old age homes to sensitize students to the loneliness, deprivation, and helplessness of these sections of society; (7) discuss how environmental degradation affects the poor; and (8) describe how anger destroys peace, in subjects of social science or language. education for peace can also be realized through the co-curricular life of the school (ramani, 2004). a number of activities and projects embodying peace themes could be organized in school, such as: (1) students can be motivated to learn and develop skills for peacemaking by including peace issues in debates, seminars, and audio visual shows; (2) participation of children in role-plays, dramas, composing peace poems, peace songs, etc.; (3) participation in various days observed internationally, such as human rights day, children’s day, united nations day, day for the disabled, girl child day, environment day, etc.; (4) to help develop sensitivity towards others, children could be encouraged to visit homes for senior citizens, disadvantaged groups, etc. and enabled to develop an interest in their welfare; (5) religious festivals and national days could be celebrated in the schools and in the neighborhood; and (6) story-telling sessions and discussions could be held to promote tolerance and understanding. conclusion education shall be directed towards the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial, or religious groups for maintenance of peace, as cited in an article 28, the universal declaration of human rights (kumar, 2011). taking into consideration the very function of education, the ncf (national curriculum framework) spelt out that peace education must be integrated across the curriculum, in lessons as well as activities. peace education must be a concern that permeates the entire school life: curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacherpupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. accordingly, teacher training, the content of social science in particular, and learning through work and activity are three areas, it indicates as warranting attention. education for peace seeks to nurture ethical development, including the values, attitudes, and skills required for living in harmony with oneself and with others. the ncf – 2005 set out a few foundational convictions which underlie the contours and contents of education for peace, such as schools are potential nurseries for peace, peace skills promote academic excellence, education for peace can humanize education, teachers can be social healers, and justice is integral to peace. this framework, thus, made a plea to turn education for peace into a people’s movement. education for peace needs to be seen as an enterprise for healing and revitalizing the nation. education for peace could be an effective catalyst in activating a holistic vision for education. this could also transform education into a movement for national integration and regeneration, which is the need of the hour. an approach to education that erodes social ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 136 cohesion, aggravates economic inequalities, and undermines ethical foundation needs to be recognized as a threat to peace and a disservice to society. peace must be pursued with singleminded vigor and an undeviating sense of purpose; and education for peace must be implemented with vision and determination. conclusion can be ended with words of mahatma gandhi, “if we are to teach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against, we shall have to begin with children”. references chinara, benudhar. 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(2008). unesco’s work on education for peace and non-violence: building peace through education. paris: unesco. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 1 the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african higher education institutions jacob m. selesho abstract: the perception held by academic staff of programme re-accreditation has been a major problem in higher education institutions. academics are concerned about the influence of the government in their daily operation, while the government claim that they want to be accountable to the public for money spent on higher education institutions. to a large extent, academics believe that the role of the government amounts to interference rather than being accountable, and that the academic freedom has been violated. the participants of the study were academics from the 23 south african universities. questionnaires, documentary analysis, and interviews were used as the main data collection instruments. the study revealed that a negative perception amongst academic staff existed with regard to programme re-accreditation. furthermore, the study also established that it is still difficult for academic staff to identify the difference between the role played by the government (accountability) and their own role (academic freedom). it was interesting to note that although academics want to participate in the programme re-accreditation, however, they still have a fear of failure. those fears foster a negative re-accreditation concept among academics in the he. for that matter, academics will create a platform to hide their failure. the article further recommends that the first step in programme re-accreditation should perhaps be in the form of improvement or enhancement of quality. key words: programme re-accreditation and self-evaluation, academic staffs’ perception, role of the government, and improvement or enhancement of the higher education quality. introduction higher education institutions (heis) academics are being challenged by the increasing accountability and the higher education policies. on a national level, heis are continually experiencing rapid changes, one of which is to be accountable ensuring that heis offer quality academic programmes. this dates back to the establishment of the council of higher education (che), which then mandated its quality assurance power to the higher education quality committee (heqc). the south african government wished to make a statement relating to the quality of education offered. government also needed to determine if the taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. dr. jacob m. selesho is the head of postgraduate studies in education, central university of technology (cut), free state, bloemfontein, republic of south africa. he can be reached at: jselesho@cut.ac.za jacob m. selesho, the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african 2 heis are obliged to be accountable to all stakeholders as to the quality of their academic programmes. the “value for money” approach places emphasis on a “good deal” for the customer or client, usually comprising the government, employer, student, and parents. this requires the maintenance or improvement of academic standards of both the graduates’ abilities and their research output, for the same unit of resources. there is a social and political accountability, which are concerned with issues such as programme re-accreditations and a high quality of programme offered by the heis. the government wanted to look at public spending as well, while also establishing as to ensure whether heis are in fact contributing to the development of the required skills and knowledge for the working class. accordingly, p. abbott (2007:15-17) further stated that heis must be able to explain to society at large what they are doing and demonstrates how well they perform. furthermore, institutions are confronted with the need to show their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of their teaching. meanwhile, r. lewis (2006:11) has been arguing that the concept of accountability has two distinct dimensions: (1) answering to the assigned mission effectively; and (2) demonstrating that these responsibilities have in fact been met. the ongoing process of programme re-accreditation puts additional pressure on the heis’ academics. academics are asking themselves a number of questions relating to the relevance of the system, as well as to their academic freedom and lastly to the credibility of their peers. the big question is whether academics have accepted the notion of being accountable to the government as stated in the south african higher education act (101 of 1997). being accountable in this sense means that they have to report to the government on their operations as such and demonstrate that they are performing satisfactorily. the government wants to know how heis are using their funds and whether it is being used for the right purposes. the paper will argue from the premise of programme re-accreditation, focussing in particular on how programme re-accreditations are applied in the south african context. furthermore, the paper will look at the perception of academics dealing with programme re-accreditations. the researcher will allude to the fact that academics perceived programme re-accreditations as an addition to their current workload. they further believe that the government is taking over some of their responsibilities, which in turn deprives them of their academic freedom. however, the government views programme re-accreditation from the point of institutional accountability and as part of their monitoring process with regard to their funding to hei. the paper will also look at the role of academics in programme reaccreditations, and furthermore, to establish whether academics accept the influence of government in programme re-accreditations. d. woodhouse (2006:22-24) further supports the approach of programme reaccreditations by saying that “accreditation recognises the autonomy of higher education institutions and seeks to protect and uphold the institutional rights to autonomy in decisionmaking with regard to quality”. at the same time, accreditation underlines the need to balance these institutional rights against the responsibility of higher education to address the expectations in respect of accountability (newton, 2007:14). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 3 what is quality? gone are the days when a university could rest content in the knowledge that it is a first class institution producing top-class graduates. in the modern era, quality must be shown to exist and the process of monitoring quality for continuous improvement is what quality assurance is all about. to “assure” is “to make certain or ensure the occurrence or existence of something”. if quality is defined more simply, quality assurance is “providing assurance that the university keeps its promises to its customers; or that the reality lives up to the promotional material”. within quality assurance, a major concern is that of ensuring that quality is consistent throughout an institution. quality is an elusive term, as many people have argued; for example: “quality is notoriously elusive of prescription, and no easier even to describe and discuss than deliver in practice” (vlãsceanu, grunberg & parlea, 2004:20). there are some who suggest that quality, in relation to he, is too complex to define; however, they still want to measure this indefinable concept. there have been those who imply, or even explicitly state, that quality is something one knows when one sees it or experiences it. this, though, defines quality in terms of an individual’s implicit subjective criteria (vlãsceanu, grunberg & parlea, 2004:21). traditionally, the concept of quality has been associated with the notion of distinctiveness, of something special, or of high class for that matter. it is quite difficult to define academic quality; however, j. newton (2007:17) defines it as the extent to which goals have been achieved. meanwhile, a. kowalkiewicz (2007:63) argues that quality in the context of heis is bound up with the values and fundamental aims of hei. he further asserts that quality is built on the pillars of accountability and improvement. programme re-accreditation is a process used by the heqc to accomplish at least two things: to hold the institution accountable and to improve the quality of academic programme. programme accreditation establishes the academic standing of the programme or the ability of the programme to produce graduates with professional competence to practise and is often referred to as professional accreditation (harvey, 2004:207-223). the he funding council for england’s (hefce, 2003) definition focuses on courses (programmers). accreditation is the approval of an he course by an authorised body. academics have their own beliefs about the way in which quality must be assured. programme re-accreditation as one of the methods used by the heqc is regarded as a terminal method, as the process leads to the closure of academic programme. the above-mentioned statement can be supported by the recent heqc programme re-accreditation for the master of education (m.ed.) where out of 23 universities’ programmes, of which three universities withdrawn from participating in the process. it was report that only 7 universities managed to get full accreditation, while 7 were provisionally accredited and the rest (5) their programme were withdrawn as they were deemed not to meet the minimum standard. this raises many questions with the academic staff of the universities that their m.ed. jacob m. selesho, the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african 4 programmes were not accredited. academics are asking themselves whether the process was fair, as well as if the exercise had sufficient credibility. overview of quality assurance the quality of he is becoming increasingly important to nations right across the world, seeing that these institutions represent some of the valuable resources of their countries. internal self-evaluation is the starting point in any quality assurance process. he further believes that it is necessary for institutions to establish an effective internal self-evaluation routine in their organisations, because of the high degree of acceptance of ownership, which is brought about by this process. effective system of internal self-evaluation could brand the institution internationally and improve academic mobility. heis must be able to meet, if not exceed, the international standard. researchers and students move from south africa to other countries to pursue academic careers and job opportunities. the increased international mobility of students, academics, and researchers leads to a growing need to understand the equivalence of qualifications, standards, and credits as important aspects of quality assurance. this could further be important in the internationalisation of south african higher education systems, and the creation of effective internal quality assurance structures (stensaker & harvey, 2004:13). if he can ensure that they offer quality academic programmes, south african can compete with the rest of the world. effective internal quality assurance mechanisms can help institutions to improve their teaching and educational processes since it benefits both students and stakeholders. the good internal self-evaluation will ensure that the students acquire quality academic programmes from heis. furthermore, the heis will continuously improve the quality of their academic programmes; through this can only be done if there is effective self-evaluation taking place. improvements can be made after identifying both strengths and weaknesses in the process of internal self-evaluation. d. woodhouse (2006:22-27) elaborates on the views of r. lewis (2006:17), saying that internal self-evaluation deals with all the major issues in an institution; it reflects on the “story” of the university and the “hermeneutics” of understanding that story. according to r. lewis, a good internal quality assurance report should reflect on the state of the art of the quality of a particular organisation (lewis, 2006:18). if hei’s do not adequately prepare their students to fulfil various social roles, their value in identifying individuals who are competent enough to enter the various occupation, requiring higher degrees of education and training, is lost. thus, an educational programme that caters for both roles as mentioned above is fundamental to the growth and development of south africa in the twenty-first century (che, 2003). educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 5 self-evaluation leading to programme re-accreditation and principles of good practices internal evaluation is a process of quality review undertaken within an institution for its own ends and purposes. from an external agency perspective, an internal review is seen as the part of the external process that an institution undertakes in preparation for an external event, such as a peer-review or a site visit. in such circumstances, an internal review tends to be conflated with self-evaluation (vlãsceanu, grunberg & parlea, 2004:38). there is a tendency in the literature to equate internal evaluation with selfevaluation. in some contexts they are the same, as internal evaluation is shorthand for the self-evaluation document or process (abbott, 2007:15-17). the key foundation to a career is a lifelong learner and the ability for selfevaluation, which is a major component of learner autonomy or self-responsibility. it is with this in mind that the operational plan of the heqc founding document states that: “the heqc should investigate how best to strengthen internal evaluation capacity in providers” (heqc, 2003:15-20). internal self-evaluation at an institution, with the aim of developing and improving the quality of teaching and learning, involves not only the managers and academics at the institution, but all stakeholders. it is important to mention that for internal self-evaluation to have an impact on the quality of teaching in practice, there should be teaching and learning involvement at every level of the self-evaluation design and implementation, which includes learners’ evaluation and facilitator’s internal evaluation (vettori, 2007:10-15). it is internationally accepted that the basic quality assurance premise is the institutional internal self-evaluation. it is the general model for hei, in which the process of self-evaluation is the cornerstone and most essential element, particularly if the sustainable improvements are to be achieved over a certain period of time. self-evaluation is about whether educational objectives can be achieved and whether current practices can be improved upon. it is important to look at accountability as an aspect of quality assurance since the restoration of the culture of teaching, learning, and management involves the creation of a culture of accountability (heqc, 2003). heis should be aware of the mandate of che as promulgated in the higher education act 101 of 1997. this includes the responsibility of the government in ensuring that they have a certain control over heis in south africa. quality assurance can comprise four main good practices: transparency of the education, research, and administrative processes within higher education institutions; validation of standards and qualifications obtained by students; accountability to donors, students, and other stakeholders of higher education; and the improvement of the quality of education, research, or administrative processes within higher education. to make sure that funding allocated for hei’s is spent wisely, and also via the value-for-money approach, each institution must be accountable to all stakeholders, jacob m. selesho, the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african 6 i.e. students, government, and the parents. the fostering of accountability usually takes place through external, independent peer reviews or audits of institutions and faculties, programmes. one of the main tasks of the peers or auditors is to provide externally accessible information on how the funding has contributed to the educational achievements. self-evaluation is the foundation of quality assurance, especially because sound self-evaluation is a prerequisite for quality improvement. the following section will explain the methodology undertaken in this study. research methods the population, sample, and research design are described below followed by a section on data collection. the aim of the empirical survey was to gather information from the academic staff with regard to their experience in dealing with programme re-accreditation. the purpose of the empirical study was therefore to obtain the opinions of respondents by means of a survey. a descriptive survey was employed to study heis in particular academics from the 23 universities that did participate during the m.ed. re-accreditation process conducted by the heqc. heads of schools and senior academic were included in order to ascertain which factors influenced the development of self-evaluation. a total of ninety five academics (n=95) were requested to complete a fourpoint scale questionnaire, as well as to attend an interview session, in order to furnish the information required by the questionnaire. the reason for selecting a certain sample was based on the fact that the participants did indeed participated in the programme re-accreditation process and they can share their knowledge and skills with the researcher with regard to the tasks. furthermore, the researcher observed that academics from the surveyed programme (m.ed.) had an advantage over others, as they had already participated in more than two site visits of programme re-accreditation. three basic data-gathering techniques were used in this study, i.e. departmental profile, questionnaires, and interviews. the researcher chose to use the questionnaire as the principal data-collecting instrument, because of its validity and also to ensure that the sample can contribute extensively to the study. c. bless, c. higson-smith and a. kagee (2007:71-73) argue that no other data collection tool is used more frequently in social research. the questionnaire allows respondents more time and it can be completed whenever it suits them. the questionnaires were distributed to the lecturers that participated during the site visits. most of the questions required prior knowledge of participation in the programme re-accreditations. a four-point likert scale questionnaire was designed. the questions were factual in nature, relating to the respondents’ background and their academic experience. in this regard, the respondents were asked to indicate their opinions on a 1-4 scale (where 1 = strongly agree; 2 = agree; 3 = disagree; and 4 = strongly disagree) for items relating to various aspects of departmental self-evaluation (internal evaluation). the researcher was interested in testing the following aspects: (1) the educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 7 role of lecturers in programme accreditations; (2) their expectations with regard to programme re-accreditations; (3) their participation in internal self-evaluation; (4) their experiences in higher education; and (5) evaluation of the site. in total ninety five copies of the questionnaire were distributed among selected participants. a covering letter was attached to each questionnaire, explaining the purpose of the questionnaire, and the eventual benefits to the respondents in particular, and the quality assurance in general. for recognition purposes and to ensure that academic participate fully, the covering letter was printed on an official central university of technology, free state letterhead. the interview design was used as a supplementary data-gathering instrument in addition to the questionnaire and documentary analysis. the researcher decided to use a semi-structured interview because of its informal status. the respondents were free to mention their experiences with regard to the site visits. the abovementioned interviews were conducted with academic staff. departmental profile the nature of this study also involved the collection of self-evaluation reports from the quality assurance units of the institutions. the purpose of collecting the reports was to test the triangulation with regard to the data collected through the questionnaires and interviews. in some ways, self-evaluation reports provided additional data, which had been collected by means of the questionnaires and interviews. the reports received from the quality assurance unit department helped the researcher to control the accuracy of external quality provider reports, as well as self-evaluation profile. the researcher was interested in establishing if the units evaluated, has indeed attended to the comments made in the previous self-evaluation. in the self-evaluation reports the school normally indicates certain areas as they require improvements or are in the stage of being improved. the main idea was to establish whether the improvements plan appearing in the self-evaluation reports had indeed taken place and to what extent. analysis and discussion of the ninety five academics, who had received questionnaires, only 91 participants responded. out of the 91 responses, 65 academics had more that 10 years’ experience in he, while the other 26 academics have less than 5 years working experience in he. academics felt that this process is very strenuous and it consumes most of their time. especially for novice lecturers, who at the time of the study had less than 5 years experience, as they were still battling to establish themselves in the he sector. the above-mentioned statistics give an indication of how the process of programme re-accreditation really affected the daily activities of the academics’ work. the academics felt that the heqc is imposing a number of issues in the jacob m. selesho, the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african 8 daily operation, 87 respondents mentioned that at the moment there were so many things that they had to do, one being designing their teaching and learning material in an outcomes-based format. all 91 respondents felt that they were in the position to apply the institution’s teaching and learning policy, therefore it was not necessary to organiser training. in comparison to teaching and learning, one criterion that is of utmost importance in programme re-accreditation, is the students assessment. all academics replied that they were in a position to apply the assessment policy of their respective institutions. in addition to that, 67 respondents alluded to the fact that they were qualified assessors. probing further, 78 academics mentioned that they did not use the south african qualification authority (saqa) level descriptors when pitching the assessment level of students’ achievements. the academics felt that during programme re-accreditation, there was some hidden agenda behind the scope of this important exercise. it was interesting to note that academics questioned the validity of the exercise as well as the way the review panel was constituted. during the interview sessions, academics mentioned that this re-accreditation process was influencing their work negatively, for instance if the school lost the accreditation of a programme that would affect their jobs. it was important to note that 6 academics had a negative perception about the exercise; in particular senior academics, for they felt that the government wanted to implement the 1996 national plan for higher education (nphe). the plan clearly categorised universities according to a certain status. this is supported by the result of the previous re-accreditation programme in the teacher education programme. the lecturers feel that the heqc is definitely not developmental in its approach, meaning that, it is not willing to credit initial and emerging efforts towards the provision of a qualification in teacher development. all the faults and short comings identified in the previous national teacher review programmes do not constitute any terminal effect on any student’s learning, nor did it destroy any effort by anybody. therefore, the heqc should perhaps suggest an improvements plan, rather than closing the programme, as it would affect the students negatively. these efforts merely fall short of achieving the goal of being developmental in its approach. under the circumstances, lecturers raised the concern that the approach was lacking, as it was not conducive to achieving the required standard in higher education. conclusion and recommendation one critical question that the article wanted to address was the role of academics in the programmes re-accreditation process, as well as to establishing whether they understood the role of the government in this whole exercise. instead of probing one question and getting an answer, the researcher found that the academics had multiple issues regarding programme re-accreditation. the whole exercise of educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 9 programme re-accreditation starts with programme self-evaluation. literature has indicated that programme re-accreditations are evidence-based evaluation. the programme is evaluated according to the agreed criteria in the programme accreditation framework hand book. the programme is evaluated according to what they claim in the self-evaluation document prepared by the institution. the academics believe that the government predetermines the results of programme re-accreditation. they further believe that the government is applying the recommendation of nche. it was quite interesting to listen to academics, particularly when they supported the view, that the recommendation of nche in terms of categorising the university is not something of the past. it is important that the issue of academic freedom must be read in conjunction with institutional autonomy. the government has a huge responsibility in ensuring that the subsidies allocated to hei are utilised for a good cause, and that are also accountable to the taxpayers. it was interesting to note that although academics want to participate in the programme re-accreditation, however, they still have a fear of failure. those fears foster a negative re-accreditation concept among academics in the he. for that matter, academics will create a platform to hide their failure. a numbered statement will be made with regard to among others, the credibility of the re-accreditation process as well as the constitution of peer reviews. the article further recommends that the first step in programme re-accreditation should perhaps be in the form of improvement or enhancement of quality. this will be a good buy-in approach for most, if not all academics. the idea was to use the self-evaluation as an improvement tool but from the data it was clear that academics had overrated their programme to a large extent, and that they were even disappointed with the outcomes of the re-accreditations. the heqc (high education quality committee) should perhaps run a pilot study on some new mechanisms, particularly in grading the criteria for programme re-accreditation that will help to standardise the criteria for outcomes projections. the above response from academics touched on some salient points raised by the heqc, but the fact of the matter is that this evaluation was too harsh, too a-historical and totally missed and/or negated the bigger picture. the point is, if a programme is withdrawn, the institution will finally not provide the program. surely, the stakeholders will lose in terms of being afforded the opportunity to equip themselves with the required skills. the education system will lose greatly, and there will be a backlog among stakeholders. if the programme is not accredited, this would also affect the response of the province to knowledge economy, and it will retard progress to levels never reached. the growing level of knowledge and conceptual sophistication being nurtured in the province and country will generally be lost and we may soon find ourselves having to import expertise from outside the country soon. there is a mismatch between the government intent on programme re-accreditation and the perception of the academics. jacob m. selesho, the perception of academic staff in relation to programme re-accreditation in south african 10 references abbott, p. 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(2004). accreditation and evaluation in the european he area. dorndrecht: kluwer academic publisher. vettori, o. (2007). “dealing with ambivalences-strategic option for nurturing a quality culture in teaching and learning: embedding quality culture in he”. a selection of papers from the 1st european forum for qa [quality assurance], technische universitat munchen, germany. vlãsceanu, l., l. grünberg & d. pârlea. (2004). qa and accreditation: a glossary of basic terms and definitions. bucharest: unesco-cepes papers on he, isbn 92-9069-178-6. woodhouse, d. (2006). “the role of qa agencies in high education in the 21st century”. keynote paper to 1st international conference on assessing quality in high education, lahore, 11-13 december. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 107 prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi, m.pd. and efi miftah faridli, m.pd. are the lecturers at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh p.o. box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. phone: +62281 636751. e-mails: tukiranump@yahoo.com and efimiftahfaridli@yahoo.co.id the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values for indonesian students tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli abstract: “pancasila” (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) education subject, which was before reformation era (1998) known widely by indonesian community, nowadays has undergone marginalization process in social, national, and state living. it is due to, one of the factors, that “pancasila” education subject has been made as indoctrination means and authority political needs in performing development in the new order government era (19661998). although “pancasila” education subject has not been exit in educational curriculum in indonesia since 2003, but now it is realized the need of developing awareness about “pancasila” lofty values toward college students as the candidate of next national leader. of the appropriate “pancasila” education subject contents to implant lofty values toward indonesian students, the study finding shows that the respondents agreed with re-emphasizing the matters related to: (1) the foundation and aim of “pancasila” education; (2) “pancasila” in historical context of indonesian struggle; (3) “pancasila” as philosophical system; (4) “pancasila” as political ethic; (5) “pancasila” as national ideology; (6) “pancasila” in state administration of indonesian republic; and (7) “pancasila” as social, national, and state living paradigm in indonesia to be developed continuously in indonesian community. key words: “pancasila” education subject, lofty values, indonesian college students, globalization process, and national character and identity. introduction since the prevailance of the act number 20 year 2003 about national education system, pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) education subject has been omited from educational curriculum in indonesia, either in primary, secondary or tertiary education. educational curriculum in indonesia – primary, secondary, and tertiary education – has not contained pancasila education subject. according to uu (undang-undang or act) no.20/2003, especially article 37 subsection 1 states that primary and secondary educational curriculum has to contain the subject of: (1) religion education; (2) civic education; (3) language; (4) math; (5) science; (6) social sciences; (7) art and culture; (8) sport and physical education; (9) vocational/skill; dan (10) local matter content. furthermore, the act in article 37 subsection 2 states that higher education curriculum should contain tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli, the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values 108 the subject of: (1) religion education; (b) civic education; and (c) language. meanwhile, according to the act no.2 year 1989 about national education system, pancasila education is a compulsary subject in indonesia educational curriculum starting from primary, secondary to tertiary education. moreover, in new order government era (1966-1998), pancasila education subject is compulsary to be given starting from primary to higher education. in fact, according to sofyan effendi (2006:2), since the reformation movement emerged in 1998 from campusses in indonesia, it seemed that there was the developed tendency to ignore pancasila as an ideology in nation and state living. although, the act no.20 year 2003 about national education system has still stated the basic ideology of pancasila as a basis of national education, but in its implementation did not state such national ideology education in national education curriculum. the effect of such omission, according to sofyan effendi (2006) again, was very worrying. the process of “colonialization of the mind” would be more and “salah asuhan” (poor upbringing) higher education would occur without any obstacle, resulting in graduates who comprehend more the other nation’s knowledge paradigm than their own knowledge which was stemmed from their original national culture. pancasila as a basis of social, national, and state living in indonesia phylosophically, the essence of pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia)1 existence as national development paradigm has consequence that in all national development aspects, we have to rely on the essence of values in pancasila moral principle. therefore, kaelan (2002:216) stated that the essence of pancasila values was based on human ontologism basis as the main supporting subject of pancasila moral principles and also as national principle support. it is based on objective fact that pancasila is a state basis, and the state is human organization (living federation). therefore, in realizing its goal through national development to realize the whole people’s goal, the state should refer to the basis of “monopluralis” human essence. based on the letter from director-general of higher education, ministry of national education no.06/d/t/2010 dated 5 january 2010, adressed to state and private university/institute rectors, the head of state and private higher education, state and private polytechnic/academy director, and the head of kopertis (koordinator perguruan tinggi swasta or coordinator of private higher education institutions) regional i to xii, aiming to improve the awareness toward pancasila values on college students, thus, it is stated philosophically, juridically, and 1pancasila, or five basic principles of the republic of indonesia, contains: (1) the belief in on god almighty; (2) humanity that is just and civilized; (3) the unity of indonesia; (4) democracy guided by the wisdom of representative deliberation; and (5) social justice for all indonesians. about the pancasila as the indonesia’s nation-state ideology as well as philosophy see, for example, ismaun (1967, 1969, and 1980); and john m. echols & hassan shadily (2003:406). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 109 sociologically the implementation of pancasila education subject do not violate the prevailed regulation and law. in the letter, it is recommended that the universities which have implemented pancasila education subject should improve active, innovative, creative, contextual, and fun learning process (dirjendikti, 2010). the research finding about the perception of pancasila from the young generation in yogyakarta, indonesia states that: (1) implementing pancasila, either as life philosophy or state foundation, has not been optimal. in some cases, pancasila is perceived no more than theory, symbol, formality, discourse, and slogan; and (2) most of state institution and administration have not implemented it well yet, it is only formality and, moreover, it is diverted (pitoyo et al., 2006:14). in developing pancasila, campuss should be in front position and be a pioneer for this nation to face bigger globalization wave which is exploited by neo-capitalism spirit and liberalism market. in facing “new colonialism and imperialism”, according to soekarno’s words, campuss should be inspired to develop ideas to make pancasila as ontological, epistemic, and axiological basis of contextual science in indonesia. besides that, campuss shoud pioneer the ideas to develop such philosophy as development paradigm and national development ethic foundation (cited by effendi, 2006:2-3). university, in political perspective, is an institution which is hoped to be able as recruitment, selection, and education media for citizens to involve in political elite group. gradually, community of political elite and indonesian politicans will be the graduates of higher education institution. in such rational action, it is hoped that the decision taken will give not only personal and family benefit but also social and national benefit (zamroni, 2003:10). therefore, pancasila education subject in university should be able to realize the students who understand, comprehend, and implement pancasila moral principles well in social, national, and state living in indonesia context. university is frequently not responsive, in which there is difference between what develops in the class room and daily social reality in community. it is due to the learning process only focusing on one dimension, which is cognitive dimension; while the other dimensions, such as affective and psychomotor, are disregarded. in fact, if we are consistent in relying on such three education domains, the learning output will be realistic and responsive learning. in this context, university has not been able to transform education, as stated by paulo piere, on the awareness process (cited by siswomihardjo et al., 2002). according to the decree of director-general of higher education, the ministry of national education no.43/dikti/kep/2006 about regulation of personality development subject implementation in university, then, the mission of matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian (mpk), or personality development subject, is to help the students stabilizing their personality to be consistent in realizing religious and cultural basic values, national sense, and love of fatherland along their lives in mastering, applying, and improving technological and art science they have responsibly (dirjendikti, 2006). tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli, the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values 110 the method and implementation of research finding this study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative studies as developed by john w. creswell (1994 dan 1998). the method used in this study is survey of university students in central java, indonesia, including the efforts to: (1) gain appropriate contents in pancasila education subject to impland lofty values fow the students; (2) obtain interactive, fun, challenging, and motivating pancasila education learning model in order that the students participate actively in pancasila education learning process; (3) implant pancasila values on univesity the students; (4) realize campuss as pancasila laboratory embryo; and (5) create pancasila education text book for the students. the population of study was all civic education lecturers and students in central java who contracted pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) education subject when the study was conducted. sample selecting technique of this study was area random sampling (cresswell, 1994 and 1998). model implementation, observation, and questionnaire in form of opinioner and result were then compared. modification of study instrument was done by using measurement scale, reliability level, and validity. data collecting method used in this study was attitude scale, questionnaire, observation, interview, and searching the documents. quantitative data analysis uses the procedure of: (1) data normality testing by chi-equadrate; (2) data homogenity testing, barlett testing; (3) hypothesis testing by non-statistic technique, which was percentage; and (4) statistic testing by analysis of variant testing or anava, t-test, and correlation product moment. anava post-analysis by schefee testing and significance testing used was 5% or 0.05. qualitative data in form of interview was described, so it had comprehensive and systematic meaning by using data reduction, display, and conclusion. this study finding can be applied in university all around indonesia because since the reformation movement had occured from campusses in our fatherland in 1998, the tendency to neglect pancasila as ideology in our national and state living emerged. based on the survey conducted by the directorate-general of higher education toward 81 state universities, it was stated that pancasila education subject was not contained in curriculum of most of such universities (effendi, 2006:2). if it is neglected, it will worry us, which is pancasila moral values will not be known by next generation and pancasila will be only the historical relic. study finding and reformation in pancasila education modification of role, content, and approach in pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) education learning approach, as stated in the decree of director-general of higher education, ministry of national education no.265/dikti/kep/2000 about gbpp-mpk (garis-garis besar program pengajaran – matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian or guideline of teaching program – personality development subject) of pancasila education, should be socialized widely to all lecturers teaching pancasila education subject. it is hoped that educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 111 pancasila education and other persoality development subjects or mpk (matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian) can give real contribution in constructing pious indonesian people who have superior intelligence and lofty moral, firm and independent personality, and social and national responsibility (pusposutardjo, 2002:1). according to the article 5 of “the decree of director-general of higher education, ministry of national education no.38 year 2002”, it is emphasized that the learning methodology of personality development subjects should started from: (1) approach, positioning the student as education subject, partner in learning process, and the member of religious community, family member, society, and citizen; (2) method, learning process and discussion are conducted critically, analytically, inductively, deductively, and reflectively through participatory creative dialog to believe in substance of study principle; (3) activity form, learning process or face-to-face lecturing should be done by variation, lecturing, creative dialog, or interactive discussion, inquiry method, case study, individual task, seminar, and various academic activities which emphasize more in the students’ meaningful learning experience; and (4) motivation, stimulating the awareness that personality development learning is life need (dirjendikti, 2002:4). meanwhile, the article 5 of “the decree of director-general of higher education, ministry of national education no.43/dikti/kep/2006 about regulation of personality depelopment subjects implementation in university” emphasizes that the methodology of personality development subjects should be: first, learning process should be interactive, inspirative, fun, challenging, and motivating the students to participate actively and provide the sufficient space for initiative, creativity, and independence in positioning the students as education subject, partner in learning process, and the member of religious community, family member, society, and citizen. second, learning should be an educating process which contains critical, analytic, inductive, deductive, and reflective discussion through participatory creative dialog to reach the understanding of the truth of study principle substance, real creation, and stimulate long-life learning motivation. third, the activity form of learning process can be in form of face-to-face lecturing, lecture, dialog or interactive discussion, case study, individual task, reading assignment, seminar, and co-curriculer activities. forth, motivation to stimulate awareness that personality development learning is life need to be exist in global community (dirjendikti, 2006). according to k.w. siswomihardjo (2004:10), between 1995 to 2020 is a “repositioning” level of pancasila. different with 55 years ago, today the world is faced with rapid, basic, and spectaculer change wave as an implication of globalization wave striking the whole world, especially in this 21st century. the globalization implication shows the development of a standardization in various aspects of life, either national or state administration. apart from ideology system or social system, it has the questions as follows: “is human right still be respected? is democracy developed? are freedom and justice owned by every citizen? and is environment managed well?” tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli, the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values 112 pancasila education subject in the university has principle, vision, mission, competence, and specific goal. the principles of pancasila education as a subject in the university are the introduction of 1945 constitution or uud (undang-undang dasar) 1945 paragraph four stating clearly that indonesia republic is based on “pancasila”. bersides that, the act no.20 year 2003 about the national education system has stated that education is based on pancasila and 1945 constitution or undang-undang dasar 1945 (depdiknas ri, 2002). the vision of pancasila education subject becomes a value source and guidance in implementation of study program in leading the students to develop their personality as pancasila citizens. meanwhile, the mission of pancasila education is to help the students being able to realize the lofty values of pancasila and develop national, state, and social awareness in applying their knowledge and thinking responsibly toward the humanity. the competence of pancasila education subject is aimed at mastering thinking competence, rational and dynamic attitude, and wide point of view as an intellectual person. besides that, the competence of pancasila education subject is hope to be able to lead the students to have the competence to: (1) take responsible attitude in line with the conscience; (2) know the life problems and prosperity and the way to solve it; (3) know the changes and development of science and technology; and (4) explain the meaning of history and national cultural values to unite indonesia (siswomihardjo et al., 2002:164). the goal of pancasila education subject is hoped to make the students are able to have knowledge and understand the basis of pancasila philosophy, and be proud of pancasila as indonesian great works similar with other great ideology works in the world. pancasila as a paradigm in social, national, and state living can expand thingking and develop democratic attitude in actualizing the values contained in pancasila. meanwhile, the specific goal of pancasila education subject is to make the students be able to: (1) conduct critical study about indonesia national struggle history and historical chronology of formulating pancasila as state philosophy and principle; and (2) explain the introduction of 1945 constitution or uud 1945, articles in uud 1945, and dynamic of uud 1945 implementation (siswomihardjo et al., 2002:166). the questionnaire findings about the appropriate contents of pancasila education subject and can develop the lofty values in social, national, and state living in indonesia are following here: no contents st t at kt tt 1 chapter i: principle and goal of pancasila education 19 8 0 0 0 2 a. the principle of “pancasila” education 26 20 0 0 0 3 1. the historical principle of “pancasila” education 31 23 0 2 1 4 2. the cultural principle of “pancasila” education 23 26 2 2 2 5 3. the juridical principle of “pancasila” education 32 16 5 2 0 6 4. the philosophical principle of “pancasila” education 30 19 4 1 0 educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 113 no contents st t at kt tt 7 b. the goal of “pancasila” education 19 6 0 1 0 8 1. vision, mission, and competence of “pancasila” education 29 20 5 2 0 9 2. the goal of “pancasila” education 37 17 0 2 0 10 chapter ii: pancasila in historical context of indonesia national struggle 20 7 1 0 0 11 a. the history of indonesia national struggle 27 16 1 0 0 12 1. the period of national fame 22 26 1 2 2 13 2. the period of dutch colonialization 19 31 3 1 0 14 3. the struggle of indonesia nation 34 16 0 0 0 15 b. the historical chronology of formulating “pancasila” as national philosophy principle 19 11 0 0 0 16 1. the period of japanese occupation 13 31 1 0 0 17 2. the meeting of bpupki i (29 may – 1 june 1945) 25 30 1 0 0 18 3. the meeting of bpupki ii ( 10 – 17 july 1945) 19 31 2 0 5 19 4. the meeting of ppki 18 august 1945 29 28 0 0 0 20 c. the historical chronology of formulating the introduction of uud 1945 35 19 1 0 0 21 d. the historical chronology of formulating articles in uud 1945 27 22 5 0 1 22 e. the existence and meaning of the introduction of uud 1945 34 19 1 0 0 23 f. the dynamic of uud 1945 implementation 18 26 2 0 1 24 chapter iii: pancasila as philosophy system 10 10 2 0 0 25 a. definition of philosophy 19 27 3 1 0 26 b. definition of philosophy system and its branches 14 34 4 2 0 27 c. the unity of moral principle in “pancasila” as a systematic, hierarchical and logical unity 27 20 2 0 0 28 d. the elements of “pancasila” as a philosophy system 21 30 5 0 0 29 e. the core of first moral principle 37 22 0 1 0 30 f. the core of second moral principle 34 20 0 1 0 31 g. the core of third moral principle 34 21 0 1 0 32 h. the core of fourth moral principle 38 22 0 1 0 33 i. the core of fifth moral principle 39 21 0 1 0 34 chapter iv: pancasila as political ethic 10 9 5 0 0 35 a. introduction 11 14 0 0 0 36 1. definition of ethic 33 27 1 0 0 37 2. political and governmental ethic 25 33 1 0 0 38 3. ”pancasila” as an ethic system 22 32 1 0 0 39 b. “pancasila” as political ethic and values containes in it 24 7 1 0 0 40 1. ”pancasila” as political ethic 19 31 5 1 0 41 2. values contained in “pancasila” 30 23 2 0 0 42 c. implementing ethic in profession, community, and state living, and give critical evaluation toward the implementation of ethic 20 11 0 0 0 43 1. implementing ethic in profession living 29 34 1 0 0 44 2. implementing ethic in community living 31 30 4 0 0 45 3. implementing ethic in state living 31 23 3 0 0 46 4. give critical evaluation toward ethic implementation 15 28 9 3 0 tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli, the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values 114 no contents st t at kt tt 47 chapter v: pancasila as national ideology 20 5 0 0 0 48 a. definition and meaning of ideology for nation and state 28 9 1 0 0 49 1. definition of ideology 36 18 1 0 0 50 2. meaning of ideology for nation and state 31 18 1 1 0 51 b. the types of ideologies 21 7 1 1 0 52 1. liberalism 12 34 4 3 4 53 2. communism 12 31 2 1 8 54 3. facism 12 29 8 2 5 55 4. ”pamcasila” ideology 27 30 0 0 0 56 c. the meaning and role of “pancasila” as national and state ideology 34 10 1 0 0 57 chapter vi: pancasila in state administration context of indonesia republic 28 5 0 1 0 58 a. the position of “pancasila” as the basic law source of indonesia 34 23 0 0 0 59 b. the content of the introduction of uud 1945 and the position of uud introduction 25 22 0 1 0 60 1. the content of uud 1945 introduction 32 24 0 1 0 61 2. the position of uud 1945 introduction 29 27 0 0 0 62 c. the system of indonesia state administration before and after amendment of uud 1945 23 14 2 0 0 63 1. the system of indonesia state administration before the prevalence of uud 1945 amendment 24 22 5 0 0 64 2. the system of indonesia state administration after the prevalence of uud 1945 amendment 23 20 4 0 0 65 d. realization of human rights in indonesia republic 22 13 0 0 0 66 1. definition of human rights 34 18 3 0 0 67 2. human rights in uud 1945 27 24 1 0 0 68 3. right and obligation of citizen 30 17 0 0 0 69 4. realization of human rights in indonesia republic 19 22 7 0 0 70 chapter vii: pancasila as paradigm in social, national, and state living 21 8 2 0 0 71 a. definition of paradigm 15 25 3 1 0 72 b. “pancasila” as development paradigm 18 23 2 0 0 73 1. “pancasila” as development paradigm of political aspect 17 35 1 0 0 74 2. “pancasila” as development paradigm of economic aspect 20 31 3 0 0 75 3. “pancasila” as development paradigm of social aspect 19 30 1 0 0 76 4. “pancasila” as development paradigm of cultural aspect 19 28 3 1 0 77 5. “pancasila” as development paradigm of law aspect 21 23 0 0 0 78 6. “pancasila” as development paradigm of religious life aspect among the members of religious community 13 31 0 0 0 79 7. “pancasila” as development paradigm of secience and technology aspect 15 30 5 1 0 80 c. “pancasila” as reformation paradigm 22 26 2 1 0 81 d. ”pancasila” as campuss life paradigm 13 21 13 2 1 note: st = sangat tahu (very know), t = tahu (know), at = agak tahu (quite know), kt = kurang tahu (not know well), and tt = tidak tahu (not know absolutely). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 115 conclusion and recommendation based on the above explanation, it is clear that pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) education subject before reformation era (1998), which was known widely by indonesia society, currently has undergone marginalization process in social, national, and state living. it is caused by the new order government (1966-1998) that pancasila education subject had been conducted as indoctrination means and political interest in performing development. although pancasila education subject has not been contained in education curriculum in indonesia since 2003, but now it is realized the need of developing awareness about lofty values to the students as the candidate of future national leader. it is also realized that a nation that does not have philosophical basis and principle in social, national, and state living will lose its identity and genuine character in one side; and in other side, such nation will be scraped down by globalization modernization process all around the world. of the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant the lofty values to the students in indonesia, the study finding shows that the students agree to reemphasize the matters related to: (1) the principle and goal of pancasila education subject; (2) pancasila in historical context of indonesia national struggle; (3) pancasila as philosophy system; (4) pancasila as political ethic; (5) pancasila as national ideology; (6) pancasila in state administration context of indonesia republic; and (7) pancasila as the paradigm of social, national, and state living in indonesia to be continuously developed in indonesia society. finally, based on the study findings, there are some recommendations as following here: (1) government, in this case is ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia, should prevail the curriculum containing the lofty values of pancasila in schools starting from primary to tertiary education; (2) educators, in this case is the lecturers of pancasila education subject, should try to impland the lofty values of pancasila through active, creative, inspirative, fun, and challenging education and learning-teaching process in critical, analytical, inductive, deductive, and reflective thinking context to reach the understanding of the substantial and real truth; and (3) young generation, in this case is the indonesia students, should try continuously to understand, comprehend, and implement the lofty values of pancasila. references creswell, john w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. thousand oaks, london: new delhi: sage publications. creswell, john w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks, london: new delhi: sage publications. tukiran taniredja, muhammad afandi & efi miftah faridli, the appropriate pancasila education contents to implant lofty values 116 depdiknas ri [departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. (2002). modul acuan proses pembelajaran matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian. jakarta: depdiknas ri. dirjendikti [direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi]. (2002). ”surat keputusan direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi nomor 265/dikti/kep/2002 tentang gbpp-mpk pendidikan pancasila” in archive of ditjendikti depdiknas ri. jakarta: ditjendikti. dirjendikti [direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi]. (2006). ”surat keputusan direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia, nomor: 43/dikti/ kep/2006 tentang rambu-rambu pelaksanaan kelompok matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian di perguruan tinggi” in archive of ditjendikti depdiknas ri. jakarta: dirjendikti. dirjendikti [direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi]. (2010). ”surat edaran direktur jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia, no.06/d/t/2010, dated 5 january 2010, yang ditujukan kepada rektor universitas/institut negeri dan swasta, ketua sekolah tinggi negeri dan swasta, direktur akademi/politeknik egeri dan swasta, coordinator kopertis wilayah i s.d. xii” in archive of ditjendikti depdiknas ri. jakarta: dirjendikti. echols, john m. & hassan shadily. (2003). kamus indonesia-inggris: an indonesian-english dictionary. jakarta: penerbit pt gramedia, third edition. effendi, sofyan. (2006). “sambutan rektor pada pembukaan simposium nasional pengembangan pancasila sebagai paradigma ilmu pengetahuan dan pembangunan nasional”. paper. yogyakarta, indonesia: 14-15 august. ismaun. (1967). tindjauan pantjasila: dasar filsafat negara republik indonesia. bandung: penerbit karya remadja. ismaun. (1969). problematik pantjasila sebagai kepribadian bangsa indonesia. bandung: penerbit karya remadja. ismaun. (1980). pancasila: pandangan hidup bangsa dan dasar negara republik indonesia. bandung: cv yulianti. kaelan. (2002). pendidikan pancasila: edisi reformasi. yogyakarta, indonesia: paradigma. pitoyo, j. et al. (2006). “persepsi generasi muda terhadap pancasila”. paper presented in the symposium dan discussion on anniversary of indonesian independence and the birth of pancasila in, yogyakarta, indonesia: 14-15 august. pusposutardjo, s. (2002). “kata sambutan” in kapita selekta pendidikan pancasila untuk mahasiswa. jakarta: bagian proyek peningkatan tenaga akademik, direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia. siswomihardjo, k.w. et al. (2002). modul acuan proses pembelajaran matakuliah pengembangan kepribadian (mpk) pendidikan pancasila. jakarta: departemen pendidikan nasional, direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, direktorat pembinaan akademik dan kemahasiswaan. siswomihardjo, k.w. (2004). reposisi dan orientasi pendidikan pancasila menghadapi tantangan abad xxi. jakarta: bagian proyek peningkatan tenaga akademik, direktorat jenderal pendidikan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional. zamroni. (2003). “peran pendidikan tinggi dalam menuju kehidupan masyarakat yang demokratis”. paper presented in national seminar on civic education in the higher education institution in yogyakarta, indonesia: 8-9 march. educare 4-11.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 99 using the imitating model techniques on insya teaching for improving the student’s writing ability in thesis yayan nurbayan1 abstract: writing skills is one of the skills of the four language competences that must be owned by each learner language. the research’s data show that student writing skills in thesis examined ten samples of 30% error rate is still high. this amount includes the category of very many, because they have received coaching from two tutors. this phenomenon has encouraged researcher to conduct research on learning to write through the technique of imitating models. the method used in this study was quasi experiment by taking a sample of university students majoring in arabic language education as many as 27 people. data analysis used descriptive qualitative. the results of this research are: (1) learning to write by using a technique modeled requires good planning, ranging from the selection of instructional materials that can serve as a model to be emulated by students; (2) the technique of imitating models of the courses conducted by following the nine steps; (3) learning to write or “insya” by using the technique of imitating the model has improved the students’ ability in writing a “faqrah” or paragraph and “kitabah hurriyah” or free text. this can be seen from the significant difference between the pre-test conducted before the treatment begins with post-test results conducted after the study conducted; and (4) ability to write “faqrah” and “kitabah hurriyah” is the basic ability for someone to be able to write papers, books, reports, and other writings. key words: imitating models, techniques of “insya” (writing), making “faqrah” (paragraph) and “kitabah hurriyah” (free text), and students’ competences. introduction in curriculum of the arabic education department in upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) in bandung is stated that the purposes of teaching subjects are willing to provide lunch to students so that they know, understand, and practice the rules and uslub-uslub accepted and used in arabic (upi, 2006). with the provision of skills, students are expected to practice the theories mentioned in the text or essay writing arabic-speaking like writing a structured essay, free essay, resume, writing letters, and research reports. from the description above, it appears that the curriculum subjects willing to have a significant relationship with students’ competence in writing the thesis. adequate quality of learning, the scope of good material and the use of appropridr. h. yayan nurbayan is a lecturer at the department of arabic language education, faculty of arts and language education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: nurbayan_upi@yahoo.co.id yayan nurbayan, using the imitating model techniques 100 ate methodology will influence the level of student ability in writing. however, organizing lectures seem willing at the student has not achieved satisfactory results. numerous studies have shown that there are a number of shortcomings and constraints that lead to the objectives of the course have not been reached. in this regard, yayan nurbayan (2005) has examined the quality of student writing of arabic language education program with the following results: of the ten samples examined thesis that there is still a high error rate. the highest error rate about 66 errors. this amount includes the category of very many, because they have received coaching from two tutors. the above data also indicate that students experience on aspect qawaid error of 23.1%; the selection of an incorrect diction 25.3%; error in uslub aspect of 22.3%; and their errors in the use of muta’allaq of 29.4 %. the data above show that the error on various aspects of student writing is still quite high. therefore, innovation in learning to write on subjects willing should continue to strive for. this study is one response to the problem. for that, the formulas in this study are as follows: (1) what to do in create a lesson plan using the technique of imitating models in learning to write?; (2) what is the process of learning to write faqrah and kitabah hurriyah using techniques modeled?; (3) is the technique modeled effective in improving learning ability to write faqrah and kitabah hurriyah?; and (4) are techniques modeled effective in improving students’ ability in writing a thesis? theoretical studies on the teaching insya or writing. writing skills is one of the four basic competences on language skill, both in the process of first language teaching as well as in foreign languages. in teaching writing (insya), a curriculum designers and teachers need to consider aspects of grading. gradation in writing (insya) includes writing letters, copying, dictation, structured writing, and free writing (indarpati, 2007). on the good paragraphs. it is very useful if the teacher explained to the learners a few paragraphs of good criteria so that they are trying to try must best. it also is very useful if the teacher shows a good paragraph, then analyzed it why the paragraph was quite good. to find a paragraph called “good or not”, it needs to be some criteria for the paragraphs which are: (1) the idea of unity, (2) linkage, (3) strengthening, (4) clarity, and (5) accuracy (richard & rodgers, 1986). on the writing paper. after the learners to practice writing paragraphs, they start practicing writing paper. what is meant here on the writing paper that is composed of two or more paragraphs in one theme. writing this paper continues added gradually, starting from two paragraphs, three, and so on. writing paper is the final step of writing skills and is the most difficult stage. the criteria that apply to a good paragraph also applied to a good paper. the criteria that must be met for a good paper should be augmented with some additional criteria, such as the unity of these ideas in each paragraph. another criterion is the overall relevance, namely the relationship between paragraphs by using certain customs that links between one paragraph with another paragraph. similarly, the need for a specific sequence educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 101 in paragraphs of a paper like the paragraph. and other additional criteria are the nature of the overall clarity and validity (heller, 1991). so far, teaching on writing delivered by starting from the theories. it was boring and theories are difficult to its implement. not so with the techniques modeled. according to ismail marahimin, technique derived from the model mimic the chinese people’s thinking. it also is said that in ancient times in china, people who want to become a painter will be given a painting that is so, and well, usually made by a master, the expert painting or notorious painter. the candidates were told to imitate the master’s paintings had to be. finally candidate this painter can paint himself, and began to discover the typical form in accordance with his/her character. this method is named by imitating a model, meant to imitate the master (as cited in sari, 2007). according rahmawati (2007), those models and its techniques can be applied in writing lessons. the technique starts from the master’s essay and then imitating the master with the exercises given in accordance with the master. the masters’ work is to be read first, viewed the contents and forms, analyzed and made the frame, and do the things that need to be, just after it came time to write. of course not be written exactly like the master copy of this name is round, trace, or even hijack. however, that is copied is the skeleton, or idea, or even ”how” or ”technique” of his. so this is the core exercises of all kinds and forms of writing lessons. in addition, learning to write must be supported with a lot of reading to find background information and sensitivities, with a lot of reading and doing the exercises mimic the writings that have been finished. with a variety of models that can be pursued the master, students will be skilled writing. for more details, modeled their technique is a technique used in learning where the teacher provides a model example of a lesson which will be imitated by the child until the child is actually able to replicate exactly according to this example. every child who has been able to replicate the subject matter in accordance with an example or model then the child is considered to be. for children, who in imitating not in accordance with an example/model, they shall be deemed to not be and must be held until the child’s repetition imitation of similar subject matter in accordance with the model. meanwhile, the elements of learning in the technique of imitating this model consists of: (1) material or subject matter that will be used as a model or example; (2) the observation model or example of subject matter that will be imitated by children; (3) imitation by the child model; (4) correcting the result of artificial child by the teacher; and (5) repetition of imitation by the child if the child’s job is not in imitating model accordance with an example or model on the imitating model of learning evaluation techniques, it is due to a child is said to have succeeded when they are able to imitate things in accordance with an example or model, then the assessment of a child’s success is determined by the same whether or not the work of the child in the example or imitate something yayan nurbayan, using the imitating model techniques 102 that became the model. its weight evaluation is dependent to weight value of the examples given. a method or technique of learning is inseparable from its process and contexts (mckeachie, 1986). the advantages of imitating model technique are: (1) children in learning in the classroom is easier to be conditioned as children to become active with their respective activities; (2) assignment of teachers in the learning process becomes much lighter and easier because the teacher only provides the material serve as a model and examine the results of the writing of children; (3) the exercises that support the child’s writing skills because writing exercises conducted by the child will reflect the ability to write, the more frequent practice, the child will become more proficient in writing; and (4) the learning activities through this technique can be done inside and outside the classroom. the disadvantages of this technique include: (1) in the learning process of teachers do not help explain; and (2) in the learning process without any questions and answers between children and teachers. methodology the method used in this study was quasi-experimental. the purpose of the study, by using a quasi experimental method, is to obtain information for researcher who is estimated that can be obtained through real experiments in a state that is not possible to control and or manipulate all relevant variables (arikunto, 1983; moleong, 1990; ali, 1993; fuchan, 2004; and sudjana & ibrahim, 2006). population are used as samples in this study were students of arabic language education department in upi (universitas pendidikan indonesia or indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, amounting to 27 students. in this study, students are given the examples of faqrah (paragraphs) and kitabah huriyah (free papers) models after which they imitate and constant practice. for the instrument used as a tool in this research is a test. data obtained from test results whether committed before or after learning processed and analyzed to test the research hypothesis. analysis of qualitative data using descriptive techniques in the form of correlational analysis. results and discussion first, on the results pretest and posttest writing. pretest conducted at the first meeting, before treatment begins learning. pretest conducted to determine the ability of the students in writing. pretest is given to determine their ability to write paragraphs and a free essay is limited. problem first pretest, they were asked to write a paragraph with a minimum of three rows of free themes. while the second question, they were asked to write an essay limited free consisting of several paragraphs on the theme “للمسلمين مهمة اللغة العربي”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 103 after a pretest of students numbering 27 people gathered the data that the average value of writing paragraphs 6.7, while the average value of 6.2 free essay writing. from here, it appears that the difference between the average ability in writing a paragraph is not much different from the average writing ability to write freely. while the results of the post-test showed that the number of students who tested an average value of writing paragraphs is 7.5, while the average value of the free essay writing is 6.5. second, on the student writing errors. from these two tests, namely the pre-test and post-test, seemed that the students are still frequently making mistakes in writing. their errors in writing occur in qawaid lughawiyyah aspects of the use, selection of diction, and selection of letters on ficil-ficil mutha’allaq. other errors contained in their writings uslub-uslub use. they still use a lot of sentences in arabic but uses language structure in indonesian language. in terms of content, especially on the writing, test results free of the students still there is something wrong in the relationship between sentences in a paragraph and the relationship between paragraphs in a post. among some of these errors include as follows: n aspect of errors pretest posttest 1 qawaid 144 120 2 diktion 131 112 3 mutha’allaq 72 53 4 uslub 44 27 5 writing 123 120 writing skills are skills accumulated from a variety of other language competences. the fifth aspect above is the linguistic aspects that must be owned by students if they want to have good writing. from the results of the pre-test and post-test data, we can see there are many errors of students in the fifth aspect above. in addition, students should have knowledge on aspects of language, other things most important to improve their ability in writing is an exercise. discussion in the previous section, it has been analyzed the results of the pre-test and post-test after learning to write through the technique of imitating models. analysis of writing skills (willing) aims to determine the impact of learning techniques modeled on traffic student writing. for the ability to write, it must be connected between the ability before treatment (pre-test) and after treatment are seen with the post-test. data pre-test results showed that the average value of writing them to the test set is 6.7 and formulate paragraph-free essay of 6.2. while the post-test for both were 7.5 and 6.5. based on these data, it appears that there is increased student learning outcomes after they learn to write by using a technique modeled. improving learning outcomes is indeed minimal (0.8 to write paragraphs and 0.3 to write the essay free). yayan nurbayan, using the imitating model techniques 104 technique mimics the model used in the teaching of writing has improved students’ ability in writing. this is because the learning approach based on several theories in psychology such as stimulus-response theory and adaptation and imitation theory. in the theory of adaptation and imitation, someone is studying a competency by way of conditioning and imitation. in learning to write through a technique modeled, students whose are given a sample paragraph and writing (essays) is good. in the implementation of learning to write with engineering students modeled, their attempt to analyze and observe the writing in terms of structure, language, and content. after that, they started in trying to write according to the examples they see. replication process is done by students repeatedly. from the results of student exercises from time to time, the better their writing. likewise, they are fewer and fewer mistakes. from the data write error experienced by students appears that aspects of the mistakes that are often experienced by students is related to aspects qawaid, writing, diction, muta’allaq, and uslub. qawaid application error is an error aspect most experienced students, i.e. 144 at pre-test and 120 at post-test. this phenomenon is a common occurrence experienced by learners of arabic language. arabic qaeda is usually a major constraint for both beginners and advanced learners. according to the assessment of learners of arabic language qaeda that is more complex than in other languages qaeda. conclusions and suggestions after doing research by using quasi-experimental methods, it can be found then the following things: first, learning to write by using a technique modeled requires good planning, ranging from the selection of instructional materials that can serve as a model to be emulated by students. the materials used as models in this research are faqrah and writing. various faqrah and a good essay are taken from various sources, both from arab and non-arab writers. second, implementation of the lecture with techniques modeled done by following the steps: (1) apperception, (2) identification prates, (3) preparation of teaching materials, (4) observations, (5) imitation model, (6) examination, (7 ) model of the second and third paragraphs, (8) provision of a model, and (9) closing. in practice, the students more practice to follow the model given, while the faculty review and provide direction for student writing and better fit a given model or approach. third, learning to write (insya) by using the technique of imitating model has improved the students’ ability in writing a faqrah and kitabah hurriyah. this can be seen from the significant difference between the pre-test conducted before the treatment begins with post-test results conducted after the study conducted. fourth, ability to write faqrah (paragraph) and kitabah hurriyah (free text) is the basic ability for someone to be able to write papers, books, reports, and other writings. if a student has to write a paragraph in accordance with the criteria of good educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(1) 2011 105 paragraphs and he/she was able to construct a good essay, then this will contribute to him/her in writing the thesis. because the data in the thesis consist elements of paragraphs and essays. given some of the findings as a result of this study, the researcher proposes some suggestions to the parties as follows: first, to upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung as the funder for this research activity, it is suggested in order to continue to provide support primarily by increasing financial support and supervision of research activities, particularly for novice researchers. second, to the department of arabic language education, faculty of art and language education upi for research activities related to improving students’ ability in writing needs to be done, given the ability to write highly related to their main task is to write thesis. third, to the researchers, particularly researchers in the field of teaching arabic language, for the results of this study continue to be followed. application of the model can be applied to mimic other fields. references abdul ‘alim ibrahim. (1973). fi thuruqit tadris: al-muwajjahul fanny li-mudarrisil lughah al-’arabiyyah. mesir: darul ma’arif. ahmad warson munawwir. (n.y.). kamus arab-indonesia. yogyakarta: pesantren krapyak. ahmady, musa bin muhammad. (1979). mu’jam al-af ’al al-muta’addiyah biharf. beirut: darul ’ilmi lil-malayin. ali, mohammad. (1993). strategi penelitian pendidikan. bandung: angkasa. alkalali, asad. (1982). kamus indonesia-arab. jakarta: penerbit bulan-bintang. arikunto, suharsimi. (1983). prosedur penelitian: suatu pendekatan praktis. yogyakarta: bina aksara. fuchan, a. (2004). pengantar penelitian dalam pendidikan. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar. heller, m. (1991). reading and writing conections: from theory and prastice. new york: logman publishing. ibrahim. (1988). inovasi pendidikan. jakarta: depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan, republik indonesia]. indarpati. (2007). “copy paste and copy the master” in www.penulislepas.com [accessed in bandung, indonesia: 1 july 2011]. kamal, ibrahim. (1987). thuruqul ‘ammah fil-lughahtil ajnabiyyah. jakarta: lpba [lembaga pendidikan bahasa arab]. khully, muhammad ali. (1986). asalibut tadrisil lughah al-’arabiyyah. riyadh: al-mamlakah al’arabiyyah. mckeachie, wilbert. (1986). teaching tips. toronto and washington d.c.: health and company. moleong, alexy j. (1990). metodologi penelitian kualitatif. bandung: rosdakarya. nurbayan, yayan. (2005). “kinayah dalam al-qur’an: kajian stilistika ayat-ayat kinayah dalam al-qur’an”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: school of postgraduate upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia]. yayan nurbayan, using the imitating model techniques 106 rahmawati. (2007). “model imitasi dalam pelajaran menulis” in daily newspaper of pikiran rakyat. bandung: 6 march. richard, jack c. & theodore s. rodgers. (1986). approaches and methods in language teaching. melbourne: cambridge university press. sari, m. (2007). ”metode the copy master dalam pembelajaran bahasa indonesia” in tazidailma. blogspot.com/metode-copy-master-dalam-pembelajaran.html [accessed in bandung, indonesia: 1 july 2011]. sudjana, nana & r. ibrahim. (2006). penelitian dan penilaian pendidikan. bandung: sinar baru. upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia]. (2006). kurikulum universitas pendidikan indonesia tahun 2006. bandung: upi press. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 161© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com amogne asfaw eshetu does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? comparative study of private and government schools in dessie administrative town, north central ethiopia abstract: academic achievement is a cumulative outcome of different factors. school type has a paramount effect on students’ performance in regional examination. this study was conducted to critically examine the effect of school type on students result in regional examination. an ex-post facto research design was employed to look into the impacts of school type on academic achievement in regional examination. data analyses were undertaken using chi-square test, t-test, and anova (analysis of variance). independent sample t-test was used to test mean differences between private and government schools. anova test was used to analyze mean differences based on level of satisfaction in school services. chi-square test was used to see associations between school types with facilities and activities. key informant interview and observation were also undertaken to substantiate the quantitative results. the t-test results revealed that private schools have scored statistically better than government ones. students from private schools were highly satisfied with their school services. private schools were found better equipped in library and laboratory facilities than government schools. student centered method of teaching and tutorial classes have been more applied in private schools. parents’ involvement in school related affairs were better in private schools. based on the findings, the recommendations that experience sharing between private and government schools as well as among schools should be organized by dessie town administration educational office. more effort has to been done by concerned bodies so as to narrow the performance gab between private and government schools. in addition, government schools should be equipped with facilities as of the private schools. key words: academic achievement, regional examination, private/government schools, school services, library and laboratory facilities, and method of teaching and tutorial classes. about the author: amogne asfaw eshetu is a lecturer at the department of geography and environmental studies wu (wollo university), dessie, p.o. box 1145, north central ethiopia. for academic interests, the author can be contacted via phone at: +251913423595 or via e-mail at: amuvenu@yahoo.com how to cite this article? eshetu, amogne asfaw. (2015). “does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? comparative study of private and government schools in dessie administrative town, north central ethiopia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.161-170. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/does-school-type-matter-in-academicachievement/ chronicle of the article: accepted (december 5, 2014); revised (january 15, 2015); and published (february 28, 2015). investigating variables contributing effectively for quality of performance of learners (farooq et al., 2011). hosts of inside and outside factors affect students’ academic performance. these include individual and household characteristics, such as age, gender, geographical belongingness, ethnicity, marital status, socio-economic status, parents’ education level, parental profession, language, income, religious affiliations, student ability, motivation, and the quality of school. one major factor, which affects students’ introduction the development of any nation largely relies on the quality of education. it plays a vital role in the development of human capital and is linked with an individual’s well-being and opportunities for better living (memon, joubish & khurram, 2010; farooq et al., 2011; ababa et al., 2012; gouda et al. 2013; and oginni et al., 2013). that means, education is considered as a first step for every human activity. as a result, educators, trainers, and researchers have long been interested in amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? 162 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com academic performances, is school type (getahun, 2002; and farooq et al., 2011). as a result, the effectiveness of government and private schools has been the topic of a large number of studies in the educational sciences, sociology, and economics (dronkers & robert, 2003). the assumption of policymakers, parents, and other interested citizens in most cases is that private schools, on the whole, are better academically than government schools (cep, 2007). but, is this assumption actually supported by empirical evidences? a study by w. getahun (2002), regarding the effects of school environment related factors between high and low achievers schools in addis ababa (in eslce and escece examinations), revealed that most students in high scoring schools were from private, public, and mission junior secondary schools; while for the low achieving schools were from government schools. according to this study, students who had attended their junior secondary schools in private and public schools had scored better results in national examinations than government schools (getahun, 2002). similarly, a study in nigeria by a.e. maliki, a.n. ngban & j.e. ibu (2009), on the performance of junior secondary students in mathematics, showed that students from private schools performed better than those from government schools. studies by h. braun, f. jenkins & w. grigg (2006); j. gouda et al. (2013); and l. day ashley et al. (2014) also found a similar result. j.b. horowitz & l. spector (2005), on their part, obtained no statistical difference in gpa (grade point average) between students who had attended private and government secondary schools. a study by cep (center on education policy) in usa (united states of america), on 2007, revealed that students who had attended any type of private high school ended up no more likely to attend college than their counterparts at government high schools (cep, 2007). on the contrary, a study by j. smith & r. naylor (2005) found out that a male (female) student who formerly attended private school was about 6.5 (5.4) percentage points less likely to obtain a good grade than was an otherwise equivalent student who had attended an government schools. a study by e. yalew, m. dawit & b. alemayehu (2010) in amhara national regional state also revealed that the mean scores of students in regional examination from private schools were higher than their counterpart. these finding were the major impetus to carry out this research and provoked us to question “is there a statistical significant difference in academic performance between private and government schools?”. therefore, this study focused on the impact of school type in academic achievement in regional examination. to that end, the study hypothesized that there is no statistically significant difference in academic achievement between private and government schools. materials and methods description of study area. the study was conducted in south wollo, ethiopia. south wollo administrative zone, one of the twelve administrative zones in amhara national regional state (anrs), is located in the southeastern part of the region between 10010’-11041’n latitudes and 38028’-40005’e longitudes. it is bordered on the south by north shewa zone, and oromia region, on the west by east gojjam zone, on the northwest by south gonder zone, on the north by north wollo zone and on the east by afar region (anrs-bofed, 2009). in 2013 academic year, 247,483 students (118,190 or 47.8% male and 129,293 or 52.2% female) sat for the regional examination at regional level. of these students, 203,237 of them have scored a pass mark (96,319 or 81.5% of male and 106,918 or 82.1% of female). the proportion of females was a bit higher than their male counterparts. similarly, during 2014 academic year, 39,485 (20,849 or 52.8% male and 18,636 or 47.2% female) students took regional examination in south wollo in regular program only. out of these students 30,191 of them (15,501 male and 14,690 female) have scored above the cut point. that means, 74.3% of males and 78.8% of females have scored pass mark. the percentage of females was higher than males (moe, 2013). target population, sampling procedures, educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 163© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and samples. descriptive survey method was employed to explore the impact of school types in academic achievement of grade 8 students at regional examination. target populations for this study were grade 8 students of junior secondary schools from dessie city administration. students from private and government schools (private schools encompass those owned by individual or religious institution, while government schools are those owned by dessie city administration education office) were selected proportionally using semi-stratified sampling method. after having the list of private and government junior secondary schools from dessie city administration educational office, 13 schools (7 from government and 6 from private) out of 29 were selected using simple random lottery method. since private schools are only 8, a purely stratified sampling method was not applied so as to take representative sample size. again from these selected schools, one section from each sampled schools was selected randomly. finally, all students of the selected section have been included in the study. sample size determination has been carried out based on v.r. krejcie & w.d. morgan (1970). when the total population is known, sample size can be obtained using the following formula. ppxnd pnpx n 11 1 22 2 where: n = the required sample size; n = total population size; χ2 = table value of chi-square at df of 1 and 0.05 level of significance (3.84); p = population proportion (assumed to be 0.5); and d = degree of accuaracy (0.05) or 95% accuracy. the total number of grade 8 students of dessie city administration, who have registered to take the regional examination in the regular program during 2014 academic year, was 3,179. based on this, the required sample size for this study would be 400. therefore, the minimum expected sample size for large population, based on this formula is 400. but, since this study takes into consideration of different variables (like school type, shifting system, sex), much more sample size than the minimum number is required for comparison. d.g. israel (2013) stressed that heterogeneous population required larger sample size than the homogeneous one; and j. pallant (2011:4), on this part, underlined that more participants than the required size is needed, because humans are notorious and all questionnaires might not be filled and returned back due to different reasons. as a result, i prefer a sample size of 538 to make the analysis more reliable. data collection: sources, tools, and procedure. the ex-post facto research design was employed in carrying out this study. this involved the use of already existing data. major data sources for this study were students’ academic achievement and data collected from grade 8 students as well as concerned bodies. self-developed structured questionnaire was distributed to the sampled grade 8 students with the help of school principals, home room teachers of each section, and cluster supervisors in order to collect biostatistics of students. about 2014 grade 8 regional examination result (standardized examination result) was obtained from dessie city administration educational office. grade 8 regional examination is considered as exit examination for entrance of secondary level. the questionnaires were collected and kept carefully till the regional examination was announced officially. for correlation purpose, the average school based academic result of students was obtained from final roster after getting permission from school principals. key informant interview with concerned bodies (like school principals and education office officials) using semi-structured questionnaire and direct school observation were also conducted to substantiate the analysis. data analysis and interpretation. after the necessary data were collected, tabulation and analyses were carried out using spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 20. different statistical methods were employed for analysis purpose. cross tabulation, chi-square test, different types of t-tests, and anova (analysis of variance) amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? 164 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com have been applied to examine the effect of school type in academic achievement in grade 8 regional examination. independent sample t-test was used to analyze mean differences based on school type (private/government). the effect size of independent sample t-test results were further calculated using j.w. cohen (1988)’s d. one way anova test was used to analysis mean differences among schools based on level of satisfaction in different services. the effect size of anova result was calculated using the eta squared formula as the proportion of sum of squares between groups with total sums of square (eta squared = sum of squares between groups/total sum of squares). according to j.w. cohen (1988), eta value of 0.01 – 0.06 is considered as small effect, 0.06 – 0.14 as moderate effect, and above 0.14 as large effect. tukey’s post hoc test was also employed to further differentiate the disparities. chi-square test was used to see associations between school type with laboratory facilities, library utilization, application of student centered method of teaching, and frequency of tutorial classes. in order to substantiate the quantitative analysis, qualitative data obtained from key informant interview and observations were used. finally, interpretations of the results and plausible recommendations have been drawn based on the results of the analysis. results and discussion this part of the paper focused on the major findings of the study. specifically, it tried to examine the impact of school type (being a government or private school students) on the performance of students in regional examination. in addition, mean comparisons have been undertaken based on different school related attributes. as depicted in table 1, the result 538 students (295 or 54.9% from government and 243 or 45.1% from private schools) were analyzed in this study. about 48.9% of the participants were male and 51.1% of them were females. about 59% of the students were below the age of 14 years, while 41 of them were above 15 years old. the average age was found to be 14.6 years old. an independent-samples t-test (table 2) comparing the mean scores of government and private school on regional examination found statistically significant different means (t (473.5) = -18, p < 0.001). the mean of government schools was significantly lower (m = 43.77, sd 9.2) than the mean of private schools (m = 59.72, sd = 10.9). the mean difference, according to j.w. cohen’s d value is strong. similarly, statistically significant mean difference was obtained in school based examination result between government and private schools (t (453.9) = -11.7, p < 0.001) with 1.03 value of j.w. cohen’s d. the average score of private schools (m = 70.93, sd = 10.1) was significantly higher than the mean score of government schools (m = 61.62, sd = 7.9). the findings were not consistent with l. cappellari (2004); d. newhouse & k. beegle (2005); and j. smith & r. naylor (2005), which asserted that students from private schools achieved significantly lower test scores than government schools. rather, the results were in line with the findings of d.n. figlio & j.a. stone (1997); w. getahun (2002); and a.e. maliki, a.n. ngban & j.e. ibu (2009), which underlined that private school students scored better than students of government schools. one reason for such variation, according to d.n. figlio & j.a. stone (1997), is that students in private schools are more likely to have college ambitions and come from high socio-economic status families. one way anova (analysis of variance) was computed comparing the mean differences in regional mean score among schools (table 3). a significant mean difference was found among schools (f (12, 525) = 93.07, p < 0.001, eta2 = 0.68). tukey’s hsd was used to determine the nature of the mean differences among schools and the details are presented in table 4. the mean score of alfa (m = 70.98) was significantly higher than all other schools except wisdom. on the contrary, the mean score of tunjitamba (m = 33.38) was significantly lower than all other schools. subject wise mean comparison, based on regional score, was also done. as indicated in table 5, alfa junior secondary school has scored the highest point educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 165© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 1: sampled schools and students (number, sex, and age) participants based on school sex school name (g)* no % school name (p) no % sex no % etege menen 50 9.3 alif 30 5.6 male 263 48.9 dawudo 30 5.6 merkezl-biruhan 43 8.0 female 275 51.1 robit 40 7.4 tesfa-dirjit (hope) 48 8.9 total 538 100 nigus-michael 45 8.4 catholic 50 9.3 age (mean age 14.6) bilen 37 6.9 wisdom 29 5.4 category no % tunjit-amba 45 8.4 alfa 43 8.0 12-14 318 59 gerado 48 8.9 sub-total 243 45.1 >15 220 41 sub total 295 54.9 grand total 538 100 total 538 100 * “g” stands to government schools, while “p” represents private schools. table 2: independent samples t-test value (the impact of school type on regional and school average) category school type n m sd md df t p cohen’s d1 regional average gov’t 295 43.77 9.2 -15.94 473.5* -18.0* 0.00 1.59private 243 59.72 10.9 total 538 50.97 12.79 school level average gov’t 295 61.62 7.9 -9.31 453.9* -11.7* 0.00 1.03private 243 70.93 10.1 total 538 65.83 10.09 *the t and df values were adjusted because variances were not equal. table 3: anova test (regional average mean difference among schools) ss df ms f p eta2 between groups 59757.687 12 4979.807 93.07 .000 0.68 within groups 28090.895 525 53.506 total 87848.582 537 table 4: mean differences (anova-tukey’s hsd) on average regional examination among schools no school mean 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 alfa (p) 70.98 4.5 8.5 13.6 16.2 17.3 20.1 22.4 24.5 28.9 29.7 30.2 37.6 2 wisdom (p) 66.52 -4.5 4.0 9.2 11.8 12.9 17.6 17.9 20.1 24.5 25.3 25.8 33.1 3 merkezl (p) 62.49 -8.5 -4.0 5.1 7.7 8.8 13.6 13.9 16.0 20.4 21.2 21.8 29.1 4 catholic (p) 57.34 -13.6 -9.2 -5.1 2.6 3.7 8.4 8.7 10.9 15.3 16.1 16.6 24.0 5 alif (p) 54.77 -16.2 -11.8 -7.7 -2.6 1.1 5.8 6.2 8.3 12.7 13.5 14.0 21.4 6 e/menen (g) 53.64 -17.3 -12.9 -8.8 -3.7 -1.1 4.7 5.0 7.2 11.6 12.4 12.9 20.3 7 robit (g) 48.93 -22.1 -17.6 -13.6 -8.4 -5.8 -4.7 0.3 2.5 6.9 7.7 8.2 15.5 8 t/dirjit (p) 48.60 -22.4 -17.9 -13.9 -8.7 -6.2 -5.0 -0.3 2.1 6.6 7.4 7.9 15.2 9 dawudo (g) 46.47 -24.5 -20.1 -16.0 -10.9 -8.3 -7.2 -2.5 -2.1 4.4 5.2 5.7 13.1 10 gerado (g) 42.04 -28.9 -24.5 -20.4 -15.3 -12.7 -11.6 -6.9 -6.6 -4.4 0.8 1.3 8.7 11 bilen (g) 41.24 -29.7 -25.3 -21.2 -16.1 -13.5 -12.4 -7.7 -7.4 -5.2 -0.8 0.5 7.9 12 n/michael (g) 40.73 -30.2 -25.8 -21.8 -16.6 -14.0 -12.9 -8.2 -7.9 -5.7 -1.3 -0.5 7.4 13 t/amba (g) 33.38 -37.6 -33.1 -29.1 -24.0 -21.4 -20.3 -15.5 -15.2 -13.1 -8.7 -7.8 -7.4 *the bolded mean differences are significant at the 0.001 level of alpha; and p = private, and g = government. amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? 166 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 5: regional mean result (based on school and subject) school name amharic english maths physics biology chemistry science civics average etege menen 38.62 25.46 17.70 17.30 30.30 27.54 32.54 46.32 53.64 dawudo 32.07 22.97 13.50 12.23 25.10 23.97 28.73 45.10 46.47 robit 32.38 22.90 15.48 13.05 26.93 26.18 31.18 47.10 48.93 nigus-michael 29.18 18.76 11.93 11.98 22.22 19.42 23.24 42.40 40.73 bilen 27.19 17.05 11.24 12.32 23.38 21.59 27.19 41.68 41.24 tunjit-amba 22.78 15.11 9.67 9.93 17.38 16.07 19.42 36.24 33.38 gerado 26.56 18.90 12.29 11.33 23.85 21.56 25.98 43.83 42.04 alif 35.40 26.77 20.63 19.80 29.33 25.43 33.17 50.50 54.77 merkezl-biruhan 40.86 31.23 24.70 21.44 35.81 35.58 36.30 48.77 62.49 tesfa-dirjit 34.85 22.31 17.21 11.42 26.77 24.56 30.69 46.25 48.60 catholic 39.70 30.52 17.38 16.60 32.44 32.72 34.72 48.26 57.34 wisdom 44.03 40.10 21.66 18.72 38.07 37.69 39.48 51.28 66.52 alfa 43.37 43.12 26.60 20.60 45.07 42.53 38.86 52.28 70.98 total 34.25 25.46 16.79 14.99 28.82 27.14 30.65 45.94 50.97 table 6: chi-square test (level of satisfaction in school services based on school type) level of satisfaction school type total χ2 df p cramer’s v 2 p gov’t private not satisfied 25 12 37 20.61 2 0.000 0.196 0.000 somewhat satisfied 177 108 285 highly satisfied 93 123 216 table 7: mean differences (anova) analysis based on level of satisfaction in school services category level of satisfaction mean n sd anova table regional examination mean result not satisfied 48.89 37 14.81 ss df f p somewhat satisfied 50.16 285 13.05 between groups 786.68 2 2.42 .09highly satisfied 52.40 216 11.97 within groups 87061.90 535 total 50.97 538 12.79 total 87848.58 537 table 8a: chi-square test (laboratory facility based on school type) utilization of laboratory services school type total χ2 df p cramer’s v p gov’t private not at all 77 10 87 51.58 2 0.000 0.31 0.000 some times 156 146 302 frequently 62 87 149 in six subjects, wisdom and merkezl-biruhan in one subject each (both are private schools); while the lowest point in all subjects was scored by tunjit-amba (government) school. in general, private schools have scored better than government schools. to investigate whether school type has effect on the level of satisfaction of students in school service or not, a chi-square statistics was employed. table 6 shows the pearson chi-square result and the result indicates that students from private schools were more likely educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 167© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com highly satisfied than expected in their school services than students of government schools. the result was statistically significant (χ2 = 20.61, df = 2, n = 538, p < .001). on the other hand, even though the mean result for highly satisfied students is higher than the other two groups in the level of satisfaction of their school services (as shown in table 7), no statistically significant mean difference was obtained in regional examination result (f (2,535) = 2.42, p = > 0.05). as depicted in table 8a, a chi-square test was used to examine the association between availability of laboratory facilities based on school types. a statistically significant result was found and there is a very strong evidence which supports that private schools are better in laboratory facilities than government ones (χ2 = 51.58, df = 2, n = 538, p < .001). this might be one reason why private schools have scored better in regional examination than government schools. a study by w. getahun (2002) in addis ababa revealed that the laboratories and pedagogical centers of the low scorer schools have been found to be non-functional and, hence, are not used by teachers and students for the teaching learning process. as shown in table 8b, differences in laboratory facilities have impact on students’ academic performance. students, who have used laboratory facilities frequently, have scored statistically higher result. the anova result (f (2,535) = 18.85, p = < 0.05) was statistically significant. a study in india by j. gouda et al. (2013) indicated that better physical facilities in private schools have caused a difference in academic performance. chi-square statistics was used to check whether the frequency of library utilization by students differs based on school type or not (table 9a). a statistically significant result was found (χ2 = 18.12, df = 2, n = 538, p < .001) and students of private schools used library services more likely than expected as compared table 8b: mean difference (anova) on regional average based on laboratory facility no regional average tukey hsd anova result frequency m n sd 1 2 3 ss df ms f p 1 not at all 43.69 87 11.85 -9.24* -7.57* between groups 5784.11 2 2892.06 18.85 .00 2 some times 52.93 302 12.97 9.24* 1.68 within groups 82064.47 535 153.39 3 frequently 51.26 149 11.44 7.57* -1.68 total 87848.58 537 total 50.97 538 12.79 table 9a: chi-square test (library utilization based on school type) frequency of library utilization school type total χ2 df p cramer’s v p gov’t private not at all 66 22 88 18.12 2 0.000 0.184 0.000 some times 209 196 405 frequently 20 25 45 table 9b: mean difference (anova) on regional average based on frequency of library utilization no regional average tukey hsd anova result frequency m n sd 1 2 3 ss df ms f p 1 not at all 44.33 88 14.29 -7.73* -9.85* between groups 4823.983 2 2411.99 15.54 .000 2 some times 52.06 405 11.92 7.73* -2.12 within groups 83024.599 535 155.19 3 frequently 54.18 45 13.35 9.84* 2.12 total 87848.582 537 total 50.97 538 12.79 amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? 168 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com with government ones. anova (analysis of variance) result as shown in table 9b, (f (2,535) = 15.54, p = < 0.05) was found statistically significant and the mean result of students using library frequently (m = 54.18, sd = 13.35) and some times (m = 52.06, sd = 11.92) were significantly higher than those who have not used library at all (m = 44.33 , sd = 14.29). this implied that one reason for difference in academic achievement between private and government schools is a difference in library and laboratory facilities. as shown in table 10a and 11a, chisquare test was applied to investigate whether school type have association with extent of application of student centered method of teaching and frequency of tutorial classes given. a statistically, significant result was found in both cases (χ2 = 37.01, df = 2, n = 538, p < .001) for application of student centered approach; and (χ2 = 68.22, df = 2, n = 538, p < .001) for tutorial classes. student centered method of teaching and tutorial classes were more likely applied in private schools than expected as compared with government schools. such variation in application of student centered method of teaching and tutorial classes between private and government schools (see table 10b and 11b) have caused a difference in academic achievement. one way anova (analysis of variance) result has found a statistically significant mean differences both in frequency of application of table 10a: chi-square test (application of student centred approach based on school type) extent of application of student centered approach school type total χ2 df p cramer’s v p gov’t private not at all 22 2 24 37.01 2 0.000 0.26 0.000 some times 181 109 290 frequently 92 132 224 table 10b: mean difference (anova) on application of student centred approach no regional average tukey hsd anova result frequency m n sd 1 2 3 ss df ms f p 1 not at all 39.83 24 9.85 -9.54* -14.4* between groups 6097.289 2 3048.64 19.95 .000 2 some times 49.38 290 12.82 9.54* -4.86* within groups 81751.293 535 152.81 3 frequently 54.23 224 11.98 14.4* 4.86* total 87848.582 537 total 50.97 538 12.79 table 11a: chi-square test (frequency of tutorial classes given based on school type) frequency of tutorial classes school type total χ2 df p cramer’s v p gov’t private not at all 24 13 37 68.22 2 0.000 0.36 0.000 some times 138 37 175 frequently 133 193 326 table 11b: mean difference (anova) based on frequency of tutorial classes given no regional average tukey hsd anova result frequency m n sd 1 2 3 ss df ms f p 1 not at all 47.97 37 13.74 2.32 -6.2* between groups 8618.15 2 4309.08 29.10 .000 2 some times 45.65 175 11.88 -2.32 -8.52* within groups 79230.43 535 148.09 3 frequently 54.17 326 12.14 6.2* 8.52* total 87848.58 537 total 50.97 538 12.79 educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 169© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com student centered method (f (2,535) = 19.95, p = < 0.05) and tutorial classes (f (2,535) = 29.1, p = < 0.05). student learning through students centered method of approach frequently have scored statistically higher than other groups. similarly, frequency of tutorial classes has influenced students’ academic performance. a study by w. getahun (2002), the impact of school related factors on academic performance of students in addis ababa, pointed out that teachers provide class works, home works, and other class activities in high achieving school as compared with the low scoring school teachers do. at the same time, high scorer school teachers give feed back to students’ class works more than the low scorer teachers. furthermore, teachers of the high scorer schools motivate and praise their students more than the low scorer school teachers. low scorer schools used teacher centered method of teaching. for these reasons, significant differences in academic performance were observed. according to a.m. oginni et al. (2013), school location, school type, laboratory adequacy, and frequency of practical classes have significant effects on the academic achievement of students in chemistry especially at secondary school level. about 36.6% of the total variance in student achievement in chemistry was due to the four school related factors. conclusion 1 academic achievement is a cumulative outcome of different factors. school type has a paramount effect on students’ performance in regional examination. this study was conducted to critically examine the effect of school type on students result in regional examination. private schools have scored better in regional examination than government schools and the difference was statistically significant. students from private schools were highly satisfied with their school 1acknowledgement: i am grateful to a number of individuals. special thanks are owned to school principals and supervisors who have participated in administrating the structured questionnaire. workers from dessie town administration educational office, mainly ato teshome belayneh, ato mengistu asefa, and w/ro menbere lakew are indebted for their special contribution in providing the necessary data. however, all contents and interpretations related to this article are solely rested to my responsibility academically. services. private schools were found better equipped in library and laboratory facilities than government schools. student centered method of teaching and tutorial classes have been more applied in private schools. parents’ involvement in school related affairs were more common in private schools. the disparity in academic achievement was not only between private and government schools. it was also manifested among government schools. therefore, such disparities in academic achievement among government schools should be assessed so as to narrow the gap. based on the findings, i recommend that experience sharing between private and government schools as well as among schools should be organized by dessie town administration educational office. more effort has to been done by concerned bodies so as to narrow the performance gap between private and government schools. in addition, government schools should be equipped with laboratory and library facilities as of the private schools. more effort in tutorial classes and student centered method of teaching should be practiced by government schools.2 references ababa, s.a. et al. (2012). “socio-economic status of parents and academic performances of students”. unpublished research report. submitted in partial fulfillment of the subject introduction to research and research works. anrs-bofed [amhara national regional state – bureau of finance and economic development]. (2009). development indicators of the amhara national regional state of the year 2008. bahir dar, ethiopia: amhara national regional state – bureau of finance and economic development, 6th edition. beins, bernard c. & maureen a. mccarthy. (2012). research methods and statistics. london: pearson. braun, h., f. jenkins & w. grigg. (2006). comparing private schools and public schools using hierarchical linear modeling. washington, d.c.: u.s. department of education, nces [national center for education statistics], institute of education sciences, u.s. government printing office. cappellari, l. (2004). “high school types, academic performance, and early labour market outcomes” 2statement: herewith i declare that this article is my own original academic work, not product of plagiarism, and not yet also be reviewed and published by other scholarly journals. amogne asfaw eshetu, does school type matter in academic achievement in regional examination? 170 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com in iza discussion paper, no.1048. cep [center on education policy]. (2007). are private high schools better academically than public high schools? washington, d.c.: center on education policy. cohen, j.w. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, 2nd edition. day ashley, l. et al. (2014). “the role and impact of private schools in developing countries: a rigorous review of the evidence”. unpublished final report. usa [united states of america]: education rigorous literature review, department for international development. dronkers, j. & p. robert. (2003). “the effectiveness of public and private schools from a comparative perspective” in eui working paper sps, no.2003/13. farooq, m.s. et al. (2011). “factors affecting students’ quality of academic performance: a case of secondary school level” in journal of quality and technology management, 7(2), pp.1-14. figlio, d.n. & j.a. stone. (1997). “school choice and student performance: are private schools really better?” in institute for research on poverty discussion paper, no.11, pp.41-97. getahun, w. (2002). “school based factors contributing to differences in students’ achievement at high and low passing rate scorers of government secondary schools of addis ababa at national examination”. unpublished m.a. thesis. addis ababa: aau [addis ababa university]. gouda j. et al. (2013). “government versus private primary schools in india: an assessment of physical infrastructure, schooling costs, and performance” in international journal of sociology and social policy, 33(11/12), pp.708-724. doi 10.1108/ ijssp-12-2012-0105. horowitz, j.b. & l. spector. (2005). “is there a difference between private and public education on college performance?” in economics of education review, 24, pp.189-195. israel, d.g. (2013). determining sample size. florida: university of florida, ifas extension. krejcie, v.r. & w.d. morgan. (1970). “determining sample size for research activities” in educational and psychological measurement, 30, pp.607-610. maliki, a.e., a.n. ngban & j.e. ibu. (2009). “analysis of students’ performance in junior secondary school mathematics examination in bayelsa state of nigeria” in stud home comm sci, 3(2), pp.131-134. memon, g.r., f.m. joubish & a.m. khurram. (2010). “impact of parental socio-economic status on students’ educational achievements at secondary schools of district malir, karachi” in middle-east journal of scientific research, 6(6), pp.678-687. moe [ministry of education]. (2013). education statistics annual abstract (2012/2013). addis ababa, ethiopia: education management information system, ministry of education. muijs, d. (2004). doing quantitative research in education with spss. london: sage publications. newhouse, d. & k. beegle. (2005). “the effect of school type on academic achievement: evidence from indonesia” in world bank policy research working paper, no.3604, p.45. oginni, a.m. et al. (2013). “school factors as correlates of students’ achievement in chemistry” in international journal for cross-disciplinary subjects in education, 3(3), special issue, pp.1516-1523. pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. australia: allen and unwin, 4th edition. smith, j. & r. naylor. (2005). “schooling effects on subsequent university performance: evidence for the uk university population” in economics of education review, 24, pp.549-562. yalew, e., m. dawit & b. alemayehu. (2010). investigation of causes of low academic performance of students in grade 8 regional examination in amhara national regional state. bahir dar, ethiopia: amhara national regional state education bureau. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare i volume 9(1) august 2016 print issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [ii] mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school: a case study. [1-12] emy sudarwati & yana shanti manipuspika, cooperative learning strategy for improving students’ critical reading ability: a case study in english study program of brawijaya university. [13-28] jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices: basis for development of advocacy program. [29-40] bilal ahmad bhat, teachers’ perception towards total quality management in secondary schools. [41-48] shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory: a case study in second year chemistry students of bule hora university, ethiopa. [49-58] info-edu-tainment. [59-68] educare journal will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educareii foreword a ssalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. what are the criteria of a scholarly journal is classified as an international journal? according to kemenristekdikti ri (ministry of research, technology, and higher education of the republic of indonesia), it was obvious criteria. one of them is that beside the articles in the journals should be written in the languages of the un (united nations), in english for example, then the writers and editorial experts board of the journal should be scattered and represent from at least four countries or continents in asia, europe, africa, and america/australia. in addition, of course, the journal should also be published on a regular basis – because of that it was precisely that in indonesia, the name of the journal is called as tbi (terbitan berkala ilmiah or scholarly periodicals) – and can be read or accessed by stakeholders through the journals’ dissemination widely throughout the world, especially via its website. managing the scholarly journals is not an easy job. but when it is done and engaged in earnest and serious, then there is nothing difficult in this world. it means that something that is difficult to be easy; and an easy task can be a fun and encouraging. including the efforts to meet the standards and criteria for reputable international journals, if there are efforts earnest and serious, of course, slowly but surely be fruitful as well. what is important here that the efforts should remain there, and the result is usually a fruit or consequence of the efforts. without the effort and hard work, it will not result what was expected. however, if there have been efforts and hard work but could not get the expected results, then there is no other way except to be patient and keep the spirit to strive and work harder in the future. the journey of educare journal – which began publication on 17 august 2009, in the context to celebrate the independence day of indonesia – is describing the efforts earnest and serious, but not get the expected results. since the beginning of issue, the educare journal has been intentional and determined to become an international journal. the editors consistently tried in order the articles published in this journal are written in english, as one of the un languages; the authors sought could come from various countries; and the editorial experts board came also from many countries around the world. the educare journal strives also to be published regularly and periodically; and can be read or accessed by stakeholders around the world through the use of ojs (open journal system) that be managed properly and professionally. however, these efforts seem to have not obtained the expected results. in fact, in 2010, the educare journal had been submitted to get the accreditation from ditjendikti kemendikbud ri (directorate-general of higher education, ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia), but the results are not encouraging, which is not yet accredited until now. what is important and encouraging to me now – as a director of minda masagi press, publishing house owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, which publishes the educare journal – although this journal has not yet been accredited by kemenristekdikti ri as the journal of “national or international” level, but the editors have had the spirit, have effort earnest, and tirelessly to continue for publishing the educare journal, in order to be a journal that can be recognized and needed its existence by the stakeholders, namely teachers, lecturers, and researchers, not only from indonesia but also from the southeast asian countries and around the world. indeed, for us, accreditation is not a goal, but merely a recognition of the institution in indonesia, which has the authority to accredit the scholarly journals. the main purpose of the educare journal publication, among others, is that the results of research and thinking smart and pithy can be published and, finally, can also be read widely by stakeholders around the world. we also realize, as has been recommended by kemenristekdikti ri, that a good journal must necessarily be maintained and published by a professional organization. in the next journal publishing, a professional organization is able to establish a cooperation with heis (higher education institutions), such as the department, faculty, or university. this is done so that the journal publication is not disturbed or interrupted by the change of leadership in the institutions; because it has become commonplace and prevalent in indonesia that changing the leadership, so then changing also the policy. when the leadership of the institution previously had the passion and care with the publication of scholarly journals, the leaders of institutions that succeeded not necessarily have the same passion and concern, which eventually will have implications for the disruption of continuity of scholarly journals. and we, the executives board of aspensi, have experienced things like that. but, for us, available or not available to joint publication with other institutions, the journals that we manage must keep running and can be published properly and regularly. as in the case of educare journal, which since issues of february 2009 to february 2016 have been managed and organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. it is a cooperation in the scholarly journal publishing that is actually quite a long time; and unfortunately if a joining publication was stopped just because, for example, the educare journal not accredited yet by kemenristekdikti ri in one side; or due to a change of dean at the fkip ump in other side. because for us, once again, accreditation is not a goal in publishing the scholarly journal. what is important here that by publishing the scholarly journals, hence, the name of institution which cooperate in managing the scholarly journal will be known and be in good standing academically. academic institution that did not have a scholarly journal, obviously like vegetables without salt, which is bland, less tasty, and less complete. the articles published in the educare journal, issue of august 2016 – that is consisted of five articles – come from the authors of five countries: indonesia, malaysia, philippines, india, and ethiopia. it is very interesting academically, and very important and proud for me in the context of managing the scholarly journals. the authors come from many countries, it shows that the educare journal has had trust from the authors who his/her articles want to be published in our scholarly journals. i think it is not easy to get the trust from the authors; and one of the crusial problems in managing the scholarly journal in indonesia is rarely or lack to get the articles that come from many authors from many countries. the trust is very important as social capital and, because of that, it should be maintainned and preserved – in the context of managing the scholarly journal – by making an article is good and perfect in editing, styling, and formating when it has been published and displayed in an online version. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, west java, indonesia: august 30, 2016. sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press woned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 119© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. since issue of may 2016 to november 2016, the sosiohumanika journal had been organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 120 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal had been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016 to october 2017, the tawarikh journal had been organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 121© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 122 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 123© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to october 2015, the sipatahoenan journal had been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 124 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal was firstly published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016 to date, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (himpunan mahasiswa islam or association of islamic university students), who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/insancita e-mail address: insancita. journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 125© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016 to date, the mimbar pendidikan journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik. jurnal.upi@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 126 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it will be published, a new scholarly journal, honai: international journal for educational, social, political & cultural studies. this journal will firstly be published on may 2, 2018. since issue of may 2018, the honai journal will be organized and managed by the lecturers of stisip (college of social and political sciences) amal ilmiah in wamena, papua; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the honai journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the journal website (under construction) at: www. mindamas-journals.com/index.php/honai e-mails address: honai.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 127© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 128 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10, number 1 (august 2017) and number 2 (february 2018) no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 1 anggun badu kusuma & reni untarti ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error in form of pictures on the geometry of space subject volume 10(2), february 2018, pp.87-94. 2 dian ardiansah upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. teachers’ perceptions on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing volume 10(1), august 2017, pp.33-42. 3 dinn wahyudin & andi suwirta upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. the curriculum implementation for cross-cultural and global citizenship education in indonesia schools volume 10(1), august 2017, pp.11-22. 4 endang komara stkip (college of education and teacher training) pasundan in cimahi, west java, indonesia. curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia volume 10(1), august 2017, pp.23-32. 5 maman abdurahman, rahman & ely sa’diah upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. teaching arabic in the dormitory of ma’had jami’i of state islamic university in bandung: toward a total immersion volume 10(2), february 2018, pp.75-86. 6 nilesh kumar patel & poonam awasthi ignou (indira gandhi national open university), india; and dau (devi ahilya university), indore, india. effect of student evaluation of teacher based feedback on selfdisclosure of secondary school teachers volume 10(2), february 2018, pp.63-74. 7 olusola angelina thomas & maruff akinwale oladejo unilag (university of lagos) in akoka, nigeria. teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict (information communication technology) integration in nigerian teacher education programme volume 10(1), august 2017, pp.1-10. 8 rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, philippines. effecting change on students’ critical thinking in problem solving volume 10(2), february 2018, pp.109-118. 9 roldan s. cardona pnu (philippine normal university) in north luzon, philippines. teachers and students’ knowledge, beliefs, and observations on the implementation of grades 7 and 8 k-12 mathematics program volume 10(1), august 2017, pp.43-52. 10 yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi uns (sebelas maret university), jalan ir. sutami no.36-a kentingan, surakarta 57126, central java, indonesia. character education in the perspective of humanistic theory: a case study in indonesia volume 10(2), february 2018, pp.95-108. educare februari 2015.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 123© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com jauhar helmie verb go (back to, on, and out) in english for tefl in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer: the syntactic and semantic analysis abstract: languages use visual symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken languages, but they still require syntactic rules that govern the production of meaning from sequences of words. while, a phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence. sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal verb. phrasal verbs are particularly frequent in the english language. a phrasal verb often has a different meaning of the original verb. the purpose of study is to find and to analyze the data about the verb “go” with the particles (back to, on, and out) which are available in the novel based on semantic and syntactic analysis. the data are taken from the “new moon” novel by stephenie meyer. in semantics analysis, the data of verb a “go” is analyzed both as singular verb and phrasal verb. in syntactic analysis, the data is analyzed and determined its function in phrase, clause, or sentence. when it is as phrasal verb and joins many particles, it will create new meaning and different meaning depends on the particles which are joined. when it is as phrasal verb, it has particular meaning, and it cannot be separated or omitted one another, since it will have different meaning if it is separated or omitted. the phrasal verb a “go” with its certain particle may have a different meaning; it depends on the context of the data; and after analyzing all data, the writer can conclude that the phrasal verb, when it is joined with its particles, it can be separable or non-separable. key words: verbs, phrasal verbs, “new moon” novel, prepositions, particles, semantics, syntax, particles, and new meaning and different meaning. about the author: jauhar helmie, m.hum. is a lecturer at the department of english education fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java, indonesia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via e-mail at: jauhar_3rd@yahoo.co.id how to cite this article? helmie, jauhar. (2015). “verb go (back to, on, and out) in english for tefl in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer: the syntactic and semantic analysis” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(2) february, pp.123-134. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educareijes.com/verb-go-back-to-on-and-out-in-english/ chronicle of the article: accepted (november 21, 2014); revised (december 29, 2014); and published (february 28, 2015). by many elements in language. one of those elements is grammar. it is a set of rules that take an important item (biber, leech & conrad, 2002:2). language is not merely sets of symbols. essentially, language is a part of culture that gives a huge contribution to the human relationship. because of language’s proficiency to encode an extensive range of meanings, and represent almost all ideas including thoughts, it is the ultimate cultural artifact (cf murphy, 1985; thomson & martinet, 1986; and biber, leech & conrad, 2003). the assertion that language is the ultimate cultural artifact is backed by countless functions that language serves. as a result, there is “linguistics”, which studies language such as j.c. richards, j. platt & h. weber, that linguistics is the introduction languages use visual symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken languages, but they still require syntactic rules that govern the production of meaning from sequences of words. languages evolve and diversify over time, and the history of their evolution can be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had for the later stages to have occurred. a group of languages, that descend from a common ancestor, is known as a language family. d. biber, g. leech & s. conrad said that every time, we use language (in case to communicate), we are faced with a large array of choices: not only choices of what to say, but of how to say it. “how to say” is influenced jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 124 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com study of language as system of human communication (richards, platt & weber, 1985). in common, language can be analyzed from its smallest unit like word in particular. in this case, the writer is curious to analyze the verb go as word with its syntactic category, namely as phrasal verb; therefore, this essay is an analysis of verbal go (back to, on, and out) in english in the novel of new moon by stephenie meyer (2006). in phrasal verbs, they are commonly used with less literal meanings. for example, the meaning of find out does not include the “place” meaning of out. phrasal verbal could have difficult meaning, because the meaning of the compound is often different from the meaning of the individual parts. j. allsop stated that: phrasal verb sometimes has idiomatic meaning. that is why sometimes it is difficult for us to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb. in order to avoid misunderstand in speaking or writing something, it is very important to understand phrasal verbs. besides, people cannot speak or understand english well without knowing phrasal verbs. the increase of using phrasal verbs will obviously enrich the vocabularies of the learner (allsop, 1983:210). moreover, we sometimes find that a phrasal verb has more than one meaning in any context. for examples: (1) “we’re going out for dinner tonight”; and (2) “i have to go back home and get my lunch”. in the first sentence, “going out” means leave home to go on a social event. and in the second sentence, “go back” means return to a place. we can find that one phrasal verb may have more than one meaning in different context. studying the meaning of verb go and analyzing verbal go that has more than one meaning are an interesting case for the writer to analyze verbal go. literatures review on the syntax. according to c. quirk, a. menezes & c. cherry, syntax is the rules of grammar that are used for ordering and connecting words to form phrases and sentences (quirk, menezes & cherry, 2005). while, h.c. house & s.e. harman stated that syntax means sentence structure; the orderly arrangement, relation agreement, or parts of the sentence in accordance with usage, or custom and it has to do with the used of words, phrases, and clauses in a given sentence (house & harman, 1950:15-16). lastly, v. fromkin et al. said that syntax is the part of the grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures (fromkin et al., 2003:118). depend on the definition of syntax above, the writer can be conclude that syntax is the branch of linguistics which studies the formation of sentence. in other words, syntax is a science that studies sentence structure. on the phrase and noun phrase. according to binsar sihombing & barbara s. burton, a phrase is two or more words in sequence intended to have meaning, less completely predicated than a sentence, because it has no subject and verb, such as behind the city hall (sihombing & burton, 2007:59). betty schrampfer azar noted also that a phrase is a group of related words (azar, 1989:346). it does not contain a subject and a verb. example: “the house at the end of the street”. noun phrase (np) with a noun as head (e.g. the black cat, a cat on the mat). according to sylvia chalker, noun phrase is a word or words functioning in a sentence like a noun. it usually consists of a noun (or verbal noun), alone or expanded. the noun is said to be “head” of the phrase (chalker, 1984:46). betty schrampfer azar noted also that a noun clause is a dependent clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence (azar, 1989:346). it must be connected to an independent clause (main clause). according to binsar sihombing & barbara s. burton, noun clause is also a group of words which contains a subject and a verb (sihombing & burton, 2007:9). while agus hudari stated that noun clauses are clauses that function as subject, object, or complement in the main clauses (hudari, 1982:26). the noun phrase is a group of words that ends with a noun. it can contain determiners (the, a, this, etc), adjectives, adverbs, and nouns (pyle & munoz, 1991:44). for example: the house, an apple, and two shoes. it shows a count noun that can be counted. in addition, a noneducare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 125© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com count noun cannot be counted, and the writer can show the examples: much time, some milk. the noun phrase has four major components, occurring in a fixed order: (1) the determinative, the constituent which determiners the reference of the noun phrase in its linguistic or situational context; (2) premodification, which comprises all the modifying or describing constituent before the head, other than determiner; (3) the head, around which other the constituents cluster; and (4) post-modification, those, which comprise all the modifying constituents, placed after the head. on the verb phrase and adverbial phrase. verb phrase (vp) with a verb as head (e.g. eat cheese, jump up and down). sylvia chalker noted that verb phrase in the sense in which it is used means a verb group only (chalker, 1984:23). verb phrase is a syntactic structure composed of the predicative elements of a sentence and functions in providing information about the subject of the sentence. in another words, we can say that verb phrase is a phrase headed by a verb. for examples of verb phrase: (1) “my sister likes playing doll”; and (2) “john is looking for his friend’s address”. the verb phrase has two functional parts: (1) the auxiliary, a grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood or the use of the sentence hallmark, tense or kinds of tenses, modality or the use of a modal auxiliary and a base verb, and voice or active and passive; and (2) the main verb, a lexical morpheme is carrying lexical information and usually, an inflection. furthermore, the verb phrase is one of the major constituents of sentence. it generally makes prediction about the noun phrase so that it is known as a predicate. adverbial phrase (ap) is a phrase with an adverb as head. in formal definition, adverbial phrase is a syntactic structure which has syntactic properties derived from its head. according to the writer, adverbial phrase is used when the adverb as its head and the function as an adverb. example: “unfortunately for her, the bread is hot”. all kinds of adverb phrases can be made with preposition, here are some examples in table 1. on the clause, independent clause, and dependent clause. based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al., a clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb, and forms a sentence or part of sentence (hornby et al., 2000:228). in betty schrampfer azar’s opinion, a clause is a structure that has a subject and verb (azar, 1989:309). according to binsar sihombing & barbara s. burton, a clause is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate. a clause forms part of a compound or complex sentence (sihombing & burton, 2007:59). clauses are often contrasted with phrases. traditionally, a clause was said to have both a finite verb and its subject, whereas a phrase either contained a finite verb but not its subject (in which case it is a verb phrase) or did not contain a finite verb. hence, in the sentence “i didn’t know that the dog ran through the yard”; “that the dog ran through the yard” is a clause, as is the sentence as a whole, while “the yard”, “through the yard”, “ran through the yard”, and “the dog” are all phrases. however, modern linguists do not draw the same distinction, as they accept the idea of a non-finite clause, a clause that is organized around a non-finite verb. due to the definitions above, the writer concludes that clause is a combination of words which has a subject and verb. independent clause is a clause that can stand alone. independent clause is a full predication that may stand alone as a sentence (e.g. the boy laughed). an independent clause table 1: adverbial phrases type of adverbial adverbial phrase example manner with a hammer the carpenter hit the nail with a hammer. place next door the woman who lives next door is a widow. time before the holidays we must finish our project before the holidays. frequency every day my brother buys coffee every day. purpose for his benyamin gave the flowers for his girlfriend. jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 126 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com (or main clause, matrix clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a grammatically viable simple sentence. independent clauses express a complete though and contain a subject and a predicate. multiple independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or a comma plus a coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). for example: a. i love cats. (sentence) b. english is an international language. (simple sentence) c. i am a bus driver, and my wife is a lawyer. (compound sentence made up of two independent clauses: i am a bus driver and my wife is a lawyer) d. i want to be an astronaut, but i need to receive my astronaut badge. (compound sentence made up of two independent clauses: i want to be an astronaut and i need to receive my astronaut badge) e. go to the store, and get me a carton of milk! (compound sentence. though a subject is not visible, in english the subject of an imperative is considered to be the pronoun “you”) dependent clause is a clause that cannot stand alone. dependent clause has a special an introductory word that makes the predication “depend” on an independent clause (e.g. i enjoy my job, although i work long hours). under this classification scheme, there are three main types of dependent clauses: noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverb clauses; so called for their syntactic and semantic resemblance to noun phrasal verb or preposition, examples: 1. what you say is not as important as how you say it. 2. i imagine that they’re having a good time. 3. i keep thinking about what happened yesterday. note that the word that is optional in the second sentence, highlighting a complication in the entire dependent or independent contrast: “they’re having a good time” is a complete sentence, and therefore an independent clause, but in “i imagine that they’re having a good time”, (it acts as a dependent clause). as the example above, the writer can conclude that the independent clause and dependent clause seems the same, however if the writer analyze deeper, they are extremely different. see the table 2. words and phrases are constituents of the clause. the clause can be grouped into four categories of functional constituents: first, subject. subject of the sentence is a word or group of words detonating that of which something is said. the subject may be a noun or any word or a group of words substituting for a noun. the subject is a central constituent in the clause. it governs many of the grammatical choices to be made within the clause. it is generally a noun phrase or clause. moreover, the writer has the opinion about the subject, subject is someone or something that performs the action and is usually placed in front of sentence. it is noun or pronoun. second, verb. the verb is a word that denotes an action or state of being. it consists of a main verb with or without auxiliaries. it usually comes after the subject and at the beginning of the clause. third, object. the object usually has the form of a noun phrase or clause. the direct object is identifiable by its formal and functional properties. it usually comes after the subject and verb. the indirect object is identifiable by all the criteria of the direct object with a few unique characteristics of its own, in form and position. it is restricted to the relative clause form. it can occur only between the verb and the direct object. fourth, complement. randal l. whitman in his book, english and english linguistics (1975), adopted an idea form walsh in 1939, defining that a verb which requires a substantive (that is, a noun) or an adjective to complete its meaning is sometimes called to complete, and the substantive or adjective added is called a complement (whitman, 1975:90). table 2: independent/dependent clause independent clause dependent clause a. a complete thought. b. contains a subject and predicate (object). c. it is a complete sentence. a. not a complete thought. b. contains a subject and not predicate (object). c. it is not a complete sentence. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 127© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com on the sentences. as with all language expression, sentences contain both semantic and logical elements (words, parts of speech), and also include action symbols that indicate sentence starts, stops, pauses, etc. in addition, sentences also contain properties distinct to natural language, such as characteristic intonation and timing patterns. sentences are generally characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb, e.g. “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. a simple complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. the subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrase) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted. the predicate is a finite verb phrase: a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials. many people might give a various definition of sentence. some of them might definite it by its meaning and others by its function. but, basically, the definition of sentence is a group of words contains a subject and a verb that begins with capital letter and end with punctuation. this definition of sentence, which is given by paul roberts, is “a group of words expressing a complete thought” or “a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period” (roberts, 1964:1). here, paul roberts defined sentence by its meaning. he explained sentence as a complete thought (roberts, 1964). sentence, by dictionary definition, is a set of words expressing a statement, a question or an order, usually containing a subject and a verb. h.c. house & s.e. harman stated that sentence is a group of related word containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete and independent thought (house & harman, 1950). according to binsar sihombing & barbara s. burton, a sentence is a grammatical unit comprising a group of words that separates from other grammatical construction and usually consists of at least one subject with its predicate and contains a finite verb or verb phrase (sihombing & burton, 2007:59). due to the definitions above, the writer concludes that sentence is a string of word put together by grammatically rules of a language which consists of one subject and verb and considers as a complete thought. one traditional scheme for classifying english sentences is by the number and types of finite clauses: a simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clause (e.g. i eat rice). a compound sentence consists of multiple independent clauses with no dependent clauses. these clauses are joined together using conjunctions, punctuation, or both (e.g. i study english and my sister studies indonesian). a complex sentence consists of one or more independent clauses with at least one dependent clause (e.g. i want to be an astronaut, but i need to receive my astronaut badge). a complexcompound sentence or compound-complex sentence consists of multiple independent clauses, at least one of which has at least one dependent clause. below are the explanations about the classification of sentence by its function: first, declarative sentence. declarative sentence is a sentence that makes a statement. declarative usually follow the word order s-v (subject-verb). this type of sentence ends with a period or full stop (.) in writing and a drop pitch in speech. for examples: (1) i like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.; and (2) you can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room. second, interrogative sentence. interrogative sentence is a sentence that asks a question or asks for information. this sentence is indicated by a question mark (?). interrogative usually follow the word v-s (verb-subject). for examples: (1) where do you want to go today?; and (2) are my kids cute or do they make people uncomfortable? third, imperative sentence. imperative sentence is a sentence that demands an action. this sentence is indicated by a period, like declarative sentence. the subject is implied. for examples: (1) all hope abandon, ye who enter here!; and (2) think small. fourth, exclamatory sentence. exclamatory sentence is a sentence that makes an exclamation or expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, delight, fear, relief, hate, etc. this sentence is indicated by an exclamation mark. for examples: (1) give that old dark night of the soul a hug! howl the eternal yes!; and (2) boy, do i hate being right all the time! jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 128 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the classification of sentence by its form is based on the number of subject and predicate of the number of clause within a sentence. below are the explanations: verb phrase: “in linguistics, a verb phrase is a syntactic structure composed of the predicative elements of a sentence and its function is to provide information about the subject of the sentence”. in the generative grammar framework, the verb phrase is a phrase headed by a verb. a verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often, however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verbs, plus optional specifiers, complements, and adjuncts. for examples: a. yankee batters hit the ball to win their first world series since 2000. b. mary saw the man through the window. c. john gave mary a book. example (a) contains the verb phrase hit the ball to win their first world series since 2000. example (b) contains the main verb see, the noun phrase (np) complement the man, and the prepositional phrase (pp) adjunct through the window. additionally, example (c) contains the main verb gave, and two noun phrases mary and a book, both selected by the verb in this case. verb phrases are sometimes defined more narrowly in scope to allow for only those sentence elements that are strictly considered verbal elements to form verb phrases. according to such a definition, verb phrases consist only of main verbs, auxiliary verbs, and other infinitive or participle constructions. for example, in the following sentences only the bolded words would be considered to form the verb phrase for each sentence: a. john gave mary a book. b. they were being eaten alive. c. she kept screaming like a maniac. d. thou shalt not kill. this more narrow definition is often applied in functionalist frameworks and traditional european reference grammars. it is incompatible with the generative theory of the verb phrase, since the bolded strings are not constituents under standard analyses. on the preposition. a preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. the relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner, and amount feeder. in addition, sylvia chalker said that prepositions are a minor word class. they serve to connect major words (usually nouns) to other parts of the sentence. some prepositions also belong to other classes (e.g. adverbs, conjunction even adjectives). but, preposition are closed classes in the sense that we do not invent new single-word prepositions (chalker, 1984:214). another definition about preposition said by marcela frank (1972) that the preposition is classified as a part of speech in traditional grammar. however, preposition as well as conjunction differ from other parts of speech in that (1) each is composed of a small class of words that have no formal characteristic endings; and (2) each signals syntactic structures that function as one of the other part of speech (frank, 1972:163). prepositions have been called the biggest little words in english. they are usually quite short and significant looking, but they have very important functions (wishon & burks, 1980:288). on the semantics. according to webster’s new twentieth century dictionary by noah webster, semantics is the branch of linguistics concerned with the nature, the structure, and the development and changes of the meaning of speech forms, or with contextual meaning (webster, 1979:1219). george yule said that semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistics forms and entities in the world; that is, how words literally connect to things (yule, 1998:4). w. o’grady, m. dobrovolsky & f. katamba (1997:268) were expressing that semantics is the study of meaning in human language (o’grady, dobrovolsky & katamba, 1997). the word semantics originated from greek word, sema (noun) means sign; and semaino (verb) means giving sign, here refers to linguistic sign. depend on the definition of semantics above, the writer can be conclude that semantics is a branch of linguistics which studies the meaning in human language. on the grammatical and lexical meanings. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 129© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com grammatical meaning is a meaning, which is formed by the words structure in phrases, clauses, or sentences. moreover, it is defined as a certain meaning in syntax whose formation involves the grammatical process, such as affixation. for example, un-grateful, morpheme “un” means “not”, ungrateful means not grateful. examples: i have eaten fried chicken. lexical meaning is defined as an objective meaning, which is connected with another word, context, and phrase. furthermore, lexical meaning shows the relationships among words, the word meaning, and the world reality. lexical meaning is divided into two groups: (1) denotative meaning, a real meaning which is equal to the lexical meaning. for example: “the tree that in front of my house is so high”; and (2) connotative meaning, a word meaning in clauses and phrases or figure of speech meaning. for example: “he is a man from high society”. in the two sentences above have different meaning in using the word (high), in sentence 1, a word high shows as denotative meaning, that a real meaning which is equal to the lexical meaning. and the sentence 2 that shows connotative meaning, a word high may mean “the social rank or social wealth”. research method according to the characteristics of qualitative research by r.c. bogdan & s.k. biklen, it is said that a researcher of qualitative research is the key instrument. it means that the researcher plays an important role in deciding data, both to include and to exclude. as outlined in the conceptual framework, researchers use descriptive analysis. data is purposefully collected to classify, to compare, and to analyze to get deep understanding of the topic about (bogdan & biklen, 2003). there are four steps of data collecting, which are conducted during this research. first, the writer collects sentences which contain phrases as subject and as object. the second step, the writer italizes the data and gives information where those data are taken from. the third step, the writer classifies data based on certain characteristics and features as they were needed. finally, the writer compares and analyzes data morphologically. the study technique of data collecting is the writer searches and marks analyzed words which consist noun phrases as subject and object, and try to explain based on the title that is syntactic and semantic study. on the source and technique of collecting data. to complete this research, the writer seeks data from novel of new moon, which are related to the research material. in analyzing data, it needs identifying, classifying, interpreting data, and finding conclusion (wray, trott & bloomer, 1998:7-13). for this reason, researcher will take several steps: (1) identification, the first step is identifying the source; (2) classification, the second step is classifying the collected data; (3) interpreting, this third step is finding the word-formation of new words in english and the meaning change as the impact of new formation; (4) describing, the fourth step is describing the ways of forming of new words and the meaning change; and (5) conclusion, this last step is finding conclusion to answer the research question demands. on the weight and relevance. this research deals with linguistics. it has several benefits for the language study and people who are interested in studying english. in this thesis, we can find the definition of syntax, translation, and semantics. we also find the categories of meaning, such as grammatical, ideomatical, conceptual meaning, contextual meaning, and referencial meaning. theoretically, the result of this research will enrich the english language study; and practically, it will be very valuable to those who have interest in learning english in specific way to get more comprehension in english sentences and clauses, especially in recognizing the verb a go in english. so, those are main source data. collecting will be reached by reading the sources comprehensively. the researcher will find out the formation of new words. findings and discussions firstly, analysis of verb a go back to. corpus 1, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 130 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com “… and things will go back to normal” (chapter 18, page 409, line 5). … things will go back to normal. analysis: based on the data above, the writer concludes that the verb a go above is classified into phrasal verb, because it basically can’t stand alone, and it is followed by particle back to. syntactically, the phrasal verb go back to above is as the predicate of the subject things, and the object of the sentence is normal that is modified by clause which creates an extensive meaning of the object in the sentence. semantically, the writer wants to compare and translate the phrasal verb when it is joined particles and when it is not. based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), verb a go is “to move or travel from one place to another”; meanwhile adjective back is “located behind or at the back of something” (hornby et al., 2000:93); and preposition to is “located in the direction mentioned from something” (hornby et al., 2000:1626). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of verb a go and preposition back to, since there are many definitions about them. then verb a go back is “to consider something that happened or was said at an earlier time” (hornby et al., 2000:575). the meaning of phrasal verb a go back to is “to start doing something again that you had stopped doing” (hornby et al., 2000:575). corpus 2, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: but he’d gone back to exactly how he he’d acted before-avoiding me as much as possible-the moment he was free from that temporary obligation to protect me (chapter 1, page 26, line 30). … he’d gone back to exactly how he he’d acted before-avoiding me as much as possible-the moment he was free from that temporary obligation to protect me. analysis: gone is the past participle which comes from verb a go. based on the data above, the writer concludes that the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb, because it basically can’t stand alone, and it is followed by particle back to. syntactically, the phrasal verb go back to is as the predicate of the subject he, and has no object of the sentence, but it is followed by the complement exactly how he he’d acted beforeavoiding me as much as possible-the moment he was free from that temporary obligation to protect me. semantically, the writer wants to compare and translate the phrasal verb when it is joined particles and when it is not. based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), verb a go is “to move or travel from one place to another”; meanwhile adjective back is “located behind or at the back of something” (hornby et al., 2000:93); and prep to is “located in the direction mentioned from something” (hornby et al., 2000:1626). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of verb a go and preposition back to, since there are many definitions about them. the meaning of phrasal verb a go back to is “to start doing something again that you had stopped doing” (hornby et al., 2000:575). corpus 3, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: when i was cleaned up, i went back to the kitchen (chapter 17, page 392, line 3). … i went back to the kitchen. analysis: based on the corpus, the writer concludes that the verb a go above is classified into phrasal verb, because it basically can’t stand alone, and it is followed by particle back to. syntactically, the phrasal verb go back to above is as the predicate of the subject i, and the object of the sentence is the kitchen that is modified by clause which creates an extensive meaning of the object in the sentence. semantically, the writer wants to compare and translate the phrasal verb when it is joined particles and when it is not. based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), verb a go is “to move or travel from one place to another”; meanwhile adjective back is “located behind or at the back of something” (hornby et al., 2000:93); and preposition to is “located in the direction mentioned from something” (hornby et al., 2000:1626). educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 131© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of verb a go and preposition back to, since there are many definitions about them. then verb a go back is “to consider something that happened or was said at an earlier time”. the meaning of phrasal verb a go back to is “to start doing something again that you had stopped doing” (hornby et al., 2000:575). secondly, analysis of verb a go on. corpus 4, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: “anyway, you don’t irritate the volturi”, edward went on, interrupting my reverie (chapter 1, page 20, line 10). analysis: went is the past tense of the verb a go. based on the data taken, the verb a go above is basically can’t stand alone, and it is followed by particle on. so, the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb. in syntax analysis, the phrasal verb go on in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject edward, and the object of the sentence is my reverie. semantically, the writer wants to compare and translate the phrasal verb when it is joined particles and when it is not. according to oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another”. on the other hands, the meaning of the adjective on is “about something or somebody” (hornby et al., 2000:920). it is impossible for the writer to writes all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition on, since there are many definitions about them. but, based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:576), the meaning of phrasal verb a go on in this corpus is “continue speaking, after a short pause”. corpus 5, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: i wondered how long that had been going on without me noticing (chapter 5, page 120, line 3). … that had been going on without me noticing. analysis: had been going is the past perfect continuous of the verb a go. based on the data taken, the verb a go above is classified into phrasal verb, because it basically can’t stand alone, and it is followed by particle on. syntactically, the phrasal verb go on in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject that, and has no object that is modified by clause without me noticing, which creates an extensive meaning of the object in the sentence. in semantic analysis, the verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another” (hornby et al., 2000:661). and the meaning of the preposition on is “about something or somebody” (hornby et al., 2000:920). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition on, since there are many definitions about them. based on oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:576), the phrasal verb a go on in this sentence means “continue without changing”. corpus 6, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: “but just because i’m not looking, doesn’t mean i don’t see,” she went on (chapter 17, page 384, line13). … she went on. analysis: went is the past tense of the verb a go. in this corpus, the verb a go is basically can’t stand alone, and must be followed by particle on. because of that, the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb. syntactically, the phrasal verb go on in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject she, and has no object. in semantic analysis, in oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), the verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another”. and the meaning of the adjective on is “about something or somebody” (hornby et al., 2000:920). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition on, since there are many definitions about them. the meaning of phrasal verb a go on in this sentence is “continue speaking, after a short pause” (hornby et al., 2000:576). thirdly, analysis of verb a go out. corpus jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 132 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 7, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: “i’m sorry i made you go out with me” (chapter 9, page 222 line 30). … you go out with me. analysis: in this corpus, the verb a go is basically can’t stand alone, and must be followed by particle out. because of that, the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb. syntactically, the phrasal verb go out in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject you, and has no object, but that is modified by the complement with me which creates an extensive meaning of the object in the sentence. in semantic analysis, in oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), the verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another”. and the meaning of the preposition out is “away from the inside of a place or thing” (hornby et al., 2000:935). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition out, since there are many definitions about them. the meaning of phrasal verb a go out in this sentence is “to leave the house to go to a social event” (hornby et al., 2000:576). corpus 8, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: i went out with eric two weeks ago (chapter 4, page 104, line 16). i went out with eric two weeks ago. analysis: went is the past tense from the verb a go. based on the data taken, the verb a go is basically can’t stand alone, and must be followed by particle out. because of that, the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb. in syntax analysis, the phrasal verb go out in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject i, and has no object, but that is modified by the complement with eric two weeks ago, which creates an extensive meaning in the sentence. semantically, in oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), the verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another”. and the meaning of the preposition out is “away from the inside of a place or thing” (hornby et al., 2000:935). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition out, since there are many definitions about them. the meaning of phrasal verb a go out in this sentence is “to leave the house to go to a social event” (hornby et al., 2000:576). corpus 9, based on the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006), is following here: “he’s going out with some other friends” (chapter 10, page 230,line 13). he’s going out with some other friends. analysis: to be going out is the present continuous tense from the verb a go. in this corpus, the verb a go is basically can’t stand alone, and must be followed by particle out. because of that, the verb a go is classified into phrasal verb. syntactically, the phrasal verb go out in this corpus is as the predicate of the subject he, and has no object, but that is modified by the complement with some other friends which creates an extensive meaning in the sentence. in semantic analysis, in oxford advanced learner’s dictionary by albert sydney hornby et al. (2000:661), the verb a go means “to move or travel from one place to another”. and the meaning of the preposition out is “away from the inside of a place or thing” (hornby et al., 2000:935). it is impossible for the writer to write all definitions of the verb a go and the preposition out, since there are many definitions about them. the meaning of phrasal verb a go out in this sentence is “to leave the house to go to a social event” (hornby et al., 2000:576). implication to research. normally, most of students have known well about the phrasal verb, especially phrasal verb of go. however, they probably never study it accurately and specifically. and we realize that it is the most common problems of the university students in the worldwide. deep down, the writer hopes that this essay could be more useful and valuable for the educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(2) february 2015 133© 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com readers, surely the reader can comprehend the explanations of phrasal verb with its various particles which have been simplified, in order to make it understandable for the readers. furthermore, the readers can know exactly the variety of its particles and apply it in sentence. conclusion basically, the verb a go can function as pure verb, linking verb, and phrasal verb, when it is as phrasal verb it may join with many particles, such as back to, on, out, etc. when it is as phrasal verb and joins many particles, it will create new meaning and different meaning depends on the particles which are joined. when it is as phrasal verb, it has particular meaning, and it cannot be separated or omitted one another, since it will have different meaning if it is separated or omitted. the phrasal verb a go with its certain particle may have a different meanings, it depends on the context of the data. after analyzing all data, the writer can conclude that the phrasal verb, when it is joined with its particles, it can be separable or non-separable. the writer also hopes that whoever can explain more complete about the phrasal verb than this essay, and also can add more information about it so that the students would know about the using of phrasal verb “go” and its particles, and they are able to use them in various context of sentence. eventually, the writer realizes and also needs more practices and knowledge to understand about part of speech and phrasal verb. the essay could represent how far the ability of the writer in understanding phrasal verb, phrasal verb of go in particular.1 references allsop, j. 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(1998). projects in linguistics: a practical guide to researching language. london: arnold. yule, george. (1998). pragmatics. london: oxford university press. jauhar helmie, verb go (back to, on, and out) in english 134 © 2015 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the novel entitled new moon by stephenie meyer (2006) (source: www.google.com, 15/1/2015) normally, most of students have known well about the phrasal verb, especially phrasal verb of g o. however, they probably never study it accurately and specifically. and we realize that it is the most common problems of the university students in the worldwide. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: “cartoon of education”. (source: http://www.newtimes.co.rw, 30 august 2017). copy right © 2017 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. guest editor: prof. dr. haji dinn wahyudin upi, indonesiauniversity of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: dinn.wahyudin@upi.edu editor-in-chief: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohd shakir amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: aligarhshakir@gmail.com prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare/guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 201 dr. sreekanth yagnamurthy is an associate professor at the national university of educational planning and administration, 17-b, sri aurobindo marg, new delhi 110016, india. he can be contacted via his e-mail at: syagnamurthy@yahoo.com and sreekanth@nuepa.org reservation for economically weaker section children in unaidedprivate schools: policy and practice sreekanth yagnamurthy abstract: the paper examines the assertion of reservation of seats to economically weaker section (ews) children in unaided-private schools at state level in consequence of an agreement between a land granting authority and unaided private educational institutions. it involved considerable amount of negotiation and initiative of several stakeholders such as non-governmental organization (ngo), judiciary, and government with the private educational institutions to secure reservation. the author, as a special invitee to the state level committee which was appointed to look into modalities of ews reservation, has recorded the deliberations which highlight the view points of the representatives of private schools and ngo. further, interviews with the few parents of ews children provide information on some of the ground realities. with the inclusion of 25 per cent reservation for ews children under right to education act 2009 at national level, the issues raised by the stakeholders at state level carry significance in implementation. it is concluded that in addition to effective measures for implementation of reservation for ews children, it is necessary to improve the functioning of government schools to check excessive exodus of children to unaided-private schools. key words: unaided private schools, economically weaker section, elementary education, equity in education, and social inclusion. introduction april 1, 2010 was a historic day in indian education as it provided for implementation of right to education (rte) act. the rte enables free and compulsory education as a fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age brackets and earmarks 25 per cent of seats in private schools for children from the economically weaker sections (times of india, 1/4/2010). it provides a platform to reach the unreached with specific provisions for disadvantaged groups such as child laborers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a “disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor” (times of india, 1/4/2010). it is all the more important in the world, wherein the role of education is considered to be “the reproduction or amplification of inequality, exclusion, and social polarization” (davies, 2005:359). if educational equity (raffo, 2011) is to be improved in poor urban contexts, educational policy will need to explore sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 202 notions of educational identity and agency in relation to the broad issues of scope, redistribution, recognition, and power. the rte enactment took long time after the pronouncement of supreme court judgment in historic “unnikrishnan case in 1993”, wherein it was held that right to education is a fundamental right that flows from the right to life in article 21 of the constitution (alston & bhuta, 2005). the implementation of reservation for ews (economically weaker section) children at state level was not an easy task. as the nation and more importantly stakeholders watch for its implementation at national level in letter and spirit, an analysis is made about how the realization of agreement to provide reservation for ews children were conceived and debated by the two contending groups, i.e. the representatives of private schools and social jurist, a non-governmental organization (ngo) representing the ews in the meetings of the state level committee constituted to look into the manner and modalities of admission of children of ews. in this entire exercise several stakeholders were involved such as a nongovernmental organization seeking social justice and intervention of the court for implementation of contractual obligation, the court directing the government to adopt appropriate strategies for implementation and different methods devised by some of the independent private schools to protect their own interests. all this explains how the various stakeholders perceived contractual obligation between state and private institutions. further, interviews with few parents of the ews children provide information on some of the ground realities. the flip side of the story is that some of the strategies adopted by some private unaided schools widen the class-divisions, and the social biases of the families lead to gender disparities. the structure and extent of school education and importance of social inclusion education in india is under concurrent list of the constitution, wherein the centre and state governments have legislative power. the structure of schooling consists of primary (five years), upper primary (three years, both levels together known as elementary level with eight years of schooling), secondary (two years), and senior secondary (two years). school education is under the control of different managements, which may be broadly classified as (1) government, (2) aided, and (3) unaided school sectors. in government, schools students do not pay any fee, or pay only a nominal amount; in aided schools (which receive part funds from government), the students pay fee depending on the extent of aid received; and in unaided schools in delhi state, the students pay the full tuition fee and other expenses of the school. as per the district information system for education data (mehta, 2011), there are 4,946 recognized schools of which 2,733 are under government and 2,213 are under private management. there are in all 16,840,425 students studying in grade i-v and 9,820,164 students studying grade vi-viii during the year 2009-2010. the student enrollment in unaided private schools is to the extent of 35.66 per cent in grades i-v and 29.66 per cent in grades vi-viii for the same period. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 203 a democratic and welfare state has an obligation for socio-economic development of its citizens, in no uncertain terms. the responsibility towards “education of its future citizens” is an offshoot of this. during the last half-century (ilo, 2004:46), as more and more western colonies gained their independence, the issue of access to education came to be central to the overall protect of planned socio-economic development, modernization, and democratization of third world nations. inclusive education is considered a progressive, democratic, and humanistic reform all over. the aim of “inclusion” is now at the heart of both education and social policy. in the field of education inclusion involves a process of reform and restructuring of the school as a whole, with the aim of ensuring that all pupils can have access to the whole range of educational and social opportunities offered by the school (mittler, 2000). the policy of “social inclusion” is not only supported by a welfare state, but academia also. several studies have been conducted on social inequalities over a period of time (young, 1971; bowles & gintis, 1976; bourdieu & passeron, 1977; and lauder, brown & halsey, 2009). growing up in poverty impacts upon children’s educational and future job prospects, and health and behaviour outcomes (gregg, harkness & machin, 1999; and ermisch, francesconi & pevalin, 2001). further, social inclusion is all the more important in the context of gradual decline in the social mobility of working-class children compared to their middle-class counterparts (ons, 2005). one area of education, where there is a pronounced movement to alleviate social class injustices, is widening access and participation (reay, 2006:291). enrolling children from poorer communities along with financially better of students, allows the former access to quality education and sensitizes wealthier students, thus facilitating greater social integration. also due to the facilities available in private schools and the kind of academic inputs received in comparison to government-run schools, parents and children of poorer strata dream of gaining an opportunity to participate in that kind of educational process. this is evident from the study conducted by institute of social studies trust (cited in mallica, 2005), wherein the students from ews quota observed that the private schools are good for: studies, teachers’ involvement, homework, toilets, drinking water, and science laboratory etc. this is not only true for developing countries like india but also of a country like usa (united states of america), where parents choose private schools for their academic and curricula emphases (kraushaar, 1972; and erickson, 1986). reservation for the downtrodden in india, social inclusion means bringing scheduled castes (scs), scheduled tribes (sts), minorities and other backward castes (obcs) of population1 into the fold of “education”, who are otherwise deprived of educational opportunity, historically. 1scheduled castes are those “castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within cases, races or tribes” that are notified under article 341 of the constitution. scheduled tribes are “tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes” that are notified under article 342 of the constitution. for detailed information on scs and sts, see sreekanth yagnamurthy (2009). sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 204 these sections of population have been given protection through constitutional guarantees,2 after the country attained independence and became a republic. the central and state governments also have schemes for the advancement of economically weaker sections (ews) of population apart from the abovementioned categories. with the enactment of right to education act 2009, it has become mandatory for all the private unaided schools to provide education to weaker section children. this is in contrast to the kothari commission’s (19641966) recommendations which excluded the independent (private) schools and unrecognized schools from the purview of the common school system that included only government, local authority, and aided private schools. further, it becomes imperative for the private institutions to fulfill the responsibility when they have promised the government that in return for the land received at subsidized rates, they would accommodate ews children in schools. the demand for land is so overwhelming in dense pockets of urban living, where schools can cater to large number of affordable clientele, who vie for good schools. land is a very precious input in a very populous country like india and particularly in urban areas (prasad, mathur & chattarjee, 2007:17). the land man ratio in india declined from 0.92 hectares in 1951 to 0.33 in the year 2000. the projections for 2051 are 0.22 hectares. new delhi is not only the capital of the country, but being a fast growing urban hub has all the demand for education. about 49 per cent of the total population of new delhi lives in slum areas and unauthorized colonies and only 25 per cent population lives in planned development areas (mcd, 2012). the poor in urban areas are vulnerable to health risks as a consequence of living in a degraded environment, inaccessibility to health care, irregular employment, widespread illiteracy, and lack of negotiating capacity to demand better services (uhrc, 2007). according to j. brandsma (2001), in deprived urban areas there are few opportunities and many problems that affect education, housing, and health. in the above context, the private sector participation in addition to the government’s initiatives was inevitable and the government facilitated this through several initiatives. the private sector participation could involve variety of interests, one of the prominent is profits. it has been observed by sreekanth yagnamurthy (2009:235) that “the public schools (privately managed) are established with profit as primary motive and as a result they are set up in areas where it is viable for them to run profitably”. the district information system for education for the year 2009-2010 indicate that the percentage of unaided private schools to the total number of schools is below 10 per cent in states / union territories (uts) such as arunachal pradesh, dadra and nagar haveli, jharkhand, lakshadweep, orissa, and tripura, which are either underdeveloped or remotely located, and it is more then 30 per cent in chandigarh, delhi, and puducherry, which are largely urban areas (cited in mehta, 2011). 2constitutional guarantees are special provisions made for removal of discrimination against scs, sts, and obcs through “fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 205 in facilitating the private participation, the committee on urban land policy in 1965 recommended for safeguarding the interests of the poor and underprivileged sections of urban society. further, it specifically mentioned that the “overall objective of price policy should be to help the poorer sections of the society and to encourage uses which are in the larger interests of the community like those for schools and playgrounds” (tcpo, 1965:51). the master plan of delhi (1961-1981) based on the principles of integrated development, in turn, became the model for town master plans all over india that determined the contracts signed by the schools in delhi (juneja, 2005). in line with this policy and “policy of inclusion” of a democratic and welfare state and to provide an opportunity to the under-privileged on par with other socio-economically well-off sections of the population, the delhi development authority, a government agency of the state of delhi having right of allotment of land, has distributed land to 361 schools (unaided private educational institutions). the delhi development authority (disposal of developed nazul land) rules in 1981 provide for allotment of lands to educational institutions i.e. schools, colleges, and universities at concessional rates. rule 20 stipulates that allotment of land at concessional rates may be made to a society which is registered under the societies registration act, 1860, is of a non profit making character and is sponsored or recommended by a department of the delhi government or a ministry of the central government. such allotment of land to educational institutions is made subject to certain mandatory terms and conditions. the primary purpose of such allotment of land at concessional rates is to serve a public purpose of facilitating establishment of or extending educational facilities particularly for the weaker sections of society. in line with this, an undertaking from the private unaided schools is taken for providing 25 per cent of the seats for ews (economically weaker sections). as outlined earlier, land is prohibitively costly in urban areas for purchase and it was an easy option for the private educational institutions to sign an agreement to obtain land at subsidized rates. though the government allotted land, it took no action for its implementation till a non-governmental organization, “social jurist” (http:// www.socialjurist.com/content.php?ar=14, 2/5/2012), approached the high court (highest judicial body of the delhi state) through filing public interest litigation (pil). pil, then, has become a powerful instrument in the hands of those seeking justice as outlined below: a radical departure from the traditional rule of locus stand has facilitated a considerable volume of public interest litigation which has in many cases enabled citizens and ngos to agitate issues of public importance before the supreme court without the impediments of procedural formalism and legalism (cited in shingvi, 2005:76). the pil (high court) filed by social jurist against the government of the national capital territory of delhi, the municipal corporation of delhi, and the union of india submitted to the high court that: sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 206 none of these schools has complied with the aforementioned condition of land allotment and the authorities are totally insensitive and apathetic towards the rights of poor as they have not taken any action against such erring schools. it is submitted that impugned actions/inactions of the respondents are adversely affecting the fundamental rights to education of the children of the poor which are guaranteed to them under article 21, 38, 39 (c) and (f), 41, 45, 46, 51 (b) and (f) read with delhi school education act in 1973, universal declaration of human rights in 1948, and un convention on rights of the child in 1989 (pil, 2002). in response to the pil hearing, the high court ordered (dated 20th january 2004) to the government for taking up necessary action to implement 25 per cent reservation to children of ews of population in the schools, which have received land and 20 per cent in those private schools which have not received land. consequently, the state government of delhi issued orders (no.ps/de/2004/10496 – 11595 dated 27th april 2004) to the schools in 2004. even after issue of the orders for reservation for ews children, the implementation was inadequate, half-hearted, and varied due to lack of clarity and lackluster response of government agencies. while some schools immediately initiated action through providing fees concession, many others thought it prudent to wait till the matters became apparent. it required no less a judicial body then that of the supreme court of the country to intervene. the supreme court viewed, in the case of modern school versus government of india and others, that “education had been turned into a commercial commodity by schools […] and directed schools to follow all the conditions laid down by the government while granting any form of aid” (eii, 2004). the public accounts committee of parliament of india has also observed that the “objective of allotment of land at concessional rates to educational societies for spreading quality education to the under privileged children was not achieved due to failure of delhi development authority and government of delhi to implement it in right earnest” (cag, 2005). this further necessitated the initiative of proactive social jurist to approach court, resulting in the demand for setting up an independent committee, which the state government did by constituting a state level committee (no.394 dated 2nd march 2006) with the mandate to “look into the manner and modalities of admission of children of economically weaker sections of society under the freeship quota, including looking into aspects of financial support of students being admitted under free ship quota by the government by way of text books, uniform, etc.” the author was a special invitee to all the meetings of the committee which represented diametrically opposite views as it consisted of a member each from social activists and unaided recognized schools. the other members, representing government institutions, were moderating discussions with no hard stakes to claim in support of any of the two interest groups. methods the author was motivated to study the present issue of ews (economically weaker sections) scheme when he was asked to be a special invitee to the expert committee educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 207 constituted by the state government and record the minutes of the discussion. in fact, it was a formidable task to listen to two contrasting standpoints placed by the stakeholders, record them, and get their final approval on what transpired in documents. however, the author stuck to the verbatim of the discussions. when the minutes of the discussions were placed before the members of the committee, the members authenticated them. this record is placed in the following sub-section under divergent views of stakeholders. the recommendations of the expert committee led to the policy formulation at state level. but the author was of the view that it is not only important to have policies framed but to implement them effectively. effective implementation can be perceived not merely listening to stakeholder’s perspectives, as recorded below under the divergent views, but also understanding the ground realities of the field. for this, it was felt necessary to conduct a small qualitative sample study to understand the implementation at state level. accordingly, the schools were classified as follows: table 1: schools granted land by government s.no. name of the region in delhi number of schools 1 central, north, north west a 49 2 east and north east 71 3 north west b 84 4 south, south west a, and south west b 118 5 west a and west b 72 total 394 out of the 394 schools (doe, department of education) which have been allotted land by government, 1 school each from the above mentioned five regions was selected on random basis. this provided a geographical representation of the schools in the city-state of delhi. though it does not provide for a sample size which is sufficient enough to make generalizations, which is not the purpose of the present study, it only provides a glimpse of how the conceptual issues are handled in field. twenty parents of ews children who were studying in the five different private schools were selected on random basis from the list of schools, as follows. table 2: number of students selected in schools s.no. name of the region in delhi total number of students number of students selected 1 central, north, north west a 10 3 2 east and north east 8 3 3 north west b 12 4 4 south, south west a, and south west b 22 5 5 west a and west b 20 5 sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 208 the parents though engaged in different occupations, belonged to below poverty line (bpl) families and hence socio-economically not a very heterogeneous group in terms of income, standard of living, and social status. admissions in these schools is difficult even to the fees paying children and it is done through various modes such as interview of parents/wards, lottery, or merit in the previous academic examination etc. the identity of the schools and the interviewed parents is not disclosed as per the request of the interviewed parents. it has been observed that there were discrepancies between the official rules and regulations and the adopted practices. being aware of the rules and regulations, which prescribe a set of procedures, due to competition that prevails in schools with good academic quality parents’ compromise by accepting to unwritten norms such as paying fees even under ews reservation, when they actually are prohibited to do so. reporting the names of the schools or the parents under these circumstances may have adverse effect on the continuation of their children’s education in those schools, as some of the parents viewed. for this reason, pseudonyms are used while referring to parents and names of schools are not disclosed. the parents were interviewed through semi-structured interview technique. table 3: parents’ perception about the ews scheme s.no. observation number of responses 1 private schools are better then government schools 20 2 the admission in private schools is difficult under ews 16 3 need to spend money on various items apart from tuition fees 19 4 schools charge tuition/building fees etc, without receipts 8 5 children show interest in attending school 17 6 there is marked improvement in english language learning 18 7 there is improvement in learning as a whole 13 8 there is improvement in the behavior/attitude of the child towards family members after admission in the school 14 9 children studying in afternoon session (separate schooling for ews) 13 10 teachers are different for afternoon session (not those who teach regular classes) 6 11 students performing better shifted to combined session (common schooling) 3 12 male children studying in the schools 17 13 wish to continue further education (beyond grade viii in private schools) 15 table 3 above provides a summary of qualitative information in terms of number of responses. the interviews were held between october 2010 to february 2011. they were held in open outside the school premises lasting between 45-90 minutes with each parent. the researcher had to visit the schools several times in order to interview the parents as all the selected were not available at any single point of educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 209 time and they were not interested in sharing information before others. one parent from serial number 1, two from serial number 4 of table 2 refused for interview and they were replaced by random selection of the remaining students’ parents. further, the national newspaper reports on the plight of ews scheme were also an important source of information to authenticate and triangulate the recorded observations of parents. claims made are not necessarily representative of the unaided school population in delhi, nor may they translate directly to other parts of the country, where it is implemented under rte (right to education) act. however, given the insufficiency of research in this area, it is possible on the basis of such a study to initiate debate or draw attention to issues that have previously been neglected; hence, the thrust of this paper towards identifying challenges rather then making firm recommendations for policy or practice. a follow-up confirmatory study of this exploratory study needs to be undertaken to get a larger picture of the ews reservation. divergent views of the stakeholders and reaching consensus a consensus is likely when the people are inclined to make compromises in addition to projecting their demands. but it can hardly be achieved when one is upholding the altruistic cause of social justice, equity, and inclusion (representative of nongovernmental organization), the other for the protection of institutional autonomy, private property, and democratic rights (representative of unaided private schools). these are vented out very clearly in the arguments of the above mentioned two groups. the arguments of unaided private schools were: (1) that they had no option but to sign on the dotted line as dictated by delhi development authority, as it has large control over allotment of land; (2) it has not enforced the stipulation for more then 30 years; (3) that emotional, psychological, economic, social, and academic aspects differ and children of economically weaker sections lack home support for this; (4) there are many types of schools established with different objectives and run by police, armed forces, religious, linguistic groups providing nominal/subsidized rates to children coming from such special groups having low levels of income; (5) that they are already providing concession to staff wards, brothers/sisters of students, and children of financially hard pressed parents; (6) that also number of concessions to different categories are being offered such as free education to single girl child, for example in central reserve police public school, reservation of seats for children of sc [scheduled caste], st [scheduled tribe], and obc [other backward classes] children, even to those who obtain more then 50 per cent marks and have attendance of more then 80 per cent in the previous year as stipulated by the department of education, delhi government for reimbursement, to the extent of 46 per cent of school seats and other contingent cases; (7) the capacity of school being limited how to accommodate children of weaker section; (8) how to meet shortfall in revenue; (9) the quality of stationery sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 210 and books is different and unique for each school; (10) the uniform in each school is different and there is huge cost variation between government school uniform and unaided school uniform; (11) who would pay for the mid-day meal of children; (12) what about the scholarships etc. being given by the government; (13) how to make up the for lack of support to the children at home; (14) counseling, training of parents; (15) there may be negative fallout due to peer group differences; (16) language and cultural barriers; (17) that who will pay for transportation; (18) what about schools which are already catering to the children of lower middle class; (19) how to ensure that the students belonging to ews only take benefit; (20) the government must exempt property tax, electricity, water bill etc/the committee should restrict itself only to the extent of court directions and should not deal with those private unaided schools, which did not receive land; and (21) that they need more representation in the committee itself. on the other hand, the arguments put forward by the social jurist, a nongovernmental organization working for the child’s rights, education for empowering the society are: (1) that the recommendations of the committee should not be made for implementation in not only the schools which were given land but also others which accounted for nearly 2,000 schools; (2) everything should be given free under the free ship quota for ews children and not just tuition fee; (3) though the responsibility of education is that of government’s still private unaided schools should function as extended arms in pursuit of this; (4) the private unaided schools, registered as society/trust/non-profit company for non-commercial social purposes and are supposed to run on no profit and no loss basis seldom practice it; (5) the private unaided schools income is generated not only through tuition fee but also building fund and other donations etc; (6) even the tuition fee which needs to be increased when need arises but the private unaided schools are arbitrarily making changes and accumulating huge amounts, to meet the capital expenditure, they maintain huge surpluses and as a result of this poor children cannot enter into this schools; (7) that the 25 per cent quota must not confine to initial levels of schooling, but across all levels; and (8) when distance is not a criteria for admission of other children, it should not be kept for ews children as for many schools ews children will not be available within the vicinity. the above arguments indicate as to how contrasting were the views of the two groups. the representative of private unaided schools questioned the very premise of implementation, when it was not done for the last so many years. even if implemented, it involves psychological, social, and economic problems to the school management and the students, the representative viewed. the representative of ngo (non-governmental organization), on the other hand, pleaded for providing all facilities to the ews (economically weaker sections) students and admitting them across all stages of education. in the light of this, it was an uphill task for the two groups to reach consensus without one or the other compromising more. but in such a situation the arbitrator’s interest, ability to handle the issue, the convictions, views, and biases that he or educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 211 she holds do matter in resolving the issues. at the same time, one cannot ignore the interests of one group, favouring the other, as this would ultimately make one to withdraw, which would derail the process. alternatively, if one of the parties is not satisfied with the negotiations, it may further lead to litigation in courts or dilute the implementation process. in this particular case, however, the nominees of government forming a majority, and their ability to persuade both the groups led to a broad consensus after a detailed whipping of the issues. further, the presence of government nominees as arbitrators in a democratic state, committed to the welfare of the people would not take any stand that would cause heartburn to the large population belonging to the downtrodden and underprivileged sections, as this would have larger political impact. as a consequence of this, the inclination was largely on the expected lines of protecting the objective of equity, then promotion of individual/institutional freedom, both of which are essential constituents of a democratic welfare state. this is fairly evident from the recommendations of the committee itself (http://aserf.org.in/ kkc.htm, 2/5/2012). in fact, the whole exercise of discussion and debates to arrive at a feasible solution though appear to be formulating procedures for “contractual obligations”, they were in fact dealing with the larger and more fundamental issue of equity versus autonomy, which is beyond the scope of this paper. the competing demands of the groups were brought to a consensual agreement with at most difficulty. it was recommended by the committee (http://aserf.org. in/kkc.htm, 2/5/2012) that in line with the conceptual soundness of inclusive schooling, the policy to provide a freeship quota be applied to all private schools and not merely which received concessional land. it was also recommended that the beneficiaries of the freeship quota cannot be pooled together in a separate section or afternoon shift. further, it was suggested that for children of socio-economically weaker backgrounds to feel at home in private schools, it is necessary that they form a substantial proportion or “critical mass” in the class they join. for this, it stipulated 25 per cent or one fourth of a class in school should be reserved for ews children. any lower proportion would jeopardize the long-term goal of the policy which is to strengthen social cohesion, the committee viewed. without any segregation each class must constitute 25 per cent or more to have critical mass, so that the children of ews do not feel alienated. the committee also recommended that the freeship quota system should begin at the entry level, covering nursery/kindergarten and class i in the first year of operation and gradually covering higher classes. this, it suggested because the new policy must not be seen in terms of a mechanical insertion of a certain proportion of the poor into private school classrooms. these recommendations formed the basis for implementation of the reservation for ews children in the state of delhi after submitting the same to the high court of delhi. concurrently, the union government incorporating the same in the “right to education (rte) act 2009”, which was passed by both houses of parliament and made effective from april 1, 2010 provided a great fillip to the 25 percent reservation sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 212 for ews children at national level. interestingly, the chairperson of the state level committee was also the member of the national level committee which drafted the right to education bill, 2005 (http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/india/ india_righttoeducationbill2005.pdf, 2/5/2012). the member secretary3 of the committee of central advisory board of education on “free and compulsory education bill and other issues related to elementary education”, which drafted the rte 2005 has viewed that the 25 percent reservation for ews in unaided private schools of delhi, which received land was also duly examined by the committee. the policy of reservation for economically weaker section children in private schools till the enactment of rte was non-existent in any of the state in india. though some private schools such as loreto day school (jessop, 1998) provided admission to the children belonging to weaker sections in different parts of the country as a matter of philanthropy, there was no state policy anywhere which provided a statutory provision for reservation of seats for economically weaker sections children. the implementation of reservation for ews children through rte (http://www. indg.in/primary-education/policiesandschemes/free%20and%20compulsory.pdf, 2/5/2012) which started at state level with the agreement between unaided private schools and the dda (delhi development authority) under delhi development rules, 1981 in schools which received land to all unaided private schools at national level is a significant achievement for the people fighting for the rights of economically weaker sections, as it is no more confined to only a state, seeking for justice through the intervention of courts, but a fundamental right. the clause 12 (1) (c) of the rte act states that the schools shall admit in class i, to the extent of at least twenty-five per cent of the strength of that class, children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighborhood and provide free and compulsory education till its completion. it also provided that where a school imparts pre-school education, the provisions shall apply to admission to such preschool education. the state level committee had also recommended that the freeship quota system should begin at the entry level, covering nursery/kindergarten and class i in the first year of the operation of the new policy. further, under rte act, a provision is also made for reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the school to the extent of per-child-expenditure incurred by the state, or the actual amount charged from the child, whichever is less if the particular school has not taken benefit of any subsidy by the government such as land, electricity etc. the state level committee was also of the view that in order to build confidence in private schools regarding the viability of the new policy, the government must ensure that expenditure made on school-related needs of the beneficiaries (on items such as transportation, food, school uniforms, textbooks etc) is either provided in advance or reimbursed expeditiously. 3personal communication with prof. r. govinda, member secretary, on 17th february 2012. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 213 implementation process: how parents perceive as described in the methods, the interviews with the parents of beneficiary children of ews (economically weaker sections) scheme provided an opportunity to have firsthand experience of the implementation, to know about how the parents viewed the scheme, the difficulties that they faced, and how they looked at future of their children. it does neither provide any generalizations as to the implementation of the ews scheme as a whole nor the interviewees represent a substantial population who benefited under the scheme. it only provides a glimpse how some of the beneficiaries feel about the scheme. the parents’ perceptions/observations on various aspects related to ews scheme are given in the table (see appendix i) which provides a quantitative information of the 20 interviewed parents. from the above observations of the parents, it is evident that the private schools are the preferred choice and other things remaining the same, one would prefer private school over government-run school. the national sample survey data (times of india, 28/5/2010) shows that the proportion of students in private institutions (general education at all levels) rose from 28.2 per cent in 1995-1996 to 30.8 in 2007-2008; and in urban areas, the proportion of students in private schools has crossed 50 per cent at the primary, middle, secondary, and higher education levels. however, an admission in private schools and particularly good quality schools is difficult and that too for ews children. priya ranjan has observed that: […] many schools refuse admission to students from ews, citing “no vacancy” as the reason, some others claim to have already admitted the required number but are reluctant to prove it. additionally, some schools have been very clever with the notices, announcing admissions to their institutions not in hindi dailies, but in english ones, which most people from this section of society do not subscribe to. it is clear that private schools do not want to implement 25 per cent quota for the poor children wholeheartedly (ranjan, 2010:281). one of the important problems outlined by the parents, even before getting admission, is that it is very hard to obtain an income certificate from the authorities, which states that their annual income (parents) is “below the poverty line” (bpl) to take benefit under the scheme. the students for admission in to unaided private schools need to submit this in the schools where they seek admission. the parents who are largely illiterate/semi-literate, unaware of the procedures and dependent on daily wages/petty businesses find it very hard to pursue the matter with the officials for issue of certificate. often, due to red-tapism some of the parents had to slog for three months to get the certificate. the incident reported by a parent provides an understanding of the same. even if one joins in a private school under ews quota, it is no guarantee that one would be able to continue in the school even for an academic session. as it is reported in the times of india (20/7/2010) that a son of the postman who was studying in a private school was thrown out on the ground that his father’s income during the year had exceeded the ews income limit prescribed. what is perturbing is that the child was thrown out in the middle of the session. it required sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 214 the intervention of the state education minister for the child’s continuation in the school for the academic session, on humanitarian grounds. income certificate: a hurdle for admission mr. hari prasad, a parent, says that: “i use to take permission from my proprietor for leave to get income certificate from the sub-divisional magistrate (sdm) and he got annoyed for asking him so many times. he thought i am using this as a pretext to skip work. finally, my proprietor helped me with the connections he had with the officials, otherwise i would have never got the certificate. before that, i had to wait in the long queue at sdm office and pay bribes to mediators as i had no relevant documents like residence proof etc”. figure 1 parents from economically weaker sections have also expressed their unawareness of good schools. further, like for the general admissions to good schools, even under ews quota the competition a child has to face is quite unbearable. three of the interviewed parents observed that they tried year after year to get admission for the same class, even wasting precious academic years. as the competition would be less in junior classes and large numbers of seats are only available at entry level, parents preferred wasting academic years so that they could admit their wards in good schools. due to huge competition among ews children for few good schools, some schools have also started exploiting the parents of ews and fees paying children by demanding fee without receipts etc. as noted above in the interviews with the parents. the schools are attempting to raise funds from the parents of other fee-paying students, which is an attempt to shift their responsibility. department of education, delhi (times of india, 7/8/2010) has indicted a school for violating orders of delhi high court in providing education under ews quota, by surreptitiously charging money from the students. also the additional costs that parents need to incur, apart from the tuition fees which is waived off by the school is also a big burden to the parents. however, some of the schools have devised various ways to help the ews children. while a school (mallica, 2005) has provided 50 per cent discount on uniform and books, another has teachers who have collected old uniforms from students and given them to needy students, and third one has provided 25 per cent discount with money to be paid in installments. these are positive initiatives taken up by schools voluntarily and they need to be appreciated. parents of ews children have expressed their satisfaction about their children studying in private schools, which is another positive aspect of the reservation for ews. this is also amply clear from the statement of raja, a parent. in fact, it is not only individual perception but also that of the government of delhi, as it has planned to set up three senior secondary schools in the city on the lines of private schools (times of india, 16/7/2009). but, it may be a cause of concern that a considerable number of the interviewed parents have reported that their children are studying in the afternoon session of the schools. the delhi educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 215 abhibhavak mahasangah, an ngo (non-governmental organization), has alleged that “some schools conduct classes for students admitted under ews quota after 2.00 pm, when classes for others are over”. these afternoon sessions are conducted exclusively for ews children, segregating them from other fee-paying children, though the policy was for having integrated classrooms. some parents have reported that their children have been shifted to morning session where other fees paying children study, on the basis of their performance. however, a very few of them who are extremely well performing have this kind of opportunity and that too only in two of the five schools studied. why private school is better raja observed that in the private school, his children have improved considerably in terms of learning, socialization, and developing a more comprehensive perspective of life. he has opined that the performance of private schools is better then government schools and they are good at providing not only better teaching facilities but also giving them an opportunity to learn music, dance, and games etc for which his child could not have been exposed to, had he studied in government school, as they are either unavailable or if available, not accessible to students. raja, the parent, has further observed that in parent-teacher interactions, the school administration also emphasizes to the parents that they need to maintain cleanliness and keep their children clean, not to take alcohol before children and not to quarrel before them etc. this in a way shows the wash-back effect of education of children on parents, wherein uneducated or semi-literate parents also get benefit of schooling of their children. figure 2 there are also problems related to other aspects which are sometimes beyond the preview of the schools. pavan, a parent, had admitted his two daughters in the afternoon shift of the private school, where all children belonged to the ews category. pavan withdrew his two children from the school because one of his daughters was taken in the morning shift for her good academic performance and the other was continuing in the afternoon shift. he could not afford to pay the cost of transportation from school to residence, which had to be borne by him and for that he asked school administration to keep both of them in either morning shift or afternoon shift so that they would be together and he could make an arrangement of common public transport for them. however, as it was not safe for his daughters to return home in evening, as once the elder child was molested on the way back, he withdrew both of them from the private school and put them in the neighborhood government-run school. his male child, however, continues to study under the ews in the private school. the interviews with parents have revealed that a large number of male children are benefitting under the ews reservation, while the number of girls is only three out of twenty, which is a very negligible number. other 12 female children of the ews children’s parents interviewed were studying in state-run schools i.e. municipal corporation-run schools or delhi government-run schools. a study of isst (institute of social studies trust) has viewed that the preferential treatment sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 216 is given largely to boys in families struggling for the admission to private schools (cited in mallica, 2005). the state level committee also recommended that “it will be highly appropriate to ensure that at least half the children who are admitted to private schools under the freeship quota are girls”. the preference that male children get is due to age-old sociological reasons. the child sex ratio (females of age group 0-6 per 1,000 males of age group 0-6) though has marginally dipped in delhi from 868 to 866, between 2001 to 2011, but is negatively skewed; and this is well below the national average of 927 to 914 for the same period (coi, 2011). as per the global trends, the normal child sex ratio should be above 950 (unfpa, 2009). the child sex ratio reflects the imbalance between the girls and boys, indicating that the practice of sex selection have led to a drastic decline in the number of girls compared to number of boys. the practice of sex selection is prevalent even in regions which are prosperous and people are literate. further, the literacy (as a percentage of total male/female population above 7 years of age) gap is also 10.10 per cent as per census, 2011. the cycle of disadvantage starts before birth and continues into old age (kumar et al., 2007). the problem is further aggravated when caste, class, and religious discrimination compound gender disadvantage. the belief that the male children would take care of the old-aged parents is the reason for the preference of male children over females in every aspect of life, including education. during the interviews with the parents of ews children and in informal discussion with a girl child, it was reported that the lunch provided to her is different from the one given to her brother. while the boy gets pizzas and other fast food, the girl gets the home made roti (indian bread). the parent clarified that it was done so as to match with the requirement of the school where the children are studying, as the boy is studying in the private school and the girl in government school. though the reason given by the parent appears rational in terms of peer group preference and school’s social standing (as parents of economically well off children are more comfortable in providing the fast food, the parents of weaker section children are content with providing home-made food which is economical), it is a discriminatory practice within the same home, and that too among siblings. though there is no prescription from the school about what food to be given as lunch at school, the parent observed that a child will be more comfortable with the peers, when he follows similar life style. in the patriarchal and patrilineal society, the discrimination against girl child by the family acts as an impediment to choice of education as a democratic right. this particular discrimination against the girl child is at home then school. while schools are prepared to accept girl child, as it is not an issue for them whether the child is a boy or girl, it is some of the parents who are indulging in discriminatory practices. this is highly antithetical to the philosophy of the government which intends to provide equal opportunities to boys or girls of ews category. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 217 conclusion the implementation of reservation for ews (economically weaker sections) has been a contentious issue ever since the issue came up in public domain through filing of public interest litigation by social jurist, an ngo (non-governmental organization) in 2002 (pil, 2002). however, due to lack of awareness among the weaker sections, the ews scheme could not be implemented till recently at state level. the support of ngos, the judicial activism, and the governmental concern ultimately led to the framing of guidelines by the state level committee for implementation not only in schools which benefitted with the allocation of land at subsidized rates, but also other unaided institutions. with the enactment of right to education act 2009, the welfare measure of the state government has turned into right. the widening of the scope for reservation of seats to the ews children in unaided private schools is also an extension of social responsibility to the private sector, which was so far confined to the government and government aided institutions. however, all is not well with the implementation process as the stakeholders (the unaided private schools and parents of ews children) perceive it an uphill task. the reports from some of the states of india, after the enactment of rte (right to education), are indeed not very encouraging. the society for unaided private schools (times of india, 23/3/2010), jaipur, rajasthan, has challenged the constitutional validity of rte act in supreme court on the grounds that the government was trying to enforce reservation for ews children and regulate affairs of private unaided and minority educational institutions in complete breach of an earlier 11-judge bench verdict of the apex court. the principal of bethany high school, bangalore, (times of india, 30/7/2010) has issued a circular to the fees paying parents, with a caution that the school will have to accommodate 25 per cent students under ews scheme and this will be detrimental to the psyche of the fees paying children. they cannot reject them, expel them or give them a transfer certificate even if they cause disciplinary problems in the school. as such once this act is enforced, another child could beat up their child, smoke on the campus, misbehave with a girl or a teacher, and the school will have to watch helplessly, he has observed. on the other hand, there is dissatisfaction among parents also. it is viewed that the slum children are accepted by their peers in private schools. it is the teachers and principals who segregate and discriminate. kumar, an interviewed parent, has observed that “not one school is admitting poor students of their own volition and it’s only when there is pressure from parents and activists that they admit students”. there is no place for lessons in social responsibility in the classroom, despite number of rulings, orders, and bills pointing in that direction, he viewed. further, education department of government delhi was fined under right to information act for its inability to give details of admissions given to ews children by two well known schools of delhi. of the two schools, one school neither sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 218 submitted the desired information, nor provided admission to the children who had applied (times of india, 20/7/2010). according to a list released by the government of delhi in october 2008, as many as 191 schools have defaulted in admitting poor students, despite receiving land at concessional rates from government and as against expected intake of 180,000 only 15,000 were admitted in the year 2009 (times of india, 28/5/2010). the implementation of ews scheme at state level, as described above, was not an easy task and it was amply evident from the arguments put forward by the two divergent groups as mentioned above, before the formulation of the policy itself at the state level. in a country with widespread diversity in terms of physical, social, and economic conditions, it would be much more complex an issue for implementation at national level. also, it is not only necessary for the schools to admit students under ews quota but also retain them. this requires the schools’ positive attitude, parental interest, and government’s regular monitoring. this will offset what s. lucas (2001) has called as “effectively maintained inequality”, wherein universalized education will decrease the quantitative inequality in attaining desired educational level, but class inequality is primarily expressed through qualitative differences between academically and socially stratified tracks. it is important to not only provide admission in the unaided private schools, but also provide them an opportunity to participate as suggested by r. hattam et al. (2009) that it is about bringing the community into schools and about developing curricular and pedagogical relationships in the classroom that give voice, choice, and independence to young people. the gender discrimination is a sociological issue which needs to be addressed through developing awareness through communication and mass media, active persuasion at local level with the involvement of local ngos and government agencies. the centralization of admission and monitoring of private institutions and providing them with adequate resources in lieu of admission to ews children is essential. already, the directorate of education, government of national capital territory of delhi has initiated measures such as placing the list of schools providing admission under ews, providing school information, and support to ews parents etc, which are welcome measures. however, parents increasing interest in private sector education, of those who can afford and who do not, needs a serious retrospection on the part of the government for identifying the reasons for such a migration and taking up appropriate remedial action. the identification and documentation of profiles of best practices adopted by all schools, both private and public is necessary to comprehensively improve the school system. though it would be humanly impossible to address the varying dimensions of complexity that arise from the reservation for ews children through a centralized mechanism, it is necessary to have regular coordination and cooperation meetings among representatives of government, unaided private schools, and parents of ews children to implement the scheme as per the provisions of right to education act, 2009. it may also be educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 219 pertinent to note that a decentralized regulatory mechanism exclusively overseeing the ews scheme is necessary for successful its implementation. references alston, p. & n. bhuta. 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(1971). knowledge and control: new directions for the sociology of education. london: collier-macmillan. sreekanth yagnamurthy, reservation for economically weaker section children 222 appendix i: questionnaire for parents’ perception about the ews scheme s.no. question 1 how do you view the performance of private schools vis-à-vis government schools? 2 whether the admission in private schools is easy or difficult under ews? 3 whether there is any other expenditure involved apart from tuition fees for your ward under ews? 4 whether you get receipts for the payments made in the school? 5 whether your children show interest in attending school? 6 what is the performance in english language learning (such as reading, writing and speaking)? 7 what is the overall performance of your ward in terms of learning? 8 do you find any changes in the behavior of your ward with the family members after he/ she was admitted in the school? 9 whether your child is studying with other fee paying students or separately in the afternoon? 10 if studying in afternoon session, whether the teachers are the same or different? 11 whether better performance of your ward in the afternoon session leads to shifting to forenoon session to study along with fee paying students? 12 how many male/female wards of you are studying under ews? 13 whether you wish to provide unaided private schooling beyond class viii, when there is no financial support from the government? untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 51 prof. dr. abu bakar nordin is an emeritus professor at the faculty of education um (university of malaya), 50603 kuala lumpur, malaysia. for academic purposes, he can be reached via e-mail address at: a_bakarnordin@um.edu.my and a.bakar43@yahoo.com re-examining implementation of policy on equity in education in malaysia abu bakar nordin abstract: democratization of education implied that all children of school age should have the right to be in schools and also have the right to be assisted to achieve as much as what their cohorts have achieved or what has been specified by the curriculum. however, owing to variations in factors such as family economic and education backgrounds, ethnicity, school locations, school and teacher distributions, allocation of school funds, diversity in the implementations of specific reforms, the presence of physically and mentally handicapped students and parent-teacher association involvement in school activity; accessibility and achievement fell short of the expectation. in examining the current forms of policy implementation and reforms discrepancies found run not only counter to the sacred doctrine of democratization of education but also work against the sacred goals of providing equal education opportunity for all children. streaming according to performance, despite having its own advantages, does not help in either accessibility or achievement and thereby antithetical to equity. therefore, the current practices in the implementation of the policy and reforms should be re-examined within the context of a reliable framework, so that remedial and much more innovative considerations such as purposeful distributions of teachers, making additional fund available for needy schools, streaming according to the needs of children to be able to learn effectively, and dispensing some allocation and organizational skills to educate parents to be actively involved in school activities can purposefully be undertaken. key words: equity in education, education policy in malaysia, re-examining policy in education, and education and equity. introduction in 2011, there were approximately 5.37 million children between the age of seven and eighteen enrolled in the government schools in malaysia. out of this, 2.22 million children were in secondary schools and the rest were in primary schools. despite its proud achievements in ensuring that every child enrolling in primary education and even better still came out in 10th and 20th placings in mathematics and science achievements respectively in timss (trends in international mathematics and science study) in 2003 – although the placings in those two subjects plunged down to 20th and 21st placings respectively in timss in 2007 – the success story was not shared by every group in the country. measured by a number of public abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 52 examinations conducted by the ministry of education, the bulk of malay pupils in rural areas or in the poor areas of the main cities performed much lower than the chinese counterparts in all public examinations in almost all of the school subjects. inability to master 3rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) at grade three among pupils from low income groups was higher than 5 percent which is the nationan average rate. dropout percentage out of the primary school population was at 1.9 percent in urban area and 1.2 percent in rural area, while for the lower secondary school level the percentage of dropout was much higher and larger discrepancy seen, that is at 9.3 percent and 16.7 percent respectively for urban and rural areas. the drop out percentage for the aborigine pupils was much higher. the problems of equity in education at both the primary and secondary school levels were still far from being resolved even when these problems gained attention fifty years ago, particularly in its second five-year malaysia plan in 1963. in the new economic policy or deb (dasar ekonomi baru) in 1969, the main policy thrusts were the eradication of poverty, particularly in the rural areas of the country and restructuring of the society so that strafication was not identifiable with ethnic groups and also compounded by locations. in this context, education was viewed as playing an important role in the long run, in achieving those two thrusts. however, to achieve those thrusts education needs to be equitable. as it is there were a number of discrepancies found in the schooling process. these were discrepancy between accessibility or participation and achievement; discrepancy in infrastructure and basic facilities among regions and areas, particularly between urban and rural areas, peninsular malaysia and east malaysia; discrepancy between the main stream population and the specific minority groups like the aborigines; discrepancy in terms of group awareness and involvement in education and group ingnorance and apathy towards education; and discrepancy in economic terms and certain political decisions which led to the discrepancies in both psychological and educational readiness for success in schooling. realizing the importance of bridging the gaps if equity were to be realized the ministry of education strategic blueprint or ppip (pelan induk pembangunan pendidikan) in 2006-2010 and nkra (national key result areas or bidang keberhasilan utama negara) were launched and endorsed in much of the planning in rmk-10 (rancangan malaysia ke-10 or tenth five-year malaysia plan) in 2011 which re-emphasized steps of bridging the identified gaps towards equity. in order to comprehend the policy implemented by the government, first of all the term equity needs to be clearly understood. equity, in this context, is interpreted in terms of accessibility and achievement. accesibility is translated into equal opportunity offered to all children to attend schools which was translated into providing adequate facilities for effective learning to take place. achievement is translated in terms of performance in the school and public examinations which reflects the mastery of specified knowledge and skills and the imbibement of acceptable values (hutmacher, cochrane & bottani, 2001; and meuret, 2002). as to enable policy on equity to be successfully implemented, the cause of inequality educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 53 must first be understood, then, only adequate measures can be undertaken to bring about equity. implementation of education policy on equity historically, the focus of the education policy was on building of schools in urban areas where rapid economic development took place. schools were well equipped and manned in contrast to low priority given to rural areas as seen in terms of slow development taking place in many rural areas. the gaps in the provision of educational facilities and, thus, opportunity were also witnessed between schools of different types. all these led to the differences in the achievement among students. however, in the third five-year malaysia plan, the discrepancies were the subjects of focusas witnessed the statement of the goal pertaining to education as, “to close the gaps in the educational opportunity between the rich and the poor, among the regions, and among the ethnic groups through fair allocation of national resources and facilities” (third five-year malaysia plan, 1976:3). as in 2005, there were 5,077 (66.8%) primary schools and 792 (39.0%) secondary schools in rural areas. many of these schools did not have proper infrastructure and learning facilities. around 767 primary schools and 28 secondry schools, for example, did not enjoy 24 hour electricity supply and some did not have regular supply of diesel to run their generators. some were supplied with low voltage electricity which was able for ict (information and communication technology) use. clean water supply was not available in 1,517 primary schools and in 68 secondary schools. quite a sizeable number of schools in rural areas are unable to accesss ict. teachers are not able to be placed in rural schools, while the schools for orang asli (indigenous people) and in remote parts of the country, particularly in sabah and sarawak, are normally manned by teachers who are not trained, thus not well versed to manage both the students and learning. similar problems faced by teachers who were teaching disadvantagaged children and other at risk groups of pupils. aware of these problems, the ministry of education redoubled its efforts to improve the situations. for example, as found in the system there were 15,444 untrained temporary teachers in primary schools and 2,895 in secondary schools. in order to provide teachers in critical subject areas in rural and remote areas, the ministry of education launched school based teacher training programme. to reduce the digital gap between rural and urban schools in the eighth five-year malaysia plan in 2000, the ministry of education in put up infrastructure and ict laboratories provided equipments such as computers in many schools in rural and remote areas of the country. registration in the higher secondary schools was 71.7% as compared with 84.4% for lower secondary schools and 96.0% for primary schools. the attrition rate of registration was addressed in many forms of aids and supports for children of orang asli (indigenous people) and other minority groups, including those from abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 54 poor families to attend and continue schooling until form five. to overcome high rate of failure to master 3rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) at the primary school level, the ministry of education launched pilot program for problem class at 71 schools in 2004 and later changed to early intervention programme for reading and writing. teachers who handled these classes were trained in remedial teaching. for the disadvantaged children, the ministry of education identified those children categorized as having learning problems such as behavioral problems, autism, down syndrome, attention deficit disorder (add), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd), and dyslexia from those who are defective in hearing and seeing. consequential to that, the ministry of education until 2005 provided 28 special education at primary schools, 2 each at the secondary level and for vocational stream. at the same time, inclusive education was put inplace at 739 schools. topping all the compensations in order to overcome the problems of discrepancies in the opportunity in education, the ministry of education spent rm (ringgit malaysia) 1.0 billion every year giving aids and supports to students from the disadvantaged families in the forms of supplementary food (rmt, rancangan makanan tambahan or food supplementary program); milk (pss, program susu tambahan or milk supplementary program); hostel food fees; payment of school and examination fees and school uniforms through trust fund for poor students or kwapm (kumpulan wang amanah pelajar miskin), and transport cost for going to schools. re-examining the policy and its implementation after fifty years, even with so much inputs being undertaken, the gaps in inputs, in the process, and in attainment between different groups of students and between inputs and attainments are still noticeably significant. because of these gaps, there is a need to scrutinize and identify the possible weakness in the policy and in its implementation, so that a revised effort could be launched in bringing about equal opportunity in education. policy implementation by the ministry of education is difficult to interprete due to a number of reasons. firstly, there is confusion in differentiating the identified gaps in education, be they the inputs, the cause, the process, or the results. secondly, the approach to equity seems lacking clear framework, and exclusive in its assumption, causes, and impacts which were not helpful in formulating of policy and forwarding steps for action. thirdly, there were elements in the policy which were antithetical to the attempt of attaining equity. as to the first question, inequality gaps were almost lumped together and in so doing creates confusion as to the question of causality. this confusion does not help in the diagnosing of the problems of inequality and, hence, formulation of equity policy will not be easy. in examining the policy embarked, it appeared that the cause of inequality in both accessibility and achievement is assumed to stem from ascription factors such as social class, gender, ethnic group, and locality; while educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 55 factors were identifiable with natural endowment such as intelligence, aptitudes, and psychological characteristics were regarded to be functionally and, therefore, equal among the various groups of students (mosteller & moynihan eds., 1972; and kozol, 1995). unequal outputs are the result of the disadvantageous modalities of primary socialization for those identified groups. consequently, the focus in bringing about equity is to ensure accessibility was equitable. the allocation of resources was based on compensating for those who are being handicapped by the circumstances such as being poor, being in the rural area, and belonging to at risk groups. this could be seen in terms of giving priority to providing of school facilities and equipments, taking care of student health and welfare, opening of opportunity for boarding school placement, and allocating of other forms of aids to these groups. this interpretation of deficit theory, unequal accessibility to education due to cultural deprivation, is the main cause of shortfall in the outputs leads to almost simple solution which sometimes fails to connect between cause and effect. thus, it is viewed that equal treatment in terms the amount of resources allocated would worsen the results. hence, according to talcott parsons, it is strongly felt that the right step to take is to propose policies of increasing equality of opportunity through equity of treatment in the form of compensator policy (cited by meyhew ed., 1983). this is, in fact, the basis of the policy being pursued in the third fiveyear malaysia plan in 1976. more schools were built in rural areas and facilities in those schools were vastly improved. qualified teachers were sent to these schools. science subjects were emphasized and students were streamed into science streams. more boarding schools were built and priority was given to the students from rural background. scholarships of various kinds were provided at all levels for those who deserved to be helped. as a result in the seventies, large number of students from rural and low income families were able to follow tertiary education. many successfully came out filling up vacancies as professionals in both public and private sectors. at that time, it appears that policy implementation is on the right path, moving towards equity in educational opportunity. continuing into the 1980s to 2000, the ministry of education keeps on identifying gaps in achievement and coming out with programmes to improve the shortcomings in the implementation of the compensatory policy. unfortunately, after about fourty years of adoting the deficit model through the implementation of the so-called compensatory policy, inequality in inputs, between inputs and outputs, and among outputs of various groups in the society are still significant. the tenth five-year malaysia plan in 2011 is a good example to illustrate why inequality of opportunity in education is unattainable. a number of reforms were introduced of which some were running counter to the spirit of equity. introducing of high performance school, selection of students for special schools based on assessment at the end of primary school, pitting schools against each other in terms of performance which inevitable leads to the abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 56 focus on examination, and those students identified to be potentially beneficial to schools’ ranking apart from continuing the old policy of selecting students for boarding schools based on ability with only token regard of the social background are examples how policy implementation departs from the spirit entrenched in the second five-year malaysia plan in 1963. the introduction of smart schools (sekolah bestari) with an emphasis of using ict (information and communication technology) in pedagogical approach added to the inequality of the opportunity since many of the schools in rural areas for a number of reasons such as lacking in infrastructure, trained teachers, and computers will not be able to embark on the project at the same time as the smart schools. although by 2005, about 92,685 schools were able to be connected by broadband through the schoolnet project, student readiness and facilities in rural areas, both at schools and at home particularly, are far inferior to those able to be enjoyed by those in urban schools. thus, in the ministry of education development master plan or pelan induk pembangunan pendidikan (pipp), the intention to decrease the gaps with regards to locations, socio-economic standard, and levels of students’ ability (and) the aims of the ministry of education (moem, 2006:32) was to ensure that all schools and the students have the same opportunity and ability for excellence inclusive of national schools and national type schools so that access, equity, and quality could be upgraded will remain as a dream. in examining a long list of activities and achievements as recorded some did comply with modality of compensation, but many others seem to promote meritocracy, favorable to those groups which had a good headstart. failing to pursue the deficit theory, as shown in the inconsistancy of implementing compensatory model, is caused by the confusion in the adopting of a clear policy frame work which inadvertently leading to the introduction of the elements of meritocracy consistent to the concept of contest mobility. establishing of high performance school, pitting schools against each other, and selection of students for different streams and for different schools are some of the practices subscribing to the structural-functionalist model of equity in which achievement namely natural endowment characteristics such as aptitude, intelligence, and personality are functional therefore equitable. forging forward for equity in education requires consistencies in differentiating symptoms, causes, effects, and process or action to be overcome the symptoms, the causes or the effects. success in overcoming failure with regards to requires both policy and procedure differentiations. a student could not attend the school regularly because of poor health or unable to follow mathematics lessons because he/she was unable to read and calculate would require different compensatory treatments in the deficit model, from a student who did not attain excellence in examination or dropped out from school. therefore, policy must indentify the symptoms and be based on causes and not effects which could only act as pointers to policy inefectiveness. thus, in formulating a policy and its implementation, the underlying assumption taken needs to be consistent and comprehensive, while at the same time taking into educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 57 consideration of the implementation of the policy vis-vis compensatory model, in the past. merely pursuing the deficit theory, as exemplified in the implementation of compensation alone, is not enough. inequality opportunity in education policy must be tackled on many fronts, nevertheless they must be consistent. through pursuing of compensation hopefully inadequacy in the opportunity to access and achieve in education is overcome. unfortunately, compensation alone as proven by the past records does not help and is unable to explain persistency in the gaps in opportunity in access and in achievement. providing amenities, tailored made programs, and others do ensure that every one gets equal opportunity to education and equal opportunity to learn. compensating of amenities, for example, will not act directly in opening of access to education or in changing of student performance. policy on compensation will only help if efficiently implemented to change the culture of the actors involved in teaching and learning namely students’ attitude and motivation to learn, teachers’ ability and disposition to teach, schools’ climate and environment conducive for learning, and the supportive neighbourhood. r. bourdieu and p. passeron (1978) refer the educationally conducive environment for change as cultural capital. in the cultural capital, it is postulated that individuals’ total compliance to external forces acting on them without their awareness will not be able to bring about any change. individuals are instrumental of the culture of the group to which they belong, and of the structure of the culture which is hierarchically based in the form of the dominant and dominated cultures. by virtue of hidden influence, individuals are induced to want what scholastic and occupational status society allows them to attain, as members of particular social classes or sub-classes. this concept of cultural capital has proven to be very useful for understanding the mechanisms for which compensation is transformed and, hence, determined educational groups’ inequalities.the very question raised at this juncture how is compensation able to transform the culture of the individuals trapped in the cage of social structure. discussion and recommendations going back to the drawing board, there are a number of important concepts need to be constructed so that objetive reality is clear and understood for policy implementation to be pursued. first of all, the concept of equal opportunity or equity in education needs to be clear, but current notions of equity are much more complex that even american authors who advocated a closer approach to equality, while calling it a key value on which everyone ought to agree, admit that it is unfortune that general equality or equity is almost impossible to define. similarly, in commenting on this difficulty, d. boorstin wrote as follows: take our concept of equality, which many have called the central american value. no sooner does one describe a subject like this and try to separate it for study, than one finds it diffusing and evaporating into the general atmosphere. “equality”, what does it mean? in the united abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 58 states, it has been taken for a fact and an ideal, a moral imperative and a sociological datum, a legal principle, and a social norm (boorstin, 1953:176). despite the difficulty in defining the precise meaning of the term, equality or equity at least three interpretations could be forwarded. the classic and still widespread concept is based on the principle of equal opportunity for students belonging to different types of social groups (class. stratum, race, gender, community types, etc.); meaning that scholastic outcomes must be independent of ascriptive variables. this, then, falls more clearly within the meritocratic perspective. this concept of liberal equality of opportunity provides distinctions between genetically inherited versus socially acquired ability, and between freely chosen effort and effort in resulting from socially determined aspirations. the second way of defining equity is to identify the inequities one hopes to eradicate. two sources of inequity are evident; those arising from the system’s structure and practices, and those arising from the student’s ethno-cultural and socio-economic context. the third way of defining equity is to consider the broad sequential elements comprising a common trilogy emerging from resource allocation (supports, finances, and taxes); the process of schooling (the school experience, program, content, and access); and the outcomes (learning achieved and impacts on later life). the second concept which needs to be clear is related to the clarification of the modality to build the framework for action. for this, one needs to go back and examine a number of proposed sociological theories and approaches which would be able to explain the fundamentals and the mechanism of policy formulation and policy implementation. so far, the deficit theory as proposed by the functionalist originated from the works of emile durkheim and talcott parsons seemed to be convincing and managed to gain widespread support (cited by mestrovic, 1988; and meyhew ed., 1983). educational inequalities, according to this view, stem from ascription factors such as social class or stratum, gender, ethnic group, or nationality which are residual traces of pre-modern society. so, the deficit theory was proposed in which the cultural dynamic of cultural deprivation is considered to be the main cause of unequal outputs in school. in order to grasp the value of the educational output in terms of equity, the nature of the overall socio-economic context which influenced the functioning of all social sub-systems should be taken into consideration. on the process side from this theoretical standpoint, the amount of resources allocated to compensatory education should be the focus of action. in such a perspective, equity of treatment requires some kind of compensator policy rather than simply equality of educational provisions. inequality can also be considered from the perspective of social or cultural reproduction theory. inequalities among groups are produced by social constraints and not by genetic endowments and individual choices (bourdieu & passeron, 1978). all inequalities are inextricably interwoven into the global structure of our society. one of the important contributions of this theory is that it believes educational systems also contribute to the reproduction of unjust inequalities educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 59 in a subjectivist way. in one of the strains of this theory, there is a belief that cultural factors do not directly affect but mediate structural factors which, in fact, affect individual behavior. the concept of cultural capital, introduced by the cultural reproductionist, opens the room for the formulation of equity policy to consider the process of cultural change resulting from structural change. variance found in academic success than might help in explaining the process of cultural transformation resulting from structural change. if this is true, then, one has to be cautious and selective in providing compensation in the hope of bringing about educational equity. what needs to be thought through is how to support a rational pedagogy aimed at compensating initial disavantages of cultural capital. opposing to the weberian matrix of determinism, the cultural relativist and pluralist on the contrary believes that schools do not simply ratify externally generated inequalities, but they also actively produce inequalities. thus, the source of school inequlity is shifted from the characteristics of the failing children, their families, and their cultures towards more general societal processes, including schooling through their social actors in school (teachers and students), making resistance or change possible (mehan, 1992). inequalities among groups are due to the characteristics of agency and culture, rather than structure of the society. a different perspective, however, was taken up by the new directionalists who look into curriculum as the source of inequality. school curriculum sometimes demonstrates bias and through conflicting social interests produces ideological effects. in this case, curriculum operates as discriminatory institutions and being exploited by culturally dominant groups, so as to reproduce their dominance over the dominated groups (foster, gomm & hammersley, 1996). as a result, the new directionalists propose that fairness in education essentially means differentiated and appropriate curricula for all social groups; that is, equal rights to reproduce their specific cultures and languages through schooling without any dominance or interference on the part of any other group. almost similar to this stance is the american interpretive sociology which believes that inequalities in achievement at school are due to the mismatch between linguistic patterns and socialization practices in the home and the classroom (mehan, 1992). in contrast to the deficit theory in which language use and socialization practices of certain social groups are deficient thus needs to overcome through compensatory education. the interpretive sociologists hold that all kinds of patterns and practices in which both teachers and students modify their behavior in the direction of a common goal are worth considering (foster, 1971). j. coleman (1986) representing the methodological individualism approach put the individuals, as an intentional and rational actor whose choices, are influenced by social constraints but not completely determined by them. he conceptualizes students’ school careers in terms of a sequence of decision-making processes in which they compare benefits, costs, and risks connected to each possible choice: to stay in school or to drop out, to enroll in one scholastic channel or track rather than in another, to be more intensely engaged in studying or less so, etc. the abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 60 choice requires, on the one hand, taking into account objective and subjective resources and, on the other, the goals to be pursued. the amount of available resources, more than the character which the culture inculcated through primary socialization, is considered crucial to explaining individual choices. j. coleman (1988), in his concept of social capital in which his stand on individualism entrenched, forwarded also a broader and more culturally inspired way of insofar as it includes not only interpersonal ties and information but also other dimensions such as values, norms, and trust which embrace components of student social background not addressed by cultural-capital theory. if we look at educational inequalities as part of a process determined by an individual’s decisions, and subject to influence by external and internal factors, then we have to analytically consider the different decision-relevant variables acting on such a process. nonetheless, j. coleman (1988) believes that complete equality of educational opportunity is impossible to reach because it would require a dramatic change in public policy which inevitably too expensive to be accepted by any society. a certain reduction of existing inequalities is possible which, then, presupposes a more active role for schools. in reflecting upon the definition and the theories upon which a frame work of equity is to be formulated, it is fair to assume that equity refers to equality in the outcomes of schooling and, as for the framework to mount the policy, one cannot rely on any specific theory or approach (schoeck, 1958; and kristol, 1972). if sequential elements comprising a common trilogy of input, process, and outcomes were of any guide then, at all these levels steps need to be taken to identify the problems and to propose for the solutions. in the process of identifying the problems and proposing the solutions, perhaps the deficit theory seems logical and convincing in explaining and in suggesting the solutions. however, providing of compensation alone without looking into how transformation for equitability takes place will not be helpful for policy formulation. at this juncture, the concept of social capital and cultural capital which mediate structural change and social change needs to be considered in the policy formulation. in the social and cultural capital, student is seen as an intentional and rational actor whose choices are influenced by social constraints but not completely determined by them and he/she will normally go through a sequence of decision-making processes in which he/she will compare benefits, costs, and risks involved in his/ her schooling (silberman, 1967; and rothbard, 1970). in trying to find the equity solution, there should also be a balance between the deterministic and the phenomenological views of active roles of social actors about social change. the idea that the source of inequality is the societal processes, including schooling and not the the characteristics of the failing children, their families, and their cultures must be taken into consideration by re-evaluating the roles played by the school actors namely the students, the teachers, and many others. in relation to that, the school curriculum also should be scrutinized as it normally works in favour of specific social interests which in turn can lead school to be a discriminatory institution. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 61 following the above argument, it seems that equality of education opportunity in the absence of the principle of fairness will allow only for the rise to meritocracy and contest mobility in education and the world of works. therefore, to enable the principle of justice to prevail the option taken should introduce policy and programme intervention in the forms of reversed discrimination and sponsored mobility, as to ensure that every individual and every group of individuals be provided with the conditions in which they can succeed (dyer, 1972; and lipset, 1972). this is what equity means. in the united states of america, for example, ses was found to be the most important factor in academic success (coleman et al., 1966; and silberman, 1967). while in oedc countries, parental qualifications correlated highly with earning of degrees. other factors such as gender, location, and being minorities are no less important directly or indirectly in contributing towards inequality. these are the factors needed to be scrutinized and intervened. but as mentioned, the mechanism of how the compensators work need to be understood. providing of compensation without ensuring that they are able to generate social and cultural capital will not bring about positive change (martin, 1926; and ardrey, 1970). employing the deficit theory and using of social and cultural capital to undermine and eradicate the force of inequality will not be adequate. the present curriculum and the surrounding political climate of the classroom (among other things) which perpetuate inequality have to be examined and overhauled. politics plays a major role in the atmosphere of the classroom and the schools, and the level of equity or otherwise dispensed by social actors vis-à-vis teachers, schools and education managers policy, and students is far reaching. within the classroom, everyone including the student has certain responsibilities for creating an atmosphere of equity. he/she must put forth the effort to understand both the material and the context in which the material is learned. however, it cannot be expected that student will understand the impact of learning the material discussed, presented, and/or discovered. it is the teacher who is responsibe to provide the impetus (through activity or through explanation) for learning materials where application is not immediately evident. however, the teacher is limited in what he/she can do with the kind of students in his/her classroom, with the curriculum and the surrounding political climate imposed on him/her. one needs only to look at the current political antagonism and indecision towards using of english in teaching of science and mathematics in recent years to see how politics can influence curricula and pedagogy (for good or for ill). and not to mention is the policy and the practice of streaming of students into special schools and boarding schools which determine the classroom and school atmosphere detrimental to equity. it is through political means that curricula are developed, standards are set, and teachers are promoted, hired, or fired. these political pressures can serve to promote or (more often than not) hinder equity in schools and outside of the schools. as mentioned earlier, curriculum also plays a major role in the level of equity found in schools. it serves as a guide for teachers as well serving as a measuring abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 62 tool against which teachers and schools are evaluated. by manipulating the curriculum, political powers are able to manipulate the classroom, but, due to the necessary input of teachers in the development of curricula, the classroom does not become a purely political arena. in many ways, the curriculum serves as a mediator between the wants and needs of the power structure and the wants and needs of the teachers and students (resch, 1998; and rothbard, 1999). in its role as mediator, the curriculum goes a long way toward setting the tone for educational equity, but, ultimately, the teacher is the one who deals with the students directly and mediates the subject and the students. the teachers as the leading actors hold the key to equity depending on the ways curriculum, facilities, polical pressure, policy, and even compensators are manipulated in the interest of the students to bring about equity. in the light of the interpretations of equity and the frameworks derived from theories on equity, it is safe to say that equity policy and its implementation in the education system in malaysia needs to be revamped. it is inadequate to rely only on the deficit theory. an adequate framework should encompass how all sectors in the education environment: the society, the various social and political institutions including the schools, the curriculum, and the social actors within the schools like the teachers and the students are to be brought together in formulating social capital, thus, set the stage for the enhancement of learning. at the same time, any form of discriminatory measures promoting meritocracy should be approached with caution (bell, 1972). conclusion since each child brings a repository of cultural knowledge, and with all-pervasive variations especially in aptitudes, abilities, and characters, it can be concluded that equality in its fullest sense and true to the tradition of the non-functionalists is only an ideal and unrealizable goal unless drastic changes to society and affirmative action is seriously undertaken in education. because of that, many sociologists of education believed that by trying to make them equal vis-à-vis each individual is unique than one unintentionally destroyed most of what is human in him/her. to be fair to the idea about equity, there is no intention to create equality in man/ woman. what equity purports to do is to ensure that every one gets his/her fair share of what is due to him/her. in education, the principle of justice works to ensure that all students are able to learn as much as others in his/her cohort. the challenges to equity are still dominant with at least in three areas. the first one is even by subjecting all children to the same curriculum; however, we would still be unable to achieve the desired equality. the inborn differences among individuals are too fundamental as a part of their natures to be obliterated even by any form of scholastic engineering. compulsory schooling not only fails to achieve its egalitarian goal, but by subjecting all to the same studies in lockstep fashion, we effectively deny them any real opportunity at all. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 63 the second one is the existence of a potent force in the society which will always try to maintain its dominance. one way to ensure this dominancy is by sending children to selected schools. in malaysia, there are a number of schools categorized as premier schools, boarding schools, and excellence schools of which both students and teachers are specially selected, while the schools also are given special treatments in terms of allocations of funds and facilities. as observed in the united states of america by j. kozol (1992), a policy known as the magnet system was highly attractive to the more sophisticated parents who with their ingenuity and having political connections manage to uphold an ideal of white race dominancy by sending their children to magnet schools where teachers are hand-picked and the schools operate much like private institutions. the third one is the confusion in the planning and implementation of the equity policy, and at time compounded with the advocacy of meritocracy which always gains the upper hand in the policy formulation and implementation, especially in the face of the need to meet the global challenges. with those challenges at hand, there was an urgent need for the authority in malaysia, or for any country having similar problems, to review the policy both at its planning and implementation levels. deficit theory alone does not explain students’ failure and likewise compensation will not help in bringing about success in learning. students’ failure and steps to help them will only be effective when the cultural context of learning or education is taken into account. this implies that at the macro level, one has to be aware of and work on cultural and social capital theories in converting students to be skilful, knowledgeable, and motivated learners. in this context, the facilities provided and the curriculum implemented need to be genuinely consistent with equity policy. at the micro level, teachers in classrooms have to play the roles of active actors of change, so that students apart from acquiring knowledge and skill they also feel needed and valued by the society. inspite of the policy drawn and implemented and various inputs provided, it is believed that at the micro level that change can be effectively brought about. teachers hold the key to some forms of equity. in daily dealing with the students, teachers are able to understand the students’ needs, their cultures, and their ideas. this means that teachers are in the positions to provide an atmosphere within which students can explore their own cultural understanding of the subjects learned and get a glimpse of other perspectives on the same subjects. in studies cited by r. gutierrez (2003), despite such negative curricular tools as streaming and lacks of facilities and instructional materials, students can essentially achieve equally given that the teacher resources are equally distributed. today, teachers act as parents, disciplinarians, psychologists, politicians, and above all of equity dispensers. once teaching can be scaled down from merely the dissemination of information, the more can teachers’ skills and attitude be focus towards dispensing equity in other areas of their profession apart from teaching the school subjects. abu bakar nordin, re-examining implementation of policy 64 references ardrey, r. 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(1976). kuala lumpur, malaysia: government printing press. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 79 elvi pang is a lecturer at the department of management and marketing hkpu (hong kong polytechnic university) in hong kong, china; and dr. humphry hung is senior lecturer at the same department. they can be contacted at: department of management and marketing hkpu in hong kong, cina. phone: (852)-2766-7357. e-mail: mshung@polyu.edu.hk learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups: a consideration of the moderating factors elvy pang & humphry hung abstract: the emerging predominance of group learning in the business world represents a significant trend of group work assignments in the context of formal education. group learning effectiveness and satisfaction has been analyzed on the basis of traditional theories of group dynamics. however, the assessment of learning effectiveness and satisfaction has its uniqueness and requires special attention. based upon equity theory, we propose a model to highlight the significant impact of workload equity and mutual collaboration on members’ performance and satisfaction in the group learning process. we conduct a study to validate the relationship and the results support our proposition. in addition, with reference to predicted outcome value theory, we propose that information transparency has a highly significant moderating effect in the group learning process. hence, the findings of this study are consistent with the results of previous studies on team effectiveness that found conflicts and individual satisfaction to be negatively associated, and interpersonal understanding amongst team members to be positively correlated with team learning. on top of this observation, our study contributes to literature by highlighting the significance of information transparency in the group learning process. finally, some implications, limitations, and recommendations of our study are discussed. key words: group learning, learning effectiveness and satisfaction, workload equity, mutual collaboration, and interpersonal understanding. introduction the emerging predominance of group learning in the business world represents a significant trend of group work assignments in the context of formal education (senge et al., 1994; brown, bull & pendlebury, 1997; and gottschall & garciabayonas, 2008). group work can enhance students’ understanding and interest. this collective way of learning provides an excellent opportunity for students to share their learning experiences and, thus, learn from each other through cooperation and interaction among themselves. it also motivates students and helps them to develop a sense of responsibility (hackman, 1997). elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 80 the objective of our study is to explore the complex underlying factors which influence group learning effectiveness and satisfaction in post-secondary education. we develop a model to explain the inter-relationship between group interactive factors such as equity and collaboration and group learning outcomes, including effectiveness and satisfaction. to validate our model, we conduct a study on group learning process in three english-speaking universities in an asian metropolitan city. based on our findings, we propose that workload equity and mutual collaboration are important antecedents of group learning effectiveness and satisfaction. in addition, we also observe that information transparency is a powerful moderating factor in the learning process. literature review we begin our literature review by considering the various approaches to the assessments of group learning effectiveness and satisfaction. we, then, go on to consider two notable antecedent factors: workload equity and mutual collaboration, with a view to exploring the causal relationship between these two factors versus group learning effectiveness and satisfaction. last but not least, based on predicted outcome value theory, we propose that information transparency will facilitate and enhance the effects of workload equity and mutual collaboration on group learning effectiveness and satisfaction. group learning effectiveness: a review. in an organizational setting, group learning refers to the acquisition of new skills, attitude, perspectives, and behaviors as needed by changing circumstances (edmondson, 2002). it is through these learning activities that groups can improve group understanding, learn about changes in the environment, cope with the market and organizational demand, and encounter unexpected threats of the environment. we review the literature on group learning effectiveness from five different perspectives: structural, systemic, cognitive, outcome-based, and process perspectives. first, from a structural perspective, studies of work groups in organizational settings have revealed that group learning effectiveness is enabled by structural factors such as organizational culture and structure, reward systems, task nature and design, and group structure, including roles, objective, and size (hackman, 1997). from this perspective, the focus is on how to design an efficient group structure and its environment so that group learning can be fostered effectively. second, adopting a systemic approach, e. lizeo (2005) proposed that since work groups could be regarded as complex social systems, the quality of learning, and the effectiveness of a work group lies in the interrelations of intermediating factors such as group dynamics and leader behavior. third, based on a cognitive approach, some studies emphasized cognitive and interpersonal factors such as shared visions, group beliefs, and understandings to explain group learning effectiveness (argyris, 1993). fourth, focusing on the outcome of learning, some scholars suggest that group learning is the result of group operations which may include intra-and inter-group interaction processes (ancona et al., 1996). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 81 last but not least, fifth, considering learning as a process, a.c. edmondson (2002) proposes a model that consists of three basic elements, namely antecedent conditions, team beliefs, and team learning behavior. antecedent conditions refer to group structures such as group and task design, rewards, and information system, as well as leadership style, which can influence a group’s competence. team beliefs refer to common visions and understandings among group members which will determine the learning behavior. team learning behavior refers to the actual learning activities performed by group members, including sharing information, soliciting assistance, and experimenting with new ideas. this is an integrative approach to group learning and effectiveness in which both structural factors and cognitive structures (socio-psychological traits) have a direct as well as indirect impact on group outcomes (boud, cohen & sampson, 1999; and edmondson, 2002). group learning satisfaction: the current state. group learning satisfaction reflects the level of affective response that individual team member holds toward the team experience, and the extent to which the team satisfies members’ needs (scott-ladd & chan, 2008). in the context of education, student satisfaction is often used as a critical indicator of teaching quality and has become a key concern for academic staff (moore, 2006). we review the literature on group learning satisfaction from five different perspectives: perception, participation, achievement, leadership, and process perspectives. first, from a perception perspective, j. burdett and b. hastie (2009) proposed that perceptions of learning and feelings of group-based achievement contributed most to learning satisfaction. they reported that knowledge of factors contributing to satisfaction allows teaching staff to identify potential problems in groups and improve the quality of the group learning experience. the basic argument is about how learning satisfaction would be linked closely to a learner’s perception and feeling (volet & mansfield, 2006; and burdett & hastie, 2009). however, since learning may be influenced by perceptions of the group work experience, it is imperative that trainers should be well aware of the feelings of trainees, instead of just making sure that they learn what is taught (ramsden, 1992). second, from a participation perspective, learners’ satisfaction is observed to be linked to the participative activities of members in a group such as drop-out rates and learning performance (suhre, jansen & harskamp, 2007; and burdett & hastie, 2009). through participation in group work assignments, members in a group can learn about managing group dynamics and resolving conflict and about obtaining specific work-related knowledge (cranmer, 2006). when group work is not involved, such valuable learning opportunities are missed (volet & mansfield, 2006). third, from an achievement perspective, group learning requires changes to conventional individual-based learning styles and may contradict the motivations, aptitudes, and learning preferences of high achievers (yazici, 2005). those with high-achievement orientation are often competitive, seek to work alone, and are less accepting of group-based rewards (trank, rynes & bretz, 2002). m. bahar (2003) found that students with achievement-oriented motivational styles were significantly less satisfied with group work, compared to those with curious, elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 82 conscientious, and sociable learning styles. it was expected that achievement orientation would be negatively related to overall satisfaction with group work. dissatisfaction with assessment processes and marks awarded for group work assignments are a primary source of student complaint (boud, cohen & sampson, 1999). individual contributions of group members may not be acknowledged in the group mark awarded (sharp, 2006). differing standards may also influence students’ reactions to a group’s marks, along with achievement orientation. students with higher standards would be expected to be more dissatisfied with low shared marks or to feel that they missed opportunities, because the group could not match the performance expected by the higher achiever (bacon, 2005). it is expected that satisfaction with marks would be positively associated with overall satisfaction with group work. fourth, from a leadership perspective, although most group work assessment tasks involve leaderless groups, in practice, one or more students often end up taking responsibility for completing the work, whether or not they want to perform the leadership role (mills, 2003). in some cases, these de facto leaders may be encouraged by others in the group to do more, resulting in higher responsibility and workload, while other become “free riders” in the group (payne & monk-turner, 2006). this is likely to lead to resentment and dissatisfaction. it is expected that taking on a leadership role of an individual member in a group will, in general, feel unhappy and over-burdened with the group work (pfaff & huddleston, 2003). last but not least, fifth, considering learning as a process, different group interaction patterns may give rise to a variety of learning outcomes, including learner satisfaction of learning and team performance outcomes. in fact, the nature of peer interaction in an educational context can significantly influence students’ achievement and satisfaction (baldwin, bedell & johnson, 1997). a process approach to learning effectiveness and satisfaction. our literature review of theories related to group learning effectiveness and satisfaction has given us insights about our research. among the various perspectives of learning effectiveness and satisfaction, a process approach to our study seems to have common importance in both issues. based on the process theory, we identify two key factors that contribute to group learning effectiveness and satisfaction: workload equity and mutual collaboration. first, workload equity. in the context of group working process, workload refers to the extent that work is shared among group members. workload equity, therefore, can be considered as the degree to which each group member takes up a fair share of the work assigned to the group (werner & lester, 2001). equity theory suggests that workers expect a fair return for what they contribute to their jobs (carrell & dittrich, 1978). they compare their inputs and outcomes with those of their co-workers, and will likely seek to reduce the perceived inequity by altering and adjusting the relationship between inputs and outcomes (huseman, hatfield & miles, 1987). uneven workload sharing in group assignments often seems linked to student frustration and conflict. groups need to take responsibility for organizing their educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 83 collaboration and individual inputs in out-of-class time (lizzio & wilson, 2005). e. pfaff and p. huddleston (2003) reported that the perception of the fairness of workload distribution was a significant predictor of student attitudes towards group work. overall satisfaction with group work will be positively associated with the satisfaction with workload distribution in group work tasks (carrell & dittrich, 1978). this is consistent with the empirical study by j.m. werner and s.w. lester (2001), who concluded that workload sharing is positively related to team satisfaction. respondents in this research felt that team members in their groups did a fair share of the work, everyone contributed equitably to the work, and no member relied on others to do work for them. this suggests that they divided responsibilities fairly within the group, and had confidence and trust in other team members to complete the task and produce high quality work. such individual attitude and behavior enables the development of friendship within the team and satisfaction with cooperation (chou et al., 2008). in a learning environment, a fair share of work, including group work and reports, is seen to be crucial to many people when they are involved in a group project work. on the contrary, uneven distribution of workload in group assignments frustrates group members. according to the study of m.a. campion, g.j. medsker and a.c. higgs (1993), it is argued that fair workload distribution enhances group effectiveness by preventing free-riding. social loafing happens when some group members decrease individual effort or find ways to avoid doing a fair share of the work (latané, williams & harkins, 1979). free riding occurs when an individual collects the benefits of group output without contributing to the input at all (abernathy & lett, 2005). research suggests that social loafers who do not contribute often can manage to receive the same rewards as other hardworking members (jassawalla, sashittal & malshe, 2009). however, studies also show that perceived loafing to be detrimental to project success (bacon, stewart & stewart-belle, 1998; and hasan & ali, 2007); as well as team members’ overall satisfaction with group work (burdett & hastie, 2009). behaviors of social loafers are responsible for dysfunctional teamwork and are considered the greatest hindrance to members’ potential performance in a group (burdett & hastie, 2009). groups can learn more when the workload was evenly distributed and perceived fair workload sharing was a significant predictor of group performance and members’ perceived satisfaction (erez, lepine & elms, 2002; and erez ellis et al., 2003). hypothesis 1a: “workload equity has a positive impact on group learning effectiveness”. hypothesis 1b: “workload equity has a positive impact on group learning satisfaction”. second, mutual collaboration. in a group learning environment, mutual collaboration is defined as the presence of influence, communication, and support amongst group members with a view to enhancing learning effectiveness (aram & morgan, 1976). the process of mutual collaboration allows the occurrence of social dynamics, including mutual support, cohesion, cooperative goals, and collaborative interactions which includes group participation, information exchange, and joint elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 84 problem solving (andres & shipps, 2010). the presence of mutual collaboration is purposive for problem solving with an intention to achieving positive results (peters & manz, 2007). performance of teams can be enhanced if members help each other and have positive social interactions (campion, medsker & higgs, 1993). open and smooth interpersonal relations, including supportiveness, improve team satisfaction, and performance (gladstein, 1984). successful collaboration can bring along synergy in which the output is significantly enhanced in comparison to the input. for the group learning satisfaction, mutual collaboration can enhance team morale (heaney, price & rafferty, 1995); and has a significant relationship with work satisfaction and perceived learning (hoegl & gemuenden, 2001). in assessing research on student projects, j.m. werner and s.w. lester (2001) found mutual collaboration to be a significant predictor of team member’s perceptions on satisfaction. a study on higher education showed that collaboration mode can impact teamwork and project-based task outcomes, through creating a social structure that influences the capacity for a team to maintain a mutual supportive and positive climate (andres & shipps, 2010). hypothesis 2a: “mutual collaboration has a positive impact on group learning effectiveness”. hypothesis 2b: “mutual collaboration has a positive impact on group learning satisfaction”. impact of information transparency on workload equity. information transparency is related somewhat to team behaviors which involve information sharing (jassawalla & sashittal, 1999); and the degree to which team members have access to the information required for the tasks (street & meister, 2004). research shows that information transparency exists when team members are willing to collaborate as well as be open to inspection in order to receive valid feedback (popper & lipshitz, 2000); and can communicate and share information frequently (andres & shipps, 2010). the higher the trusting relationship amongst team members, the more comfortable they are in sharing their information and knowledge (jassawalla & sashittal, 1999). group work provides an opportunity for students to engage in peer-to-peer learning. learning is enhanced when students are able to share and clarify their knowledge and build creative problem solving capabilities (almond, 2009; and johnson & johnson, 2005). openness of the information exchange and sharing facilitates communication within a team can bring high satisfaction and greater personal growth (hoegl & gemuenden, 2001). sharing and communication of information amongst team members may also lead members to perceive opportunities for learning (ng & butts, 2009); and enhance the feeling of attachment to the team (sharp, 2006). likewise, team performance outcomes are impacted by the level of transparency and communication practices within a team (lovelace, shapiro & weingart, 2001; street & meister, 2004; and andres & shipps, 2010). r.j. vandenberg, h.a. richardson and l.j. eastman (1999) asserted that high performance work teams emphasize increasing transparency of information and knowledge amongst team members. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 85 hypothesis 3a: “information transparency positively moderates the impact of workload equity on learning effectiveness”. hypothesis 3b: “information transparency positively moderates the impact of workload equity on learning satisfaction”. impact of information transparency on mutual collaboration. mutual collaboration depends on trust in inter-personal relationships which is related to the frequency of transactions and the length of time the commercial relationship has been in place. more frequent transactions allow persons to demonstrate their reliability and good faith more quickly; thus, potentially building trust sooner (jassawalla & sashittal, 1999). people who meet frequently for transactions also have more opportunities to share information. as the commercial relationship becomes increasingly long term, person owners build confidence in each other and expectations grow that the relationship will continue. expectations of a continuing commercial relationship act to curb opportunism and promote risk-taking and investment (street & meister, 2004). trust is more difficult when some persons have information that others do not. in practice, asymmetric information about general market conditions, benefits, opportunities, and risks is the rule rather than the exception. information asymmetries can hinder the establishment of trust as individuals with less information may suspect that they are being unfairly exploited by those with more information (lovelace, shapiro & weingart, 2001). figure 1: testing the moderating role of information transparency on learning effectiveness and satisfaction workload equity mutual collaboration information transparency learning effectiveness learning satisfaction note: (1) a solid line and arrow represents a direct effect. (2) a broken line and arrow represents a moderating effect. elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 86 information transparency facilitates trust by reducing uncertainty and allowing persons to negotiate with each other on the basis of similar information. even though trust is the lubricant that allows commercial machinery to turn more smoothly, blind trust is a risky proposition in commercial relationships. a more prudent approach is to “trust but verify”. in the best case scenario, information transparency evolves into the active exchange of information and learning (ng & butts, 2009). this enhances opportunities for upgrading as vertical and horizontal linkages become conduits for the transfer of knowledge, skills, and technology. hypothesis 3c: “information transparency positively moderates the impact of mutual collaboration on learning effectiveness”. hypothesis 3d: “information transparency positively moderates the impact of team collaboration on learning satisfaction”. research methodology we conduct our research in three english-speaking universities in hong kong, a major metropolitan city in the southern region of china. with the assistance of some helpful professors and instructors in these universities, questionnaires were distributed to students during class breaks in the academic year of 2009-2010. around 501 questionnaires were distributed to eligible respondents, 492 (98%) questionnaires were collected, of which 53 questionnaires were incomplete, thereby providing 439 usable questionnaires for data analysis. measures. all items were rated using 5-point likert scales with the response scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). learning effectiveness was measured by using three items adopted from the team diagnostic survey by r. wageman, j.r. hackman and e.v. lehman (2005). learning satisfaction was measured by three items, of which two items came from the team diagnostic survey by r. wageman, j.r. hackman and e.v. lehman (2005) with special focus on assessing the general satisfaction of team members (m = 3.89, sd = 0.84,  = 0.84). the remaining item used for measuring individual satisfaction in this study was re-developed by the researchers based on d.g. hackman’s (1997) normative group effectiveness model (m = 3.92, sd = 0.61,  = 0.85). the items for measuring workload equity were adapted from those used by m.a. campion, g.j. medsker and a.c. higgs (1993) in their studies on job design, interdependence, composition, context, team process, and team effectiveness in group work (m = 3.22, sd = 0.92,  = 0.84). mutual collaboration is measured as the extent of cooperation which targets to achieve common team goals. we adopt six items developed by m. hoegl and h.g. gemuenden (2001) to measure this variable (m = 4.13, sd = 0.55,  = 0.93). information transparency refers to communication within the team relating to the frequency, formalization, structure, and openness of information exchange. the five-item scale from m. hoegl and h.g. gemuenden (2001) was used to measure this variable (m = 4.20, sd = 0.44,  = 0.94). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 87 study results all 439 respondents were undergraduate students. female students (53.1%) were more prevalent than male students (46.9%). participants in the questionnaire survey were asked to specify the total number of team members in the student group work with which they recalled having been involved. all the constructs, except the objective-based measurement, will be assessed by a 5-point scale (5 = highly agree, to 1 = highly disagree). we control for individual demographic data such as age, gender, education level. table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and reliabilities of all dependent and independent variables. table 1: descriptive statistics and reliability mean* std. dev. skewness kurtosis statistic st.err statistic st.err learning satisfaction (lsat) generally speaking, i am satisfied with this team. 4.01 .908 -.633 .110 -.374 .220 i enjoy the kind of work i do in this team. 3.82 1.013 -.523 .110 -.467 .220 my personal needs are more satisfied than frustrated by this team experience. 3.67 .912 -.543 .110 -.641 .220 learning effectiveness (leff) our team is able to achieve our objectives. 3.81 .657 -.823 .111 2.045 .221 if conflicts came up, they were easily and quickly resolved. 3.59 .782 -.703 .110 .550 .220 i learn a lot from other members in the group. 3.67 .710 -.498 .110 .568 .220 workload equity (workeq) everyone on my team did a fair share of the work. 3.41 .908 -.729 .110 -.314 .220 no one in my team depended on other team members to do the work for them. 3.30 1.013 -.309 .110 -.629 .220 nearly all the members on my team contributed equally to the work. 3.28 .912 -.383 .110 -.641 .220 mutual collaboration (mutcol) team members helped and supported each other. 3.76 .779 -.688 .110 .855 .220 suggestions of team members were respected. 4.05 .622 -.650 .111 2.120 .221 suggestions of team members were discussed and developed. 3.85 .672 -.834 .110 1.836 .220 information transparency (infotran) there was frequent communication within the team. 3.63 .851 -.483 .110 .200 .220 the team members communicated often in spontaneous meetings, phone conversations, etc. 3.50 .816 -.412 .111 -.044 .221 elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 88 mean* std. dev. skewness kurtosis statistic st.err statistic st.err the team members communicated mostly directly and personally with each other. 3.66 .833 -.556 .111 .197 .221 project-relevant information was shared openly by all members. 4.04 .741 -.674 .111 .788 .221 the team members were happy with the timeliness in which they received information from other team members. 3.53 .762 -.685 .110 .797 .220 the team members were happy with the precision of the information received from other team members. 3.66 .691 -.859 .110 1.201 .220 the team members were happy with the usefulness of the information received from other team members. 3.75 .714 -.925 .111 1.495 .221 * 1 = strongly disagree; and 5 = strongly agree. factor analysis and instrument validity. we use the method proposed by kaisermeyer-olkin to measure sample adequacy by means of the spss program (kaiser, 1974). the result is 0.824, showing that the sampling adequacy is very good and meets the assumption of exploratory factor analysis (efa). cronbach’s alpha was used to measure the internal consistency of the multi-item scales used in this study. as the cronbach’s alpha values of all of the constructs were over 0.7, it can be claimed that they are all reliable. the correlation matrix of the data set is shown in table 2. this enables us to examine all potentially overlapping constructs. if the items comprising a construct do not overlap much with other constructs (i.e. the ave of a construct is larger than its squared intercorrelations with other constructs), then discriminant validity of the construct is assured (fornell & larcker, 1981). table 2 shows also that the diagonal elements (reporting the square root of the variance shared between a construct and its measures) are all higher than the correlations between target constructs without exceptions, which suggest discriminant validity of all the constructs in this study. table 2: correlation matrix ave 1 2 3 4 5 learning satisfaction. .693 (.833) learning effectiveness. .579 .387** (.761) workload equity. .519 .355** .496** (.720) mutual collaboration. .668 .329** .474** .580** (.818) information transparency. .726 .127** .245** .237** .303** (.714) ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). diagonal elements (shown in parenthesis) report the square root of the variance shared between a construct and its measures. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 89 to check the existence of common method bias, we conducted the harmon one-factor analysis suggested by p.m. podsakoff and d.w. organ (1986). a factor analysis combining every variable in the research framework did not detect a single factor explaining the majority of covariance. in addition, the results of the regression analysis showed different degrees of significance for the regression coefficients. the above evidence collectively suggests that common method bias was not a serious concern in this study. test of hypotheses. the results of the regression analysis are presented in table 3. both workload equity (workeq) and mutual collaboration (mutcol) have some significant influences on learning satisfaction (lsat) and learning effectiveness (leff). the interaction effects of information transparency (infotran) on the significant influences of both workload equity and mutual collaboration are also significant. hence, all hypotheses in this study were supported. table 3: multivariate analysis dependent variable parameter b std. error t significance lsat intercept 2.822 .337 8.387 .001 workeq .356 .075 4.768 .001** mutcol .200 .071 2.818 .005* workeq * infotran .098 .019 -.035 .972* mutcol * infotran .147 .020 2.396 .017* leff intercept .334 .289 1.153 .250 workeq .354 .064 5.507 .002** mutcol .285 .061 4.658 .003** workeq * infotran .135 .016 2.130 .034* mutcol * infotran .079 .017 .081 .966* ** significant at the 0.01 level. * significant at the 0.05 level. conclusion and recommendation the findings of this study are consistent with the results of previous studies on team effectiveness that found conflicts and individual satisfaction to be negatively associated and interpersonal understanding amongst team members to be positively correlated with team learning (druskat, 2000; and de dreu & weingart, 2003). on top of this observation, our study contributes to literature by highlighting the significance of information transparency in the group learning process. because of changing economics and increasing competition in the business environment, the use of teams to undertake projects are likely to continue to be popular in both business and educational settings. this study makes two contributions to the body of knowledge relating to the effectiveness of such teams and in particular of the individuals within them. elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 90 first, this research contributes to business pedagogical research by providing evidence of team process effects on the effectiveness of individual satisfaction. it produced an empirically verified model to provide insights for management educators and students on factors contributing to individual satisfaction in a team experience. results of this research indicate that team process impacts individual satisfaction. the findings of this study indicate that although students are working together on a temporary basis on group assignments, they exhibit behavior consistent with those of permanent teams in the workplace. second, this study dispels the generally held assumption that students instinctively know how to work together as a team and will find group work a rewarding experience. identification of the effect of the different dimensions of team process on student satisfaction lays an important foundation for educators and students when considering process interventions for improving team attitude, knowledge, and skills in student projects. limitations despite of the study’s success in producing practical suggestions for enhancing team process and improving personal satisfaction in student teams, the research itself has limitations that need to be identified and explained. a basic limitation of this study involves its inability to predict causal relationships because the data were cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. the findings can only show the influence between the independent and dependent variables, but no conclusions can be drawn on whether the relationships are causal. this research has applied a quantitative methodology to study team process as a positive and significant influencing factor on individual satisfaction. specifically, the research examined the positive effect of three team process characteristics on individual satisfaction. although it is recognized that there might be other contributing factors, this research only studied the effect of these three factors as antecedents to individual satisfaction. last but not least, since the survey sample was restricted to a business student population in hong kong, there is a limitation to generalization of the results to a more diverse student population. recommendation based on the findings of the study, several recommendations are made for future research. first, as this study collected data on a cross-sectional basis only, a longitudinal research aimed at investigating the effects over time of a variety of interventions, using multi-method measurements, could further the knowledge of causality of relationships and help determine what strategies enhance satisfaction, and learning over time when students undertake group work. second, as this research was limited to hong kong’s business students, it is not clear if the factors investigated in this study apply equally to university students of disciplines other than business or indeed to non-university students. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 91 future research is needed to examine this. last but not least, only five constructs were examined in this study for the purpose of understanding determinants of student satisfaction in team work. further studies are recommended to consider other constructs which might also have an impact on learning effectiveness and satisfaction. examples of such variables are team diversity, group cohesion, and leadership. references abernathy, a.m. & w.l. lett. 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(2005). “a study of collaborative learning style and team learning performance” in education + training, 47, pp.216-229. elvy pang & humphry hung, learning effectiveness and satisfaction in study groups 94 picture of chinese students in hong kong (source: www.google.com, 15/7/2012) group work can enhance students’ understanding and interest. this collective way of learning provides an excellent opportunity for students to share their learning experience and, thus, learn from each other through cooperation and interaction among themselves. educare 3-1.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 23 teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics at malaysian secondary schools termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed abstract: this purpose of study was to identify teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics at form 4 and form 5 levels at penang secondary schools. other aspects observed were the knowledge and basic skills of the teachers in the use of computer, the methods used in the teaching and learning of economics and their perceptions towards the use of courseware in the teaching and learning process. in this study, 30 in-service teachers were chosen randomly as research samples, representing the teachers’ population teaching economics in 96 schools in penang. this study was carried out using the quantitative approach. descriptive statistics used include frequency, %age, and min relativity index. the findings showed that teachers teaching economics at penang secondary schools are receptive about the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics. they also believed that the usage could also bring benefits to the students. the results of the overall relativity index show that there is readiness among the teachers in using courseware in the teaching and learning of economics at the form 4 and form 5 levels. a few suggestions for improvements in the teaching and learning process have also been put forth in this paper. key words: teachers’ perceptions, courseware, economics, knowledge and basic skills, computer, and teaching and learning process. introduction the explosion of icts (information and communication technologies) in malaysia has given positive impact towards the development of the malaysian education system. since the inception of the computer literacy program in july 1992, malaysia has from then started to make information technology as a culture in the nation’s education (mohamad, 2001). to produce information-savvy citizens, malaysian ministry of education has introduced the smart school concept in 1998 to provide education with quality in its effort to maximise the attainment of the national education philosophy. information technology became the main component in the implementation of this smart school project. termit kaur ranjit singh and abdul rashid mohamed are the lecturers at the school of educational studies usm (science university of malaysia), pulau pinang, malaysia. one of them can be reached at: termitk@usm.my termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 24 as one component in ict, courseware1 is seen as a teaching tool that could hopefully help enhance students’ understanding of the taught subjects. courseware is a product that which consists of teaching materials programmed and stored in storage media such as the cd rom (aczel et al., 2003; and juliette & torrisissteele, 2005). it is also a form of interactive multimedia that could enhance students’ motivation and in understanding what they learn. the courseware is also a tool that can help vary the teaching methods used by teachers and also as a source for students in their learning process of economics at the form 4 and form 5 levels in secondary schools in penang. statement of the problem aligned with the government’s efforts in developing and improving the quality of the nation’s education system through ict (information and communication technology), malaysian education system also goes through significant innovative processes, particularly in the ways or methods of teaching practised by teachers in schools. coursewares began to be developed for the purpose of encouraging self-learning, providing direct, and immediate responses, as well as for continuous interactions. however, the development of courseware only covers language subjects, science, mathematics, pre-school, biology, chemistry, and physics. relevant courseware series for economics has yet to be developed. meanwhile, lecture or “chalk and talk” methods are practised in the teaching and learning process of economics, limiting the opportunities for the students in exploring or studying the subject topics. this method of teaching also limits the opportunities for the students to learn in a more creative method. research objectives and questions this research aimed to provide views and suggestions on the use of courseware in the teaching of economics for form 4 and 5 in penang secondary schools. the research objectives are: (1) to identify basic knowledge and frequency in computer usage by teachers of economics at the form 4 and form 5 in penang schools; (2) to track current practices by teachers in the teaching and learning processes of form 4 and form 5 level economics; and (3) to identify teachers’ opinions on the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of form 4 and form 5 level economics. this research is done particularly to find answers to the following questions: (1) what is the level of computer knowledge and the usage frequency of the computers by the form 4 and 5 economics teachers in penang?; (2) what are the form 4 and form 5 teachers’ practices in the teaching and learning processes of economics?; and (3) what are the opinions or perceptions of penang teachers towards the use of courseware for the teaching and learning of form 4 and form 5 level economics? 1 courseware is a program that is developed and built which is stored in storage media, such as cd rom. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 25 literature review j.t. mayes and c.j. fowler (1999) and d.g. juliette and g. torrisi-steele (2005) are some of the many researchers who have done study on teachers’ perceptions towards the use of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics. j.t. mayes and c.j. fowler, in their research entitled “learning technology and usability: a framework for understanding courseware” (1999), state that the courseware framework should be aligned with the learning level. the utilisation of education software needs a different type of measurement from the usage contexts of other fields. this is because learning is a product of students’ understanding of particular subjects. thus, education software should be built according to the suitability with various learning methods. the development of courseware that has various approaches and activities must provide meaningful contexts for the subject. therefore, a framework was shaped by the researchers to provide a guideline for the development of courseware that would fulfil the needs in the teaching and learning process. effective courseware is one that includes information that is extracted from the meanings in the teaching process, and in addition, the usage and learning effectiveness of the concept would include the main purpose of learning. from the viewpoint of the researchers, trials in the use of technology without evaluating the students’ understanding level will produce unachievable expected products of teaching and learning. the findings of this research showed that learning can be well-observed through students’ understanding level and the understanding must be developed individually through evaluations on their work or assignments. the developments of the students’ understanding also depend on the students’ response frequency, whilst the third one is that the learning model formation development should be according to the levels. the students’ learning also relies on the personal, social and organizational contexts. the researchers also discussed on the concept in tertiary software in which it includes the element of partial experience through dialogues in the education situations. the usage of education software is divided into three which are primary, secondary and tertiary software. in the usage of primary software, students would identify the total meaning extracted from the information presented. the secondary software stresses upon the needs for approaches that are based on assignments for learning. for the tertiary software, the usage of the software is to test each student’s understanding through answering questions, opinion giving or challenging different positions. the elements raised in the research were conceptual learning and opinions on the conceptual learning which could be applied in the building of economics courseware. meanwhile, r.l. bangert-drowns and curtis pyke, in “teacher ratings of student engagement with educational software: an exploratory study” (2002), state that teachers who use software for the purpose of teaching must identify differences in various student involvement quality so that they can be better in termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 26 conducting, as well as responding to the students’ learning needs. in this research, the problems in students’ involvement were also identified and divided into three categories: non-involvement, unsystematic involvement, and obstructed involvement. however, the research focused on the involvement factor, which is the involvement dependency structure, apart from their interest in the subject matter, critical involvement and literacy thinking. the self-dependency structure showed the students’ ability in handling and moving the software efficiently in order to achieve the objectives through the use of software. this research also provided basis for the study as students’ behaviours towards the software was categorized to identify students’ weaknesses based on each learning style. d.g. juliette and g. torrisi-steele, in “pedagogies for teaching about puberty on cd-rom for student-teachers” (2005), developed cd-roms with eight constructivist principles which are: (1) linking all learning activities to assignments or big problems; (2) encouraging students to develop ownership of all the assignments; (3) designing original and genuine assignments; (4) designing assignments and learning environments that represent difficulties in the environment, which then enable the students to function well at the end of the learning process; (5) providing spaces for students so that they can self-process in developing certain solutions; (6) designing learning environment to support and challenge students’ thinking abilities; (7) encouraging idea testing to challenge opinions and alternative contexts; and (8) preparing opportunities to support reflections on the contents learned and the learning processes itself. d.g. juliette and g. torrisi-steele (2005) also stated that one of the benefits of using technology was the ability to encourage students to be actively involved and to express their personal reflections on certain issues. the study provided a dimension in the building of courseware, in addition to the statements on the benefits of using multimedia technology along with the eight constructivist principles and bloom’s objectives in encouraging learning and producing a variety in pedagogy. methodology both the qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in looking at the descriptive research sample results for the purpose of providing a portrayal of the current teachers’ teaching practices and their perceptions towards using a courseware for the teaching and learning of the economics subject. the data were gathered using quantitative method following the appropriateness in presenting the quantified values, numbers, and frequencies gathered through a set of questionnaire. the research samples consisted of 30 or 31.25% of teachers teaching economics in secondary schools in the state of penang. this sample was selected randomly and it represented the teacher population teaching economics in 96 secondary schools in penang. the questionnaire used was divided into 4 parts as follows: (1) part a which consisted of demographic data on teachers and their profiles; (2) part b gathered educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 27 information on teachers’ knowledge and basic skills on computers; (3) part c provided information on the current teaching and learning practices of in-service teachers teaching economics; and (4) part d was about teachers’ opinions on the usage of courseware in economics. the research design is as shown in figure 1 below: figure 1: research design final analysis (quantitative data) documentation study data analysis data collection data collection data interpretation problem statements and identification of research questions data analysis questionnaire the data gathered were analysed using relativity index and descriptive statistics. data that were gathered from the questionnaires were analysed using frequency analysis and relativity index. ri (relativity index) is calculated using the formula below (robyler, 1988): ri = � (1n1 + 2n2 + 3n3 + 4n4 + 5n5) 5(1n1 + 2n2 + 3n3 + 4n4 + 5n5) where: nx = total respondents that agreed with choice x. x = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 as described below: 1 = the frequency of “highly disagree” (hda) responses. 2 = the frequency of ”disagree” (da) responses. 3 = the frequency of ”not sure” (ns) responses. 4 = the frequency of ”agree” (a) responses. 5 = the frequency of ”highly agree” (ha) responses. termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 28 research analysis and results based on the results of the survey that was carried out, it was found that 100% of the teachers each own a computer. there are 12 teachers or 40% who also use the schools’ computers. one teacher was found to use computers in cyber cafes as well. this research also showed the purposes and frequencies in computer usage by respondents as stated in the table below: table 1: the distribution of respondents based on the frequencies and purposes of usage (in % age) purpose frequency (more than 5 hours per week) often (2-5 hours per week) sometimes (1 hour or less) never typing letters or other documents. 16.67% 80.00% 3.33% playing computer games. 16.67% 83.33% preparing teaching materials. 10.00% 90.00% administering record safekeeping (marks, students’ information, etc.). 16.67% 70.34% 9.99% class presentations (power point, cd/dvd). 9.99% 76.67% 3.33% in addition, through the analysis done on the survey results, it is found that 29 or 96.67% of teachers surf the internet at home, and 10 or 33.33% of teachers surf it while in school and the same total of number of teachers did it elsewhere. support tools are an important aspect for the knowledge discourse to be conveyed by a teacher. the research result shows that 100% of teachers use blackboards and 76.67% or 26 teachers use manila cards as their teaching aids. a total of 28 teachers or 93.34% of the respondents use concrete models and the same total of respondents used pictures or graphics. synonymous with economics, tabled data or statistics are also used by 27 teachers or 90.00% of teachers as teaching support tools. twenty five teachers or 83.33% teachers use flow charts and the same number utilise distributed notes. only 16.67% of the respondents or 5 teachers use overhead projectors (ohp) in their teaching and learning process. the results of the researchers’ early survey on teachers’ opinions on penang form 4 and 5 economics subject courseware usage can be summed as shown in table 2 below: educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 29 table 2: distribution of respondents based on their opinions towards courseware usage (in % ages) no item response %age hda da ns a ha 4.1 i feel confident if i use courseware in teaching economics 83.33 16.67 4.2 the teaching and learning processes in economics will be more interest ing with the presence of courseware because it includes a lot of coloured pictures for teaching illustrations. 50 50 4.3 educators must be skilful in compu ter usage in order to guarantee the effectiveness of courseware usage in teaching and learning of econom ics. 23.33 76.67 4.4 the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics will encourage students to be active in the processes of teaching and learning. 36.67 63.33 4.5 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics will indirectly produce educators who are computer savvy. 43.33 56.67 4.6 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics enable students to review notes at any time at home. 20 63.33 16.67 4.7 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics enable students to review tutorial questions at anytime at home. 10 83.33 6.67 4.8 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics, students are free to do exercises without time limitations. 26.67 63.33 10 4.9 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics, students do not feel pressured if they do not understand the topics taught because they can learn them repeatedly using courseware until they have truly understood them. 6.67 23.33 63.33 6.67 4.10 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics will be able to lessen students’ fear because they can learn in an interesting environment. 36.67 56.67 6.66 termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 30 4.11 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics, the learning environment will be more cheerful. 43.33 56.67 4.12 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics will be able to initiate student centred learning. 50 50 4.13 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics requires tedious preparation to ensure the teaching and learning objectives are met. 36.67 63.33 4.14 i feel happy to teach economics using the courseware because it can train me to be more skilful. 6.66 43.33 50 from the research done, it is found that, in general, teachers have positive perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics. on the relativity index analysis table 3 below shows the relativity index analysis results which classify each item according to the fixed scales. as a whole, all items involved lean towards agree and highly agree, which show that there is a willingness for teachers in using courseware, in addition to the benefits to students, in particular. table 3: relativity index (ri) based on opinions towards courseware usage no item ri ri classification 4.1 i feel confident if i use courseware in teaching economics. 0.838 highly agree 4.2 the teaching and learning processes in economics will be more interesting with the presence of courseware because it includes a lot of coloured pictures for teaching illustrations. 0.9 highly agree 4.3 educators must be skilful in computer usage in order to guar antee the effectiveness of courseware usage in teaching and learning of economics. 0.925 highly agree 4.4 the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of eco nomics will encourage students to be active in the processes of teaching and learning. 0.738 agree 4.5 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics will indirectly produce educators who are computer savvy. 0.913 highly agree 4.6 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics enable students to review notes at any time at home. 0.788 agree educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 31 4.7 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics enable students to review tutorial questions at anytime at home. 0.788 agree 4.8 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics, students are free to do exercises without time limitations. 0.763 agree 4.9 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of economics, students do not feel pressured if they do not under stand the topics taught because they can learn them repeatedly using courseware until they have truly understood them. 0.75 agree 4.10 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics will be able to lessen students’ fear because they can learn in an interesting environment. 0.738 agree 4.11 with the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of eco nomics, the learning environment will be more cheerful. 0.738 agree 4.12 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics will be able to initiate student centred learning. 0.9 highly agree 4.13 the usage of courseware in teaching and learning of econom ics requires tedious preparation to ensure the teaching and learning objectives are met. 0.925 highly agree 4.14 i feel happy to teach economics using the courseware because it can train me to be more skilful. 0.888 highly agree from the relativity index as shown in table 3 above, and consistent with the frequency analysis, teachers seem positive about using a courseware for the purpose of teaching and learning of the economics subject. research shows that the courseware does not only give benefits to the students, but teachers could also vary their teaching methods and carry out more activities that are interesting and fun. from the questionnaire data analysis, the research results could be summarized as follows: (1) there is high computer usage for the purpose of presentations in classes which are done 2-5 hours per week; (2) the majority of teachers have basic computer knowledge and possess their own computers, as well as use the internet; (3) teachers are still fully dependent on textbooks as teaching resources; (4) the usage of support tools for teaching and teaching and learning activities that are not technology based are widely used but the teaching method is not varied and is limited; (5) the frequency in training provision is once a week; (6) the research results show that economics teachers, generally, have positive perceptions towards courseware usage in the teaching and learning of economics; (7) economics teachers also have positive opinions on students benefiting from the teachers use of courseware in the teaching and learning process; and (8) the results of the overall relativity index fall in the agree and highly agree classifications which indicate that there is willingness among teachers to use courseware particularly as they are of the opinion that it would benefit the students greatly. termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 32 discussion and conclusion research done shows that the usage of technology, particularly courseware, has brought many benefits in improving the effectiveness in the processes of teaching and learning. courseware is an important tool in varying the teaching and learning methods for economics for form 4 and 5 in malaysian secondary schools. the use of courseware in the teaching and learning process can help strengthen the students’ understanding. it can also assist teachers’ computer skills. this would help fulfil the plan in integrating technology into education. from this research, it has been found that few researchers have dwelled in doing research in the economics subject taught in schools in malaysia. hence, there has not been much development in the teaching and learning approaches used by economics teachers in malaysia. unlike the mathematics and science or the language subjects, the economics subject taught in the malaysian schools has not received much attention at all. the development in the teaching and learning approaches for economics has been minimal compared with other subjects like science, mathematics, languages, and others. this is clear when a comparison is made between these subjects in the aspects of teaching support tools usage, as well as computer and technology usage. this research on teachers’ perceptions towards courseware usage would be useful as a basis for the building of the economics courseware. it is suggested that in-service teachers and pre-service teachers be trained to use computers effectively. further research is suggested on the opinions of teachers on the use of courseware to teach economics subject in rural schools in malaysia. views and the perceptions of teachers on the needs of a teaching courseware for the economics subject should be given serious consideration by the ministry of education. it is hoped that the development of courseware for the economics subject is given due consideration by the ministry. references aczel, james et al. (2003). “software that assists learning within a complex abstract domain: the use of constraint and consequentiality as learning mechanism” in british journal of educational technology, 34(5), pp.625-638. bangert-drowns, r.l. & curtis pyke. (2002). “teachers ratings of student engagement with educational software: an exploratory study” in educational technology research and development, 50(2), pp.22-38. christmann, e. & j. badgett. (1999). “a comparative analysis of the effect of the computer assisted instruction on student achievement in differing science and demographical areas” in journal of computers in mathematics and science teaching, 18(2), pp.135-143. educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(1) 2010 33 hasselbring, t.s., l.i. goin & j.d. bransford. (1988). “developing math automaticity in learning handicapped children: the role of computerized drill and practice” in focus on exceptional children, 20, pp.1-7. juliette d.g. & g. torrisi-steele. (2005). “pedagogies for teaching about puberty on cd-rom for student-teachers” in british journal of educational technology, 36(2), pp.339-343. kulik, c.c. & j.a. kulik. (1986). “effects of computer based education in colleges” in aeds journal, 19(2-3), pp.81-100. mayes, j.t. & c.j. fowler. (1999). “learning technology and usability: a framework for understanding courseware”. also available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science [accessed in pulau penang, malaysia: 15 september 2009]. mohamad, h. (2001). “information and communication technology (ict): the role of teacher education division”. paper presented at the asia and the pacific seminar/workshop on educational technology, tokyo, japan. mohd azlan nafiah, kartini ahmad & salmiah ahmad. (2006). “interactive courseware: stereochemistry”. also available at http//:www.upsi.edu.my [accessed in pulau penang, malaysia: 31 august 2009]. robyler, m.d. (1988). “the effectiveness of microcomputer in education: a review of research from 1980-1987” in t.h.e. journal, 16(2), pp.85-89. shakinaz desa & che soh said. (2003). “the development of biology multimedia interactive courseware: photosynthesis”. also available at http//:www.upsi.edu.my [accessed in pulau penang, malaysia: 31 august 2009]. squires, david & anne mcdougall. (1994). choosing and using educational software: a teachers’ guide. london, uk: the falmer press. williams, dorothy et al. (2000). “teachers and ict: current use and future needs” in british journal of educational technology, 31(4), pp.307-320. termit kaur ranjit singh & abdul rashid mohamed, teachers’ perceptions towards the usage of courseware in the teaching and learning of economics 34 there has not been much development in the teaching and learning approaches used by economics teachers in malaysia. unlike the mathematics and science or the language subjects, the economics subject taught in the malaysian schools has not received much attention at all. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 i© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare volume 8(2) february 2016 print issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [ii] marites c. geronimo, marie grace s. cabansag & agnes s. reyes, indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices of the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela, philippines. [115-128] ahmad & anton jaelani, developing a simulation of transformation geometry by using flash. [129-138] farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari, recognize teachers’ perception of the school-based assessment (sba) effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics. [139-146] jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills among grade three pupils through pictorial models. [147-158] affero ismail, norhasni zainal abiddin & andi suwirta, developing effective workforce via industrial based project supervision: a case in malaysian technical and vocational education and training institutions. [159-168] info-edu-tainment. [169-178] educare journal will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issue of february 2009 to date, the educare journal has been organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 ii © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. the publication of educare journal, issue of february 2016, was delayed, for several reasons, including because all data and articles’ files in the editor computer were infected by a virus. as a result, the editor must contact all authors, via e-mail, to send back their full articles. indeed, not all authors, whose their articles will be published in this journal, responded well, even there are the authors who cancel and reject his/her article to be published in the educare journal, issue of february 2016. faced with this reality, the editor could not do anything and even resigned to it. the editor eventually has to re-edit the articles that have received, by requiring a time not short to do it. the development of science and technology, especially iti (information technology and internet), has changed the world; and enable people to communicate and interact rapidly and widespread. geographical boundaries of a nation-state so easily to be penetrated and not a barrier anymore. the way of our working everyday is also changing, with the help of science and technology, including in managing the scholarly journals. if managing the scholarly journal conventionally, in the past, it was very long time in the process of editing and printing, also including the long time and limited in the dissemination process of articles in journals that have been published, then now is the opposite: a fast-paced, instant, and widespread in the distribution process. if managing the scholarly journal conventionally, in the past, was still to be printed and less environmentally friendly, because it had to use the paper for example, so now completely in an online version and does not damage the environment. however, the development of science and technology also carries implications which, if not well be anticipated, will bring the values that are less good. mode of working that wants a quick, instant, and massive often reduces the values about the importance of thinking quietly, working diligently and thoroughly, and more concerned with quantity than quality. in other words, the development of science and technology – in its implementation – should be guided by good values in moral, religion, and social ethics. in this context, including in managing the scholarly journals, so the means of modern work that is not accompanied by the good values, in turn, will result a scholarly journal with its articles that fails to demonstrate the findings in-depth study, including in the process of editing to the journal articles that are less professional. the fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia still believe and had high expectations towards the executive board of aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java – through the minda masagi press – to always pay attention and to practice the good values in the life. despite facing many obstacles, such as delay in publishing the issue of february 2016, but the process of reviewing and editing of the articles that are received remain to be done with diligent, thorough, and professional manners, which in the end – when the dissemination process of journals in an online version – produce the quality articles in the journal that are good and proud. process and good results will also likely lead to a “trust” from the stakeholders, in this case are the candidates of journal authors, in order to always send their best articles to be published in the scholarly journals that be organized and managed professionally. the articles published in the educare journal, issue of february 2016, come from the authors of three countries: indonesia, malaysia, and the philippines. their articles are results of the study that quite deep and contributing the significant ideas in the development of science. the authors from indonesia, for example, examined how to simulate the course of transformation geometry, which was considered difficult by the students in general, in lecturing process, so that the subject becomes easy to comprehend and well understood. thus, a teacher or a lecturer needs to be continously thinking and finding the appropriate methods in the learning or lecturing process, so that pupils or students can follow it easily, attractively, happy, and provide meaningful knowledge. articles from the authors of philippines, one, also examines how to teach algebra to the elementary school children through pictorial model approach, so that the lessons is easy to understand actively, creatively, funy, effectively, and meaningfully by the pupils at the school. while another article, from the philippines, examines the “local knowledge” from one of the tribes in the isabela province, the philippines, namely tribe of agta who are very concern on ways to maintain and preserve the environment that is good and harmonious, from generation to generation, until now. articles of malaysia’s authors, that one, examines the effectiveness of using the sba (school-based assessment) for mathematics, so that students in the school to get an understanding and a satisfactory academic achievement. back again that the teacher’s creativity in managing the tlp (teaching and learning process) in the classroom is very important. while other an article is the result of collaboration between authors from malaysia and author from indonesia, which examines the effectiveness of supervising and guiding process in the institutions of educational and vocational technology in malaysia. as stated by the authors of this article that the ability to develop effective supervision in tvet (technical and vocational education and training) should be catered in many ways which reflect the needs of students, for example by providing training to new supervisors. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). purwokerto, central java, indonesia: february 28, 2016. dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad rector of ump in purwokerto, central java; and honorable patron of the educare journal in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare august 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 69 which should not be ignored, to ensure that fiqh learning is on par with the modern technologial and scientific advancement nowadays. at present, tafaqquh programme is based on contemporary fiqh learning modules and it is the foundation for practising and implementing effective tafaqquh programme. this approach is more realistic in improving the function and contribution of fiqh learning in facing the changing system of lifestyle now. even as the emphasis given by dr ali sami al-nasyar (1962), the whole debate in the philosophy of knowledge of islamic culture is based on arguments of the al-qur’an. these great resources, repeatedly urged people to observe carefully all cases of creation of allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala). next, he asserted that the method of qiyas and research methodology has been triggered since the first generation of islam (sami al-nasyar, 1962). positive phenomenon is a source of dr. alias azhar is a senior lecturer at the school of law, college of law, government, and international studies uum (university of utara malaysia), 06010 sintok, kedah darul aman, malaysia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via: phone: +60125898510 or +604-9284953. fax: +604-9286563/6565. e-mail: az.alias@uum.edu.my introduction institutions of mosques and colleges are the primary basis and a catalyst towards the establishment of the islamic education system and the drafting of a more systematic, such as madrasahs and universities in the islamic world (latif hamindong, 1993). in the beginning, observatories and hospitals is also a form of practical education institutions have relationships with universities and madrasahs. its offer lectures about the theoretical nature of medical science and astronomy, while the observatory and the hospital became a place of professors and students practice the theories (ma’ruf, 1969; and ishak, 1995). the main aim of ensuring dynamic fiqh learning is through the enrichment of tafaqquh programme module in mosques. it is clear that fiqh learning requires a dynamic teaching and learning mechanism. it is obvious that this focus is the most significant aspect alias azhar contemporary fiqh learning module at mosques in malaysia abstract: this paper focuses on the module development model for “tafaqquh” at the mosque. the “tafaqquh” programme has been systematically conducted jointly by malaysia islamic development department, the state islamic affairs department and mosques’ management committees. the programme has been made successful and effective by the contribution and cooperation of “takmir” teachers who have been appointed and trained intensively. these “takmir” teachers play very significant roles in the realisation of the aspiration and the scheme in developing knowledgeable society through the involvement of the mosque. to get the holistic view of the theme and subject of the study, focus is made on several key elements: the history of the development of islamic studies module in the societies of the muslim civilization; islamic education theory which correlates to the national philosophy of islamic education; “fiqh” learning method from the current methodology and pedagogy; and finally the presentation of the current “tafaqquh” module of alternative islam in malaysia. the learning of “fiqh” must be viewed from a broad context and it should be able to have an influence on the life of human beings from all living aspects.the philosophy of islamic education, which is based on al-qur’an and al-sunnah, should be able to be implemented realistically. the modification and upgrade of the “fiqh” learning syllabus in mosques require a drastic approach, besides practical module construction. through these, it is hoped that the learning of “fiqh” through the “tafaqquh” program in mosques will progress on par with modernisation and current “’urf ” awareness in the society. key words: “tafaqquh” programme, “fiqh” learning, islamic education, national philosophy, muslim society, and mosques in malaysia. alias azhar, contemporary fiqh learning module 70 inspiration and motivation for muslims to study, investigate, and explore various methods and test procedures and observations in the development of their knowledge (nasution, 1989; and halim el-muhammady, 1992). in addition, the islamic civilization scholarly resources contained in the great teachings of islam, at the same time also to apply the process of adaptation and assimilation of foreign civilization that does not conflict with the teachings. seyyed hossein nasr (1988) has asserted that the source of islamic civilization catalyst consists of: (1) strength of the teachings of islam sources revelation itself are al-qur’an and alsunnah of the prophet muhammad; and (2) civilizations that developed in tandem with the development of islam in the same time it does not conflict with islamic principles. nature of cultural openness that exists in the islamic civilization and knowledge is the internal factors that encourage the mastery of science and glorious excellence, and applications and implications of science also become more realistic and not just mystical. in that deals, with the development of science in islamic civilization, is the result of the interaction and integration between sound great source of islamic teachings and adaptation of foreign sources of knowledge. dr. c.a. qadir (1988:9) have concluded that the distribution of knowledge that refers to resources in history and islamic civilization is as follows: (1) knowledge arising from sources revelation, al-qur’an and al-sunnah; (2) knowledge born of wisdom or resources referred laduni or intuition knowledge; and (3) knowledge called science intellectual. from the historical perspective of the muslim realm, we can see that the muslim society has understood and has totally practised this symbiotic paradigm. based on the analysis of muslim intellectuals, the development of the fiqh learning module in the muslim domain can be seen from several main theories (syaukani, 1999:67-86). in conclusion, we can identify the fact that the islamic studies module, which had developed in the muslim society for decades, is dynamic, flexible, and very influential on the muslim culture; and is regarded as the ultimate force which can have an effect on the islamic government. the national islamic education philosophy the islamic education institutions in malaysia has gone through a long period; at the initial stage, learning was institutionalised in the houses of the religious teachers (langgulung, 1997:48). later, when the houses were not able to accomodate the growing number of students, the learning shifted to mosques which created lodgings of the students in the vicinity which eventually developed into pondok, a learning system whereby students live in dormitories provided by the teacher (ishak, 1994:161). the pondok system was dominated by the non-elites of the society (azra, 1999:87). the palace of the sultans too became early islamic education institution but was reserved for the elites (rahman abdullah, 1989:145). the madrasah institution was introduced successfully to compete with secular learning system (abu bakar, 1990:7); giving an alternative to the pondok system. the first higher level islamic education institution was established in kelantan (wan omar, 1983:100). referring specifically to the learning of fiqh, especially in malaysia, the main reference was the sect of al-shafi’i’s turath (kpm, 2005:20-26); which became the main factor for taqlid widespread in fiqh thoughts. history has proven that a society which shuns matters other than its sectarian beliefs or having a traditionalist view will be less critical and creative (supena, 2002:93-96) as they are made to fear religious and political authority. idea generation, determination, and the courage to challenge dominancy of other religion’s status quo will also be reduced. national islamic education philosophy in malaysia is a superior platform in the holistic development of fiqh learning. however, a philosophy will remain a philosophy if it is not applied accordingly. the following is an excerpt of the national islamic education philosophy in malaysia. islamic education is a continuous effort to impart knowledge, skills, and appreciation of islam based on al-qur’an dan al-sunnah to develop attitude, skills, personality, and life’s perspective as a servant of allah; with the responsibility to develop one self, the society, the educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 71 environment, and the nation for the betterment of life in the world and eternal prosperity in the world beyond (kpm, 2002:ii). realistically, al-qur’an is not translated only on its textual characteristics but also on contexttuality (reality). guidance from allah is not without essence; the holy al-qur’an forms an individual’s character so as to ensure he is able to manage himself and the system in the context of pure faith. in the al-qur’an, there are nearly 200 verses on science (yahya, 2003). the ability of muslim scientists to conduct tadabbur and tafakkur (majid an-najjar, 2002:43-45; dan azaruddin husni, 2004:181183) has enabled islamic scientific tradition to rise gloriously. in islamic scientific tradition, technology in any form is considered as a tool. technology simplifies and shortens means, but it is not the final goal. technology develops, its product is creative and innovative because research tradition progresses forward. new inputs in technology development enables it to permeate into every sector of life; its impact on consumers is overwhelming. in the education world, the importance of tool and goal go hand in hand. in relation to this, ibn khaldun (1968:422) opines that the goals of education are: (1) to prepare an individual religiously; (2) to complement man’s moral values; (3) to complement man’s social values; (4) to complement an individuals vocational and career; and (5) to increase thinking ability. it is obvious that the content of the national islamic education philosophy is relevant to the actual aim of education. however, the integrative value of science in the curiculum has to be formulated intelligently, creatively, and comprehensively. this approach is important to generate human resource that can contribute effectively in the nation’s development process. besides, from the context of education and training, integrative knowledge is significant in forming a holistic personality which encompasses the mind, spiritual, and physical aspects. the development and progress of a country depends on the character and charisma of the people born through its education system. the education system in malaysia cannot avoid change, especially after its independence (ahmad, 1993:51-56). education involves individual development process (hashim, 1999). from western’s point of view, education is related to the process of information transfer, credibility, and experience from teacher to pupils or from lecturer to students (wan daud, 1991:10-30). education from islamic perspective takes into consideration individual and system development factors. because dynamic system changes, curiculum type and metodology must also undergo change (mohd hashim, 1999:262-263). however, the change in the education system maintains its fundamental basis to ensure the nature of knowledge develops and able to adapt itself to time. the national islamic education philosophy is in tandem with the national education philosophy (kpm, 2005:6); which focuses on the development of a balanced individual, integrative, and harmonious. nevertheless a philosophy will only be a slogan if the curiculum applied is not concurrent with its philosophical statement. curiculum is a tangible plan (mohd said, 1992:24). it is concrete in interpreting intention, needs, philosophy, and educational goals. curiculum is also a blueprint, a guide to accomplish a plan or programme (hashim, 1999:259-264). therefore, the success of the implemetation of new perspectives in the context of fiqh learning module requires a very detail and meticulous plan. the curiculum reformation of fiqh learning in malaysia is prepared to realize the aspiration and objective of islamic education which is in tandem with the national education policy and national development policy. the statement made in the national islamic education philosophy which stresses on the dissemination of knowledge, skills, and religious appreciation based on al-qur’an and al-sunnah should be insightfully composed. one of the fields that is immediate or close to education is the development of human resource, which is based on a curiculum that is condusive and effective. therefore, the process of rearrangement and readaptation of the fiqh learning system must be done systematically. alias azhar, contemporary fiqh learning module 72 fiqh learning methodology: current methodological and pedagogical perspectives it is obvious that muslims had practised higher level knowledge culture during the islamic era superiority (mohamad zain, 2005). among the factors that contribute to the excellent knowledge culture are open attidude and being selective on the type of knowledge and method of learning, besides controlled islamisation process on the epistemoligical aspect of the knowledge. the next factor is critical analytical thinking on the knowledge without being fanatical on a certain teacher. what is significant here, based on this legacy, is to study the effectiveness in facing the current demand and the modernisation in malaysia. this awareness should lead to the reconstruction of fiqh learning through modern knowledge application approach, especially on science to ensure the relevance of the past knowledge culture. the rationale is to see that large and influential institution should possess a solid identity of its own. the learning of fiqh in malaysia should have an authoritative methodology before moving further. due to this factor and also the current situation, we should place several important foundations in developing the current fiqh learning system. because the learning of fiqh is dynamic, its scope and methodology should also develop in tandem with the needs of the society and the learning itself. focus on the general syllabus will be of god’s revelations (wahyu) and fuqaha’s ijtihad. knowledge legacy is codified into a variety of writing forms, including fiqh manuscripts (zuhdi, 1988:1214). generally, this legacy is the product of fuqaha’s understanding on the demands of the syariah which is characterized by wahyu. the understanding based on fuqaha’s thoughts is something that always develops according to situations, intellectual capabilities, and the reality of life. the fact that there are no short cuts in fiqh learning has made it more dynamic and multifunctional in this era. the learning methods which should be implemented are: inculcating all knowledge elements in the fiqh legacy in the syllabus; analysis all current issues; and synthesising all forms of science methodology by positive selection. it is hoped that through this methodology, syariah principles in alqur’an and al-sunnah can be implemented integratively with contemporary intellectual values. to achieve this discourse, parallel thinking pattern has to be established (abdullah hassan, 1997:48-49). this is to differentiate between syariah principle as basic thoughts in solving edicts and fiqh legacy which is the product of assimilation between syariah principles with a certain intellectual person. this approach has to be produced simultaneously with critical and creative thinking elements. both elements of thoughts are combined to assess a new finding; thus forming a pattern of concept which is more holistic. besides, there will be a prospect to generate scholars who prioritize intellectual freedom. in fiqh learning, the focus is to assist students to know, understand, practise, appreciate (analysis, synthesis, assessment, alive), and inculcate (growth) concept, process, principle, skill, procedure, rules, belief, values, moral, and courtesy. the strength of fiqh learning is a concept which can be used to identify several skills and abilities, nurtured by students. in addition, several knowledge characteristics possessed by students can be categorized as follow: (1) based on constructs thought by students and not found from the physical environmenstudents’ background knowledge. knowledge of syariah from this basis may be flawed; and (2) generated from activities based on students’ background knowledge or from daily needs (nik pa, 2007:4-5). both characteristics mentioned above can involve misunderstandings as well as misinterpretations. they are, however, open to enrichment. students’ thoughts are like generators waiting to be activated. brainstorming technique can be used to generate strategies which can be applied in fiqh learning methodology. this is important for strengthening and enriching students’ way of thinking. in the meantime, the instillation of reflective thinking elements is very relevant to educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 73 be coordinated in fiqh learning methodology based on students’ knowledge construction as discussed earlier. this process can motivate students to think in sequence, quick in decision making, critical in assessment, and encourages students to think openly. these ability and skill play a role in constructing solutions to advanced problems. this is the part where fiqh plays its role. this is due to the fact that islamic syariah prepares general principles of politics, economy, social, and so forth. thus, it becomes the responsibility of syariah scholars to deal with current issues by applying principles, methods, and fiqh legacies besides efforts in analysing elements of culture, social, and implications of science and technology. it is not proper at all to deny the role of legacy sources because without these sources, scholars in the modern era will not possess anything. comparative analysis must be applied systematically and based on inductive methodology. this will provide the students with thinking ability that utilizes facts and general principles. besides, this approach is very related to the culture of inquiry, whereby students are not given direct solutions to a problem but assisted to get the best answer. the knowledge that the students get will be more meaningful and they are trained to seek information other than the contents of their text books. briefly, it can be concluded that the application and methodology of the elements of scientific way of thinking in the learning of fiqh must emphasize on the aspect of generating students’ way of thinking. hence, enabling the creation of students with proper methods of thinking: rational, meticulous, and objective. other than this, students will be provided with the ability to derive and analyze: increasing ijtihad. ijtihad capability should have the foundation of istinbat and istidlal, by refering to modern and legacy sources with authority (mohamad, 2000:48). students ought to have scientific skills, a product of the application of scientific way of thinking. this skill, among others enables them, to explore new phenomena based on their background knowledge. further, the students will master the ability to experiment, investigate, and understand the relationship between theory, concept, and general principles which are contained in the learning of fiqh.generally, the main objective of implementing islamic education system is to provide skills, knowledge, and develop an individual so that they can portray taqwa to allah almighty. the role of the teacher, especially islamic education nowadays, is more focused on the development of scholars with the main intention of progressing the muslim society to become the main pillar of the other societies in malaysia. therefore, the duty of teachers in fiqh learning is not restricted to information transfer, but is also connected to the formation of syariah scholars who possess contemporary intellectual values. the pedagogy of fiqh learning refers to the teaching and learning in the fiqh learning system. teaching means the method used by teachers to impart knowledge to students. teaching is considered successful if the objective and goal of the lesson are achieved. ab. halim tamuri (2007:178) mentions that teaching is an art because in the process of teaching, teacher needs to be creative. a creative teacher will make his teaching more interesting and effective. in the learning of fiqh, the method should be made more interesting by relating contents to current issues and integrating thinking skills. methods and techniques suggested are problem sloving, lecture, recitals, demonstration, and discussion. based on dr. wan salim wan mohd nor (1990:1-12) analysis, local institutions of higher learning which are involved with islamic studies are regarded as backward in their teaching and learning process of the course as compared to other courses that they offer. in teaching islamic studies, these institutions are still adhering to a traditional way. the course, especially fiqh studies, not only inherits knowledge from the past era but is supposed to be able to build a culture integrated with current reality. the negative implication which crops up from the implementation of traditional teaching and learning is that they will produce leaders who are weak, narrowminded, good in memorizing but not able to think. from here, syariah scholars will be alias azhar, contemporary fiqh learning module 74 passive, accepting views without being critical, prefers taqlid and unable to ijtihad and not creative. at the foundation level, the main pedagogical characteristic which is based on the application of scientific elements not only provide information contained in the fiqh treasury, but in fact nurture thinking skills which can produce students with critical and creative minds. the effect is that the students will have the ability to think practically and scholarly (de bono, 2001:1-10); and eliminate the frozen syndrome, jumud, and taqlid. these sydromes worry islamic scholars because it gives an impact to the appreciation of holistic concept and syariah principles (al-qadir ‘audah, 1951:29). there are a lot of thinking skills which can be applied in the teaching and learning (t&l) of fiqh studies. the role of the teachers in this context is to become facilitators and guides to the students. nurturing the culture of thinking analogy and abductive can be applied in t&l, so as to give understanding of concepts to execute complex theory analysis. this element is important to be applied in the teaching of masaleh al-mursalah concept and maqasid methods which requires evaluation process and is contextual in nature (mokhtar, 2007:89-114). next, it is synthesised by al-qiyas to match to the current academic product. students should be exposed to a global outlook so that they are familiar with global thinking. this is very realistic as it can be seen from syariah principles which contains universal elements (‘alamiah). scientific method which is instilled in them enables the teacher to stimulate and encourage students to be involved more actively in lessons, especially in discussion activities. pedagogic method which is suggested in the learning of fiqh is not much different from the method applied inscience education. this is most probably due to science itself, whereby science is a part of religion. for example, both field of studies suggest the integration of thinking skills. other than inquiry method that is to be applied in the learning of fiqh, as well as in science education, demonstrative method can also be employed in the t&l of fiqh learning. thinking aids, such as statistics application and graphic management, are very suitable method to be applied. demonstration through the use of statistics and graphics can increase students interest and understanding on the subject taught. talaqi method in t&l or based on text or books may create a passive and boring learning environment. fiqh learning should be based on practical approach, not merely theoretical. t&l skills is important for a teacher to become effective. among the teaching skills which should be mastered by teachers are to start a lesson by posing a question/problem, giving concrete examples and exposing students to issues related to their environment. the creativity of teachers in conducting t&l is significant in creating condusive and effective learning environment. current issues in the orientation of scientific development should be made systematic. the element of systematic method in the pedagogy of fiqh learning will ensure teaching and analysis achieve their goals and minimize errors. application can be realized in the discussion of rules which are based on talfiq, takhayyur, and tarjih. discussion should end with fortification and enrichment activities. through systematic method, students are stimulated to be actively involved in t&l activities. multi-way communication will be displayed from the process and this makes t&l more interesting and effective. as a conclusion here, fiqh learning pedagogy must be reinforced on par with the current modernization. t&l practise which can be considered successful and effective will be able to change students’ negative perception and perspective towards the learning. previously, fiqh is seen as a study that is static and dogmatic; and ironically, the study of syariah is seen as the study of history. the benefit of the inclusion of scientific thinking element in fiqh learning will produce students who are more competitive and innovative. through innovative thinking, new ideas can be triggered and students are able to design and create problem solving method which are idealistic and realistic. all problems can be solved easily when human beings develop their dynamic thinking and willing to embrace change for the betterment of their lives. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 75 alternative tafaqquh programme module in mosques the result of the critical and futuristic analysis on an amount of data and research samples for tafaqquh programme in mosques shows that the most suitable module must be suggested. on this factor, several matters are suggested: first, the current tafaqquh programme module that is most suitable for malaysia’s society must be based upon the sect of shafi’i selectively. in contrast, to people who have negative perceptions on sectarian practises, we should adopt positive and selective attitude. on the outside, sectarian principles are thinking paradigms of the muslim society based on world-view and syariah method that had been established by certain fuqahas. it was founded on islamic traditional basis; it was not from a certain foreign influences like what was claimed by western orientalist (de boer, 1994:28-29 and 309). it is the peak of a very long world-view development process. world-view is perception of the world, life, belief, and thoughts which function as a catalyst for every human behaviour (abu bakar, 1993:307-309). according to hamid fahmy zarkasyi (2004:1-6), the world-view of islam is: a vision of reality and truth, a unity of arsitectonic thoughts, which function as a non-observable foundation for all human behaviours, including intellectual activity and technology. among the basic elements of islamic world-view are the concept of god, revealations and their creations, human psychology, knowledge, religion, freedom, values, welfare, and happiness. in islam, these elements later on will determine change, development, and progress. the formation and development process of a sect which is centred on islamic world-view framework progresses gradually, through 4 main stages, as follows: stage 1: quasi-scientific, when rasulullah himself explains that revelations of allah are based on two stages, i.e. makkiah revealations which emphasizes on the elements of aqidah; followed by madaniah revelations which expands the aqidah principles in the form of judicial system and a more applicative life. stage 2: pre-scientific conceptual, revealations of allah which contains concepts of life, the physical world, knowledge and ethics, and human beings started to be studied in detail by islamic scholars. the conceptual terms of the revealations like: ilm, iman, usul, kalam, nazar, wujud, tafsir, ta’wil, fiqh, khalq, halal, haram, iradah, and so forth have triggered thoughts and intellectual research which are very effective among muslims. stage 3: scientific scheme, through the birth of islamic intellectual tradition, this scheme came about through three main phenomena: (1) the existence of islamic scholars community that explores islamic knowledge seriously; (2) disciplinary stage, whereupon islamic scholars who possess intellectual traditions unite to discuss the best subjects and methodology for every islamic knowledge field. this is mainly the effort of shafi’i who arranged al-fiqh principles systematically; and (3) naming stage, a process whereby the discipline, theory, and method are given a specific name, which is usually assigned to a particular teacher. this is how the name mazhab shafi’i and the like is assigned to a certain fuqaha personage. stage 4: continuity dan changing, a sect which is already dominant in its methodology framework will undergo a renewal process (islah) to strengthen its existence (alparsan, 1996:6-7; and m. safi, 1998:86-88). the history of the world knowledge has noted how a certain doctrin can withstand time period if four main conditions are met: (1) validity of logic and argument; (2) attracting people to follow; (3) able to be applied on the case at hand; and (4) it has a mechanism to process old ideas without leaving aside any important tradition (raji faruqi, 2000:5155). obviously, all these four conditions are met by shafi’i mazhab and other fiqh sects, an encouraging factor for them to remain until now. based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that muslims uphold on shafi’i mazhab is not a wrong practise or paradigm in islam. it is a formula flexible in nature which outlines and guides every issue or uncertainty in the life of muslims. therefore the flexibility element in the reference of a mazhab should be widened to ensure the sustainability of the alias azhar, contemporary fiqh learning module 76 tafaqquh program throughout. second, by refering to the reality context in malaysia, the practise of upholding (taqlid) to shafi’i mazhab can still be relevant. this is due to several reasons: (1) it acts as the main interpretation/reference of islam for islamic scholars. this can be referred to the validity of the taqlid and ijtihad concepts. in taqlid concept, it is possible for the public to have a taqlid to a mujtahid, based on the inability of a lay muslim to fully understand islamic teachings in depth. the attitude to depend totally on taqlid principle has been restricted to ijtihad and tajdid concepts; (2) this approach is set not for the purpose of monopolising the effort of religious interpretations by islamic scholars only but it is done to avoid any reckless acts from the lay public on basic fundamentals of islam, interpreting impulsively which may damage the image of islam; and (3) unity and uniformity factors are needed to ensure the existence of sociopolitical stability in the muslim society. this will facilitate the process of enforcement and administration of islamic law (halim el-muhammady, 1992:54-55 & 57). it is a basic attempt to avoid conflicts and fanatical sectarian beliefs as those happening in other parts of the world. however, extreme emphasis on taqlid domination may cause unhealthy development of islamic thoughts (qardawi, 2004:85-88). the muftis in malaysia have realized this taqlid domination. hence, there are efforts to implement reformism approach to limit overzealous taqlid application, especially in the methodology of fatwa pronouncement (abd rahman, 2003:183-185). reformation and transformation in the analysis of rules and current fiqh should be applied in the construction of contemporary fiqh thoughts through tafaqquh programme with current issues. third, the needs to consider the importance of the present reality in the malaysian society in the process of fortifying tafaqquh programme module to elevate the dynamism of today’s fiqh learning (zuhdi ab majid & ismail, 2004). from islamic perspective, not all traditions or old practises are stale and out of date (wan mohd nor, 2001:12-17). the same goes with objective-driven and strong commitment to adhere to traditional islamic legacy cannot be regarded as obsessed (ta’asub) and fanatical (habibi long, 2003:114-118). among the main causes are: the attribute of shafi’i mazhab in the form of paradigm synthesis between the views of ahl ray’ and al-hadist. it is more adaptive to the local culture. early shafi’i missionaries practises culture-friendly attitude, which gains approval of the political masters and later is able to spread the teachings of islam in the malay domain (abdul rahim, 2006:55-80). the effect of this can be seen in the malay legal digest, like hukum kanun melayu or malay jurisprudence (abdul rahim, 2003:158-179) and the instillation of islamic values in the malay custom until the phrase “adat bersendikan hukum, hukum bersendikan kitabullah” or custom is based on syariah, syariah is based on al-qur’an was coined (fadhil, 2006:142-145). the combination of two paradigms sufi and fiqh (neo-sufism) in shafi’i mazhab provides direct effect to the momentum of the islamisation of the people in the malay domain (john, 1961:40-41). and lastly, fuqahas of shafi’i mazhab had established a more systematic islamic education system in the malay domain (latif hamindong, 1993:748). this refers to the introduction of pondok system which contains specific physical infrastructure, the philosophy of learning, organisational structure, time table, curiculum, and systematic assessment method (abu bakar, 1994:104-111; ishak, 1995:212-218; and abdul rahim, 2003:1-31). fourth, clarifies the epistemology aspect of islamic rulings in the tajdid process of the research on rulings. in any intellectual analysis, there is an approach that determines the depth of the truthfulness of knowledge or the epistemology of a certain discipline (haji shuib, 1995:33). the matter is appropriate in defining epistemology and its scope: the origin, sources, method, and the limit of a particular knowledge (zainiy uthman, 2001:146-148). in facing the bold challenges of the modern world, the research on fiqh must emphasise on the epistemology of islamic rulings which will portray clearly to the muslims and noneducare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 77 muslims that syariah is not based on dogmatic belief which cannot be challenged, but built on empirical and rational basis, having its sources, reasons, and detailed method before a judgement on the question of humanity is determined (nasution, 1989:328-334). as an early conclusion, the effort on developing elements of ontology, epistemology, and axiology of al-fiqh based on current knowledge (dawam, 2004:1-23). the emphasis is on three main principles: ‘urf, maslahah, and social science. the frequent emphasis on the three main principles shows that the effort to strengthen the epistemology elements (source and method) is important. this can also be done through three main approaches: (1) by combining or synthesis knowledge of al-fiqh with other modern knowledges, like modern social science which simultaneously complement the research method on alternative islamic rulings for the modern world. although knowledge of the tenets of al-fiqh is acknowledged as the best knowledge discipline and is based totally on world-view, for modern context it cannot stand on its own, it has to be supported and combined with other scholarly disciplines; (2) developing the present malaysian ‘urf methodology which is different from ‘urf in the middle east from the aspects of main frame concept and application method; and (3) developing the principle and maslahah standard in three types, especially daruriyyah, hajjiyyah, and tahsiniyyah which are more suitable with the present malaysian reality. conclusion as the final conclusion, i can conclude several key matters. first, as malaysia is a progressively modern islamic country, it is most approprite to create one tafaqquh programme module which is contemporary in nature and with malaysian features to cater to all islamic matters which arises in the society. this is needed as most of the islamic fiqh formula utilised now are based on the discussion of past fuqaha from the middle east era that is totally different from the aspects of sociology and intellectuality of the malaysian society. the negative effect to this is the tafaqquh programme module currently in use can be considered obsolete. second, the process of developing tafaqquh programme module must obtain a strong recommendation from the government, which co-incidentally inclined towards upgrading all weaknesses faced by the islamic education in malaysia. the practise of t&l (teaching and learning) of fiqh learning needs to fulfill and achieve tafaqquh programme objective and goal, i.e. providing knowledge and understanding. the aspects of thoughts and action in the t&l of fiqh need to be more practical and focused on current edicts. third, the construction of alternative tafaqquh programme in mosques requires a paradigm reformation that practises moderate approach, which appreciates the legacy of past fuqaha, to fulfil the flexibility principle in the mazhab reference, to understand the reality and the present development, and to increase the fiqh research quality with real islamic law epistemology orientation, entirely rejecting any elements of liberalism which is against the spirit of thoughts and development of tafaqquh programme in the version of the malay domain. references abd rahman, naemah. 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(1988). sejarah pembinaan hukum islam. kuala lumpur: penerbitan um [universiti malaya]. alias azhar, contemporary fiqh learning module 80 muslimah in modern malaysian society (source: www.google.com, 20/5/2013) generally, the main objective of implementing islamic education system is to provide skills, knowledge, and develop an individual so that they can portray taqwa to allah almighty. the role of the teacher, especially islamic education nowadays, is more focused on the development of scholars with the main intention of progressing the muslim society to become the main pillar of the other societies in malaysia. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 33© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a dian ardiansah teachers’ perceptions on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing abstract: despite the process of writing, which needs times to generate the ideas, plan what they are going to write, what they want to share, and their weaknesses in writing, is made the implementation of genre based in writing activity can be one of teaching methods which can be used by the teachers in order to improve students’ proficiency and their interesting in english writing. furthermore, the actual implementation of genre-based approach in teaching writing also helps students to operate within writing rules, knowing different style in writing, and producing their good writing. this study was employed descriptive qualitative design since this study focuses on which is the implementing of genre-based approach in teaching writing covering the perspectives, problems, and solutions toward the implementation of genre-based approach in teaching writing. the data were obtained by using two techniques, namely open ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. the participants of the study are two teachers at one of private islamic senior high school in kawali, ciamis, west java, indonesia. the data were collected and analyzed using model of triangulation process by m.b. miles & a.m. huberman (1994) consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion. the findings showed that the english teachers faced several problems in implementing an approach in teaching writing based a genre. they felt difficult to assess a big number of students with several domains in limited creativity in their thinking. the main suggestion that the teachers are suggested to apply an approach based on genre in teaching english, not only in teaching writing but in teaching listening, reading, and speaking since this method can improve students’ proficiency in learning english as a foreign language. key words: teaching writing; implementation process; genre-based approach; english teachers; secondary school students. about the author: dian ardiansah is a postgraduate student at the sps upi (school of postgraduate, indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail at: ardhy079@gmail.com suggested citation: ardiansah, dian. (2017). “teachers’ perceptions on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august, pp.33-42. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (september 29, 2016); revised (march 2, 2017); and published (august 30, 2017). introduction writing is one of important skills that students need to developed, learning how to write in english language is one of the most challenging aspects of students’ language learning, because in writing is different from speaking. according to k. hyland (2003), who states that writing is an intricate structure that can only be learned by developing the ability to manipulate lexis and grammar (hyland, 2003:3). it means that writing in english language regarded an extension of grammar and vocabulary, reinforcing means language patterns through habit formation and measure students’ ability to produce good formed sentences. nevertheless, writing in english as a foreign language need a good knowledge dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions 34 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and skill in grammar, vocabulary wide range in english ability. again, k. hyland (2003) writes that learning to write in english mainly involves linguistic knowledge and the vocabulary choices, syntactic patterns, and cohesive devices that comprise the essential building blocks of texts (hyland, 2003:3). in addition, the implementation of genrebased approach can be one of teaching methods, which can be used by the teachers in order to improve students’ proficiency and their interesting in english writing. a.s. bawarshi & m.j. reiff (2010) stated that the implementation of genre-based approach is also build students cognitive development by practice to write as a cognitive improvement (bawarshi & reiff, 2010:178). moreover, writing is major of cognitive challenge, because writing can increase proficiencies of writers’ memory, language, and thinking ability. maria taselin (2010) states that writing is an essential skill in communicative language teaching, which means writing is a system of communication, not only an object of study (taselin, 2010:103). regarding the theory above, its can concluded that writing traditionally remarked as a tool for the practice and reinforcement of specific grammatical and lexical patterns, where accuracy was all important but content and self-expression. k. hyland (2003) states that in writing english as a second language, the writer must focus on language structures, text functions, themes or topics, creative expression, composing processes, content, genre, and contexts of writing (hyland, 2003:21). despite the product and process approaches, and genre approaches (harmer, 2007:257), the writer is interested in knowing the stage which are familiar to control and guide the students in their writing activities, and also the kinds of genre which are suitable and can improve students critically in students writing activities. furthermore, focus on process and product, and genre approaches, the teachers can pay attention to the various stages in any pieces of writing itself (harmer, 2007:257). moreover, writing in the process of approaches is seen as predominantly to do with linguistics skill, such as planning and drafting whereas a genre approach emphasizes that writing varies with social context and produced (badger & white, 2000:155). in addition, k. hyland (2007) defines “genre” is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations (hyland, 2007:4). there are some previous studies, which investigating the implementation of genrebased approach in teaching writing. they are m.m. rahman (2011); h. ahn (2012); and m.t. hassani & m.r. hemmati (2013), who conducted the studies on how implication of genre-based approach in teaching english writing. they found that teaching writing based on genre approach has shown pedagogical benefits for the student, they can more sensitize in writing which make it possible for students to exploit linguistic creatively to achieve their personal goals in their writings (rahman, 2011; ahn, 2012; and hassani & hemmati, 2013). more particularly, dissimilar to those previous studies, this study only investigate the teachers’ perception through implementation of genre-based approach in teaching english writing. this study is expected to know the teachers’ perception and several problems, who found by the teachers in teaching writing based on genre approach in english subject. an approaching language learning by perspective several texts can enable students to develop the knowledge and skill, which deal with written and spoken in social context (nugroho & hafrizon, 2009:4). a genre approach is especially appropriate for students of esp (english specific purposes), but it is also highly useful for general english students, even at low levels they can produce a good written by using genre in their writing (harmer, 2007:259). students who are writing within a certain genre can encourage their creativity in writing. meanwhile, they are also improving several aspects in writing skill such as: style of writing, context, and also rules of writing itself (baratta, 2008). in line with this topic, this study is interested to investigate the teachers’ educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 35© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare perception on the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing. the result of this study is expected to know the teachers’ perception and problems toward the process of implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing in order to improve students’ proficiency in english writing. research questions for this study are: (1) what are the teachers’ perspectives towards genre-based approach in teaching writing?; (2) what are the problems faced by the teachers in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing?; and (3) what solutions the teachers think that they can cope with the problems? in this study, the writer only focused on teachers’ perspective towards genre-based approach in teaching writing, and how the teachers copes several problems in teaching writing thorough genre approach. through this study, it can be seen what texts which are suitable for students of islamic senior high school, and what solutions the teachers think that they can cope with the problems. the results of the study are expected to give great contribution, to the readers as the resource for information and knowledge. the contributions can be in forms of theoretical, practical, and professional benefits. theoretically, the aims of this study are to enrich the literature, especially in teaching writing through genre-based approach (harmer, 2007). practically, this study expected to know the teachers’ perspectives, problems, through the use of genre approach in process of teaching writing, and solution that the teachers can cope with the problems (badger & white, 2000). and for the professionally, this study give beneficial contribution in teaching writing approaches depend on problems, and solutions in teaching writing. definition of key terms in this study is as following here: teaching writing: it means some strategies or approaches to the english foreign language students in order to encourage their creative in writing activity based on several ways, such as: process and product, a genre approach, cooperative learning, and so on (harmer, 2007). process approach: writing primarily as the exercise of linguistic skills, and writing development as an unconscious process which happens when teachers facilitate the exercise of writing skills (badger & white, 2000). product approach: mainly concerned with knowledge about the structure of language, and writing development as mainly the result of the imitation of input, in the form of texts provided by the teacher (badger & white, 2000). genre-based approach: a genre is a technical tem for a particular instance of a text type (christie, 2005:233). and k. hyland (2007) defines, as follows: genre is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations (hyland, 2007:4). review of literature and related studies. gba (genre-based approach) is one of approach, which can be used in teaching writing. genre defines as a class of communicative event, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes (swales, 1990:58). genre refers to not only types of literary text, but also the predictable and recurring pattern every days, academic and literary text occurring within a particular culture (hammond & derewianka, 2001; and luu, 2011:122). in term of writing development, t. dudley-evans & m.st. john (1998), as cited also in r. badger & g. white (2000), argue that genre has identifies as three stages: first, a model of particular genre is introduced and analysed; then, second, carry out exercises which manipulate relevant language form; and finally, third, produced a short text (dudley-evans & john, 1998:154; and badger & white, 2000:155). in a genre approach to writing, students study texts in the genre they are going to be writing before they embark on their own writing. by genre-based approach, several methods in teaching writing can be applied, such as teaching writing by pictures, social phenomenon, and context procedural depend on what the students wants to write (harmer, 2007:259). only four general purposes that lead the students to write and these are known as four styles writing guides, or types dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions 36 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare of writing. in this context, t.s. kane (2000) put four categorizes of writing style, there are: exposition, description, narration, and persuasion (kane, 2000:7). moreover, a genre approaches enormously valuable in its conceptualization of the students-teacher relationship. a genre approaches as an apprenticeship that focuses on the explicit teaching of the manner in which text are structured on their social purposes (kapp & bongi, 2005:112). meanwhile, the implementation of genre approach is also build students cognitive development by practice to write as a cognitive improvement (bawarshi & reiff, 2010:178). related to process and product of genre approach, j. harmer (2007) believes that teaching writing should follow the stages of writing itself, they are: drafting, structuring, reviewing, focusing, generating ideas, and evaluation (harmer, 2007:257). when concentrating on the product, the teachers can pay attention to the various stages in any pieces of writing itself. there are some previous studies which investigating the implementation of genrebased approach in teaching writing. the first, h. ahn (2012) who conducted the study entitled “teaching writing skill based on genre approach to l2 primary school students: an action research”. this study has shown that genre approach offers students the power to access new culture and integrate with their skills and strategies in writing. this study also suggests that it is vital for both educators and learners of esl (english as second language) to re-examine the educational paradigms and socio-cultural contexts within which a genre approach is to be used should be examined carefully so as to obtain the maximum benefit of the adoption (ahn, 2012). the second, m.t. hassani & m.r. hemmati (2013) who conducted the study entitled “the effect of genre-based instruction on esp learners’ reading comprehension”. they found that the effect of genre-based approach play an important role as a novice approach in teaching, and outcomes on enhancing learners are improved by teaching based genre approach. this study also suggests that there was a positive relationship between teaching based on genre and enhancing students’ comprehension (hassani & hemmati, 2013). the third, m.m. rahman (2011) who conducted the study entitled “genre-based writing instruction: implications in esp classroom”. this study found that genre based in teaching approaches can motivate the students to write. a genre-based approach teaches the students in how to write can sensitize, and make it possible for students to exploit linguistic resources creatively (rahman, 2011). the goals of the genre-based approach are basically help students become more successful not only in writing but also several aspects in english language, and also help students in making sense of not only the structure of text but also a wide range of compositional (hyon, 1996; and emilia, 2005:61). in writing based genre, the teacher can teach several text types to support their material in teaching writing; and writing is also a tool for self-understanding and selfexpression (marsudiono, 2006:2). it means that writing as a tool to develop personal satisfaction, pride, and as a tool for increasing awareness and perception in language learning. generally, text types divided into several categories, such as: narrative, descriptive, directive, expository, and argumentative (kane, 2000:7). r. wahidi (2009) divided kinds of text type which is more detailed, they are: analytical exposition text, anecdote text, recount text, report text, spoof text, narrative text, hortatory exposition text, discussion text, explanation text, procedure text, review text, description text, argument text, and exposition text (wahidi, 2009). by those opinion and previous related research above, it can assume that different genres require different kinds of knowledge and different sets of skills (luu, 2011:122). henceforth, the teacher can teach several types of genre in writing, such as: narrative, descriptive, directive, expository, and argumentative (kane, 2000:7). however, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 37© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare teachers’ perception about genre in teaching writing can helps several issues and problems in how teaching writing can be one of satisfying and enjoyable for students. methods research design. relevant to the purpose of study and the research questions, this study employed descriptive qualitative design since this study focuses on which is the implementation of genre-based approach in teaching writing covering the perspectives, problems, and solutions. b. hancock (2002) argues that qualitative research is concerned with developing explanations of social phenomena. qualitative research usually concerned with finding the answers to questions which begin with why and how (hancock, 2002:2). besides, multiple sources of evidence or triangulation as discussed by m.b. miles & a.m. huberman (1994); r.k. yin (2003); and r.s. malik & f.a. hamied (2014) become another features of this study approach. the use of triangulation was also intended to maintain the credibility of the entire research (miles &huberman, 1994; yin, 2003; and malik & hamied, 2014). data collection. the participants in this study were two english teachers from one of the islamic senior high schools in kawali, ciamis, west java, indonesia. the reason for recruiting the teachers as the participants was that they have teaching english writing based on genre approaches. besides, theses participants showed a great interests in the genre based approach in teaching writing, although they claim that they still have several problems to face their students in english class. therefore, purposive sampling method as discussed by j.w. creswell (2009); j.r. fraenkel, n.e. wallen & h.h. hyun (2012); and r.s. malik & f.a. hamied (2014) are used to select the respondent. to collect the data, the concept of triangulation as proposed by m.b. miles & a.m. huberman (1994), as cited also in r.s. malik & f.a. hamied (2014), who has been employed to obtain the data by using different techniques. the data were obtained by using two techniques, namely: open ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. firstly, the questionnaires were delivered to the teachers to collect the main data about their perspectives, problems, and solution regarding the implementation of genre-based approach in teaching english writing. then, the follow up semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers to confirm the data gathered from questionnaire and to add the other data that were not completely obtained by the questionnaire. during the interview sessions, note taking was conducted to collect the important data (miles & huberman, 1994; and malik & hamied, 2014). data analysis. in collecting data, the procedural was employed model by m.b. miles & a.m. huberman (1994), as cited also in r.s. malik & f.a. hamied (2014), which consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. in data reduction, the collected data were summarize, edits, by the objectively without lost of information. after that, the sorted data were displayed in the form of narration as can be seen in the findings and discussion section. finally, the drawing and verifying conclusion was made based on the analyzed data during the process of data analysis (miles & huberman, 1994; and malik & hamied, 2014). findings and discussion this section encompasses the result regarding the research questions of this study, which is transformed into the statement as follow: first, teachers’ perspectives towards genre-based approach in teaching writing. from the obtained data, it was found that all of the teachers had joined the training of the implementation of genre-based approach, when they studied english in tertiary level. however, as the teachers, they really understand about the implementation of genre based in their teaching process, especially in teaching writing. the first respondent in this study called as tr-1 and the second respondent called as tr-2, the first respondent mentioned that in teaching english writing based on genre approach the students are requested to explore their ideas based on their experience, and dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions 38 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare based on their critically. the obtained data about the statement are as follow: tr-1: “dalam mengimplementasikan ‘genre-based approach’, siswa dituntut untuk bisa mengungkapkan ide-ide yang sesuai dengan apa yang pernah mereka alami dan mereka tahu. dengan ‘genre-based approach’, siswa dituntut untuk bisa berkomunikasi dalam bahasa inggris sesuai konteks, termasuk dalam penggunaan tensis nya itu sendiri” (interview with tr-1, 3/11/2016). translation: “in implementing genre-based approach, the students are requested to explore their ideas based on their experience and what they know. with genre-based approach, the students are required to communicate in english based on the context and grammatical pattern itself ”. the response from tr-1 is in line with a.j. davit (2004), who states that a genre and a genre set, like any other art and facts of a society, reveal those who use them, genres bring to light the constitutive features of the society to which they belong (davit, 2004:59). for the second respondent (tr-2) of this study, tr-2 mentioned that the teaching process of genre-based approach is suitable for students, especially for students in junior high school, senior high school, and college students, as following here: tr-2: “pengajaran berbasis genre adalah salah satu pendekatan yang paling sesuai untuk di terapkan dalam pengajaran menulis, terutama untuk sekolahsekolah yang sudah ada dalam tingkat smp (sekolah menengah pertama), sma (sekolah menengah atas), dan para siswa di perguruan tinggi. dalam pendekatan ini, siswa diberi petunjuk lebih menegenai macam-macam texts, struktur penulisan texts yang sesuai dengan konteksnya, termasuk dari segi aturan aturan grammarnya itu sendiri (interview with tr2, 10/11/2016). translation: “teaching english based on genre approach is one of an approach which are suitable to apply in teaching writing, especially for students in junior high school, senior high school, and college students. in this approach, the teachers give an instruction regarding the kinds of texts, structures, and grammatical pattern in how to write which are related to the context of texts itself ”. the response from tr-2 is in line with j. harmer (2007), who states that in teaching writing based on genre, we have to know about the typical models of texts, kinds of texts, and specific language use which is common in that genre (harmer, 2007:259). with respect to the first and second respondents’ perception about the implementation of genre-based approach in teaching writing, it can conclude that the implementation of genre-based approach makes the students more sensitive in grammatical, text structures, and other aspects in writing. v. bhatia (1993), as cited also in y. kim & j. kim (2005), states that rhetorical structure of text can be analyzed by students in the genre-based approach, some common patterns can be identified in each genre (bhatia, 1993; kim & kim, 2005:6). naturally, these patterns will form a kind of background knowledge students can activate in the next learning situation. eventually, the prior knowledge will make it easier for students to produce acceptable structures in their writing tasks. therefore, an assigned genre seems to serve as an influential tool for both the learning and teaching of writing. second, problems faced by the teacher in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing. from the obtained data, it was found that the teacher had problems in several areas in implementing genre based approach in teaching writing. the following is the detain description. tr-1 of this study mentioned that the problems in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing is in the term of students weakness of vocabulary, grammatical pattern, spelling, punctuation, and etc. the obtained data about the statement are as follow: tr-1: “ada beberapa kesulitan yang menjadi problem yang siswa hadapi dalam menerapkan ‘genre-based approach’ dalam mengajar, terutama dalam pengajaran menulis dalam bahasa inggris. diantaranya: (1) siswa sulit menuangkan ide-ide mereka untuk menulis dalam bahasa inggris, walupun context dan genrenya jelas; (2) minimnya kosakata dalam bahasa inggris; dan (3) mereka kesulitan merangkai atau menyusun kata-kata menjadi kalimat yang baik” (interview with tr-1, 3/11/2016). translation: “there has several problems faced by the students in applying genre-based approach in teaching process, especially in teaching writing: (1) the students are hard to generate their ideas to write in english, even the contexts educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 39© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and genre has been clear; (2) poor of vocabulary; and (3) they feel hard to organize the sentence structures, and hard to relate the sentence to the other sentences. first respondent opinion is in contrast with j. harmer (2007), who states that writer should focus on language use (grammar, vocabulary, linkers), punctuation, spelling, writing repetition of words and/ or information and etc. by this means that in teaching writing, the teachers should pay attention to the various stages in any pieces of writing itself (harmer, 2007:257). moreover, it same with the second respondent (tr-2), who assumes that the problems in implementing of genre-based approach depend by students proficiency itself. for example, the students can’t feel enjoyed in using several genres in writing activities, it because by different genre it can be different in grammatical choices. tr-2 said as follows: tr-2: “kesulitan yang dihadapi dalam mengajar menggunakan pendekatan berbasis genre, siswa biasanya tidak begitu memahami grammatical struktur dan bagaimana mereka menyusun kalimat yang baik dengan berdasarkan grammatical” (interview with tr-2, 10/11/2016). translation: “the problems in teaching english based on genre approach, the students are not really known about grammatical structures, and how they organize the sentence based on grammatical pattern itself ”. it is in line to k. hyland (2007), who argues that in learning to write in english, the writer mainly involves linguistic knowledge and the vocabulary choices, syntactic patterns, and cohesive devices that comprise the essential building blocks of texts (hyland, 2007:3). it means that writing in english language regarded an extension of grammar and vocabulary, reinforcing means language patterns through habit formation and measure students’ ability to produce good formed sentences. after reviewing the data obtained from the respondents, it can conclude that teacher faced several problems in teaching writing based on genre approach, since genre based approach has shown pedagogical benefits for the student, a genre-based approach also required the students to more familiar with grammatical movements, kinds of texts and reorganize the sentence, the term of students weakness in vocabulary mastery, grammatical pattern, spelling, punctuation and etc. makes the implementation of genre-based approach become uneasy for the teachers. despite genres’ beneficial roles in helping learners to produce written work with confidence, there are two limitations of the genre approach. one is that it underestimates the skills required to produce content; and the other concern is that it neglects learners’ selfsufficiency (byram, 2004:236). third, solutions to cope with the problems. the solutions of the problem in this case are based on the teachers’ perspective. so, they are like the hopes form them to cope with the problems. they also become a suggestion for the related party for helping them to cope with the problem. most of them thought the same solution. the first respondent (tr-1) in this study opined that extra class is can be more appropriate for this situation. the obtained data about the statement are as follow: tr-1: “harusnya diadakan tambahan pengajaran di luar jam pelajaran, seperti ikut les atau kursus dalam bahasa inggris” (interview with tr-1, 3/11/2016). translation: “in order to improve students proficiency, extra class is more appropriate”. besides, the second respondent (tr-2) states that motivation or teachers role in teaching writing based on genre approach are more important. the obtained data as follow: tr-2: “tentunya siswa harus selalu dimotivasi untuk mau belajar bahasa inggris lebih giat dengan berbagai pengajaran berbasis genre agar mereka lebih bisa meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa inggrisnya. dan dengan tuntutan banyak dari pemerintah terhadap kemampuan bahasa inggris, diharapkan adanya berbagai seminar dan pelatihan guru mengenai teknik-teknik pengajaran bahasa inggris dengan mengikuti ‘trend’ dan isu-isu baru dalam dunia pendidikan bahasa inggris” (interview with tr-2, 10/11/2016). translation: “the teachers should motivate the students in order to increase their proficiency. dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions 40 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and, based on striving by the government, the teachers wished to get the comprehensive and sustainable training and workshop in implementing teaching writing based-genre, so that, they can follow the trend and issues in english teaching and can fully understand to implement the techniques in teaching english”. all respondents of the study required the training to overcome the problem. it is in line with one of the solutions proposed by j. harmer (2007). they all needed a comprehensive training done not only in one session. with respect to the first and second respondents’, extra class, a motivation and teachers’ role in classroom is more important in implementing a genre based approach in teaching writing. j. harmer (2007) measured out teachers act as controllers, prompter, participant, resource, and tutor. as controller, the teachers can give rhetorical instruction in writing improvement as prior knowledge for the students (harmer, 2007:57). in this context, motivation, teachers’ role and extra class is very beneficial in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing, because that there are strong associations between them. conclusion as the completion of this research report of the topic “teachers’ perspectives of the process of genre-based approach in teaching writing”, all of research questions of the study are clearly answered. two teachers who become the respondents of this study had the same and different perspective about the implementation of genre-based approach in teaching english writing. the same opinion is in the case of the coverage, and the different opinion is in the case of detail description. besides, the teachers also faced several problems in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing. they had difficulties to assess a big number of students with several domains in limited creativity in their thinking. to cope with the problems, the teachers wished to get the comprehensive and sustainable training and workshop in implementing teaching writing based on genre approach, so that they can follow the trend and issues in english teaching and can fully understand to implement the techniques in teaching english. with respect to the findings, the main suggestion goes to the english teachers and the government. the teachers are suggested to apply an approach based genre in teaching english writing. the genre-based approach is relevant to indonesian learners. in addition, the use of gba (genre-based approach) in the teaching of english provides the development of the teachers’ teaching competency, and students’ language proficiency. as the students learn the content of the text, their language skills are developed and the mastery of vocabulary and grammar also increased. another suggestion goes to the future researching of topic of genre-based approach in teaching writing. since this study is not discussed as much as others, it would be a respected if future researcher can enlarge the study in investigating the implementation of genre-based approach not only in teaching writing, but also other aspects in english language teaching, such as in teaching listening, speaking, and reading.1 references ahn, h. (2012). “teaching writing skill based on genre approach to l2 primary school students: an action research” in elt journal, volume 5(2), pp.2-16. badger, r. & g. white. (2000). “product, process, and genre: approach to teaching writing in eap” in elt journal, volume 54(2), pp.153-160. baratta, alex. (2008). “creative-academic writing”. available online at: https://www.researchgate. net/profile/alex_baratta/publication [accessed in bandung, indonesia: november 11, 2016]. bawarshi, a.s. & m.j. reiff. (2010). genre: an introduction to histioy, theory, research and pedagogy. indiana, usa [united states of america]: parlor press. bhatia, v. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. essex: longman. byram, m. (2004). “genre and genre-based teaching” in the routledge encyclopedia of language teaching and learning. london: routledge. 1statement: herewith, i have declared that this paper is my original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet also be reviewed as well as published by other scholarly journals. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 41© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare christie, f. (2005). language education in the primary years. sydney: unsw [university of new south wales] press. creswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. london: sage publications, 3rd edition. davit, a.j. (2004). “writing genre” in d. blakesley [ed]. rethorical philosphy and theory. usa [united states of america]: southern illinois university. dudley-evans, t. & m.st. john. (1998). developments in english for specific purposes: a multi-disciplinary approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. emilia, e. (2005). “a critical genre-based approach to teaching academic writing in a tertiary efl context in indonesia”. unpublished ph.d. thesis. melbourne, australia: university of melbourne. fraenkel, j.r., n.e. wallen & h.h. hyun. (2012). how to design and evaluate research in education. new york, usa [united states of america]: mcgrawhill, 8th edition. hammond, j. & b. derewianka. (2001). “genre” in r. carter & d. nunan [eds]. the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages. cambridge: cambridge university press, pp.186-193. hancock, b. (2002). an introduction to qualitative research. nottingham university: trent focus research. harmer, j. (2007). the practice of english language teaching. harlow, uk [united kingdom]: longman pearson education limited, 3rd edition. hassani, m.t. & m.r. hemmati. (2013). “the effect of genre-based instruction on esp learners’ reading comprehension” in theory and practice in language studies, volume 3(6), pp.1009-1020. hyland, k. (2003). “second language writing” in j.c. richard [ed]. general principle for l2 writing: critical analysis. new york, ny: cambridge university press. hyland, k. (2007). “genre pedagogy: language, literacy, and l2 writing instruction” in journal of second language writing, volume 16(3), pp.148-164. hyon, s. (1996). “genre in three traditions: implications for esl” in tesol quarterly, volume 30(4), pp.693-722. interview with tr-1, an english teacher from one of the islamic senior high schools in kawali, ciamis, west java, indonesia, on 3 november 2016. interview with tr-2, an english teacher from one of the islamic senior high schools in kawali, ciamis, west java, indonesia, on 10 november 2016. kapp, r. & b. bongi. 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(1994). qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook, usa [united states of america]: sage publication, inc., 2nd edition. nugroho, t. & hafrizon. (2009). introduction to genrebased approach. jakarta, indonesia: pppptk bahasa. rahman, m.m. (2011). “genre-based writing instruction: implications in esp classroom” in english for specific purposes world, volume 33(11), pp.1-9. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge, uk [united kingdom]: cambridge university press. taselin, maria. (2010). the teaching of english language skills and english language components. malang: state university of malang press. wahidi, r. (2009). “genre of text”. available online at: http://rachmatwahidi.wordpress.com [accessed in bandung, indonesia: november 11, 2016]. yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and method. usa [united states of america]: sage publication, inc., 3rd edition. dian ardiansah, teachers’ perceptions 42 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the english teachers in indonesia (source: https://www.newsdeeply.com, 9/10/2016) the teachers also faced several problems in implementing genre-based approach in teaching writing. they had difficulties to assess a big number of students with several domains in limited creativity in their thinking. to cope with the problems, the teachers wished to get the comprehensive and sustainable training and workshop in implementing teaching writing based on genre approach, so that they can follow the trend and issues in english teaching and can fully understand to implement the techniques in teaching english. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 133 assoc. prof. dr. norhasni zainal abiddin is a lecturer at the department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies upm (putra university of malaysia), 43400 serdang, selangor, malaysia; affero ismail is a staff at the manpower department, ministry of human resource, federal government administration, 62530 putrajaya, malaysia; and prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja is a lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. corresponding author is nonie@putra.upm.edu.my enhancing quality of higher education for graduate research students development norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja abstract: quality education becomes a major issue in higher education. the numbers of graduate students to pursue their higher education keep increasing by years. in the meantime, the institutions of higher learning are striving to attract more students, especially at the graduate level by making every effort to provide quality education. graduate students contribute to the development of research outcome. some scholars proposed that the strategic success of a service organization depends on its ability to consistently meet or exceed customer service expectations. a constant effort should be made to ensure the customer satisfaction. this paper provides the relevant input for effective resource development in institutional of higher education. the approach would address the needs of students further along the process with an emphasis on data gathering, management and analysis, compiling a thesis or dissertation, assessment, and the publishing of research results. another approach would relate to generic aspects of graduate growth, development, and progress. conceptual evidence is presented which combination of resource needs to focus. it is hoped to contribute a proper insight of effective resource in developing distinguished human capital. key words: higher education, quality education, graduate students, resource development, and student development. introduction the desire to continue graduate education is increased by years. the obstacles of their studies are waiting ahead. this journey is a maturing process. it must be enhanced with timely and appropriate support. the institution of higher education should provide support to graduate students without sacrificing the coherence and generic input needed in any academic program. students undertaking graduate program at universities are under increasing pressure to complete their candidature within particular time frames. faculty are also under similar pressure to attract and retain quality candidates who will be able to complete on time and attract funding and research quantum as well as raise the level and status of the institution’s norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 134 research profile. it is important to enhance the image of institution. at the same time, universities are attempting to do more with less in all areas of teaching and research as funding becomes more competitive and tied to key performance indicators and accountability measures. institutions should cater the needs of graduate students that come from various background and levels, especially research students. graduate research students represent a significant range of diversity: (1) age; (2) cultures and religion; (3) experience and ability; (4) part-time, full-time, internal or external; (5) their needs change over time/place/space; and (6) sometimes with, but mostly without, scholarships or other funding support. currently, graduate students at most institution are obliged to publish and present conference papers in order to graduate. during graduate process, a student encounters many problems and obstacles. it is normal for them to face difficulties during the study but it is the responsibility of the institution to handle their issue effectively. there are pressure on research students to: (1) complete within candidature time – reduced learning entitlement; (2) publish/present conference papers; (3) support families/jobs; and (4) develop a broader range of skills that will enhance their marketability. these exclude creating new knowledge, producing ground-breaking work, keeping up with the literature, and writing a dissertation. institutions and universities are handling many issues regarding graduate studies. one of the major issues of graduate studies is attrition and completion rates. a study in canada indicated that discipline area was important for completion, with completion rates varying from 45% in arts and humanities to 70% in life sciences, with science completions being generally in the high 60% range (elgar, 2003). in united kingdom, completion rates after 10 years differed by general discipline area with arts/humanities rates being 51% and sciences cited at 64% (wright & cochrane, 2000). for australia, y.m. martin, m. maclachlan and t. karmel (2001) estimated that 60% of beginning doctoral candidates in 1992 would have completed successfully by 2003 (that is 11 years after initial enrolment), suggesting an attrition rate of 40%. the same study also reported considerable variation in completion rates between institutions and disciplines of study. part time student really consumes time, money, effort, patience, and enthusiasm during their studies. it is important for them to complete their study faster and certainly within the time frame given since most of them either financing their study by themselves or receive a scholarship. many factors contributing to graduate student who fail to complete their studies within the time given and the major problem is related to the resource quality offered by the institution. quality is essentially a function of human psychology. ignoring the psychological aspects of human beings in pursuit of quality leaves us with a mechanistic understanding. their needs, in this particular matter, are always become a conflict. this situation will lead to a poor quality of graduate studies comprising the research outcome. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 135 learning and maturing process graduate education is learning and maturing process (zainal abiddin & ismail, 2012). graduate education programs worldwide attract professionally-based, nonresidential students studying part-time. many graduate students are mature and/ or distance learners with needs different to those of residential and undergraduate students (humphrey & mccarthey, 1999). part-time students struggle to cope with their simultaneous academic and professional workloads and experienced a lack of support and understanding from their supervisors, inflexible program organization and structures, and a feeling of isolation (lessing & lessing, 2004; and mackinnon, 2004). graduate students report anxiety as a result of uncertainty about what is expected of them and procedures such as assessment (lovitts, 2005; malfroy, 2005). some scholars have discussed the behaviour of students’ aspect such as students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. they may have further distinctive needs in order for them to cope with the pressures of a technologically advanced environment and a system that demands independent research (lessing & schulze, 2002). these factors need to be taken into account in the design of information and support resources provided to graduate students. service provided for students have to be well-managed and fits the students’ needs. satisfactory of these services will lead students to achieve a better quality of studies. in an effort to conceptualize service quality, g.s. sureshchandar, c. rajendran and t.j. kamalanabhan (2001) identified five factors of service quality as critical from the customers’ point of view. these factors are: (1) core service or service product; (2) human element of service delivery; (3) systematization of service delivery: non-human element; (4) tangibles of service – services capes; and (5) social responsibility. these are the factors involved in customers’ satisfaction. here, the authors addressed the customer as the students. as being explained before, the major concern in higher education nowadays is attrition and completion rates. n. lessing and a.c. lessing (2004) provide the following general aspects that influence graduate completion rate: student-friendly, accessible administrative procedures, understanding academic and scientific requirements, ability to judge workload related to different components of the research process, retaining supervisor contact, overcoming isolation, conflict management, and the ability to take a stand and argue a position in terms of the study. r. humphrey and p. mccarthey (1999) add the important role the provision of adequate facilities, financial support, interaction within the department and wider university, logistical arrangements, and demographic factors play in graduate student success. l. mcalpine and j. norton (2006) stated that a serious problem exists in the academic world – doctoral education attrition rates that approach 50% in some disciplines. they then proposed a framework to guide research and graduate programs; its strength resides in its integrative and systemic perspective with norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 136 student experience of learning at its core. the framework integrates the range of factors influencing students experience so that we can envision responding to this issue in a coherent and effective fashion and potentially improve poor doctoral completion rates. l. mcalpine and j. norton’s framework is a heuristic, a visual image that serves as a mnemonic by providing a simplified representation of complex dynamic systems in an integrative fashion. the intent is to understand the interaction and influence of multiple factors across different contexts in influencing retention and completion. the value of the framework is to remind us to consider contexts not presently in our focal area; integrating these allows us to examine the extent to which changes in one context may create disequilibrium or be contestable and contested in other contexts. it also enables us to consider contesting changes in contexts beyond our own that we believe will have deleterious effects (mcalpine & norton, 2006). students are central to the graduate undertaking. yet, theirs is the voice that is least heard (golde, 2000). this absence of the student’s voice begins with undergraduates (dunwoody & frank, 1995) where information is rarely, if ever, collected as to why students drop classes. this silence becomes loud for doctoral students who meet the criteria of people who have not been heard because their points of view are believed to be unimportant or difficult to access by those in power (mclaughlin & tierney, 1993). today’s students come to graduate programs with increasingly varied backgrounds, preparation, expectations, motivations, and responsibilities (e.g. child-care, work). in the usa (united states of america), they tend to be older than in the past, mostly in a relationship, parents, employed in areas unrelated to their discipline, and domiciled far enough away from campus that it is not easy to be present (elgar, 2003). many of these students want to enrich what is to them a new community with their knowledge and experience (zainal abiddin & ismail, 2012). however, despite such diversity, studies consistently demonstrate a set of variables originating in different contexts that influence graduate retention and completion for all students. this uniformity results from common features that students experience as they begin to acculturate in their chosen community of practice. their academic experience may include increasing debt, competition for funding, overwhelming program requirements, isolation, competing demands (family and unrelated employment) resulting in concerns about quality of life as well as fears about career opportunities upon completion. thus, they need support from the institution to keep them continuing their studies. we assume this is the case at the graduate level where for many the goal is to enter into the academic community with the supervisory/committee relationship (johnson & broda, 1996) perceived as an important factor in this process. a student is frequently his/her supervisor’s closest colleague (mcalpine & weiss, 2000). thus, the resource in supervisory aspect should be managed wisely so that the students will be more convinced to proceed with their thesis. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 137 the departments that exist within larger organizations: faculties/schools in universities are the key of students’ resource. they are important sites of learning and change that exist within institutions. institutions incorporate degrees of diversity just as do student populations and departments. interestingly, many universities estimate shorter times to and higher levels of completion than other universities (elgar, 2003) but did not take action into this. why is the case remains unclear; perhaps with increasingly insufficient public funding, universities now look to the community as well as student tuition fees to augment government funding (alexander, 2001). as the level of competitiveness among universities increases, promoting the positives of their own programs and outcomes becomes essential. funding linked to academic work is the last variable since its presence reduces stress concerning finances, links paid work to tasks within the academic rather than the external world, and is often more flexible in scheduling than external employment. institutions traditionally play a role in student access to external funding, such as scholarships. internal funding includes teaching assistantships, largely distributed by departments, with institutions usually setting overall policies, and ra (research assistant)-ships negotiated between student and supervisor. some universities have initiated new internal funding policies to reduce student’s need to work outside the university. when one university limited student admissions to the number of research and teaching assistantships that humanities departments could provide, completion rates increased from 34% to 68% over 10 years (smallwood, 2004). funding is critical, so is the nature of the responsibilities attached to it. the problems that delay graduate studies or prevent them from finishing could be due to inexperience of the student, to poor supervision or an inefficient system (jacobs, 1994; johnston, 1996; katz, 1997; sayed, kruss & badat, 1998; and mouton, 2001). hence, g. rademeyer (1994), j. hockey (1994), y. sayed, g. kruss and s. badat (1998), and r. smith (2000) found that the successful completion of a dissertation was just as much a function of the abilities of the student as of the supervisor. graduate research has an intellectual as well as a psychological component (binns & potter, 1989; sayed, kruss & badat, 1998; and phillips & pugh, 2000). g. rademeyer (1994) claims that internal conflicts (ever changing thoughts and feelings) and external conflicts (personal relationships, time and resource constraints) influence the process negatively. tenacity, support by the supervisor, personal and collegial support, and previous experience contribute to psychological survival (smith, 2000). students also need determination and perseverance (rather than brilliance) to complete their research (phillips & pugh, 2000). in addition, they need adequate supervision and clear communication with supervisors. they should also be familiar with evaluation criteria (smith, 2000). n. lessing and a.c. lessing (2004) adds the following general aspects that influence graduate completion rate: student-friendly, accessible administrative procedures, understanding academic and scientific requirements, ability to judge norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 138 workload related to different components of the research process, retaining supervisor contact, overcoming isolation, conflict management, and the ability to take a stand and argue a position in terms of the study. r. humphrey and p. mccarthey (1999) add the important role the provision of adequate facilities, financial support, interaction within the department and wider university, logistical arrangements, and demographic factors play in graduate student success. students that are vary in personality and intelligence may have further distinctive needs in order for them to cope with the pressures of advanced culture, environment, and a system that demands independent research. the effectiveness of the resources concerned as the major contribution. for some students that are unable to successfully complete their program within the given time frame have to extend their study although they can complete it faster. lack of information and support in the system brought this issue out. process of research and development and quality of service for higher education research is an interactive process and requires the development of social as well as academic skills (phillips & pugh, 2000). a school’s administrative (school of graduate study) function is commonly interpreted as referring to managing, operating or directing an organization (burton & brueckner, 1995) in order to support students towards the completion of phd. some suggestions regarding the supervisory framework for supporting and defining the students’ graduate programme include producing a definite plan in writing, probably different for each department, that describes the department’s view on good supervisory practice; establishing regular meetings between student and supervisor (frisher & larsson, 2000); setting up adequate methods of assessing coursework, thesis or dissertation supervision record keeping and project advancement (brown & atkins, 1988; and cgs, 1990); and submitting a comprehensive annual progress report to the supervisor (donald, saroyan & denison, 1995). faculty and graduate school office is the major source of academic guidance for graduate students and they go there and feel at ease discussing their problems and asking for advice. on the other hand, the students consult their academic advisor if they have academic problems. given the length and complexity of graduate student supervision, it is understandable that various difficulties arise (brown & atkins, 1988; and moses, 1994) due to organisational or professional factors. organisational factors could include policies and procedures established or not established for graduate student supervision (donald, saroyan & denison, 1995), the manner in which these are communicated to supervisors and students, the number of student being supervised, the supervisor’s inability to manage a research group effectively, and inadequate support services and equipment. among the professional factors are: misinformed or inadequately prepared supervisor or a supervisor whose research interests are different from those of the student. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 139 all of these issues are related to the responsibility of the school. the school should ensure that the student has been appointed a supervisor who has a similar interest and expertise in the student’s research area (donald, saroyan & denison, 1995) and should match the personalities of supervisors and students (sheehan, 1993; and holdaway, deblois & winchester, 1995). a school must ensure that an optimum student-to-supervisor ration of less than or equal to 6:1 is established (donald, saroyan & denison, 1995). there are circumstances where a student can face a personality clash, barriers to communication, cultural or language difficulties or personal differences in the approach to work. here, the school has to ensure that it provides the best solution for the student (donald, saroyan & denison, 1995). besides that, the school should appoint an appropriate administrator to monitor the supervision provided to all graduate students and required that annual reports of student’s progress be submitted to the graduate studies office or faculty (holdaway, deblois & winchester, 1995). like many other business organizations, institutions of higher learning must also be concerned with the quality of the services offered to their customers that is the students. service quality can lead to excellence in education and can have lasting effects on the institutions and students. this can influence students’ recommendations of their programs to others, as well as their future monetary contributions in support of their institutions (chong, 2002). nowadays, higher education is being driven towards commercial competition imposed by economic forces resulting from the development of global education markets and the reduction of government funds that forces tertiary institutions to seek other financial resources (firdaus, 2006a). tertiary institutions had to be concerned with not only what the society values in the skills and abilities of their graduates, but also how their students feel about their educational experiences (bemowski, 1991). these new perspectives call attention to the management processes within the institutions as an alternative to the traditional areas of academic standards, accreditation, and performance indicators of teaching and research. a. firdaus (2006a) also added that tertiary educators are being called to account for the quality of education that they provide. while more accountability in tertiary education is probably desirable, the mechanisms for its achievement are being hotly debated. a. firdaus (2006b) further indicated that the six dimensions, namely: non-academic aspects, academic aspects, reputation, access, program issues, and understanding were distinct and conceptually clear in managing service quality in higher education. therefore, it can be posited that students’ perception of service quality can be considered as a six-factor structure consisting of the identified six dimensions. consequently, tertiary institutions should assess all the six dimensions of service quality to ascertain the levels of services provided, and to determine which dimensions need improvements. evaluating service quality levels and understanding how various dimensions impact overall service quality would ultimately enable tertiary institutions to efficiently design the service delivery processes (firdaus, 2006b). in addition, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of these dimensions norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 140 and their relative influences may result in better allocation of resources so as to provide a better service to students. a. jusoh et al. (2004) proposed a model for service quality in higher education (sqhe). they have developed six dimensions of service quality in education. there are: tangibles, competence, attitude, content, delivery, and reliability. tangibles refer to facilities provided by the institution in serving good conditions to their customers. this dimension is applicable to personnel and condition of equipments. competences refer to sufficiency and highly qualified of the academic staff, the program structure, and the capabilities to render good image and strong attraction in teaching. attitude concerned with the communication, caring, individual attention, and understanding students’ needs. content in the context of education is referring to the curriculum design and how its can develop and prepare the students for their potential job market. delivery means the capability in giving lecture and presentation effectively, the compliance of course works with the module, focusing on the learning outcome, providing useful information, and proper channel for feedback and ideas. the final dimension is reliability. in the higher education context, reliability can be defined as the degree to which the knowledge, information, and skills learned are correct, accurate, and up to date. it’s also concern on keeping promises, handling complaints, giving resolutions, and solving problems. j. hattie (1990) and g soutar and m. mcneil (1996) in their studies opposed the current system of centralized control, in which the government sets up a number of performance indicators that are linked to funding decisions. there are a number of problems in developing performance indicators in tertiary education. one such problem is that performance indicators tend to become measures of activity rather than true measures of the quality of students’ educational service (soutar & mcneil, 1996). these performance indicators may have something to do with the tertiary education’s quality management, but they certainly fail to measure the quality of education provided. a survey conducted by m.s. owlia and e.m. aspinwall (1997) examined the views of different professionals and practitioners on the quality in higher education and concluded that customer-orientation in higher education is a generally accepted principle. they construed that from the various customers of higher education, students were given the highest ranking. as recipients of higher education, it was the students’ perceptions of quality that were of interest. students’ views on all aspects of their higher education experiences are now being widely canvassed and regarded as essential to the effective monitoring of quality in universities (hill, lomas & macgregor, 2003). according to a. firdaus (2006b), service quality has attracted considerable attention within the tertiary education sector, but despite this, little work has been concentrated on identifying its determinants from the standpoint of students being the primary customers. g. srikanthan and j. dalrymple (2003) and s. lagrosen, r. seyyed-hashemi and m. leitner (2004) highlighted some weaknesses in the issue of quality in higher education whereby the adoption of quality control has educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 141 been superficial and diluted by the exercise of academic freedom, as well as being hampered by lack of shared vision and lack of a match between quality management and educational processes. previous study by y. chong (2002) on service quality in institutions of higher learning had focused on examining the institution’s strategic positions by evaluating existing services, and adapting to customers’ perceptions and to enhance their leadership positions. the study had sought to find out the truth on students’ complaints on their services. the variables used are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy; quality dimensions taken from a. parasuraman, v.a. zeithaml and l.l. berry (1994). the study measured service quality in terms of objectivity of the measurement tool and not much on the actual perception of the customers that is, the students. while institutions of higher learning are becoming more competitive with the emerging market growth, students’ perceptions of the higher education experience have become increasingly important as institutions also attempt to become more students-oriented. therefore, it is crucial for institutions of higher learning to maintain and continuously improve the quality of education. however, there has been little research seeking to identify the quality factors of education from the students’ viewpoint. this lack of knowledge by the institution’s management might lead to their misallocating resources while attempting to improve their institution’s quality. such efforts could result in students’ dissatisfaction with the institution. hence, students’ perception of quality of information and services in institutions of higher learning becomes very important. the aim here must be to put the best possible gloss on services provided for reasons of competitiveness, but without making false claims that “everything in the garden is rosy”. one trick employed by commercial organizations is to acknowledge problems facing a sector as a whole – in the case of higher education, say, increasing class size – but outline the steps that a particular organization is taking to overcome such problems, and which differentiate it from competitors. some other antecedents which the research of a. parasuraman, v.a. zeithaml and l.l. berry (1994) suggests can serve to lower consumer expectations, thereby making them more realistic, include these: perceived service alternatives (consumers’ perceptions of the possibility of obtaining better service from other service providers); self-perceived service role (consumers’ perceptions of the extent to which they themselves influence the level of service they received); and situational factors (performance contingencies that customers perceived to be beyond the service provider’s control). service quality measurement has become a feature in the higher education and quite a volume of studies and researches has been conducted in this field and in other service-oriented organizations. a. adee (1997) conducted a study in a medium-sized university in australia to measure students’ belief about eight services and service attributes of the university. he also reported the satisfaction with enrolling in the university by mail surveys conducted at two different time periods. only 37% of the first time respondents (n = 1342) returned the questionnaires and used in his study. he concluded that perceived quality depends on satisfaction. norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 142 based on a study by h. safahieh and d. singh (2006), they found that the main information needs were related to the university, the faculty and their program of study. they also found that the main information barrier was language, 22 respondents (40.7%). g. soutar and m. mcneil (1996) conducted a pilot study in an attempt to assess service quality in a number of units in a large australian university. about 109 students from three classes were surveyed. the aim of the study was to determine the students’ expectations and assessing their perceptions of both the academic and non-academic service quality and also to examine the gap differences. conclusion educational institution needs to move on from here or work simultaneously with these processes to ensure that there is constant improvement which impact directly on our future human resources. it has responsibility to provide these students with an effective resource. effective resource is the key factor to the success of graduate studies. good resource will contribute to self-development, professional growth, and career development of the students. as the learning takes place, the institution should provide relevant information and input to students. the development of students’ progress will be determined by the support and service offered to them. each institution of higher learning should provide diversified information and support at the different stages of progress in graduate studies, for instance a general information guide outlining the graduate process and various information sources and support structures available to facilitate initial progress, as well as interactive sessions on the use of the library, information management, scientific writing in general as well as the writing of a proposal, and research methodology. the approach would address the needs of students further along the process with an emphasis on data gathering, management and analysis, compiling a thesis or dissertation, assessment, and the publishing of research results. another approach would relate to generic aspects of graduate growth, development, and progress. this could take on different forms. an interactive website (a so-called blog-space, chat room) could facilitate discussion and sharing between students. graduate students all need to write and defend research proposals, and eventually defend their work. presenting a proposal, progress report, or final results could facilitate student interaction, peer learning, scholarly discourse and development, critical reflection, formative assessment, as well as student throughput. the last approach could be optional needs-based components, while the central part could be a mandatory component of all graduate programs at the university. this will have to be negotiated with students upon registration, so that they know in advance what will be expected of them. graduate students need enthusiasm, strength, support, and commitment to keep on their study. they need to be treated properly as an important customer without sacrificing the apt and basic input needed by graduate students. graduate students educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 143 have different resource and support needs at the different phases of their studies and that there are various ways in which these needs could and should be met. providing quality resource and support to graduate students is primarily the responsibility of the institution. at the level of the graduate studies, students survived independently with the support from the institution. by providing convenience services and resources, the process of learning will be more convenient. references adee, a. 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(2012). “exploring student development theory in enhancing learning through supervision” in international journal of academic research in progressive education and development, 1(1), pp.213-223. norhasni zainal abiddin, affero ismail & tukiran taniredja, enhancing quality of higher education 146 lecturers have to support the students (source: aspensi’s photo album, 20/5/2009) graduate students need enthusiasm, strength, support, and commitment to keep on their study. they need to be treated properly as an important customer without sacrificing the apt and basic input needed by graduate students. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 197 testing generative thinking among swazi children t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule abstract: this study tested and compared the generative thinking of second graders (7-8-year olds) and fifth graders (10-11-year olds) as a means to assess how generative thinking develops among children. results from this study were compared with results obtained by mushoriwa (2003) in a similar study in zimbabwe in order to see if the development of generative thinking follows a similar pattern in different environments. data were sourced from 40 second-graders and 40 fifth graders randomly selected from schools around manzini. the survey research design was used, with interviews employed to collect the data. crosstabs and a two-sample t-test were used to analyse the data. the study found no significant differences in generative thinking between second and fifth graders in the swazi sample. in the comparative analyses, while significant differences in eye placements were observed between second graders in swaziland and second graders in zimbabwe, no significant differences in eye placements were observed between fifth graders in swaziland and fifth graders in zimbabwe. as for reasons/explanations for eye placements, significant differences between swazi and zimbabwean children were noted at both second grade and fifth grade levels. the study recommended the use, by teachers, of pedagogy that is promotive of generative thinking as well as the need for further research in the area focusing on environmental factors influencing the nature and developmental pattern of generative thinking. key words: generative thinking, among children, comparative study, different environments, and swazi children sample. introduction this study sought to establish the extent and developmental pattern of generative thinking among swazi children aged between 7 and 8 years (second graders) and between 10 and 11 years (fifth graders). the results from this study were compared with results from a similar study by t.d. mushoriwa (2003) on zimbabwean pupils of the same age and grade levels. t.d. mushoriwa (2003) finds the foundational nature of generative thinking in the development of other cognitive skills such as image formation, story production and detection of relationships as justification for the investment of time and effort in its study. it being a field of study relatively in its infancy, the rationale for its study becomes even greater. a clear conception of the concept of generative thinking is pertinent to an understanding of this study. an explanation, of what generative thinking is, is given below. t.d. mushoriwa, ph.d. is senior lecturer at the department of educational foundations and management uniswa (university of swaziland), private bag 4 kwaluseni, swaziland m201, southern africa; mr. j. sibanda is lecturer at the department of primary education uniswa; and ms. h.z. nkambule is lecturer at the department of statistics and demography uniswa. one of them can be reached at: tdmushoriwa@uniswacc.uniswa.sz t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 198 e. debono (1970) identifies three thinking aspects, namely, what is, what may be and what can be. he laments education’s preoccupation and obsession with the first, underestimating the second and almost totally disregarding the third despite the fact that the future seems to depend on it entirely. the first represents what g. tidona (2004) calls simple thinking which is slow and ineffective in producing new ideas. the second represents critical thinking which itself depends on what already exists. it is the third level which represents generative thinking, which is productive and creative thinking which transcends literacy and numeracy into the realm of operacy. the thinker goes beyond concrete experiences to the world of possibilities which are not current realities. generative thinking involves the production of new and original solutions to problems and encapsulates novelty and utility (mushoriwa, 2003). the twin attributes of novelty and utility which characterise generative thinking are significant in this study whose focus was on pupils placing a hypothetical third eye on a part of the body (novelty) where it would be most useful (utility). novelty was made manifest in the placement of the third eye out of the usual location of eyes in the face region and utility involved the placement of the third eye on the back of the head to have an all-round view. in order to contextualise the study, related literature was reviewed. the researchers, however, acknowledge paucity of literature given that attempts to establish the extent of generative thinking among children are relatively new and few. literature review the dynamic nature of our world requires, not greater exercise of our routine traditional patterns of thinking, but rather the employment of generative, explorative, productive thinking. it is this type of thinking that should be identified, activated and nurtured in pupils at tender ages. the present study confines itself to the identification aspect. generative thinking has the capacity to spot links which are not apparent as well as draw conclusions from premises not seen (tidona, 2004). this contrasts sharply with simple thinking which reflects and registers things as they are and observes reality in its present and original form. r.s. siegler (1996) sees the varied nature of pupils’ thinking capabilities in given tasks as translating to their diversity in generative thinking capacities. the study of generative thinking among children by t.b. ward (1994) and p.d. stokes (1999) reveals that generative thinking is a gradual developmental process which develops in relation to pupils’ age, i.q., type of task, nutrition, family and socio-economic influences. the present study kept the task type variable constant by using the same task of the placement of a hypothetical third eye for all the subjects. this enabled comparisons on the influence of age/grade level on pupils’ generative thinking. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 199 from his review of t.b. ward’s (1994) studies on college students’ generative thinking, t.d. mushoriwa (2003) concludes that age is not the sole determinant of generative thinking. the college students in question had drawn earth-like animals when they were asked to draw animals that might be found in other planets. this study demonstrated that the students failed to go beyond what they know-indicating lack of generative thinking-despite most of them being already adults. generative thinking is worth studying because it can be improved upon. this type of thinking can be activated through use of novel problems the problem solver has not encountered before and for which he/she cannot produce a known solution (mayer, 1989). this study’s use of the third eye provided that novel situation which called for generative thought. for stokes (1999), tasks have to be deliberately designed to develop generative thinking. d.m. harrington (1975) finds the provision of specific instructions as an important aid to generative thinking. that is why this study’s task and instructions were made so simple and clear to ensure that the subjects knew exactly what was expected of them. d.e. hamachek (1977) sees the essence of generative, divergent thinking as originality rather than orderliness and routinisation of tasks. f. beetlestone (1998) sees originality as that strand of generative thinking which allows for the making of unusual and novel connections. the generation of alternative perspectives without regard for pre-defined standardised formats for problem solving is also a measure of generative thinking (bookfield, 1987). fixation on past experiences diminishes insightful solutions, resists novel interpretations and becomes what daminowski and dalob in r.j. sternberg and j.e. davidson (1995) call the antithesis of insight. where such fixation was noted in the pupils’ responses, the scoring was resultantly low. imagination, non-conformity, difference, independence, inimitability, acceptance of ambiguity, flexibility, envisioning of alternatives, embracing of unfamiliar situations and ability to develop preferred scenarios have been identified as marks of generative thinking (brookfield, 1987; pauker, 1987; and beetlestone, 1998). the responses which manifested these qualities scored higher. methodology: research design, sample, instruments and data collection procedures t.d. mushoriwa (2003) acknowledges having borrowed from d.r. shafer’s (1973) methodological procedures and instrumentation. this study does not deviate from these methodology procedures. the need to compare the present study’s findings with those from t.d. mushoriwa’s (2003) study necessitates the use of a similar methodological approach. the survey design was used for this study since it was found to be consonant with the nature of this study. the survey’s usability on large samples, as is the sample for this study (n=80), and its ability to provide detailed descriptions, gives it an advantage (van dalen, 1979). the unintrusive nature of the researcher who does nothing to the subjects except observe them or ask them to provide data heightens the authenticity of survey responses (nunan, 1992). t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 200 as in t.d. mushoriwa’s (2003) study, 40 second graders (7-8-year olds) and 40 fifth graders (10-11-year olds) formed the randomly selected sample for this study. the rationale for the use of these age levels was the assumption that the two age groups represent, according to b. inhelder and j. piaget (1964), a distinct stage in their thinking patterns, the concrete operational thought. however, it is important to note that some fifth graders will already be in the formal operational stage (see mpofu, 1994). interviews were exclusively used to collect data from respondents to avoid taking the literacy levels of the pupils for granted. the assumption was that some pupils, in the sample, if not most, might have problems comprehending a questionnaire and let alone responding to eye placements and putting justifications in writing. to further ease the data collection process, pupils were given cardboard eyes to stick on any preferred part of their bodies. this avoided the pitfalls which characterised similar studies where respondents were made to draw pictures and place the third eye. n.h. freeman (1980) and m.v. cox (1993) acknowledge such activities to be too challenging for children and in the investigators’ opinions, even for adults who are not of an artistic nature. such difficulties would invalidate the study’s findings; hence, the attempt by the present study to make the tasks as easy for the respondents as possible. j. low and k. durkin’s (1998) studies reveal that where children actually use their bodies, the chances of them making their placements in novel positions and making meaningful justifications for their placements increase significantly. interviewing was done on a one-to-one basis between the researchers and the subjects to avoid undue peer influences in the responses. the conduct of the interview was made informal and game-like to encourage free and genuine expression. the recording of the eye placements and reasons given was done without respondents’ awareness. no leading questions were given and no responses were discouraged. even non-responses were accepted and coded accordingly. the present study used the following coding system adopted from t.d. mushoriwa (2003) as follows: coding of eye placements: 0 – failure/refusal to respond or to place the third eye on any part of the body. 1 – placing the third eye between the existing/natural eyes. 2 – placing the third eye within the face region e.g. on the forehead, between natural eyes etc. 3 – placing the third eye anywhere else in front region of the body e.g. on the chest, stomach, etc. 4 – placing the third eye anywhere in the back region of the body e.g. back of the head etc. coding of the responses for explanations/reasons: 0 – failure/refusal to explain or ambiguous explanation 1 – attributing the placement to mass media e.g. ‘i have seen it on television.’ 2 – explanation referring to natural/biological location of eyes e.g. ‘this is where eyes are’ 3 – explanation relating to how frontal vision would improve if a third eye was in that location e.g. ‘this would allow me to see further ahead.’ 4 – explanation focusing on how vision would be improved or more useful if one was able to see all round e.g. third eye being at the back of the head. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 201 the five codes, used for both eye placements and explanations, were able to accommodate all the responses given. the responses were then presented and analysed as follows: data presentation and analysis the coded data were key-punched for the purpose of analysis. crosstabs and twosample t-test were used to analyse the data. the crosstabs captured the percentage responses for eye placements and the attendant reasons. the two-sample t-test was used to test for differences, if any, in the responses by second and fifth graders. findings from this study were then juxtaposed against those from t.d. mushoriwa’s (2003) study in zimbabwe and emerging patterns were discussed. table 1 (a): crosstab for eye placements for second graders (n=40) and fifth graders (n=40) eye placements respondents second graders (7-8 years) fifth graders (10-11 years) 0failure or refusal to respond. 2 (5%) 1 (2.5%) 1placing the eye between the natural eye. 5 (12.5%) 6 (15%) 2placing the eye on the forehead or any other part within the face region. 15 (37.5%) 10 (25%) 3placing the eye anywhere else in the front region of the body. 7 (17.5%) 8 (20%) 4placing the eye at the back region of the body. 11 (27.5%) 15 (37,5%) table 1 (a) indicates that while 5% (2) of the second graders refused or failed to respond, 2.5% (1) of the fifth graders either failed or refused to place the third eye on any part of their bodies. these pupils argued that human beings do not need three eyes at all, hence, they refused even to take the cardboard eyes from the investigators. one of the second graders commented, “human beings were given two eyes by god, why should i need a third eye now? take your eye and give it to those who are blind”. this clearly indicates young children’s inability to deal with hypothetical situations (inhelder & piaget, 1964). it would appear children at this age have not yet acquired the pre-requisite cognitive skills to go beyond what exists presently; their levels of generativity are still very low, if at all they have developed. a similar study in zimbabwe by t.d. mushoriwa (2003) found that although all the pupils (n=80) placed the third eye in some part of the body, a few were very unhappy to do that giving the same reason (as in the present study) that the third eye was unnecessary for human beings. thirteen and half percent (5) of the second graders and 15% (6) of the fifth graders placed the third eye between the two natural eyes. since generative thinking involves novelty (placing the third eye out of the usual position), the results suggest that both second and fifth graders have not fully developed generative thinking. t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 202 though the difference between second and fifth graders is very marginal in this respect (1 pupil), it is surprising that it is more of fifth graders than second graders who manifest lack of generativity. in the absence of any other reason, perhaps this observation can be explained by the fact that both groups of pupils fall within piaget’s concrete operational stage-suggesting that cognitively they are functioning at the same level. the results in table 1(a) also indicate that 37.5% (15) of second graders and 25% (10) of fifth graders placed the third eye on either the forehead or any other part within the face region. the difference here, as expected, favours fifth graders in terms of the extent to which they have developed generative thinking. in the last item (item 5), 27.5% (11) of second graders and 37.5% (15) of fifth graders placed the third eye at the back region of the body-all of them placing it at the back of the head. pupils in this category, not only portrayed novelty in their placements of the third eye, but also considered utility since they all argued that this would enable them to see all-round. in all, these results indicate that while the majority of second graders (37.5%) placed the third eye on the forehead or any other part within the face region, chiefly arguing that is where eyes must be, the majority of fifth graders (37.5%) placed the third eye at the back of the head, basing their placement on utility. these results are consistent with findings elsewhere. for example, t.d. mushoriwa (2003) found in zimbabwe that 7-8year olds showed less generative thinking than 10-11yearolds. for d.r. shafer (1973), this is so because, young children either lack or have limited formal operational schemes. the differences in placements of the third eye between second and fifth graders were subjected to a two-sample t-test to see whether they were significant or not. table 1 (b) below shows the results. table 1 (b): two-sample t-test for eye placements for second (n=40) versus fifth graders (n=40) alpha level: 0.05 variable 1 variable 2 mean 2,5 2,75 variance 1,384 615 1,423 077 observations 40 40 hypothesised mean 0 df 78 t stat -0,943 616 p (t<=t) one-tail 0,17414 t critical; one tail 1,664 625 p (t<=t) two tail 0,34828 t critical; two tail 1,990 847 educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 203 since -0,943 616 < 1,990 847, we accept ho and conclude that there are no significant differences in the means of second (2,5) and fifth (2,75) graders. thus, the study did not yield any significant differences in eye placements as a function of age or grade level at the 0,05 significance level. we therefore conclude that second and fifth graders do not significantly differ in their generative thinking. these observations are consistent with findings elsewhere. for example, t.b. ward (1994); p.d. stokes (1999); and t.d. mushoriwa (2003) all found that age alone is not a determinant of generative thinking. factors such as one’s i.q. or one’s home/ cultural background influence the extent of generative thinking. table 2 (a): crosstab of reasons/explanations of second (n=40) and fifth (n=40) graders reason/explanation for eye placement respondents second graders (7-8 years) fifth graders (10-11 years) 0-failure/refusal to explain or ambiguous explanation. 7 (17.5%) 5 (12.5%) 1attributing explanation to mass media. 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2-explanation referring to natural or biological location. 9 (22.5%) 5 (13.5%) 3. explanation referring to improvement of frontal vision. 10 (25%) 11 (27.5%) 4-explanation focusing on all-round vision 14 (35%) 19 (47.5%) seventeen and half percent (7) of second graders and 12.5% (5) of fifth graders either failed or refused to explain or give reasons for their eye placements. some pupils in this category gave explanations such as ‘i once dreamt having an eye in that position.’ while no child attributed eye placement to mass media, 22.5% (9) of second graders and 12.5% (5) of fifth graders gave reasons that have to do with the biological location of human eyes. such answers included ‘so that the third eye is near the other eyes’ or ‘that is where eyes are found on a human being’. these children failed to think in terms of novelty (an alternative position) and utility (seeing more and better). the higher percentage of second graders (22.5%) falling within this category seems to indicate that the development of generative thinking is age-related and therefore hierarchical in nature t.d. mushoriwa (2003) also arrived at similar conclusions. twenty-five percent (10) of second graders and 27.5% (11) of the fifth graders gave reasons emphasising how frontal vision would improve if a third eye was placed in the face region. while these children have the idea of utility, they fail to place the third eye in a location where it would offer the greatest advantage (back of the head). on explanations/reasons focusing on all-round vision (item 5), there were 35% (14) second graders and as high as 47.5% (19) fifth graders. reasons given included; ‘so that i can see everywhere (front and back) all the time.’ these t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 204 pupils were concerned with how vision would be improved if one was able to see all round. this item suggests a difference in generative thinking between second graders (35%) and fifth graders (47.5%), with more fifth graders showing generative thinking than second graders. on the look of it, this seems to be a testimony, that generative thinking is age-related. to see whether the differences in explanations between second and fifth graders was significant or not, a two-sample t-test was carried out. the results are given in table 2 (b) below as follows: table 2 (b): two-sample t-test for reasons/explanations for second (n=40) versus fifth (n=40) graders alpha level = 0.05 variable 1 variable 2 mean 2,6 2,975 variance 2,041026 1,76859 observations 40 40 hypothesised mean difference 0 df 78 t stat -1,215124 p (t<=t) one-tail 0,113992 t critical; one tail 1,664 625 p (t<=t) two tail 0,227984 t critical; two tail 1,990 847 since -1215124 < 1,990847, we accept ho and conclude that there are no significant differences in the reasons/explanations given by second and fifth grades for placing the third eye on the body parts they placed it on. thus, second and fifth graders gave more or less similar reasons/explanations for placing the hypothetical third eye on the body parts they placed it on as shown by the means (2,6 and 2,975 respectively); though of course, fifth graders have a slightly higher mean – indicating that they were more imaginative in their placements. although these results contradict results obtained by t.d. mushoriwa (2003) in zimbabwe, one possible explanation for not finding significant differences between second and fifth graders, as argued elsewhere in this paper, is that both second and fifth graders are in piaget’s concrete operational stage. to this extent, these children tend to think and reason in the same way. in all, the results of the present study failed to yield significant age-related differences between second and fifth graders in their generative thinking. thus, although second and fifth graders showed slight differences in both eye placements and reasons/explanations given, these failed to reach statistical significance at 0.05 significance level. to this extent, the study tentatively concludes that second and fifth graders do not differ significantly in their generative thinking. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 205 the present study was also interested in comparing its findings with the findings of a similar study conducted by t.d. mushoriwa (2003) (who is one of the present writers) to see if there are differences in the results of the two studies. although these two studies were conducted in two different environments with different samples and at different times, it was assumed that the two studies would help us see the nature and developmental pattern of generative thinking among children. the results of the two studies are juxtaposed in tables 3(a); 3(b); 4(a) and 4(b) below as follows: table 3(a): crosstab of eye placements for second (n=40) and fifth (n=40) graders in swaziland (sw) versus eye placements for second (n=40) and fifth (n=40) graders in zimbabwe (zim) eye placements number of respondents second graders (7-8years) fifth graders (10-11years) sw zim sw zim 0-failure or refusal to respond. 2 (5%) 0 (0%) 1 (2.5%) 0 (0%) 1-placing the eye between the natural eyes. 5 (12.5%) 35 (87.5%) 6 (15%) 6 (15%) 2-placing the eye on the forehead or any part within the face region. 15 (37.5%) 1 (2.5%) 10 (25%) 10 (25%) 3-placing the eye anywhere in the front facing region. 7 (17.5%) 3 (7.5%) 8 (20%) 1 (2.5%) 4-placing the eye at the back region of the body. 11 (27.5%) 1 (2.5%) 15 (37.5%) 23 (57.5%) table 3(a) shows differences in eye placements for the swazi and zimbabwean samples at both second and fifth grade levels. at the second grade level, more swazi children generally showed greater generative thinking than their zimbabwean counterparts while at the fifth grade level, it would appear more zimbabwean children manifested greater generative thinking than the swazi pupils. while it was outside the scope of the present study to examine factors contributing to the differences, it should be noted that generative thinking has been found to be influenced by such factors as cultural/environmental experiences, home experiences, one’s i.q.; schooling, type of school curriculum among other things. perhaps a study focusing on this area is urgently needed to isolate those factors that trigger and accelerate the growth and development of generative thinking in order to make our children effective thinkers. to see whether the differences between swazi and zimbabwean pupils’ eye placements were significant or not, a two sample t-test was conducted. the results are shown in table 3 (b) below as follows: t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 206 table 3(b): two sample t-test for swazi versus zimbabwean children on eye placements alpha level = 0,05 second grades fifth grades variable 1 variable 2 variable 1 variable 2 mean 2,5 1,25 2,75 3,025 variance 1,384615 0,5 1,423077 1,460897 observations 40 40 40 40 hypothesised mean difference 0 0 df 64 78 t stat 5,758756 -1,024158 p (t < = t) one tail 1,307 0,154463 t critical; one tail 1,669013 1,664625 p (t < = t) two tail 2,6107 0,308926 t critical; two tail 1,99773 1,990847 while a significant difference (t=5,758756>1,99773) in eye placements is observed between second graders in swaziland and second graders in zimbabwe, no significant difference (t=1,024158 <1,990847) in eye placements is observed between fifth graders in swaziland and fifth graders in zimbabwe. mean scores (2,5 for swaziland and 1,25 for zimbabwe) indicate that for second graders, more swazi children use greater generative thinking than zimbabwean children. perhaps a study focusing on reasons for such differences is needed. fifth graders in swaziland (mean score = 2,75) and in zimbabwe (mean score = 3,025) show no statistically significant differences, suggesting similar levels of generative thinking among these children. the swazi sample and zimbabwean sample were also compared on reasons/ explanations given for eye placement preferences. below are the results: table 4(a): crosstab of reasons/explanations for eye placements for second (n=40) and fifth (n=40) graders in swaziland versus second (n=40) and fifth (n=40) graders in zimbabwe reason/explanation for eye placement number of respondents second graders (7-8 years) fifth graders (10-11 years) sw zim sw zim 0-failure/refusal to explain or ambiguous explanation 7 (17.5%) 12 (30%) 5 (12.5%) 0 (0%) 1-attributing reason to mass media 0 (0%) 3 (7.5%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2-explanation referring to natural or biological location of the eyes 9 (22.5%) 17 (42.5%) 5 (12.5%) 3 (7.5%) 3-explantion referring to improvement of frontal vision 10 (25%) 7 (17.5%) 11 (27.5%) 14 (35%) 4-explanation referring to all-round vision 14 (35%) 1 (2.5%) 19 (47.5%) 23 (57.5%) educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 207 table 4(a) generally indicates relatively small differences in reasons given for eye placements between swazi and zimbabwean children at both second and fifth grade levels. these differences were tested for significance using the two sample t-test. table 4(b) below shows the results: table 4(b): two-sample t-test for swazi versus zimbabwean children on reason/explanations for eye placements alpha level = 0,05 second graders fifth graders variable 1 variable 2 variable 1 variable 2 mean 2,6 1,55 2,975 3,5 variance 2,041026 1,382051 1,76859 0,410256 observation 40 40 40 40 hypothesised mean difference 0 0 df 75 56 t stat 3,58931 -2,249448 p (t < = t) one tail 0,000294 0,014217 t critical; one tail 1,665426 1,672522 p (t < = t) two tail 0,000589 0,028434 t critical; two tail 1,992103 2,003241 table 4(b) above indicates that for both second (t = 3,58913 > 1,992103) and fifth (t = 2,249448>2,003241) graders, there is a significant difference, at 0,05 significance level, in the reasons/explanations given for eye placements between swazi and zimbabwean children. while it was outside the scope of the present study to account for differences observed between swazi and zimbabwean children, the present writers strongly feel that researchers would be remiss if no urgent study was conducted in this area. in the writers’ views, this would not only bode well for the furtherance of studies on generative thinking given its little attention in the past, but would also enhance our understanding of the nature and developmental pattern of generative thinking. conclusion and recommendations the present study set out to test the generative thinking of swazi primary school children aged between 7 and 8 years (grade 2) and between 10 and 11 years (grade 5). the study went further to compare the results of the present study with those of an earlier, similar study in zimbabwe by t.d. mushoriwa (2003). while the study on swazi children failed to yield statistically significant agerelated differences between second and fifth graders, generally statistically significant differences were observed between swazi and zimbabwean children. these results t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 208 suggest that the development of generative thinking is to a considerable extent environmentally induced given that children in the same environment (swaziland) did not manifest differences while those in different environments (swaziland and zimbabwe) manifested statistically significant differences. perhaps urgent research is needed to address these research concerns. in the light of the research observations, the study recommends: firstly, the need for teachers to use pedagogy that promotes generative thinking, especially in lower grades. the use of novel hypothetical situations and learning that involves problem-solving have been found to promote generative thinking among children (poole & white, 1995); and secondly, further research in this area focusing on environmental factors that influence the nature and developmental pattern of generative thinking. references beetlestone, f. (1998). creative children: imaginative teaching. buckingham: open university press. bookfield, s.d. (1987). developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. buckingham: open university press. cox, m.v. (1993). children’s drawings of the human figure. hove: erlbaum. de bono, e. (1970). lateral thinking. new york: harper and row. freeman, n.h. (1980). strategies of representation in young children: analysis of special skills and drawing processes. london: academic press. hamachek, d.e. (1977). human dynamics in psychology and education. boston: allyn and bacon. harrington, d.m. (1975). “effects of explicit instructions to be creative on the psychological meaning of divergent test scores” in journal of personality, 43, pp.432-454. inhelder, b. & j. piaget. (1964). the early growth of logic in the child. new york: norton. low, j. & k. durkin. 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[eds]. meaning and testimony in the child witness. london: sage. shafer, d.r. (1973). “children’s responses to hypothetical proposition”. unpublished manuscript. kent state university. siegler, r.s. (1996). emerging minds: the process of change in children’s thinking. new york: oxford university press. sternberg, r.j. & j.e. davidson. (1995). the nature of insight. cambridge: mit press. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 209 stokes, p.d. (1999). “learned variability levels: implications of creativity” in creativity research journal, 12, pp.37-45. tidona, g. (2004). “thinking and learning”. paper presented at the fifth international conference on creative thinking, university of malta. van dalen, d.b. (1979). understanding educational research: an introduction. new york: mcgraw hill. ward, t.b. (1994). “structured imagination: the role of category structure in exemplar generation” in cognitive psychology, 27, pp.1-40. t.d. mushoriwa, j. sibanda & h.z. nkambule, testing generative thinking among swazi children 210 generative thinking has the capacity to spot links which are not apparent as well as draw conclusions from premises not seen. this contrasts sharply with simple thinking which reflects and registers things as they are and observes reality in its present and original form. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 1© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a olusola angelina thomas & maruff akinwale oladejo teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict (information communication technology) integration in nigerian teacher education programme abstract: teaching nowadays is fast expanding rapidly and it requires modern technologies to provide more flexible and effective ways of improving teacher education, and connecting teachers to the global community. ict (information and communication technology) integration into teacher education, therefore, is the key to equipping and producing professional teachers as well as improved pedagogy. however, there is the need to consider the type and nature of teacher trainees before integrating ict in teacher education programmes, because their perceptions are likely to differ. this study, therefore, focuses on the perceptions of teacher trainees (regular and sandwich students) regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme at the unilag (university of lagos) in akoka, nigeria. it adopted the descriptive research design. two hundred and fifty participants were involved. one research question and two hypotheses, based on the specific purposes, were raised and answered in the study. a self-constructed validated and reliable instrument was used to collect data. results revealed that teacher trainees are favourably disposed to the integration of ict into teacher education as indicated by the grand mean and standard deviation (m = 3.22; sd = 12.22). significant differences in the perceptions of teacher-trainees regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme based on type of the programme was also discovered (t-cal = -2.315; df = 98; p < .05). teacher-trainees have to realise that ict has come to stay in their programme. they need to develop more confidence in their individual ability at becoming computer literate teachers in order to remain relevant in the modern day information age. key words: teacher education; information and communication technology; teacher-trainees; perceptions; computer literate teachers. about the authors: dr. olusola angelina thomas is an academic staff at the department of educational administration unilag (university of lagos) in akoka, nigeria; and dr. maruff akinwale oladejo is currently a lecturer at the department of educational administration unilag in akoka, nigeria. for academic interests, the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: soowler@yahoo. com and maoladejo@unilag.edu.ng suggested citation: thomas, olusola angelina & maruff akinwale oladejo. (2017). “teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict (information communication technology) integration in nigerian teacher education programme” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august, pp.1-10. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (february 22, 2017); revised (may 20, 2017); and published (august 30, 2017). introduction in recent time, ict (information and communication technology) has successfully penetrated virtually all human endeavours, including the field of education. g. grant (2004) and a. mcafee (2006) argued that in the modern age, ict has influenced and become an integral part of all aspects of our lives (grant, 2004; and mcafee, 2006). teacher education has not been an exception. in fact, several studies have been carried out on the integration of ict into classroom teaching with a view to complementing and modifying the pedagogical practice (cf deaney, ruthven & hennessy, 2003; and hennessy, ruthven & brindley, 2005). o.a. thomas & m.a. oladejo, teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict integration 2 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare corroborating s. hennessy, k. ruthven & s. brindley (2005)’s views, joy nyenwe & eunice c. ishikaku (2012) asserted that integration of ict in teacher education is a key to providing professional development for teachers, who are the facilitators of education process (hennessy, ruthven & brindley, 2005; and nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012). by implication, we believe that the adoption and integration of ict in all human endeavours has become so important and indispensable such that an illiterate person in modern day work organisation is that person who is unable to utilise ict-related facilities to carry out his/her duties and responsibilities. there is a growing importance for ict within the school curriculum. not only it is used to support teaching and learning within other curriculum subjects, but it is also a subject in its own right as a separate discipline. in view of this, we are of strong opinion that to effect genuine change in the classroom and produce competent and effective teachers, teacher education must alter its tools, methods, and strategies by adopting modern day ict that appears to be efficacious. since teacher education is mainly designed towards preparing teachers, the quality of teacher education depends on the teacher trainee’s abilities and skills. teacher educators have to come to term with the demands of modern world and modify their old concepts and methods according to the needs of learners. otherwise, the teachers will become out-dated in the coming future with its devastating consequence on deteriorating the quality and standard of teacher education. pre-service teachers, therefore, need to develop a vision from the very beginning of their careers for using computers in their classrooms. for this, student teachers must understand computer operations and programming-leading them to develop a vision of the value and use of computers in learning (hasselbring & glaser, 2000). it has been asserted by the federal government of nigeria, in the national policy on education in 2013, that no nation can rise above the quality of her education, and also that no educational system can rise above the quality of her teachers (in paulley & ikioumoton, 2015). thus, teachers have been regarded in literature as important components that need to be given attention in the integration of ict in teaching and learning. there has, therefore, been an increase awareness of the seminal roles which teachers play in the implementation of icts in teaching and learning. thus, various educational institutions and governments in africa are emphasizing on teacher development as the key to implementing ict in teaching and learning, hence, improving the standards of education (hennessy, harrison & wamakote, 2010). they are expected to adopt and use icts appropriately in their teaching, hence, implement the changes expected in pedagogy. it, therefore, presupposes that integrating ict in teacher education programme needs to be seriously addressed. this might be the rationale behind the launching of ict competency standards for teachers (ict-cst) by the unesco (united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization) in january 2008 (unesco, 2011). teaching is increasingly becoming a more challenging profession, where knowledge is rapidly increasing and technology is also changing enormously. studies have confirmed that when ict is used appropriately by teachers, there will be positive impact on the way the teachers teach and the way the learners learn, thus, improving pedagogy (hennessy, ruthven & brindley, 2005; hennessy, harrison & wamakote, 2010; and nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012). this, therefore, demands that teacher-trainees have to learn how to use these new technologies in their programme, thus their perceptions about the integration of ict need to be investigated as this will help in determining how, when, and where ict should be integrated. based on the afore-discussed, it becomes highly imperative that attempt be made at investigating the perceptions of teachertrainees (both regular and sandwich), about the integration of ict in teacher education programme. this is because teacher-factor has been regarded as an important issue educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 3© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare for consideration when integrating and implementing icts into teaching and learning process. a. khirwadkar (2007) also argued, therefore, that pre-service teachers need to develop a vision from the very beginning of their careers for using computers in their classrooms (khirwadkar, 2007). for this, student teachers must understand computer operations and programming-leading them to develop a vision of the value and use of computers in learning. literature review. a brief literature review was carried out in this sub-section. this becomes necessary so as to have a better understanding of relevant concepts and variable in the study. it was also carried out in order to be familiar with some of the previous studies earlier done in this area. we will review related to: (1) the concept of teacher education; (2) conceptualising information and communication technology; (3) introduction and development of ict in nigeria; (4) challenges of ict integration in teacher education; (5) students’ perceptions of ict integration in teacher education; and (6) skills and competencies required of teacher-trainees. first, the concept of teacher education. teacher education has been variously defined by scholars in the field of education. for instance, c.f. okafor (1988), as cited in onyemerekeya (2002), described teacher education as a form of education, which is properly planned and systematically tailored and applied for the cultivation of those who teach or will teach, particularly but not exclusively, in primary and post-primary levels of education (okafor, 1988; and onyemerekeya, 2002). teacher education refers to that educational programme basically designed with a view to equipping the would-beteachers with the attitudes, skills, and knowledge; required of them to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community (adeosun, oni & oladipo, 2009). according to h. perraton (2007), teacher education generally includes four elements and the balance between them varies widely. these elements have to do with improving the general educational background of the teacher-trainees; increasing their knowledge and understanding of the subjects they are to teach; pedagogy and understanding of children and learning; and the development of practical skills and competences (perraton, 2007). in nigeria, teacher education is provided in colleges of education, faculties and institutes of education and universities, national teachers’ institute, and some schools of education of polytechnics. second, conceptualising information and communication technology. ict (information and communication technology) is an equipment or interconnected system of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulating, management, control, display, switching, and transmission of information (frn, 2004:9; and oluyomi, 2007). ict is described as a generic term referring to technologies, which are being used for collecting, storing, editing, and passing of information in various forms (jager & lokman, 1999). in the submission of a.c. ololube, a. ubogu & a.g. ossai (2006), ict refers to advances in technology that provides a rich global resources and collaborative environment for dissemination of ict literacy materials, interactive discussions, research information, and international exchange of ideas, which are critical for advancing meaningful education initiative, training high skilled labour force, and understanding issues related to economic development (ololube, ubogu & ossai, 2006). third, introduction and development of ict in nigeria. ict (information and communication technology), particularly computer education, was introduced in nigeria around mid-1960s, with the assistance of ibm (international business machines) that set up computer centres at the universities of ibadan, ibadan; university of lagos, akoka; obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife; university of nigeria, nsukka; and ahmadu bello university, zaria (nwezeh, 2010). these computer centres later metamorphosed into mdc (manpower o.a. thomas & m.a. oladejo, teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict integration 4 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare development centres), according to joy nyenwe & eunice c. ishikaku (2012). however, the idea of introducing computer education into secondary education was conceived during the 32nd meeting of the nce (national council on education) in nigeria, in 1987 (nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012). several other measures and initiatives have been put in place towards the development of ict in nigeria. these include the implementation of ict policy on april 18, 2001, which paved the way for the establishment of nitda (national information technology development agency), the production of npit (nigerian policy for information technology) by the nicta (nigeria information and communication technology agency). furthermore, the nitdef (national information technology development fund) was established; and on august 7, 2004, the nictsapc (national information and communication technologies strategic action plan committee) was inaugurated by the federal government of nigeria. all these measures, philosophies, and objectives have equally been captured and incorporated in the current national policy on education in 2013 (omale & ibietan, 2013). these measures, as opined by p.o. jegede & j.a. owolabi (2003) and c.o. uwadia (2003), were adopted by the federal government as a way of harnessing the benefits of ict in national development and as well building her human capacity (jegede & owolabi, 2003; and uwadia, 2003). fourth, challenges of ict integration in teacher education. every innovation comes with some challenges that must be handled before any success is achieved. some of the challenges in the integration of ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education, in reference to joy nyenwe & eunice c. ishikaku (2012), are as follwing here: lack of good accommodation. a major challenge in effective ict (information and communication technology) integration is suitable accommodation in teacher training institutions, where the equipment will be kept and use. where there is none-one has to be built and properly electrified. in case of existing structures, its electrification fitting has to be ascertained, because safety is important. population. the number of students in the institutions, serving teacher, and headteachers are much. providing all with computers will be quite challenging, because of its cost involvement. regular irregular power supply. there is no doubt that regular and adequate power supply to run the equipment is important. power situation in nigeria poses a serious challenge. so, alternative (solar or generator) source must be provided. lack of ict skilled manpower technicians. lack of ict (information and communication technology) skilled manpower or technicians, who will help train the teachers. this caliber of personnel is needed in the maintenance of the equipment. these services are important in success of the integration. lack of ict pedagogy professional. nigeria lack manpower in terms of professionals that can effectively train teachers on the use of ict (information and communication technology) for teaching and learning, as well as develop the softwares that are compatible with the various curriculum (cf nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012; and omale & ibietan, 2013). fifth, students’ perceptions of ict integration in teacher education. generally, teachers are expected to know how to successfully integrate ict (information and communication technology) into his/ her subject areas to make learning more meaningful (uwadia, 2003; and nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012). this knowledge development during pre-service training has gained much importance with the notion that exposure to ict during this time is helpful in increasing student teachers’ willingness to integrate technology into classroom teaching. preservice teachers need to plan to use computers in their classrooms (omale & ibietan, 2013; and paulley & ikioumoton, 2015). according to a. khirwadkar (2007), it has generally been found that pre-service teachers have demonstrated their ability for integrating technology into their teaching, but do not have clarity about how far technology can be beneficial for students (khirwadkar, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 5© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 2007). there have been several studies which probed into the attitude of teacher-trainees towards the integration and use of technology, with findings that revealed the importance of attitudes for learning to use technologies (cf khirwadkar, 2007; adeosun, oni & oladipo, 2009; nyenwe & ishikaku, 2012; edwards, 2013; aubrey & dahl, 2014; and bird & edwards, 2014). sixth, skills and competencies required of teacher-trainees. for teacher-trainees to be able to integrate ict (information and communication technology) successfully, they have to acquire and develop certain skills and competencies. these skills and competencies to be developed on the part of student teachers, according to a. khirwadkar (2007), include as following here: surfing the internet and locating useful information from the internet for the development of lesson plans. developing lessons plans incorporating student use of technology in the learning process. evaluating and selecting appropriate software for a particular subject and per student needs. generating printed documents, like student assignments, newsletters, communication, etc. utilizing a variety of applications software like word processing and desktop publishing. managing student data, using data management tools for efficiently managing learning. using technology to gather, organize, and report information about student performance like excel and access for database management. developing tools to evaluate technologybased student projects, including multi-media, word processing, database, spreadsheet, powerpoint, desktop publishing, and internet/ telecommunications. using the internet to support professional development, including locating professional organizations, communicating with other teachers electronically, and participating in online professional development workshops and seminars. developing assignments and project work for students, giving them broader and deeper knowledge in a field of study, and developing critical thinking and infusing creativity among students (khirwadkar, 2007). there is the need to consider the type and nature of teacher trainees before integrating ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education programme, because their perceptions are likely to be dissimilar since regular and sandwich students are not likely to be facing similar challenges in the programme. besides, teachers’ educational beliefs can be barriers to ict integration (ertmer, 2005; and hermans et al., 2008). all these serve as the motivating factors that necessitated the present study. thus, the problem of this study is to investigate the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme at the unilag (university of lagos) in akoka, nigeria. the purpose of the study was to determine the perceptions of teacher-trainees (regular and sandwich students) regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme at the unilag in akoka, nigeria. specifically, the study aims: (1) to determine the perceptions of teacher-trainees regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme in terms of structure, contents, challenges, and outcomes; (2) ascertain the difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme; and (3) to ascertain gender difference in the perceptions of teachertrainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme. the research question is “what are the perceptions of teacher-trainees regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme in terms of structure, contents, challenges, and outcomes?”. while the hypotheses are: (1) “there is no significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme”; and (2) “the perceptions of teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme do not significantly differ based on gender”. methods the procedure adopted in conducting this study, in terms of the research design, study population, sample and sampling technique, instrumentation, validity and reliability of the instrument, procedure for instrument o.a. thomas & m.a. oladejo, teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict integration 6 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare administration, and method of data analysis, was brought to the fore in this sub-section (cf creswell, 1994; berg, 2000; jefferies & diamond, 2001; thompson, 2002; peavey, 2003; haywood & lidz, 2007; cody, 2011). the study adopted the descriptive research design to ascertain the differences in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher trainees undergoing bachelors degree programme in education at the unilag (university of lagos) in akoka, nigeria, during 2013/2014 academic session. the population consisted of 3,512 regular and sandwich teacher trainees at the faculty of education unilag in akoka, nigeria, as at the time of conducting this study. two hundred and fifty participants were selected for the study through disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. the participants were first separated into regular and sandwich. one hundred and fifty regular students and one hundred sandwich students were then sampled, regardless of the population of each stratum. a self-constructed instrument titled: “ttpictis (teacher-trainees’ perceptions of information and communication technology integration scale)” was used for the study. it comprised two parts. part one sought information on sociodemography background of the subjects, such as age, gender, marital status, and type of programme. the second part probed into the perceptions of the participants, which they rated on a modified four-point likert scale of sa (strongly agreed), a (agreed), d (disagreed), and sd (strongly disagreed), with score weights of 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively (creswell, 1994). positive statements were score in ascending order, while negatives ones were scored in descending order for effective data analysis. the validity of the instrument, in terms of face and contents, was ascertained by colleagues in the department of educational administration and measurement and evaluations. also, a pilot study was carried out in order to determine the reliability of the instrument. cronbach alpha was used for reliability test, and an alpha value of .78 was obtained (creswell, 1994). this is good enough for the instrument to be relied on. the administration of the instrument was jointly done by the researchers with the supports of four class governors who serve as research assistants after each of the researcher’s lectures. three hundred copies of the instrument were distributed, with two hundred and ninety-one retrieved. two hundred and fifty copied that were completely filled were eventually used for the study. descriptive statistics of frequency and percentages was used to describe the demographic background of the subjects (cody, 2011). on the other hand, inferential statistics was used to answer the four research questions. research questions 1 and 2 were answered with the aid of ppmcc (pearson product-moment correlation coefficient), while student independent t-test was used to answer research questions 3 and 4 (haywood & lidz, 2007). findings and discussion findings. results obtained from the analysed data are as presented below. this was followed by its discussions. research question 1: “what are the perceptions of teacher-trainees regarding the integration of ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education programme in terms of structure, contents, challenges and outcomes?”. the answer, and further discussion, as shown in table 1. table 1 showed the results of the perceptions of teacher-trainees as regards the integration of ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education programme in terms of structure, contents, challenges, and outcomes. with respect to structure, majority of the teachertrainees that participated in the study agreed to the structure of ict integration as indicated by the first item (m = 3.65; sd = .539), and the second item (m = 3.60; sd = .550), but disagreed to the third item (m = 2.38; sd = .972). the perceptions of the teacher-trainees about the contents of ict integration as shown in the table 1 indicated that majority of them agreed to the three items (m = 3.47; sd = .731), (m = 2.55; sd = .880), and (m educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 7© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare = 3.48; sd = .717) respectively. in terms of challenges, the table 1 also showed that the greatest challenge facing the teacher-trainees in ict integration into teacher education was item number one (m = 3.42; sd = .768), followed chronologically by items two, three, four, five, and six respectively. it was also shown in the table 1 that as regards teacher-trainees’ expectations in terms of outcomes, majority of the participants believed that integrating ict in teaching methods will enhance their academic performance (m = 5.55; sd = .575), closely followed by the third item (m = 3.51; sd = .611), and the second item (m = 3.41; sd = .697) respectively. on a final note, the table 1 showed that generally, the participants were favourably disposed to the integration of ict into teacher education as indicated by the grand mean and standard deviation (m = 3.22; sd = 12.22). ho 1: “there is no significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme”. from table 2, it is shown that there was significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education programme (t-cal = -2.315; df = 98; p < .05). regular students appear to have positive perceptions about the integration of ict in teacher education programme than the sandwich students. thus, the researchers failed to accept the null hypothesis. table 1: perceptions of teacher-trainees regarding the integration of ict in teacher education programme sn categories/items x sd structure: 1. i see the integration of ict in teacher education as an opportunity to create a positive learning environment to learn. 3.6500 .53889 2. i believe that the integration of icts in teacher education will help me carry out my assignment and other research work. 3.6000 .55048 3. i think it is difficult to integrate ict in teacher education. 2.3800 .97214 contents: 1. i think ict integration into the entire curriculum of teacher education will broaden my breadth and scope. 3.4700 .73106 2. i think it is difficult to integrate ict in teacher education. 2.5500 .88048 3. ict integration in teacher education will enable me acquire the skills and knowledge i need to use technology effectively in my course of study. 3.4800 .71746 4. our curriculum has not been designed in a way to allow ict integration. 3.0000 .79137 challenges: 1. inadequate facilities have affected the integration of ict in teacher education. 3.4200 .76779 2. the problem of power supply will not enhance effective integration of ict in teacher education. 3.1800 .95748 3. technical incompetence on the part of lecturers will be a challenge to ict integration in teacher education. 3.1600 .82536 4. technical incompetence on the part of students will be a challenge to ict integration in teacher education. 3.1400 .87640 5. resistance to change form the traditional pedagogical methods to more innovative technology based method of teaching and learning will hamper ict integration in teacher education. 3.0400 .80302 6. population of teacher trainees is a challenge to ict integration in teacher education. 2.9500 .92524 outcomes: 1. integrating ict in teaching methods will enhance my academic performance. 3.5500 .57516 2. ict integration in teacher education will help me perform better during teaching practice. 3.4100 .69769 3. i believe that ict integration in teacher education will prepare me to be technologyusing teacher after my programme. 3.5100 .61126 grand mean 3.22 12.22 o.a. thomas & m.a. oladejo, teacher-trainees’ perceptions of ict integration 8 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ho 2: “the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme do not significantly differ based on gender”. from table 3, it is revealed that gender makes no significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict (information and communication technology) in teacher education programme (t-cal = -.033; df = 98; p > .05). all students, regardless of gender, have positive perceptions about the integration of ict in teacher education programme. thus, the authors therefore, failed to reject the null hypothesis. discussion. findings from the research question show that there was favourable disposition of teacher-trainees about the integration of ict (information and communication technology) into teacher education as indicated by the grand mean and standard deviation (m = 3.22; sd = 12.22). this finding corroborates some previous studies done in formal higher education settings that documented positive teacher attitudes toward the use of ict as teaching tools, as cited by t. le & q. le (1999) and k. brandl (2002); but contradicts the finding of e. smeets (2005), who stressed that most teachers do not utilize the potential of ict to maximize the quality of learning environments, which is due to their poor perceptions about ict utilization (cf le & le, 1999; brandl, 2002; and smeets, 2005). as regards the first hypothesis, it was shown that there was significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme (t-cal = -2.315; df = 98; p < .05). this finding might not be unconnected with the fact that regular students have more time and are younger than the older ones in sandwich programmes. they perhaps, embrace ict more than their sandwich counterparts. finally, finding from the second hypothesis revealed that gender makes no significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme (t-cal = -.033; df = 98; p > .05). this contradicts the finding of m. prensky (2001), who reported that gender, age and subject teaching are significant in the integration of ict in teaching practice. conclusion the use of ict (information and communication technology) can play a number of vital roles in education by changing the teaching and learning process. table 2: significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme. var studentship n x sd df t-cal p rmk dec regular 66 37.7385 7.42670 perceptions 98 -2.315 .035* sig reject sandwich 34 34.8235 1.26660 *difference is significant at the 0.05 level. table 3: significant difference in the perceptions of regular and sandwich teacher-trainees about the integration of ict in teacher education programme var gender n x sd df t-cal p rmk dec male 35 37.8080 4.82550 perceptions 98 -.033 .973 not sig reject female 65 37.8400 8.72716 *difference is significant at the 0.05 level. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 9© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare however, ict integration is not easy task. there are significant challenges in integrating icts use in education rising from environmental, cultural, and educational faced by policy makers, educators, educational administrators, and students in higher education. it is very important for educational policymakers and planners before any ict implementation in education to carefully consider the following: (1) policymakers should also look at the ubiquity of different types of ict in the country in general and in the educational system in particular; (2) students should be encouraged to embrace technology, which will go a long way at making teaching-learning more effective and meaningful; (3) teachers should always be exposed to regular updates as regards ict integration through several on-the-jobtraining opportunities; (4) hybrid or blended form of learning should be practiced as this will ensure regular exposure to technology utilisation; and (5) institutional administrators as well as government should find ways of tackling the challenges facing effective ict integration, especially the irregular power supply.1 references adeosun, o., a. oni & a. oladipo. 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(2003). “information and technology education in nigeria: challenges and opportunities”. a paper presented at the 2nd global ncs/nitpa it conference, in washington d.c., on march 11-15. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 131 a preliminary study of ecological worldview: the strategies in developing environmental responsibility behavior sri hayati abstract: this study is one of the activities of research and development which aim to develop strategies in developing environmental responsibility behavior. the preliminary study is the study of ecological worldview. the objectives are: (1) to identify environmental responsibility behavior; (2) to identify the contribution of psychological factors as the background; and (3) to develop hypothetical model strategies in developing environmental responsibility behavior. the method employed in this study is survey to find tendencies of ecological worldview with the psychological factors as the background. data were collected by interviewing respondent using four instruments to measure ecological worldview, innovativeness, locus of control and environmental issues knowledge. the data analyzed by using descriptive statistics to find the tendencies and simple correlation statistics. the result of this study indicates that tendencies of communities ecological worldview in the phase of human centered worldview in which environmental issues knowledge is one of the variables which gives the significant contribution in developing ecological worldview. finally, internalization on society in developing an effective strategy to participate in developing ecological sense of care is expected, so that they are not turning back to arbitrary exploit natural resources under the cloak of increasing prosperity key words: ecological worldview, model strategies, environmental issues knowledge, and environmental responsibility behavior. introduction according to daniel d. chiras, the environmental damage that occurred today is caused by a cycle from many man’ views that applied at daily life (chiras, 1991:454465). first, religion view in which its teaching suggest human to maintain their generation by giving descendant as many as possible. second, biological imperialism in which it is proposed that every man will fight for his self and his progeny to sustain his life. it gives an effect to the hoarder of properties as a stock for his posterity later. third, derived self view which refers to man’ desire to be others who have more capability than he had. fourth, “i versus not i” view that discerns surrounding area as a part of himself. as the result, everything man done would not give an effect to his viability. dr. hj. sri hayati is a lecturer at the department of geography education, faculty of social studies education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. she can be reached at: hayati_2001id@yahoo.com sri hayati, a preliminary study of ecological worldview 132 those views above generate frontier mental that see human as a part of nature which is more superior than others living things. the prominent characteristic of mental frontier are: (1) earth is unlimited resources, (2) life will be better if we accumulate our wealth continually, (3) cost of many projects is only determined by matter, energy and worker, (4) nature will always be available, (5) new technologies and role can solve environmental problems, (6) man is a part and lord over nature, and (7) every man’s efforts will continually generate waste. the application of these views at daily life, definitely, can give an impact to environmental damage. ecological worldview is a concept that being viewed as a new perspective of ecological norms that is considered in natural resources management. naess, as cited by frank b. golley (1987:45), proposed the characteristic of ecological norms as the following: (1) the imagination about the relation between man and environment; (2) equivalence principle in biosphere; (3) the combination between symbiosis principle and diversity; (4) anti-class attitude; (5) removing the pollution and resources scarcity; (6) complexity; and (7) decentralization and local autonomy. these things depict the characteristics above as ecological ethics concerning deep ecologist, which is closely related into two things. first, organism area can be viewed as a structure. it is interacted and acted directly with various factors, such as physical, chemist matter, and biological organism. second, ecology is developed by a number of physical components, such as energy current, matter, and periodically information in physical organism and structure. those ecological system views are strictly related to attitude and behavior that give significant contribution into environmental continuity and problem. it is caused by attitude as a continuation from the view expressed (fishbein & ajzen, 1975:216). positive and negative tendencies in responding an object will be affected into building and destructive behavior to those objects. internal (belief and expectation) and external determinant (award and punishment) is a part of system, which is interacted and influenced into attitude (burger, 1986:11). based on the idea above, this research focuses on the ecological worldview map as a basis in the developing of environmental responsibility behavior strategies. it is conducted because one’s opinion will influence the attitude he/she is expressed. afterward, it is responsible to environmental that is a combination from various factors as background, such as act skill, knowledge of act strategies and environmental issues, and individual factors, which consist of attitude, control locus, and individual responsibility (hungerford & volk, 1990:3-15). theoretical foundation ecological worldview is an individual view about ecological world system included individual role in that system (audesirk & audesirk, 1997). this view is a combination from belief and values of dimensions: (1) the use of natural area, (2) the concern of natural are, (3) the conservation of natural area, (4) the immolation of natural area, (5) the belief of science and technology, (6) the awareness of economical growth, and (7) the conservation of natural resources (blaikie, 1993:14). educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 133 there are two concepts of ecological worldview. first, it is stated that human as human centered of worldview is followed by most of society who perceive that they can take a control over the existent natural resources. in this concept, man is viewed as an important and dominant creature in this world. besides, they are also presumed as creature who should manage this earth for their own benefit. the basic principles as background of this concept are: (1) man is important creature who are separate from nature; (2) earth and its contains is always available and all of them is dedicated or man; (3) high economical growth with infinite potential will be better; (4) health environmental depend on health economic; and (5) man success is determined by how far they can understand, control, and manage this planet for their own advantages. second, it is stated that ecological worldview is oriented in life or life centered worldview. it is also called biocentrism worldview; belief that nature has its own law provision in the cycle of life. here, the global knowledge that is oriented in life have various dimension, such: (1) nature existence is not only offered for man but also for all creature that are a part of the nature itself; (2) nature existence is moderate and having limitation; (3) economical growth provides not only advantages but also loss; (4) health economics depend on health environmental; and (5) man success depend on their cooperation with other creatures in this world. in this concept, man along with other creature is assumed as biocentrism equivalence braided. as an example, ecosystem has identified and proliferate characteristic because it has exchange structure and long-term interaction between man and other creatures. behavior is expressed attitude components (fishben & ajzen, 1975:351). if one’s attitude is determined by the setting of where he/she lives, then, it can be categorized as behavior all setting. this pattern can differentiate one’s behavior with others to the object at certain places and times (krech et al., 1988:15). eureta janse van rensburg (1994:28) stated also that behavior is directly correlated with the intention to act. nevertheless, some factors influence it before it comes up into act decision. they are: (1) the readiness to act, (2) the knowledge of act strategies, and (4) personality factors, such as attitude, locus control, and individual responsibility. theoretically, one will learn somebody else’s behavior to be adopted in his/her behavior later. research methodology this study employed survey method by considering it investigated ecological view and physiologist factors (innovation level, control locus, and the knowledge of environmental issues) deeply and specifically. the population in this study is bandung society. sukasari district was purposively taken as sample area since it has the following characteristics: (1) urban society, (2) high mobility, and (3) having and access for communication and social information. meanwhile, sixty respondents were chosen by multistage random sampling from three sub-districts: isola, gegerkalong and sukarasa. to gain the data needed for the research, this study used interview technique which is using four instruments to measure: (1) innovation level or x₁ with α= sri hayati, a preliminary study of ecological worldview 134 0,81; (2) control locus or x₂ with α=0,83; (3) environmental issue knowledge or x₃ with α= 0,72; and (4) ecological worldview or y with α=0,76. in analyzing the data, this study applied descriptive statistic in order to investigate the characteristics of society ecological worldview. correlational statistic is also conducted to examine the correlation between society ecological worldview and psychologist factors as background, like innovation level, control locus, and knowledge of environmental issues. findings, discussion and limitation of the research: a. research findings the research findings show that the obtained maximum score is 64, while the minimum score is theoretically 72. the obtained modus is 54, 53, 29 on the average, 53 on median, and 8.74 on variance. the highest score achieved is between 53-55 or at the equivalent of 40.5%. the next scores are between 50-52, about 30.3%. while the lowest scores are only 0.6% of the highest score of 62-64. this indicates that ecological worldview possessed by the society is on the middle and lower area. it means that the society subjected in this study tends to be in the level of human centred worldview in which they consider themselves as the most important and the most dominant creature on earth. they can control the existed ecological system as well. some psychological factors behind the ecological worldview such as the innovation level, control locus, and the knowledge of ecological issues are shown by the correlation either classically or partially. the analytical result indicates that correlated coefficient between ecological worldview and the innovation level is 0.16 at the alpha < 0.01. in other words, the relationship among them is significant. contribution of the innovation towards ecological worldview variation is 2.5%. however, if the management both of control locus and of the knowledge of ecological issues are done either individually or totally, the relationship will be insignificant. this is shown by the result on each r y1.2 =0.07 (p>0.05), r y1.3 =0.09 (p>0.05), and r y1.23 =0.05 (p>0.05). this indicates that the relationship between ecological view and the innovation level will not exist if both of control locus and of the knowledge of ecological issues are managed either individually or totally. in this relationship, therefore, the role of the control locus and the knowledge of ecological issues cannot be ignored. the relationship between ecological view and the control locus is significant with the correlated coefficient of 3.38 on alpha <0.01. contribution of the control locus towards the variation of ecological view is 6.1%. in this relationship, both innovation level and the knowledge of ecological issues are still significant that is in r y2.1 =0.20 (p<0.05), r y2.3 =0.16 (p<0.05), and r y2.13 =0.14 (p<0.05) although the management of them is already done either individually or totally. this indicates that the strong relationship between ecological view and the control locus still exists even though the management of the innovation level and the knowledge of ecological issues is done. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 135 the relationship between ecological view and the knowledge of ecological issues is indicated by the correlated coefficients of 0.31 on alpha<0.01. it means that the relationship is very significant. the knowledge of ecological issues contributes on the existence of ecological worldview variation of 9.3%. although the management of the innovation level and the control locus is already done, the relationship is still consistent. this is shown by each correlated coefficient of r y3.1 =0.28 (p<0.01), r y3.2 =0.24 (p<0.01), and r y3.12 =0.24 (p<0.01). in this relationship, based on the acquisition of correlated coefficient and the management of the innovation level, control locus, and the knowledge of ecological issues, it is indicated that the relationship between ecological worldview and the knowledge of ecological issues has the strongest relationship rather than the other. the knowledge of ecological issues, thus, not only be the main variable but also gives the most contribution to the formation of ecological worldview. b. discussion the research findings that indicate the tendency of the society in viewing ecological view is at the level of human centred worldview. this is influenced by some psychological factors, which in this research includes innovation level, control locus and knowledge of ecological issues. with respect to the level of innovation, it is said that although the variables of control locus and the knowledge of ecological issues are managed, the relationship will not exist but still contributes on the ecological worldview variation. it is because that innovation level is a constraint in which someone adopts a new concept faster than other people in the same social system (burger, 1986). it consists also of five categories, those are: (1) innovator, (2) beginner adaptor, (3) early follower, (4) last follower, and (5) the conservative. the insignificance of the relationship between innovation level and ecological worldview is closely related to the factors behind the innovation itself. roger’s research of columbian society shows that literacy index variation (0.27), mass media range (0.32) and cosmopolitan (0.14) contributes on the existence of innovation variation (in krech et al., 1988). innovation is a common indication among the modern-advancing society in which the society view to every development will possibly exist (van rensburg, 1994). this is shown by lucia siu and keith chau’s research towards the difference of ecological view between hong kong people and usa people (siu & chau, 1996:2). the average value of hong kong people is 2.95. it is less than the average value of usa people that is 3.65. this indication shows that as an innovation, ecological worldview is differently adopted by the society based on their economic level, personality factor and communication attitude (fishbein & ajzen, 1975). control locus as one of psychological variables that related to ecological worldview indicates correlated coefficient with a high significance. the high significance because of that control locus is one of personality components on which dimension related with how someone beholds either him/herself or other judgment sri hayati, a preliminary study of ecological worldview 136 about him/herself is correlated with a cause and effect perception (mark, 1994). thus, someone’s action could be predicted based on his/her values and expectations. while according to n.w.h. blaikie, ecological worldview is a value and expectation to ecological preservation. it is also a form of intention to act, while control locus is a personality factor (blaikie, 1993:14). thus, a positive relationship produced in this research is in line with a model developed by h.r. hungerford and trudi l. volk (1994:27) where intention to act is influenced, for example, by personality factors such as attitude, control locus and individual responsibility. in other hand, jerry m. burger research (1986:11) found that someone cognitively learns an attitude performed by other in which the attitude itself has external determinants such as appreciation and punishment that interacts and affects the attitude. the last factor behind ecological worldview in this research is the knowledge of ecological issues that has the highest correlated coefficient and contribution. knowledge as a subclass of a proper faith and vice versa (soerjani, 1992; 1997; and 2000) is an action emphasized on memorizing processes such as expressing ideas, delivering materials, or revealing phenomenon on certain situation. piaget, as cited by robert k. gable (1966), stated also that knowledge of a concept is important for the next intellectual development. it is because of that in constructing a cognitive structure, a transformation and implementation are needed. interaction between an individual and his/her surrounding will continually occur as the knowledge and a new perception on the surrounding is present (hayati, 1999; 2001; and 2003). as an action is lied on the process of expressing ideas, delivering materials, or revealing phenomenon on certain situation, someone’s ecological worldview is interconnected with a knowledge she/he possessed, in this case is the knowledge of ecological issues. while control locus is one of personality factors, the knowledge of ecological issues is one of variables that directly correlate with someone’s attention to act (hungerford & volk, 1990:27). it means that before someone intends to act ecologically, s/he must have the knowledge of ecological issues as the main requirement at first. thus, the knowledge of ecological issues is a foundation of ecological worldview development. c. limitation of the study interview technique as one of research instruments has some weaknesses although reliability and validity analysis has provided a proper instrument of a research and the preparation steps for equalizing perception of the observer has been done. those weaknesses are: (1) instrument transformation trough an interviewer could disrupt the instrument validity; (2) if there is a respondent who does not understand the standard language, the interviewer’s translation could also disrupt the instrument validity; (3) respondent’s understanding to the statements delivered by the interviewer will be different one another, so that the instrument reliability could be disrupted; and (4) interaction between respondent and the interviewer could direct the answers of a interviewee into what the interviewer desired. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 137 furthermore, a reluctance of a respondent at the interviewer makes the given answers tend to direct at good response set only, so that they do not present the right answer. in other hand, the answers given by a respondent will be influenced by his/ her own desirability that is, of course, different one another (social desirability). implication of the study: a. theoretical implication based on the findings and the discussion of the study, it could be explained that theoretical implication are as follows: first, the knowledge of ecological issues is important in constructing ecological worldview. theoretically, it provides an implication on which the relationship of the two is formed in synergic linear. this means that if the knowledge of ecological issues are raised, ecological worldview will automatically raise to life centred worldview. hence, lucia siu and keith chau stated that ecological worldview is constructed based on the development of thinking that is practically called systemic or holistic. it is used for the sake of viability of ecology and nature (lucia & chau, 1996). in this case, the knowledge of ecological issues is related with a development of ecological worldview clarification and adoption that could make either an opinion about world ecology or series of assumptions that is related with reality and ecology. changing of norms, ethics and values that belongs to ecological worldview component needs an alteration to knowledge paradigm. thus, as a process, learning is a foundation in developing the knowledge of ecological issues that advances on awareness of world ecology and of a change of more ecologicresponsible attitude (baharudin, 1985:214-217). second, because the research findings show that the level of innovation and ecological worldview does not have a significant relationship if control locus and the knowledge of ecological issues are managed, then the relationship of them is an indirect relationship. based on the phenomenon, the theoretical implication in this research is done by making an assessment using line analysis in which control locus and the knowledge of ecological issues are mediator variables. thus, it is known that a dominant factor that affects ecological worldview is an occurred inter-variable intervention as well. b. practical implication: construction strategies of ecologic-responsible attitude based on the research findings, construction strategies of ecologic-responsible attitude is a practical implication. because the knowledge of ecological issues is the main variable in forming ecological worldview, the construction is carried out by developing it in accordance with oram’s assumption that process of cognitive development is emphasized on the interaction between society and information and fact occurred in their surroundings (in blaikie, 1993). thus, it is expected that the expressed ideas, concepts and generalizations will be adopted as well as the sri hayati, a preliminary study of ecological worldview 138 social cognitive structure will be developed into ecological worldview. furthermore, it is directed into more ecologic-responsible attitude. the construction strategies include as follows: first, dissemination of ecological issues through mass media. dissemination of ecological issues trough mass media is expected to develop social knowledge of problems related to the ecology. in this case, some mass media can be utilized, for example prints media, electronic and billboard media. the delivered topic can be made like other advertisement of society services, daily conversations, structured discussions, or urges on keeping the ecology safe. second, production of ecological issues serial book. production of ecological issues serial book is social orientation in doing daily activities in order to be more oriented on ecology. in other hand, this serial book is an idea that may increase social perception on ecology. thus, it is expected that social ecological worldview will be more oriented on life centred worldview. in order to make the ideas included in this serial book accepted by the society, the book is consisted of either the language of easy-understandable daily conversation or illustration of more concrete things. the form of the book may be in a popular knowledge series, social stories and children stories. third, dissemination of ecological issues through elucidation. on its implementation, elucidation is done by three components, those are society, experts and lsm (lembaga swadaya masyarakat or non-governmental organization). initially, the elucidation is directed to social group that has strong influence to the other. the members of the group may include informal figures such as muslim scholar and prominent citizen, youth cadre and woman cadre. because this group is the pioneer one, then they not only absorb information of ecological issues but also receive a learning method. materials and method of the elucidation are given based on the purpose planned by the initiators; those are lsm or ngo and the government. fourth, dissemination of ecological issues through self-supporting learning. these are continuation strategies and in the same time applications of classroom learning on the elucidation. this program is directed more on local content or mulok (muatan lokal) that is emphasized on self-supporting learning that agree with social activities characteristics and the local ecological problems. module is a main media in this activity in which the students are expected to be able to explore by themselves. in certain periods, meetings are done to monitor what the students have been achieved as well as investigate problems related with their ecology in which it will be discussed later. fifth, observation of social based ecological preservation. observation of social based ecological preservation is a monitoring done by the society, government and related institution. it is planned in order to achieve the purpose of monitoring development well, thus there are no overlap either individually, in-group, or in institute. in addition, there are clarities on inter-institution authority related with the monitoring of ecological preservation. social participation in this activity is needed in order to ensure that decisions they have been taken are both the best one and supported by all parties. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 139 sixth, supporting social creativity to preserve ecology individually. this activity is social creativity in preserving local ecology to support the development of program carried out by the society. this activity is in respect of accessibility to source, right to participate in decision making, and right to education and training that allows the society to fulfil their needs chronically as well as preserving the ecology. seventh, intervention of ecological worldview concept in developing basic educational level curriculum. the importance of intervention of ecological worldview concept is on paradigm changing about imagination of relationship between human and the ecology, human equality in biosphere, and war against pollution and natural resources scarcity. thus, it is related not only with the learning materials but also with the strategy of more effective conceptual planning by paying attention on the development of student’s intellectuality. conclusion based on the research findings, it is concluded that the society commonly has the ecological worldview tendency on the level of human centred worldview. it means that there is more time needed in order to reach the ecologic-responsible attitude. because the knowledge of ecological issues is the main variable so that affects the construction of ecological worldview concept, intervention on paradigm changing to alternate social view that is from human centred worldview to life centred worldview is needed. thus, the efforts of developing ecological issues through the social utilization program and the intervention of education environment ecological worldview concept on the level of basic education are the main suggestion in this research. furthermore, on the implementation of social utilization, it is suggested that they have to be involved first, so that they feel that they are an important part on the system. society, as the subject, has to receive not only a proportional 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(1995). hari depan kita bersama. translation. jakarta: pt gramedia. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 125 the use of ict and communication effectiveness among secondary school administrators eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah abstract: humanity is currently in an electronic age which is characterized by bridging the gap between distance and time, giving way to information revolution built around information and communication. therefore, this study obtained data from 396 secondary school administrators through the administrators’ use of ict questionnaire (auiq) and administrators’ communication questionnaire (acq) to investigate how the use of ict (information and communication technology) predicts communication effectiveness among secondary school administrators in akwa ibom state, nigeria. the findings were that the extent of administrators’ use of ict and the extent of administrators’ effectiveness in communication are high; there is a significant positive relationship between administrators’ use of ict and administrators’ effectiveness in communication; the effectiveness of secondary school administrators in communication is significantly predicted by the use of ict. based on the findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made that government should make ict tools available in all secondary schools for the administrators; workshops on the use of ict should be organized from time to time by the governments and ngos (non-governmental organizations) for school administrators who are not yet ict literate; and skilled man-power should be employed to teach those administrators who are still illiterate in this regard by ngos, the government, and individuals. key words: use of ict, communication effectiveness, secondary school administrators; and skilled man-power in nigeria. introduction in recent times, the process of information gathering and communication has advanced greatly (ola, 2004; and ukwegbu, 2005). never in human history has such a revolution been witnessed in which digital data has transformed the way, we communicate in our homes, offices, market places, hospitals, churches, sports arena, legal environments, and more importantly schools or educational concerns. it is on this note that the government of thailand had to put ict (information and communication technology) as top project on display such that the project was at the three-day state information and communication technology week to show the public, the progress that was being made in developing new electronic services (jowssey, 2008). dr. eno etudor-eyo and dr. ime effiong emah are senior lecturer at the faculty of education uou (university of uyo), nigeria; and mrs. helen anthony ante is a researcher at the ministry of education, akwa ibom state, uyo, nigeria. they can be reached at: enoetudor@gmail.com, i.emah001@yahoo.com, and adiahamkara@yahoo.com eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 126 several other nations of the world have placed so much importance on the use of ict in their administrative affairs. for instance, e-filing has become the best solution in tax administration in ghana (boakye & banini, 2007); and web services and e-services enable the revenue department to provide successful e-services to the public in england (kennewell, parkinson & tanner, 2007). ict has also shaped african schools and classrooms (mbangwana, 2007); and ict also had brought about organizational change in italian manufacturing firms during 1995-2003 (giuri, torrisi & zinovyeva, 2008). on the ict and its impact: theoretical frameworks unesco (united nations for education, scientific, and cultural organization) in 2002 defined information and communication technology (ict) as the range of technologies that are applied in the process of collecting, storing, editing, retrieving, and transfer of information in various forms. ict could, therefore, be understood as all those electronic devices that are used in broadcasting telecommunication and all other electronically mediated information gathering and dissemination processes. these include radio sets, television sets, audio tape players, video players, projectors, the software, and hardware which are used in the teaching and learning processes. there seems to be a consensus in literature that the difference between administrators, teachers, and students of nigerian school, and those of other world class schools, is the civilization in latter institutions and the exposition of their administrators, teachers, and students to world class ict experiences (okhiria, 2007). the ict impact in the area of communication is so strong that changes are already occurring in the examination bodies in the country. today, the joint admissions and matriculation board and nations education certificate examinations results can be checked online; obtaining and filling of post university matriculation examination aptitude tests for university admissions is through online with the use of scratch cards. ict materials offer fresh hope for quick release of results of evaluation of instructional outcomes for supervision of schools. thus, the era of long-waited result is over with ict presence (bassey, okodoko & akpanumoh, 2009). writing on ict as a facilitator and aid to teaching and learning, otakhor argued that the introduction of ict facilities in secondary schools could spur learning attractiveness and hence its effectiveness (cited by etudor-eyo, etuk & azewena, 2009). for instance, the automatic spelling and grammar function in the ict system enables teachers and students to see their spelling errors and the options from which to choose. in addition, the use of educational application of software helps the students to work easily, makes their writing easier, and improves efficiency of teaching-learning process and helps them improve more professionally (ibadin, 2008). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 127 the world bank (2007) report emphasized the pertinent role of the teacher in the effective utilization of this new global innovation and practice. it opines that it is not the presence of technology itself that stimulates significant changes inside a school. that without the involvement of the teacher and staff, most students may not take full advantage of all available potential on their own. thus in nigeria, new ict related tools can make institutions and workers more productive, enhance skills and learning, improve governance at all levels, and make it easier for the poor to access services and make their voices heard (abid, 2004). indeed, it has been established that power and influence flow to those who know more and have access to better information (longe & agabi, 1990). meanwhile, m.o. yusuf (2005) also maintained that modern organization’s ability to achieve results and the decision making effectiveness of contemporary managers is no longer dependent on just the quality of the manager, but more importantly is the function of the quality of information and communication channels feeding and transmitting their actions. in 2001, m. telem conducted a study in school 4 in hougang, north zone of singapore, in june of the same year; and found out that ict helped in streamlining administrative processes in the area of communication. previously, teachers used to refer to big log books to know which rooms were available for booking and who booked same and for how long, but with ict, they could see the schedule for an entire month and know who booked them and which date the rooms may be vacant. in addition, ict was found a very important tool for information dissemination as it helped communicate whatever information was available to the staff the moment they logged – in as they read, know, and acted. m. telem (2001) then concluded that ict was effective in eradication of distortion, duplication of information, thus enhancing effective communication. also, t.k. obeng (2004) was of the opinion that the use of internet and intranet, besides reducing administrative cost also reduces administrative inconveniences because the same information on the internet can be sent to all departments without having to do it individually. instead of sending notices of meeting, for instance, to lectures or those concerned, this can be done online. communication both within and outside departments can be greatly enhanced by the use of internet, intranet, and extranet. k.l. nickels, m. mchugh and j. mchugh (2002), however, warned that electronic communication can never replace human communication for creating enthusiasm and espirit de corps. that efficiency and productivity can become so important to a firm that people are treated like robots. computers are tools not a total replacement for workers. computers should aid creativity by giving people more freedom and time. j. anamuah-mensah (2009) observed that the use of computer-mediated communication is of great gain both at work places and business ventures. j. anamuah-mensah reported also that the use of computer applications is useful in accounting and finance, financial control, sales and marketing, and manufacturing. also, t. kalusopa (2005) conducted a study on the challenges of utilizing information communication technologies (ict) for the small-scale eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 128 farmers in zambia. to achieve the aim of the study, t. kalusopa carried out in survey of information needs of small-scale farmers in two selected provinces, in order to establish and prioritize their information needs. the findings included weak human capital and technical infrastructure, lack of clear national information policy, and lack of a coordinated agricultural information support system for smallscale farmers anchored on icts. this pointed to the necessity of using icts in organizations for effective communication and on members of that organization, which schools are not left out. the ministry of health in ghana (2003) enumerated the significance of using icts in health sector to include improving access to health services, improving quality, improving efficiency in both management and technical through reliable information dissemination systems, improving collaboration by proving support to overall planning and sector assessment process, and improving funding by proving a broadcast facility for marketing the health sector. all these are evident of organizational administrative effectiveness via the use of icts. p. hook (2004) found that the use of icts enhanced the transformation of learning outcomes for the gifted and talented. with icts, teachers were able to teach, communicate, maintain good records, and evaluate these groups of children with high level of potentialities in them. the use of icts has dramatically increased the speed of communication in organizations (fmlink, 2006). in line with this, freedman reviewed that primary school curriculum and recognized the usefulness of ict as essential to a modern concept of literacy and to effective communication which are within language, oracy, and literacy (as cited by fmlink, 2006). in 2009, e.u. etudor-eyo, g.k. etuk and r.n. azewena found that there is high level of utilization of ict by school administrators in the akwa ibom state, nigeria. due to the high level of utilization of ict by teachers in italy, the minimum ratio of teacher/students is now 1/50, while the mean value is about 1/30. all technical, vocational secondary schools are connected to the internet, while the percentage of general secondary schools is about 90%, and in primary and lower secondary schools the percentage is 75% (marcheggiano et al., 2001). all reforms which are now affecting the school have brought about fundamental, wide-ranging changes in the administrative secretarial staff work. in 2000, an increase in competition for scarce resources and the decrease in the public’s trust in higher education practices were observed and government resulted in unprecedented demands for campuses to demonstrate their effectiveness and efficiency. hence, r.h. heck, l.k. johnsrud and j.v. rosser (2000) found that campuses responded with a host of institutional data ranging from retention and graduation rates to faculty workload studies to job and career placement records. one possible consideration, the performance of administrators well provided needed and appropriate information about the functioning of the institution. in japan, it was reported that project management and implementation is enhanced through icts utilization (wsis in geneva 2003 and tunis 2005). hence, it is hoped that ict could enhance high administrative effectiveness in secondary schools, especially in the area of communication. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 129 statement of the problem and research questions the task of maintaining effective machinery for a functional school system demands a great deal of administrative competencies from principals. they are expected to co-ordinate human and material resources for effective administration of the school. presently, the world is experiencing change owing to advancement in information and communication technology (ict) in various fields of human endeavors. the secondary school system, as social institution, cannot be shielded from being affected by the society within which they operate. the 21st century is the era of information and communication technology. computers and other ict facilities have become major tools of communication and exchange of information among individuals, organizations, governments, corporate bodies among others. innovative use of ict in administrative process in most secondary schools in akwa ibom state, nigeria seems not to be widespread. this is made difficult by several constraints which include: lack of funds to sustain the ict infrastructure, inability of secondary school administrators to keep up with the pace of development in ict, lack of staff with appropriate skills to manage ict both at the strategic and operational levels, and absence of institutional policies and strategies to support and guide the use of ict. administration of secondary schools is largely dominated by the use of manual operational methods. secretaries and typists with outdated typewrites are common sights in most, if not all the principals’ offices today. the increase in school population, complex goals/objectives, resources and programmes within the school, call for a better use of information system technologies. therefore, the problem of this study was to determine the influence of administrators’ use of information and communication technology (ict) on communication effectiveness in akwa ibom state secondary schools in nigeria. in order to aid the investigation, two research question and two null hypotheses were formulated. so, the research questions are as follows: (1) what is the extent of ict use by school administrators?; and (2) what is the extent of school administrators’ effectiveness in communication? hypotheses and research method the hypotheses in this research are as follows: (1) the linear relationship between school administrators’ use of ict and effectiveness in communication is not significant; and (2) the contribution of the use of ict to the prediction of administrators’ effectiveness in communication is not significant. this study used an ex-post facto research design. this design was considered appropriate because the researchers had no direct control of the variables of the study since they had already occurred. they were inherently not manipulable. besides, the study was non-experimental and required a large sample size. eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 130 the population of the study consisted of all public secondary schools in akwa ibom state, nigeria. there were 232 public schools with at least 3 administrators each (i.e. the principal and two vice principals) which gave a total of 696. this figure did not include those in private secondary schools and technical colleges. the sample of the study consisted of 396 school administrators. this represented 57% of the population. a cluster sampling technique was used in selecting the sample. each of the three senatorial districts of the state was taken as a cluster, and then from each of the cluster, local governments were randomly sampled before selecting the schools from each sampled local government area. fifty-seven (57) percent of the administrators were selected from each senatorial district. this ensured that districts with more administrators also provided a greater number in sample. the available administrators in each senatorial district were asked to pick from a bag of papers marked “yes and no”. the ones who picked “yes” automatically became a subject for the study. from each sampled school, two teachers who had worked under each administrator were also randomly selected to assess each administrator. researcher-designed instruments known as administrators’ use of ict questionnaire (auiq) and administrators’ communication questionnaire (acq) were used for data collection for the study. the instruments were placed on a 4 – points rating scale of: strongly agree (sa) – 4 points; agree (a) – 3 points; strongly disagree (sa) – 2 points; and disagree (d) – 1 point for positively worded items. reverse scoring order was used for the negative items. in order to ascertain the validity of the instruments, they were presented to three experts in research. the experts were acquainted with the objectives, research questions, and the null hypotheses. the research experts critically inspected every item and determined their suitability. this ensured the face validity of the instrument. the corrections were effected and the revised instruments were produced for the study. to determine the reliability of the instruments, the auiq and acq were tested on 20 administrators and 20 teachers who were not involved in the main study. the instruments were coded and data obtained were analyzed using cronbach alpha coefficient. cronbach alpha enabled the assessment of internal consistency of the instruments which options were strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, and strongly disagreed. the data analysis yielded the alpha coefficient of .757 and .773 for auiq and aeq respectively. these were considered adequate that the instruments were reliable to achieve their objective. the administration of the instruments to the respondents was done by the researchers and four trained research assistants. in each school, the researchers met with the principal for adequate introduction and permission to administer the instruments. due explanation was made on each section and sufficient time was given for completion of each questionnaire, after which they were retrieved. data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 131 results table 1 shows the mean scores of 14.97 for the extent of administrators’ use of ict (information and communication technology) and 14.17 for the extent of administrators’ effectiveness in communication. this means that the extent of administrators’ use of ict and the extent of school administrators’ effectiveness in communication are high because the two mean values are respectively greater than the reference mean score of 12.5 which came by multiplying the average of the rating scale by the number of items (2.5x5). results in table 1 answer research questions 1 and 2. table 1: descriptive statistics for the extent of administrators’ use of ict and administrators’ effectiveness in communication variable mean sd n the use of ict 14.9747 1.78584 396 communication 14.1717 2.34403 396 entries in table 2 show that the use of ict by administrators has significant relationship with administrators’ effectiveness in communication. consequently, the result in table 2 shows that administrators’ use of ict has a significant linear relationship with administrators’ effectiveness in communication. by this result in table 2, the hypothesis that there is no significant linear relationship between administrators’ use of ict and administrators’ effectiveness in communication is rejected. this means that every unit of change in administrators’ use of ict results to a reciprocal change in administrators’ effectiveness in communications. table 2: results of pearson’s correlation between the use of ict and school administrators’ effectiveness in communication variable the use of ict communication pearson correlation the use of ict 1.000 .584* communication .584 1.000 sig. (1-tailed) the use of ict communication . .000 .000 . n the use of ict 396 396 communication 396 396 *significant at .05 alpha level; df = 394; critical r = .113; and n = 396. in table 3, the calculated f-value of 203.974 is greater than the critical fvalue of 3.89 at .05 with 1 and 394. the result in table 3 means that administrators’ effectiveness in communication is significantly predicted by administrators’ use of ict. eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 132 table 3: results of analysis of variance of the stepwise prediction of school administrators’ effectiveness in communication with use of ict model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 429.710 1 429.710 203.974* .000 residual 830.037 394 2.107 total 1259.747 395 a. predictors: (constant), the use of ict. b. dependent variable: communication. *significant at .05 alpha level; df = f 1,394 ; critical f = 3.89; and n = 396. table 4 shows that the use of ict accounts for or explains 34% (r2 =.341) of the variance in administrators’ effectiveness in communication scores. table 4: result of r and r2 in the stepwise prediction of school administrators’ effectiveness in communication with use of ict model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate change statistics df2 sig. f change r square change f change df1 1 .584(a) .341 .339 1.45145 .341 203.974 1 394 a. predictors: (constant), communication. table 5 shows that the t-value of 19.371 is greater than the critical t-value of 1.968. the result still shows that school administrators’ effectiveness in communication is predicted by use of ict. the derived prediction equation, using ict, is: administrators’ use of ict = 8.669 + .445 effectiveness in communication. by these results in tables 3, 4, and 5, the null hypothesis that the use of ict does not significantly predict school administrators’ effectiveness in communication is rejected. therefore, the use of ict by school administrators is a predictor of their effectiveness in communication. table 5: result of significance of prediction coefficients of school administrators’ effectiveness in communication with use of ict model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) 8.669 .448 19.371* .000 communication .445 .031 .584 14.282 .000 a. dependent variable: communication. *significant at .05 alpha level; df 394; critical t = 1.968; and n = 396. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 133 discussion the extent of school administrators’ use of ict (information and communication technology) was high in this study. this implies that many secondary school administrators in the study area were literate in ict and were committed to the use of ict in their day-to-day administration of schools, especially in the area of communication. the finding of this study is consistent with that of e.u. etudoreyo, g.k. etuk and r.n. azewena (2009); and also of s.u. bassey, d. okodoko and u.d. akpanumoh (2009) who, in their respective studies, found that the use of ict in different organizations is on the high side. this is worth celebrating that school administrators in akwa ibom state have yielded to change for the innovative method of school administration rather than holding on to the old and manual way of doing things. administrators’ effectiveness in communication was high. the effectiveness of secondary school administrators in akwa ibom state, nigeria cannot be disassociated from the use of ict and the impact of the present team that monitors and supervises the activities of the administrators, staff, and students as the case may be. many research findings like r.h. heck, l.k. johnsrud and j.v. rosser (2000); g. marcheggiano et al. (2001); and wsis [world summit on the information society] in geneva (2003) and tunis (2005) support the finding of this study. the study further revealed that secondary school administrators’ effectiveness in communication is related to and predicted by the use of ict. this implies that administrators who subscribe to the use of ict would perform effectively in their communication. the findings of p. hook (2004); t. kalusopa (2005); fmlink (2006); and j. anamuah-mensah (2009) commemorate the finding of this study. as important as communication is in any organization, ict tools are very necessary in not only secondary schools, but in all sectors, be it public or private. according to p. hook (2004), the use of ict helps teachers meet the needs of the gifted and talented children in schools. however, the study was limited by the design of the study which did not allow for manipulation of any variable of the study; also none of the variables were controlled going by the design which was the ex-post facto design. this only allowed for a survey of opinions from the respondents on the subject matter. consequently, the psychological state of the respondents could not be controlled. however, the researchers assured the respondents of the confidentiality of their responses as no name was required in the study. conclusions and recommendations based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that the extent of administrators’ use of ict (information and communication technology) and the extent of administrators’ effectiveness in communication are high. there is a positive relationship between administrators’ use of ict and administrators’ effectiveness in communication. the effectiveness of secondary school administrators in eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 134 communication depends on the use of ict. meaning that with the use of ict, communication of the administrator becomes very effective but reverses when ict is not used by the administrator. it implies also that changes in the use of ict would also cause changes in administrators’ effectiveness in communication. the following recommendations were made in this study: (1) government should make ict tools available in all secondary schools for the administrators; (2) workshops on the use of ict should be organized from time to time by the governments and ngos or non governmental organizations for school administrators who are not yet ict literate; (3) a constant power supply should be made available to schools so that administrators would be able to make use of ict for communication; (4) skilled man-power should be employed to teach those administrators who are still illiterate in this regard; and (5) the packages that accompany the computer should be provided by ngos, the government, and individuals to secondary schools and beyond. references abid, a. 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(2002). information and communication in education: a curriculum for schools and programmes for teachers’ development. paris: unecso. world bank (2007). “knowledge and skills for the information age: the first meeting of the mediterranean development forum” in mediterranean development forum. available also at: http://www.world.bank.org/html/fdp/technet/indf/objective.htm [accessed in uyo, nigeria: 9 october 2011]. wsis [world summit on the information society] in geneva (2003) and tunis (2005). “promoting ict for development”. available also at: http://www.japandevelopment.co [accessed in uyo, nigeria: 9 october 2011]. yusuf, m.o. (2005). “information and communication technology: analyzing the nigerian national policy for information technology” in international educational journal, 6(3), pp.316-321. eno etudor-eyo, helen anthony ante & ime effiong emah, the use of ict and communication effectiveness 136 these days, the use of errand boys, town criers, trained animals, and even the postal services are gradually giving way to the advancement in information and communication technology (ict). humanity is currently in an electronic age which is characterized by bridging the gap between distance and time, giving way to information revolution built around information and communication. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 215 practical teaching model with lesson study based: an effort in increasing future arabic language teacher professionalism maman abdurahman abstract: practical teaching program (ptp) is a program which must be taken by all university students in the education program. the purpose of ptp is, for the students (practitioners), to gain educational experience factually in the field, both with the school administration and its teaching-learning process. but in reality, there are numerous of students, who have finished their teaching exam in school who said that there are still confuse if they are going to be a professional teacher in the future. this research tries to explore the implementation of ptp based on lesson study (ls) principal and procedure. the method use is qualitative descriptive. this study conducted by class action research: planning, action, observation, and reflection. the subjects of this research are 5 arabic language students who are undergone ptp in the man (madrasah aliyah negeri or state senior high school for islamic education) 1 in bandung, west java, indonesia. the instrument used to measures the professionalism of future arabic language teacher are test, interview, observation, and direct supervision during the lesson study activity. the result shows that the ptp model of guidance and evaluation process with ls based can increase the professionalism of future arabic language teacher which related to the pedagogic, professional, social, and personality of the teacher competencies. key words: practical teaching, lesson study, main supervisor, vice supervisor, arabic language teacher, and professional competencies. introduction among the common issues related to the implementation of practical teaching program at the faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung are the lack of visit, discussion, and communication in the field between the main supervisor and the vice supervisor even among practitioners. this is caused by their motivation and schedule that couldn’t be synchronize; hence, with the teaching exam, had already finished, the practitioners still are not ready to become a real teacher professionally. this is supported by the writer experience when guiding the students of practical teaching in 1994 until this very moment, after the practitioner gone through the practical teaching test, generally or more than half of they stated that they are dr. h. maman abdurahman is a senior lecturer at the department of arabic language education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. he can be reached at: marahman_180661@yahoo.co.id maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 216 not ready to become teachers. beside the lack of guidance during ptp (practical teaching program), there is also an assessment system which is not effective. the model conducted by the faculty is that a student can perform the ptp test if he/she had already performed 16 class appearances, and is worthy by the supervisors and the headmaster. from this explanation, we can see the ineffective and inefficient of ptp, both from the guidance process and assessment system. based on these research background, the writer is eager to review through class action research in the lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institutes for teacher and educator) partnership bequest and to give solutions related to the ptp guidance and the lesson study which has been proven its affectivity and also being developed by jica (japan international cooperation agency) and three universities: um (malang state university) in east java, uny (yogyakarta state university) in central java, and upi (indonesia university of education) in west java (abdurahman et al., 2010). the main research question is does the lesson study activity effective in the ptp guidance and evaluation process and can increase the professionalism of future arabic language teacher? hence, this research is dedicated to develop the competency of future arabic language teacher through the lesson study activities which is an activity from a collaborative process from a group of teacher who simultaneously planed the learning steps, including the method, media, and its evaluation instrument. theoretical review on the benefits of lesson study. lesson study (ls), as the strategy of increasing the teacher professionalism in japan, nowadays has spread to many countries, including advance country such as the united states of america (usa). it was happen since the release of the teaching gap book in 1999 that contains a review on the learning process in three nations, including japan. besides, it also contains the learning process in japan, german, and usa (fernadez & yoshida, 2004). the book explains about the tradition of teachers in japan who learn from the actual learning which in the future commonly known as lesson study. see diagram 1 as follows: based on the diagram above, we can see that lesson study (ls) can emerge numerous of benefits such as an increase on the teacher’s knowledge on the learning materials and its learning, an increase on the teacher’s knowledge on ways in observing the student’s learning activities, a stronger relation between the daily learning implementation with long term learning, an increase of the teacher’s motivation to continuously develop, and an increase on the learning plan quality, including few components such a teaching materials (hand out) and the learning strategies. increasing the knowledge of teaching and learning materials can be achieved with observation (suryadi et al., 2010). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 217 main purpose: • increasing the knowledge on the lesson material. • increasing the knowledge on the learning. • increasing the capability in observing the learning activities. • a stronger relation between fellow colleagues. • stronger relations between daily learning implementation with long term goals which must be achieve. • an increase motivation which always developed. • an increase of learning plan quality. the learning quality amelioration and improvement. general view: considering the purpose of • learning and development, and planning the lesson study based on that reason. t h e l e s s o n s t u d y • obser vation that focuses on data collection based on the students activities and developments. using the observation results • to evaluate learning more broadly and profoundly. conducting reorganization • o n t h e s a m e t o p i c i n implementing lesson study in different class, if it is necessary. diagram 1: general view on lesson study the explorative activities conducted by students are actually potential in increasing both students and teachers knowledge. by applying this kind of activities, the students are conditioned to involve in a high thinking process that can emerge an original innovative ideas or questions that encourage a further cognitive conflict which required not only a simple scientific knowledge. the cooperation conducted by the teacher in developing learning plan, implementation, and reflection can increase the constructive interaction process which is very potential in increasing the professionalism of teacher. the interaction between teachers and other associates, including lecturer in the university, if it is implemented continuously; hence, it could develop a bond in the form of learning communities. through the activities develop in ls (lesson study) which covers plan, do, and see, each community members can give and take; so, each individual can gain benefits that supported an increase of knowledge which covered learning material, learning supplementary in the form of hand out, and learning strategy (hendayana et al., 2010). on the preparing lesson study. the first important thing in ls (lesson study) is conducting the first phase preparation which can be started by identifying learning problems which covered teaching materials (hand out), learning strategy, and the one who is going to play the role as teacher. of course, the selected learning materials have to be adjusted with the curriculum and the undergoing program in school. a profound analysis on the selected teaching material and hand out have to be conducted together to gain the best alternative which can optimally encourage the students learning process based on the curriculum demand, the maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 218 students knowledge and capability, the competency which needed to be develop, and the development possibilities in their relation to the material. in its relation to the teaching material developed, it is also needed to be review about the possibilities of the student responses in anticipating the unexpected student responses. if the designed teaching material it’s too difficult for the students, then, the alternative intervention of teacher in adjusting the student level of capability needed to be well prepared. on the contrary, if the teaching materials are too easy for the students, then, a positive intervention is needed to make the teacher prepared and to achieve the goals of all students (suryadi, 2006). beside the teaching material aspects, the teachers must discuss the learning strategies in group which consist of introduction, main activity, and post activity. this activity analysis can be started by revealing each experience in teaching the same materials. based on the analysis, we can develop a learning strategy which consist of ways in implementing an introduction, so the students are motivated to actively conducted the learning process, activities between the interaction of students and the learning materials, students interactions, and interactions between teachers and students. how is the brainstorming between students and groups have to be conducted; how is the teacher intervention strategy in the class, groups, and individual level; and how are the activities performed by the students in the end of the learning are important questions in conducting the ls. besides preparing the teaching materials and its learning strategy, it is also important to prepare those who are invited as observers at the learning implementation and the reflection activities. besides with the same subject teacher, in the implementation of ls there is also the possibility to invite other teacher subject, authorities, or the societies. the present of the principal in a ls is very important because the information gain from the learning activities in the class and reflection after the learning can be a valuable input for the ls activity, because of the diversity of observers in the lesson study can produce different point of view for the benefits of the teachers (hendayana et al., 2010; and suryadi et al., 2010). on the conducting lesson study observation. in anticipating the possibility of numerous observers that come, the class should be organized so the students, teacher, and observer mobility can runs easily and comfortably. in implementing observation, it is recommended to do these following things: (1) taking notes on the students activities, by writing their names or seats; (2) taking notes on situation where the students are conducting cooperation or choosing not to cooperate; (3) finding the examples on how the comprehension construction process develops through the students’ discussion and activities; and (4) taking notes on the problem solving variation from the students individually or by group, including the wrong strategy. besides taking notes on the important aspect of the students’ learning activities, an observer during his/her observation needs to consider or refers to these numerous questions: (1) do the learning goals clearly stated? do the activities developed contribute effectively in achieving those goals?; (2) do the learning steps being educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 219 develop related to one another? and does it support the student’s comprehension on the concept being learned?; (3) do the hand outs or teaching material support the achievement of the previously stated learning goals?; (4) do the class discussions help the students’ comprehension on the concept being learned?; (5) do the learning materials develop by the teacher appropriate with student level?; (6) do the students use their basic knowledge to comprehend new concepts?; (7) do the questions from the teachers can encourage and facilitated the students mind work?; (8) do the student ideas appreciated and related to the learning materials?; (9) do the end conclusions are base from the student opinions?; (10) do the conclusions appropriate with the learning objectives?; and (11) how do the teachers reinforced on the student learning achievement during the lesson? on the steps in the reflection stage. the steps in the reflection stage are as follows: (1) the facilitator introduces the reflection participants and mentioning each of their tasks while observing the class; (2) the facilitator conducted a review on the reflection stage agenda, around two minutes; and (3) the facilitator explains the rules in giving comment. the rules consist of these three aspects: during the discussion, only one person who speaks; each participant has the same opportunities to speak; and in giving an opinion, the observer must introduce the observation evident as the base of his/her opinion; (4) the teacher is given the first opportunity to speak, which is commenting the learning process. in that opportunity, the teacher must reveal the situations in the classroom which are the desired or undesired situation and the changes from the previously planned, fifteen until twenty minutes; (5) the representatives from the teacher that become member of the group are being given the opportunity to give additional comment; (6) the facilitator gives an opportunity to each observer to express their opinion; (7) after that, the facilitator invites the expert member to summarize or concluded the discussion results; and (8) the facilitator give his/her best regard to all participants and announce the next lesson study (hendayana et al., 2010; and suryadi et al., 2010). method the method apply in this study is qualitative descriptive. this study conducted by class action research: planning, action, observation, and reflection. the subjects of this research are 5 arabic language education students who are undergone the practical teaching program (ptp) in man (madrasah aliyah negeri or state senior high school for islamic education) 1 bandung, west java, indonesia. the instrument used to measures the professionalism of future arabic language teacher are test, interview, observation, and direct supervision during the ls (lesson study) activity. briefing and planning activities are direct by the head of the research, who is the writer own self. this activity is attend by the model teacher who is going to deliver the material, the arabic language teacher of man 1 bandung, the lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education), and the representatives of man 1 bandung maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 220 i.e. the vice principal of curriculum. they are also present in the reflection activity after the do activity had already finished and it is located in a special classroom provided by the man representative. findings and discussions lesson study (ls) is an educator model of nurturing through a collaborative and continuous learning review based on the colleague principles and mutual learning in developing a learning community (hendayana et al., 2010). so, ls is not a learning method or strategy which in line with the teacher’s situation, condition, and problems. on this following, the writer will elaborate the activities of the future arabic language teacher who use the ls as the guidance model of practical teaching program (ptp) at the department of arabic language education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia (abdurahman, 2007). first, the lesson study scenario in teaching-learning of arabic language. based on the kamus bahasa indonesia or indonesia language dictionary, “scenario” is a role play plan or film in the form sequence after sequence written in details (depdikbud ri, 1988:850). while what is mean by ls (lesson study) scenario in the arabic language teaching and learning process is a sequence of activity plan performed in the learning of arabic language in the classroom with the entire learning element which consists of implementation, main discussion, classroom setting, participants/individuals involve (the model teacher, students, and observer) from each activity stages in the lesson study. table 1: the implementation scenario (do) in the lesson study n meeting date main discussion method classroom setting observer 1 i 15 may 2010 jumlah ismiyah and jumlah fi’liyah discussion students are divided into five groups eight people 2 ii 30 may 2010 jumlah ismiyah and jumlah fi’liyah discussion students are divided into five groups nine people based on the table above, we can see that the cycle of the ls (lesson study) activities in this research was design for two meetings. the first meeting was held in the 15th of may 2010. the main discussion chosen was jumlah ismiyah or nominal sentence and jumlah fi’liyah or verbal sentence (arsyad, 2004); with the classroom setting divided into small groups and each consist of seven students. there are eight observers who observe the course of the discussion during the teaching and learning process. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 221 and the second meeting was held in the 30th of may 2010. the main discussion, method, and classroom setting in this meeting was designed the same as the first meeting. the observers who were present during each meeting came from different field, who are ls expert, the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education), the arabic language teacher of man (madrasah aliyah negeri or state senior high school for islamic education), and the students of arabic language as practitioners. before these two ls cycle was performed, first, the model teacher would be conducted a pre-test to find out the students basic capabilities. and after these two cycles was finished, there would be a post-test to find out the end results of the students achievement after implementing ls in the teaching and learning of arabic language. second, the “plan” activities in the teaching and learning of arabic language. there are several steps that have to be conducted by the practitioner or student in its relation to the plan steps: (1) planning, it consist of arranging and discussing the lesson plan, the time, the place, the expected end result, and the peoples involve the arabic language teacher, lecturer, and practitioner; and (2) having to find the answer: why does the classroom setting made in groups of students in certain amount; what is its advantages and disadvantages; and why does discussion or other particular method is chosen. third, the “do” activities in the teaching and learning of arabic language. there are several steps that have to be conducted by the practitioner in its relation to the plan steps: (1) observer: time, result, individuals involve, place; (2) do: time, result, individuals involve, and place; (3) the topic or main discussion, based on the input from the teacher, lecturer, and fellow practitioner or maybe the curriculum vice principal; (4) class: what is it being discussed, including group division, etc.; (5) the time of the teaching and learning process implementation; and (6) before the do, there is a briefing: time, results, individual involves, and place as shown by this picture in implementing the do stage. in its implementation, numerous of observer and model teacher lead by an expert in ls (lesson study) of upi (indonesia university of education) conducted a short gathering (briefing) before the actual teaching and learning process in the classroom. the briefing is conduct in an empty classroom for less than 15 minutes. in this short meeting, the ls expertise of upi who act as the leader of the briefing explain in brief about the lesson study to the entire observer. then, the model teacher will hand over the opportunity to deliver the sequence of activities performed during the teaching and learning process in the classroom. left: the expert of ls holding the briefing. right: the model teacher delivering the activity plan which will be conducted during the teaching and learning process in the classroom. the first meeting was held in 15th of may 2010. the main discussions in this meeting are jumlah ismiyah (nominal sentence) and jumlah fi’liyah (verbal sentence), with the classroom setting of the students divided into small groups, each consists of seven students. there are eight observer participated in observing during the course of the teaching and learning process. maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 222 table 2: the briefing activity in the lesson study n meeting place individuals involved result 1 i room: next to the school’s library. • one model teacher. • two lesson study experts. • on arabic lecturer (as an observer). • one arabic teacher (as an observer). • four university students (as an observer). it is agree that the main discus sion: jumlah ismiyah and jumlah fi’liyah; the classroom setting is divide into groups: 1:7 people; all observer taking notes all of the founding in a special format. 2 ii room: next to the school’s library. • one model teacher • three lesson study experts (arabic lecturers of upi). • six university students (as an observer). it is agree that the main discus sion: jumlah ismiyah and jumlah fi’liyah; the classroom setting is divide into groups: 1:7 people; all observer taking notes all of the founding in a special format. the observation was held as an effort in observing the (do) implementation which had the purpose of having a direct view on then student activities, interaction pattern, classroom atmosphere, teacher activities, and other considerable events. fourth, the “see” activities in the teaching and learning of arabic language. the main activity in the see activity is reflection and in the same time evaluates numerous of events related to the implementation of the arabic language teaching and learning in the classroom. aspects that needed to be notice by the practitioner in these activities are: time, the expected result in the form of suggestion, individuals involves, and the place used. generally, the observers declare their appreciation to the practitioner as a model who directly being observed by their teachers and lecturer without hesitation, even the classroom atmosphere is communicative and the students didn’t feel disturbed although their activities are being observed by others, beside their own teacher. among the observers, there are few who give an input for the learning media to be written in a rather big arabic letter so it can be seen by the students in the back seats. this picture shows the reflection ambience. table 3: the reflection activity in lesson study n meeting place individuals involve results 1 i library • one model teacher. • eight observers consist of the lesson study expert, lecturer, arabic language teacher, and university students. • the performance of the practitioner was “good”. • the arabic writing need to be bigger. 2 ii library • one model teacher. • nine observers consist of the lesson study expert, arabic language lecturer, and university students. • the performance of the practitioner was “good”. • the arabic writing need to be bigger. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 223 in its relation to the field of practical teaching program (ptp), based on a written survey and observation, the main supervisor act as a teacher, director, and guide in comprehending/mastering the subject matter, the election and use of media, and evaluation tools. on the clinical supervisor upon the quality of performance (upi, 2008:12), they generally come two times: first, in handing over the practitioner; and second, when it is time for the ptp test – if it is not attend by the main supervisor, then the test is not qualified. the quality of practitioner needed to be questioned if there are no communication and discussion with the second supervisor and also with fellow practitioner. if the ptp evaluation and guidance is based on ls (lesson study), then by the writer, it is shown to produce numerous of advantages. why? because before performing in front of the class, the main and second supervisor, and also fellow practitioner, will gathered to discuss the main discussion in the arabic language subject matter that it is consider difficult for the students. then, the scenario, media, hand out, and evaluation tool even the formation of the classroom are made. after the planning, one of the practitioner comes forward as the model teacher and the rest act as an observers. while the model teacher act in front of the class and the observers observe the behavior of the students, when does the students actually started learning, with the teacher stimulus when does the students actually started and ended the lesson etc. after everything is finish, the teacher, lecturer, and practitioner/observer gathered to discuss the whole teaching and learning, the strength and weaknesses, and the lack of the performance it consider as the material of evaluation – don’t repeat the failure of previous performance and this can be improve by 3-5 performances. in the reflection activity, all elements are present: teacher, lecturer, supervisor, and principal; then at that time, evaluation can be conducted. this can replace the ineffective guidance during 16 meeting appearance in ptp. fifth, the assessment system program of lesson study. university students – who conducted the ptp (practical teaching program) with the ls (lesson study) based guidance model, from the planning, implementation, and reflection stages – are assessed of graded by the lecturers from upi (indonesia university of education). the participations of the practitioners from the beginning – either as the model teacher or the observer – are supervised, directed, and assessed by their lecturers. there are also grade conversions with the conventional ptp practitioner. hence, university students who take the ls based ptp must recognize its steps and mechanisms, so he/she can be successful in the upcoming future. the indicators or points assess are: (1) giving inputs when arranging the lesson plan with fellow colleagues, teacher with the same subject matter, non field study university students/teacher, the principal or vice principal, and lecturer; (2) the student participations when discussing the lesson plan as a strategy and learning scenario; (3) become a model teacher, at least once, during the whole 16 meetings; (4) become an active observer who gives input to the model teacher who performs maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 224 in front of the class, both in the same field of subject or not such as arabic, german, indonesian, or english languages; (5) actively involves in a briefing guided by the school principal or his/her representative and attended by the practitioners, model teacher, observer, and facilitator/ls expert from upi before the implementation of ls; (6) actively involves in observing and taking notes of the students activities since the beginning and at the end of the lesson, and giving notes and suggestions to the model teacher, such as a constructive critiques for improvement and evaluation of the next learning quality and as one continuous improvement effort, in the implementation of the ls; (7) actively delivers his/her findings as an observer. the findings don’t have any personal critiques toward the model teacher, but rather as a positive action towards the model teacher lack of performance and this is also implemented when the observer become the model teacher in the next meeting. it is expected that the next study or teaching and learning will have more improvement in the reflection activity; and finally (8) arranging a special report during the course of ls in school, since the making of lesson plan until the reflection stage and writing a report about the ls which had already being signed by the lecturer of upi, school principal, and the related subject teacher. from the explanation based on the writer observation and research, it is found that the steps or procedures of ls are very effective if it is implemented in the guidance process and ptp evaluation in upi, or in the entire lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan or education institutes for teacher and educator) that held the ptp. this is in accordance with the opinion of rector uny (state university of yogyakarta), prof. sugeng mardiyono, ph.d., who stated that ls is proven to be effective in increasing three aspects which are increasing adding capacity, comprehension capacity, and social sympathy (http://www.uny.ac.id/ home/data.php?m, 21/8/2011). finally, ls also can increase the cross education control and not just to a single discipline, for example a practitioner who conducted ptp in the field of natural science cannot only be observed by others in the same field of study but rather being observed by those in different area of study, because ls is transparent and open in nature. in addition, ls can also increase accountability, indirect control, and supported the government program related to the certification which can increase the quality of educators. conclusions based on the discussion, it can be concluded that the ls (lesson study) based model of ptp (practical teaching program) guidance and evaluation can increase the professionalism of future arabic language teacher in relation to the teacher pedagogic, professional, social, and personality competencies; and in the end the five practitioners who used ls stated that they are more ready if they are assign to become a teacher by the government. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 225 the assessment system with ls based can be more effective if it is hand over to the team of assessor which consists of: lecturer from university, teacher for school, and observer/principal. the aspects judged are the practitioner activity in planning the teaching and learning process, arranging the lesson plan, handling the material and classes, using the media, and the evaluation tools – all can be seen in the plan-do-see. the attendances and discussion that last for 3-5 times between lecturer, teacher, and practitioner can increase the quality of the process and the results of ptp; and in the same time can increase the evaluation system. this is all based on the classroom action research conducted by the writer in the department of arabic language education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. based on the conclusion, the writer recommends that the principal of ls which covers the plan-do-see is implemented in the guidance and evaluation process of ptp for future teacher (practitioner) in other major of upi. references abdurahman, m. (2007). “efektivitas model kegiatan lesson study dalam meningkatkan keprofesionalan guru bahasa arab”. paper presented in the national conference on educational research, held by policy center study, ministry of national education in jakarta: 25-26 july. abdurahman, m. et al. (2010). “laporan hasil program hibah kemitraan lptk (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan) tahun 2006”. unpublished report. bandung: fpbs upi [fakultas pendidikan bahasa dan seni, universitas pendidikan indonesia]. arsyad, a. (2004). bahasa arab dan metode pengajarannya. jogjakarta: pustaka belajar. depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. (1988). kamus bahasa indonesia. jakarta: balai pustaka. fernadez, c. & m. yoshida. (2004). lesson study: a japanese approach to improving mathematics teaching and learning. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. hendayana, s. et al. (2010). lesson study: suatu strategi untuk meningkatkan keprofesionalan pendidik. bandung: upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia] press. http://www.uny.ac.id/home/data.php?m [accessed in bandung, west java, indonesia: 21st august 2011]. suryadi, d. (2006). “upaya meningkatkan keprofesionalan guru melalui lesson study”. paper presented in the seminar and workshop of program hibah kemitraan lptk in bandung: 15th july. suryadi, d. et al. (2010). cd tentang lesson study: teori dan praktik. bandung: fpmipa upi [fakultas pendidikan matematika dan ilmu pengetahuan alam, universitas pendidikan indonesia]. upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia]. (2008). panduan program latihan profesi kependidikan. bandung: upt ppl upi [unit pelaksana teknis, program pengalaman lapangan, universitas pendidikan indonesia]. maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 226 appendices: the questionnaires of the lesson study activity implementation in the arabic language subject (1) directions: • fill in your identity • read the questions carefully and fill in with your own opinion name : class : school : after you had participated in the teaching and learning process of arabic language with the implementation of lesson study, please describe your suggestion about these few things or aspects! 1. what is your opinion on the arabic language lesson before and after the lesson study? ............ 2. what is your opinion on the lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language? .................................................................................................................... 3. does the lesson study implementation in the teaching and learning process help you in comprehending the arabic language lesson, if not? why? ......................................................... 4. does the lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson has its advantages and disadvantages? ..................................................................................... 5. what are the benefits of lesson study in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson for you as a student? …………………………………..................................................... 6. what are the disadvantages of lesson study in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson? …............................................................................................................... 7. in your opinion, what kind of learning model that can help you, as a student, in comprehending the arabic language lesson? ................................................................................................... the observation format of the lesson study activity (2) 1. name of school: 2. name of teacher: 3. subject matter: 4. topic: 5. class: 6. number of students: 7. number of groups: 8. observer: after you had participated and became an observer in the entire sequences of lesson study, describe your opinion about these few aspects. 1. how is the course of the discussion performed by students from each groups (student activities during the discussion)? …………………………………………………………………………...... 2. which groups and students who are active during the teaching and learning process? ……...... 3. when do the students performed and didn’t performed cooperation? ………………………...... 4. what method/way applied by the students in solving the problems that they encountered? ...... 5. does the method/strategy that they used correct or wrong? ……………………….………...... 6. when do the students start learning? …………………………..……………………………...... 7. what kind of treatment/activity that introduce the students in learning? …………………...... 8. when do the students ended their learning? …………………………………………………...... 9. what kind of treatment/activity that caused the students to learn? …………….…………...... educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 227 interview manual in the lesson study activity (3) after you had participated and became an observer in the entire sequences of lesson study, describe your opinion about these few aspects. 1. based on the observation, what will you do if you are a teacher in the future (standing in front of the class)? …………………………………………………………………………………………...... 2. what is your opinion about the lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson? …………………………………………………………………………...... 3. does the lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson have its advantages and disadvantages? …………………………………………………………...... 4. what are the advantages of lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson? …………………………………………………………………………………...... 5. what are the disadvantages of lesson study activity in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson? …………………………………………………………………………...... 6. what does it take to achieve success in the teaching and learning process of arabic language lesson? ……………………………………………………………………………………………...... 7. what are your opinions and notes during the observation? …………………………………...... maman abdurahman, practical teaching model with lesson study based 228 the practical teaching program (ptp) is a program which must be taken by all university students in the education program. the purpose of ptp is, for the students (practitioners), to gain educational experience factually in the field, both with the school administration and its teachinglearning process. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 49 shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory: a case study in second year chemistry students of bule hora university, ethiopa abstract: effective education should offer a balance of theoretical and practical experiences to help learners develop the competencies they need to enter professional practice and to become life-long learners throughout their careers. laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the chemistry curriculum; and chemistry educators have suggested that many benefits accrue from engaging students in chemistry laboratory activities. the general objective of the study is to assess the practical skills of chemistry students at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia. bhu is the newly emerged university in ethiopia. the university is try to apply student centered approach to bring problem of surface learning in to an end and introduce deep learning, which make students critical thinker or imaginative. as a result, the university teacher educators incorporate the practical session to make learner knowledgeable, skill full, and bring attitudinal change. the data of this research was collected through questioner, focus group discussion, interview, and observation. several problems in chemistry practical activities were identified, such as lack of confidence; shortage of time; and lack of background practical exposure, particularly on chemistry lab, lack of laboratory equipment and chemicals, lack of interest, fear of chemical toxicity, and lack of experimental freedom for independent work. in general, from the tremendous benefit of practical activities in chemistry, the authors suggested that, for example, using simulation and virtual experiments; and encouraging students to show their innate talents and make students familiar with the basic educational tool/technology. key words: effective education; chemistry practical activity; students and teachers; lack of confidence; using simulation. about the authors: shemsu ligani is a lecturer at the department of chemistry, faculty of natural and computational sciences bhu (bule hora university), bule hora, ethiopia. baressa anbessa and bula kere are the lecturers at the department of biology, faculty of natural and computational sciences bhu, bule hora, ethiopia. corresponding author is: liganishemsu@gmail.com how to cite this article? ligani, shemsu, baressa anbessa & bula kere. (2016). “assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory: a case study in second year chemistry students of bule hora university, ethiopa” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(1), august, pp.49-58. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (june 22, 2016); revised (july 15, 2016); and published (august 30, 2016). introduction we are living in a world, which is complex and fast changing. this is an epoch in which the world depends on the use of high levels of knowledge and skills. there is a need to build a knowledge based society to address the current complex and fast changing world (wood, 1987). education is a valued asset for economic, social, and cultural development (lanzi, 2004; and burchi, 2006). literature clearly shows that the development of nations depends on the capacity of individuals and peoples to be imaginative to continually adapt and invent in a fast changing and complex world. it is to shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare50 develop the knowhow of concepts and practices of the physical and social world (asefa, 2008). effective education should offer a balance of theoretical and practical experiences to help learners develop the competencies they need to enter professional practice and to become life-long learners throughout their careers. different higher education preferred different learning methods for instance, experiential learning approach is the one used to enhance students’ knowledge, attitude, and skill (passarelli & kolb, 2012). experiential learning is very important method to bring from surface learning to the deep learning. experiential learning involves having an experience, reflecting or reviewing the experience, giving it meaning and learning from it, and then applying the learning (kolb, 1984; and tomlinson, o’brien & garratt, 2000). practical work lies at the heart of primary science. practical work can take place inside or outside the classroom and can happen at any point in a unit of work or lesson. it may be a five minute demonstration, a short activity to practice using an unfamiliar piece of equipment (nicholls, 1999). what it must be is a varied and integral part of the learning process, which promotes thinking as well as doing. r. millar (2004) defined practical work as any teaching and learning activity, which involves at some point the students in observing or manipulating real objects and materials (millar, 2004). practical work enables the students to act in a scientific manner. for example, stephanie farrell & robert p. hesketh (2000) suggested that students typically recall only 20% of what they hear; while if they hear and see something done, they may recall closer to 50% of the experience. if they actually do something, such as conduct an experiment, they are likely to recall as much as 90% (farrell & hesketh, 2000). these develop, progressively, beginning in the classroom with presentation of the theoretical background and the introduction of related skills through explanation or demonstration. development of the new knowledge, skills, and attitudes continues in a safe (or simulated) environment, where students practice and attain skill competency (mckelvy, 2000). finally, it results in opportunities to apply the new knowledge, practice the new skills, and explore attitudes. therefore, the teacher must be well prepared for the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching to ensure that students have adequate opportunities to learn theory and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the classroom, and practice skills in a simulated environment (reid & shah, 2007). laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the chemistry curriculum; and chemistry educators have suggested that many benefits accrue from engaging students in chemistry laboratory activities (hofstein & lunetta, 1982; tobin, 1990; garnett, garnett & hackling, 1995; lunetta, 1998; and hofstein & lunetta, 2004). several reporters have written that inquiry based chemistry practical activities have the potential to develop students understanding of concepts, scientific applications, scientific attitudes, practical skills, problem solving abilities, scientific habits of mind, understanding how science and scientists work, ability to formulate scientific questions, ability to form hypotheses, ability to design and conduct investigations, and technical skills in the use of equipment (carnduff & reid, 2003; lunetta, hofstein & clough, 2007; and offei-koranteng, 2013). bhu (bule hora university) is the newly emerged university in southern ethiopia. the university is try to apply student centered approach to bring problem of surface learning in to an end and introduce deep learning, which make students critical thinker or imaginative. as a result, the university teacher educators incorporate the practical session to make learner knowledgeable, skill full, and bring attitudinal change. therefore, the current study aimed to improve practical/ experimental skills of chemistry students in bhu in southern ethiopia. signifi cance of research. the study is helpful to link the theoretical and practical skills development components of the course. it also encourages to designing appropriate assessment method in practical session so as to contribute to improvement of practical or experimental skills in chemistry laboratory. it may serves to identify factors that hinder educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 51 practical skill of students in the laboratory session. it also helps to increases the quality of education in the university and develops selfconfidence in students in their future career. objectives of the study. the general objective of the study is to assess the practical skills of chemistry students in bhu (bule hora university) in ethiopia. and the specific objectives are: (1) to identify factors that hinder practical skills of students in laboratory session; (2) to assess the attitude of student in studying chemistry; (3) to encourage students to practical work in laboratory session; and (4) to assess teachers’ evaluation method for practical session. methods description of study area and population. the study was conducted in bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia. the total numbers of students in chemistry department from first year to third year are 174. out of these 152 are on learning (55 students in 1st year, 47 in 2nd year, and 50 in 3rd year); and the rests students were droped out and dismissed. from total students 88 students are male and 86 are female. see table 1. from the total number of second year students 39 have got average grade above 2.30 and 8 have got average grade below 2.30 out of 4. the target groups of this research was 2nd year chemistry students of bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia. see table 2. the table 3 indicates the status of second year chemistry students in four major practical courses. data collection. the respondents of the study were teachers and students of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia. a total of 62 sample respondents were selected table 1: academic status of chemistry department students status of 1st year chemistry students status male female total distinction 10 0 10 pass 20 9 29 warning 1 2 3 dismissal 0 10 10 drop out 2 1 3 total 33 22 55 status of 2nd year chemistry students distinction 4 9 13 pass 8 33 41 warning 0 7 7 dismissal 1 3 4 drop out 0 4 4 total 13 56 69 status of 3rd year chemistry students’ distinction 1 1 1 pass 30 7 37 warning 0 2 2 dismissal 0 1 1 drop out 3 12 15 total 34 23 57 shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare52 table 2: status of 2nd year chemistry students no sex average status no sex average status 1 f 1.84 dismissal 28 m 2.58 pass 2 f 2.01 pass 29 f 3.59 deans 3 m 2.80 pass 30 f 2.52 pass 4 f 2.39 pass 31 f 2.48 pass 5 f 2.25 pass 32 f 1.26 do 6 f 1.23 do 33 f 2.59 pass 7 f 0.00 do 34 f 2.00 pass 8 f 3.20 pass 35 f 3.42 deans 9 m 2.93 pass 36 f 3.40 deans 10 m 3.63 deans 37 m 2.56 pass 11 f 2.79 pass 38 m 2.21 pass 12 f 2.30 pass 39 f 2.52 pass 13 f 3.31 deans 40 f 2.83 pass 14 f 2.27 pass 41 f 0.55 do 15 f 2.45 pass 42 f 2.13 pass 16 m 3.39 deans 43 f 2.18 pass 17 f 0.00 do 44 f 2.33 pass 18 f 2.16 pass 45 f 1.12 do 19 f 3.41 deans 46 m 3.09 pass 20 f 1.78 dismissal 47 f 1.80 dismissal 21 f 2.92 pass 48 f 3.35 deans 22 m 0.45 do 49 f 3.70 deans 23 f 0.15 do 50 f 2.40 pass 24 f 2.09 pass 51 m 3.63 deans 25 m 3.79 deans 52 f 1.44 do 26 f 3.12 pass 53 f 1.24 do 27 f 0.00 do 54 f 3.16 pass table 3: status of 2nd year chemistry students in practical courses of 2014/2015 no grade practical analytical chemistry practical physical chemistry practical organic chemistry practical university chemistry 1 a a+ 3 8 6 10 2 b b+ 42 19 29 33 3 cc+ 15 21 14 20 4 d d+ 0 1 0 0 5 f 0 2 0 0 6 ng 8 1 2 4 from the total population, i.e. 47 students and 15 teachers. in this study, more of qualitative data were collected. the data was collected through questioner, focus group discussion, interview, and observation. the questionnaires were distributed to the students and teachers; and, finally, it was recollected (harkin, clow & hillier, 2003; and hummes, kohrs & merialdo, 2010). an interview was conducted on selected students and teachers to get enough information on experimental/laboratory session of chemistry department. interviews were focused on the experience, interest, and attitudes of teachers and students on experimental/laboratory session (berg et al., 2003; burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2003; and hanif et al., 2009). they were also educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 53 interviewed about manual, safety, and availability of laboratory equipment. the focus group discussion was conducted with a group of respondents to produce a wealth of data and lead to discovery new topics and questions. the data was also collected by direct observation of practical session (drury, 1992; and burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2003). this method is important to identify the problems in laboratory and cross check with data gather by other methods. it was also useful to minimize the risk of miss-understanding on practical sessions. data management and analysis. the recorded data through observation, questionnaires, and interview were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, such as percentage and frequency (berg et al., 2003; burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2003; and hanif et al., 2009). finally, the results were presented using tables, charts, and graphs. data analysis was carried out using excel 2007 software program. results and discussion back ground of study subjects. from 47 study subjects about 27 of them lived in urban rental house; 13 of them lived in urban area with their family; and about 7 of them lived in rural area with their family during their preparatory study. see table 4. as is indicated in table 4, most of respondents have satisfactory (50-60) average preparatory education performance in chemistry. this could relate that they have little exposure in chemistry practical activity. analysis of response from students’ questionnaire. this are consist of: (1) students’ interest in studying chemistry; (2) students attitude towards chemistry experimental lesson; (3) factors that hinder the practical skill of students; (4) contribution of practical laboratory work; and (5) possible ways improve the practical skills of students. the description and analysis are as follows: first, students’ interest in studying chemistry. the students’ interest in studying chemistry was illustrated in figure 1. as it is indicated in the figure 1 that 36 (76.6%) students out of 47 responded that they are interested in studying chemistry; 7 (14.9%) respondents have no interest in studying chemistry; while 4 (8.5%) students were not responded at all. this means that majority of students are interested in studying chemistry. the reasons given by the 76.6% of students, who have interest in studying chemistry, was that it has wide applications in all discipline. however, some of the students complained, due lack of time since most of the courses were not covered at the end of the semester (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2015; interview with respondent b, 5/10/2015; interview with respondent c, 9/10/2015; interview with respondent d, 13/10/2015; and interview with respondent e, 17/10/2015). they suggested that either increase the allocated time per semester or start the semester early. some students also suggested that increase the time for experimental sessions table 4: students’ response on their preparatory education performance item satisfactory (50-60) good (61-70) very good (71-85) excellent (>86) respondents preparatory educational performance in chemistry. 25 15 7 0 table 5: students attitude towards chemistry experimental lesson parameters number of student percentage very good attitude 29 61.7% good attitude 15 31.9% bad attitude 3 8.5% shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare54 in the subject as it helps to understand the subject matter (interview with respondent f, 20/10/2015; interview with respondent g, 24/10/2015; interview with respondent h, 27/10/2015; interview with respondent i, 30/10/2015; and interview with respondent j, 3/11/2015). the most frequent reason given by 14.9% students who have no interest in studying chemistry was that the subject involves a lot of memory work. second, students attitude towards chemistry experimental lesson. the respondents’ attitude toward chemistry practical lesson is shown in table 5. as it is illustrated in table 5 that 29 (61.7%) students out of 47 have very good attitude toward chemistry practical lesson; 15 (31.9%) respondents have good attitude; while 3 (8.5%) of respondents have negative or bad attitude toward chemistry practical session. this indicates that majority of students have positive attitude toward chemistry practical lesson. students who have positive attitude claimed that when the theoretical session is supported by experiments, it will become easy to understand (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2015; interview with respondent b, 5/10/2015; interview with respondent c, 9/10/2015; interview with respondent d, 13/10/2015; and interview with respondent e, 17/10/2015). third, factors that hinder the practical skill of students. here factors that can hinder practical skill of students were discussed based on student responses. accordingly, the figure 1: students’ interest in studying chemistry 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 students interst highschool exposure teachers approach lack of laboratory equipment and chemicals chemical toxicity shortage time 6.38 25.53 12.77 23.40 10.64 21.28 p er ce nt ag e parameters figure 2: factors that hinder the practical skill of students table 6: contribution of practical laboratory work parameters very little little medium high very high 1. to improving your manual skills for working in laboratory. 6.4% 10.6% 21.3% 34.0% 27.6% 2. to improve your understandings of chemistry. 10.6% 4.3% 25.5% 36.2% 23.4% 3. to improve your experimental result interpretation skill. 4.3% 12.8% 29.8% 31.9% 21.3% 4. contribution for your future career. 12.8% 34.0% 6.4% 23.4% 23.4% response of student is illustrated in figure 2. as it is indicated in the figure 2 that 25.5% of students responded that their high school and preparatory practical exposure followed by lack of laboratory equipment; and chemicals are the major factors that hinder their practical skill. furthermore, allocating less time for practical session is among the factors that can affect students’ performance. additionally, students suggested that large class size is another hindrance for educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 55 their practical skill, because it is not possible to manage large class size properly (interview with respondent f, 20/10/2015; interview with respondent g, 24/10/2015; interview with respondent h, 27/10/2015; interview with respondent i, 30/10/2015; and interview with respondent j, 3/11/2015). fourth, contribution of practical laboratory work. about the contribution of practical laboratory work is shown in table 6. the response of student regarding to contribution of laboratory activity is illustrated in the table 6. accordingly, about 36% of respondent believed that laboratory work can improve their understanding of chemistry; and about 34% of them responded that laboratory activity can improve their manual skill in experimental work. similarly about 31.9% of participants responded laboratory activity can enhance their experimental result interpretation skill; and 34% of participant believed that laboratory activity has little contribution for their future career. fifth, possible ways improve the practical skills of students. the following ideas, as shown in figure 3, are students’ opinions about experimental method that can improve their practical skill. as it is illustrated in the figure 3, majority of the students (25.5%) responded that allowing the students’ experimental freedom is main method that can improve their practical skill. beside experimental freedom, preparing simple and brief manual followed by justifying the main objectives of each experiment are also among the possible ways that can improve students’ practical performance. the respondents also claimed that appointing skilled lab technician and establishing full and well organized lab also can improve their practical skill (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2015; interview with respondent b, 5/10/2015; interview with respondent c, 9/10/2015; interview 0 10 20 30 appointing skilled lab technician teacher approach establishing full and well organized lab share aims for experiments manual brief allow experimental freedom 12.8 % 8.5 % 12.8 % 19.1 % 21.3 % 25.5 % percentage p ar am et er s figure 3: possible ways improve the practical skills of students 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1 2 3 4 13.3 % 26.7 % 26.7 % 33.3 % carlessness of student large class size shortage of time lack of equipment and chemical figure 4: problems related to student practical performance with respondent d, 13/10/2015; and interview with respondent e, 17/10/2015). analysis of teachers questionnaire. this are consist of: (1) problems related to student practical performance; (2) possible ways to encourage students in practical session; and (3) assessment tools for practical session. the description and analysis are as follows: first, problems related to student practical performance. the focus of this part is to identify the major problems faced in chemistry practical session related to student performance. see figure 4. shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare56 among the problems teacher faced related to student practical performance during practical session, large class size, and negligence of students take more percent, as shown in figure 4. the teachers’ response indicated that shortage of time and unavailability of equipments and enough chemical access were also additional obstacles they faced. the teachers also suggested that work over load is parallel challenge they faced for their practical activity (interview with respondent k, 7/11/2015; interview with respondent l, 10/11/2015; and interview with respondent m, 13/11/2015). based on the information awareness creation for the student regarding to importance of practical work for their subject understanding, providing enough time for practical session can minimize those listed problems. second, possible ways to encourage students in practical session. the idea of this part is in order to seek some of possible ways that can encourage student performance in practical session. see figure 5. as it indicated in the figure 5 that 33.3% of participants were responded that allowing student for frequent practical activity and giving continuous feedback can encourage students in practical activity. similarly supporting students during their practical activity and giving pre-lab talk can encourage students’ practical skill. it is clear that there are many ways that can encourage students’ practical performance including providing of brief experimental manual, showing demonstration using videos (interview with respondent k, 7/11/2015; interview with respondent l, 10/11/2015; and interview with respondent m, 13/11/2015). third, assessment tools for practical session. the main focus here is to find out the type of assessment methods chemistry teachers preferably apply in practical session for their students. see figure 6. based on participants’ response, majority 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 pre-lab talk frequently practice supporting during their activity giving continous feed back 13.3 % 33.3 % 20.0 % 33.3 % p er ce nt ag e parameters figure 5: possible ways to encourage students in practical session 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 oral question practical exam written exam experiment result report move exam 10.7 % 20.5 % 33.5% 26.7 % 8.7 % p er ce nt ag e parameters figure 6: assessment tools for practical session of (33.5%) teachers preferably used written exam for their student assessment. about 26.7% of respondents used experiment result report as an assessment tool and 20.5% of teachers choose practical exam than written. the remaining simply used oral question and move exam, as shown in figure 6. some of the respondents suggested that using practical exam is better for student assessment in practical session. however, due lack of enough laboratory equipment and shortage of time, they enforced to use written exam. it is clear that using practical exam as an assessment tool can lead students to prepare themselves for practical exam and before exam they practiced again and again; in this line, they can be familiar for that particular subject matter (interview with educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 57 respondent k, 7/11/2015; interview with respondent l, 10/11/2015; and interview with respondent m, 13/11/2015). conclusion 1 based on the current findings different problems in chemistry practical activities are identified, such as lack of confidence; shortage of time; and lack of background practical exposure, particularly on chemistry lab, lack of laboratory equipment and chemicals, lack of interest, fear of chemical toxicity, and lack of experimental freedom for independent work. in general, from the tremendous benefit of practical activities in chemistry, we suggested that: using simulation and virtual experiments; encouraging students to show their innate talents and make students familiar with the basic educational tool/technology; developing and introduction of advance experimental designs and techniques, and this might minimize the boring in chemistry laboratory activities and poor performances; giving a motivational training to develop self-confidence; evaluating students’ progress in experimental activities; giving frequent experimental activities; providing rewards for students frequently participate in experimental activities so that the other will be motivated; supporting students those require especial support; encouraging students to be independent learners and let them to perform experiments by freedom; encouraging teachers to use locally available resources for laboratory; posting safety and precaution rules in the laboratory and giving pre lab brief orientation; providing simple and brief manual for the students ahead of lab sessions; and creating awareness among students about the multi-purposes of experimental activities in chemistry.2 1acknowledgment: the authors acknowledge to second year students and teachers in chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, for their consent and cooperation in the study. 2statement: herewith, we declare that this paper is our original work; 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(2010). “questionnaires: a framework using shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere, assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare58 mobile code for component-based tele-exams”. available online at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.52.163&rep=re p1&type=pdf [accessed in bule hora, ethiopia: november 10, 2015]. interview with respondent a, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 2 october 2015. interview with respondent b, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 5 october 2015. interview with respondent c, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 9 october 2015. interview with respondent d, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 13 october 2015. interview with respondent e, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 17 october 2015. interview with respondent f, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 20 october 2015. interview with respondent g, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 24 october 2015. interview with respondent h, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 27 october 2015. interview with respondent i, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 30 october 2015. interview with respondent j, a student of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 3 november 2015. interview with respondent k, a teacher of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 7 november 2015. interview with respondent l, a teacher of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 10 november 2015. interview with respondent m, a teacher of chemistry department at the bhu (bule hora university) in southern ethiopia, on 13 november 2015. kolb, d. 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(2012). “using experiential learning theory to promote student learning and development in programs of education abroad”. available online at: http:// learningfromexperience.com/media/2012/02/ using-experiential-learning-theory [accessed in bule hora, ethiopia: october 9, 2015]. reid, n. & i. shah. (2007). “the role of laboratory work in university chemistry” in chemistry education research and practice, 8(2), pp.172-185. tobin, k.g. (1990). “research on science laboratory activities in pursuit of better questions and answers to improve learning” in school science and mathematics, 90, pp.403-418. tomlinson, j., p. o’brien & c.j. garratt. (2000). “computer software to prepare students for laboratory work” in journal of science education, 1, pp.100-107. wood, r. (1987). “aspects of the competenceperformance distinction: educational, psychological, and measurement issues” in journal of curriculum studies, 19, pp.409-424. educare august 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 1 ramlee mustapha transforming education toward k-economy in malaysia abstract: to advance malaysia into the forefront of knowledge, investment in human capital is critical, as the k-economy demands creative, innovative, and knowledge human resources. malaysians demand a better work-life balance and opportunities for career enhancement, social mobility, and self-development. in addition, malaysia needs to enhance its social capital and community capacity by reinforcing social cohesion and reducing social exclusion. thus, the purpose of this article is to review critical elements that are needed to transform malaysia into knowledgebased society. promoting and upholding the universal values of multiculturalism, human rights, and zero tolerance to corruption in public and private sectors is absolutely crucial. this is a first step toward achieving true liberty and democracy that may spur an environment suitable for innovative culture to flourish. to support k-economy, schools and universities should be equipped with broadband and seamless internet connection. to date, however, most rural schools in malaysia have problem with the internet access. innovation in pedagogies and curriculum development is required in order to assist teachers in schools to make significant improvements. there are complains about the lack of high-order thinking, english proficiency, cross disciplinary skills, and critical and problem-solving skills among teachers and students. for the innovation culture to flourish, granting flexibility and autonomy is a way of moving forward. in sum, malaysia needs a strong framework or a roadmap for producing adequate number of world renowned scientists and scholars in order to sustain the knowledge economy. key words: k-economy, higher skilled and innovative workforce, education and social systems, transformative and innovative leadership, and malaysians. prof. dr. ramlee mustapha is a lecturer at the faculty of technical and vocational education upsi (sultan idris university of education), tanjong malim, perak darul ridzuan, malaysia. the author can be reached at: drramlee@yahoo.com introduction the wealth of asia will triple in 2015 to usd 15.8 trillion (loh, 2011:10). china and india are forecasted to contribute over 40% of global gdp (gross domestic product) in 2011 and 2012. asean (association of south east asian nations)’s gdp is expected to grow at annual rate of 4.8% in 2012 and 5.4% in 2013 (kok, 2011:3). as one of the dynamic countries in asia, malaysia should maintain its economic competitiveness by transforming itself. malaysia’s transformation is underway. the aspiration to stand equal with other developed nations by 2020 and to become a stalwart of education hub, especially in the asian region, has made malaysia one of the vibrant countries in asia. the nation’s vibrancy lies in its human capital and the strength of its workforce is dependent on the quality of its education. thus, education is an important catalyst in developing talented, relevant, skillful, and innovative human resources in malaysia. education continues to play a vital role in developing and transforming malaysia for the next decade. government transformation program (gtp) and economic transformation program (etp) were launched in 2010 to achieve the high-income status. with the slogan 1malaysia: people first, performance now − the government promised to make fundamental changes to deliver significant results fast (i.e. performance now) and to ensure every malaysian will enjoy the fruits of the nation’s development and live in an inclusive and diverse society where they consider themselves, first and foremost, a malaysian (i.e. 1malaysia). the etp builds upon the 10th malaysia plan (2011-2015) which focuses on the 12 national key economic areas (nkeas). the four largest nkeas (oil, gas, and energy; financial services; palm oil; and ramlee mustapha, transforming education 2 wholesale and retail) are projected to generate over 60 percent of the future gni (gross national income) growth. etp was designed to transform malaysia into a highincome economy with a gni of myr 1.7 trillion (usd 0.53 trillion) in 2020 compared to myr 660 billion (usd 206 billion) in 2009. this means that the gni per capita will have to rise from myr 23,700 (usd 7,406) in 2009 to myr 48,000 (usd 15,000) by 2020 (http://etp.pemandu.gov.my/high_ income_economy_-@-about_the_gni. aspx, 9/10/2012). this level of gni per capita would correspond to that of a high-income economy as currently defined by the world bank. however, the recent the usa (united sates of america) and eurozone economic crises have significant impact on malaysia’s economic vibrancy. the vicious circle of raising debts and falling growth has spread globally like “mad cow” disease. on the finance front, malaysia should expect a shrinking foreign capital inflow as western funds seek “safe havens” of their own countries during the uncertain economic period (khor, 2012:25). malaysia may need to rely more on domestic demand and capital. there is a growing realization that the global economy is in jeopardy. an expected deep recession in global economy could cause emerging economies like malaysia a bumpy ride ahead. economic development and vision 2020 in malaysia vision 2020 has charted the malaysia’s dream to become a developed nation. the country was striving toward attaining that goal by shifting its economic activities, from production and exports of primary commodities to manufacturing; and currently on more capital-intensive, high-technology, and knowledge-based industries − has resulted in a structural transformation of the malaysian economy for the past several decades. malaysia’s multimedia super corridor (msc) has provided opportunities for increased r&d (research & development) and integration of advanced information and communication technologies (ict) into economic operations. in fact, knowledge is becoming an increasingly important factor of production, more important, some analysts would argue, than land, labor, and capital (drucker, 1990 and 1993). what this implies is that the knowledge workers are very much in demand. in the malaysian context, restructuring of the economy has led to a change in the demand and supply of human resources and this has become a critical issue. as the demand for professional and skilled workers increases, there is a corresponding shortage in the supply of such workers. through the education and training system, various policies and strategies have been implemented to ensure an increasing supply of educated, skilled, and innovative labor force in line with the key thrust of the ninth and tenth malaysia plans – the development of human capital. k-economy will significantly reduce the need for low skilled foreign labor in malaysia. malaysia, with an estimated per capita gnp (gross national product) of usd 8,000, is a significant socio-economic force in the southeast asian region. traditionally, the economy of malaysia was based on its natural resources. during the 1980s, however, the government recognized the need for a balance between resource-based and technology-based industries, and started to focus on technology and service industries. in 1991, the nation’s vision 2020 was launched (mohamad, 1991). the vision 2020 is a 30-year plan to “push” malaysia to obtain a developed nation status by the year 2020 (mustapha et al., 2008). malaysia struggled economically during the 1997-1998 asian financial crisis and applied several valuable lessons to its economic management strategies that contributed to the economy’s resilience to the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. gdp (gross domestic product) contracted 1.7% in 2009 compared to 4.6% growth in 2008, but has since rebounded and was expected to be around 7% in 2010 (http://www.traveldocs.com/my/economy. htm, 9/10/2012). recently, malaysia claims to enter the era of innovation-led economy. najib razak, the current prime minister of malaysia, says that innovation is the “key mechanism” to propel educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 3 malaysia forward (cited in kandasamy, 2010). efforts have been made to churn out more innovative human capital such as mybrain 15. “mybrain 15” is an ambitious program to produce 60,000 malaysian phd holders by 2023 in order to boost k-economy. in academia, national council of professors was established in 2010 to fortify academic visibility in malaysian higher education institutions (heis). however, “intellectual vacuum” is entrenched due to the reservation of the silence majority of the malaysian intellectuals to offer public comments, especially if the comments were not in favor to the ruling elites in fear of retribution. despite the laborious effort to churn out more knowledge workers, the figure remains low. malaysia only has 25% of high-skilled workers as compared to 49% in singapore, 33% in taiwan, and 35% in south korea (oecd, 1998 and 2011). research and innovation are also considered lower than other countries, due to the fact that malaysia is lacking critical mass of cutting-edge scientists and researchers in the country to enhance innovation. in terms of intellectual property, malaysia only had 2,086 patents in 2010, much lower than south korea, singapore, hong kong, and china (see table 1). the number of published academic research articles by malaysian academics is also lower than japan, singapore, taiwan, and south korea. the lack of innovation among malaysians is seen as a major setback for the country in its course that is aspired to be a fully developed nation by 2020. this problem has hampered the growth of the export sector, due to dependence on low-value added outputs. in addition, several studies have shown that university students in malaysia are lacking of innovative skills (quah et al., 2009). table 1 shows regional comparison indicates that malaysian registered patents are quite low, due to the smaller number of patents granted. globalization and k-economy the 21st century is an era full of challenges. in developed countries, innovations are happening at accelerated pace and in large scale. the world is becoming “smaller” and “flatter” in the sense that people can access to information easier and can participate in collaborative works across the nations regardless of their nationalities. the term “globalization” has many definitions. in fact, there is no precise definition and its usage depends on the context it is used (khonder, 1997). for instance, m. albrow (1990) refers globalization as “to all those processes by which peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society”. r. robertson (1992) describes globalization as “the compression of the world” as well as “the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole”. in another context, globalization is “about the monumental structural changes occurring in the processes of production and distribution in the global economy” (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics, 15/4/2013). from these definitions have emerged popular terms like “the global village”, “borderless world”, “shrinking world”, and “the invisible continent” (ohmae, 2000). table 1: number of patents among selected asian countries country industrial design trade mark patent r&d as % gdp china 141,601 389,115 93,706 1.4 hong kong 3,035 18,408 4,001 0.8 japan 29,382 97,525 176,950 3.3 malaysia 1,483 27,847 2,086 0.6 singapore 1,781 17,737 6,286 2.2 taiwan n.a. n.a. n.a. 2.3 south korea 39,858 62,443 83,523 3.2 source: wipi (2010). ramlee mustapha, transforming education 4 in the old world, producers dominate the economy. they set prices, they control distribution channels, and they dictate the terms of alliance. on the invisible continent, as argued by k. ohmae (2000), all the power now is in the hands of the consumers. with the emerging ubiquitous technology, universal access to knowledge is getting closer to becoming a reality. globalization can be defined in many ways and one simple definition is the expansion of economic activities across political boundaries of nation-states. it is a process of deepening economic integration, increasing economic openness, and growing economic interdependence between countries in the world economy (govindan, 2000). it is not only openness in terms of trade, financial, and investment flows but also flow of ideas, technology, services, information, and people across national boundaries. all these undoubtedly bring about wider opportunities for developing countries. globalization, together with the increasing applications of information and communications technology (ict), has profound impact on the economy where productivity gain is achieved through mainly knowledge-driven industries. people are getting more ict literate every day. with the baby boomer generation (1946-1964) is phasing out new cohorts of generation y (1964-1981) and the digital natives (1982 – today) are roaming the world. digital natives spent more time in the virtual word than learning in school or at home. bernama, on 3 january 2012, reports that in 2011, the malaysian household broadband penetration is at 62% or 4 million out of 6.5 million households – an increase of 8% from 2010 (http://www.theborneopost. com/2012/01/03/2011-the-year-ofsuccess-for-information-technology-sector/, 3/1/2012). it means that the country is well on its way toward achieving the target of 75% broadband penetration by 2015. the government has set the national target as part of the national key economic area (nkea) initiatives to increase the broadband penetration rate and bridge the digital divide nationwide. however, the digital gap between the rural and urban populations in malaysia is still significant. in addition, based on 2008 statistics, produced by the world bank (2010), the number of malaysians owning computer is still low which at 23 out 100 peoples, which way below other asian countries such as hong kong, singapore, and south korea (see table 2). education and economic development since the industrial revolution in the late 18th century, progress and prosperity have been closely identified with economic development (jomo, 1993). economic competitiveness of a country depends on innovativeness of its workforce. knowledge, skills, and innovativeness of the workforce rely on the education and training systems. education is perceived as one of the crucial elements in enhancing economic productivity (min, 1995; and khalil & olafsen, 2010). based on the human capital and social efficiency theories, school should prepare and supply future workers with appropriate knowledge and skills that would enhance their productivity and upward mobility; and, therefore, promote economic growth (schultz, 1961; becker, 1964; harbison, 1974; finch, 1993; and labaree, 1997). launched in 1988, malaysia national philosophy of education stresses on holistic development of a learner, including physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional domains. education in malaysia has developed along the british model (musa, 2003). bahasa malaysia (malay language) is the medium of instruction and english is taught as a second language. students spend six years in primary school, followed by six more years in secondary and high school. tertiary education towards the first degree takes from three to six years depending on the discipline. education is seen as the means by which national goals can be achieved. with the increasing emphasis on the importance of education, there is a growing awareness among government, nongovernment organizations, and private sector of the importance of life-long education. as a developing country, malaysia grapples with the task of building its economies to achieve sustainable development and to educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 5 improve the quality of life of its people. there is a growing recognition that the education of the population is essential to sustain economic growth and development (azman & ahmad, 2006). as a country that has developed tremendously for the past three decades, malaysia has become an example and is often cited by economic analysts and developmental planners as a model of a developing country. to become fully developed nation, malaysia needs a workforce that is well educated, innovative, competitive, dynamic, and skilled (mustapha & mohd salleh, 2007). like any developing countries, the focus on education in malaysia has shifted from policy concern to the economy and employment (azman & ahmad, 2006). essentially, according to m. tennant and r. morris (2001), education in developing countries has evolved around two axes: emphasis on life-long learning and employability. thus, the idea of enhancing human capital and the competitiveness by knowledge-skills acquisition has gained ground with legislators, business, and educational leaders. in malaysia, the government, private, and non-government organizations have taken note of the societal and technological changes and, therefore, have recognized the critical need for education and training (epu, 2006). in addition, there has been a renewed interest in education as a vehicle for addressing national priorities as indicated in the ninth malaysia plan (2006 – 2010) and the tenth malaysia plan (2011 – 2015) such as the formation of adaptable, flexible, innovative and multiskilled workers, the creation of harmonious multicultural society, and the promotion and awareness of civic education, health, indigenous rights, and the environment. however, the percentage of tertiary education enrollment among malaysians is still low as compared to other asian countries (see table 2). malaysia wouldn’t be fully readied for k-economy with fewer number of k-workers with tertiary-level education. table 2 illustrates the basic demographics, education, and economic index of selected asian countries in 2008. challenges one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century is the creation of jobs. in the next 15 years, more than 700 million young people will enter the labor force, of whom 300 million will come from asia (sheng, 2011:3). unemployment in malaysia is still below 4 percent. with the advent of global recession, the need for a strong human capital has never been so critical. literature has shown that several asia pacific countries, including malaysia, have spent relatively low percentage of their gdp (gross domestic product) on ict (information and communication technology) infrastructure and r&d (research & development). as a result, there is a low percentage of skilled and knowledge workers (k-workers) in the population such as the scientists, engineers, and ict specialists (reynolds et al., 2002; and mustapha & abdullah, 2004). in addition, the level of innovative r&d is also low among these countries which resulted in few numbers table 2: demographics, education, and economic index of selected asian countries in 2008 country population (million) urban population (% of the total population) gni per capita (usd) gdp growth (%) % adult literacy (>15 years old) tertiary education enrollment (% of population) china 1,325 43 2,940 10.4 94 24.4 hong kong 7 100 31,420 5.2 n.a 56.6 japan 128 66 38,130 1.6 n.a 47.7 malaysia 27 70 7,250 5.5 92 28.2 singapore 5 100 34,760 5.8 95 33.7 south korea 49 81 21,530 4.5 n.a 70.5 source: world bank (2010). ramlee mustapha, transforming education 6 of technopreneurs and technoprises. further, the percentage of graduates who are unable to secure proper jobs posed a challenge to the nation. thus, the education and training system has to gear itself to meet the demands of the new economy. malaysia was a colonial back water during the british occupation and the early stage of the independence. however, in the 1980s and 1990s, the malaysian economy experienced rapid growth and a significant structural transformation. it went from an economy that relied on agriculture and commodities to one dominated by manufacturing and services. since then, however, malaysia’s growth has dwindled to a level well below its key competitors in asia, including the large labor-surplus economies of china and india. the economy seems to be caught in a middleincome trap – unable to remain competitive as a high-volume, low-cost producer and unable to move up the value chain, and achieve rapid growth by breaking into fast growing markets for knowledge – and innovation-based products and services (world bank, 2009). in terms of politics, the post-mahathir mohamad era (1981-2003) has portrayed less political control on the masses but reduced popularity of the barisan nasional (the ruling coalition). unlike the “arab spring”, the younger malaysian generation uses subtler means to show their anti-establishment sentiments by using digital and ubiquitous technologies to unfold ruling politicians’ achilles’ heel. thus, the ruling coalition’s public image has resonated between populism and paralysis. with less than 30% of malaysians pursue higher education as compared to about 60% in the united states of america and 47% in united kingdom posed a real challenge in producing knowledge workers to support innovative economy in malaysia. to survive in the emerging innovative economic environment, the present malaysian workforce has to have an added value apart from the knowledge, skill, or expertise they have gathered through education. the future workers need to be efficient, productive, and innovative to cater for the demands of the competitive, globalized world. they too must be able to keep up with the rapid expansion of knowledge. another important aspect that can add value to our graduates is the mastery of foreign language. since all knowledge, including new knowledge, is gathered, developed, and disseminated through language, both linguists and economists believe that language competency and communicative skills are important particularly in the education and training of human resource. in fact, language competency is an added value for the workforce in the era of industrialization and globalization. in addition, malaysia lacks the critical mass of research scientists and engineers that are much needed to drive the k-economy (mustapha & abdullah, 2004). in 2004, malaysia had only 21 research scientists and engineers (rses) for every 10,000 workers (jarjis, 2006). the target set in the ninth malaysia plan was to achieve 50 rses per 10,000 workers by 2010 (epu, 2006). in launching the etp (economic transformation plan), the prime minister, najib razak, also warns the nation about the low and middle incomes trap. he proposed a new economic model to achieve the high income bracket for the nation. the model was designed to provide a “concerted, holistic roadmap” to raise income and living standards over the next 10 years; its goals are anchored on strategies outlined in the etp and gtp (government transformation plan). it targets growth in gross national income of at least 6% a year (chia & li, 2011). by 2020, income per capita is expected to reach us$ 15,000 (rm 48,000), enough to become a developed nation. to achieve this, the etp identifies eight strategic reform initiatives (sris) to propel transformation and growth, namely: (1) promoting a private-sector led economy; (2) creating a quality workforce; (3) instilling competition; (4) strengthening the public sector; (5) building knowledgebase infrastructure; (6) enhancing sources of growth; (7) ensuring growth sustainability through innovation; and (8) implementing transparent and market-friendly affirmative action. however, a recent report by wef (world educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 7 economic forum) in 2011, highlighted several barriers in doing business in malaysia such as the inefficiency of the government bureaucracy, inadequate skilled workforce, and poor work ethics. malaysia budget for 2012 continues to focus on development, expansion, and liberalization of the critical sectors in the economy such as the education and the service sectors. emphasis on developing quality human capital in terms of granting higher development allocations for academic and vocational schools, promotion of private education, expanding the role of private sector in supplying of skilled human resources, and efforts to attract talent to malaysia. while education and tourism sectors have received reinvestment incentives, the manufacturing sector has been marginalized. diversification of economic activities the government has already recognized the importance of adapting to this new economy and is committed to transform the economy from a production-based to knowledge and innovation-driven economy. so far, several incentives have been introduced to encourage the private sector to participate more actively in r&d (research & development). these incentives are in the forms of double tax deduction, industrial building allowance, capital allowance, and import duty exemption on machinery/equipment, materials, raw materials/component parts, and samples used for r&d. however, malaysia should no longer rely on the strategy of offering foreign investors liberal industrial incentives and cheap labor to generate economic growth. thus, the country should not bank on the traditional approach of “catching up’’. in view of this, economic growth has to be endogenously driven with increasing emphasis on knowledge, productivity, education, and human capital. the productivity and innovation-driven growth is crucial to achieve sustainable growth with low inflation. it is essential to make the transition to the k and i-economies because labor and capital input could no longer provide the impetus for rapid economic growth. the injection of more capital to stimulate growth was not necessarily a good strategy, because this would result in a diminishing marginal rate of productivity and consequently the deterioration of the incremental capital-output ratio. global economic stagnation has forced malaysia to find alternative ways to rejuvenate the economy. the etp (economic figure 1: the most problematic factors for doing business in malaysia source: wef (2011). ramlee mustapha, transforming education 8 transformation plan) was designed to be driven by 12 national key economic areas (nkeas) announced in the 10th malaysia plan, which are: (1) oil, gas, and energy; (2) palm oil; (3) financial services; (4) tourism; (5) business services; (6) electronics and electrical; (7) wholesale and retail; (8) education; (9) healthcare; (10) communications content and infrastructure; (11) agriculture; and (12) greater kuala lumpur/klang valley. malaysia has also launched five economic corridors, namely: iskandar malaysia (im), east coast economic region (ecer), northern corridor economic region (ncer), sabah development corridor (sdc), and the sarawak corridor of renewable energy (score). im project could boost stronger economic ties between malaysia and singapore, because of the proximity and the economic activities could be mutually beneficial. but the recent scandal in the im (iskandar malaysia) has deteriorated the good image of the project. the ecer has an initiation of development having a time span for 12 years starting from 2007. petronas, the malaysia owned oil and gas company, is the primary player and master planner for the ecer. the ncer is being expected to be a world-class economic region by the year 2025, in which it will be among the world’s best in a number of its key economic sectors, such as electrical and electronics, agriculture, tourism, and biotechnology. the main aim of the sdc was to make sabah a getaway for trade, investment, and tourism. the score was launched on the 11th february 2008 to accelerate the state’s economic growth while improving the quality of life for the people of sarawak (http://www. slideshare.net/annesunita, 20/5/2013). however, critics have highlighted that there are too many economic corridors in malaysia and the hegemonic roles played by the federal government in these corridors, raising the questions of the roles of the state and local governments in these projects. another significant issue is the inadequacy of the skilled human resources needed to support the industries in these corridors. tourism has been one of the contributors to the malaysian economy since 1990 and has been on the increase ever since. it is the second largest foreign exchange earner after manufacturing sector, reaping a profit of myr 49.6 billion (usd 15.5 billion) in 2008. a country of 27 million multicultural population with relatively good infrastructure, education, and natural resources, malaysia could attract foreign investors and tourists. in order to meet the requirements of this sector, the country needs to preserve its natural heritage as well as to enhance the country’s accessibility, infrastructure, and services. by concentrating on each state’s strength and propelling them under corridor initiatives, malaysia should be able to bring in further influx of visitors not only from abroad but also locals who look for get-away during holidays. malaysia’s tourism may be booming in the coming years. local tourism market like handcrafts, textiles, and tourist spots would benefit from this surge. the five economic corridors are mega projects aimed at using the strengths and opportunities in each concentrated region by making use of idle and existing resources of land, natural reserves, and labor to revive each location through different economic approaches. thus, a quality workforce is needed to meet the new industry requirements. fresh graduates need to embrace a different mindset of innovation, creativity, invention, and risk taking approach. nevertheless, the extent to which these corridors would be a success still remains unknown. transformative and innovative leadership mooted by j. schumpeterian theory of growth and p. romer’s theory of endogenous growth, innovation and investment in human capital are critical to generate economic development (schumpeter, 1911/1934; and romer, 1986). however, economic development is not sustainable without transformative and innovative leadership. according to w. bennis and j. goldsmith (1997), leadership is about innovating and initiating reforms. to instill the culture of innovation, leaders have to reward people for disagreeing, thinking outside of the box, educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 9 and to tolerate failure. great leadership keeps great talents. as apple genius and innovation icon, steve jobs, aptly put it: “innovation distinguishes leaders from followers” (cited in http://thinkexist.com/quotes/steve_jobs/, 15/4/2013). for malaysia to move forward, it needs a critical mass of transformational and innovative leaders (leadership). transformative leaders would be able to empower and to transform the people under them. in higher education, malaysia’s ministry of higher education (mohe) has established akept (akademi kepimpinan pengajian tinggi or higher education leadership academy) in 2007 to nurture future higher education leaders; to produce excellence university lecturers and researchers in line with the strategic plan of higher education. transformative and innovative leadership is required to boost malaysia’s economic development (yusof & bhattasali, 2008). the transformative leadership in heis (higher education institutions) must demonstrate the following attributes: visionary, highly motivated, confident, committed to the attainment of excellence in academic endeavors, far-sighted and skilled in strategic planning, human resource development, and financial management. furthermore, they should possess impeccable personal credentials in terms of integrity and character. in order to produce the right quality and quantity of human capital, the transformation of higher education institutions emphasizes five crucial factors: administration, leadership, academia, teaching and learning, and research and development (http://www.mohe.gov.my/akept/about_2. html, 25/4/2013). in addition to the provision of systematic and integrated implementation plans to ensure the success of the objectives set out in the national higher education action plan, key performance indicators (kpis) should provide the benchmarks to measure the progress in the overall transformational efforts undertaken by the higher education institutions. however, a major drawback for malaysian higher education is the hierarchy of power which determines the leadership of the public universities. leadership in academia should be selected among the best academicians based on merit, scholarship, academic performance, and respectability from the academic community. to achieve a genuine excellence in academia, the political intervention in academia should end graciously. furthermore, the voice of the young generation must be heard. students’ freedom should be put in place for students to voice their true opinion; revoke any rules and regulations that suppress their thinking and innovation. this is a first step toward achieving true liberty and democracy that may spur an environment suitable for innovative culture to flourish. thus, many have suggested that repressive laws that curb students’ freedom such as the auku (akta universiti dan kolej universiti or university and university college act) should be evicted. the speaker’s corner which was a platform for open debates should be revert back as a norm as it was in the 1960s and early 1970s before auku was enacted and enforced upon university students in malaysia. according to k. raslan (2011), the new geopolitical landscape in malaysia demands prodigious powers of the leadership. mere rhetoric will be useless. in the post-capitalist and post-modernist era, innovation has become the industrial “religion” through which firms believe it could increase market share and profits (valery, 1999). according to p. fisk (2011), idea is a new currency of success. according to mit (massachusetts institute of technology) former president, charles m. vest, in 1997, the challenge of the future will be to create new ideas and to make innovation (cited in fisk, 2011). the next round of competition is likely to be won by those who innovate, i.e. those who create new ideas, products, and services; and those who solve new human problems and create new commerce. according to j.o. moller (2011), historically around 1975, japan, germany, switzerland, and sweden were at the top of the economic league. all four had specialized in high quality – and expensive – investment goods. this was marvelous at the crest of the industrial age. their societal structure supported this economic positioning. when the industrial age ramlee mustapha, transforming education 10 was replaced by the information era, they all ran into difficulties. economic policy did not suffice to turn them around. it is fair to say that these countries actually benefited from a particular societal structure in the era of industrialization, but were hit when the trend changed, forcing them into – not an economic adjustment – but a social restructuring requiring much more time and efforts (landes, 1998; and moller, 2011). it is thus reasonable to assume that innovation at least be partly determined by societal structure, culture, and mindset. recent statistics show that malaysia’s population is reaching 28 million with gdp (gross domestic product) of usd 238 billion and gdp per capita is usd 8,423. the gdp of malaysia as share (%) of the world is 0.56 (wef, 2011). in terms of global competitiveness, malaysia is ranked in the middle tier by world economic forum (wef) categorized as stage 2 − efficiency driven. wef measured world competitiveness of 142 countries in the world based on 12 pillars and three main categories: factordriven, efficiency-driven, and innovationdriven. figure 2 illustrates 12 pillars of competitiveness set by world economic forum. table 3 shows the global competitiveness of selected countries in asia. in terms of basic requirements and efficiency, singapore and hong kong lead the ranks. but in terms of innovation, japan and taiwan seem to move basic requirements • institutions • infrastructure • macroeconomic environment • health & primary education key for factor-driven economy efficency enhancers • higher education and training • goods market efficiency • labor market efficiency • financial market development • technological readiness • market size key for efficiency-driven economy innovation and sophistication factor • business sophistication • innovation key for innovation-driven economy figure 2: world economic forum’s 12 pillars of competitiveness table 3: global competitiveness of selected asian countries country global competitive index rank (score) basic requirements rank (score) efficiency enhancers rank (score) innovation & business sophistication rank (score) china 26 (4.90) 30 (5.33) 26 (4.70) 31 (4.15) hong kong 11 (5.36) 2 (6.21) 4 (5.48) 25 (4.58) japan 9 (5.40) 28 (5.40) 11 (5.19) 3 (5.75) malaysia 21 (5.08) 25 (5.45) 20 (4.88) 22 (4.65) singapore 2 (5.63) 1 (6.33) 1 (5.58) 11 (5.23) south korea 24 (5.02) 19 (5.65) 22 (4.86) 18 (4.87) taiwan 13 (5.26) 15 (5.69) 16 (5.10) 10 (5.25) source: wef (2011) educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 11 far ahead of other asian countries. malaysia is ranked in the middle, meaning that malaysia needs to make leap and bound in order to reach the competitive level by transforming the political, education, and economic systems. malaysia minister of science, technology, and innovation has admitted that some factors that may suppress the innovation of malaysians such as the inability to match inventions with investors, shortage of loans for commercialization, and lack of publicity for “grassroot” inventions (pandiyan, 2012). in recent years, the government was stunned by the departure of relatively significant number of its professional and highly skilled workers to other countries. brain drain or talent loss has taken a toll on malaysia’s aspiration to join the developed nations’ club. malaysian diaspora may find attractive incentives to move and live in other countries such as higher salary, better quality of life, and conducive working environment. it is estimated that 700,000 to 1.3 million malaysian diaspora working in various countries (nawawi, 2011). the question is: how to curb the brain drain? asian countries such as south korea, taiwan, and singapore have propelled themselves to developed nation status within relatively short period of time by a precise, deliberate, and purposeful prioritization of focus sectors while concentrating on developing, up-skilling, and delivering the right talents required to drive growth in those sectors (http://www.pagemalaysia.org/news. php?readmore=410, 2/6/2012). thus, it seems urgent to optimize local and foreign talents for malaysia to achieve the vision 2020. due to the brain drain and talent loss, the government has launched talent corporation in 2010 with the intention to re-coupe the talent loss and to plan strategies to bring home malaysian and foreign talents who are working abroad in order to build a larger talent pool for the country. in the nutshell, the roles of talent corp are to: (1) attract and engage malaysian diaspora; (2) nurture and leverage on malaysian talents; (3) unleash and retain foreign talents within malaysia; and (4) attract and facilitate entry of foreign talents into malaysia. however, critics such as b. wain (2011:50) argues that: “[…] in the absence of improvements on the ground – in the quality of life, including a safe and clean environment, in sound public infrastructure and services, and in education and an end to ethnic discrimination – the program is unlikely to be any more successful than two similar initiatives in the past fifteen years”. for some malaysians, it is not so much about the competitive salaries and better working, but they detest any type of discrimination put upon them. simply put, people despise to be “categorized” as second or third-class citizens. all malaysians should be treated equally. the idea of 1malaysia is a good start but it needs to be put in practice honestly and wholeheartedly. malaysia has achieved many great achievements in many fields such as ict (information and communication technology), business, entertainment, foods, recreation, and sports. but when it comes to political arena, the political leaders seldom act like statesmen but more like narrow-minded politicians. with this type of mentality, it will never be fully recognized as first-class mentality or civil society. in other words, a close-minded society will not attract the best brains. in addition, according to z. arifin (2012), to attract foreign talent, malaysia has to compete with the rest of the world. to get the former malaysians is relatively difficult because a number of them left because of the negativity toward the country that their interests would be better served by migrating. as z. arifin (2012) suggests, the inequality could be the reason malaysians are leaving. thus, the brain drain could be a political issue. furthermore, to develop malaysia into a world class talent base, the education and social systems need significant revamp. if the government aims to make malaysia a center of educational excellence, improving the quality of local education system needs to be the top priority (yap, 2011). the effort requires nothing less than a comprehensive, all inclusive national concerted effort from the public and private sectors as well as a civil society. k-workers and skills training as malaysia moves into a higher-end of economic echelon, there is a greater demand ramlee mustapha, transforming education 12 for highly skilled knowledge workers. however, the shortage of k-workers and skilled human resources in malaysia is perceived as the “biggest obstacle” in transforming malaysia into a knowledge-based economy (mustapha & abdullah, 2004; mustapha et al., 2008; and world bank, 2009). in 2012, vocational education and skills training have made a come-back. with the launching of vocational education transformation plan, pupils can now enroll in vocational school as young as 13 years old (form one) under program asas vocational (pav) – basic vocational education program. pav, aimed at exposing students with vocational skills at an early age, is part of the government transformation program (gtp) for education which is under the national key result area (nkra). the vocational education transformation plan is to “re-engineer” the current vocational education system. its objective is to produce 3.3 million skilled human resources to fulfill the local industry demand in the next 10 years (bendahara, 2012). the plan listed five strategies: curriculum transformation, institutional upgrading, strategic collaboration with industry, new assessment, and organizational transformation. the national economic growth requires an increase in the number of graduates in the technical and vocational fields. in malaysia, one of the major obstacles to economic progress and higher productivity are inadequate numbers of highly educated and highly skilled personnel in the workforce (mustapha & abdullah 2004; and chia & li, 2011). in addition, workplace policies and regulations are still inadequate to attract malaysian women into the employment market (hamid, 2012). randstad’s 20112012 world of work report (cited in hamid, 2012) found that few companies in malaysia are actively putting in place the structure and policies needed to retain female workers. when those workers leave, the firms lose vital human resources as well as the diversity of experiences that enriches the workplace. to tap into a more diverse talent pool and meet critical demands, the industry needs to put forward attractive incentives to get female workers back into the workforce. for those already in the workforce, about 40% of them still need to improve their literacy and numeracy skills to meet requirements of the fast-paced companies. workers need to update their skills in order to participate in the changing workplaces and new technology. vocational education and training (vet) sector has unique position because it connects learning and skills development with the labor market, the workplace, and community development as well as with individual learner and employer. currently, only 23% of malaysian workforce is highly skilled compared to 51% in singapore, 43% in finland, and 36% in the united states of america (http://www. pagemalaysia.org/news.php?readmore=410, 2/6/2012). this percentage is much lower when compared to other developed countries. malaysia is targeting to achieve 40% of skilled workers by 2020. with the establishment of skills malaysia in 2011, it is expected that the program will rejuvenate competency-based education and training to be at par with other developed countries such as south korea, japan, and germany. development of a high level of knowledge and skills in the critical sectors is very important if malaysia wants to achieve the high skills and knowledge-intensive economy. the need for low-skilled foreign workers may be reduced if malaysia is making a faster transition to full fledge knowledge-economy. presently, there are about 71,000 unemployed graduates, and the number remains high despite government’s effort to retrain them (say, 2012). almost one in five of unemployed malaysians hold a degree of diploma. in addition, employers are concerned with the poor command of english among malaysian workforce. malaysia needs an adequate supply of competitive and highly skilled human resources who are proficient in english and are able to acquire cutting-edge knowledge. the malaysian vet system is school-based. vocational school teachers themselves often lack of industrial experience. school learning is not well integrated with the workplace. the practical skills training facilities in school is often outdated and may no longer use in educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(1) august 2013 13 industry. one way to solve this problem is to develop partnership with industry and trade. modern apprenticeship or “dualsystem” might be a viable solution. thus, the government, through the decision of the minister council on 19th may 2004, has agreed to implement national dual training system (ndts). ndts was introduced to provide the comprehensive training to produce k-workers. ndts will provide the competencies and fulfill the industries’ needs. the approach involves the delivery of training in two places, namely 30% of the total training on basic skills and theoretical knowledge being taught in the training institute, while the remaining 70% on the practical and hands-on training being delivered in the workplace in the industry. the most distinguishing feature of the ndts compared to other skills training programs is the requirement for coaches and trainers to infuse or integrate human and social skills as well as learning skills besides the technical skills. according to the mid-review of the ninth malaysia plan, the expected outcome of the ndts in 2010 was 3,200 companies involved in ndts with about 16,000 apprentices (mg, 2008). in order to enhance effectiveness of ndts, a more flexible approach in terms of training module preparation, assessment, and certification should be considered. new fields in various sectors will be added to attract more participation from the industry. however, those with skill training certification most often have difficulty to further their studies in malaysian public heis (higher education institutions). lack of bridging program between skills-based training institutions and public universities is identified as the main problem. bridging program should be created to articulate skill-academic equilibrium. high skills equilibrium is an articulated and integrated concept based on underlying skills qualification framework. bridging program should be an open system that graduates from vocational institution can further their studies in hei including university. stagnation of skilled-based vocational education is largely due to rise of service sector and knowledgeintensive economy. thus, to alleviate this problem, some scholars suggest integration of vocational and academic education instead of separating it (mustapha, 2000). knowledge society should have a critical mass of entrepreneurs, technopreneurs, and social entrepreneurs because innovation is essential in current trends and the dynamic business environment requires organizations to quickly detect market changes, sense future demands, and innovate to meet these demands in creative and novel ways. entrepreneurs are required to have knowledge and capabilities to transform ideas into marketable products and services. vet system needs to focus on improving the attractiveness of vet to prospective students, providers, and industry and to raise vet teacher standards. to gain international recognition, the development of transnational standards for technical and vocational education and training with a multidisciplinary and industrial orientation is critical. conclusion in this article, i have argued that it is critical to transform the mindset and psyche of the malaysians in order to realize the vision of becoming a developed nation. in addition, transformative and innovative leadership is required to boost malaysia’s economic development. to develop malaysia into a world class talent base, the education and social systems need significant revamp. there is a strong link between innovation and economic robustness of a nation. innovation is key to social and economic progress. innovation-led economy has changed the economic scenario of the world, including malaysia. the malaysian government has introduced gtp (government transformation program) and etp (economic transformation program) as a roadmap to chart the nation’s path toward achieving vision 2020. the transition from a manufacturing to technologybased economy calls for higher skilled and innovative workforce that can adapt rapidly to changing job requirements. the malaysian leadership has expressed their commitment to regain malaysia’s earlier growth (as in 1980s and 1990s) and reposition malaysia as high-income economy. however, the real litmus test lies in the attainment of ramlee mustapha, transforming education 14 full employment and 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(2008). economic growth and development in malaysia: policy making and leadership. washington, dc: the international bank for reconstruction and development. ramlee mustapha, transforming education 16 development in malaysia (source: www.google.com, 3/7/2013) in sum, malaysia needs a strong framework or a roadmap for producing adequate number of world renowned scientists and scholars in order to sustain the knowledge economy. this scholarship roadmap is urgently needed to rejuvenate the culture of excellence. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 75© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare maman abdurahman, rahman & ely sa’diah teaching arabic in the dormitory of ma’had jami’i of state islamic university in bandung: toward a total immersion abstract: arabic is indispensably necessary, especially in the muslim-majority in indonesia. however, it takes a lot of time to acquire arabic, since there are various linguistic branches to learn for anyone who wishes to fluently understand it. on the top of that, arabic has different characteristics from those of the indonesian language. the present study was based on the results of a preliminary study that show a significant lack of arabic teaching innovation, when compared with the teaching of other foreign languages, especially english. the purpose was to figure out the concept of arabic teaching in the “ma’had jami’i” in terms of its objective, process, evaluation, issues, and challenges. to this end, an embedded case study was carried out. the data sources included informants, teaching activities, and documents. the data were analyzed using data source triangulation and an interactive model of method triangulation. the results show that the objective of arabic teaching was to equip students with arabic knowledge and skills in order for them to be able to keep up with the lesson and practice arabic in university classrooms; the teaching process was theory and practice-oriented to create a conducive language learning environment; the evaluation was conducted through written and performance tests during the placement test, midterm test, and final test; and the teaching challenges lay in the psychological, educational, and social aspects. it is recommended that further studies deal with students’ interactions, second language acquisition, interference problem, and teaching components, specifically in the context of language dormitory. key words: second language acquisition; “ma’had jami’i” dormitory; arabic teaching innovation; students of islamic state university; total immersion. about the authors: prof. dr. maman abdurahman, prof. dr. rahman, and dr. ely sa’diah are the lecturers at the faculty of language and literature education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, corresponding author is: mamanabdurrahman@upi.edu suggested citation: abdurahman, maman, rahman & ely sa’diah. (2018). “teaching arabic in the dormitory of ma’had jami’i of state islamic university in bandung: toward a total immersion” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february, pp.75-86. bandung, indonesia and bs begawan, brunei darussalam: minda masagi press owned by aspensi and briman institute, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (november 16, 2017); revised (january 5, 2018); and published (february 28, 2018). introduction according to m.a. khûli (1987), arabic has a special place among world’s languages. not only does its function as the language of religious matters, but also it is one of international languages. politically, arabic is one of the six official languages of the un or united nations (khuli, 1987:19-20). as a.r. tu’aimah (1986) puts also it that, nowadays, the arabic language holds a special position among modern world’s languages. by virtue of the decree of the un general assembly, number 3190 (d-28) announced at the plenary meeting, number 2206 in december 1973, it is also of the un official languages (tu’aimah, 1986:4). m. abdurahman, rahman & e. sa’diah, teaching arabic in the dormitory 76 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare as matters stand, arabic is indispensably necessary, especially in the muslim-majority in indonesia. however, it takes a lot of time to acquire arabic, since there are various linguistic branches to learn for anyone who wishes to fluently understand it. on the top of that, arabic has different characteristics from those of the indonesian language (dahlan, 1992; lipinski, 2001; and azhar, 2005). m.a. wahab (2009), as cited also in a.m.s. islam (2015), explained that inhibiting factors in arabic learning was associated with psychological, educational, and social factors (wahab, 2009; and islam, 2015:3). this is based on the results of jamsuri muhammad syamsuddin & mahdi mas’ud (2007)’s scientific work, which reveal that the source of difficulties in arabic learning does not entirely lie the arabic language per se, but in the lack of learning interest, 100%; the lack of background knowledge about arabic, 87%; university curriculum, 83%; difficult arabic instructional materials, 57%; and unconducive classroom environment, 50% (syamsuddin & mas’ud, 2007). thus, the difficulties are not only of linguistic factors or internal factors, but also of non-linguistic factors or external factors. therefore, the selection of teaching approach and method should take account of psychological, educational, and social factors (wahab, 2007:10). in indonesia, arabic teaching has long been taking place, and instructional innovations have actually been long developed. however, these innovations are yet to yield a significant progress, especially when compared with that of english teaching (quirk & widdowson eds., 1985; and mumtaz, 2000). according to a.f. effendi (2012), the fact arabic teaching merely plays an adopting role makes it left behind (effendi, 2012:1). as m.a. wahab (2015b) puts it that the development of arabic teaching methodologies is more or less two decades behind that of english teaching methodologies (wahab, 2015b:2). therefore, teaching arabic is not adequately sufficient to take place in university classrooms. a program that can facilitate arabic learning is badly needed (cf wahab, 2015a; and alrabai, 2016). to address this challenge, the arabic education program of faculty of tarbiya and teacher training uin (state islamic university) sunan gunung djati in bandung, west java, indonesia organized an arabic boarding school program for the freshmen. the goal is to equip them with basic knowledge and skills to facilitate their learning of arabic and other subjects at the campus environment (cf watkins, 2010; and christodoulou, 2016). the present study was aimed at analyzing the implementation of this arabic broad school program in terms of its objective, process, evaluation, issues, and challenges. it is also going to be elaborated pertaining: teaching concept; arabic teaching; and difficulties in learning arabic. teaching concept. teaching, according to rusman (2014), is a process of interaction between students and the teacher, and learning resources available in the learning environment (rusman, 2014:3). the main characteristic of the teaching activities is the interaction between learners and their learning environment: the teacher, friends, tutors, instructional media, and/or other learning resources. other characteristics of the teaching activities are associated with the component of teaching per se (cf rusman, 2014; and riyana, 2017:3). the components of teaching are a set of interconnecting items that, according to c. riyana (2017), include objectives, instructional materials, teaching method and media, evaluation, students, and the teacher (riyana, 2017:3). meanwhile, according to fathurrohman & sutikno (2009), these components include instructional objectives, materials, activities, methods, media, resources, and evaluation (fathurrohman & sutikno, 2009:13). s. mustofa (2011) states also that teaching components are the teacher, teaching objectives, students, instructional materials, instructional media, instructional methods, administration, and funding that enables an optimal the instructional process (mustofa, 2011:9). it can be concluded that the teaching components are instructional objectives, educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 77© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare materials, methods, media, activities, evaluation, students, teachers, administration, and funding. arabic teaching. generally, the teaching of arabic language is to equip students with four basic language skills: listening or istima’, speaking or kalam, reading or qira’ah, and writing or kitabah (wati, 2017; and wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016). on language skills, n. chomsky (1965) and y. yano (2003), as cited also in y. sudaryat (2015), distinguished between language competence and language performance. language competence refers to the language knowledge of speakers and listeners, and language performance is the realization of language usage in concrete situations (chomsky, 1965; yano, 2003; and sudaryat, 2015:174). teaching of arabic elements include: firstly, ashwat arabiyah or arabic phonology. the sound system or ashwat is critical in arabic learning. therefore, its teaching strategies and method, be it at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced level should be paid a great attention to (mustofa, 2011:27). secondly, mufradat or arabic vocabulary. vocabulary is one of language elements a foreign language learner should master to acquire skills to communicate in the foreign language in question (effendi, 2012:126). however, vocabulary is not the only one element. thirdly, al-qawa’id or arabic grammar. according to a.f. effendi (2012), the teaching of grammar is to facilitate language learning. grammar is not the goal (ghaya) of teaching, but a vehicle (wasila) for someone to be able to use language properly (effendi, 2012:112). the teaching of grammar is divided into two: introduction to arabic morpho-syntax or nahw and sarf; and drilling exercises (effendi, 2012:113). language skills are divided into receptive and productive skills. the former include listening and reading, and the latter are speaking and writing. in terms of its communication modes, language skills can be divided into spoken and written language skills. the former has two aspects: listening and speaking, so does the latter: reading and writing (sudaryat, 2015:175). difficulties in learning arabic. the difficulties in learning arabic are of linguistic and non-linguistic. arabic is linguistically different from the indonesian language and local languages in indonesia in their sound systems, vocabulary, sentence patterns, and orthography (dahlan, 1992; lipinski, 2001; and azhar, 2005). the non-linguistic difference between them lies in the sociocultural aspects of their speakers. both linguistic and non-linguistic differences are quite influential and can be obstacles in learning arabic. other sources of l2 (second language) learning difficulties include learning time allocation, role of teachers, instructional materials, teaching methods, interference, motivation, learners’ ages, and formal instruction (mar’at, 2005; dan chaer, 2009). motivation is crucial to the success of one’s learning. it is a psychological force that encourages learners to engage in learning effectively to achieve the desired level and also is very influential in learning (al-fauzân, 2011:141). the lack of motivation may lead to the non-optimal learning achievement. in this context, r.c. gardner (1985); a. chaer & agustina (2006); a. santoso (2007); and d. soen (2011) stated that motivation in foreign language learning is very influential, since it is one of the learner’s socio-cultural factors (gardner, 1985; chaer & agustina, 2006; santoso, 2007; and soen, 2011). motivation in foreign language learning has two functions. firstly, integrative function: motivation that encourages one to learn a foreign language, because he/she wishes to communicate with the native speakers of the target foreign language and wishes to become a part of that target foreign language community. secondly, instrumental function: motivation that encourages one to learn a foreign language for specific purposes, such as seeking employment (cf yano, 2003; and gilakjani, 2012). about the age factor, a student is an individual who is undergoing a developmental process, aged from 18-24, or could be categorized as an adult. e. sadtono (1987) and s.j. savignon (1997 and 2007)’s research works reveal that students who were given m. abdurahman, rahman & e. sa’diah, teaching arabic in the dormitory 78 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare opportunities to practice foreign language speaking, since the first class meeting outperformed those who learned foreign language without any interaction with native speakers of the target foreign language (sadtono, 1987:66; and savignon, 1997 and 2007). about the formal instruction factor, arabic teaching programs, both in schools and islamic boarding schools, is of formal teaching. it is so-called, because there involve many aspects in the teaching activities, such as teachers, media, curriculum, instructional materials, instruments, and so on. all of these influence the success rate of arabic learning as a second language due to various factors and variables that have been prepared in advance (chaer, 2009:252). the point is that formal instruction is engineered to achieve the desired competencies in school environments, while non-formal or natural foreign language acquisition takes place in the countries, where the target foreign language is spoken, or could be said as total immersion. method the present study employed a qualitative naturalistic approach (creswell, 2003; tashakkori & teddlie eds., 2003; johnson & onwuegbuzie, 2004; and williams, 2007). this approach was used to describe the implementation of teaching arabic in the dormitory of ma’had jami’i to freshman students enrolled in the arabic education program of uin (state islamic university) sunan gunung djati in bandung, west java, indonesia. specifically, the present study employed an embedded case study design, because the research focus had been determined prior to the conduct of the research (creswell, 2003; and williams, 2007). interviews were conducted to capture the opinions, behaviors, knowledge, and feelings of the informants consisting of the daily director, tutors, caregivers, and students at different levels of proficiency (tashakkori & teddlie eds., 2003; and johnson & onwuegbuzie, 2004). then, observation activities were conducted to analyze the instructional activities and the language practices in the arabic dormitory using r. millrood (2001)’s classroom interaction evaluation standards, and to analyze the evaluation sheet and the course book. documents analyzed as the data sources in this study include instructional materials, test questions, students’ documents, and language dormitory program evaluation documents (millrood, 2001). the questionnaires comprise of three closed-ended questions and 37 open-ended questions. the measurement used of l. guttman (1950) and g.b. flebus (2003) scale in the form of multiple choice, where the highest score is 1 and the lowest one is 0 (guttman, 1950; and flebus, 2003). findings and discussion instructional objective. r. susilana et al. (2006) explain that an instructional objective is a desired target of instructional activities (susilana et al., 2006:108). the arabic boarding school of uin (state islamic university) sunan gunung djati in bandung, west java, indonesia is aimed to develop two aspects: language performance and language competence (tp, 2015:7). the first includes listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation skills; and the latter includes the understanding of grammar and vocabulary. the results of interviews reveal that the objective of arabic boarding school program is to equip students with basic knowledge of arabic, including grammar and vocabulary development. this is due to the fact that the enrolled students have different educational backgrounds and different arabic language abilities (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016). based on the results of questionnaires, it is also revealed that 29.76% of students came from sma (sekolah menengah atas or conventional senior high school); 43.86% came from ma (madrasah aliyah or islamic senior high school); and the rest of 27.38% has sma/ma and islamic boarding schools’ education background. thus, it can be concluded that the objective of the implementation of arabic boarding school program is to develop language performance, including the four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 79© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and translation skill; and to develop language competence, including understanding of semantic aspect of vocabulary, grammar, and skills to communicate in arabic (cf tp, 2015; and wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016). however, direct cultural introduction has not intensively done. arabic teaching process. based on research findings, the arabic boarding school program offers the following: (1) basic lesson on language skills; (2) basic lesson on arabic grammar or nahw and sarf; (3) theory and practice of reading, translating, understanding, and composing text in arabic; (4) applied linguistics, tafsir or text interpretation, and islamic book readings; (5) ibadah or religion obligataion’s practice and al-qur’an memorization; (6) written and spoken tests; and (7) evaluation. about instructional materials. based on the questionnaire data, 96.43% of students stated that the arabic instructional materials offered in the boarding school improved their arabic language ability. the rest 3.57% stated, “don’t know”. the material delivery affects both competence and performance. the materials facilitating the arabic competence development include: new instructional materials; knowledge enrichment; understanding enhancement; and the development of linguistic knowledge, be it semantics, al-qur’an memorization, syntax, and basic knowledge of the arabic language. the materials facilitating arabic performance include: language practice; language training; translation; conducive learning environment; applied nahw for al-qur’anic studies; and assignments. the negative statement from the low achieving students was that they were unable to identify their current proficiency level (interview with respondent e, 23/10/2016). about instructional media. based on the research findings, there were several instructional media, as follows: (1) visual media, including bulletin board written arabic and vocabulary walls; (2) audio medium in the form of loudspeakers; and (3) audiovisual medium in the form of a television. more then half (66.67%) of students stated that these media facilitated their learnings. based on the interview results, it was revealed that the instructional media included: media to facilitate learning process; loudspeakers to deliver announcements and listen to the music; visual media to display vocabulary in every room and sentence examples in the form of announcement and written rules; and audiovisual media in the form of films (interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). some negative statements regarding the instructional media were about: intensity, it is rare to use of instructional media; relevancy; creativity; and under-facilitated learning environment (interview with respondent e, 23/10/2016). about teaching method and strategy. a method is a systematic way of working to facilitate the implementation of an activity in order to achieve the desired goals (creswell, 2003; tashakkori & teddlie eds., 2003; johnson & onwuegbuzie, 2004; and williams, 2007). based on the observation, the following teaching methods were used: lecture; questioning; discussion; singing; drilling; direct method; and demonstration. the use of these varied teaching methods was based on the classroom condition, topic of the lesson, and the condition of the students at the given time (interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016). thus, in practice a teacher could employ more than one methods. see table 1. about teacher. the questionnaire data revealed that 70.24% of students stated that the teacher had orchestrated an active, creative, innovative, and fun learning process. the rest 29.76% said the otherwise. positive statements put forward by students were caused by several components, as follows: paikem (indonesian language: pembelajaran aktif, inovatif, kreatif, efektif, dan menyenangkan or active, innovative, creative, effective, and fun learning) delivery method; exercise provision; teacher’s qualification; and the system of the program (interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). this is similar to andayani agustina rini & nugraheni eko wardani (2013) and others’ findings that the teacher was more focused on the teaching process and tended to develop indonesian language skills (fathurrohman & sutikno, m. abdurahman, rahman & e. sa’diah, teaching arabic in the dormitory 80 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare table 1: the linguistic materials based on the observation using r. millrood (2001)’s classroom interaction evaluation standards classroom communication vocabulary understanding (collective) vocabulary understanding (group) applied nahw method development writing training the most frequent (90-99%) sometimes (25-75%) never (0%) the most frequent (90-99%) sometimes (25-75%) never (0%) the most frequent (90-99%) sometimes (25-75%) never (0%) the most frequent (90-99%) sometimes (25-75%) never (0%) the most frequent (90-99%) sometimes (25-75%) never (0%) 1. the teacher questioned the students. √ √ √ √ √ 2. the students presented problems to discuss. √ √ √ √ √ 3. the students freely gave their opinions. √ √ √ √ √ 4. the teacher asked for students’ opinions. √ √ √ √ 5. the students only spoke when called upon personally by the teacher. √ √ √ √ √ 6. the students asked the teacher when they don’t understand. √ √ √ √ √ 7. the students passively listened to the teacher. √ √ √ √ √ 8. the students were listening when their peers were talking. √ √ √ √ √ 9. the students spoke loudly to the whole class √ √ √ √ √ 10. the students had peer discussions before the teacher answered. √ √ √ √ √ 11. the students were afraid to make mistakes when talking. √ √ √ √ √ 12. the teacher encouraged the students to take risks and to freely speak √ √ √ √ √ 13. the students asked for the teacher’s opinion about their problems. √ √ √ √ √ 14. the teacher organized students’ interactions in pairs, small groups, moving circle, and parallel lines. √ √ √ √ √ 15. the students copied the answer key during a test. √ √ √ √ √ 16. the students conducted peerteaching for a test. √ √ √ √ √ 17. the teacher was open to informal communication. √ √ √ √ √ 2009; and rini & wardani, 2013). students’ negative statements were as follows: some teachers still generalized the ability of students; the classroom was overcrowded; instructional materials were beyond the reach of the students; some teachers did not personally know the students; and lack guidance (interview with respondent e, 23/10/2016). about arabic language environment. based on observations, there were rules that require students to speak in arabic, programmed teaching and training, student weekend activities, rotational student speeches, vocabulary learning groups, where all students were divided into ten groups and other various activities. various wall posters were special reading viewing media. the questionnaire data revealed that the students felt that the learning environment affected their communication skills by 92.86%. students statements about learning environments include several aspects: training and habit-making; system, i.e. students were required to speak in arabic; and communication skill optimization. students’ educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 81© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare information sources were: teachers, peers, bulletins written in arabic, and instructional materials (interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). peers influenced the improvement of students’ arabic skills for several reasons: they felt motivated, when the roommates were talking in arabic; they could speak arabic more freely with peers; they felt inferior when speaking arabic with the lecturers; they felt more confident when talking with peers than with the lecturers; and talking to the more knowledgeable students could get feedbacks on the mistakes (interview with respondent d and e, 23/10/2016). this is evident in that 84.52% of students felt that peers improved their arabic skills, 11.90% said the otherwise, and the rest 4.76% were undecided. about motivation. the questionnaire data revealed that 73.81% were motivated to learn arabic; 20.24% were not; and the rest 5.95% were undecided. some of motivated students wanted to speak arabic fluently; and some of them felt motivated to learn arabic because it was a compulsory subject, they wanted to able to translate arabic texts, they need it to understand islam and al-qur’an, and they thought that arabic was unique (interview with respondent d and e, 23/10/2016). thus, it can be concluded that student motivation to learn arabic was influenced by socio-cultural factors. for example, the religious motivation was more dominant than the professional one (cf benson, 2007; zimmerman, 2008; and csizér & kormos, 2009). evaluation. based on the results of interviews and document analyses, the evaluation activities were carried out very well. the evaluation was conducted at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the program (jcsee, 1994; granello & wheaton, 2004; and wall, 2004). in general, the tests were administered on a scheduled basis. this referred to the boarding school program guideline book. the tests were of two types: placement test and achievement test or mid-term test and final test (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; and interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016). the measurements were conducted through tests and non-tests or practices. the measuring instruments used a variety of written tests, including: a disaggregated vocabulary test consisting of 40 vocabulary items and an integrated cloze test consisting of 15 questions; a disaggregated structure test consisting of five open-ended questions and an integrated structure test; and language style development tests in the form of multiple choice questions, translation test, and objective test. the practice test was on the speech training. based on the result of evaluation sheet analysis, this course was to measure the following: title-content consistency; language style; word and syllable accentuation; sentence intonation; and body and facial mimicry (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). difficulties in learning arabic. it is consisted of students’ difficulties; difficulties in listening and speaking; difficulties in reading, writing, and translating; selfconfidence issue; and interference. the elaborations are following here: about students’ difficulties. based on the interview results, the sources of arabic learning difficulties lay in the internal and external factors. the learner internal factors were: intelligence; grammar and vocabulary understanding; physical condition; and emotional state. the external factors included time and overoccupancy (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). intelligence, grammar and vocabulary understanding, and emotional state were the psychological constraints faced by students in arabic learning (cf wu, 2010; ansari, 2012; and wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016). pertaining the linguistic factors, we noted that student linguistic difficulties in arabic leaning as follows: competence aspects, like difficulties in understanding sentences, in memorizing rarely used words, in understanding meanings, and limited vocabulary; and performance aspects like communication difficulties, difficulties in sentence composition, difficulties in speaking m. abdurahman, rahman & e. sa’diah, teaching arabic in the dormitory 82 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare with arabic native speakers and in reading arabic texts (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). these difficulties, as s. mar’at (2005) and a. chaer (2009) put forward, are associated with the lack of opportunity to use arabic (mar’at, 2005:94-96; and chaer, 2009:250-254). arabic is a semitic language that has a different linguistic system from that of indonesian and students’ native languages (dahlan, 1992; lipinski, 2001; and azhar, 2005:52). pertaining the non-linguistic factors, student non-linguistic difficulties are associated with their internal aspects, such as low self-commitment, bad learning time management, low motivation, tired physical condition, low cognitive memory and material comprehension, laziness, low selfconfidence, and inferiority; with the aspects of educational system, such as low demands of arabic practice, tight learning schedule, and overcrowded classroom; and with external aspects, like bad influence from friends (cf mall, 2002; mar’at, 2005; and chaer, 2009). the boarding school system can have a good impact on the acceleration of second language acquisition (staffolani, 2016; wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016; and interview with respondent c, 16/10/2016). about difficulties in listening and speaking. listening and speaking difficulties lie in linguistic and non-linguistic factors. the linguistic factors include issues in phonology, like the low exposure to arabic sound listening and native pronunciation; and in semantics, like limited vocabulary, which in turn affects the understanding of fusha or formal and amiya or informal arabic (al-mohsen, 2016; and wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016). the non-linguistic aspects include low self-confidence and low exposure to the target language. vocabulary enrichment is one of the ways to address this problem. about 88.10% of students experienced listening and speaking difficulties; and the other, 11.90%, said the otherwise. these, difficulties were actually caused by the low motivation to improve listening skills (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). the research findings showed that arabic listening and speaking difficulties were the results of low understanding, lack of practice, and low exposure to arabic listening and speaking since some of them were too narrowly focused on arabic vocabulary and grammar. about difficulties in reading, writing, and translating. the sources of reading, writing, and translating difficulties were: language competence aspects, such as semantics, vocabulary, meaning understanding, specialized registers, grammar, syntax, and morphology; and performance aspects, such as diction, grammar, sentence composition in the target language (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). consulting to dictionaries is a way to address these difficulties (lew, 2004; wekke, ernawati & hudaya, 2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). about 90.48% of students had reading, writing, and translating difficulties; and the other, 11.90%, did not experienced them. about self-confidence issue. students’ problems associated with low self-confidence are caused by several factors, such as limited linguistic knowledge that produce anxieties in pronunciation, syntax, morphology, and limited vocabulary; student internal and psychological factors, such as personal anxiety and inferiority; and contextual factors, such as low self-confidence when speaking in public, interacting with lecturers and with the more knowledgeable students (interview with respondent d and e, 23/10/2016). thus, it can be concluded that low understanding and limited practice may lead to the low self-confidence in using arabic in a way that the students feel inferior, anxious, and nervous. time also becomes a benchmark for self-confidence. the amount of time spent on a foreign language practice can reflect one’s self-confidence to use the foreign language in question (mar’at, 2005; and chaer, 2009). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 83© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare an interview data revealed that it took two months for an advanced student to develop self-confidence to use arabic, despite the fact that he had a good proficiency in it. this is because the lack of demand for using arabic. students at the beginning and intermediate level still had difficulties in applying semantic and grammar concept (interview with respondent a, 2/10/2016; interview with respondent b, 9/10/2016; and interview with respondent d, 23/10/2016). about interference. language interference is referred to the negative transfer of elements of one language into another (ellis, 1986; shastri, 2010; and sirbu, 2015). the majority of students enrolled to the arabic education program in the context of this study speak sundanese or indonesian as their l1 (first language). these two languages greatly influenced their arabic. phonologically, the research findings show that 64.29% felt that their local language interfered their arabic pronunciation. these phonological interferences included stress, intonation, difficulty in pronouncing the labiodental sound (ف), the apicodental sound .(ق) and (ك) and the dorsovelar sounds ,(ز) student difficulty in pronouncing the dorsovelar sounds, in particular, is because these two sounds are similar but has different speech organs. in addition, these sounds are not available in the sound system of their l1. in this context, y.b. sanusi (2005)’s work also found a similar result, i.e. there was an interference arabic in english in pronouncing certain similar sounds: /p-b/ /t-d/ and /k-g/ (sanusi, 2005:2). conclusion based on the above explanation, it can be concluded that the goal of arabic boarding school program was to equip students arabic knowledge and skills in order for them to be able to keep up with the lesson and practice arabic in university classrooms; the teaching process was theory and practice-oriented to create a conducive language learning environment; the evaluation was conducted through written and performance tests during the placement test, midterm test, and final test; and the teaching challenges lay in the psychological, educational, and social aspects. it is recommended that further studies deal with students’ interactions, second language acquisition, interference problem, and teaching components, specifically in the context of language dormitory.1 references al-fauzân. 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and the teaching challenges lay in the psychological, educational, and social aspects. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 173 dr. ramli ismail is a lecturer at the social studies department, institute of teachers training, sultan mizan campus, besut, terengganu, malaysia; and norwaliza abdul wahab is a counsellor at the smk (state senior high school) seri pagi, seremban, negeri sembilan, malaysia. they can be reached at: rameysyis@gmail.com and lyzaalogan@gmail.com teachers’ education curriculum towards establishment of patriotism in malaysia ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab abstract: this study aims to identify and analyse the elements contained in the objectives of academic curriculum and co-curricular content in terms of differences, relationships, influences, and understanding of learning skills, thinking skills as a mediator to the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among students of post-graduate teaching course for primary school (pgtc ps) and bachelor of teaching for primary schools (bt ps) in institute of teachers education (ite) in malaysia. this survey study used questionnaires on 289 pgtc ps and bt ps students of the north zone and east zone ite in peninsular malaysia. the t-test results showed that there was a significant difference between pgtc ps and bt ps students in terms of understanding on learning skills and thinking skills, but do not have any significant difference in terms of confidence to implement the elements of patriotism. pearson correlation analysis shows that there was a moderate relationship between the variables of learning skills, thinking skills, academic curriculum, co-curriculum, and the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students. these findings serve as evidence to the ministry of education (moe) in malaysia to make recommendations to the ite to serve as a guide in improving the confidence of trainee students in applying the elements of patriotism. key words: teaching the patriotism, learning skills, thinking skills, mediator, students, and institute of teachers education in malaysia. introduction the global-natured education of malaysia could cross locations and ideologies because the characteristics of nationhood, nationalism, culture, and spirituality are embodied within it. according to abd rahim abd rashid (2005), globalization that swept over the world now has a big impact on the world educational development, including in malaysia. in this case, the ministry of education in malaysia will need to shift and make changes in the teachers training as a preparation for implementing the education development master plan (edmp) and the success of vision 2020. this current shift is to support the implementation of edmp and vision 2020 so that people are prepared to face the globalization, which will destroy the country ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 174 that was built through consensus for sustainable progress and development. the education system practiced in malaysia is believed to be able to build physical strength, cognitive, spiritual, and productivity-oriented attitude. cognitive and spiritual strength, that is applied and incorporated in education, is believed to change the attitude of malaysia’s population from the negative to the positive attitude to increase the economic development and performance-oriented education system and quality improvement which could be transformed through human capital programs. division of teachers education introduced the bachelor of teaching (primary school) is to improve the quality of teaching and learning as envisioned in the edmp. aspirations and recommendations of this development are in line with the cabinet committee report of 1979 which suggested that the teachers have academic and higher professional qualifications as well as the personal characteristics that are appropriate to the functions and their role as teachers (hussain, 2004). the growth of the teachers’ quality is determined by the teachers training program provided by the teachers education division (ted). according to abu bakar nordin and ikhsan othman (2008), the lecturers in ite (institute of teacher education) should transform the skills and techniques of thinking, various intelligence, and learning techniques to install patriotism and love towards the country. according to abd rahim abd rashid (1997) and bar-tal and e. staub eds. (1997), patriotism is not only referring to the feelings of deep love for the country but also the aspects of awareness, loyalty, idealism, nationalism, citizenship, responsibility, sacrifice, endurance, commitment, and contribution to the country. some researchers interpreted that patriotism, the trainee teachers should have, is in relation to their confidence to integrate elements of patriotism such as feelings of pride (doob, 1963; mac intyre, 1994; gordon, 2000; and kay kim, 2002) as a malaysian, sacrifice or loyalty (hollis, 1996; abd rashid, 1997; reykowski, 1997; and berns, 2001), confidence (feshbach,1987; viroli, 1995; and parker, 2002), spirit of belonging (tajfel, 1981; and tamir, 1997), and efforts and worship (bar-tal & staub eds., 1997) once they become a teacher. these patriotism elements are contained in the buku panduan program pengukuhan pemupukan patriotisme sekolah rendah or handbook of patriotism nurturing program for primary schools (moe malaysia, 1994). problem statement, aims, and objectives of the research patriotism is an important element in the implementation of curriculum and cocurriculum. elements of patriotism should be preached to students, particularly through the teaching and learning in schools. the younger generation should be inculcated with the concept of compassion and love for the country more than anything else, because it is here where they were born and this is where they expressed the life and death for the country. the younger generation must be guided educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 175 by teachers who have the courage and patriotism of high value in serving a lesson to their students through primary school integrated curriculum / primary school standard curriculum and secondary school integrated curriculum. therefore, teachers have a greater significant responsibility to ensure the application of patriotism values to achieve the goals of holistic human formation as described in the national education philosophy (moe malaysia, 2001). country’s education system emphasizes the construction of patriotism. this value is transmitted to teachers through teachers training provided to trainees before being sent to serve directly throughout malaysia. teachers will use the techniques and strategies of adoption and assimilation to reinforce the elements of patriotism as envisaged in the national education goals and vision. in this regard, the ministry of education malaysia has developed several strategic implementations to incorporate the value of patriotism among students through curricular and co-curricular activities, especially at the teachers’ training level. the elements of patriotism should be incorporated gradually starting from pre-schools to primary schools (yusuf, 2005). the elements of patriotism can be applied directly in the subject of local studies (moe malaysia, 2005) and the subject of civic education starting from standard four, standard five, and standard six (moe malaysia, 2006). while at secondary school level, this patriotism element is merged directly into history subject (moe malaysia, 2002) and civic education (moe malaysia, 2004). thus, the element of patriotism to be cultivated in the primary level will be the foundation of students’ character building, especially in terms of leadership, culture, national pride, and a willingness to sacrifice for the progress and prosperity of the country. inculcation of patriotism begins with patriotism towards self-confidence and ability which then moves to the patriotism of the families, schools, communities, and leads to progress and prosperity. at the secondary level, the elements of patriotism expands to a broader element, including pride in being malaysian, vibrant loyalty to country, passionate sense of belonging, discipline, and productive. ministry of education malaysia in 2001 gave a different perspective to the usual assumptions of a segment of society that the understanding of the community related to patriotism is confined to only a deep love for the country. the value of the ideal patriotism should be developed and embedded earlier in the souls of malaysians to become dynamic and resilient citizens to enable the development of the country (moe malaysia, 2001). construction of patriotism among the people, especially students, need a strategic and systematic planning. hence, a conceptual model of patriotism construction in malaysia was developed by ishak ramly, mohd daud hamzah and zakaria kassim (2004), and mohamad noor mohamad taib (2006) which describes briefly about the strategic construction of patriotism and weltanschauung, especially among people living in urban and rural areas. ministry of education malaysia, through the school agencies and teachers training, should coordinate and provide more effective and innovative strategies to implement the action plan for ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 176 the construction and strengthening of patriotism among the younger generation in malaysia. in this case, the function and role of educational institutions and other institutions are very important and should be ready to fulfil the responsibilities to ensure loyalty and devotion for the progress and prosperity of the nation. patriotism passed through the educational institutions need to start with understanding and practice of positive cultural thinking and productive and efficient and smart learning skills to meet the needs of mastering the knowledge and achieve success in education. these two key elements are the cores of the national education philosophy applied to the students through the curriculum, co-curriculum, the culture of school or institute, and environmental elements. institutions other than educational institutions also play an equal role in cultivating the elements of patriotism through socio-cultural activities, economy, and politic. malaysian ministry of education, through the institute of teachers education (ipg, institut pendidikan guru), provides post-graduate teaching course for primary schools (pgtc ps) and bachelor of teaching for primary schools (bt ps) since 2007. these programs provide generic skills, especially learning skills and thinking skills; and the elements of patriotism to the trainee teachers through the process of teaching and learning (moe malaysia, 2007). so far, there are no studies on the learning and thinking skills and associated with values of patriotism, especially in terms of effectiveness and contribution of these elements to the construction and development of teacher education to convey the elements of patriotism among the trainees. a study on the level of understanding of patriotism among the trainees conducted by nadarajan marimuthu (2006) in the raja melewar ite (institute of teacher education), negeri sembilan, malaysia which found that the trainee teachers’ understanding of patriotism was very low. among the justifications given by the trainee teachers on why they are not confident to apply the elements of patriotism was due to lack of emphasis on some elements of patriotism in the curriculum area being studied, disturbance in time and learning strategies that are not focused on elements of patriotism, does not have clear guidelines to plan the application of the elements of patriotism during learning session, and limited resources on patriotism references. according to abd rahim abd rashid (1999), the factor of individual self-confidence in doing something is related to the process of affective-cognitive reasoning process and converted into generic skills. studies on understanding and confidence to apply the elements of patriotism in the areas of curriculum and academic co-curriculum are very limited at the level of teacher service and pre-service teacher training colleges. based on the above discussion, there is a need to conduct a comprehensive study to identify and analyze the elements contained in the objectives of the academic curriculum and co-curricular activities in the institutes of teachers training based on the understanding of generic skills (learning skills and thinking skills) and confidence to implement the patriotic elements from the aspects of difference, relationships, and influences. this study also aims to identify whether aspects of educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 177 the understanding of learning skills and thinking skills serve as a mediator to the confidence to apply elements of patriotism among the trainee students in six ite (institute of teachers education) in the east coastal zone and north zone in peninsular malaysia. among the aims and objectives of this study are as follows: (1) identify and analyze the mean differences between pgtc ps, post-graduate teaching course for primary schools, and bt ps, bachelor of teaching for primary schools, students in terms of understanding of factor to incorporate elements of the teaching patriotism in six ite; (2) identify and analyze the relationship between the understanding of learning skills and thinking skills with confidence to incorporate the elements of patriotism among the pgtc ps and bt ps trainees in six ite; (3) analyze the extent to which academic curriculum and extra-curricular activities, learning skills and thinking skills affect the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among the pgtc ps and bt ps trainees in six ite; and (4) analyze the extent to which aspects of understanding of the learning skills and thinking skills function as a mediator in the relationship between academic curriculum and co-curriculum with the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among the pgtc ps and bt ps trainees in six ite. the concept of patriotism the word “patriots” comes from the greek word referring to “a fellow countrymen”, while the word “patrice” referred to the “fatherland” or “country” from the “pater” which means “father”. but the term “fellow countrymen” refers to the group, and the word “country” refers to those regions and units within the group (bar-tal & staub eds., 1997). the term “patriot” was first used in the english dictionary in europe in 1676 with reference to the importance of a country’s political influence (putman, 1998). the concept of patriotism is defined and discussed in various forms depending on the situation of time and place of a person such as a generation that was in the days before independence has a different spirit of patriotism by the generation after independence. however, the purposes are the same which are unequivocal loyalty and love for the country. there are only mission statements in different contexts, to khoo kay kim (2002), loyalty to the country includes the aspects of politics, economics, and sports. meanwhile, according to idris mohd nor (2003), patriotism does not refer to only the country but also as an opportunity to obtain freedom of worship, fun, freedom to express opinions, and to make choices about things. nationalism is seen as a brain-based action, while patriotism is behaviour based and often reactive in nature. this statement was supported by j.l. machia (2000) summarizing that the concept of patriotism is related with the feelings of patriotism, race, and religion with a sense of responsibility in order to uphold the dignity, honour the survival of the nation. this spirit also forms the basis of an individual capacity that gives the loyalty to the country, having given citizenship in a modern country. ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 178 according to d. bar-tal and e. staub eds. (1997) and uzi arad and gal alon (2006), patriotism began with the presence of a patriotic person in the group through an appreciation of local values and characteristics of the feeling in the group. thus, emerged the sense of belonging in the group and became a symbol of strength that can influence human behaviour and become the basis of the value of patriotism. patriotism to be inculcated to the people of malaysia, especially to the students would need to be taken into account the situation, is in an area and refers to the time setting. the significance of patriotism for the generation before independence is not the same as post-independence generation (1957). this position can be distinguished by the classification of patriotism on five areas, as described by hurwitz and peffley, which are: (1) iconoclastic patriotism refers to an individual’s love for the country through positive actions such as a persistent attitude, courage, discipline, knowledge, and vision to move forward and develop the country; (2) symbolic patriotism refers to the level of patriotism which is symbolized by respect for national symbols such as flags, anthems, and national principles; (3) capitalistic patriotism emphasis on involvement in developing the competitiveness of the country’s economy and being proud of the achievements attained; (4) instinctive environmental patriotism focuses on the spirit to preserve and protect the environment so that it remains preserved to be enjoyed by future generations; and (5) nationalistic symbolic patriotism is the high level of individual loyalty to a certain race and willing to sacrifice for the country (cited in embi, 2009). based on the five aspects of patriotism that has been discussed, it is clear that the concept of patriotism is so broad by definition and can cover all aspects of life. iconoclastic patriotism aspect is suitable for discussion at the educational institution level because it involves the inculcation of patriotism through the change of attitude, discipline, and students’ commitment. the symbolic patriotism refers to the patriotism of a person described by the respect and appreciation of national symbols like the flag, national song, and the national principles that can lead to a sense of pride of the country so as to arouse patriotism and unity among students. according to abd rahim abd rashid (1999), patriotism itself is an abstract concept that needs to be translated through writing, reading materials, curriculum, cocurricular activities, and learning environment. these abstract messages require students to use cognitive and effective reasoning to understand it. literature reviews social identity theory. the spirit of patriotism in a person begins with the process of identity formation and, then, expanded to the formation of social identity. this development occurs in accordance with the cognitive development of children and finally evolves into patriotism. one’s social identity development process was explained theoretically by h. tajfel and j.c. tunner (1986) which states one’s social identity were derived based on the individuals or members within each group will seek to achieve and maintain a positive social identity by looking at the internal elements of his/her own group compared with the group outside. naturally, human educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 179 like to think positively about themselves and their group. a person will contribute positively to the group and, hence, bring the sense of belonging to the group and raise his/her self-esteem and the country in general. teaching the patriotism. the sense of belonging towards one’s self and can be channeled through the field of education. based on the discussion presented by mohd janib johari (2001), esah sulaiman (2003), yahya buntat and zainuddin masran (2003), sufean hussain (2004), abd rahim abd rashid (2005), foo say fay (2005), mohamad noor mohamad taib (2006), and noriah mohd ishak and mohammed sani ibrahim (2007), it can be concluded that feelings of love and responsibility towards the profession is an element of patriotism and should be practiced by all teachers. this can be implemented if a teacher has a high degree of confidence to implement the elements of patriotism so that people can develop the feeling of proudest in being citizens of a country, loyalty, passionate comradeship, discipline, and productive in every student. high confidence and understanding of the elements of patriotism will produce teachers who can bring changes in society towards a more democratic, fair, liberal, and scientific (fat, 2004). therefore, according to omar hisham mohd baharin (2005), greater confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among the trainees can be achieved if they have a good understanding of the theory and the importance of cultivating these values in teaching and learning. element of patriotism should be instilled in children before entering school; and for this, the family should play an important role in preaching the understanding to the child. the above statement was in accordance with the findings of the study which was carried out by abu bakar yusuf (2005). he felt that the factor family is a main distributor of information to students compared to the mass media and schools. when children are at school, the value of patriotism applied directly in the subjects, particularly the subject of local studies and civics, while at the secondary level subjects like history, geography, and other subjects also has elements and values and patriotism (yusuf, 2005). according to mohamad noor mohamad taib (2006), direct application in the teaching and learning in the classroom can improve the understanding of patriotism among students. a study on the understanding of patriotism at the level of public higher education institutes (phei) was carried out by asmadi mohamed naim et al. (2003) and found that phei students of religious background at all levels of primary and secondary school education have a high level of patriotism compared with the students from national or vernacular schools. their study covered the ideological aspects (which are commitment to the nation, in terms of attitude measure of cognitive, effective, emotional state towards elements such as history, religion, and the national principles); practical aspects (appreciation of national events such as celebration of independence, the sultan’s birthday); aspects of continuity and consistency (the practice of daily life, speech, language, clothing or art activities); and aspects of the understanding (of the feelings and concerns on issues affecting the country, conflict, and intervention of foreign countries). ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 180 the awareness of the application of understanding the value of patriotism among students should be given to teachers first and this process should begin at ite (institute of teacher education) or universities that train future teachers. accordingly, the trainee teachers must establish compact teaching techniques so that the message of patriotism to be cultivated in the students can be accepted significantly, because referring to ku hasnita ku samsu and mohd haizan mohd nor (2009) that the younger generation already have basic knowledge about patriotism. this statement is consistent with the findings of jaizah mahamud (2001) that during a practicum, trainee teachers cannot plan the appropriate activities to apply the elements of patriotism, although they are aware of its importance. however, quite in contrast with the results of the study by nadarajan marimuthu (2006) which states the understanding of the elements of patriotism among trainee teachers at the institute of teachers education in raja melewar was low and moderate, while attitudes toward elements of patriotism was positive. this research also found that the influence of peers and mass media have a positive relationship with the appreciation of the elements of patriotism, but gender factor did not show any difference in the appreciation of the elements of patriotism among those trainee teachers. the study of patriotism is not only limited within a country but also at the international level, where uzi arad and gal alon (2006) studied on israeli jewish citizens who showed that only 77 percent israeli felt proud in being an israeli as compared to other countries. instead, they are more proud of the achievements of the country in terms of scientific and technological progress (97%), defense systems (86%), 38 percent towards the democracy works, and only 22 percent towards the social welfare system. for the arab descent israel citizens, only 56 percent were proud to be the people of israel and 73 percent were ready to defend the country compared to 85 percent for the jewish israeli citizens. it was clear that technological and scientific achievements are the main pride of the country rather than the urge to defend israel, their own country. following this, in order to face the challenges of 21st century, israel focused on education as a platform to inculcate ideologies that can enhance the spirit of patriotism among the people. the findings of l. huddy and n. khatib (2007) on the citizens of united states of america showed a good correlation between the four constructs used which were the national identity, symbolic patriotism, constructive patriotism, and uncritical patriotism (r = .744). this study described national identity has a good correlation with the symbolic patriotism r = .74 in 2004 compared to r = .68 in 2002, but poor correlation between the factor of national identity with uncritical patriotism r = .51 in 2004 and r = .56 in 2002. this means there is a good relationship between factors of national identity and symbolic patriotism for being complementary in the process of increasing the spirit of patriotism. result of the discussion that has been described by local and foreign researchers, it can be concluded that the elements of patriotism can be applied to individuals in educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 181 different ways. that includes through teaching and learning, highlighting the aspects of economic progress, achievements in technology, the integrity of national defense, and superior appreciation of local culture. this application aims to produce a host of enthusiastic loyal citizens, proud of being malaysian, vibrant sense of belonging, discipline, and working and productive. all these elements were made into the main constructs in the construction of the questionnaire items in this study. research method this study used a survey method to obtain information about the relationship between the independent variables with the dependent variable. next, it will identify whether the two variables are mutually influence to each other. the data collected through the questionnaire used to gather information from overall respondents. the research framework is briefly described in figure 1. mediator variables: learning & thinking skills independent variables: curriculum & cocurriculum dependent variables: confidence & cultivation of elements of patriotism figure 1: research framework overall, the t-test was used to find the difference between dependent and independent variables. the correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between all variables in this study, but not to explain the relationship of cause and effect (gravetter & wallmau, 2002). apart from that, the correlation analysis method is used to identify the relationship between the variables. subsequently, the hierarchical multiple regression models taken as a statistical procedure to identify the influence of independent variables through mediators on the dependent variable. procedures done in stages where independent variables included in the regression for step one (block 1 in the regression), while step two (block 2 in the regression) included an independent variable and the mediators (ndubisi & jantan, 2003). multi-stage sampling method used in selecting samples for this study based on three levels. in the first stage, the researchers classified the 27 ite (institute of teachers education) according to zones such as zone of sabah and sarawak, east coast zone, south zone, central zone, and north zone of peninsular malaysia. of the six zones, two zones were randomly selected as samples which are the ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 182 east coast zone and north zone of peninsular malaysia. the total number of students of both zones are 817 trainee teachers whom doing full time pgtc ps (post-graduate teaching course for primary schools) in june 2009 intake and bt ps (bachelor of teaching for primary schools) in january 2007 intake (moe malaysia, 2009). this sampling method has taken into account factors such as time, cost savings, and easy access for researchers. this statement is consistent with the recommendations of k. leahy (1988), w.r. borg and m.d. gall eds. (1989), and j. cohen (1992). at the third level, the trainee teachers from six ites (north zone and east coast zone of peninsular malaysia) was randomly selected through a list of students from various fields to determine the sample size based on the formula recommended by r.v. krejcie and d.w. morgan (1970). based on the calculation, the number of samples needed for this study was 261 trainee teachers. this sample size is almost exactly the amount found in the determination of sample size table given by r.v. krejcie and d.w. morgan (1970) that for a population of 850 people, the sample size required is 265 people only. findings and discussions practically, all the hypotheses and objectives of the study have been answered clearly based on statistical analysis procedures that have been identified through appropriate research questions. the results showed a difference of understanding on the concept of learning skills and thinking skills between students of pgtc ps (post-graduate teaching course for primary schools) and bt ps (bachelor of teaching for primary schools). the mean difference indicates pgtc ps trainees understand the concept of learning skills and thinking skills, even though only one year at ite (institute of teacher education) compared with trainees of bt ps who are almost five and a half years, including one year and a half in preparation class. the result indicated that there is a consistency with the objectives of teacher education curriculum to produce graduate teachers who have knowledge of pedagogy, learning skills, thinking skills, highly valued interpersonal skills comparable to the trainee teachers produced by other educational institutions (moe malaysia, 2007/2008). the pgtc ps trainees, although have underwent the training for a year in ite, their learning and experience in the universities before studying in ite has made them matured and enabled them to easily understand the concept of learning skills and thinking skills. however, for trainees pursuing bt ps for five and a half years has provided an avenue for them to understand the concepts of learning skills and thinking skills on par with pgtc ps who are older and have experience in various fields before applying as a trainee teacher. the results showed that the period of study is sufficient for pgtc ps trainees in order to understand the concept of learning and thinking skills because they have experience of studying at an university. results of analysis are consistent with the results of a study conducted by chee kim mang (2008) on the quality of beginner educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 183 teachers between pgtc ps trainees and diploma in teaching course malaysia (dtcm) trainees. it was found that pgtc ps teachers have performed better in terms of personal qualities and teaching and learning in the classroom from the perspectives of school administrators. the research result 1 showed that there was a difference in terms of confidence to implement the elements of patriotism among students of pgtc ps and bt ps. finding is in line with recommendations made by nadarajan marimuthu (2006) who found no significant differences in confidence to apply the elements of moral values and patriotism between the pgtc ps and bt ps trainees in several ite in the north zone. the findings also clarify that the factors of age, location, location of ite, and early educational background does not help a group to have a higher confidence of a particular concept in question related to patriotism. the results showed that all pgtc ps trainees graduated from the higher education institutions (heis) from local or overseas have the same level in terms of confidence to implement the elements of patriotism to the student when they were appointed as teachers soon. confidence of pgtc ps trainees to apply the elements of patriotism shows local universities produce graduates with a good sense of patriotism and have the capability to cultivate it in others. results showed that ite can fulfill part of the ministry of education’s wish to produce bt ps students who have high confidence to incorporate elements of patriotism. greater confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among the trainees to be backed by a good understanding of the theory and the importance of values in teaching and learning (mohd baharin, 2005). the next finding shows that there is no difference between students of pgtc ps and bt ps on students’ understanding of what is contained in the objectives of the curriculum and co-curriculum courses in their respective programs. this finding is quite different from the views expressed by lam kah kei et al. (2007) which states that the pgtc ps students are less able to appreciate and understand in depth the content of the curriculum and co-curriculum implemented to their students while at the ite. bt ps students, who spent five and a half years in the institute, understand and appreciate the content of the curriculum and co-curriculum effectively. it is clear that different curriculum and co-curricular contents for four and a half years between pgtc ps and bt ps students gives a positive impact to understand, interpret, and translate the curriculum and co-curriculum content as a teacher. the research result 2 showed a moderate correlation between students’ understanding of curriculum and co-curriculum with the understanding of learning skills and thinking skills. this moderately positive correlation indicates changes in the understanding of the curriculum and co-curriculum of pgtc ps and bt ps students. this medium response resulted in a parallel change in the understanding of learning skills and thinking skills. the findings also support previous studies associating a logical relationship to the curriculum and co-curriculum content in a program of study undertaken with the understanding of thinking skills and learning skills in generic skills ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 184 components (ooa, 2006; and leonard, 2007). although the relationship is at a moderate level, but it reflects that the desire of moe (ministry of education) and ite (institute of teacher education) to implement and integrate the elements of the generic skills such as thinking skills and learning skills through curricular and co-curricular activities can be achieved at an average level even though it was introduced in 1993. the achievement of a moderate relationship is related to the research findings of rajendran nagapan (2000) who found that only 60 percent of teachers in schools are directly exposed to the elements on how to cultivate thinking skills among students during the teaching and learning session. the trainee teachers should master these skills because it will be used to integrate the knowledge of pedagogy, theoretical teaching with other knowledge in the areas of specialization in order to reach students more effectively (mohd yasin & rahman, 2009). meanwhile, a. woolfork (2004) pointed out that to achieve effective learning skills needs appropriate meta-cognitive strategies in order to stimulate the development of students’ knowledge. the study also found that there was moderate correlation to changes in the understanding of the objectives of the curriculum and co-curriculum between pgtc ps and bt ps students. this finding is in line with changes to the confidence of students to apply the elements of patriotism when they are in the actual environment. this finding shows that there is consistency with the study by jaizah mahamud (2001) and mohamad noor mohd taib (2006) which identified several reasons on why ite students are not able to appreciate and understand the elements of good patriotism while at the institute. one of the reasons was that emphasis on cultivation of elements of patriotism was not highlighted during lectures, instead, according to ku hasnita ku samsu and mohd haizan mohd nor (2009), our younger generation actually have a basic national knowledge and understanding of the elements of patriotism. therefore, this group has a good potential in increasing their patriotism from time to time. the findings revealed a moderate positive relationship between the variables of learning skills and thinking skills, and this moderate relationship bring the same changes to the confidence to cultivate the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students in ite. these findings emphasize that individuals or students with a good understanding of thinking skills and learning skills would be more confident to apply the elements of patriotism. this finding supports the research findings and assumptions made by e.d. putman (1998), abd rahim abd rashid (1999), and l.r. williams, l.m. foster and r.k. krohn (2008). however, this finding is quite in contrast with the views expressed by rajendran nagapan (2000) that some of the teachers admitted they are confident to teach the subject content but not confident to teach and apply critical thinking skills during classroom sessions. the research result 3 shows both the variables which are academic curriculum and co-curriculum, thinking skills, and learning skills are the factors that influence the educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 185 confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students in ite. this result was consistent with the views of abd rahim abd rashid (1999), idris mohd nor (2003), mohamad noor mohd taib (2006), and l.r. williams, l.m. foster and r.k. krohn (2008) that the aspects of thinking skills, learning skills, curriculum and co-curriculum are the factors that serve as comprehensive channels in cultivating values and patriotism to students. this research also found that aspects of thinking skills and learning skills influence the student more compared to understanding of the academic curriculum and co-curriculum in terms of confidence to implement the elements of patriotism. this result is related to thinking skills and learning skills significantly that the relationship is stronger than understanding of the academic curriculum and cocurriculum in the aspects of confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students in ite. subsequently, the results of this study allow the ite to plan for activities and teaching methods that can be applied towards enhancing the ability of thinking skills among students. this has been proven through research that the learning skills and thinking skills are the elements of cognitive, affective, and spiritual that is so important to generate students’ thinking ability. the research result 4 proves that the aspect of understanding the learning skills and thinking skills function as mediators in the understanding of the relationship between aspects of the curriculum and co-curriculum with the dependent variable, namely the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students in ite. but these mediators are only partial mediators when tested by the method of hierarchical multiple regression and supported by software decisions medgraph by p.e. jose (2008). this finding is correlated with what was discussed by abd rahim abd rashid (1999) and l.r. williams, l.m. foster and r.k. krohn (2008) which refers to the students’ mastery of cognitive skills as the main channel to receive the moral values, particularly patriotism. this finding fits the aim contained in the curriculum and co-curriculum objectives of pgtc ps and bt ps that includes elements of thinking skills and learning skills as a means to implement the elements of patriotism (moe malaysia, 2007). but it is not easy to stimulate and train students to expand and enhance their cognitive ability, particularly in critical skills. this difficulty was described by rajendran nagapan (2000) that some teachers claim they are confident to teach the content of a subject, but not confident to teach thinking on the critical thinking. conclusion overall, this study provided significant implications for pgts ps (post-graduate teaching course for primary schools) and bt ps (bachelor of teaching for primary schools) students, lecturers, ite (institute of teacher education), and towards research. the findings may be an indicator that the level of understanding of learning skills and thinking skills are at low and moderate levels among the pgts ramli ismail & norwaliza abdul wahab, teachers’ education curriculum 186 ps and bt ps students in ite. therefore, pgts ps and bt ps students should have massive skills in handling learning skills and thinking skills so that teaching and learning would be more effective. in addition, to an overview of the level of learning skills and thinking skills results show that the trainee students in six ites have fairly high confidence to cultivate the elements of patriotism among their students when they start to teach. the hopes and confessions given by the students of these institutions can at least be the initial measurement that values and the teaching patriotism elements can be inculcated to the students. research questions did not focus on the ite lecturers, but in reality, they are the communicators of knowledge and the key informant to the students. the comprehensively designed curriculum, that was meant to be implemented on the students, needs to be interpreted by the lecturers more accurately so that the real meaning can be understood clearly. understanding of learning skills and thinking skills among teacher educators can become a bridge to the ability to implement the moral values and patriotism. these studies have shown that to implement the values and patriotism, one must have substantial learning skills and thinking skills as it is connected with the thinking process. the desire of moe (ministry of education) and ite (institute of teacher education) in malaysia is to see students have self-esteem and a high level of patriotism could be achieved, if the prospective teachers produced by the institutions have a high ability and confidence to implement the spirit of patriotism. high spirit of patriotism should be planted as early as the school students hoping to accelerate the process towards the achievement of the concept of “one malaysia” in nurturing self-esteem and unity of all malaysians. the following statements are suggestions for future research based on the aspects of the limitations of this study: (1) the period of data collection may be extended, so that the respondents have the opportunity to answer the questionnaire properly and not in a rush to complete it. these factors may affect the results produced; (2) data collection methods can be varied and not limited to the questionnaire, but may be made in interviews, observations, and documents reviewed. this method of triangulation is expected to produce more accurate and reliable results; (3) apart from survey studies, researchers can do researches by quasi-experiments or complete experiments. may be this will produce more consistent results with higher reliability and validity; (4) in this study, population and sample selection method was through the cluster and simple random sampling method based on a list of the institutes and the list of selected students in the institute. simple random sampling method was used to select samples. researchers suggest other methods as well, such as strata sampling and purposive sampling which ever would be consistent with the objectives of the study; (5) in this study, only three major variables have been studied which were independent variables i.e. academic curriculum and co-curriculum, mediator variables i.e. learning skills and thinking skills, and the dependent variable i.e. the educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 187 confidence to apply the elements of patriotism. in the future, other aspects like ict or information and communication technology’s skills, communication skills, facilitating skills, and the elements of professionalism such as expertise in teaching and learning can be studied. the findings are expected to bring a new dimension within the scope of the study; and (6) researchers’ expertise is also a limitation because the researchers are merely practitioners, not full-time researchers. thus, many things and research procedures cannot be met wholly in terms of research ethics and discipline. researchers felt that if this study scope was carried out by full-time researchers, they might have received more accurate and higher quality results because they have the expertise and high professionalism. based on the recommendations above, the researchers believe that the quality of a study could be improved so as to enrich and expand the existing body of knowledge related to the theory and methodology in research. conclusions from the study results showed that pgtc ps and bt ps students have different level of understanding about learning skills, thinking skills, the content of academic curriculum and co-curriculum. moderate relationship between the variables depicts that the academic curriculum developed by the ite can still be improved in order to place it on par with the aim of teachers education philosophy model. the aspects of knowledge, skills, and values need to be more detail for it to be comprehensive and easily understood. significantly, the understanding aspect of learning skills and thinking skills are more dominant compared to the understanding of curriculum and co-curriculum in influencing pgtc ps and bt ps students’ confidence to incorporate elements of patriotism. it also shows that the understanding aspects of learning skills and thinking skills function as mediators between the academic curriculum, cocurriculum, and the confidence to apply the elements of patriotism among pgtc ps and bt ps students. it is supported by statistical results which showed learning skills and thinking skills to function as partial mediators, but still have an effect in influencing students’ confidence to apply the elements of patriotism. these results provide greater confidence to researchers that learning skills and thinking skills strongly influence the confidence pgtc ps and bt ps students in the process of implementing elements of patriotism and related to other research questions. references abd rashid, abd rahim. 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(2005). “patriotism in the implementation of the primary school curriculum” in proceeding of the educational seminar jppg in pulau pinang: usm (science university of malaysia), pp.810-818. educare 2-2-2010.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 153 development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java, indonesia tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto abstract: the aims of main research are: (1) implementing the learning of civic education in democratic colleges; (2) the implementation of civic education campus-based embryo; and (3) implementing embryo of colleges as the laboratory of democracy. research populations are all civic education lecturers and students of muhammadiyah universities in central java who lecture and study civic education. research methods are: interview, scale of attitude/opinion, questionnaire, and documentary study. data of research are described with data reduction technique, data display, and conclusion. conclusions are: (1) to create democratic civic education learning, student discussions should be stepped up to develop students’ civic values; and (2) to create embryo of civic education campus-based and embryo of college as the laboratory democracy. it needs: (a) efforts to create democratic college both in its intra-curriculum and extra curriculum; (b) implementing student-oriented lectures; (c) students are involved to participate in any political state activities; (d) making of student study groups; (e) implementing the freedom of having a notion, gender equality, and responsibility; (f) increasing number of students’ discussion about reality of social life, and its problem solving; (g) increasing number of students’ academic groups, and training them to obey in any rules; (h) in implementing the three college-dedications, lecturers have to involve their students; (i) college has to give students more chances to develop their potential; and (j) students should be introduced with democratic values earlier. key words: civic education, campus based education, muhammadiyah universities, laboratory of democracy, and democratic civic education. introduction based on international commission of jurist (2003:1), we are less in succeeding civic education-implementation as constitution of indonesia mandates of national education system. both its content and its learning method are not satisfied. its content discuss only good matters, its learning method is also “oneway flow” method, even indoktrinatif (dogmatic) whereas one of government existence requirements is existence of civic education (civics). according to azyumardi azra (2003), failure in socialization effort and diseminasi of democracy, prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja is senior lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia; and sri harmianto and eko priyanto are also lecturers at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). they can be reached at: tukiranump@yahoo.com and info@ump.ac.id tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 154 moreover for figuration of thinking way (world-view) and democratic behavior in preceptors’ domain, and society of schools/universities are generally based on three concerns. first, substantially, civic education, pancasila and manliness are not well planed and directed include material and explanation which are focused more in democracy education and civics. existed materials are generally focused on idealistic, legalistic, and normative. second, existed materials are basically potential democracy education and civic education. in fact, the potential does not improve, because both its approach and its learning are indoktrinative (dogmatic), regimentative, monologue, and not participative. third, these three concerns are more theoretical than practical. as a consequence, there is concrete discrepancy theory and it’s explained discourse, and existed political social reality. even in school/university level, discrepancy is applied in such kind of both authoritarian and feudalistic by school/university teachers/lecturers. as a next consequence, it is well understood by anyone, school/university is failed to make them in “to have democratic experience” (azra, 2003:10). developing civic education in indonesia should be able to re-find relevance of societies’ fundamental values with social dynamics which changes quickly. in context of indonesia, according to a.i. chamim et al. (2003:xxxxiv), indonesian academic institutions already began long time ago to make efforts in developing civic education using separated approach through specific lesson or lecture. it is civic education or pkn (pendidikan kewarganegaraan), basic general lecture or mkdu (mata kuliah dasar umum) pancasila and manliness, or even penataran p4 (pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila) or p4 refresher course. according to majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pengurus pusat muhammadiyah or higher education assembly for research and development of muhammadiyah central committee (2004:xvii), civic education is one of educational efforts which aims to improve someone to be a good responsible civilian. so the main focus of reaching aims of developed civic education learning in civic education is attitude/behavior figuration. based on 5th article of direktur jenderal perguruan tinggi, departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia or directorate general of higher education, ministry of national education, the republic of indonesia’s decision, number: 43/dikti/ kep/2006 about rules of self building group lectures in universities, explicitly states that the methods of self building group lectures should: first, learning process should be conducted interactively, in challenging way, pleasurably, and motivating students to be actively participated, and widely giving students initiative, creativity, and self-autonomy, and subjected students as subject of education. second, conducted learning is educating process, which includes critical, analytical, inductive, deductive, and reflective concerns through creative dialogical participatory, to reach comprehension of substantial study base-truth, working concretely, and to improve learning motivation throughout human life. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 155 third, as a form of learning process: face to face lecture, scientific speech, dialogue (interactive discussion), case studies, self duty, reading assignment, small scale seminar, and co-curricular activities. fourth, motivation: improving awareness that self developing improvement is a life need to be able to exist in global society. education of democracy in civic education is conducted through improvement of three aspects. first, it is civilians’ perspicacity and logical reasoning effort (civic intelligence), in spiritual, rational, emotional, and social dimension. second, it is an awareness of right and duty as responsible civilian (civic responsibility). third, it is the participating capability as civilian (civic responsibility) based on responsibilities, individually, socially, or as the future leader. related to education of democracy, udin s. winataputra stated as follows: generally, civic education aims to improve individual potential of indonesian civilian. so hopefully, each civilian has enough concept, character, intellectual and social skill as civilian. as a consequence, each civilian is able to participate in intelligential way and responsibly, in any social life-dimensions, indonesia and world. therefore, each education level needs civic education which can improve students’ intelligence through comprehension and intellectual skill training. this process hopefully will be useful as provisions of students to play their roles as problem solvers on their surroundings (winataputra, 2003). in fact, the most strategic way “to have democratic experience” and “to be civilized” is through civic education. it contains the meaning of socialization, dissemination, and actualization of concept, system, value, democratic practice, and courtesy. postulation which exists behind civic education application is democratic culture maintenance could not bequeathed as it is. but on the contrary, it should be taught, socialized, and actualized to indonesian youth through educational institutions (cipto, 2002:i). nowadays, the use of undemocratic way and violence is getting increase in indonesian politic life; it is caused by the conflict of indonesian politician and unsolved political dynamic matters. if one of politics and democracy content is “art of compromise” and respectful attitude toward different political condition, in fact, we can easily find selfish (egoisentralism) attitude (pokoknya) of indonesian politicians. it is getting worse because religion (religious terms/statements) is legitimated in indonesian political dynamic life by some muslim scholars, so potentials of conflict which threaten democracy is getting increase (azra, 2002:8-9). these phenomenon occurs among societies who are not ready to live in democratic life, its indicators are easily analyzed how democracy in indonesia does not become awareness and mentality yet. even some members’ political behavior of the greatest and the most democratic political party in indonesia is also too traditional on their attitudinal activities. societies’ attitude of freedom concern and religious life tolerance which is far from its ideally. so does political violence which occurs to solve any social problems in our society, such as regarding differences as a conflict, totalitarian attitudes and acts. anarchic behavior is a description of it. these facts are actually could be tolerated because these are old inheritances both from old order and new order regimes which did not support democracy tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 156 figuration, and also the role of education was less in contributing democratic culture, even in fact, education which was hoped to contribute for democratic culture became “destroying tool” of democracy (zamroni, 2001:xiii-xiv). occurrence of reformation era in last 1990’s decade on indonesian context gives also new hopes for democracy development and implementation of civil society in indonesia. but it remains social pathological problems in this unfinished transition era. in developing sturdy base of democracy and civil society, especially in transition eras toward democracy, occurs social pathological phenomenon because political euphoria. so, democracy and civil society not only should be struggled but also more than the effort, should be seeded, planted, fertilized and taken care through planned efforts, well-managed and aimed to all societies. if this “plant of democracy and civil society” which is getting grow with democracy “big wave”, human right and civil society around the world will be withered and dead before has strong root (majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pp muhammadiyah, 2004:i). colleges and political perspectives are institutions which are hoped as recruitment media, selection, and education for civilian who want to participate as political elite. sooner or later, society political elite and indonesian politicians will be from college graduates. in this rational concern, agreed decisions will result any advantages not only for a person, his/her families, but also for all societies in general. in the other word, civic education in colleges has to be able to create students who has critical thinking way and democratic. becoming a nation “that is easily led but difficultly controlled, easily commanded but also difficultly enslaved” (zamroni, 2003b:10). the effort to actualize democracy and civil society in indonesia through education seems still needs to go through long way. education should reorient and try to apply new phenomenon of national education, which is its main aim are figuration of indonesian democratic society and consistent with civility values. if schools or universities are able to play their important roles in genuine and authentic democracy figuration, it will be better if the application of new paradigm of national education is accelerated (azra, 2003:xiii). muhammadiyah organization, with its national network, has been involved in education since always. thus, the implementation of democratic and civic values is a must for muhammadiyah. it happens because muhammadiyah is one of the biggest civil society organizations in indonesia. in line with this, muhammadiyah universities have important roles in supporting democracy to create a better society through its educational system. in order to make a more relevant civic education, campus based civic education is definitely needed especially in this fast moving era (majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pp muhammadiyah, 2004:x). since majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pimpinan pusat muhammadiyah or muhammadiyah central committee for higher education’s research and development is developing a civic education for all muhammadiyah universities in indonesian, the finding of this research can be applied to all educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 157 muhammadiyah universities in indonesia. it is even hoped to be applicable for all universities in indonesian. objectives and significance of the study generally, this study is aimed at creating civic education learning in muhammadiyah universities in accordance with the objectives of civic education course in muhammadiyah universities. the specific objectives of the study are: (1) creating a democratic civic education learning in university; (2) creating the embryo of campus based civic education; and (3) creating the embryo of campus as laboratory of democracy. this study is hoped to give some significances to the students, civic education lecturers, and civic education study program. firstly for the students: (a) developing the democratic value amongst students; (b) motivating students to be active and creative in teaching-learning process; (c) giving a deep comprehension of the theory through empirical learning practice; (d) realizing the importance of democracy in society; (e) motivating students to use the relevant material with the observed problems; and (f) making students accustomed to learn by doing – learn to lead a democratic life in campus society. secondly for civic education lecturers: (a) developing a dialogic-creative civic education learning model to increase democratic values amongst students; (b) creating the right learning strategy; (c) creating an interesting learning material to avoid boredom amongst students; (d) making students the centre of learning activity; and (e) making lecturers to be more reactive and creative. thirdly for civic education study programme: (a) making civic education study programme the centre of democratic life through a democratic learning process; and (b) to be the sample of centre of democratic campus as a laboratory of democracy. research method: research design, place and date of research, population and sample, and data collection technique this research was a combination of quantitative and qualitative design. the data were in the form of quantitative and qualitative data. survey was used as the method of research. the survey was conducted upon lecturers and students of muhammadiyah universities in central java. the surveyed materials were civic education learning processes, civic education learning materials, the development of civic values amongst students, the effort to develop campus as democracy embryo, and the development of campus based civic education. this research was conducted in muhammadiyah universities in central java. there were 14 muhammadiyah universities in central java. they were: (1) akademi analisis kesehatan semarang or health analysis academy of semarang, (2) akademi keperawatan aisyiyah surakarta or aisyiyah nursery academy of surakarta, (3) tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 158 akademi keperawatan universitas muhammadiyah magelang or nursery academy of muhammadiyah university of magelang, (4) akademi keperawatan muhammadiyah pekajangan or muhammadiyah nursery academy of pekajangan, (5) akademi keperawatan muhammadiyah semarang or muhammadiyah nursery academy of semarang, (6) politeknik muhammadiyah karanganyar or muhammadiyah polytechnic of karanganyar, (7) politeknik muhammadiyah magelang or muhammadiyah polytechnic of magelang, (8) sekolah tinggi agama islam muhammadiyah klaten or muhammadiyah islamic religion higher school of klaten, (9) sekolah tinggi ilmu ekonomi muhammadiyah cilacap or muhammadiyah economic higher school of cilacap, (10) muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, (11) muhammadiyah university of purworejo, (12) muhammadiyah university of surakarta, (13) muhammadiyah university of magelang, and (14) muhammadiyah university of semarang (majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pp muhammadiyah, 2004:ix-x). the population of the study was all the lecturers and students of muhammadiyah universities in central java who have contract with civic education course when the research was conducted. central java was chosen because the number of muhammadiyah universities in this province was adequate and representative. there were 14 muhammadiyah universities in central java. sampling technique was done by applying random sampling technique. four muhammadiyah universities were chosen as the sample based on ex-residency in central java i.e. surakarta, kedu, semarang, and banyumas. sample was chosen through a lottery. the chosen samples of this research were the lecturers and students of civic education study programme of: (1) muhammadiyah university of surakarta, (2) muhammadiyah university of semarang, (3) muhammadiyah university of magelang, (4) muhammadiyah university of purworejo, and (5) muhammadiyah university of purwokerto. the research was started on march, 2009 and it will be finished on november 2011. this paper will only report the research findings of the first year. the informants of this research were the civic education lecturers of muhammadiyah universities in central java. the interview was held to know the civic education learning, the effort to develop campus as democracy embryo, and the development of campus based civic education in muhammadiyah universities. the interview consisted of 16 questions. they were: (1) students’ attention toward civic education course; (2) students’ motivation to study civic education; (3) the scope of civic education learning materials; (4) the effort to develop civic education learning materials; (5) the ways to enrich civic education learning; (6) class’ management to make the students active and innovative; (7) the effort to develop civic education learning method; (8) the condition of learning facilities; (9) the library condition including the quality and quantity of the civics learning references; (10) campus environment: whether it is conducive or not for civics education learning and the obstacles found; (11) university’s support in the form of activities to sustain civic education learning; (12) time allocation which is provided by the institution. in civic education learning and time of lecturer for development educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 159 of civic education learning, and time for student for consulting; (13) the cooperation of civic education lecturers in order to develop civic education learning; (14) forms of students tasks; (15) forms of any evaluations for development of civic education learning; and (16) lecturer’s effort to develop campus based civic education in muhammadiyah university. documenter study is method of collecting complement data, for founding data of civic education curriculum, civic education rules relevancy, sources of civic education learning, planning aspects of civic education lecturers. qualitative data described so that it has systematic and systemic meaning, with reduction technique data, display data and conclusion. whereas quantitative data analyzed by statistic technique appropriate with problem and purpose of research and kind of data which is analyzed. in the first step, qualitative data have not been collected because most of civic education subjects are given in odd semester. result and discussion research and information collecting are studying introduction, which consists of collecting starting data in field, observing class, preparing programme or designing activities and research. this step is a survey step. result of starting data collection in field shows us that the implementation of civic education learning in muhammadiyah universities are: first, implementation of civic education learning. there are differences of time in civic education learning implementation in each muhammadiyah universities in central java. in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, civic education is given in even semester, whereas in muhammadiyah university of magelang and purworejo given in odd semester (interview with arie suprianto, civic education lecturer of muhammadiyah university of purworejo, april 5th 2009). in muhammadiyah university of surakarta, civic education is given in odd semester (interview with yulianto bambang setiadi, civic education lecturer of muhammaditah university of surakarta, april 06th 2009). in muhammadiyah university of semarang, civic education is also given in odd semester (interview with agus sarono, july 29th 2009). the implementation of civic education learning especially on research in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto is in every wednesday at 13.00-14.40 o’clock. in that learning activity, there are composites of three faculties because there are just few students who contract the subject. in formatting groups, student is given discretionary for each his or her groups which average of each groups consist of 5 students. second, student’s concern and motivation in civic education subject. the implementation of civic education subject in muhammadiyah university of surakarta (ums) runs well just at civic education programme but on the contrary it is different from english education programme, local and english literature education programme which need special motivation (interview with akhmad muhibbin, june 20th 2009). moreover, students don’t seem serious, have less tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 160 motivation, and underestimate that subject. students think that civic education isn’t a main subject in their program. besides, students whose attendance is less than 75% aren’t allowed to join the examination. for anticipating, there is punishment for students who are absent in two times to make a specific assignment such as working paper (interview with ahmad mutholi’in, june 20th 2009). in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, student’s concern in this subject is very good, examples in department of elementary school teacher learning, mathematics, islamic education, accounting s1 and d3, management. concern and motivation of civic education subject in agriculture faculty are good, while in english literature faculty and management department are not good. its indication seemed from students’ attendances, delays, collecting examination, activity and discussion in the class (report of tukiran taniredja during teaching in odd semester 2008-2009). in muhammadiyah university of semarang, student’s concern of civic education subject is well enough because the class is lightly big where there are about 30 students per class. lecturers are very familiar with their student’s personalities and learning activity runs conductively so that student’s motivations of this subject are good. generally, motivation of student deals with methods and experiences of lecturers in giving explanation in the class. it means that more experiences and abilities in managing class from lecturer, more motivated appear from the students (interview with agus sarono, july 29th 2009). in muhammadiyah university of magelang (interview with rudi himawan, august 11th 2009), the level of students’ concern for each major and faculty is different based on the capability of major students, and there is a tendency on the favorite faculty for the strict selection so the students’ quality and concern toward the subjects better than becoming the major faculty which does not have someone who likes. although each faculty there is a similarity in capability however on each academic year also has different ability in absorbing and following the lecture. the students’ motivation is almost same as the students’ attention in learning the civic education; it can be seen from their seriousness in doing the assignments submitted, the number of presence or attendance and the belonging of the civic education sources. rudi himawan added, for semester 1, still appears a senior high school learning culture and there is the difference of students’ social, culture, economy background influence to the motivation. besides that, the motivation also seems on the seating position of new students who gather in the last row of the seating arrangement in the classroom. the students’ attention toward the civic education in muhammadiyah university of purworejo is in the average good enough, but there is unattractive perception from a half number of the students (budi setyawan, interviewed on august 12th, 2009). whereas according to agus budi santoso (interview, august 12th, 2009) the students’ attention toward the civic education is quite good. this is actually based on the lecturer’s role in motivating the students with the material explanation about the actual social problem which becomes the trend related to the students’ status or the students’ life. agus budi santoso gave an example that educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 161 the real students are the intellectual social group and democratic. however, get involved in the students’ brawl. budi setyawan of muhammadiyah university of purworejo (interview, august 12th, 2009) also stated that the students’ motivation in learning the civic education will increase if the lecturer can also motivate the students. one way is by discussing the civic education material divided into the sub of topic discussion and the learning affected the students to be active or students active learning. third, the overview of the civic education material. the material of the civic education learning in muhammadiyah university of purwokerto applied is the result of stakeholders training about the development of the civic education (ce) in kaliurang, yogyakarta on august 4-9th, 2003 are: islamic life guidance of muhammadiyah society, the civic education and the goal of life toward civil society, the general point of view about the value of democratic, the good government and clean governance, the transformation of the democratic value in family and society, to form national identity, new world system in globalization era, democracy economy and economy ethos as bases of national strength and maintenance of human rights. besides, there are also some lecturers adding the archipelago concept and national endurance as additional materials. the syllabi of pkn (pendidikan kewarganegaraan) or civic education’s materials in muhammadiyah university of surakarta during the two years ago were based on the curicculum of majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pimpinan pusat muhammadiyah. however, since 2007-2008 academic year along with the legalization of director general’s decree of department of education and culture of indonesia no:43/dikti/kep/2006 about rules in implementing selfdevelopment subjects in university, the syllabus applied is based on the director general of department of education and culture of indonesia, which includes phylosophy of pancasila, national identity, politic and strategy, democracy of indonesia, human rights and rule of law, citizens’ right and liability, geopolitic of indonesia and geostrategy of indonesia. nevertheless, the books published by majelis pendidikan tinggi penelitian dan pengembangan pimpinan pusat muhammadiyah are still used as references. then, relevant pkn (pendidikan kewarganegaraan or civic education) books published by other authors and publishers such as pkn by kaelan, pkn by uin (universitas islam negeri or state islamic university) jakarta are still used to develop and enrich the teaching materials of pkn after being related to islamic values and madinah constitution. meanwhile, the lecturer and students have to trace and combine the materials taken from internet which are relevant to the problems being discussed. this aims to change the negative perspective of students toward pkn subject and pkn lecturers are also motivated for further development. pkn materials in muhammadiyah university of semarang conform to the decree of general director of department of education and culture of indonesia no:43/dikti/kep/2006 about rules in implementing self-development subjects in university. thus, there are more material on manlines education since after pancasila education and pkn are being combined, the material of pancasila tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 162 education consists only the first chapter, philosophy of pancasila. to enrich pkn learning, the students are asked to gather relevant materials in internet or mass media (interview with agus sarono, 29 july 2009). material coverage based on pentaloka pkn decision is sufficient enough, but it also needs to add materials of archipelago concept and state defence and current matters about nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia or unitary state of the republic of indonesia). accordingly, suharso (interview, 11 august 2009) states that he has added the materials needed by society at that time. there isn’t any similarity on subjects in muhammadiyah university of magelang, because there is ppkn, a combination between education of pancasila and pkn as many as 3 sks (sistem kredit semester or semester credit system), but the subject is being taught separately as pancasila 2 sks and pkn 2 sks for special class. it affects material coverage to avoid overlap and material distribution and thus, the materials of pancasila and pkn are sufficient. so far, the coverage of pkn materials is good, but it is need to be broadened. some materials such as modern nasionalism, environment concept and living values in society: mutual assistance, alliance, discussion, honesty and so on need to be aplied in pkn teaching (budi setyawan, interview on august 12th 2009). in accordance to budi setyawan, agus budi santoso (interview on 12 august 2009) also states that material coverage in pkn has been good so far, but it needs additional material of nasional nationalism since there is a tendency of students to decrease their nasionalism. thus, environment concept should be taught as an effort to raise the students’ awareness about the importance of environment in supporting human life, since human being is influenced much by the environment. to develop the materials of pkn, accessing recent social problems in inetrnet is a must. to enrich students’ knowledge by pkn, the students are free to study recent social problems and to solve them. the lecturer roles only as facilitator and motivator (interview with budi setyawan, 12 august 2009). the students, then, besides studying the main references, should also access informations from the internet and relevant books based on the materials being discussed (interview with agus budi santoso, 12 august 2009). pkn class management for active and inovative students class management to stimulate active and inofative students in pkn learning is conducted by participating the students directly in active learning, employing tot (training of trainer), and modifying active learning method based on the problems found by the students and the lecturer then, gives jigsaw assignment. (interview with ahmad muhibbin, 20 june 2009). to support the process of pkn learning, each class should have lcd and television. the lecturers should also be facilitated notebook (laptop) by the institution. thus 90% process of pkn teaching will be in the media of power point. this condition will also facilitate the students for presentation in each class discussion. the condition of central library is also complete, in which there are educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 163 sufficient pkn books, eventhough the copies are not in great quantities. there is also library in each major thought is not complete. environment condition which is condusive supports pkn learning process (interview with ahmad mutholi’in, 20 june 2009). teaching methods used are also varied such as discussion, recitation, role-play, vct and so on (interview with banani ma’mur, may 12th 2009). accordingly, sigid sriwanto (interview on may 5th 2009) enlarge discussion method with the materials found by the students. the students are asked to pass their opinions during the class. meanwhile, agus sarono (interview on 29th july 2009) states that pkn subject starts with explaining the learning contract and pkn syllabus, and then followed by severall meetings. afterward, the students are broken up into groups and each group has to presentate recent topics during the next meetings. it means that a group acts as the presentator and present the paper, while the other groups are the audiens. each student who delivers correct opinion is given a mark as a reward. besides speech method, class discussion should be frequently conducted and the students are asked to gather at least five clippings concerned with the materials of discussion. muhammadiyah university of magelang uses varied methods to develop pkn materials; lecturing 20 minutes and followed by discussion and presentation by the students (interview with rudi himawan, august 11th 2009). meanwhile, suharso (interview on august 11th 2009) adds a method in which the lecturer goes around the students’ chairs. there are some sourches to enrich the materials such as ptm and pkn books and mass media. pkn materials for pai (pendidikan agama islam or islamic religion education) should be conformed to pai’s vision and mission which contain islamic values. class management to stimulate active and inofative students in each major and faculty is different according to the students’ ability. some ways are conducted such as by giving exmples in real life. the time allowment is not sufficient if education of pancasila and pkn are combined as ppkn which is only 3 sks. the lecturers still have enough time to develop the process of learning and to serve for consultation. hence, arie supriyatna (interview on august 11th 2009) states that the lecturers should provide phone number specifically for the students consultation. muhammadiyah university of purworejo employs lot of group discussion method in which each group consists of 3-5 students. thus, pkn becomes an interesting subject in which the students participate actively, inovatively and creatively. in every discussion, the students have to use power point or at least transparency (interview with budi setyawan, august 12th 2009). support from the university university or institution should support pkn learning, especially in formulating the curicculum. to generalize perception toward the materials, some discussions facilitated by lpid (lembaga pengembangan ilmu dasar or basic science development institution) should be conducted, eventhough this institution is not yet optimal. subjects under the lpid coordination are islamic study, english, civic education, tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 164 isd (ilmu sosial dasar or basic social science), ibd (ilmu budaya dasar or basic cultural science), and indonesian language. on the beginning and the last of semester lpid minimally holds meeting and an effort to design the civic education book itself as a need of muhammadiyah university of semarang and national education department (interview with ahmad mutholi’in, june 06th, 2009). in muhammadiyah university of semarang, there is no a special institution which handles the civic education subject, but the university provides the internet facility for the students and the existence of lcd for each room (interview with agus sarono, july 29th 2009). the completeness of facilities in muhammadiyah university of magelang has not been provided with the lcd for all rooms except for particular rooms or almost some have been provided with the lcd, it is because there is no any special room however the class has been used together. hence, rudi himawan (interview on august 12th 2009) stated that for the certain materials still need the use of ohp. the completeness of facilities; it is not all rooms provided with the lcd except the particular classrooms but the class is used together. meanwhile, rudi himawan (interview on august 11th 2009) stated that for the certain materials still need the use of ohp. the laboratory has been facilitated with the computerization and it has the civic education book from majelis pendidikan tingi penelitian dan pengembangan pp muhammadiyah in a big amount, although it is still added with other books which have content of the archipelago concept and country defense. the environment of muhammadiyah university of magelang is conducive; however there is islamic organization besides of muhammadiyah which is dominant there, but it does not disturb the civic education learning. however, there are students who have an extreme ideology but it is not a matter and or it does not disturb the leaning and studying process so the condition is still conducive. the support from the university, it used to be a mku coordinator but now it does not have any coordinator anymore, still it can be hold because of the lecturers’ coordination based on their agreement. this support is realized on provisioning the civic education book which is published by majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. the students’ activities and seminars can also support the civic education learning. on the students’ institution still capable to support and generate everlasting students’ regiments as a unit of students’ activities. the cooperation among the lecturers of the civic education in muhammadiyah university of magelang has created a coordinator of the civic education lecturers but it is not formal yet. the form of cooperation among the civic education lecturers is providing a team for lecture who needs the team or association. at present there is a distinction of teaching area and it does not use rolling system, for example arie supriyatna only lectures in teacher training and education faculty, meanwhile rudi himawan in law faculty, suharso in engineering faculty (interview with arie supriyatno, august 11th 2009). muhammadiyah university of purworejo give a good support toward the civic education learning by providing the facilities such as classrooms, library, ohp, lcd, laptop, and internet and a conducive campus environment. this is only books educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 165 limited in the library. dealing with the lecturers’ cooperation, it can be realized because there are only two lecturers still, so it does not have a civic education lecturers team (interview with agus budi santoso, august 12th 2009). giving an assignment and evaluating on the civic education learning giving assignment for the students, especially about the actual events such as politic and general election, human rights and law awareness, is important. the theme is from the lecturers, meanwhile the title and the actual problem deals with the curriculum, urgency and relevancy of civic education understanding for the teacher candidates of that subject. the theme is explicitly based on the last digit of the student number (interview with ahmad mutholi’in, june 20nd 2009). the assignment for the students should be given in every meeting approaching the midterm test. giving assignment before the mid-term test will be maximal. a good task is not more than two pages, so it eases the lecturers to check and correct the students’ work. after the mid-term test, it is continued with the discussion about those assignments (interview with bunyamin muhtasyar, may 16th 2009). other assignments area given to the students are such as political briefing, observing the realization of general election in every region, and taking a role on this event (interview with banani ma’mur, may 12th 2009). the assignments for the students are compiling the test script from pkn textbook, answering questions compiled by friends or other teams, making the theme report of the civic education, a case study of actual events in the civic education, looking for an relevant article with the learning from the mass media or journal or internet, e-learning, then discussing them and assessing self value also belongs to an important assignment for the students. the form of evaluating for the learning development of the civic education besides of mid-term test and final-term test also assignment, handling presentation, class and or group discussion, presence percentage, meeting activities, and also the lateness (interview with ahmad muhibbin, june 20th 2009). the form of evaluating such as the mid-term test, final test and students’ activities while the learning process, especially on the class discussion and also the making of clipping and it is not as important as the students attendance belongs to the consideration in giving the final score (interview with agus sarono, july 29th 2009). the form of evaluating and giving assignment of the civic education in muhammadiyah university of magelang consists of the presence/attendance which must be 75% and especially for health faculty, if the student is absent more than 3 times so he/she will get an assignment and it must be submitted before the examination. another component scored is individual and team assignment, the mid-term test, the final test and activities during the discussion. hence, rudi himawan (interviewed on august 11th 2009) really concern with the examination report when there is any student’s deceit so strongly got a sanction for that student. tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 166 meanwhile, budhiarto (interviewed on august 11th 2009) stated that giving motivation and also concern with the social public. the form of assignment is individual and team work/task, with clipping, making an analysis of material on handwritten, compiling proposal and presenting it. the form of giving assignment to the students is structural task (making a team’s proposal prepared by students to be presented on team’s discussion (interview with budi setyawan and agus budi santoso, august 12th 2009). however, the form of evaluation of it is by making proposal presented by each team. the scoring system consists of mastering the problems discussed in the proposal, active and participative role in team’s discussion as a presenter or as an audience. budi setyawan paid less concerns with the scoring system in mid-term test and final test, but more concern with the presentation in team’s discussion. different from budi setyawan, agus budi santoso evaluated on the civic education learning consist of the mid-term test and final test, structural task and the team’s discussion. an effort to realize the campus as campus based on civic education an effort to realize the campus based on civic education makes the campus as a democratic laboratory embryo and campus based on civic education is by creating a democratic campus situation both in intra or extra curriculum. on the intra curriculum, the lecturer teaches unconventionally. on the extra curriculum, the students’ activities are determined by the students themselves, including determining organization and student government. meanwhile the effort done to develop the students’ democratic behavior, formally by doing the students oriented lecture, so it does not suppose that the lecturer is everything, the cleverest person. the learning method used meets to the students as the subject of education. it is good to realize campus based on civic education is the students involved in every state political activity (interview with banani ma’mur, may 12th 2009). according to bunyamin muhtasyar (interview on may 16th 2009), the embryo of democratic laboratory is by forming the students studying club. with this, it will appear the students’ democratic behavior and from that discussion will get many ideas. the students can get the knowledge not from the lecturing material but from other activities. there will appear students’ democratic. besides that, the lecture in case of developing students’ democratic attitude should be given by theories and practical freedom of notion, equal gender and responsibility. make a lot of discussions with the students about real live/case, and how to solve that problem. beside that by giving understanding and comprehension to the students related to gentlemanly and ethics. according to sigid sriwanto (interview on 5 may 2009) to develop students’ democratic attitude is by giving the deliberacy to ask and to give opinion. to create campus based democracy laboratory embryo is by creating students’ organizations. whereas to create campus based civic education we must start from the students to obey the campus regulations. educare: international journal for educational studies, 2(2) 2010 167 to create campus based civic education, not only for the students but also for all the campus society. in university tri dharma (three obligations) activity, whether in education, research and service to society, the lecturers are expected to make students take a part in all activities so that they are used to doing research and service to society (interview with bunyamin muhtasyar, 16 may 2009). the lecturers as a role model, it means that they must give a good example. they also must obey the regulations. there must be balance between right and duty. they must be able to do their assignments well. campus must give a space for students to develop their potential (interview with tjahyo purbomarto, 25 april 2009). the students should be given wider insight so they will be ready listen other opinion, not only want to be heard, and the better is respecting other opinion. that’s why group/class discussion method must have a big portion in learning civics. this method is developed by other lectures not only civics lecturers, more over the younger lecturers (interview with agus sarono, 29 july 2009). meanwhile, banani ma’mur (interview on 29 july 2009) stated that in the early come to the university, the students must be introduced to democracy values, during the orientation it’s better to put into the materials related to the civics values and democracy. the next students’ activity is not far from those values. the students can’t be rid of in developing campus based education. that’s why the students must take part in the effort of developing village society to dig the potential which is related to the village’s economic effort. up till now, it has been implemented the programme in cokroyasan village, ngombol sub district purworejo, but still find some problems such as: (1) the students don’t have much time because they also have to study; and (2) there is no pioneer in the village to invite unemployed people (interview with agus budi santosa, 12 august 2009). meanwhile, budi setyawan (interview on 12 august 2009) also stated that it is needed to involve all parts; students and society. the effort to develop campus based civic education is by giving awareness investment, that generation of post reformation has different challenges from the past so don’t leave the reality behind or they have to learn from reality. for the outside java, students are invited to have care feeling by managing disaster aid through social service. from learning material, we have to add about the archipelago concept material and national nurture. according to arie supriyatno, budiharto, and suharso (as pembantu rektor iii or vice rector iii), activity of students regiment (menwa, resimen mahasiswa) has big contribution in building character and it is not related with campus militarization (interview on 11 august 2009). conclusion based on the research finding in the first phase we can conclude as follows: first, the suitable materials for civics are related to the system of the government, national buffetings history, democracy, human right, globalization, right and duty for citizen. tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 168 second, the appropriate learning method for civics is adjust to civics materials, beside that it is needed to make group/class discussion to create democratic teaching learning in civics in university and to develop students civics values. third, to create campus based civic education embryo and campus based democratic laboratory, it is needed: (1) effort to crate democratic campus environment in intra or extra curriculum; (2) implement the students’ study oriented; (3) involve the students in many national politic activities; (4) form the students’ study group to develop their democratic attitude; (5) give the theories and practical freedom of notion, equal gender and responsibility; (6) create many discussions with the students about the real live/case and find the way to solve the problem; (7) create many students organization to train the students to obey the campus regulations; (8) the lecturers are expected to involve the students in 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(2006). “pengembangan model pembelajaran berbasis portofolio pada matakuliah pendidikan kewarganegaraan untuk mengembangkan nilai-nilai demokrasi mahasiswa”. unpublished research report. purwokerto: universitas muhammadiyah purwokerto. ubaidillah, a. (2000). pendidikan kewargaan (civic education), demokrasi, ham dan masyarakat madani. jakarta: iain jakarta press. undang-undang republik indonesia no.20 tahun 2003 tentang sistem pendidikan nasional. jakarta: ditjen dikdasmen departemen pendidikan nasional. unesco [united nations for education, social and cultural organization]. (1998). learning to live together in peace and harmony. bangkok: unesco proap. unesco [united nations for education, social and cultural organization]. (1999). learning: the treasure within. jakarta: departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan. winataputra, udin s. (2000). “kata pengantar” in pendidikan kewarganegaraan (civic education). jakarta: iain jakarta press. winataputra, udin s. (2003). “pendidikan kewarganegaraan”. available on line at: www. kompas. com/ kompas. cetak/0101/24/ dikbud/pkn do9.htm. [accessed at purwokerto: 15 september 2009]. zamroni. (2001). pendidikan untuk demokrasi: tantangan menuju civil society. yogyakarta: bigraf publishing. zamroni. (2003a). “pendidikan kewarganegaraan: tradisi dalam memelihara kehidupan majemuk” in warta ptm, edisi 7, th.xv, pp.10-11. zamroni. (2003b). “civic education di perguruan tinggi: urgensi dan metodologi” in warta ptm, edisi (1), tahun xv, pp.8-11. tukiran taniredja, sri harmianto & eko priyanto, development of civic education campus-based at muhammadiyah universities in central java 170 zamroni. (2003c). “peran pendidikan tinggi dalam menuju kehidupan masyarakat yang demokratis”. paper presented in seminar nasional civic education di perguruan tinggi di yogyakarta, 8-9 maret. zamroni. (2005). “kata pengantar” in metode pengajaran pendidikan kewarganegaraan. yogyakarta: majelis pendidikan tinggi, penelitian dan pengembangan (diktilitbang) pimpinan pusat muhammadiyah, lembaga penelitian dan pengembangan pendidikan (lp3) universitas muhammadiyah yogyakarta, dan the asia foundation. interview: agus budi santoso, s.h. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purworejo). interviewed at purworejo in central java on august 12, 2009. agus sarono, m.si. of ums (muhammadiyah university of semarang). interviewed at semarang in central java on july 29, 2009. ahmad muhibbin, m.si. of umm (muhammadiyah university of surakarta). interviewed at surakarta in central java on june 20, 2009. ahmad mutholi’in, m.si. of ums (muhammadiyah university of surakarta). interviewed at surakarta in central java on june 20, 2009. arie suprianto, m.si. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purworejo). interviewed at purworejo in central java on april 5, 2009. arie supriyatna, m.si. of umm (muhammadiyah university of magelang). interviewed at magelang in central java on august 11, 2009. banani ma’mur, m.si. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). interviewed at purwokerto in central java on may 12, 2009. budiharto, m.hum. of umm (muhammadiyah university of magelang). interviewed at magelang in central java on august 11, 2009. budi setyawan, m.si. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purworejo). interviewed at purworejo in central java on august 12, 2009. bunyamin muhtasyar, m.si. of ums (muhammadiyah university of surakarta). interviewed at surakarta in central java on may 16, 2009. habib muhsin safingi, m.hum. of umm (muhammadiyah university of magelang). interviewed at magelang in central java on august 11, 2009. mulyono, m.hum. of ums (muhammadiyah university of semarang). interviewed at semarang in central java on july 29, 2009. rudi himawan, m.hum. of umm (muhammadiyah university of magelang). interviewed at magelang in central java on august 11, 2009. sigid sriwanto, m.si. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). interviewed at purwokerto in central java on may 5, 2009. suharso, m.h. of umm (muhammadiyah university of semarang). interviewed at semarang in central java on august 11, 2009. sutomo, m.si. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). interviewed at purwokerto in central java on may 12, 2009. tjahyono pubarmanto, drh. m.sc. of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto). interviewed at purwokerto in central java on april 25, 2009. yulianto bambang setiadi, m.si. of ums (muhammaditah university of surakarta). interviewed at surakarta in central java on april 6, 2009. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 39 dr. hj. siti maryam is a senior lecturer at the department of indonesian language education, faculty of education and teacher training unsur (university of suryakancana) in cianjur, west java, indonesia. she can be reached at: yams1964@yahoo.com strengthening the character: uphold ethics in indonesian language study pass by supplementary books siti maryam abstract: nowadays, characters reinforcement matter has been taken into account for the sake of the nation. we can learn from other countries that succeed in managing education; so that the integration of character education in our country, indonesia, must be conducted. for that objective, the writer assumes that supplementary books are facility usable for teacher of indonesian language and literature subject to be exploited. meanwhile, the effort of indonesian language study teachers in strengthening student character and upholding ethics is one of effort in improving human resource quality. this effort is very essential, considering the quality of indonesian citizen is still unsatisfying. through speaking and writing skills, teacher can evaluate the use of language ethics among students, both directly and indirectly. this article aims to present a study of optimizing language learning to form students’ character and ethics. by combining creativity, character, and ethics to indonesian language and literature learning, the writer optimizes also implicitly the role and function of indonesian language and literature learning in accordance to its target, among others for character and students language ethics reinforcement. so, students as the next generation should be prepared to socialize and live properly. therefore, indonesian language and literature learning should optimize the students’ role through supplementary books. key words: character education, teaching and learning process, supplementary books, indonesian language, and students as the next generation. introduction change and growth toward positive is everybody’s expectation. nowadays, characters reinforcement matter has been taken into account for the sake of the nation. we can learn from other countries that succeed in managing education. general study held on friday in january 27, 2012, at the pakuan university in bogor, west java, indonesia revealed that ethics implementation has made new zealand as the best education organizer in the world. besides, we also must anticipate ten life phenomenon posed by thomas lickona, namely: (1) the increasing of violence at adolescent; (2) the use of harsh words; (3) strong peer group influence in conducting violence; (4) the increasing of drug abuse, alcohol, and free sex; (5) the fade of moral value; (6) the decreasing of working ethos; (7) less respect to parents and siti maryam, strengthening the character 40 teacher; (8) less responsibility as individual and citizen; (9) dishonesty; and (10) suspicious and hate among people (cited by syihabuddin, 2009). the effort surely has to be comprehensive, not merely among academic society but also public society must participate actively. moral degradation aspect must be considered in every activity. the effect of any activity should be beneficial for societies. it is relevant, if these days discussion about character education is frequently increasing compared to the past time. that discussion is based on desire for always upgrading life quality through education. number of research results express moral degradation; among others cucu lisnawati (2004) stated that students’ or adolescents’ behavior and conduct at this time is very worrying, a student now behaves not as a student should be. they tend to communicate in harsh language. they also behave impolitely to their parents and teachers. it is influenced by less moral value education they get from their surroundings. then, dedi mulyasana (2007) research result showed that children behavior is affected by: (1) peer and sibling with their environment; and (2) parents ignorant because of their work load. certainly, those facts should be handled by many parties, including indonesian language and literature teachers. it is true, up to now there is no special subject as such character education as expressed by the head of national curriculum center in jakarta that government, starting at 2010, will include cultural education and nation character through curriculum reinforcement from elementary level until university level as part of national education system reinforcement, and will not add distinctive subject for cultural education and nation character but merely reinforcing each subject which considered weak (http://m.berita8.com, 13/1/2010). important question to be raised is why character education must be related to indonesian language and literature study base supplement books? can student character be repaired by supplementary books at indonesian language and literature study? if it is possible, in what way it is implemented? based on the previous question, then, integration of character education must be conducted. for that objective, the writer assumes that supplementary books are facility usable for teacher of indonesian language and literature subject to be exploited. on the character education national education vision is realizing indonesia citizens who are peace defenders, democratic, competitive, developed, secure, and prosperous indonesian society in the form of republic of indonesia that supported by healthy, independent, religious, noble, patriotic, obey the law, environmental oriented, science and technology savvy, and hard working (depdiknas ri, 2005:6). besides those visions, we can also learn the value within the law of national education system or uuspn (undang-undang sistem pendidikan nasional), especially number 2/1989, section 4, containing national education target which is to brighten the nation life and to develop indonesia humans, who obey and educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 41 believe in god the almighty and are kind hearted, knowledgeable and skillful, healthy, independent and socially responsible, and have high sense of nationality (depdikbud ri, 1990). afterward, in order to implement law number 20/2003 on national education system, government releases the government regulation or pp (peraturan pemerintah) number 19/2005. section 4 from pp referred as standard of national education or snp (standar nasional pendidikan) in order to guarantee national education quality to brighten nation life and to form character and prestigious nation civilization (depdiknas ri, 2006). indonesia follows holistic education, or education that aims to give chance to the students to develop themselves intellectually and facilitate their soul and body growth as a whole to create indonesia citizens with strong character that can elevate the nation pride (http://www.character.org/keytopics/what-is-character-education, 13/1/2010). to realize it, many parties must participate. further, in order to be effective, character education must involve everyone, because basically education cannot stand alone. education is influenced by other strengths; it needs support from family, society, social organization, political policy, economy strength, and others. it must be integrated into the curriculum as well as school character. when school communities unite in developing character, schools will gain amazing results. character education is the intentional effort to develop good character among young people. as stated by thomas lickona, eric schaps and catherine lewis (2010) that “when we think about the kind of character we want for our children, it’s clear that we want them to be able to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and to do what they believe is right”. the following eleven principles serve as criteria that schools and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available character education programs, books, and curriculum resources. first, character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character. character education holds, as a starting philosophical principle, that there are widely shared, pivotally important core ethical values – such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others – that form the basis of good character. second, character must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling, and behavior. in an effective character education program, character is broadly conceived to encompass the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of the moral life. good character consists of understanding, caring about, and acting upon core ethical values. third, effective character education requires an intentional proactive and comprehensive approach that promotes the core values in all phases of school life. schools committed to character education look at themselves through a moral lens and see how virtually everything that goes on in school affects the values and character of students. an intentional and proactive approach plans deliberate ways to develop character, rather than simply waiting for opportunities to occur. fourth, the school must be a caring community. the school itself must embody siti maryam, strengthening the character 42 good character. it must progress toward becoming a microcosm of the civil, caring, and just society we seek to create as a nation. the school can do this by becoming a moral community that helps students form caring attachments to adults and to each other. these caring relationships will foster both the desire to learn and the desire to be a good person. all children and adolescents have a need to belong, and they are more likely to internalize the values and expectations of groups that meet this need. fifth, to develop character, students need opportunities for moral action. in the ethical as in the intellectual domain, students are constructive learners; they learn best by doing. to develop good character, they need many and varied opportunities to apply values such as responsibility and fairness in everyday interactions and discussions. sixth, effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them succeed. character education and academic learning must not be conceived as separate spheres; rather there must be a strong, mutually supportive relationship. in a caring classroom and school where students feel liked and respected by their teachers and fellow students, students are more likely to work hard and achieve. seventh, character education should strive to develop students’ intrinsic motivation. as students develop good character, they develop a stronger inner commitment to doing what their moral judgment tells them is right. schools, especially in their approach to discipline, should strive to develop this intrinsic commitment to core values. eighth, the school staff must become the learning and moral community in which all share responsibility for character education and attempt to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students. three things need attention here: (1) all school staff – teachers, administrators, counselors, coaches, secretaries, cafeteria workers, playground aides, bus drivers – must be involved in learning about, discussion and taking ownership of the character education effort; (2) the same values and norms that govern the life of students must govern the collective life of the adult members of the school community; and (3) the school must find and protect time for staff reflection on moral matters. ninth, character education requires moral leadership from both staff and students. for character education to meet the criteria outlined thus far, there must be leaders (a principal, another administrator, a lead teachers) who champion the effort and, at least initially, a character education committee (or several such support groups, each focused on a particular aspect of the character effort) with responsibility for long-range planning and program implementation. tenth, the school must recruit parents and community members as full partners in the character-building effort. a school’s character education mission statement should state explicitly what is true: parents are the first and most important moral educators of their children. next, the school should take pains at every www to communicate with parents about the school’s goals and activities regarding educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 43 character development – and how families can help. eleventh, evaluation of character education should assess the character of the school, the school staff ’s functioning as character educators, and the extent to which students manifest good character. schools can also assess the three domains of character (knowing, feeling, and behaving) through anonymous questionnaires that measure student moral judgment (for example, “is cheating on a test wrong?”); moral commitment (for example, “would you cheat if you were sure you wouldn’t get caught?”); and self-reported moral behavior (for example, “how many times have you cheated on a test or major assignment in the past year?”). such questionnaires can be administrated at the beginning of a school’s character initiative to get a baseline and again at later points to assess progress (lickona, schaps & lewis, 2010). on the character building and language education therefore, content standard that exists in curriculum is expected to have a positive effect, not only on student life, but also teacher, parents, school, and nation. indonesian language and literature subject intrinsically aims to enable students to: (1) communicate effectively and efficiently in accordance with applicable ethics both orally and literally; (2) respect and proud to uses indonesian language as the unified and nation language; (3) comprehend indonesian language and use it correctly and creative for various objectives; (4) use indonesian language to improve intellectual ability, as well as emotional and social maturity; (5) enjoy and exploit literary work to extend knowledge, to refine ethical conduct, and to improve language knowledge and ability; and (6) respect and proud to indonesia literature as part of indonesian cultural and intellectual richness (maryam, 2003; and sauri, 2006). description above directs education activity to be cornered to the improvement of national prestige quality. it is clearly stated, but the clarity cannot guarantee the success of the practice. dorothy strickland and donna alvermann (2004) confirm that all students or human can learn. that statement can be made to motivate teachers to educate students at school, so that they can be formed to be the national asset in improving, extending knowledge, wisdom, excellence, skill, personality, and independence. therefore, at the end it might create educated and highly qualified nation. idra djati sidi (2001) explains that future school is not merely processing linguistics intelligence and logical-mathematic, but it must include lesson that can develop personality as a whole. this statement demands the teachers to hold learning process that makes the students learns; how to learn through various sources to get complete competence in knowledge and technology, religion, personality, and at the end it will form the students’ characters. characters as part of culture, slivers it’s bearing with values, like: truth, sincerity, and justice. it’s clear that ethics as a value is a matter of having an important, and ideal meaning in human life. it is in line with dahlan who affirms that words that siti maryam, strengthening the character 44 glide from someone tongue is his heart content (cited by sauri, 2006). discussion content empirically can be recognized as existence of saying word in high, usual, low, and skin-deep quality. language with high quality and high contain will process good person who is comprised with idea, solution, science/knowledge, and recitation that realized in standard, good, beautiful and correct language. language with high quality usually comprises expression which is situational, and be based on speaker experience. language with skin-deep quality more presents itself arrogance, itself greatness, and speaker egoism (maryam, 2006). from explanation above, it shows that ethics is related not only to ethics itself but also to values. based on his research result, sofyan sauri (2006) expresses that principle and meaning have the decent language that are derived from al-qur’an (holy book of islam), namely sadida such as gentle, clear, downright, precise, fair, and good; ma’rufa such as polite, fine, beautiful, correctness, please, appreciation, and standard; baligha such as correctness, communicative, get an impression, and touch liver; maysyuro such as easy, soften, fine, nice, and optimism; layyina such as gentle, touch liver, and good; and karima such as glorifying, respect, exalting, and appreciation. ethics is attitude of speaker to respect his talking partner that is being realized in polite utterance. respect is ability for implementing our value to others. its materialization needs emotion, cognate, and social maturity. the students need to know how to learn from various sources indicate that education is a process. good education only can be obtained through good process. for getting the good student character, it requires learning process that involves students in education activity. it is in accordance to john dewey (2002) that affirms that three basic factors that determine education goals are students, problem matter, and society. the importance of students to learn to adapt to changing that happened in society is based on the essence of learning process that aims at forming students’ behavior to be in line with social norm and conduct. therefore, students must learn social values and culture that have been planted in society (enculturation) and also new values (acculturation) so that they can anticipate the future. we need to know the definition of character first, before knowing the real meaning of character education. anton m. moeliono et al. (1988:389) explain that “character” is psychological characteristics, character or ethic of conduct that differentiate one with another, personality, noble character; have personality. human values usually relate to: (1) god, (2) human himself, (3) people, (4) environment, and (5) nation. character education is being synergized with indonesian language and literature study based on supplementary books in purposively. “supplementary books” are compiled based on a number of requirements including high values such as the truth, kindness, beauty, interest, faith, religion, dignity, justice, patience, toughness, sincerity, and benefaction. in other hand, supplementary books must be compiled in accordance to indonesian context. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 45 indonesian context means that books content supports the constitution or uud (undang-undang dasar) 1945, sections 32/1 which states that government should encourage indonesia national culture in the middle of world civilization by guarantee the society freedom in maintaining and developing its cultural values (setneg ri, 2000). through indonesia context, students are directed to grow their horizon, professional, and superior, futuristic, have self confidence and pride, so that they can be the role model as it is dreamt by society and the nation. by concerning how huge the national education burden is, as teacher of indonesian language of study, we must take role in influencing and coloring our students’ life. as the process of character forming, character education can be interpreted as a systematic and systemic activity in building good character. it is called systematic because education process takes place through continuous stages. it is also called systemic because takes place in all condition, in environment that fills each other (house environment, school, and society). at school, teacher must bring students to a better life – having perfect ability and awareness to their social relation and task. students’ success to play a part in their social environment is basically their education success as process of preparing good citizen. on the supplementary books for getting an understating about supplementary books, we should cite the textbook definition beforehand. it is needed because supplementary books are part of non-text resource. by differentiating between textbook and non-textbook, we are expected to be able to differentiate also the referred books role and function. henry guntur tarigan defines completely textbook definition as follows: textbook is school book in a certain study that is standard, and arranged for instructional objectives, equipped with compatible instruction mediums, and easy to understand by its users at schools and college, so it can support the instruction program (tarigan, 1986). further, henry guntur tarigan (1986) cited the definition from lange that states that textbook is standard book of special study consists of two types which are main course books and supplementary course book. main course book refers to textbook and supplementary course book refers to supplementary books. in brief, non-text course book is supplementary books function to enrich certain subjects. certain words in detail can refer to field of study taught at schools. in general, it refers to various areas of science studies such as literature, art, and culture. hence, it can be assumed that “non-text book” is book that can be informational about science, technology, literature, and culture deeply and widely (depdiknas ri, 2009). in addition, it is not used as subject. the differences between the two can be seen completely at the following tables. siti maryam, strengthening the character 46 table 1: differences between text book and supplementary books no characteristic text books supplementary books 1. target. consist of written material that should be comprehended by student in the unit of education. add knowledge to students and teacher in the unit of education. 2. function in unit of education. main source. not as the main source, just a complement. 3. position in unit of education. obligatory. not as the main source, just a supporting. 4. need of supporting tool/assistant. high. not high. 5. writing reference. bounded by curriculum. unattached to curriculum (scien tific discipline, life need, progress or era growth, life experience). 6. teacher help. obligatory. not is obligatory. 7. book anatomy. always consists of subject matter, discussion, practice, and evaluation completely. -8. user. student dominant. not student dominantly. 9. usage place. dominantly in class/school. not dominantly in class/school (house, waiting room, public hall, etc). (source: depdiknas ri, 2011) table above informs that supplementary books as one of non-text books offer some advantages compared to textbooks; supplementary books can be read all the times, in any place, and for various targets. if students have had no awareness to read supplementary books, it is better for teachers to integrate its use in the learning process. the rigor explanation above is to give an understanding about the difference between textbooks and supplementary books. as for what included into supplementary non-text books are reference books and teacher guide-books. afterward, the discussion will be focused on supplementary books. minister of education regulation number 2 years 2008 explains that supplementary book is books that contain material that enrich elementary, secondary, and tertiary education (depdiknas ri, 2009). supplementary books can be grouped into three types those are knowledge enrichment, skill enrichment, and personality enrichment books. to know the role and function of the three of types of supplementary books are referred, in successively discussed one per one. first, knowledge enrichment book. these days, formal education uses curriculum at unit of education level or ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan). the curriculum implementation demands the teachers to compile and present subject matter by themselves. it is not so easy though. there are number of teachers who are not yet ready to do it. it is true that textbook has been available. however, to fulfill demand of ktsp, it is necessary to provide more books. that educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 47 needs actually gives opportunity for teacher to develop supplementary books. many teachers only rely on the existing textbooks, though the use of those books has not yet fulfilled student need and curriculum demand. it means that the learning process has not yet matched with what is expected. textbook that is used has not yet fulfilled the needs of current and future education. therefore, supplementary books are needed to broaden the students’ knowledge and horizon. the breadth of insight can stimulate human brain to think. human brain has the extraordinary power. many spectacular events are the results of human thinking (suwirta, 2005). that greatness does not occur by itself, it must be stimulated, conditioned, and processed correctly; and directed to think positively. hernowo (2002) explicates that human with his brain can jump and make amazing leaps. there is a passion to produce meaningful ideas. to realize it, the conducive learning should be created. it is expected to lead the students to have willingness and ability to read supplementary books. this effort can be considered as literary development. however, it is still insignificant as showed by research result of centre for national assessment in 2003 (cited in maryam, 2006). further, it also requires efforts to develop healthy school. second, personality enrichment. indonesian socio-culture puts emphasize on language politeness. indonesian society still maintains east cultural features. then, supplementary book must direct its reader to have good conduct. in consequence, the usage of its language must refer to the previous target. consequently, the diction also must consider politeness. politeness equals to manner or etiquette. according to w.s. hasanuddin (2009), politeness is a matter that includes conscious to others prestige. the implementation is in form of accepted procedures, traditions, or habits in a civilized society. politeness is rule of conduct that has been specified and agreed on together by a certain society. therefore, politeness becomes a requirement that is agreed on in social behavior. politeness can be seen from various facets: (1) it shows attitude that contain manner value or etiquette in everyday interaction; (2) politeness is very contextual, it is only applicable in a certain society, place, and situation, but it might not be applicable in other society, place, and situation; and (3) politeness is always bipolar, or has two polarity relationship, like the relationship between children and parents, the young and the younger one, and readers and writers. politeness is reflected in the way of communicating, acting, and behaving. language politeness, according to s.c. levinson (1985), at least can be conducted within five ways: (1) it is necessary to apply politeness in language use. this principle tries to maximize enjoy and wisdom, advantage, respect or put other benefit beyond everything, less respect to one self, and emphasize on empathy to others; (2) language politeness should avoid taboo words in communicating; (3) the use of euphemism in order to maintain language politeness; (4) politeness can be reached by using honorific words, which is expression to show respect and soft utterance; and (5) politeness can be formed by applying appropriate non-linguistics siti maryam, strengthening the character 48 aspect. by applying this language politeness, offensiveness can be avoided until the conflict in society can be minimized. to maximize the use of personality enrichment books, teachers’ willingness to select supplementary books that have criteria above until students get the meaningful learning from the books. third, skill enrichment. these days, life is getting more competitive in various areas. skill of all nation elements must be optimized. considering graduates of higher education cannot get the job indirectly. data indicates that huge numbers of graduates wait for job formation with slight possibility to be accepted. while in other side, the demand of working force is very high. till now, there is no link and match between academics content and expectation of user as the consumer. as the consequence, in the future it is necessary to prepare skillful generation. new paradigm must be developed by education, including supplementary books for building life skill and entrepreneurship in addition to professionalism. for indonesian language study, for example, skills and professionalism that can be developed are in areas like: tour guide, master of ceremony, priest, holy qur’an reciter, religious speaker, consultant, instructor, authors, editor, poet, novelist, short story writers, dramatist, broadcaster, journalist, and many others. the forming of those professions needs supplementary books that can answer challenge from the future. professional ability must be prepared so that indonesia will have the ability to create independent job market. from the three of type of supplementary books above, book of personality enrichment is the most important to be developed for character building and reinforcing students’ ethics. both types of other supplement books even also can play a part in indonesian language and literature study, but for the cognitive and psychomotor purpose. application of character education in indonesian language and literature in supplementary books is relevant to rule of national education minister number 2/2008. section 6 verses (2) sounds that “besides course textbook as referred to verse (1) teacher can use educator guide-books and can use supplementary books and reference book in the learning process” (depdiknas ri, 2009). it is referred that classroom activity can use various sources. ideally, book variation would give wide opportunity to see world. if the use of knowledge enrichment books in school is optimized, then student will be able to follows the progress of communication science and technology these days. utilization of personality supplementary books in literature study is very possible. research result of siti maryam (2003) proved that short story as one of cultural product can be made as medium or material to teach social value and culture. supplementary books can be made as medium of truth conveyor. in the old indonesian society, literature becomes inseparable part of everyday life. ajip rosidi (1995) affirmed that poets were placed in high position. their words were more valuable than pearl. literary work is considered not merely as the solace but also as medium of truth conveyor that have strength which was not limited by space and time. in educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 49 fact, literary reading not only can be made medium of the truth conveyor but, as siti maryam (2006) finds, that varieties of essay writings can be also used as the medium of truth conveyor. besides, language ethics reinforcement must be done in comprehensively until students’ posses’ language politeness. if it is realized, then its contribution to society especially to student will be very significant. in order to reach it, the language learning must be based on ethics. therefore, teacher must be role model of using polite language. furthermore, students must be facilitated more in using polite language. the gist that often is forgotten is giving appreciation to children that can use polite language, so it can fertilize student habit as person that not merely polite but also can express their opinion in all situation and condition. by increasing knowledge quality, skill, and student personality, then indonesian language study must include supplementary books in reading, speaking, listening, and writing courses. of course its execution must be based on ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan or curriculum at unit of education level). after teacher determines basic competence and indicator, then teacher can plan at which step supplementary books can be used as supplementary material in learning activity. cutoffs of the supplementary books can be made as course material or example. it also can be used for practice activity, tasks, evaluation, or other exercises. conclusion effort of indonesian language study teachers in strengthening student character and upholding ethics is one of effort in improving human resource quality. this effort is very essential, considering the quality of indonesian citizen is still unsatisfying. through speaking and writing skills, teacher can evaluate the use of language ethics among students, both directly and indirectly. written language that learnt by student can be in the form of textbook and also supplementary books. one of the types of supplementary books is personality enrichment book, which can be use as medium to support the forming of student character in school. supplementary books can fulfill student need, in a sense that it can develop personality, extend knowledge, and uplift life skill which is beneficial in building social independence. as it is explicated earlier, directly and indirectly that education environment would form students’ behavior to live in society, especially in minimizing or even preventing social conflict. teachers must involve in learning activity, since it has closed relationship to the reinforcement of moral values that suitable with general rule of conduct admitted as common truth. those varied of truth can be obtained through personality enrichment book. open mindedness will effect on someone behavior. many social problems are caused by ignorance or lack of society knowledge. students as the next generation should be prepared to socialize and live properly. therefore, indonesian language and literature learning should optimize the students’ role through supplementary books. siti maryam, strengthening the character 50 references article on “budaya dan karakter bangsa masuk kurikulum sekolah” in http://m.berita8.com [accessed in cianjur, indonesia: 13 january 2010]. depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. 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(1986). telaah buku teks. bandung, indonesia: angkasa. honorable patron: dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad rector of ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com editor-in-chief: prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: tukiranump@gmail.com vice editor: dr. furqanul aziez ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: faziez.ump@yahoo.com managing editor: haji ahmad, m.pd. ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: ahmadump@yahoo.co.id expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji zamroni uny, state university of yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia. e-mail: zamroni@uny.ac.id prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. m. syaom barliana upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: aombarli@yahoo.com prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohd shakir amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: aligarhshakir@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issue of february 2009 to date, the educare journal has been organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address: head office (for correspondence): minda masagi press, sekretariat aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com branch office: faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. e-mail: sekret_ump@yahoo.com and tukiranump@yahoo.com website: www.educare-ijes.com and www.mindamas-journals.com cover disgn: “cartoon of education” cited from cartoons of malaysia (source: https://kangmartho.wordpress.com, 28 february 2016). copy right © 2015 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, in collaboration with fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. printed by rizqi offset prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editors: haji joko purwanto, m.si ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: joko62@yahoo com dr. haji tanto sukardi ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: tanto_sukardi@yahoo.com dr. haji akhmad jazuli ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: jazuli_akhmad@yahoo.com dr. suwartono ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: suwartono2006@yahoo.co.id andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu secretariat staffs: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: journal.educare@upi.edu suwarno, m.si. ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto, central java, indonesia. e-mail: suwarnopurwokerto@yahoo.com guideline/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction sub title sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international academic journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published articles will require the author to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get the journal prints, journal off prints, and his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print and off print, but his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except based on written requests from the authors. for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.mindamasjournals.com/index.php/educare /guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 95© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi character education in the perspective of humanistic theory: a case study in indonesia abstract: character education has been an important agenda since the beginning of indonesian independence. this article, based on the qualitative study and historical approach, tries to elaborate the character education in indonesia. findings show that the government policy in later periods affects the character education models in the schools. in the old order era, 1959-1966, especially in the guided democracy era, the character education had tended to be indoctrinated. similarly, during the new order era, 1966-1998, tend to be indoctrinated too. during the reform era, 1998 to date, the character education is integrated into every lesson, self-development activities, and school culture. the learning model is given to the teachers. teachers can develop innovative learning models according to student characteristics and learning needs. in the perspective of character education as a process of values education, the concept is initially a component that touches the philosophy of educational objectives of humanizing humans or humanistic learning. the learning models relevant to the concept are constructivist learning. with these models, students will discover and understand the values of the nation’s character as the basis for taking certain attitudes and actions through internalization process, i.e. the developmental change from externally controlled behavior to internally controlled behavior. indoctrination models, such as in the old order era and new order era in indonesia, did not suitable with the humanistic philosophy of value education. key words: character education; indoctrination; humanistic theory; indonesian governments policy; learning models. about the authors: yudi hartono, m.pd. is a doctoral student at the study program of education science fkip uns (faculty of teacher training and education, sebelas maret university), jalan ir. sutami no.36-a kentingan, surakarta 57126, central java, indonesia. prof. dr. samsi haryanto is a professor emeritus at the departement of history fkip uns in kentingan, surakarta 57126, central java, indonesia. dr. asrowi is a lecturer at the fkip uns in kentingan, surakarta 57126, central java, indonesia. corresponding author is: yudihartono@student.uns.ac.id suggested citation: hartono, yudi, samsi haryanto & asrowi. (2018). “character education in the perspective of humanistic theory: a case study in indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february, pp.95-108. bandung, indonesia and bs begawan, brunei darussalam: minda masagi press owned by aspensi and briman institute, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (december 19, 2017); revised (january 20, 2018); and published (february 28, 2018). introduction the nation’s character development has been an essential agenda since the beginning of indonesian independence. it was proclaimed as the primary goal of education at the time. the undang-undang nomor 4 tahun 1950 tentang dasar-dasar pendidikan dan pengadjaran di sekolah, pasal 3, or “law number 4 year 1950 on basic education and teaching in the school was regulated in article 3”, affirmed that the purpose of education and teaching is to establish capable’s citizens and democratic citizens also responsible for the welfare of citizens and homeland. while article 4 asserted that education and teaching were based on the principles, which were outlined in the pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia), the 1945 constitution of the republic of indonesia, and on indonesian yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi, character education in the perspective of humanistic theory 96 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare national culture (nishimura, 1995; sutisna, 2011; and nurdin, 2015). educational activities in the homeland in the early days of independence were directed at consolidating nationalism values, national identity, and the development of the ideological foundations of life as a nation and as a state. the efforts to inflame the spirit of nationalism at that time were very high, so that azyumardi azra (2007) and bunyamin maftuh (2008) look it as the second phase of nationalism growth in the republic of indonesia (azra, 2007; and maftuh, 2008:135). the first president of the republic of indonesia, ir. soekarno, brings also the spirit of nation and character building in education (nugroho, 2017). excessively, intellectualistic colonial education is replaced by education that can make a personality, can develop selfconfidence, and generate courage, initiative, and spirit at work (penders, 1968). a few months after proclamation of indonesian independence, ki hadjar dewantara, the first minister of education, released a general instruction that proclaims to remove of the colonial education system and prioritizing patriotism (dewantara, 2004; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). the basic education of independence based on pancasila, which is the state philosophy, although only on the determination, because it has not been explained how to lay the foundation on each lesson. the curriculum at that time was called the “lesson plan of 1947”, or more popular with the leer plan in dutch language, which meant lesson plan (sutisna, 2011; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). the 1947 lesson plan is also political, which does not want to see the education world is still applying the dutch curriculum. the arrangement of 1947 lesson plan is straightforward, containing only two main points that are the list of subjects and teaching hours, and the outlines of the teaching (sanjaya, 2007:8). lesson plans focus on character education, the awareness of nation and state rather than intellectual education as the antithesis of colonial model education in indonesia (sutisna, 2011; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). looking at the history of the nation is far before indonesian independence, the nation’s leaders have pioneered the education of indonesian character. ki hadjar dewantara, then as a national hero of indonesia and the first minister of national education of the republic of indonesia, who had thought on the issue of character education in indonesia. improving an intellect is good, because it can build good character and reliable until realizing their personality and character, or the soul, which is based on of the law (dewantara, 2004). according to ki hadjar dewantara (2004), education is an effort to promote the growth of right-minded or noble character or inner strength and character, mind or intellect, and the body of the child (dewantara (2004). all of it cannot be separated, so that we can bring the proper life to our children (kemdiknas ri, 2010:1). ki hadjar dewantara, through the taman siswa (literally “garden of students”), pioneered the character-based education of indonesia. according to ki hadjar dewantara, in his first part of “education”, reveals that there are six pillars of characters derived from the noble values of the nation, namely: giving example or woorbeeld; habituation or pakulinan, gewoontevorming; teaching process or leering, wulang-wuruk; command, coercion, and punishment; behavior; and inner experience that includes ngerti, ngroso, nglakoni or knowing, feeling, and doing (dewantara, 2004:28). before ki hadjar dewantara, there was r.a. (raden adjeng) kartini, 1879-1904. she was a leading feminist of women emancipation in indonesia, who persistently defended the rights of women to get the education by building the establishment of sekolah gadis, literally female school, at jepara which opened in 1903; and at rembang in central java, indonesia (jaquet ed., 2000). when r.a. kartini was 12 years old, she had to quit studying, because she had to do the pingit at that time, a rule of javanese custom that forbids a woman to go outside before marriage, but does not reduce her spirit to move forward. she learned a lot from reading books and writing a letter to her friends and acquaintances (keesing, 1999; and jaquet ed., 2000). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 97© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare although she got the disappointing situation, r.a. kartini has opened the first female school in indonesia successfully. looking at r.a. kartini’s biography, manijo (2013) stated that r.a. kartini as a character with the ideal figure of a woman who has strong-minded, dynamic, independent, broad-minded era with high intellectual, modern-minded, social sensitivity, soul of nationalism, and the deep sense of religious person (manijo, 2013). her thinking about women’s education and education was quite progressive in her time. she thinks that need for science education and character education is done together, because the moral education is the earliest education, it becomes the responsibility of each mother. by herself, all mothers need to be empowered about it through education (cf keesing, 1999; jaquet ed., 2000; and manijo, 2013). similarly, character education took also place in pesantren (islamic boarding schools in indonesia), which existed before the arrival of the dutch colonials. education in pesantren gives priority to the noble character. according to zamakhsyari dhofier (2011), education in the pesantren is not to enrich the minds of the santri or students with explanations, but to elevate noble morals, train and improve the spirit, appreciate spiritual values and humanity, teach the attitude and behavior of honest and moral, and prepare their santris to live in simple life’s and have pure heart (dhofier, 2011:21). among the important educational ideals in pesantren is to train their santris stay on their own and to build themselves up so as not to hang anything except to god. in colonial times, pesantren became the antithesis of the colonial education system (niam, 2010). character education policy cannot be separated from various problems and the challenges that faced by the indonesian nation. the policy influences the learning model of the nation’s character values in schools (saidek, islami & abdoludin, 2016). learning models of learning values about the nation’s character can be changed from time to time. this article, based on the qualitative study and historical approach (creswell, 2003; sjamsuddin, 2007; and williams, 2007), tries to elaborate the character education in indonesia related to: historical perspective; character education in the reform era; and humanistic perspective from indoctrination to internalization. findings and discussion historical perspective. during the old order era (1959-1966), president soekarno as the first president of the republic of indonesia released a manipol (manifesto politik or political manifesto) after the decree of the president on july 5, 1959. from the ideological side, the manipol was indoctrinated in all layers of the indonesian peoples at all levels of education, so that it cannot make specified other interpretations other than the goverment has set it (ricklefs, 1992; and hering, 2001). regarding education policy, the national educational principles are pancasila, or five basic principles of the republic of indonesia; and manipol usdek, or political manifesto on the 1945 constitution of the republic of indonesia, indonesian socialism, guided democracy, guided economy, and indonesian culture (oey, 1971; and ricklefs, 1992). the purpose of national education is to give birth to indonesian socialist citizens, who have noble moral, responsible for the implementation of socialist society of indonesia, just and prosperous both spiritual and material, and the soul of pancasila, namely: (1) belief in the one and only god; (2) just and civilized humanity; (3) the unity of indonesia; (4) democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives; and (5) social justice for all the people of indonesia (cf nishimura, 1995; and taniredja, afandi & faridli, 2012). the concept of socialism in education at this time provided the basis that education was the right of all groups of society without looking at social class (yamin, 2009:87). the minister of education and culture, in the period 1957-1966, drawn up a short-term plan which will then be followed by longterm plans to adjust education policy with the political manifesto. a short plan was devised yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi, character education in the perspective of humanistic theory 98 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare a plan which called sapta usaha tama (seven main agendas). it contains a controlling to the the steps; and to implement the sapta usaha tama is formed a special term, which called business affairs sapta usaha tama and panca wardhana or five educational agendas in indonesia (sutisna, 2011; haridza & irving, 2017; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). panca wardhana has implications for education. the curriculum should be directed to develop the qualities of education that expressed in panca wardhana with manipol-usdek spirits. the goal of education will change from creating a good human and democratic human into a good socialist human and be pioneering in defense of manipol-usdek. a prominent change in the curriculum is the presence of civics subjects, which directed to the establishment of citizens who have characterized by the manipol-usdek. liberalism and individualism are enemies and must be cleansed in civics lessons, because it is unsuitable with the mind and spirit of manipol-usdek in indonesia (oey, 1971; ricklefs, 1992; and nurdin, 2015). the goals of an education system based on the principles of panca wardhana is to create an indonesian socialist human being based on their creativity, feeling, intention, and creation on the following principles: the personality and culture of indonesia; high patriot spirits; based on pancasila; enthusiastic to gotongroyong or mutual cooperation; has a pioneer spirit or self-help and creativity; moral human beings and noble-minded; unpretentious awareness and priority of honesty; consciousness to prioritizing obligations rather than rights; awareness of prioritizing public interest rather than personal interest; willingness to sacrifice and live frugally; recognize guided democracy principles; recognize guided economic principles; discipline; have the ability to appreciate time; rational and economics thinking; and working awareness to build more by working hard (assegaf, 2005:81). the education policy based on sapta usaha tama and panca wardhana was contained in the instruction of the minister of pp & k (pengadjaran, pendidikan dan kebudajaan or teaching, education and culture), number 1 of 1959. the character education model during the old order era, 1959-1966, was also reinforced by mprs ri (madjelis permusjawaratan rakjat sementara republik indonesia or provisional people’s consultative assembly of the republic of indonesia)’s decree, number ii/mprs/1960, about the outline of the national development plan of the first planning at 1961-1969 (oey, 1971; ricklefs, 1992; hering, 2001; and nurdin, 2015). in article 2 of tap (ketetapan or decree) mprs/ii/1960 stated also that the development strategy of the mental/ religious/spiritual sectors was implementing the political manifesto in the field of mental/ religious/spiritual and cultural coaching by guaranteeing the spiritual and material requirements, so that every citizen can develop their personality and national cultures of indonesia and reject the bad influences of foreign culture. the next strategy was to establish pancasila and manipolusdek as subjects in basic education up to universities (oey, 1971; ricklefs, 1992; hering, 2001; and nurdin, 2015). the character education policy was carried out centrally. the educational policy of this period was directed to the process of indoctrination and rejects all cultural elements that come from outside (foreign cultures). the materials which given was not only about pancasila and the 1945 constitution of the republic of indonesia, but also materials which contain the sovereigns political view of the time. the indoctrination materials were known as “seven staple of indoctrinations”, or called tubapi (tudjuh bahan pokok indoktrinasi), consisting and including of pancasila and manipol-usdek (oey, 1971; and ricklefs, 1992). historical records that in the next period, especially in the new order era (1966-1998), what the old order era (1959-1966) did was seen as an indoctrination efforts in indonesia (bourchier & legge, 1994; and nurdin, 2015). the new order era, governments brought the jargon of economic development in indonesia (ricklefs, 1992; and bourchier, 2007). at this time, national education was educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 99© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare directed to give the younger generation to be able to bring the nation and the state being on a line with other countries which and more advanced quickly. education was regulated by a national education system that was closely related to the political life of the nation at that time. at this time, education became an instrument of implementation of development programs in various fields, especially in the field of pedagogy, curriculum, organization, and evaluation of education was directed to the acceleration of development implementation. educational activities in this era were colored by centralist policies that lead to the function of education as an instrument of national economic development (cf bourchier, 2007; nurdin, 2015; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). character education was contained explicitly in the highest political product of state institutions, like mpr (majelis permusyawaratan rakyat republik indonesia or people’s consultative assembly of the republic of indonesia), in the form of gbhn (garis-garis besar haluan negara or broad outlines of state policy) in indonesia. the character education of the nation at this time was manifested in tap (ketetapan or decree) mpr no.ii/mpr/1978 on the ekaprasetia pancakarsa or guidelines for instilling and implementing of pancasila, which called as p4 or pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila (nurdin, 2015; and komara, 2017). to implement and follow up the tap mpr no.ii/mpr/1978 was issued presidential instruction number 10 of 1978 about upgrading of employees of the republic of indonesia concerning results of general meeting of the people’s consultative assembly of the republic of indonesia at 1978. the next step was to organize the upgrading of p-4 for the citizens in general, as well as the civil servants in their respective agencies. for this activities, it was made non-departmental government institution which called implementing education developments of guidelines for instilling and implementing of pancasila as bp-7 (badan penasihat presiden tentang pelaksanaan p4) by presidential decree number 10 of 1979 (anggono, 2014:506507; nurdin, 2015; hartono, 2017; and komara, 2017). since 1983, the upgrading of p4 was a thing, which must be followed by every new student in all schools throughout indonesia (nurdin, 2015; hartono, 2017; and komara, 2017). in the new order era, government asserted that p4 was an operational guide to practicing pancasila in daily life, including in education. the purpose of the upgrading of p4 was the realization of the attitude and behavior of all government apparatus and citizens following pancasila and the 1945 constitution of the republic of indonesia. the indoctrination process has occurred in the application of p4 upgrading that done in every school, from elementary school to university, which contains about pancasila grains. upgrading p4 became an essential and decisive element for the future of students during the new order era (bourchier, 2007; nurdin, 2015; hartono, 2017; and komara, 2017). the subject of pancasila moral education, at that time, stood alone in the structure of the curriculum program at all levels of school. in p-4 concept, pancasila was broken down into 36 grains, which become the standard of man’s ability to understand about pancasila, both at school or society. upgrading p-4 was encouraged to start from village areas up to national level, including universities, lecturers, and students (bourchier, 2007; nurdin, 2015; hartono, 2017; and komara, 2017). in the 1994 curriculum, pancasila education has been transformed from standalone subjects, and then combined into ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewargaan negara or citizenship and pancasila education) subject. pancasila education is integrated as knowledge to strengthen the mind and spirit of nationality through citizenship sciences (nurdin, 2015; komara, 2017; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). in this context, niels mulder (2001) describes indoctrination in the pancasila moral subjects, as follows: the themes that discussed in the first-grade textbooks are: “neatness”, “love”, “pride”, “discipline”, “mutual help”, “harmony”, “bravery”, “hygiene and health”, “saving attitude”, “justice”, “compliance”, “compassion”, “loyalty”, “grace” and yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi, character education in the perspective of humanistic theory 100 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare “mutual respect”. these themes are repeated continuously up to the senior high school. in the years between the first year and the twelfth years, values education becomes political indoctrination, which because of repetition becomes overlapped, being bored and uncomfortable which could be forgotten after the tests or exams have passed (mulder, 2001:30-31). before the implementation of the 1984 curriculum, in 1983, the lesson of pspb (pendidikan sejarah perjuangan bangsa or history education of the national struggle) was defined as compulsory subjects. this determination was based on the decision of the minister of education and culture of the republic of indonesia, number 0461/u/1983, which have signed by nugroho notosusanto (cf sardiman & yuliantri, 2012; and hartono, 2017). the pspb positions as the primary matter and the compulsory subject of the curriculum got a stronger legal position when mpr ri (majelis permusyawaratan rakyat republik indonesia or people’s consultative assembly of the republic of indonesia) has released the tap (ketetapan or decree) mpr no.ii/ mpr/1983, which pspb declared as part of pancasila education. thus, the education of ideology has been done through pancasila education, which has a component of the p-4 (pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila or guidelines for instilling and implementing pancasila); pmp (pendidikan moral pancaila or pancasila moral education); and pspb or history education of national struggle (mulder, 2001; bourchier, 2007; sardiman & yuliantri, 2012; and hartono, 2017). the substitution of the civics lesson during the old order era, 1959-1966, became the pmp or pancasila moral education during the new order era, 1966-1998, had a considerable political impact. civics subjects taught the rights and obligations of citizens, as well as the state’s obligations to their citizens (darmaningtyas, 2004:10; nurdin, 2015; and komara, 2017). thus, every student/learner has been taught to be critical to the state. the prevailing pspb since the 1984 curriculum was seen as a hegemonic educational endeavor that inherent in political nuance, because it focused only on the role of the indonesian army who against the pki (partai komunis indonesia or indonesian communist party) in 1965-1966. through the subjects of pspb, it is expected that the formal education graduates have a high appreciation towards abri (angkatan bersenjata republik indonesia or indonesian armed forces), pmp, p4, or pspb; and it can be said to be an effort of the new order government to create the character of the indonesian nation (mulder, 2001; bourchier, 2007; sardiman & yuliantri, 2012; and hartono, 2017). character education in the reform era. character education during the old order era, 1959-1966, and new order era, 19661998, was characterized by patterns of indoctrination values inculcation. according h.a.r. tilaar (2012), indoctrination is a pattern of implementation (praxis) in education based on powers. learning of indoctrination education praxis also follows the pattern of indoctrination (tilaar, 2012:146). particularly during the new order era of the mid-1980s, ideology of government attempted to incorporate a collection of ideas of “national indoctrination” into coherent state theory (bourchier, 2007:3). however, this indoctrination does not just happen in indonesia. gonzalo de amézola (2007) examined indoctrination through historical learning in argentina. the result was that all history textbooks published between 1956 and 1983 in argentina had always included the concept of homeland, authority, order, and rank. the dictatorship was described as an inevitable and natural thing in the argentine government (amézola, 2007). the same phenomenon also occurs in russia. according to victor shnirelman (2009), historical views in history textbooks in russia was highly centralized and controlled by the state. an alternative view outside the official discussion of the state was not allowed to appear in books. the implications of this centralization and uniformity of views were the existence of certain ethnic groups in russia, who isolate and their collective memory not recognized by the state (shnirelman, 2009). educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 101© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare during the reform era (1998 to date), character building becomes the mainstream of national development. this is reflected in the national development mission, which positioned the nations character education as the first mission to realize the vision of national development, as stated in the rpjpn (rencana pembangunan jangka panjang nasional or national long-term development plan), 2005 – 2025, based on the law of the republic of indonesia number 17 of 2007, which namely the realization of nation characters that is strong, competitive, noble and moral based on pancasila, which characterized by the character and behavior among society of indonesia are diverse, faithful and be piety to god almighty, virtuous, tolerant, mutual cooperative, patriotic spirited, dynamic, and scienceoriented (kemdiknas ri, 2010:2-3; nurdin, 2015; and komara, 2017). the uuspn (undang-undang sistem pendidikan nasional or law on national education system), number 20, year 2003, at article 3, mandated that national education function to develop the ability and create the character and civilization of dignified nation in order to create intelligent nations, which aimed to improve the students skills to be a human who believed and piety to god almighty, have noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become democratic and responsible citizens. the uuspn and rpjpn are a solid foundation for implementing nations character education operationally in indonesia (kemdiknas ri, 2010).1 in the term of nation’s character education, the 2004 curriculum referred to as kbk (kurikulum berbasis kompetensi or competency-based curriculum) which eliminated the word of pancasila from ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewarganegaraan or citizenship and pancasila education) lessons become pkn (pendidikan kewarganegaraan or citizenship education), without mentioning pancasila anymore (nurdin, 2015; and 1see also “rencana pembangunan jangka panjang nasional, 2005 – 2025”. available online at: http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/sistem_perencanaan_ pembangunan_nasional [accessed in surakarta city, indonesia: october 25, 2017]. komara, 2017). this year has also generated the concept of life skill, or life skills training, which is implemented in the learning as part of the effort to create a good personality, having excellent skills, both in the daily life or after graduated from school (nurdin, 2015; hartono, 2017; and komara, 2017). learning from the last era that tends to be indoctrination, character education in the reform era does not become a specific subject. character education of this model occurs in naturally, when implemented naturally and informally too. therefore, there is no need for particular subjects on character education. also, there is no need for programmatic attempts to develop character education that eventually falls on formalism, or even indoctrination (koesoema, 2007:9; and gunawan, 2012). at the implementation of ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan or school-based curriculum) of 2006, the nation’s character was not included as the subject but integrated into the subjects of the learning process, self-development, and school culture (wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). after the implementation of ktsp 2006 for approximately five years, character education has decreased. in the national discussions in 2010 was proclaimed the target of education in 2010 by 10%; in 2011 by 30%; and in 2012 up to 100% (hartono, 2017). the concept of character education reaches its peak in 2011 and 2012 with a syllabus and rpp (rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran or lesson implementation plan) based on character formats. the syllabus and rpp models have begun to integrate with the components value that is part of character education, such as responsibility, respect or be tolerant for others, and some other values (sanjaya, 2007; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). the 2013 curriculum gives opportunities for students in developing the domain of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that is outlined in the skl (standar kompetensi kelulusan or graduates competency standard) at the elementary school, junior and senior high school/vocational level, which are further elaborated in the ki yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi, character education in the perspective of humanistic theory 102 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare (kompetensi inti or core competencies) which consisting of ki of spiritual attitude, ki of social attitude, ki of knowledge, and ki of skills (sutisna, 2011; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). this ki is like an umbrella for all subjects which have taught at a particular school level. the ki is elaborated in each subject in the form of kd (kompetensi dasar or basic competence), which includes kd of religious attitude, kd of social attitude, kd of knowledge, and kd of skills. in the learning process that teachers do to the students should include kd of spiritual attitude, kd of social attitude, kd of knowledge, and kd of skills, so that the developing competencies in the students’ self is certainly comprehensive from all domains of attitude, knowledge, and abilities (haridza & irving, 2017; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). one of its graduate competencies requires students to be able to appreciate and demonstrate honesty, discipline, responsibility, tolerance, politeness, and self-confidence in social and natural environments. students should have abilities in strengthening equality, accommodating differences, and participating actively in building harmonious relationships in society (sutisna, 2011; haridza & irving, 2017:100; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). the 2013 curriculum always correlate with attitudes, knowledge, and skills in a learning context. the teacher explains the material from the kd that comes from ki 3, which is the knowledge element; then developed the kd from ki 4 (skill element); then think the attitude (based on kd from ki 1 and 2) what will be improved through kd 3 and kd 4. thus, a learning process will take place and students can develop attitudinal aspects, knowledge, and skills together. it means that by the 2013 curriculum, it is expected to build character education automatically, because of the inculcation of values life (character values), including the integrated character in each learning process. the learning model is given to the teacher. then, teachers can develop innovative learning models, according to student characteristics and learning needs (haridza & irving, 2017; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). humanistic perspectives from indoctrination to internalization. in the theoretical perspective models, the learning model must be acknowledged that each student has own character, which cannot be equated with others (schunk, 2012). twenty of the students who are faced, it will be faced with twenty characters as well. the teachers must find little in common to support the application of learning models and methods, the formulation of approach strategies with other approaches (nirwana et al., 2006:159-160). a new learning model can cause discomfort. there are several causes for the convenience of the teacher, when trying something new in learning. according to bruce joyce, marsha weil & emily calhoun (2011), sometimes discomfort arises, because teachers have to adapt to things that are entirely new and must have good skills to influence students to use the new strategy. another reason, the teachers should study additional skills, so they can interact with students by the new model; but the teachers are not confident to apply new models (joyce, weil & calhoun, 2011:453). some of the factors above may cause teachers to be reluctant to try new learning models. however, again according to bruce joyce, marsha weil & emily calhoun (2011), when the teacher has experienced in several experiments, so the teacher will become more comfortable, even they try to develop in using the new strategy (joyce, weil & calhoun, 2011). the teacher’s conceptual level is a predictor of the ability to get something new. the teachers with higher theoretical level will control a new model unit more thoroughly and tend to use it more than once than teachers with lower conceptual levels. the relationship between the teacher’s conceptual level and their ability to learn new strategies is closely related to how manages their discomfort feelings to learn something new (cf sanjaya, 2007; joyce, weil & calhoun, 2011; and schunk, 2012). discomfort can also happen to students. by the time a teacher uses a new model, the students may experience quite a pain. for example, gregarious students will usually feel very comfortable with social models educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 103© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and can take advantage of the model quickly. however, less gregarious students need a learning model that makes them comfortable (dalyono, 2012; krišto, 2012; and schunk, 2012). in developmental theory, discomfort feeling is a sign of growth. most developmental theories stage is not only focused on natural growth at every step, but also the arrestment and accommodation that is needed to reach a higher stage of development (baltes, reese & lipsett, 1980; and mcleod, 2017). carl rogers (1961) said that the natural tendency of students is to imprison themselves in some realm that makes them feel good. a teacher’s task is to help the learner reach these realms that seem to be enveloped by fear (rogers, 1961; and rogers, lyon & tausch, 2013). being develop the students must feel discomfort and be given the task of destroying their fear of suffering. the teachers’ duty not only presents an environment that can bind students, but also help them become active seekers after passing new developments (rogers, lyon & tausch, 2013; and anggono, 2014). to help students should be developed the dynamic imbalance continuously. rather than matching learning approaches to students by reducing their convenience, the real task of the teacher is to expose new models that in sometimes will be more comfortable to them. the challenge is not to choose the most appealing model, but that allows students to develop skills to interact with various models (joyce, weil & calhoun, 2011:454; and rogers, lyon & tausch, 2013). trying new learning models is a professional demand for a teacher. the education character is a process of education values. the education values are increasingly important today, as hari p. krishna (2012) said that people could see real change in students’ behavior in terms of thinking, lifestyle, habits, proactive leadership, relationships, positive attitudes, and responsibilities, in addition to skills such as time management and stress (krishna, 2012:125-126). based on the urgent need to instill the education value, it takes an effort with the idea of developing the right kind of input in teaching values, morals, and ethics today. education value will build a value system for each student. the benefit of having a good value system are: values will guide students to live ethically, make informed decisions and actions; values will help students to evaluate and assess the other similar actions; values and beliefs will influence essential attitudes to bring success and harmony in life; values will help feelings of peace from inside and live in harmony with in students and society; and values will provide direction to student life (ali & sinha, 2016:90). philosophically, the initial concept of education value is a component that touches on the philosophy of humanistic education. the main idea of humanistic education thought is to respect human dignity and prestige (mastuhu, 2003:136). humanistic theories as applied in the learning are constructive and emphasize the cognitive and influencing processes. this theory explains the abilities and potentials of people as they choose and seek control over their lives. humanistic theories emphasize the motivation to develop the full potential of people (mastuhu, 2003; and schunk, 2012:482). the main purpose of educators is to help students to improve themselves, which helps individuals to know themselves as unique human beings and assist in realizing the potentials that exist within them (dalyono, 2012:43; and rogers, lyon & tausch, 2013). the theory of humanism is relevant to apply in learning materials that are personality or character formation, attitude change, and analysis of social phenomena. the model which is used to stimulates the student’s active role. based on this philosophy, the ways of indoctrination should be avoided, such as the explanatory learning models through lectures or talk (feist & feist, 2009; and stefaroi, 2015). the indonesian has a long experience in education models of indoctrination character. during the old order era (19591966), especially the guided democracy era, that used the seven basic materials of indoctrination (hartono, 2017; and nurdin, 2015). during the new order era (1966yudi hartono, samsi haryanto & asrowi, character education in the perspective of humanistic theory 104 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 1998), upgrading the p4 (pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila or guidelines for instilling and implementing pancasila); the lesson of pmp (pendidikan moral pancasila or pancasila moral education); and the subject of pspb (pendidikan sejarah perjuangan bangsa or history education of national struggle). all is a form indoctrinazation mannres in the process of education (cf bourchier, 2007; sardiman & yuliantri, 2012; hartono, 2017; and nurdin, 2015). to get knowledge of the values, attitudes, and exemplary behavior of historical stories of national heroes, the relevant approach is an inductive approach. the use of an inductive approach in character education through stories is based on the assumption that: this approach presents a direct link between students and stories; students have the freedom to define the point of view and express opinions about the story being read; students will try to dig up their own values in the story; students have the freedom to empathize, sympathize, and antipathy to the stories which they read; the “expert opinion” regarding the value in the story is not a final one that limits the student’s opinion; the teacher acts as moderator and facilitator for student disagreements; teachers and students as like as a readers, and teachers’ opinions only as an alternative according to their point of view; and the main concern for the message contained in the story (prayitno & setyaningsih, 2011; and watz, 2011). the learning models that relevant to the inductive approach are constructivist learning models, such as dl or discovery learning; pbl or problem-based learning; and pjbl or project-based learning (oguz-unver & arabacioglu, 2014). these learning models are relevant to the character education in the context of the 2013 curriculum that uses a scientific approach as applied in senior high school 1 in surakarta and senior high school of batik 1 in surakarta, central java, indonesia. with these models, the students will discover and understand the values as the basis for taking certain moral attitudes and actions through the internalization process, i.e. the developmental changing from externally controlled behavior to internally controlled behavior (haridza & irving, 2017; and wahyudin & suwirta, 2017). models of values that tend to be indoctrinated through lectures or talk are irrelevant, because it can give bad effect for students. again, according h.a.r. tilaar (2012), indoctrination is one pattern of implementation or praxis education based on power. learning in indoctrination education praxis also follows the pattern of indoctrination (tilaar, 2012). even, indoctrination creates false success in a short time, can foster antipathy, aridity, lies, ignorance, hatred, and especially resistance to it (surakhmad, 2008:2). indoctrination in the world of education can kill learner’s creativity. indoctrination models actually can weaken the character education itself. using a model that tends to be indoctrinated is irrelevant to the philosophy of education values based on the philosophy of humanistic education (cf koesoema, 2007; sanjaya, 2007; and scaramanga, 2017). conclusion character education is organized to build and strengthen the nation’s character. the initial concept of character education or value education is a component that touches the philosophy of educational objectives of humanizing human or humanistic education. the humanistic theories applied in learning are constructive and emphasize the cognitive and influencing processes with relevant learning models, such as dl or discovery learning, pbl or problem-based learning, and pjbl or project-based learning. with these models, students will discover and understand the values of the nation’s character as the basis for taking an attitude and actions through the process of internalization, i.e. the development changing which from externally controlled behavior to internally controlled behavior. models that tend to be indoctrination are not suitable with the initial concept of character education as a process of value education, because it can give bad effect for students. indoctrination in the education world can kill students’ creativity and can undermine character education itself. the use of a model educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 105© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare that tends to be indoctrination is inconsistent with a humanistic philosophy of value education.2 references ali, zeeshan & ashish ranjan sinha. 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educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 161 rosida tiurma manurung is a ph.d. student at the postgraduate program of literature science, majoring in linguistic unpad (padjadjaran university) in bandung, west java, indonesia; and prof. dr. dadang suganda and prof. dr. davidescu cristiana are the lecturers at the faculty of humanities unpad bandung. corresponding author is: rosidatm@gmail.com introduction in today literature, teacher figure has shifted. formerly, it was high, noble, and respected; now, it is corrupted, even poisoned. where does the positive label go? most students show no respect now to their teachers, as well underestimate and look down on them. what’s going wrong to have caused such negative labeling where the profession is highly burdened? they must teach and share their knowledge with sincerity, while still having to be patient with their students and transform them into useful human beings for the nation. it is a too burdened a job considering having to still make them (the students) smart while facing indecent act from the part of the students. a job that sucks. in the past, teaching was a highly respected profession. teachers used to live in wellbeing. during the dutch administration in indonesia, teachers used to receive more income as opposed to government officers. their profession was highly prestigious. their position was considered high. what has been happening from 2000s up to now? the profession of teaching is viewed as insignificant and marginalized. a teacher with teaching hour 24 hours weekly is only paid idr 900,000 (nine hundred thousand rupiah indonesia or less than usd 90) monthly. just slightly higher than the national basic/standard payment of labor. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence in modern literature abstract: previous to 1960, the literatures recognized teachers as highly respected figures. upon seeing a teacher from far away, a student would hurriedly run to reach him/her and would lead his/her bike. it was considered an honor to help teachers in one way or another. time and time in the past literature, teachers are labeled in such ways that the students would kiss their teachers’ hands to show them respect. the students would not hesitate to give their selves away to help cut their teachers’ grass. however, it is no longer the case in today’ literatures. the literatures repeatedly make fun of teachers, as well harassing and paralyzing them. it is ironical. teachers have lost their positive label and are labeled negatively as the product of indecent behavior from the part of the students. schools are becoming the fields for channeling violent attitude and behaviors to ruin the good image of a teacher. in this work, teachers labeling in the past and today’ literature are compared. literatures from 1960s and 2000s become the sources of data. language expression is analyzed with the help of critical discourse analysis using the method of contrasted descriptive and analysis, while data are collected by the technique of library study and interviews. it is expected that the result of the research help put the teachers’ label (already fading away, corrupted, and falling onto pieces) on its early respected place again. teachers with positive image are always needed and cannot be compromised. with the positive label of teachers, the process of studying and teaching can be performed more conducive, effective, interactive, and optimum. positive labeling of teachers need to be started in today literature. poets and authors have the central role to give appreciation for the teachers. key words: teachers labeling, violent expression, 1960s’ literature, today’ literature, contrasted analysis, and critical discourse analysis. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 162 what about honorary teachers? theirs must be even worse. teachers are also demanded to plant good values in their students’ life besides teaching them. when students are behaving indecently, teachers are the first to be blamed by the society, not the students or the parents. it is also the case when the students fail the national exam. teachers become like scapegoats. it is too ironic. negative labeling as expression of violence language is also used as a tool to express self. language expression is a tool to reveal openly everything in our minds, at least to establish our existence. the motivations behind the expression of self is various, among others is to get attention from people and to release emotional tensions. discourse can be utilized as a ware to determine someone’ or a group status who is under a certain authority or social order. discourse can be used to register a as immoral, b as moral, c as the violator, d as the enforcer, e as civilian, etc. it is clear that discourse is used to label status, authority, sanction, or punishment, etc. in discourse, status legitimating is done by labeling. jalaluddin rakhmat (2005:108) mentions that labeling is a form of euphemism, with significant difference. if euphemism is inoffensive as a substitute for uninteresting phrase, (for example “effort to control and rehabilitate” to substitute for the phrase exiling), labeling is on the other hand applying offensive phrase to a person, a group, or a symptom. during the era of nazi in germany, for example, the jews were labeled as “parasites”, “troubling animals”, and “bacteria”. by so doing, jews were considered no human being, but disease that must be busted and terminated. in indonesia, labeling also happens all the time. language expression, inside which labeling occurs, for example, labeling to indicate insignificance, such as kroco (slave), wong cilik (lay people), or tikus got (mouse). labeling in authority is showing when they use the phrases, such as anti-pancasila (antiideology), koruptor (corruptor), ekstrem kiri (left extremist), ekstrem kanan (right extremist), antipembangunan (anti-development), anti-reformasi (anti-reform), pro-kapitalis (pro-capitalist), and so on (depdikbud ri, 2004). language is strongly used as a tool to express. a philosopher, john dewey, reveals that words can express idea (cited in rakhmat, 2005). so, it’s not only words submit to our mind. our mind also submits to words. hence, words can influence how we think, remember, and perceive. in america, labeling has always been phenomenal. for instance, the terms like nigger, darky, honky “orang kulit putih” (white man), white boy, the little woman, and broad “wanita” (women) are labeling on status that ridicule and humiliate. based on its application, labeling is done with certain intention, be it positive or negative. some examples of labeling positively are gagah (handsome), bersih (clean), jujur (honest), pemberani (bravemen), aktif (active), and kreatif (creative). some examples of labeling negatively are lemah (weak), ceroboh (careless), pasif (pasive), pemabuk (drinker), pemalsu (counterfeiter), pembalak (loggers), and so on (depdikbud ri, 2004). during 1960s, positive labeling towards teachers was bold. teachers were adored and respected. their attitude and way of thinking were taken as examples of good ones. their words were considered orders to be taken. the students honored them higher than their parents. they didn’t stare at their teachers when speaking with them. instead, they bowed and spoke with low voice, always nervous and sweat. students of today have changed and their behavior shift into labeling their teachers negatively. teachers are no longer figures to be followed. the students are inclined to look down on their teachers due to great money they have paid for the teachers. teachers are viewed no more than paid people. this becomes a dilemma on the part of the teachers. in one hand, they eagerly seek to be labeled positively by the students, but on the other hand, they have to eat, to rent a house besides many bills to pay. they still have to work extra hours by giving extra courses in various places. in some places, teachers don’t hesitate educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 163 to drive people on a bike for money. hence, economic problem is one reason behind the downfall of teacher’s image. in addition, bad influence of culture coming from abroad and technology advances are also believed to cause the shift on students’ behavior which manifest itself in forms such as fight, bikers gang vandalism, drugs use, and immorality. the spirit of labeling teachers negatively seems to have dominated the students now. to gain back the positive label, teachers are required to have big hearts to fight for improved performances, competences, and professionalism. smart and broad minded teachers can always “hypnotize” and amaze their students. in return, their students will respect them. pursue of money has always been keeping them from doing so and causing the negative labels. will the teachers be left alone? in no way. the noble duty of teachers should be paid with high appreciation. no longer can no-payment-over-their-work be let happen. to quote fairclough & ruth wodak (1997), critical discourse analysis seek through languages used how existing social groups fight and propose their own versions. based on critical discourse analysis order, texts of today’ literatures will be analyzed from language expression perspective. texts will be interpreted and represented by using power expression. language is a tool for expressing political power, putting aside people, political jokes, realizing political violence agenda, selling out conflicts, chaos and spirit of sectarianism. language expression is searched with the use of critical discourse analysis model by fairclough & ruth wodak (1997), with language unit taken from political discourses, violence expression, critical texts study, and inter-textual analysis which covers texts level, discourse practice, and socio-cultural in representing parties in conflict who are inclined to use language expression containing violence. materials for study in this work take the form of violence expression in various literatures as found in newspapers. language expression containing violence will be analyzed based on critical discourse analysis (cda). when perceived from cda in formal settings, various kinds of terms to persuade positive expression concerning unity, orderliness, nation advancement, ideology of unity, archipelago perspective, taking off, national discipline, introspection, selfawareness, openness, and so on (cs, 2000). in the opposite, there are terms which sell out words expressing violence state, such as conflict, enmity, chaos, and sectarian spirit. for example, anti-development, left and right extremes, gpk (gerombolan pengacau keamanan or disorder and troublemaker group), sara (suku, agama, ras, dan antargolongan or tribe, religion, race, and intergroups), involved, non-native, embarrassing nation, disturbance on peace, subversion, unconstitutional attitudes, inconsistent, outsider movement, steering, to steer, free ride, pitting, delirious, social jealousy, etc. as dom camara helder (2000) put it, it seems that when violence meets violence, it is very much like a circle with no obvious point to cut off. violence is “any avoidable impediment to self-realization” (galtung, 1990:37). violence is everything that keeps people from actualizing self naturally from which he/she can actually escape him/herself besides to put aside the violence directly and indirectly, be it personal or collective including violence in language. in this wok, today literatures are prone to violence expression study on teachers labeling in literatures by reading literatures, sketches of life happening around us will be obvious to our eyes, besides we can detect values. at the opposite, negative elements and immorality occurring around the globes can be recorded in literatures. literatures from 1960s era and today differ significantly when put in contrast to each other. in this study, it is found that teachers labeling in 1960s and today are opposite to each other. the following data and analysis shows us about them. first, positive labeling on teachers in era of 1960s. literatures from era of 1960s shows as following: “there i saw mr. ajar, an angel, standing in front of the class, and his students, young angels. wow, what a wonderful screen to see” (cited in nm, p.42). rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 164 a young man desired to master sword skill. someone had told him that there was a famous sword master who had never been beaten. the master now stayed alone on top of a high mountain. becoming so determined, the young man managed to make a long trip and hiked the rugged mountain to reach the master. he finally reached the place, and learned that the master was already very old, skinny, but full of authority. “master, please teach me your sword skill” (anonym). “then, everyone will mind, teacher. no one would give away himself over to help work the land. but, for you, teacher, we will do whatever you tell us. for us, we know for sure that there are great rewards awaiting those who help his teacher” (cited in k1, p.34). “we all can feel that teacher is no longer here. no one else can do as much as he does. only to him in this village we pay respect. yes, it’s only to him. that’s it, teacher” (cited in k1, p.75). “i owe you, teacher. i will never afford to payback till the day i die. please, give me some more time to pay you back your kindness” (cited in k1, p.94). bang maing was very happy to listen to teacher rahim, while he was admonishing him. [...] bang maing returned home with clear mind ever since (cited in bdp, p.8). teacher rahim still smiled after koding kissed her hands, then she asked them to sit (cited in bdp, p.109). my grandpa used to teach [...]. i still remember that he was respected highly by his village citizens. everyone would bow respecting him when they met him on the street (cited in pk, p.32). from the above data, we can make analysis on how the students represent their teachers which as follows (table 1). second, negative labeling towards teachers today. today’ literature, especially well-liked fictions novel and teenage short story, recognize following data: “he worries about me? for what reason? she thinks mr. daud will pounce me like a tiger?” (cited in dm, p.13). [...] most teachers he knows are ferocious and rigid (cited in k2, p.13). “this ain’t yours, you say? this is your bag! oh, i know, all this time you play this robot toy”, snapped mrs. narlyn. “sometimes also plays karambol, mam!”, samsul responded. “geeeerrrr table 1: data on teachers labeling in the eye of students as found in literatures from era 1960s no. positive labeling on teachers students behavior representation and interpretation about teachers 1. very much like angels (holy) peaceful and exciting teachers are labeled angels (holy), which raises meaning that teachers have holy and soft hearts, have certain characters on their faces. students feel secure around their teachers, along with peace, being calm, and free from any fear. 2. called as master uphold their masters very highly labeled as masters, teachers are considered leaders, place for service, figures that have many faithful followers who will give their selves away to service, and highly respected. 3. rewards await those who help their teachers help teachers with enthusiasm teachers labeled as place for those who have rewards in heaven is a noble way of interpreting. doing so is the dream of every student. 4. highly respected place where students can ask everything the label “highly respected people” implies that teachers are charismatic, authoritative, a figure that makes students bow, obey, respect, and afraid of making them disappointed and hurt. 5. helpers owe their teachers labeling teachers as helpers implies that teachers have ability to ease their students’ burdens, figure willing to help in trouble, ready to help fix problems and difficulties, and to get rid of pain in any time. teachers with good manners of speaking and behaving always have idea to help solve students with problem. teachers are associated with curing drugs. 6. their advice are worth listening their advice calm the mind of the students the label implies that whatever the teachers say has some wisdom and virtue in it. their words and thinking have valuable lessons worth caring, listening, carrying into action. teachers are considered godly whose advices worth listening and following up. 7. worth respecting kiss their hands with respect the label implies meaning that they are loved, adored, needed, upheld, and respected. the students can also reflect on the virtues. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 165 ...”, the class became noisy and chaotic like in the traditional market. mrs. narlyn became mad (cited in o & f, p.55). “if mrs. nunik is our head class teacher, then we are in trouble. we know she is such garrulous. it’s a nightmare” (cited in bg, p.17). “how i long to choke her (mrs. nunik) on her neck. she is going to sit us on separate chairs” (cited in bg, p.17). “i am not color blinded. she is the one who is oldfashioned. witch, nenek lampir, villager” (cited in bg, p.43). “if nenek lampir had canine tooth, her bite will surely infect me. i smile to myself imagining she get crazy to bite me” (cited in bg, p.44). “not only once or twice i went through nightmares with her. suddenly, the horror music start to play in my mind” (cited in bg, p.138). the above data shows expression of violence in the form of harassing teachers, making fun of them, and humiliating them. the following analysis shows it (table 2). when visited from labeling perspective, teacher figure shows significant difference as found in literatures from 1960s and 2000s. literatures from 1960 still radiate positive labeling. students still adored their teachers, respected them, and placed them in the high places. students raced in helping their teachers for rewards from heaven. teachers were place for seeking answers for asking questions about lessons, family, or even about fields. thus, teachers were still considered experts, possessing much knowledge, and wise. in the eyes of the students and the society, teachers were higher than the parents, even other leading figures in the society. having an opportunity to communicate and interact with them was still an honor. hence, in literatures from 1960s, teachers’ image was positive. however, it is not the case today. teachers labeling shows a shift into negative trend. table 2: data on teachers figure, guru, in the eye of the students as found in today’ literature no. negative labeling towards teachers how students act representation and interpretation concerning teachers 1. fierce avoid teachers labeled “fierce” by their students usually speak loudly, has fierce face, and are quick to get angry. most students don’t like teachers such as them. the students always daydream about skipping classes with fierce teachers. they don’t expect their coming. this negative labeling leads to disobedience on the part of the students and to skip classes. once in a while, students dare to ambush teachers of that kind on the street and hurt them, even to the point of humiliating them. 2. rigid uncomfortable “rigid” labeling results in a figure characterized with inflexibility, stubbornness, and carelessness to the students and to the surrounding. a figure that is highly hated by the students. however, the students actually mistake consistency, obedience, and orderliness by the teachers with rigidness. 3. garrulous not care to the teachers; class in chaos “garrulous” negative labeling result in image that always cause dizziness. the students believe that this kind of teachers have fun in making up comment on everything every day. from the study material, to home assignment, to students’ fashion, to class setting, and to the students characters. they consider those comments as forms of getting involved with their problem. 4. horrifying scared “horrifying” labeling cause uneasiness to the students, besides dread and reluctance to associate personally with the teachers. 5. horrible nightmare “horrible” labeling emerges rude and impolite meaning. horrible teachers mean teachers whose comings are not expected. they must get rid of them because they are bad. they can damage peace, cause students to worry and relent. 6. talkative don’t like “talkative” labeling is worrying, since teachers are considered nerd, arrogant, proud, and talkative. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 166 teachers are ridiculed, humiliated, and become figure to be put shunned. students no longer consider their teachers as partners to work with. they place them in negative places. teachers are symbolized as horrible, evil, and dreadful figures. teachers labeling by students is not a rumor. they set them as targets for violence. once, there was a student beating his teacher badly only because hurt of being reproved in front of class. in other time, there was a student caused his teacher’s tire flat because given bad score on his lesson. in another time, a student threatened his teacher with knife to be passed on his exam. moral corruption is accused to have caused the behavior degrade. young generation today seems to not care of everything, see money as more important than religion, and set aside good characters. cultures from abroad and technology advances also have role in diverting teens’ behavior. noble characters are replaced with apathetic attitude, extremism, egoism that leads to crime, adultery, and sadistic acts. parents and teachers have moral and absolute obligation to filter influences of cultures and technology that bring negative effect, especially to teenagers (djamarah, 2005). they must have such sensitivity to detect anxiety and emotional instability of teenagers. parents and students must be close to each other and interact in harmony. students don’t need rigid rule but discipline that educate and personal approach that is sympathetic. parents can persuade teenager to think seriously about their future and prepare to be responsible about it. teachers must fight seriously to make progress in their images. negative, rigid, and terrifying label on their figure must be removed. the only way is to treat students as subjects not objects, that is by considering them as partners to work with in the learning and teaching process. teachers must have positive label, be wise, and have wisdom. anger can never help a teacher to be effective. he must invite his students to discuss problems in open sphere in order that problems be solved (kusnandar, 2007). teachers labeling is a determining factor in education process. teachers with no positive label will find it real hard to create conducive settings in the class and experience downturn in his value in the eyes of the students. students will perceive them no more than paid people. the phrase “hero without award” will leave as they lose their positive label. to encourage positive labeling, authors of today’ literature are suggested to create examples on good values and morality in their writings so that their readers, especially the students, can improve their diverted behavior. put the teachers on its place. do not make fun of them. in addition, every teacher must improve their performance and professionalism. teachers are necessary to be proactive to advance their understanding and competences to get positive reception from the students. smart teachers can always amaze their students and make them adore and uphold their teachers (soetjipto, 2004). conclusion from the research, some following findings can be achieved: in literatures of 1960s, positive labeling towards teachers was bold and teacher figure was pictured positively, teachers were central and key to education. teachers were labeled as though they were angels, esteemed, masters, worth to be honored for their words. in this research, it is found that today’ literature project a lot negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence. teachers are pictured as negative figure with no place. they are labeled as furious, garrulous, rigid, horrible, and terrifying. negative labeling towards teachers result in representation and interpretation that put teachers as victims of violence. positive labeling on teachers can be established if only teachers are willing to approach the students personally and spiritually. negative labeling on teachers can actually be removed if only teachers expand their knowledge and proficiency to be more valuable. technology advances and the coming of foreign cultures join in triggering the change and shift in young generation’ morality. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 167 references bdp, berita dari pinggiran (news from periphery area), by toha mohtar. bg, bad girl, by vierna mariska. cs [cultural studies]. (2000). teori sastra: pengantar komprehensif. jakarta: jalasutra egletonterry. depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. (2004). kamus besar bahasa baku. jakarta: balai pustaka. djamarah, syaiful bahri. (2005). guru dan anak didik. jakarta: rineka cipta. dm, daun muda (young leaves), by el ovio. fairclough & ruth wodak. (1997). “critical discourse analysis” in teun a. van dijk [ed]. discourse as social interaction: discourse studies a multi-disciplinary introduction, vol.2. london: sage publication. galtung, johan. (1990). “cultural violence” in journal of peace research, 27(3), pp.291-305. helder, dom camara. (2000). spiral of violance: spiral kekerasan. yogyakarta: komunitas aparu, translation. kusnandar. (2007). guru profesional. jakarta: rajawali press. k1, kemarau (drought), by a.a. navis. k2, kencana (gold), by sitta karina. nm, nyanyian malam (night song), by ahmad tohari. o & f, ony & friends, by ferry a.f. pk, pohon keramat (sacred tree), by yus r. ismail. rakhmat, jalaluddin. (2005). retorika modern. bandung: remaja rosda karya. soetjipto. (2004). profesi keguruan. jakarta: rineka cipta. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 168 the teachers of indonesia (source: photo album of aspensi, 10/12/2013) negative labeling towards teachers result in representation and interpretation that put teachers as victims of violence. positive labeling on teachers can be established if only teachers are willing to approach the students personally and spiritually. negative labeling on teachers can actually be removed if only teachers expand their knowledge and proficiency to be more valuable. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 53© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2016 to november 2016, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/ index.php/sosiohumanika e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 54 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016, the tawarikh journal will be organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/tawarikh e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 55© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 56 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 57© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to date, the sipatahoenan journal has been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 58 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal firstly has been published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insancita journal has been organized and managed by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamasjournals.com/index.php/insancita e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 59© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016, the mimbar pendidikan journal has been organized and managed by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik.jurnal.upi@gmail.com and atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 60 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it will be published, a new scholarly journal, honai: international journal for educational, social, political & cultural studies. this journal will firstly be published on may 2, 2018. since issue of may 2018, the honai journal will be organized and managed by the lecturers of stisip (college of social and political sciences) amal ilmiah in wamena, papua; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the honai journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the journal website (under construction) at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/honai e-mail address: atriwusidna@gmail.com educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 61© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 62 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare inviting to become the authtors number : x/red.edu/viii/2017 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1) august 2017 can be published. so sorry for the late publication. however, we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mail address at: ijes.educare@gmail.com or atriwusidna@gmail.com as we know that the educare journal is firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 30, 2017 best regards, sri redjeki rosdiandi, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 i © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a volume 9(2) february 2017 print issn 1979-7877 contents foreword. [ii] mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction in applied linguistics research articles. [69-84] minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution in the philippines. [85-94] risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum: a comparison study. [95-110] kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students towards mobile learning. [111-120] tristan m. eseo, armina b. mangaoil & bettina m. sedilla, confidence judgment and test scores: basis for proposed confidence enhancement. [121-128] info-edu-tainment. [129-138] educare journal will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the educational studies in general and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. the educare journal, with print issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the independence day in indonesia. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as an academic publishing owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ii educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. education is an attempt to humanize humans. this educational process lasts a lifetime, which in the context of islamic teachings was said that education lasts a lifetime, from the man that is born until he died. during the educational process takes place, we are trained, equipped, educated, and reminded to always be a good man and qualified for the bettermen of ourselves and also useful for other people’s lives. the education process is also taking place from family and school to the community. thus, education has become a shared responsibility between the family, school, and community. education is the driving force for the progress of a nation-state. the nation-state of advanced and modern in the world today, due to the government – of course together with the family and the community – with serious designing, financing, and implementing programs of mass education, systematic, and continuous. history has proven that the government has provided massive investment in education, then in the not too long time, that is 25-50 years, the nation-state has been experiencing a significant progress and prosperity. countries in europe, usa (united states of america), and japan, for example, have become a developed country because the level of education possessed by citizens is also quite high. education also is a vehicle for democracy and freedom for the citizens of a nation-state. many developed and democratic countries in the world, as well as supported by the progress of the education level of its citizens. educated citizens will have the literacy rate is high in all areas, which in turn becomes the driving force for the dynamics and social change in society towards significant progress. educated citizens also raised hopes, ideals, and a new vision for a nation-state in the future, so that the nation-state has become more advanced, prosperous, modern, civilized, and equitable. many aspects can be examined and studied in the field of education. history of education, educational planning, education funding, processes and implementation of educational programs, and education for all – including gender perspectives’ education, are areas that can be examined and studied in the world of education. even not less important is the study of comparative education system. by comparing the educational system of a nation-state with other nationstates in the world, we will gain an understanding and a valuable lesson about the progress made by the nation-states in all areas of community life. journal of educare is a medium to review and study the many aspects of education. due to its scope is an international character, the journal of educare wants to see and compare the studies on the educational aspects shared by many nation-states in the world. that is none other than that we have a new perspective and valuable experience about the educational aspects, which have brought progress, prosperity, freedom, justice, and modernity for the country and people all over the world. the progress of a nation-state, therefore, can only be interpreted correctly if we compare it with the progress that has been achieved by other nation-states in the world. progress can not be measured solely by the claims unilaterally and without clear parameters in the context of the comparison by the government of a nation-state. the articles published in the educare journal, issue of february 2017 – that is consisted of five articles – come from the authors of six countries: indonesia, malaysia, philippines, bangladesh, india, and united states of america. it is very interesting academically, and very important and proud for us in the context of managing the scholarly journals. as we have stated previously that the authors come from many countries, it shows that the educare journal has had trust from the authors who his/her articles want to be published in our scholarly journals. i think it is not easy to get the trust from the authors; and one of the crusial problems in managing the scholarly journal in indonesia is rarely or lack to get the articles that come from many authors from many countries. the trust is very important as social capital and, because of that, it should be maintainned and preserved – in the context of managing the scholarly journal – by making an article is good and perfect in editing, styling, and formating when it has been published and displayed in an online version. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, west java, indonesia: february 27, 2017. sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. a director of minda masagi press woned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung; and a teacher of social studies education in smp (junior high school) laboratorium-school upi (indonesia university of education) cibiru campus in bandung, west java, indonesia. mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educareii foreword a ssalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam or peace be upon him), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. what are the criteria of a scholarly journal is classified as an international journal? according to kemenristekdikti ri (ministry of research, technology, and higher education of the republic of indonesia), it was obvious criteria. one of them is that beside the articles in the journals should be written in the languages of the un (united nations), in english for example, then the writers and editorial experts board of the journal should be scattered and represent from at least four countries or continents in asia, europe, africa, and america/australia. in addition, of course, the journal should also be published on a regular basis – because of that it was precisely that in indonesia, the name of the journal is called as tbi (terbitan berkala ilmiah or scholarly periodicals) – and can be read or accessed by stakeholders through the journals’ dissemination widely throughout the world, especially via its website. managing the scholarly journals is not an easy job. but when it is done and engaged in earnest and serious, then there is nothing difficult in this world. it means that something that is difficult to be easy; and an easy task can be a fun and encouraging. including the efforts to meet the standards and criteria for reputable international journals, if there are efforts earnest and serious, of course, slowly but surely be fruitful as well. what is important here that the efforts should remain there, and the result is usually a fruit or consequence of the efforts. without the effort and hard work, it will not result what was expected. however, if there have been efforts and hard work but could not get the expected results, then there is no other way except to be patient and keep the spirit to strive and work harder in the future. the journey of educare journal – which began publication on 17 august 2009, in the context to celebrate the independence day of indonesia – is describing the efforts earnest and serious, but not get the expected results. since the beginning of issue, the educare journal has been intentional and determined to become an international journal. the editors consistently tried in order the articles published in this journal are written in english, as one of the un languages; the authors sought could come from various countries; and the editorial experts board came also from many countries around the world. the educare journal strives also to be published regularly and periodically; and can be read or accessed by stakeholders around the world through the use of ojs (open journal system) that be managed properly and professionally. however, these efforts seem to have not obtained the expected results. in fact, in 2010, the educare journal had been submitted to get the accreditation from ditjendikti kemendikbud ri (directorate-general of higher education, ministry of education and culture of the republic of indonesia), but the results are not encouraging, which is not yet accredited until now. what is important and encouraging to me now – as a director of minda masagi press, publishing house owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, which publishes the educare journal – although this journal has not yet been accredited by kemenristekdikti ri as the journal of “national or international” level, but the editors have had the spirit, have effort earnest, and tirelessly to continue for publishing the educare journal, in order to be a journal that can be recognized and needed its existence by the stakeholders, namely teachers, lecturers, and researchers, not only from indonesia but also from the southeast asian countries and around the world. indeed, for us, accreditation is not a goal, but merely a recognition of the institution in indonesia, which has the authority to accredit the scholarly journals. the main purpose of the educare journal publication, among others, is that the results of research and thinking smart and pithy can be published and, finally, can also be read widely by stakeholders around the world. we also realize, as has been recommended by kemenristekdikti ri, that a good journal must necessarily be maintained and published by a professional organization. in the next journal publishing, a professional organization is able to establish a cooperation with heis (higher education institutions), such as the department, faculty, or university. this is done so that the journal publication is not disturbed or interrupted by the change of leadership in the institutions; because it has become commonplace and prevalent in indonesia that changing the leadership, so then changing also the policy. when the leadership of the institution previously had the passion and care with the publication of scholarly journals, the leaders of institutions that succeeded not necessarily have the same passion and concern, which eventually will have implications for the disruption of continuity of scholarly journals. and we, the executives board of aspensi, have experienced things like that. but, for us, available or not available to joint publication with other institutions, the journals that we manage must keep running and can be published properly and regularly. as in the case of educare journal, which since issues of february 2009 to february 2016 have been managed and organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. it is a cooperation in the scholarly journal publishing that is actually quite a long time; and unfortunately if a joining publication was stopped just because, for example, the educare journal not accredited yet by kemenristekdikti ri in one side; or due to a change of dean at the fkip ump in other side. because for us, once again, accreditation is not a goal in publishing the scholarly journal. what is important here that by publishing the scholarly journals, hence, the name of institution which cooperate in managing the scholarly journal will be known and be in good standing academically. academic institution that did not have a scholarly journal, obviously like vegetables without salt, which is bland, less tasty, and less complete. the articles published in the educare journal, issue of august 2016 – that is consisted of five articles – come from the authors of five countries: indonesia, malaysia, philippines, india, and ethiopia. it is very interesting academically, and very important and proud for me in the context of managing the scholarly journals. the authors come from many countries, it shows that the educare journal has had trust from the authors who his/her articles want to be published in our scholarly journals. i think it is not easy to get the trust from the authors; and one of the crusial problems in managing the scholarly journal in indonesia is rarely or lack to get the articles that come from many authors from many countries. the trust is very important as social capital and, because of that, it should be maintainned and preserved – in the context of managing the scholarly journal – by making an article is good and perfect in editing, styling, and formating when it has been published and displayed in an online version. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, west java, indonesia: august 30, 2016. sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press woned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 179 eko priyanto is a lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. e-mail: ahmadump@yahoo.co.id introduction the issues emerging in the globalization time among others include democracy, human right, civil society, and environment. those issues, for the international society, are made into parts of requirements to be accepted in the international relation. the countries who do not comply with them will be seen to be isolating themseleves and they are regarded as abnormal and violating the rules (allen white, 2000; rodriguez et al., 2000; and winataputra, 2006). democracy, as one of the global issues, is viewed by many as a social system that will enable the people to pursue a good living (branson, 1999; azra, 2002b; and budimansyah, 2007). going in the line with the belief, many countries, including indonesia, have made countless efforts to transform their states to lead into a democratic society— particularly for indonesia, after its three decades of experience under an authoritarian ruler (ibnu chamim et al., 2003:vi). manifesting democracy in a society and a state is not someting easy to do; it is, in fact, a complicated process which possibly comes into a dead-end, meaning it fails to achieve. among the factors for such failure is a lack of main prequisite to be, i.e. the democratic culture and socio-politics. gabriel almond explained that a nation developing their democratic culture shall eko priyanto improving democratic values in civic education learning through groupeddiscussion method for the students in higher education institution abstract: this study was aimed at improving the students’ democratic values among the students in higher education institution through a grouped-discussion method. this was trigerred by a lack of understanding on democratic values among the students in the uniersity level. they also indicated less-democratic attitudes and behavior. this was an action reseach study following the model of stephen kemmis & robin mctaggart (1988). the subject of the research was the fourth-semester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. there were 60 students. the action (treatment) given was an application of grouped-discussion in the civic education courses. the data collection was through observation from which the results was noted in an observation guide. in addition, it was also done through testing of essay questions and an interview. two types of data were collected, i.e. qualitative data from document, results of observation, and recorded interview; and the quantitative data were from testing of preand post-test. based on the analysis, it was proved that the democratic values among the students can be improved through grouped-discussion method applied in civic education course. their average learning score was 63.75 before the treatment and it increased to 72.77 after the first cycle. at the end of the second cycle, it became 80.68. besides, another increase was indicated from their democratic attitude and behavior. they acknowledged that every individual has a freedom of giving his/her opinion, of making a group of organization, and participating in any organization, appreciating citizen and gender equity, and respecting other people’s opinion. key words: democratic values, grouped-discussion, civic education, students, democratic attitude and behavior, and good citizen of indonesia. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 180 undertake two following stages (cited in ibnu chamim et al., 2003:viii). the first stage is to develop democratic institutions. at this stage, it is aimed at creating a social condition and individual personalities which will promote the democracy. the second stage is a process to nurture individual attitudes supportig democracy. the first stage is to set a democratic social-structure and political-culture. indonesia is a democratic state. this can be seen from the formal and judicial evidences of its constitution or uud (undang-undang dasar) 1945, as it is ruled in chapter 1 on the form and the authority, article 1 paragraph (2) saying that “the authority is on people and it is conducted according to the constitution” (ubaidillah et al., 2000). based on its historical experience, democracy as a system of state rules a balance relation between the government, state, and people. these three parties control each other in conducting their rights and obligations. the balance position and inter-controlling are to avoid an anarchy and tyranny which may be done by one of the parties (dahl, 1971; budiardjo, 1977; sartori, 1987; and wuryani & syaifullah, 2006). this time, indonesia is at the stage of coming into the learning process of applying democracy in all aspects of nation and state run after its long waiting for the momentum. in national conference held by central committee of muhammadiyah on board of higher education, research and development (majelis pendidikan tinggi, penelitian dan pengembangan, pengurus pusat muhammadiyah), zamroni argued as follows: this can be well understood since the past legacy either of the old order or of the new order did not promote the democratization process, and the lack of education contribution to nurture the democratic culture. evenmore, the education have gone against it; it has made the cultural democracy a means to eliminate the democracy itself (zamroni, 2001:xvii). the break of reform waves in 1990’s has brought a new hope of demoracy development and of realizing a civil society in indonesia, though it left many unresolved social phatologies in the transition periods. building a strong foundation of democracy and civil society, particularly in the transition times, should not only be fought; it shall be nurtured, grown through well-planned efforts targetted to all layers of the whole society (ubaidillah et al., 2000). this is to make sure that “the tree of democracy and civil society” starting to grow, along with the “big wave” of democracy, human rights, and civil society in the world will not be withered and dry-dead even before it is rooted well. to this point, azyumardi azra explains that: one of the democartic infrastructures having an important effect on realization of democracy, democratic culture, and even civil society is education. it is not a ready-to-use product which needs only to be taken for granted. in fact, it needs to be learned and is sustainably practiced (azra, 2002a:6). civic education (ce) subject in the higher education has a strategic position in nurturing the understanding of democratic basic concepts, including the democratic values. it also teaches the application of the concepts and the values in society and in government. it is a step to grow the students’ awareness to practice the democratic concepts and values in the academic and social life of their educational setting and in the society in which they live (azizy et al., 2002). thus, the ce strategic learning is needed to establish a safe and critical atmosphere. this also functions to maintain a dialogue and participation of the students in the class. to achieve the objectives, some important aspects need to consider in planning and implementing the learning process. those include objectives, materials, method, media, learning facilities, learning atmosphere, and the students (djajadisastra, 1981; ali, 1987; and ahmadi & prasetya, 1997). the ce learning should employ a participative learning method and approach, i.e. learning approach and method to interest tthe students’ motivation to actively participate in the learning process. on the topics of democratic values, the right method to apply is a grouped-discussion. in practice, the usual method taken tended to indoctrinate, like a usual lecture with a little question and answer session. in such a process, students were only passive objects of learning. in fact, they should educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 181 be active subjects in the learning. this will put bad impacts on the students on the learning of democratic living which later will guide them in handling the problems in social life. they should be prapared to anticipate the complex and dynamic problems of realities which need right solutions (rosyada, 2003). the ce learning ideally is done in a democratic atmosphere. it refers to a class which provides all students with freedom to hold an open and fear-free discussion in critisizing actual social problems concerning the implementation of democratic values. it also have to entertain them with an active participation in the learning. thus, the role of the lecturer is only a facilitator to ease the students in learning a democratic life and he/ she is also a motivator to encourage them to learn actively a democratic living (numan somantri, 2001). based on the reasons above, a groupeddiscussion is an appropriate method to apply in the learning of democratic values. it is to train the students to practice a democratic life in the classroom, in the society where they live, and in indonesia as a nation-state. through its application, it was expected that the democratic values among the students would be improved: they would understand the values of civic knowledge more deeply, they would have a civic disposition, and they could implement the values (civic skills) in the daily practices. research method this is a classroom-action research adopting the model of stephen kemmis & robin mctaggart (1988). the method used is qualitative and quantitative descriptive method. the data of the research were collected through testing, observation, interview, quesionnaire, and documentation (arikunto, 1998; and muhyadi, 2008). the instruments of the data collection include: (1) evaluation instrument, post-treatment testing; (2) observation guide; (3) interview guide; and (4) questionnaire. the subject of the research was the fourthsemester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. there were 60 students. the action (treatment) given was an application of grouped-discussion in the civic education courses. the researcher here was also the actor of the treatment and two of his colleagues became the observers. the data collection was through observation from which the results was noted in an observation guide. in addition, it was also done through testing of essay questions and an interview. two types of data were collected, i.e. qualitative data from document, results of observation, and recorded interview; and the quantitative data were from testing of preand post-test. they were then analyzed through descriptive-quantitative method to analyze the learning achievements of democratic values, and the qualitative-descriptive was also applied to analyze the data driven from the observation and the interview. the formula used to analyze the quantitative data is as follows: frequence (f) pecentage (%) = ---------------------x 100 n note: frequence (f) = the sum of the students’ score. n = the number of students (subject of the research) results and discussion first, the analysis of average score of the democratic values learning. the result of improvement of students’ democratic values among the subjects from the pre-treatment, post-treatment of first cycle, and post-treatment of second cycle is displayed in table 1. based on the table 1, it can be concluded that the average score of the learning of democratic values among the subject indicated a consistent improvement. the evaluation of pre-treatment gave an average score of 63.75. from the second test given after the first cycle, it increased to 72.77 and it went up more after the second cycle, 80.68. in other words, the improvements in the stages were 14.15% (from the first cycle) and 10.87% (from the second cycle). the improvement of students’ score on democratic values learning is depicted in the diagram 1. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 182 second, an analysis of students’ learning mastery. the bottom limit of learning mastery in ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia is 70, based on the rector’s decree (rektor ump, 2008). the data analysis of the students’ learning mastery can be seen in the table 2. as it is seen in the table 2, the students’ understanding on the democratic values is low as it is indicated by the small percentage of those achieving the score above the required standard of learning mastery, 70. finding this fact, the researcher did an evaluation with two collaborators. it was done through observation on the learning process. the result of the observation revealed that the students had no much involvement in the learning process. this fact was seen in the students’ few responses after the lecturer’s presentation. only 3 students (5%) gave comment/question. some students were seen to chat with others, especially among those in the back row. the lecturer, then, warned and asked a question to regain their attention on the material discussed. based on the evaluation result, it is found that the alternative solution for the problems in learning the subject, especially on the democratic values, is a proper learning method. it is a method which goes in line with its material characteristics. it was, then, decided that the right method is a groupeddiscussion method. the method is rarely put, and even, is never used in the ce (civic education) learning, especially in the class as the subject of this study. it used to use a lecture method complemented with question-answer method (djajadisastra, 1981; and ahmadi & prasetya, 1997). thus, it was then concluded that the grouped-discussion method is the most appropriate method to be used in the ce subject, especially in the topic of democratic values (freedom, equality, responsibility, cooperation, belief, and legal obedience). from the table 3, it is seen a dramatic increase in which most students (90%) had made scores equal to or above the required standard of learning mastery. this was in contrast to the previous condition of pretable 1: the improvement of students’ democratic values pre-test post-test of cycle 1 post-test of cycle 2 average score 63.75 72.77 80.68 % improvement 14.15 10.87 table 2: the students’ learning mastery at the pre-treatment no total score below the required standard score above the required standard n 60 54 6 % 100% 90% 10% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 pre-treatment rata-rata cycle 1 average diagram 1: a diagram of students’ learning score of democratic values among the subjects educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 183 treatment in which 90% of them were unable to reach the minimum score. based on the on-spot observation, during the treatment of the first cycle, it was noted that all three meetings had changed in terms of the behavior of the students and the lecturer (observation notes i, 17/4/2013). as it has been known that, in the pre-treatment classes, the students were passive and they were reluctant to engage in the learning process; they did not ask any question and some even chatted to each other. the class was not conducive. it was only a one-way communication in which the lecturer always feeded in everything and the students were only passive audience. in short, the lecturer was the center of the learning process (ali, 1987; and sudjana, 1989). in the first cycle of the treatment, the condition had changed. the chances for the students to actively engage were there by opening a grouped-discussion sessions. the atmosphere was so conducive and muct better than the pre-treatment. the students focused on the class work and they were involved more actively in the learning process. this could be seen from their activities in the discussion either the members of the presenting group or those of the audience group. this proved an increase of democratic values implemented by the students. seen from their average score of 72.77, which was more than the previous score of 63.75, it was obviously found that the academic improvement was really there. the data of the students having gained a score equal to or more than the required standard of learning mastery was displayed in the table 3. as it was seen in table 4, the students who achieved below the standard were only minor, 3.33%. most of them (96.66%) had sucessfully achieved the standard score. in sum, the increase of the students’ learning of democratic values between three stages was 80% and 6.67%. there was a very dramatic increase from the pre-treatment to the posttreatment of the first cycle, as follows: (1) pretreatment = 10%; (2) post-treatment of first cycle = 90%; and (3) post-treatment of second cycle = 96.67%. the observation on the second cycle is basically the same as the one on the first. it was targetted to the activities of lecturer and students during the learning, particularly on the learning of democratic values using grouped-discussion method. the lecturer took a role of facilitator, motivator, and the drive (observation notes ii, 24/4/2013). the role of the lecturer as facilitator is to facilitate the discussion implementation like planning the learning activities and the grouped discussions, designing the rules of grouped discussion, guiding the paper writing, explaining the aspects of evaluation, providing the references for the students, and suggesting the students to actively update the information/news in electronic media as well as those reported in the printed media (journals, magazines, and newspapers), and also preparing the learning media. lecturers as a motivator is encouraging students to get involved in the learning table 3: the students’ learning mastery at the post-treatment of cycle 1 no total score below the required standard score equal/above the required standard n 60 6 54 % 100% 10% 90% table 4: the students’ learning mastery at the post-treatment of cycle 2 no total score below the required standard score equal/above the required standard n 60 2 58 % 100% 3.33% 96.66% eko priyanto, improving democratic values 184 process, namely the implementation of grouped-discussion on the actual social problems associated with democratic values (kirschenbaun, 1995). the ways taken by lecturer to motivate the students were through reinforcement, such as giving a reward and punishment. the prizing can be in the words of praise and in giving a score; meanwhile the punishment can be in the form of reducing the score or even cancelling the score of the subject. the lecturer as a dynamic factor is to ensure that the discussion can run well and it can achieve the targettted objective. in acting the role, the lecturer became a moderator of the discussion and gave a review of the discussions by providing case examples of actual social problems associated with democratic values (zamroni, 2003; and wantoro, 2008). the lecturer could make some humors in between, so the learning activities and group discussions can run more interesting and fun. however, it is undeniable that there are still some students who have not been involved in the learning process optimally and the grouped-discussion in teaching the democratic values . hence, they could not gain the learning objectives. the students, in the implementation of the second cycle, looked more active and creative. this can be seen from the students’ learning motivation which is generally better than that of the first cycle. more activities and higher motivation were proved in both groups (observation notes ii, 24/4/2013). the presenting group was better than the one in the first cycle, in terms of their mutual cooperation in the presentation, their topic mastery, their self-control/emotional control, their ability to respect the different opinion of others, and their reaction to answer the questions in polite way. the same improvement also appeared in the audience groups. they have a higher motivation to involve in the discussion as it was seen from the increased number of students who ask questions or respond comments from the audience, their questions were also about the topics discussed. their questions also explored the actual social problems. their competence was good: the ability to respect other ideas, the ability to control emotions, and the ability to use of the language properly and politely. thus, the interaction between the groups of students who presented papers and other groups of students who responded as well as among fellow students in the class was good and it created a conducive condition. the data in table 5 is depicted in a diagram 2. based on the precentage of learning mastery in each cycle, it proved that there was a very significant increase as the result of the second cycle shows a high proportion of 96.67% which can categorized as excellence. considering this achievement, the research was decided to be in two cycles only. discussion. through the grouped-discussion method, the students were trained to have a freedom of thinking, a freedom of giving opinion, and a freedom of participating. they were also trained to control their behavior; and their emotion and to respect others’ opinion, though their opinion was perhaps different from theirs. hence, they were trained not to be egocentric, and they learned to see thing in others’ perspectives. the application of the group discussion method in ce (civic education) learning can increase the students’ democratic value in the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, since a group discussion is the decision-making process through consultation among several groups in order to solve problems that arise due to problems of common interest in order to reach an mutually agreed decision. the group discussions for students can increase their courage to put forward the ideas and opinions about the alternatives of solving a problem (solution) of the actual social problems discussed in the paper as well as to propose the arguments in proper manner. it has improved the students’ critical thinking and sensitivity to social problems that require the actual solution, widened their insights related to social life, of the nation and of the state by means of studying the actual social problems (gutmann, 1999; cipto et al., 2000; and muhaimin, 2002). it also has improved their educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 185 self-confidence and self-control ability, improved their ability to respect the other people’s opinion, and fostered a sense of great responsibility. finally, the grouped discussion has improved the students’ ability to cooperate with others in a same group or with other groups. the grouped discussion also can educate the students to understand and to have a willingness to implement the democratic values in society: the public of their class, the college community, the community in which the students live, to the wider community of the unitary state of the republic of indonesian. their understanding and application of democratic values as parts of the citizens will be able to strengthen the enforcement of indonesian state life, hinged at the democracy as stipulated in article 1, paragraph 2 of the constitution or undangundang dasar 1945 (budiardjo, 1977; daroeso, 1986; and taniredja, harmianto & priyanto, 2010). the students who have mastered thoroughly were given a remedial teaching and teachers also interviewed them. based on interviews, it was concluded that both students had a low motivation to attend the course/the learning of ce, especially in the democratic values. this was proved from the facts that they were not actively involved in the discussion. they, evenmore, preferred chatting with other friends to listening to the explanation of the course material given by the lecturer and to the ongoing discussions. for them, writing paper was only for meeting the teacher’s instruction; they did not put their best efforts to it. they were found out to frequently leave their classes. they did not like to read references, even the books were available (interview with the students, 24/4/2013). in fact, one of the students argued as follows: [...] the material of ce (civic education) is always the same from the past to the present; and i did not have any willingness to read literature books of new civics which have been modified to accord to the development demands in the reform and the globalization eras (interview with student a, 30/4/2013). seen from their learning achievement, both students had not mastered the civic knowledge, the civic disposition, and the civic skill. this was seen from their understanding on the material; they did not master the topics so well in presenting their paper. they could not explain the terms in their paper, and they also failed in three tests given. from their civic table 5: the data of students’ scores between three stages no evaluation below the standard of learning mastery equal and above the standard of learning mastery 1 pre-treatment 54 6 2 cycle 1 6 54 3 cycle 2 2 58 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 pre-treatment cycle i cycle ii diagram 2: diagram of students’ learning mastery in three stages eko priyanto, improving democratic values 186 disposition, both had not showed democratic attitudes, i.e. they did not respect others and even ignored them by having a chat with others during the discussion process, they did not accept the differences of opinion, and they were not responsible in doing their academic tasks. from their civic skill, both students were not skillful in finding the actual social problem in the society and could not give a good alternative solution (basrie et al., 2000; dirjendikti depdiknas ri, 2000; and azizy et al., 2002). conclusion based on the analysis and discussion in the previous sections, it can be drawn the conclusion as follows: the grouped-discussion method can increase the students’ democratic values among the fourth-semester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. this is proved from a significant increase (86%) of the students who achieved the required score of standard learning mastery. the grouped-discussion method can improve the students’ civic disposition reflecting the democratic values in their daily practices. they have implemented and practiced the freedom of giving opinion and the freedom of participation, and they have actively participated in discussion. they have respected others’ opinion, the equality of individuals, and the rules of the discussion. references ahmadi, abu & joko tri prasetya. 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(2000). pendidikan kewargaan, demokrasi, hak asasi manusia, dan masyarakat madani. jakarta: iain [institut agama islam negeri] jakarta press. wantoro, tri. (2008). “profil pengembangan pendidikan kewarganegaraan sebagai pendidikan demokrasi” in acta civicus: jurnal pendidikan kewarganegaraan, 2(1), pp.215-222. winataputra, udin s. (2006). pendidikan demokrasi dan hak asasi manusia sebagai wahana demokratisasi: perspektif metodologi. bandung: rizqi offset. wuryani, sri & syaifullah. (2006). ilmu kewarganegaraan (civic). bandung: laboratorium pendidikan kewarganegaraan, fakultas pendidikan ilmu pengetahuan sosial upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia]. zamroni. (2001). “civic education di perguruan tinggi: urgensi dan metodologi” in warta ptm, edisi i tahun xvi. yogyakarta: majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. zamroni. (2003). “pendidikan kewarganegaraan: tradisi dalam memelihara kehidupan majemuk” in warta ptm, 7(xv). yogyakarta. majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 188 democracy in indonesia: between hope and reality (source: www.google.com, 15/9/2013) the break of reform waves in 1990’s has brought a new hope of demoracy development and of realizing a civil society in indonesia, though it left many unresolved social phatologies in the transition periods. building a strong foundation of democracy and civil society, particularly in the transition times, should not only be fought; it shall be nurtured, grown through well-planned efforts targetted to all layers of the whole society. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 147© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. developing algebraic thinking skills among grade three pupils through pictorial models abstract: during the primary grades, young children work with patterns. at an early age, children have a natural love for mathematics, and their curiosity is a strong motivator as they try to describe and extend patterns of shapes, colors, sounds, and eventually letters and numbers. at a young age, children can begin to make generalizations about patterns that seem to be the same or different. this kind of categorizing and generalizing is an important developmental step on the journey toward algebraic thinking. algebra instruction has traditionally been postponed until adolescence, because of the assumptions about psychological development and developmental readiness. concrete operational children tend to be capable of mental operations as long as they relate to real objects, events, and situations. as they mature, they are able to work with more abstract concepts without the aid of concrete objects. the study attempted to determine the effect of using pictorial models on the algebraic thinking skills of grade three pupils. the one-group pre-test – post-test experimental research design was used in this study. twenty-eight grade three pupils participated in the study. to determine the effect of using pictorial models, an algebraic thinking skills test was given to the pupils before and after using pictorial models. results showed that the use of pictorial models significantly improved the algebraic thinking skills of the pupils. interviews from the pupils revealed that pictorial models helped them to solve problems easier. the findings suggest that algebraic thinking can be taught even at the early age. key words: algebraic thinking; young children; patterns; letters and numbers; pictorial model. about the authors: jadith tagle, m.a.t. is a teacher at the faculty of de la salle school-greenhills, philippines. rene r. belecina, ph.d. is a full professor at the cgester pnu (college of graduate studies and teacher education research, philippine normal university). jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. is a full professor at the faculty of education sciences pnu in the philippines. the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: jadithtagle88@gmail.com, rrbelecina@yahoo.com, and juno_6970@yahoo.com how to cite this article? tagle, jadith, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. (2016). “developing algebraic thinking skills among grade three pupils through pictorial models” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(2) february, pp.147-158. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (november 30, 2015); revised (january 20, 2016); and published (february 28, 2016). algebra instruction has traditionally been postponed until adolescence, because of the assumptions about psychological development and developmental readiness. concrete operational children, according to j. piaget (1952 and 1994) and others, tend to be capable of mental operations as long as they relate to real objects, events, and situations. as they mature, they are able to work with more abstract concepts without the aid of concrete objects (piaget, 1952 and 1994; blair, 2003; simatwa, 2010; bautista & francisco, 2011; and vorpal, 2012). introduction during the primary grades, young children work with patterns. at an early age, children have a natural love for mathematics, and their curiosity is a strong motivator as they try to describe and extend patterns of shapes, colors, sounds, and eventually letters and numbers. at a young age, children can begin to make generalizations about patterns that seem to be the same or different. this kind of categorizing and generalizing is an important developmental step on the journey toward algebraic thinking (seeley, 2004; warren, 2007; and stump, 2011). jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 148 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare some researches provide evidence that young students, aged 9-10 years, can make use of algebraic ideas and representations typically absent from the early mathematics curriculum, and thought to be beyond students’ reach (bednarz & janvier, 1996; blanton & kaput, 2004; and badger & velatini, 2010). one of these researches comes from a 30-month longitudinal classroom study of four classrooms in a public school in massachusetts, with students from grades two to four. the data help clarify the conditions under which young students can integrate algebraic concepts and representations into their thinking (carraher et al., 2001). an increasing number of mathematics educators, policy makers, and researchers believe that algebra should become part of the elementary education curriculum. the nctm (national council of teachers of mathematics), in 2000, and a special commission of the rand (research and development) corporation, in 2003, have welcomed the integration of algebra into the early mathematics curricula. these endorsements, however, do not diminish the need for research. on the contrary, they highlight the need for a solid research base for guiding the mathematics education community along this new venture (nctm, 2000; and rand corporation, 2003). within the past decade, discussions and opinions pertaining to school algebra have changed dramatically. professional organizations, policy makers, mathematicians, mathematics educators, administrators, and teachers, who once considered algebra as a course just for university-bound students, now espouse the notion of algebra for all students. overarching policy statements from these groups and individuals indicate a widening of the range of topics that constitute algebraic thinking to encompass now more than just the structural aspects of algebra (ferrucci, 2004). this broader description of thinking algebraically has led to the introduction of algebraic ideas into the curriculum at much earlier grade levels. it is now widely understood that preparing elementary students for the increasingly complex mathematics of this century requires an approach different from the traditional methods of teaching arithmetic in the early grades, specifically an approach that cultivates habits of mind that attend to the deeper, underlying structure of mathematics (booker et al., 2004; blanton & kaput, 2008; and brizuela & schliemann, 2003). hence, it explains the purpose of this study on pictorial models in developing algebraic thinking of primary pupils was made with the hope that it could help improve the basic mathematics foundation of our learners. students and teachers need to appreciate that there can be a number of ways to visualize a problem, as well as number of ways to solve a problem non-visually. some students might benefit from visualization more than others. sometimes, students resist using visual models, when a solution is readily apparent to them. mathematics teachers should always be open to various approaches that can be introduced to the pupils for them to develop higher-order thinking skills. young children today need a different kind of mathematics from what their parents learned. this study was intended to introduce the use of pictorial models that can be of great help in helping the primary pupils formulate and manipulate algebraic expressions, and understand relationship between quantities in the problem and leading them to a strategy in solving it. this study is indeed important to the mathematics teachers and the learners as well, because it established a basis on what must be given more focus on the elementary curriculum, and how the arithmetic thinking can be developed into algebraic thinking, thus promoting a deeper understanding of the mathematical concepts. conceptual framework this study was based on the following theories: jerome s. bruner’s constructivism and development learning and visual learning theory, in 1960. jerome s. bruner’s theoretical framework is based on the notion that learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge. learning is an active process. facets of the process include selection and transformation of information, educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 149© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare decision making, generating hypotheses, and making meaning from information and experiences (bruner, 1960). jerome s. bruner (1960) postulated three stages of intellectual development. the first stage, he termed “enactive” transpires, when a person learns about the world through actions on physical objects and the outcomes of these actions. he calls second stage “iconic”, when learning takes place through the use of models and pictures. the final stage is termed “symbolic”, which occurs when the learner develops the capacity to think in abstract terms. based on this three-stage notion about the development of the intellect, jerome s. bruner recommended using a combination of concrete, pictorial, and symbolic activities believing that this will lead to more effective learning (bruner, 1960). jerome s. bruner (1960) inspired an approach in teaching mathematics, which is called the cpa (concrete-pictorial-abstract) approach. concrete components include manipulatives, measuring tools, or other objects that the students can handle during the lesson. pictorial representations include drawings, diagrams, charts, or graphs that are drawn by the students or are provided for the students to read and interpret. abstract refers to symbolic representations, such as numbers or letters that the student writes or interprets to demonstrate understanding of a task (bruner, 1960). research has shown that visual learning theory is especially appropriate for the attainment of mathematics skills for a wide range of learners. understanding abstract math concepts is reliant on the ability to “see” how they work; and children naturally use visual models to solve mathematical problems. they are often able to visualize a problem as a set of images. by creating models, they interact with mathematical concepts, process information, observe changes, reflect on their experiences, modify their thinking, and draw conclusions (warren & cooper, 2005; and murphy, 2006). one example of a pictorial model is a structure comprised of rectangles and numerical values that represent all the information and relationships presented in a given problem. the rectangles replace the unknown represented by letters in equations. the rectangle, known as a unit, becomes the “generator” of the model about which other relations are constructed. the model method can be used to solve an arithmetic problem, where pupils work with known values to solve the unknown. as pupils progress, the model method is used to solve algebraic problems involving unknowns, part-whole concept, and proportional reasoning. in view of the theoretical bases of this study, the conceptual paradigm is shown in the figure 1. algebraic thinking skills are organized into two general categories: (1) problem solving skills; and (2) representation and reasoning skills. young children are capable of making generalizations and constructing ways of representing them (kaput, 2004; and windsor, 2007). these generalizations make powerful mathematical ideas accessible to students to solve problems and to deepen understanding. generalization and formalization involve the articulation and representation of unifying ideas that make explicit important mathematical relationships. thus, these forms of thinking build directly on conceptions of understanding as constructing relationships and reflecting on and articulating those relationships (carpenter & lehrer, 1999). problem solving is knowing what to do, when one doesn’t know what to do. students who have a tool kit of problem solving strategies, e.g. guess and check, make a list, work backwards, use a model, solve a simpler problem, etc., are better able to get started on a problem, attack the problem, and figure pictorial models algebraic thinking skills:  representation and reasoning  problem solving figure 1: conceptual paradigm jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 150 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare out what to do. giving students opportunities to explore math problems, by using multiple approaches or devising math problems that have multiple solutions, allows students to not only develop good problem solving skills, but also to experience the utility of mathematics. children initially solve problems by modeling the problem situations using physical materials. by reflecting on the modeling strategies, children abstract these strategies so that they no longer need the actual materials to solve the problem (yeap, 1997; and carpenter & lehrer, 1999). the ability to use and make connections among multiple representations of mathematical information gives us quantitative communication tools. mathematical relationships can be displayed in many forms: visually, i.e. diagrams, pictures, or graphs; numerically, i.e. tables and lists; symbolically; and verbally. often a good mathematical explanation includes several of these representations, because each one contributes to the understanding of the ideas presented. the ability to create, interpret, and translate among representations gives students powerful tools for mathematical thinking (carpenter & levi, 2000; carpenter, franke & levi, 2003; and cai & knuth, 2005). shelley kriegler (2008) pointed out that the ability to think and reason is fundamental in mathematics. understanding of the core ideas can influence one’s success in solving word problems, the strategies they use in their solution processes, and the justifications they provide for the solutions. inductive reasoning involves examining particular cases, identifying patterns and relationships among those cases, and extending the patterns and relationships. deductive reasoning involves drawing conclusions by examining a problem’s structure (kriegler, 2008). the development of algebraic thinking does not emphasize manipulating symbols, but rather encourage children to make explicit ideas and to construct ways to represent those ideas for thinking about them and for communicating them. in this context, e. yackel (1997) posited that non numerical reasoning about quantities is foundational to algebraic reasoning. algebraic reasoning in the elementary level can be accomplished through activities that encourage children to move beyond numerical reasoning to more general reasoning about relationships, quantities, and ways of notating and symbolizing (yackel, 1997). in the teaching of mathematics, words, numbers, and pictures should come together to clearly demonstrate what is taking place (murphy, 2006). using pictorial models, pupils can help make sense of complex data. through the children’s image-making, they have the capacity to internalize and make connections to other areas of learning. the main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the use of pictorial models in developing algebraic thinking among primary pupils. specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions: (1) what are the pupils’ algebraic thinking skills before and after using pictorial models in terms of the following: representation and reasoning, and problem solving?; (2) is there a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the participants?; and (3) what are pupils’ experiences on the use of pictorial models? methods research design. this study utilized the experimental method of research, specifically the one-group pre-test – post-test design. the experimental research design is appropriate to this study, because it is the only design that can truly test a hypothesis concerning cause-andeffect relationship (sevilla et al., 1992). participants of the study. there were 28 grade three pupils at the la salle green hills in the philippines, who participated in this study. these pupils were heterogeneously grouped according to their mental ability: nine pupils belong to the above average group, 13 from the average group, and six from the below average group. the classification of the pupils was based from the result of the sat (school ability test) given by the guidance office, when these pupils were in grade two. grade three pupils were chosen as the participants of the study, since they belong to the primary level and they are being trained to analyze word problems using pictorial models. lsgh (la salle green educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 151© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare hills) mathematics area, in the grade school department, started introducing the use of pictorial models in solving word problems to grades one to seven pupils in the beginning of school year 2011-2012. though the use of pictorial method is not fully implemented yet, the participants have an idea on how to apply the method. however, there is still a need to explore other means of applying this method, and how useful the method is in developing the algebraic thinking of the pupils. research instruments the following research instruments were used to gather the needed data and information relevant to the study. algebraic thinking skills test. the test was developed to measure the following algebraic thinking skills adapted from shelley kriegler (2008), namely: problem solving skills, representation skills, and reasoning skills (kriegler, 2008). the test was divided into two parts, which are as follows: part i (multiple choice). this part consists of 20 multiple-choice items. these items aim to test the pupils’ ability to generate, represent, and justify generalizations about fundamental properties of arithmetic. part ii (problem solving). the second part consists of five open-ended word problems, which are algebraic in nature. this part tested how the pupils apply pictorial models in arriving at their answers (kriegler, 2008). in developing the test instrument, a table of specifications was prepared. this instrument underwent content validation through the help of three teacher-experts: a high school algebra teacher, an elementary algebra teacher, and a grade school mathematics coordinator. the solution and the answers to problems were checked according to the rubric provided. scoring rubric. the scoring rubric was used to determine how the participants performed in problem solving. a rubric is a set of criteria used to determine scoring for an assignment, performance, or product. analytical rubric is an example of a scoring designed to assess students’ work based on specified criteria and different degrees of quality of the assignment. in problem solving, the pupils were given scores according to the following criteria: accuracy, understanding, communication, and mathematical reasoning and strategies. again, the three teacher-experts helped in preparing this scoring rubric. interview guide. this was used to identify how the pupils answered the test questions, particularly the problem solving part. hence, this was helpful in verifying answers of the participants. informal interviews were also conducted during the teaching-learning process, wherein the pupils explained how the pictorial models helped them arrived at their answers. lesson plans/work plans. the work plans served as guide in conducting the lesson. a seven-week semi-detailed plan was prepared before the experiment took place. topics covered were fractions and decimals. the learning activities were categorized into two parts: (1) the preliminary activities, which are composed of drills, mental problem, and review; and (2) the developmental activities, which include motivation, presentation of the lesson, comparison and abstraction, generalization, and application. the preliminary activities present mental problem that can be solved using the pictorial models. each lesson focused mainly on developing algebraic thinking of the pupils. data gathering procedure. to gather data relevant to the study, permission to administer the tests was sought from the grade school principal, assistant principal, student activities coordinator, and mathematics coordinator. with the approval of the request, the list of materials needed for the study were immediately prepared. the process of data gathering involved three stages: pre-experimental stage, experimental stage, and post-experimental stage. stage 1: pre-experimental stage. a pre-test was administered to the pupils a week before the actual implementation of the study. this was done to identify how the pupils think prior to the discussion of the topics. stage 2: experimental stage. the lessons on fractions and decimals were taught for seven weeks, following the work plans prepared. the pupils was exposed to drills that involve finding the value of unknown and problem solving that involve addition and subtraction of whole jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 152 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare numbers, fractions and decimals, using the pictorial method. the lessons on fractions and decimals were introduced using the cpa (concrete-pictorialabstract) approach from jerome s. bruner (1960). the use of manipulations like food/ bacon shared with the class, which the pupils represented through drawings and blocks greatly helped the pupils in understanding the concepts. during this phase, interviews were conducted as follow-ups to the pupils’ answers during the discussion. stage 3: post-experimental phase. the posttest was given after seven weeks of exposure to the pictorial models to find out if there are improvements in the algebraic thinking of the respondents. afterwards, the pupils were asked to summarize how the use of pictorial models helped them in their mathematics class. data analysis procedure. the following statistical tools were used in this study. firstly, mean and standard deviation. these were used to describe the pupils’ scores in the algebraic thinking skills test before and after using the pictorial models. secondly, t-test for dependent samples. this was utilized to determine if a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the pupils. results and discussion table 1 presents the mean and standard deviation of the pupils’ scores in part i of the test, which measures their representation and reasoning skills. the scores in the reasoning and representation skills show a marked improvement. this result may be attributed to their conceptual understanding of the mathematical concepts. conceptual understanding refers to their integrated and functional grasp of mathematical ideas. it can be deduced that the pupils developed a deep understanding of the concepts learned, and they were able to manipulate numbers and represent value of the unknown after using pictorial models. m. burns (2004) said that teachers in the lower grades routinely focus on teaching procedures, rather than on conceptual understanding. pupils are able to perform tasks, but they do not understand why they work (burns, 2004). some researchers say that the difficulty to transfer from rote arithmetic operations of quantities to algebraic thinking is due to the lack of conceptual understanding (cf desforges, hughes & mitchell, 2000; burns, 2004; kaput, carracher & blanton eds., 2008; and clark, 2009). for the primary pupils to understand the concepts of fractions and decimals better, pictorial models should be used. as j. kaput, d. carracher & m. blanton eds. (2008) suggest, the primary goal of early algebra is that pupils learn to see and to express generalization in mathematics. algebraic thinking cannot be developed without the pupils’ understanding of the numerical relationships, operations, and properties (kaput, carracher & blanton eds., 2008:60). the nctm (national council of teachers of mathematics), in 2000, emphasized that “algebra is more than the manipulation of symbols”; and that its study should start from the earliest years of schooling (nctm, 2000). table 1: results of the pre-test and post-test of the participants in terms of representation and reasoning (multiple-choice type) mean standard deviation pre-test 7.11 2.53 post-test 14.29 2.54 table 2: results of the pre-test and post-test of the participants in terms of problem solving (open-ended type) mean standard deviation pre-test 3.26 1.81 post-test 6.23 2.51 educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 153© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare table 2 presents the pupils’ performance in problem solving. though there is an increase in the scores of the pupils, there is still a need to focus more in developing their problem solving skills. mathematical problem solving has been instrumental in achieving a variety of goals within the mathematics curriculum. a classroom environment that values and promotes problem solving can facilitate algebraic thinking. in using pictorial method, a block may represent one-fourth and four blocks may represent one whole. in this regard, the pupils will be able to understand the relation between 1/4 and 1 whole. pupils will also learn to represent values using blocks, as two blocks as to 2/4 and three blocks are equal to 3/4. illustrations, in figures 2 to 5, show some excerpts from the pupils’ work on how they applied the pictorial model in answering word problems that are algebraic in nature. figure 2 shows that the pupil used a circle to represent a set of apples. each half was labeled as four. two halves equal eight. the picture shows that the concept of half in relation to a whole must be fully understood by the pupils. the pupils had to utilize their knowledge of fractions to draw the model properly. in teaching fractions, the cpa (concretepictorial-abstract) approach is helpful in developing the pupils’ conceptual understanding (cf bruner, 1960; walle, 2004; and diezzman & mccosker, 2011). the answer proved that the pupil was able to show visual representation of the concrete objects. thus, this helped him/her visualized mathematical operations during problem solving. problem a: mark gave 4 apples to lorna. if what he shared represents 1/2 of his apples, how many apples did he have at first? figure 2: pupil’s solution to problem a problem b: marko and anna have p 24.00 together. if marko has twice as much as anna’s, how much does anna have? figure 3: pupil’s solution to problem b table 3: results of the t-test for the comparison of the pupils’ pre-test and post-test mean scores mean standard deviation mean difference t-value critical value interpretation pre-test 7.11 2.54 7.18 16.22 2.77 significant post-test 14.29 2.53 using the pictorial model, the pupil used two blocks to represent marko’s money. two blocks represent marko’s since he has twice as much as anna’s. the pupils should be able to understand the concept of sum, in relation to its parts/addends to be able to solve this jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 154 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare problem. as suggested by carolyn kieran (2004), pictorial equation solving can help students to focus on both representing and solving the problem rather than on merely solving it (cf lee et al., 2004; kieran, 2004; and ronda, 2004). see figure 3. the solution in figure 4 shows that the pupil drew 3 blocks for jeremy’s number of stickers, since janna has only one-third of jeremy’s. in this kind of problem, if the pupil doesn’t fully understand the concept of fraction in relation to a whole, wrong representation could be made, as three units for janna instead of the other way around. this only proves that teaching algebraic thinking should start from developing the conceptual understanding of the pupils. it can be seen from figure 5 that the pupil subtracted the difference from the total (12.40 – 3.40) to get the remaining parts. since there were 2 blocks left, he equally divided 9.00 into two equal parts, hence each number has 4.5. the first number is 3.4 more than the second number, which is 4.5. in this solution, three operations were used: addition, subtraction, and division. though the pupil was able to arrive at the correct answer, the way he represented the numbers must be corrected. that is a bigger number should represent a bigger block. comparison of the pupils’ pre-test and posttest mean scores. table 3 shows that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the participants. this implies that the use of pictorial models had a positive effect on the development of the pupils’ mathematical thinking. this result is consistent with positive statements on the effectiveness of pictorial models in mathematics learning. it seems that the use of pictorial models provides the pupil opportunities to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts, apply their knowledge of the four basic operations, and model the problem situation through representation. as cited by stuart murphy (2006), visual learning strategies can problem c: janna and jeremy have 36 stickers together. janna’s stickers’ are 1/3 of jeremy’s. how many stickers does janna have? figure 4: pupil’s solution to problem c problem d: the sum of two numbers is 12.40. the first number is 3.40 more than the other number. what are the two numbers? figure 5: pupil’s solution to problem d make a profound difference in a student’s depth of understanding about mathematics (murphy, 2006). it is a powerful teaching tool for kids who are natural visual/spatial learners, for children who are english language learners, and for students of all learning modalities (cf katz, 2006; murphy, 2006; and richarson, sherman & yard, 2009). by using visual learning strategies in the teaching of mathematics, teachers can increase the learning potential of children. supporting the result of this study is found in a case study made by swee fong ng (2004). swee fong ng and others said that through the model method (pictorial models), pupils with no knowledge of formal algebra are provided with a tool to construct pictorial equations to educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 155© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare solve increasingly challenging word problems, involving simple part-whole relationships as far as those that require proportional reasoning (cf fong ng, 2004; ernest, 2006; and krulik & posamentier, 2009). pupils’ experiences on the use of pictorial models. pupils’ experiences on the use of pictorial models were obtained through formal interviews. based on the conducted oral interviews, most of the pupils said that they use the pictorial model only “sometimes”. that is when it is applicable to the problem presented. the pupils were one in saying that not only have the pictorial models helped them in improving their mathematical thinking skills, but they have also developed their algebraic thinking skills unconsciously (interview with respondents a, b, c, and d, 19/12/2011). generally, the pupils find the use of pictures, “blocks” or rectangles helpful in understanding concepts and word problems deeply. some of the pupils’ comments were as follows: “pictorial model helps me compute better” (interview with respondent a, 19/12/2011). “it makes the word problem easier” (interview with respondent b, 19/12/2011). “it helps me analyze word problems well” (interview with respondent c, 19/12/2011). “it is easy to understand numbers through drawings, that is through the use of rectangles” (interview with respondent d, 19/12/2011). the comments of the pupils only proved that the use of pictorial models aided them in solving word problems. these clearly show that through the use of pictorial models, pupils were able to represent numbers using bars or blocks and learned how to model problem situations. similar findings were found in the study of n. de guzman (2009) and others, where the grade five pupils perceived the block model as a useful tool in solving word problems (cf charlesworth & radeloff, 1978; carruthers & worthington, 2003; and guzman, 2009). since equations were introduced through pictures, pupils were able to use this to represent quantitative relationships. this relates with j. cai (2005) and othres’ contention that “pictorial equations” do not only provide a tool for students to solve mathematical problems, but they also provide a means for developing pupils’ algebraic ideas (cf lew, 2004; cai, 2005; and jackson, 2009). based on the data gathered, the following are the findings of this study. firstly, there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the pupils on representation and reasoning skill and problem solving skill. secondly, the pupils were able to answer word problems, which are algebraic in nature through the use of pictorial models. thirdly, the pupils perceived pictorial models as helpful tools in analyzing word problems as the models make them understand word problems better. finally, fourthly, teaching algebraic thinking can start at an early age (maletsky & sobel, 1988; nebres, 2006; sousa, 2007; lee & lee, 2009; and ptylak, 2010). conclusion based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn. the use of pictorial models has a positive effect in developing algebraic thinking of primary pupils. primary pupils can engage in powerful mathematics structures if given appropriate learning activities. one of these activities is engagement in problem solving through the use pictorial models to deepen understanding of word problems. in the pictorial models, the use of blocks as units representing the unknowns provides a link to more abstract ideas, like letters representing the unknowns. from the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are given: the use of pictorial models should be introduced to the pupils, when solving word problems. pictorial representations, drawings, and models may lead children to understand the symbols which seem abstract to them initially. mathematics teachers should allow pupils to think out of the box or to find creative ways in solving word problems. mathematics teachers should be provided with frequent opportunities for high quality training. teachers should be exposed to a wide variety of approaches, such as the use of pictorial models, which they can introduce to the pupils to develop their higher-order thinking skills. further studies should be done also in the public schools to determine whether jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 156 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare this approach has a positive effect on the performance of the pupils in mathematics. future researchers are encouraged to conduct similar studies that may help the pupils develop their algebraic thinking skills.1 references badger, s. & s. velatini. 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(1997). mathematical problem solving: a focus on metacognition. singapore: national institute of education, nanyang technological university. jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., developing algebraic thinking skills 158 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare pupils at the la salle green hills in the philippines (source: http://www.interaksyon.com, 20/5/2015) the use of pictorial models has a positive effect in developing algebraic thinking of primary pupils. primary pupils can engage in powerful mathematics structures if given appropriate learning activities. one of these activities is engagement in problem solving through the use pictorial models to deepen understanding of word problems. in the pictorial models, the use of blocks as units representing the unknowns provides a link to more abstract ideas like letters representing the unknowns. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 95 dr. najeemah mohd yusof is a senior lecturer at the school of educational studies usm (science university of malaysia), 11800 minden, pulau pinang, malaysia. she can be contacted at: najineen@usm.my relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude towards co-curricular uniform bodies in malaysia najeemah mohd yusof abstract: the purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude towards co-curricular uniform bodies among secondary school children. the research is to determine the level of emotional intelligence, the difference between emotional intelligence based on gender and ethnicity, and relationship with students’ attitude towards uniform bodies. sample for the study were 120 form four secondary school children from penang, malaysia. emotional intelligence is measured using the bar-on eq-1:yv. the data were analyzed using the spss package version 16. the independent t-test was used to analyze whether there is any significant difference in the mean score of emotional intelligence based on gender. the one way anova was used to analyze any significant difference in the mean score of emotional intelligence based on ethnicity. pearson correlation was used to show the relationship between emotional intelligence and students’ attitude towards uniform bodies. the results show a significant difference and relationship which will be elaborated in this paper. the implication of this research is that the emotional intelligence should be emphasized in and outside the classroom as it is significant in improving students’ attitude and academic achievement. key words: emotional intelligence, students attitude, co-curricular activities, secondary school children in malaysia, and human life. introduction in line with the era of globalization, the academic culture is seen as an important element in a balanced human capital formation in terms of intellectual, social, skills, and personality. based on the academic qualifications alone, it is not capable of delivering a first class human capital. holistic human capital development is a necessity no longer a luxury. the holistic development emphasizes knowledge, skills, and values that is progressive, high ethics, and morals. however, educational institutions today are to focus more on the importance of intellectual quotient (iq). malaysia’s education system more oriented to academic intelligence of logical and linguistic with less attention to the types of intelligence such as musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist (gardner, 1983) that can be done outside the classroom as in the uniform bodies activities. najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 96 many researchers began to argue that intrapersonal and interpersonal competence or emotional intelligence (eq, emotional quotient) is more important to succeed in life compared to iq. according to r.k. cooper and a. sawaf (1997), successes of a student actually include the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical ability. emotional intelligence is one of the main aspects of the national education philosophy. through the national education philosophy, the importance of emotional intelligence (eq) is very clear and significant as intellectual intelligence (iq) and spiritual intelligence (sq). when students have positive emotions towards their curriculum, they will be fully involved and the objectives to form the core of human capital can be easily achieved. unfortunately, in the passion to pursue excellence in curriculum, many parents forget about the importance of co-curricular activities for their children. research background the psychologists, r. wylie and s. burus (1979), stated that students who are emotionally stable feel more confident of their abilities and, thus, they are more successful in their lives. emotional intelligence is the intelligence that is in a person associated with the level of ability to deal with other people, feelings, and daily social environment. individuals with high levels of intelligence are the people who are able to control their feelings and behaviors. they will keep their own feelings of stress they faced, so that it does not disable the ability to think wisely. normally, individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence will be successful in their career and life. this finding would agree with a.j. michael (2006), he states that students who have the skills to overcome their emotions perform better in any kind of assessment test. statement of the problem. many people believe that attitude has all the efforts and actions to be about something. attitude is one of the most important factor in determining success. it affects human relations and our acceptance of a new experience. if the attitude towards a task is positive, the individual is certainly happy to do it. however, if the environment is opposite, we will try to avoid and not do the job in earnest. it is proved that the attitude is influenced by emotional intelligence. emotional intelligence is able to encourage motivation level, organizing, directing, and activating the child’s behavior at school. according to mohd azhar abd hamid et al. (2005), emotional intelligences help the students to facilitate an efficient response, adapt, and react to change the environmental situations to achieve success in areas where they are involved. therefore, the levels of emotional intelligence of students need to be studied to help students achieve personal excellence in any field they are involved. in actual fact, parents and teachers are giving more focus on intellectual intelligence by finding a variety of alternative for the development of the student’s mind, so that they will achieve excellent results in examinations until the formation educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 97 of emotional intelligence are neglected. according to ainon mohd and abdullah hassan (2002), most students who do well in exams are less able to maintain a record of excellence after graduating. according to d. goleman (1998), students with emotional intelligence skills are able to maintain excellence at all times. therefore, the nurturing of emotional intelligence among the students need to be addressed by parents and teachers to keep it parallel with the emotional intelligence of mental development of students. therefore, this research objective is to identify to which extent emotional intelligence can influence students’ attitudes to the uniformed body. if all students have a positive attitude and actively involved in the uniformed body, it is certain that student’s emotional intelligence will increase and this will also affect the overall student achievement. objectives of study are as follows: (1) to identify the level of emotional intelligence of students; (2) to identify whether there are differences in emotional intelligence based on demographic factors such as gender and race of students; (3) to identify whether there is a relationship between the dimensions of emotional intelligence in students’ attitudes on the activities of uniform body; and (4) to identify whether there is a relationship between the attitudes of students to the activities of uniform body. research methodology. the sample of study consists of form four students of different race and gender in four schools in penang, malaysia. a total of 120 students were randomly selected in a simple random technique. the selection of the sample is about 15% of the population because, according to l.r. gay and p. airasian (2003), sampling for descriptive studies is from 10% to 20%. independent t-test, one-way anova (analysis of variances) test, and pc (pearson correlation) were applied to measure the research hypothesis. brief literature review the concept of emotional intelligence began to be discussed in 1940 by david wechster. he said there are two intelligence quotient that is the cognitive (intellectual) and non-cognitive intelligence (emotional). in 1980, dr. reoven baron began research to determine the success and the ability of a person. findings from the study found that non-cognitive intelligence have contributed success in life. beginning in 1985, dr. reoven bar-on has created the term eq (emotional quotient) to illustrate his approach to the assessment of general intelligence. he describes emotional intelligence as a mirror to reflect one’s ability to negotiate well with others and to the feelings of self-control; in addition, he also describes emotional intelligence as the ability to negotiate with daily environment challenges and helps predict success in life, including personal and career matters. upon this discovery, the term emotional intelligence has also received a place in academic writing (cited by gardner & krechevsky, 1993). najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 98 j.d. mayer and p. salovey (1997) also were the first to present academically about their discovery in the field of emotional intelligence. they define emotional intelligence as a social intelligence that involves the ability to control emotions of self and others, as well as to differentiate between types of emotion, using information to guide thinking, and actions of a person. j.d. mayer and p. salovey (1997) have refined the definition of emotional intelligence. according to them, emotional intelligence is the ability to detect emotions, to access and create emotions, to assist thought, and to understand emotions and emotional knowledge acquired; hence, it is thought to control emotions to promote emotional development of the intellect. j.d. mayer and p. salovey (1997), then, suggested four domains of emotional intelligence to recognize emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. besides, h. gardner (1983) has criticized the meaning of the concept of intelligence involving only rationalistic, intellectual, and cognitive development in the narrow sense. according to h. gardner (1983), human intelligence not only limited to intellectual intelligence, but includes nine intelligence of mathematical and logical intelligence, language intelligence, musical intelligence, visual intelligence and space, body language intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, naturalist intelligence, and existential intelligence. intelligence involves the ability to solve problems or create a work such as changing a song, create a poem, or a choreographed dance in its cultural context. according to h. gardner (1983), a person’s intelligence can be identified by intelligence tests or test of iq is not accurate because the intellect is not the only way of solving problems. individuals can use a number of cognitive processes to solve problems and produce success. h. gardner’s “diversity intelligences theory” in 1983 has opened the eyes and attracted psychologists to explore a variety of human intelligence as well as intellectual intelligence. intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences emphasized in the two-dimensional theory which are important in the development of the idea of emotional intelligence. according to h. gardner and m.c. krechevsky (1993), both intrapersonal, interpersonal, and emotional intelligences are the skills to solve problems. findings and discussion first, min difference in emotional intelligence between male and female students. emotional intelligence of both the student group represented by the min score and standard deviation values calculated from the data. after that, independent t-tests were conducted to test the null hypothesis of the study which says: “ho1. there is no min significance difference in emotional intelligence between male and female students”. the following is a table showing the results. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 99 table 1: results of independent t-test of emotional intelligence differences between male and female students sex n min sp dk t-value sig male 60 74.75 9.31 118 0.170 0.024 female 60 70.18 7.77 notice: significant mean difference in the level of significance α = 0,025 (0.05/2) (sig. 2 end). students’ emotional intelligence min score between male and female students was 74.75 for male, while female students’ attitudes min score was 70.18. this means that male and female students have a level of students’ attitudes of different uniformed body. the standard deviation value for boys is at 9.31. meanwhile the standard deviation of the group of female students is 7.77. the difference and standard deviation value for the group of male students than female students is about 1.54. this means that the male student group is more homogeneous or diversified in terms of emotional intelligence than girls. this indicates a significant difference in min score of emotional intelligence between male and female students; thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. second, emotional intelligence differences between students of malay, chinese, and indian. emotional intelligence for the three groups of malays, chinese, and indians tested by the min score and standard deviation values calculated from the data. then, one-way anova used to test the null hypothesis: “ho2. there is no significant mean difference in emotional intelligence between malays, chinese, and indians”. the following is a table showing the results. table 2: results of one-way anova test analysis of emotional intelligence differences between malays, chinese, and indians emotional intelligence n min sp minimum maximum malay 40 73.45 8.26 48 88 chinese 40 72.75 7.06 50 84 indian 40 71.65 10.14 47 88 total 120 72.62 8.54 47 88 variation source ss df ms f sig. between groups 65.867 2 32.933 0.447 0.640 within groups 8614.500 117 73.628 total 8680.367 119 notice: significant variance differences in level of significance α = 0,025 (0.05/2) (sig. 2 end). one-way anova tests performed to determine whether there is significant difference in the emotional intelligence of students based on different ethnic. at the najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 100 significant level α = 0.05, null hypothesis failed to be rejected. anova test results showed that the malays, chinese, and indians fail less (f = 0447, df = 2/117, p = 0.640). with the value of p > 0.05, then it can be said that the mean emotional intelligence of students based on race are the same. this means there is no significant difference in the emotional intelligence of students based on different ethnic. third, the relationship between emotional intelligence intrapersonal dimensions of student attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study which read as follows: “ho3 (a). there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence dimension of students’ attitude on uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. table3: pearson correlation test between intrapersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence in student’s attitudes on uniformed body research items n min sp intrapersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence. 120 70.45 14.64 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic intrapersonal student’s attitude intrapersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.168 0.067 120 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.168 0.067 120 1.000 120 notice: significance min difference in the level of significance α = 0,025 (0.05/2) (sig. 2 end). pearson correlation values between emotional intelligence intrapersonal dimension of students’ attitudes to the uniform body was 0.168, so it can be said that the relationship between two variables is a direct relationship because the correlation is positive. the strength of this relationship is very weak. meanwhile, the value of p is 0.168 which is a greater value than 0.05. thus, the null hypothesis of this research fails to be rejected. this indicates that there is no significant relationship between students’ emotional intelligence intrapersonal dimension of student attitudes on uniformed body among form four students in this study. fourth, the relationship between emotional intelligence interpersonal dimensions of student attitudes towards uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study which read as follows: “ho3 (b). there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence interpersonal dimension of student attitudes on uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 101 table 4: pearson correlation test between interpersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence with the attitude of students towards uniformed body research items n min sp interpersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence. 120 76.55 12.27 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic interpersonal student’s attitude interpersonal dimensions of emotional intelligence. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.771 0.000* 120 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.771 0.000* 120 1.000 . 120 notice: significance min difference in the level of significance α = 0.025 (0.05/2) (0.000* = p<0.001). pearson correlation values between emotional intelligence and interpersonal dimension of students’ attitudes to the body uniform was 0.771, so it can be said that the relationship between two variables is a direct relationship because the correlation is positive. the strength of the relationship is strong, which is close to 0.8. while the value of p is 0.000* which is a value smaller than 0.001. thus, this study successfully rejects the null hypothesis. this indicates a significant relationship between emotional intelligence dimensions of student interpersonal behaviors among students on uniformed body of form four students in this study. in summary may be expected that students who are high levels of emotional intelligence of the intrapersonal dimensions also have good attitude towards uniformed body. while students with low levels of emotional intelligences of the interpersonal dimensions tend to have less attitude towards uniformed body. fifth, the relationship between emotional intelligence managing stress dimensions with student’s attitude towards uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study which read as follows: “ho3 (c). there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence managing stress dimensions with student’s attitude towards uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. pearson correlation values between the dimensions of managing stress and student’s attitudes to the uniformed body is 0.894, so it can be said that the relationship between two variables is a direct relationship because the correlation is positive. the strength of this relationship is very strong which is close to 0.9. while the value of p is 0.000* which is much smaller value of 0.001. thus, this study successfully implicates that null hypothesis was rejected. this indicates a significant relationship between students’ emotional intelligence managing stress dimensions with student’s attitude towards uniformed body among form four students in this study. najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 102 table 5: pearson correlation test between emotional intelligence managing stress dimensions with student’s attitude towards uniformed body research items n min sp managing stress emotional intelligence dimensions. 120 71.79 13.16 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic managing stress student’s attitude managing stress emotional intelligence dimensions. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.894 0.000* 120 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.894 0.000* 120 1.000 . 120 notice: significant mean difference in the level of significance α = 0.025 (0.05/2) (0.000* = p<0.001). in summary may be expected that students who have high levels of emotional intelligence dimensions on managing stress also have good attitudes towards uniformed body. while a student who has low level of emotional intelligence dimensions on managing stress also has less attitudes towards uniformed body. perhaps, the students who are able to manage his stress problems were more interested in uniformed bodies in schools. sixth, the relationship between emotional intelligence mood management dimensions with student attitudes towards uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study reads as follows: “ho3 (d). there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence mood management dimensions with student attitudes towards uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. table 6: pearson correlation test between emotional intelligence mood management dimensions of student attitudes on uniformed body research items n min sp emotional intelligence dimensions of mood management. 120 78.50 12.08 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic mood management student’s attitude emotional intelligence dimensions of mood manage ment. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.872 0.000* 120 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.872 0.000* 120 1.000 . 120 notice: significant mean difference in the level of significance α = 0.025 (0.05/2) (0.000* = p<0.001). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 103 the strength of this relationship is very strong which is close to 0.9. while the value of p is 0.000* which is a value smaller than 0.001. thus, this study successfully rejects the null hypothesis. this indicates a significant relationship between students’ emotional intelligence mood management dimensions with student attitudes on uniformed body among form four students in this study. in summary may be expected that students who are not very efficient in the mood management ability was not active in the uniformed body in school. seventh, the relationship between emotional intelligence attitude adjustment dimensions with students attitude towards uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study which read as follows: “ho3 (e). there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence attitude adjustment dimensions with students towards uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. table 7: pearson correlation test between emotional intelligence attitude adjustment dimensions with the students attitude towards uniformed body research items n min sp emotional intelligence of adjustment. 120 75.19 10.04 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic attitude adjustment student’s attitude emotional intelligence of adjustment. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.720 0.000* 120 student’s attitudes on uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.720 0.000* 120 1.000 . 120 notice: significant mean difference in the level of significance α = 0.025 (0.05/2) (0.000* = p<0.001). the strength of this relationship is very strong which is close to 0.8. while the value of p is 0.000* which is a value smaller than 0.001. thus, this study successfully rejects the null hypothesis. this indicates a significant relationship between emotional intelligence attitude adjustment dimensions with the attitude of students on uniformed body among form four students in this study. in summary one can say that students less able to adapt to the school environment have little interest in uniformed bodies carried out in school or in society at large. eighth, the relationship between emotional intelligence as a whole with the attitude of students towards uniformed body. pearson correlation analysis was used to test the null hypothesis of the study which read as follows: “ho4. there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence of students with student attitudes towards uniformed body”. the following is a table showing the results. najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 104 table 8: pearson correlation test between emotional intelligence of students as a whole with student attitudes on uniformed body research items n min sp emotional intelligence of students as a whole. 120 72.62 8.54 student’s attitude to the uniformed body. 120 74.43 11.60 research items item statistic emotional intelligence student’s attitude emotional intelligence of students as a whole. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 1.000 . 120 0.902 0.000* 120 student’s attitude to the uniformed body. pearson correlation sig. (2 ends) n 0.902 0.000* 120 1.000 . 120 notice: significant mean difference in the level of significance α = 0.025 (0.05/2) (0.000* = p<0.001). pearson correlation values between emotional intelligence as a whole with the students’ attitudes to the uniform body is 0.902, so it can be said that the relationship between two variables is a direct relationship because the correlation is positive. the strength of this relationship is very strong, exceeding 0.9. while the value of p is 0.000* which is a value smaller than 0.001. thus, this study successfully indicates that null hypothesis was rejected. this indicates a significant relationship between emotional intelligence as a whole with the attitude of students towards uniformed body among form four students in this study. in summary, one can say that students who have high level of emotional intelligences also have better attitude towards their uniformed body in school. overall, students with high emotional intelligence are more interested in uniformed bodies in schools. conclusion the study of emotional intelligence among school children should be expanded as the pressure in the era of globalization of education is increasingly challenging the mental and physical strength of students. failure to manage emotions will bring undesirable effects. on the other hand, emotional intelligence provides space for individuals to explore their own potential as well as provide opportunities for individuals to adjust to the emotional self and develop the appropriate emotions in the interest of themselves and others. individuals with high emotional intelligence are able to handle the emotional aspects of life. emotional intelligence is enriched with spiritual elements that can educate people to be more balanced human being. emotional intelligence is a unique field and should be fully understood before digging ahead to study other human characteristics. we reserve the right to choose the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that we want to be controlled by our emotions. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 105 to date, there is still consensus among researchers about the strength of the influence of emotional intelligence in various aspects of human life, especially in students’ attitudes to extra-curricular activities, so that more research on emotional intelligence can to be carried out. the study showed that the cultivation of emotional intelligence has not yet reached a high level. in expanding the dimensions of emotional intelligence, such as student background factors of gender and race, should be considered to meet individual differences. the efforts in developing emotional intelligence should follow the right pace to cultivate the skills and can be leveraged to free students from emotional disorders. references abd hamid, mohd azhar et al. (2005). eq: panduan meningatkan kecerdasan emosi. kuala lumpur: pts publications and distributors sdn bhd. bisnon, h. (1998). managing conflict. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. cooper, r.k. & a. sawaf. (1997). executive eq: emotional intelligence in business. london: ovion business books. elias, m.j. et al. (1991). “the promotion of social competence: longitudinal study of a preventive school-based programme” in american journal of orthopsychiatry, 61(3), pp.409-417. retrieved also from proquest database on may 23, 2012. gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. gardner, h. & m.c. krechevsky. (1993). multiple intelligences: the theory in practice. new york: basic books. gay, l.r. & p. airasian. (2003). educational research: competencies for analysis and application. new jersey: merrill prentice hall, 7th edition. goleman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. new york: bantam books. mayer, j.d. & p. salovey. (1997). emotional intelligence: imagination, cognition, and personality. beverly hills: sage publication. michael, a.j. (2006). kompetensi kecerdasan emosi untuk pelajar kursus kesediaan program ijazah sarjana muda pendidikan (pismp). kuala lumpur: kumpulan budiman sdn bhd. mohd, ainon & abdullah hassan (2002). psikologi kejayaan. pahang: pts publication & distributors. wylie, r. & s. burus. (1979). the self-concept, vol.2. lincoln: university of nebraska press. yah, azizi et al. (2005). aplikasi kognitif dalam pendidikan. kuala lumpur: pts publications & distributors sdn bhd. najeemah mohd yusof, relationship between emotional intelligence and students attitude 106 picture of malays students in primary and secondary schools (source: www.google.com, 1/5/2012) however, educational institutions today are to focus more on the importance of intellectual quotient (iq). malaysia’s education system more oriented to academic intelligence of logical and linguistic with less attention to the types of intelligence such as musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist that can be done outside the classroom as in the uniform bodies activities. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 139© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari recognize teachers’ perception of the schoolbased assessment (sba) effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics abstract: in the assessment of mathematics, the policy makers have noticed that many students were quite able to learn the necessary formula and apply them to the limited range of textbook and test situation; but when faced with novel problem, they fell short and showed that they were far from having understood the relevant concepts and conceptual relations. therefore, an effective assessment is needed to promote students’ mastery of mathematical thinking through sba (school-based assessment). sba is a formative assessment which provide the students’ progress from one level to another level. teachers can create a diagnostic measure to detect the students’ progress from time to time. this provides an opportunity for teachers to correct any mistakes and improve students’ weaknesses immediately, so that these weaknesses are not accumulated. this study sought to recognize the teachers’ perception of the sba effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics. a total of 50 mathematics teachers from secondary schools in kedah, malaysia participated in the survey. a 19-items questionnaire was employed to measure teacher’s perception on the sba effectiveness and students’ scores in mathematics. the data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. the result showed that the teachers’ perception on the sba effectiveness in school had no statistically significant relationship with the students’ achievement in mathematics. this finding implied that the teachers’ perception on the effectiveness of sba practiced in school didn’t affect the students’ achievement in mathematics. key words: teachers’ perception; school-based assessment; mathematics; effective assessment; students’ achievement. about the authors: farhana mohamad radzi completed her master specialize in educational psychology and degree in mathematics at iium (international islamic university of malaysia) in gombak, kuala lumpur, malaysia. siti salwa md sawari is currently ph.d. candidate at the faculty of islamic civilization utm (malaysia university of technology) in kuala lumpur, malaysia. corresponding authors are: farhana.radzi@gmail.com and salwa.sawari@gmail.com how to cite this article? radzi, farhana mohamad & siti salwa md sawari. (2016). “recognize teachers’ perception of the schoolbased assessment (sba) effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.8(2) february, pp.139-146. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (november 27, 2015); revised (january 27, 2016); and published (february 28, 2016). introduction the sba (school-based assessment) was introduced by the mes (malaysian examinations syndicate) through a transformation process in education system in malaysia. this transformation process poses new and interesting questions for policy makers and teachers, who are searching for strategies to positively influence student’s achievement and who are seeking to ensure that the current educational system adequately prepares the students for the 21st century and tomorrow’s challenges (talib et al., 2014). sba is a new transformation process, because malaysia had been practicing examoriented educational system, such as monthly farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari, recognize teachers’ perception 140 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare test and year-end examination for more than 50 years (salmiah, 2013). therefore, with this policy, it has potential in changing the pattern of teaching and learning, and enabling students to be more creative and critical thinking. h.o. esther sui-chu (2012) stated that sba is a formative assessment, which provides the students’ progress from one level to another level. teachers can create a diagnostic measure to detect the students’ progress from time to time. this provides an opportunity for teachers to correct any mistakes and improve students’ weaknesses immediately, so that these weaknesses are not accumulated (sui-chu, 2012). in addition, the teacher can identify weaknesses and develop the strength and potential in students (barley, 2013). through an effective follow-up activities, teachers can help students improve learning progress and earn outstanding achievements in the evaluation at the central level. under the sba, teachers are given big responsibility to design quality assessments that align with the learning outcomes as they are the most suitable people to assess their students and they have a better understanding of the context of the subject area (salmiah, 2013). this provides opportunities for teachers to continuously monitor their students and to give constructive feedback to improve students’ learning abilities (mansor et al., 2013). teachers play an important role in detecting the development, abilities, progress, and attainment of students. teachers determine the learning outcomes to be assessed, design and build instruments of evaluation, analyse assessment information, reporting, and conduct follow-up. through sba, it is hoped that the development of individual potential and integration in terms of intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical accordance with the nep (national education philosophy) will be ensured (hassan & yew, 2013). statement of problem. teachers play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness of evaluation system in malaysia. since sba (school-based assessment) was introduced in schools, there were a variety of reactions among teachers. according to a study by z. gan (2013) and gizem mutlu (2014), many teachers felt that the change of education assessment had increased their workload. besides teaching, teachers felt they need to do extra administrative works for which teachers are also given other responsibilities at school, such as handle the school projects and being the advisor for students’ co-curricular activities (gan, 2013; and mutlu, 2014). teachers need to assess and teach at the same time. this is because in the sba system, evaluation and teaching will take place at the same time throughout the year. similarly, a.m. tan (2010), in his study, noted that sba had doubly increased teachers’ existing workload, including time consuming in assessment preparation. this resulted in teachers implementing assessment as a product rather than as a process (tan, 2010). in addition, there are teachers who do not fully understand of the policies and the basic concepts of the assessment. this is because they were never asked to attend any sba courses but were instructed by the school to implement sba. in addition, many teachers are not teaching their specialization as an option. this situation had indirectly led to the questionable competency of teachers to become the advisors and facilitators for the assessment in the classroom. another academic finding from matt larson (2002), some of the curriculums are not covered in sba, misleading the teachers assuming that those parts of curriculum are not important and not necessarily be taught in class (larson, 2002). another worrying trend is that some of the teachers were teaching based on the examples of performance standard provided by the ministry of education, which defeated the purpose of sba (choi, 1999). sba requires the teachers to not only act as an educator, but also as the examiner. therefore, many teachers felt unprepared to play the double role. another problem with sba identified concerns the large classes (raman & yamat, 2014). generally, malaysian public schools are packed with students; whereby each classroom needs to accommodate about thirty to forty students or more. the atmosphere in the crowded classes’ environment made sba implementation difficult. large numbers of educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 141© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare students posed significant teaching challenges, and so does the assessment of students. the most troubling reason is that large classes can limit the feedback amount given by the students. consequently, it will affect the students’ achievement in their study and assessment. in the sba of academic aspect, the students’ results are assessed and graded into 6 bands in sba. however, the levels of the bands are not consistent with the standard of the curriculum, making it difficult for the teachers to set the assessment. moderation of the marks awarded by teachers for sba is often cited as a means of addressing issues of equity and fairness by making adjustments, where necessary, to bring marks or grades back in line with the standards of the public examination board. according to t.y. hwa & c.s. lim (2008), the usage of bands (band 1-6) instead of the exam grade (a-f) is actually creating a very large difference in the assessment. this is because the evaluations of students are not using the examination standard benchmark. for instance, the students from weaker classes able to get band 5, although their assessment methods were different from the smart students who got band 5 (hwa & lim, 2008). in the assessment of mathematics, the policy makers have noticed that many students were quite able to learn the necessary formula and apply them to the limited range of textbook and test situation, but when faced with novel problem, they fell short and showed that they were far from having understood the relevant concepts and conceptual relations (lane, 1993; and lange, 1999). therefore, an effective assessment is needed to promote students’ mastery of mathematical thinking through sba. without appropriate assessment and grading system in assessing students, we cannot know how effective and efficient such assessment for students. all these are real issues currently present in malaysian schools, as teachers play an important role in assessing their students. this study sought to recognize the teachers’ perception of the sba effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics. literature review school-based assessment. malaysia’s education system used to be labelled as too exam-oriented and focused mostly on academic excellence. consequently, the ministry of education (moe) malaysia had shifted existing education system into the sba (school-based assessment) system and executed a variety of innovations in curriculum, so that our education system is in line with the rapid changes that occur within the community locally or globally (majid, 2011). sba is in line with the government’s inspiration to make malaysia become more competitive in the world (moe malaysia, 2012). in this context, educators and policy makers in malaysia viewed sba as one of the driving force that will be able to solve the problems in traditional education system (chan & gurnam, 2011). as we are aware, sba is actually not a new assessment method in malaysia, as it had been indirectly practiced by teachers in the classroom, since the late nineties and early 2000 (chan & gurnam, 2011). individual learning assessment has improved, from the restraint of time-limited writing examinations to a more extensive involvement, and engagement of teachers and students in the assessment process itself (gipps, 1999). having realized that, tan sri musa mohamed, the former malaysian minister of education, on 7 may 2003, as cited in y.f. chan & k.s. gurnam (2011), said that malaysia needs a new philosophy and approach in the examination system to make the education system less exam-oriented (chan & gurnam, 2011). again, as cited by y.f. chan & k.s. gurnam (2011), tan sri musa mohamed also believed that sba is a better assessment system in increasing students’ abilities and capabilities. with that, sba was officially materialized into the malaysian education system beginning 1 january 2011, after a meticulous planning and long deliberation since 2005 (chan & gurnam, 2011). the study on “school-based assessment in malaysian schools: the concerns of the english teachers” was done by faizah a. majid in 2011, where she had identified a farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari, recognize teachers’ perception 142 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare number of teachers’ concerns regarding to the concerns that was raised by g.e. hall, a.a. george & w.l. rutherford (1977). a total of 40 english teachers from malaysian public schools participated in the study. the questionnaire’s items elicited the information about the concerns of the respondents regarding the usage or implementation of any educational innovation which related to the sba (majid, 2011). the results showed that the respondents were very concerned with the sba innovation process. the teachers’ concerns on the sba were also acknowledged by the professional development trainers, not only the english teachers. thus, decisions can be made during the planning of for-service teacher training on sba. some implications for the in-service training were provided to ensure that sba ran smoothly (hall, george & rutherford, 1977; and majid, 2011). sba in malaysia was performed to evaluate each student holistically and overall will reckon their overall well-being, including the aspects of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical; and these aspects will be impossible to assess through the written examination only (moe malaysia, 2014; and md ali, veloo & krishnasamy, 2015). our current education system is good enough, but malaysia needs to keep abreast with the current assessment trend, so that we will not be left behind. y.f. chan, k.s. gurnam & md rizal md yunus (2006) focused on how the newly introduced assessment approach had benefited the teaching and learning process in evaluating the year 1 academic progress in three urban chinese primary schools. in their qualitative case study, data was collected from interviews involving three year 1 chinese language teachers. they found out that teachers have a very positive attitude towards sba and overall, both teachers and students, have benefited from sba (chan, gurnam & yunus, 2006). however, there were also weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and improvements need to be made. the findings implicate that for sba to be successful, teachers need to be creative, using varying strategies in their teaching, and exploiting repertoire of methods in assessing their students. based on t.y. hwa & c.s. lim (2008), in their study, practicing sba is not an easy task. the schools may differ in the way they grade their students, as it is impractical to completely eliminate teacher biases when multiple individuals are involved (hwa & lim, 2008). the variation of evaluation standards between teachers themselves may also be questioned in the future (levinsson, hallstrom & claesson, 2013). it is hard for them to break off with the previous assessment grading. most of the teachers thought that the students can be assessed via examination only. as stated in hr (hanover research), in 2011, the previous mark-based grading assessment has encouraged students to score higher and higher in order to improve their achievement in a subject.1 furthermore, p.j. black & d. wiliam (1998), as also cited in d. marva (2008), pointed out that the formative assessment in sba does improve learning. however, among the key findings are that this kind of assessment is not well understood by teachers (black & wiliam, 1998; and marva, 2008). in addition, they state that sba is not effective in practice and that its implementation calls for deep changes, both in teacher perceptions of their role in relation to their students and classroom practices. they further stated that many other recent studies on the practice of assessment clearly demonstrate that there can be no effective change at the level of the classroom without schools and teachers being provided with the necessary training and resources (black & wiliam, 1998; and marva, 2008). the effectiveness of the implementation is closely binded to the students’ achievement. according to h.h. ronald (2009), the effectiveness of the transformation process itself is a central effort to improve student achievement. a teacher can be seen as an individual resource that varies across classrooms within schools (ronald, 2009). therefore, a teacher’s perception on sba is essential and binded to students’ learning as well as their achievement. the researchers 1see, for example, an article entitled “effective grading practices in the middle school and high school environments” in hr: hanover research, february 2011, pp.1-37. available online also at: https://njctl-media.s3.amazonaws.com [accessed in kuala lumpur, malaysia: april 7, 2015]. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 143© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare found out that the effectiveness of successive organization was related to students’ achievement in reading and mathematics, and was positively associated with their achievement levels (ronald, 2009; and marzano & michael, 2011). similarly, t.a. myers et al. (2013) believed that the change is a highly personal experience (myers et al., 2013). as teachers that are engaged in change, many feelings and perceptions are expressed, and many more are only whispered or left unspoken (hall & hord, 2011). no matter how promising and wonderful the transformation process is, no matter how strong the support is, teachers will still have moments of self-doubt about whether they can be successful with these new ways, and whether they even want to change. changes are brought about by people; therefore, their feelings, concerns, perceptions, and frustrations, all play a critical role in determining the success or failure of the transformation process (marva, 2008). thus, teacher’s perception plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of the sba practiced in school. by reviewing such literature, the present study sought to understand the teacher’s perception on the sba practices. finally, it is accepted that the perceptions of the respondents’ experiences are of utmost importance, as the researcher seeks to understand and describe the respondents’ experiences, and how these experiences are seen by the respondents themselves. methods a total of 50 mathematics teachers from secondary schools in kedah, malaysia participated in the survey. a 19-items questionnaire was employed to measure teacher’s perception on the sba (schoolbased assessment) effectiveness and students’ scores in mathematics. the data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and logistic regression (glewwe & levin, 2000; and peng, lee & ingersoll, 2002). this study used purposive sampling in order to include most of the variables of interest (gender, race, age, years of teaching, marital status, highest qualification, area of specialization, and school location). according to e. babbie (2001), a purposive sample, commonly called a judgmental sample, is one that is selected based on the knowledge of a population and the purpose of the study (babbie, 2001). the subjects are selected, because of some characteristics. since this study was a purposive study, 10 schools had been selected to participate in this study. data analysis. the descriptive statistics, logistic regression analysis, and pearson correlation were used to answer all respective research questions in this quantitative study (peng, lee & ingersoll, 2002). firstly, descriptive statistics were used to analyse the percentage and frequency of the respondents’ demographic data. then, the researchers utilized a logistic regression analysis to explore the teachers’ perception on the sba (schoolbased assessment) effectiveness in school and to determine whether it was related to students’ achievements in mathematics. the dependent variable in this study was a binary outcome: “yes” or “no”, for the teachers’ perception on the sba effectiveness in school. the teachers’ perception on the sba effectiveness in school was coded “0” for the response “sba is not effective”. findings demographic variables. the background information of the respondents was analysed and presented. descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data as well to provide the percentage and frequency of the respondents for the demographic data (glewwe & levin, 2000). the purpose is to provide a better understanding and an overview of the respondents in this research. the total number of respondents who participated in this study was 50, all of them taught mathematics to lower secondary schools in kedah, malaysia. firstly, the results showed that 66% (n = 33) of the teachers in the sample were female, whereas 34% (n = 17) of the teachers were male. the ages of these respondents fell in the ranges of 25 years to 58 years. the raw data then was divided into several groups with a class size of 10 and put together into a table. from the table 1, 38% or 19 of the respondents were in the age group of 30 – 39 years old farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari, recognize teachers’ perception 144 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare making them the majority. the respondents’ teaching experience was categorized into four groups. the respondents’ years of teaching range is between 1 year and 35 years. moreover, 86% of the teachers were malay, whereas 12% were chinese and 2% were indian. the finding also revealed that 14% of the teachers in the sample were single and 86% were married. the highest academic qualification of the respondents was divided into 4 categories: certificate (mce = malaysian certificate of education), diploma, bachelor’s degree, and master’s degree. in this study, 90% of the teachers in the sample were highly qualified bachelor’s degree holder and mostly specialized in mathematics. further demographic details are given in table 1. table 2 shows the result of logistic regression analysis on students’ achievement in mathematics. the probability of the wald statistic for this variable was 0.048, less or equal to the significance level of 0.05. the odds ratio of the teachers who agreed that sba (school-based assessment) was effective in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics was observed to have a probability of 1.051. in other words, the teachers who responded “sba is effective” in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics were 1.051 times higher than the teachers who responded with “sba is not effective” in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics. it was merely about 5% improvement in students’ achievement in mathematics via sba practice in school. the relationship between teachers’ perception and students’ achievement in mathematics. in terms of the relationship between teachers’ perception on the sba (school-based assessment) practiced in school and students’ achievement in mathematics, a correlation table 1: breakdown of teachers’ demographic details demographics n % gender male 17 34 female 33 66 race malay 43 86 chinese 6 12 indian 1 2 age 20 – 29 5 10 30 – 39 19 38 40 – 49 15 30 50 – 59 11 22 year of teaching 1 – 10 18 36 11 – 20 21 42 21 – 30 6 12 31 – 40 5 10 marital status single 7 14 married 43 86 highest qualification certificate 1 2 diploma 1 2 bachelor’s degree 45 90 master’s degree 3 6 area of specialization mathematics 45 90 others 5 10 table 2: logistic regression analysis on students’ achievement in mathematics b s.e. wald df sig. exp(b) step 1a average_ach .050 .038 1.729 1 .048 1.051 constant -2.392 2.533 .892 1 .034 .091 educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 145© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare test was conducted. the result showed that the teachers’ perception on the sba effectiveness in school had no statistically significant relationship with the students’ achievement in mathematics. this finding implied that the teachers’ perception on the effectiveness of sba practiced in school didn’t affect the students’ achievement in mathematics. this result did not concur with the result of the study conducted by ewnetu hailu & firdisa jabesa (2010) that reported teachers’ belief and perception often had positive influence on the students’ academic achievement. they further elaborated that a better understanding of the teachers’ belief or conceptual base will significantly contribute to enhancing educational effectiveness as well as increasing students’ achievement (hailu & jabesa, 2010). it emphasized the teachers’ thinking process as the base on how teachers act in practical situation. conclusion as conclusion, sba (school-based assessment) is the form of future education that has been inviting criticism upon another criticism. this paradigm shift is happening in line with orders from saiyyidina umar al-khatab, who pointed out that the form of children’s education was required based on the needs of the future. the practices of sba in malaysia allowed the educational system and assessment to always moving forward, while all the wisdom and previous experiences still can be used in the current environment. the challenges of the sba practice indeed will always come from time to time. deficiencies and errors that still persist should not be the reason for the implementation of the sba to become ineffective again. students, teachers, and the community have the right to give the best for the future of the nation and country. given this set of circumstances, it is clear that more researches still needed to be done on the sba effectiveness practice in school. seeking out and compensating teachers’ perception based on the sba practice in mathematics are likely to yield significant improvement in the students’ achievement in mathematics, though currently this is common practice. these recommendations do not affect the findings of this present study, but they can serve as a starting point for future researches by 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(2014). “from principle to practice: assessment for learning in malaysian school-based assessment classroom” in international journal of social sciences & education, vol.4(4), pp.850-857. available online also at: http://ijsse.com/sites/ default/files/issues/2014/v4-i4-2014-1/paper-11.pdf [accessed in kuala lumpur, malaysia: may 2, 2015]. tan, a.m. (2010). sba di malaysia: kesediaan guru, isu, dan panduan perlaksanaan. kuala lumpur: gerak budaya enterprise. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 1 chinedu i.o. okeke, ph.d. is a lecturer at the department of educational foundations & management, faculty of education uos (university of swaziland), kwaluseni campus, private bag 4 kwaluseni m201, swaziland, africa. phone: +26825170374. fax: +26825185276. email address: okekechinedu@yahoo.com and ciookeke@gmail.com bullying as gendered violence: girls talk of their classroom experiences within a heterogeneous classroom chinedu i.o. okeke abstract: bullying is a global phenomenon with devastating consequences for the victims, their families, and the societies at large. bullying is a serious social ill; a lived experience capable of turning individuals within a given society into social misfits with long-term implications. this paper reflects on the account of the stories by some nigerian school girls of their classroom experiences in a heterogeneous school setting. aspects of the deliberations from among the 25 girls (and 25 boys as well) who took part in the study are employed in this paper to interrogate how gendered bullying played into the girls’ perceptions of their classroom. results from the study show that within co-educational classroom, girls are more likely to be bully-victims than boys. results also revealed that boys are more likely to be perpetrators of bullying than girls in a mixed-sex classroom. bullying as lived experience, therefore, emerges in the study as a form of belligerent masculinity; and is germane to the understanding of the girl participants’ submissive posture as they struggled for space and identity within the classroom in complex and subtle ways. the implications of this for co-education and co-educational policy-making are highlighted and recommendations for changes in policy and practice are equally suggested. key words: schooling, classroom bullying, girls’ participation, gender, nigerian school girls, and co-education and co-educational policy-making. introduction “boys like to make noise round the class commanding us all the time. we are tired of having them around us” (nneka). little did he know the concept would generate such an enormous concern and attention from researchers the world over when in the late 1970s and early 1980s, dan olweus in sweden pioneered his research on school bullying and the aggression (rigby, 1999; olweus, 2001; roland, 2002; olweus, 2003; young & sweeting, 2004; and olweus, 2005). today, research on school bullying has become the focus of many psycho-behavioural, sociological, as well as health researchers in many parts of the world (mazza & overstreet, 2000; hasting & bham, 2003; delfabbro et al., 2006; egbochuku, 2007; solberg, olweus & endresen, 2007; and crews, crews & turner, 2008). bullying has been conceptualized by most of these authors to chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 2 involve aggressive behaviours against another (or others) who would have run out of favour in the psyche of the perpetrator(s). according to p. delfabbro et al. (2006:72), “such aggression need not be physical, and can include a variety of non-physical forms such as emotional and verbal abuse, threats, as well as exclusion in which a person directly, or indirectly, ostracizes another person from a social group”. bullying as a phenomenon has been defined variously in literature. according to b.a. omoteso (2010:498), “a wide range of physical or verbal behaviours of an aggressive or antisocial nature are encompassed by the term bullying … these physical actions can take the forms of physical contact, verbal abuse or making faces and rude gestures”. bullying is intentional act (nickel et al., 2005); an exposure to repeated negative actions by a child from other child or children (balogun, olapegba & opayemi, 2006); interaction in which a dominant individual repeatedly exhibits aggressive behaviour intended to cause distress to less dominant individual (maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009); and as an action intentionally inflicted on someone to cause injury, fear or distress (kenny, mceachern & aluede, 2005). e.o. egbochuku (2007) has defined bullying as peer aggressive behaviours encompassed in the acts of kicking, hitting, extortion of money by a child or a group from other(s), locking another inside a room, verbal threats as well as teasing. a number of other studies have defined bullying as a form of school violence (lowry et al., 1999; farrell, meyer & white, 2001; karcher, 2002; flouri & buchanan, 2003; hasting & bham, 2003; and aluede, 2004). thus, whatever forms bullying takes within or outside of the schools, m.c. kenny, a.g. mceachern and o. aluede (2005:13) note “the goal of bullying is generally to cause distress in some manner and it usually takes place among children who are not friends”. however, studies have shown that differences exist on how both teachers and pupils perceive as well as define the concept of bullying within the school system (naylor et al., 2001). research also suggest that the differences in the definition appear to be informed by the impact of bullying behaviours on victims, as well as by who is at the receiving end (mazza & overstreet, 2000; lewis, 2001; naylor et al., 2001; and karcher, 2002). in their study on teachers’ and pupils’ definitions of bullying, p. naylor et al. (2001) adopted two separate open-ended questionnaire instruments to account for any differences on the responses from 225 teachers and 1,820 pupils in fifty-one uk (united kingdom) secondary schools. p. naylor et al. (2001:557) compared “teachers’ and pupils’ definitions of bullying … regarding whether or not for the bully’s behaviour, the ideas of power imbalance, physical abuse, verbal abuse, social exclusion, repetition and intention to cause harm have been invoked”. they found out that pupil-victims of bullying behaviour have lesser understanding and definitional representation of the act, “to the extent that pupils may not always realize that they are being bullied” (naylor et al., 2001:573). other studies have also noted these differences in the perceptions of bullying amongst teachers and students while cautioning on the implications of such differences for teaching-learning, policy-making, and for parents themselves (olweus, 2001; karatzias, power & swanson, 2002; yoon & kerber, 2003; lawrence & green, 2005; and georgiou, 2008). educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 3 according to m.e. solberg, d. olweus and i.m. endresen (2007:443), “a bullying relation is characterized by the fact that one or more individuals repeatedly direct negative and hurtful actions on individual who has difficulty defending himself or herself”. research has shown bullying behaviours to be copious and multi-faceted (rigby, 1999; 2000; and 2002; yoon & kerber, 2003; smith et al., 2004; and young & sweeting, 2004). these include physical and non-physical, as well as verbal and non-verbal behaviours, however, the connecting “identifying criteria of the term ‘bullying’ are that the negative behaviour is intentional and repeated over time to some extent” (solberg, olweus & endresen, 2007:443). thus far, various typologies of bullying behaviours found within literature, include physical aggression such as hitting, kicking or punching, name-calling and threats (newman, murray & lussier, 2001; lawrence & green, 2005; olweus, 2005; and delfabbro et al., 2006); and social exclusion (hanish & guerra, 2000; naylor et al., 2001; and flouri & buchanan, 2003). other types of bullying behaviours include the use of force against another (lowry et al., 1999; smith, shu & madsen, 2001; fox & boulton, 2005; and galand, lecocq & philippot, 2007); and the intention to cause harm (baldry & farrington, 2000; andreou, 2001; tolan & guerra, 2002; and baldry, 2004). some factors that can cause bullying many studies have attempted to provide some explanations as to the possible causes of bullying amongst children, and most of these studies have linked bullying experiences to the families and precisely to parents (baldry & farrington, 2000; hunter, boyle & warden, 2007; and georgiou, 2008). how is it that some children are socialized into bullies? s.n. georgiou (2008:109) provides an explanation by noting “children learn to be aggressive towards others … by watching the daily interactions of their family members”. the basic mode of learning, especially for the child, is through imitation whereby the child simply learns by looking at what other members of his/her immediate family environment may be doing. thus, in the home where both parents usually quarrel and fight before their child, such home would eventually assist the child into socializing such social ills as quarrelling and fighting as normal, and may carry such habits into various fields as the school and classroom environment (andreou, 2001 and 2004; dill et al., 2004; and fox & boulton, 2005). specifically, s.n. georgiou (2008) notes some specific parental practices, which correlate school and childhood bullying. studying two hundred and fiftytwo, 4th, 5th and 6th grade elementary school greek-cypriot children and their mothers in ten schools; s.n. georgiou (2008) used also four different set of scales to test the relevance of a theoretical model describing the family parameters of bullying and victimization. the study revealed that maternal responsiveness was positively related to the child’s adjustment at school (i.e. achievement and social adaptation), while the same factor was negatively related to school aggression (bullying and disruptive behaviour). other studies, which have notably contributed chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 4 to the increasingly growing international literature on the link between family characteristics and bullying/aggressive behaviours, include that of w. craig, r. peters and r. konarski (1998), which note that specific parenting style as well as some types of family management patterns or practices can indirectly impact on bullying behaviours amongst children from within such homes. moreover, i. connolly and m. o’moore (2003) have listed some family factors contributory to bullying behaviour in children. they include over-protection of children by parents, absence of fathers in the home, incidence of depression in parents, especially mothers, as well as domestic violence where children are onlookers (baldry & farrington, 2000; flouri & buchanan, 2003; ellis & shute, 2007; and crews, crews & turner, 2008). away from the family, studies have shown that bullying at school may result through frustration caused by lack of success at school among perpetrators (maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009). specifically, bullying may result because some children “may try to control someone else to get some relief from their own feelings of powerlessness” (maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009:210). consequences of peer bullying numerous studies have equally noted that bullying behaviours result in very many psychosocial, physiological, as well as medical consequences for both bullies and their victims; for families and the larger society (andreou, 2001; bond et al., 2001; farrell, meyer & white, 2001; karcher, 2002; connolly & o’moore, 2003; seals & young, 2003; andreou, 2004; baldry, 2004; dill et al., 2004; fox & boulton, 2005; and ellis & shute, 2007). according to p. delfabbro et al. (2006:72), “bullying has many undesirable consequences for individuals. children who are bullied tend to have poorer self-esteem … the effects of bullying have also been found to extend beyond psychological well-being to influence physical health”. m.e. solberg, d. olweus and i.m. endresen (2007) also note that bully-victims experience multiple personality problems. according to the authors, victims of bullying and other aggressive behaviours present very many emotional and behavioural problems, especially when in company of their peers at school or even when with their parents. the study by c.l. fox and m.j. boulton (2005:324) reveals that victims of peer bullying at school were generally perceived as having greater social skill problems than non-victims. studies have shown that the consequences of bullying extend well beyond the bullies themselves, the school community, and the society at large. b.a. omoteso (2010:501) notes “the findings on bullying indicated that bullying is a physically harmful, psychologically damaging, and socially isolating aspect of a large number of children’s school experience”. frustrations caused by bullying behaviours appear to play significant part to why some victims’ want to take drastic life-threatening decisions as suicide (mazza & overstreet, 2000; lawrence & green, 2005; hunter, boyle & warden, 2007; and omoteso, 2010). a.e. maliki, c.g. asagwara and j.f. ibu (2009) have equally noted that bullyvictims have the tendency to stop thinking about schooling and education generally. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 5 most importantly, “bullying also has bad effect on the bullies themselves … children develop behaviour pattern that endured into adult life. they were also more likely, to have criminal record than those who were not bully” (maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009:211). this is a feeling shared by b.a. omoteso (2010:502) when the author noted those who bully are more likely to drop out of school, use drug and alcohol, as well as engage in subsequent delinquent and criminal behaviour. it has equally been found that victims of bullying often experience anxiety and depression, low selfesteem, physical and some psychosomatic complaints (smith et al., 2004). victims of bullying also possess very serious personality defects; such persons tend to have positive attitudes towards violence, while lacking positive concept of themselves (andreou, 2004). gendered bullying generally, research has shown that more boys than girls engage in acts of bullying; boys also engage in the use of aggressive, physical, and intimidating bullying behaviour (bond et al., 2001; farrell et al., 2001; kenny, mceachern & aluede, 2005; and lawrence & green, 2005). on the other hand, studies show that girls are less aggressive when engaged in bullying behaviour; however, they tend to use more of social exclusion, back-biting, and somewhat facial expressions against their victims irrespective of gender (kenny, mceachern & aluede, 2005; balogun, olapegba & opayemi, 2006; and egbochuku, 2007). p. delfabbro et al. (2006:71) reveal that girls were more likely to be subject to bullying if they attended co-educational private schools. more so, it has been revealed in a study of 49 boys and 68 girls (baldry, 2004) that within a co-educational setting, female pupils are more readily inclined to blaming their male counterparts for the prevalence of bullying within the classroom. gender differences also appear to be implicated in the way both boys and girls perceive bullying behaviour. in a uk (united kingdom)-based study conducted among 466 boys and 460 girls, p. naylor et al. (2001) noted the differences, which persisted in the manner both boys and girls in their study defined acts of bullying. p. naylor et al. (2006:553) also reveal that girls are more likely than boys are, to mention verbal abuse and the effects on the target. within the societies of nigeria, bullying as a social ill is no longer any news. following media interests generated across the country over the years, “schools, parents and children alike, started demanding investigations and intervention to conquer this seemingly large and serious problem” (egbochuku, 2007:65). many researchers across institutions in the country began various attempts to offer better understanding of the social ill, while at the same time offering solutions as part of intervention strategies (kenny, mceachern & aluede, 2005; balogun, olapegba & opayemi, 2006; egbochuku, 2007; maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009; and omoteso, 2010). however, these attempts at understanding school bullying have only enriched our understanding in two broad contexts, which include bullies and victims. our knowledge still appears to be limited about how say, for instance, early childhood chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 6 experiences of gendered bullying have a propensity to mediate much of later adult female somewhat submissive and suppressed posture within the patriarchal nigerian societies. against this background, this paper while seeking to bridge that perceived gap in research and knowledge on the gendered impact of bullying on the female later life, equally seeks to contribute to the body of international literature on discussions in this regard. collection and analyses of data the larger qualitative study, which has influenced this paper, was aimed to investigate the gendered perception of schooling amongst some senior secondary school students in a school located within a nigerian suburb. the larger study was anchored on the interactionist approach to research. interactionists presume the self appears to be almost certainly shaped by influences from the outside (stewart & o’neill, 1999; neumann & dickinson, 2002; and tepperman, 2005). a symbolic interactionist studying how gendered bullying impacts young girls’ social interactions within co-educational setting would examine how the agencies of peer bullying contribute to the shaping of the self-concepts of the girls. moreover, the interactionist would want to understand how young girls are pressurized through acts of bullying from their male classmates into accepting their subordinate and/ or submissive positions as normal. the paper draws from the girls’ talk of their classroom interactions with the boys to illuminate how their classroom gendered bullying experiences mediate much of the girls’ later adult lives. the study was ethnography of some fifty (50) purposively sampled senior secondary school students in a co-educational setting located within a nigerian suburb. around 25 of this sample were girls. four data collecting methods were used in the main study namely: participants’ observation, unstructured in-depth interviewing, focus group discussions, and the diaries. however, this article is informed by data from the participants’ observation and focus group discussions. both the analytic induction and grounded theory approach were employed in the analysis of collected data. analytic induction represents “a process where by the researcher attempts to develop a theory or an explanatory model that satisfactorily accounts for some phenomena … that have assumed prominence from information obtained … in the course of the fieldwork” (obikeze, 1990:76). grounded theorizing emphasizes the generation of theory through data from empirical studies (glaser & strauss, 1999; plummer, 2000; and popenoe, 2000). the researcher was interested in offering an explanatory model of the young adults’ perception of schooling through a systematic study of their activities. data analysis was done through an initial or preliminary analysis on a daily basis as the data rolled in. themes and categories discovered in the body of the four data sets were used in the description of the account of the gendered perception of schooling through the main analysis. the second stage of the analysis was made through the connection of the four data sources in order to achieve the aims of triangulation. this connection was made through the metaphor of the statue and educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 7 the lenses (wildy, 1999). the statue in the study was the “gendered perception of schooling” and the “four data sets” were the lenses through which the influence of gender on how the participants perceived schooling and other classroom experiences were explored. results first, bullying behaviour found in the data on coercive front-row seating position for the girls in the classroom. it was observed that the girls in the study occupied the front rows, while the boys were usually permanently seated behind them with the “big boys” taking the last back rows while in their classroom. though this appeared to be the general practice in the school, e.g. on the assembly ground as was the case in the rest of the classes, but the arrangement was not official as was later discovered. this issue was taken up during the focus group discussions, and the girls revealed that a major reason why they were seated in front rows was because they were responsible for wiping the chalkboard; “boys were not supposed to do certain duties when the girls are around” (according to one of the girls). for example: researcher: “but why should girls alone wipe the chalkboard?” ann: “boys do not like wiping the board”. chioma: “yes it is true. they think they are not supposed to wipe the board when the girls are around. the boys think girls must serve the boys in class”. nneka: “yes it is true!” john (boy): “boys are not supposed to do certain work when the girls are there to do it”. joy: “if we girls refuse to wipe the board, it is problem for us; sometimes they seize our bags after school”. within the above statements, there were deliberate attempts to define roles, duties, and responsibilities in prescriptive tones, albeit coercively, as was evidenced in joy’s statement. gender as well as force was invoked as a major determinant of classroom responsibilities. not surprising of course, within the nigerian traditional societies, domestic duties were defined along gender lines; such practices it would then seem had forcibly permeated classroom relations for the boys and girls in the study. it appeared, therefore, that the traditional vocabularies, that were employed by the girls and boys in the study, were manifestations of the prescriptive gender informed domestic roles found within the larger societies of nigeria. in line with this, therefore, gender informed what were supposed to be proper boys and girls duties. this is consistent with o. parry (1996) who in her study found that there was gendered differences within heterogeneous classrooms, and maintained that male responses to classroom activities were influenced by the presence of the girls. within this context, allowing boys to wipe the chalkboard amounted to a violation of the traditional ideal type; a risk the girls were not prepared for, knowing the consequences were painful. chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 8 thus, fears that the boys might attack them, rather than willingness and acceptance of such gender-typicalness of duties, informed the girls’ submissive approach to classroom responsibilities. within such classroom climate where the girls always and necessarily felt intimidated by the boys, most often unprotected, it was possible for the girls to be bullied into subordination. however, one justification for co-educational arrangement appears to be that both boys and girls would experience education jointly hoping that this would enhance effective learning. the observed situation, in which the boys wittingly separated themselves from the girls while they (the boys) defined what proper girl duties were, raises some concerns for co-educational arrangements. evidences from the focus group discussion data revealed that schooling for the girls in the study was an experience marred by fear, unhappiness, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, and defeatist tendencies to classroom activities. this finding is consistent with that of b.a. omoteso (2010:507) which noted “these unhappy students could be those that were bullied … other consequences exhibited by the students were fear, loneliness, depression and lack of confidence”. second, evidence of threat and intimidation in classroom interactions. again backed by observations, it was noted that boys in the study were not very participatory in formal discussions during lessons with their teachers like the girls. during the focus group discussions, it was noticed by this researcher that the boys were not fully participating in classroom discussions except when their “authority” positions were challenged by the kind of statements the girls made. in such case, the boys became very vocal and somehow threatening. for instance, when the researcher asked why the boys were not contributing during the discussions, boys in the focus group were not happy with the girls’ explanation that they (the boys) were not talking because of not being sure of what to say. for instance: researcher: “but why are the boys not talking?” helen: “because they don’t know what to say”. obi: “shut up your mouth, you are lying”. john: “don’t mind her until after school, continue talking rubbish. who told you we don’t know what to say? fool!” this revelation was in consonance with that made by r.k. shelly (1996) which revealed that differential gendered interaction becomes possible when gender is activated such as the case with heterogeneous task group (for instance such taking place within co-educational institutions). as the author puts it, “males and females in task groups will exhibit such interaction patterns differentially only in heterogeneous groups” (shelly, 1996:56). similarly, the revelation was also consistent with that of n.h. wolfinger and j. rabow (1997) which noted differences in the speech and conversational patterns of both males and females, and agreed that men and women speak differentially. according to n.h. wolfinger and j. rabow (1997:59), “these differences pervade speech to the extent that gender is recognizable in short, context-free segments of transcribed talk …. these findings provide new insight into the role of gender in conversation: gender is part of listening as well as talking”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 9 another case in point was when the issue of classroom comportment was raised by this researcher during the group discussions. the girls in the focus group noted that boys always wanted to be noticed. the girls also believed that it was in the nature of the boys to show-off always, and did not think they needed them around anymore. according to one of the girls in the study, “boys like to make noise round the class commanding us all the time. we are tired of having them around us” (nneka). it must be noted that bullying has been defined as interaction in which a dominant individual or group of individuals repeatedly exhibit aggressive behaviour intended to cause distress to less dominant individual (maliki, asagwara & ibu, 2009). bullying behaviour has equally been explained as an action, which is intended to cause fear or distress on the victims (kenny, mceachern & aluede, 2005), as exemplified in john’s reaction above. thus, it would therefore seem to suggest, as evidenced in the data from observations and the group discussions, that the girls’ classroom experiences in the hands of the boys were akin to gendered violence. this revelation is supported by that made by m.c. kenny, a.g. mceachern and o. aluede (2005) which noted that bullying occurs mainly among children who are no longer friends within such settings as the school. discussion the findings of the present study and findings from previous studies have confirmed that bullying amongst pupils and students in schools in nigeria is a very serious act of violence against the victims. this article intends to enrich our understanding of the form of bullying, which appears to coercively socialize girls and females into subordinate, second class individual only good at serving the boys and men. while previous studies, for example by e. andreou (2001); s.k. balogun, p.o. olapegba and a.s. opayemi (2006); e.o. egbochuku (2007); and b.a. omoteso (2010) have emphasized the magnitude of bullying occurrences among boys and girls, and as well as on who among the two groups are most bullied; the present article highlights the almost, always neglected effects of excessive classroom bullying, and other machismo elements on the overall later socialization of the girls in my study. the evidence from the present study appears to suggest that in term of the aftermath of bullying, girls appear to be mostly affected. therefore, schooling experiences for the girls in my study were that of pains, unfriendliness, aggression, victimization, stress, depression as well as disinterestedness. the revelations of the present study indicate that bullying is part of the everyday experiences of students in a heterogeneous setting; such experiences are equally gendered. for instance, girls in the study expressed the difficulties they faced in the hands of their male classmates, as well as the readiness to be separated from the boys. the study revealed that within heterogeneous setting, girls are more likely to be bullied than their male counterpart; a finding, which contradicts the finding of e. andreou (2001); e.o. egbochuku (2007); and b.a. omoteso (2010:506) chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 10 which noted that female students were more involved in bullying than their male counterparts. the girls in the present study were most certainly forcibly socialized into accepting the second class/subordinate positions, first, in the classroom, and during routine manual labour as weaker sex; and second, consequently, within the larger society. this revelation may partly explain why nigerian girls and women, appear to be excessively subordinated by their male counterparts in public places as well as offices. the situation in which the girl-child while within co-educational setting is socialized into accepting the position of the weaker, perhaps through experiential bullying, and other coercive mechanisms appear to inform the perceived general lack of self-belief among some nigerian girls, and women. it is argued by this author that such society is in great danger, where girls and women lack self-belief and confidence. bullying is a very arduous challenge of the twenty-first century societies. conclusion bullying is a global phenomenon with devastating consequences for the victims, their families, and the societies at large. bullying is a serious social ill; a lived experience capable of turning individuals within a given society into social misfits with long-term implications. as a result the challenges, which accompany acts of bullying, require concerted efforts and decisive actions from individual families, schools, clinical counseling psychologists, policy-makers, and the government if these challenges are to be dealt with. a tripartite intervention approach to tackling bullying problems has been recommended by this author. by this, therefore, the home, school, and the government must work together in order to find solution to this problem. the government must give necessary assistance to schools to enable them establish specialized counseling and advice centres/units within the schools, to deal with both bullies and victims. these centres must on the hand, ensure that appropriate intervention programmes are put in place to support both bullies and their victims. finally, every parent is equally challenged to model appropriate 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(1997). “the different voices of gender: social recognition” in current research in social psychology, 2(6), pp.50-65. wolke, d. et al. (2001). “bullying and victimization of primary school children in england and germany: prevalence and school factors” in british journal of psychology, 92, pp.673-696. yoon, j.s. & k. kerber. (2003). “predicting teacher intervention in bullying situations” in education and treatment of children, 27(1), pp.37-45. young, r. & h. sweeting. (2004). “adolescent bullying, relationships, mental health, and gender atypical behaviour: a gender diagnosticity approach” in sex roles, 50, pp.525-538. chinedu i.o. okeke, bullying as gendered violence 14 picture of nigerian school girls (source: www.google.com, 3/7/2012) within the societies of nigeria, bullying as a social ill is no longer any news. following media interests generated across the country over the years, “schools, parents and children alike, started demanding investigations and intervention to conquer this seemingly large and serious problem”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 121 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a tristan m. eseo, armina b. mangaoil & bettina m. sedilla confidence judgment and test scores: basis for proposed confidence enhancement abstract: one of the structured experiences of high school students is taking test. this experience is usually prepared as a regular academic activity in school. it aims to measure students’ achievement, which can be gleaned from their test score. how the students provide their impressions or predictive response before they see actual test material and after taking the test are implicit valuations. thus, implicit valuations are the predictions that answer the question, “what will be their actual test score in mind?”. the study investigates the confidence judgment and test scores of graduating high school students by determining their differences, which are the bases for developing a program to enhance student confidence in test-taking. its participants consist of five hundred seventy five (575) graduating students from san pablo city national high school in the province of laguna, philippines. the researchers used two instruments, which are the test prediction forms and teacher-made test. the findings showed that (1) there is a significant difference between the students’ pre-test prediction and post-test prediction; (2) there is a significant difference between the students’ pre-test prediction and actual test score; and (3) there is a significant difference between the students’ post-test prediction and actual test score. it is concluded that students’ are generally overconfident. furthermore, it is recommended that there is a need to identify factors that affect students’ overconfidence. a module was proposed based on the findings of research. key words: confidence judgment; test scores; test prediction forms; teacher-made test; confidence enhancement. about the authors: tristan m. eseo is a special education teacher at the paaralang pag-ibig at pag-asa at san pablo city, laguna, philippines. prof. armina b. mangaoil and bettina m. sedilla, ph.d. are the lecturers at the faculty of behavioral and social sciences pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, philippines. for academic interests, the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: tmseo77@firstasia.edu.ph, mangaoil.ab@pnu.edu.ph, and bettinasedilla@yahoo.com how to cite this article? eseo, tristan m., armina b. mangaoil & bettina m. sedilla. (2017). “confidence judgment and test scores: basis for proposed confidence enhancement” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(2), february, pp.121-128. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (october 9, 2016); revised (january 20, 2017); and published (february 27, 2017). children, adolescents, and adults from all walks of life take tests” (stein, dawson & fischer, 2010:207). this statement affirms the important use of test in a global scale. the use of test plays a pivotal role in shaping our educational institution and society (bonaccio & reeve, 2010). thus, the results of tests in this social activity are not without meanings. teachers are active test-users in school. they use test score to measure their students’ introduction one of the structured experiences of high school students is taking test. this experience is usually prepared as a regular academic activity in school. it aims to measure students’ achievement which can be gleaned from their test score. according to zachary stein, theo dawson & kurt w. fischer (2010), “every year, across the globe, tens of millions of 122 t.m. eseo, a.b. mangaoil & b.m. sedilla, confidence judgment and test scores © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare learning ability and skills to help them judge, whether their students have gained the learning competencies that they need to master. they make decisions based on the result of tests (kane, 2013). the changes and challenges in the use of assessment tools can provide greater opportunity for teachers to be creative in the way they conduct educational assessment. in doing this, they must not compromise the integrity of the tool that they are to use. they should properly measure the competencies taught by the experts. if this will be achieved, it will make their critical participation in structured experiences of test taking more meaningful and helpful. there are two things that can be observed on these valuations. these are the explicit valuations and implicit valuations (damodaran, 2006). explicit valuations are direct valuations in a test score, i.e. actual test scores. it is a direct quantitative measure for the purpose of the test, while the implicit valuations of tests scores are indirect valuations usually associated with the actual test score and have no manifestations as far as the evaluation of test score is concerned. for example, one can determine if (i.e. using actual test score) a student passed or failed the test following a criterion set in the manual of the test. these are the explicit valuations. however, implicit valuations are subjective perceptions of the test users in test scores. the meanings associated with are not found in the test or its direct intended purpose. these are test users’ interpretation of the test scores, which are beyond what the test scoring protocols or manual provides. how the students provide their impressions or predictive response (e.g. predictions of test scores) before they see actual test material and after taking the test are implicit valuations. thus, implicit valuations are the predictions that answer the question, “what will be their actual test score in mind?”. unesco (united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization), in 2011, advocates that: [...] learning in education could be more effective and inclusive when students are engaged in thinking about their own and others’ thinking, thereby developing a metacognitive awareness of the basis for their own present thinking and of the development of their thinking as they learn (unesco, 2011:30). this advocacy to develop student metacognition and self-regulated learning could inform the challenges of learning and education in the 21st century. the research and understanding of cognitive processes had grown far since the beginning of the cognitive revolution in the 1950’s up to the present. this paradigm shift from the behaviorism has led researchers to break new grounds on the nature of human behavior (miller, 2003). j. flavell (2012), on his seminal work, contributed to this vast development in cognitive psychology. it continued to progress and had been expanding with its marriage to other scientific discipline (flavell, 2012). emerging theories and the use of metacognitive constructs to further analyse cognition and human behavior included new terms like confidence judgment, judgment of learning, tip of the tongue states, feeling-ofknowing, and source judgment (dunlosky& metcalfe, 2011). in relation with its emergence, it can also be noted in literature that these new terms used in the metacognitive research did not deviate essentially with other terms used in the field of psychological science such as self-regulation, self-regulated behavior, and self-regulated learning (efklides & misailidi, 2010; and mcintire, miller & lovler, 2011). certain patterns were observed regarding the derivation of terms used on metacognitive research. these include uses of tests have a purpose of: (1) defining metacognition; (2) identify students level of metacognitive abilities; and (3) improving student learning (efklides & misailidi, 2010). on the other hand, factors that affect test and performance outcome include: personal characteristics, behavioral approaches to test taking, and test material (hassanbeigi et al., 2011). most of the studies on metacognition from its definition, measurement, and practical application typically used standardized tests (bajar, 2013). but, the limited purpose of standardized test does not usually addressed educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 123 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the issues on ecological validity (hacker, bol & keener, 2013), processes that must link instruction. however, by using test material in a natural or classroom setting, the concern for these issues can be addressed (rosenthal et al., 2010; and hacker, bol & keener, 2013). method the researchers used the descriptivecorrelational design (gravetter & wallnau, 2010; and gravetter & forzano, 2012). the confidence judgment is observed through the post-test prediction, that is the students’ re-evaluation of their prediction after taking the test and answering it. the interest of studying how students use their test result is to elaborate the simple notion of relying on input-output process of students’ actual performance in answering the teacher-made test. it must be clarified that students test scores are influenced by factors, such as students’ capabilities in answering the test, the nature of the test or material itself, and how they perceived actual observation of results (cole, 2008). rather than emphasizing a single notion of a test score, i.e. actual test score, which is to pass or fail the students, an aspect of this research highlighted a reflective value of test scores to measure their confidence judgment. this will help students sustain self-regulatory function in using test scores, because the feedback of information from the teachermade score can led students to monitor their learning. students’ confidence judgment is the reevaluation of pre-test prediction using of posttest-prediction scores (hadwin & webster, 2013; and henneman, 2014). this will be sustained by a proposed module for student active control of learning or self-regulated learning. see figure 1. test scores are goals in the mind of students. test scores are important to better understand student learning in a classroom. according to b.j. zimmerman (2008) and b.j. zimmerman & d.h. schunk (2011), self-regulated learning is defined as the process whereby students activate and sustain cognitions and behavior systematically oriented toward the attainment of their learning goals (zimmerman, 2008; and zimmerman & schunk, 2011). the participants of this study were graduating high school students of san pablo city national high school composed of five hundred seventy-five students. the participants belong to the last batch of basic education curriculum for the school year 2014-2015, which is being replaced by the new curriculum known as the “k to 12 program” through the initiative of the department of education in the year 2011 (okabe, 2013). in this study, test scores are indicators for the measure of students’ cognitive and metacognitive capabilities (roebers, schmid & roderer, 2009; and efklides & misailidi, 2010). students are not typically made aware of their confidence judgment before and after taking test, since they are more concerned test scores 1. pre-test prediction. 2. post-test prediction. 3. actual score. confidence judgment proposed confidence enhancement module figure 1: conceptual framework of the study 124 t.m. eseo, a.b. mangaoil & b.m. sedilla, confidence judgment and test scores © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare with actual test scores than test predictions. however, by using the actual result of the test with student test predictions, it is certain to clarify and measure the confidence judgment of students in a classroom setting (duckworth et al., 2011; and praetorius et al., 2013). the modules to be implemented can serve as a program in enhancing students’ confidence in predicting accurate test result. it can be tested for its effectiveness in moderating the confidence of students’ test predictions. the study focused on the test predictions of graduating high school students’ actual test score in the english teacher-made test. the components of test predictions were pre-test prediction and post-test prediction. it was used to measure the confidence judgment of students. the predictions component can be considered as a plausible study, since it can be observed in a highly structured activity in school or classroom setting (black & wiliam, 1998; and schunk & zimmerman, 2007). this study is grounded on using student actual test score in an english teachermade test. this score is basically used for determining student mastery of the subject. teachers are depending on its practical use in a real classroom setting. without this score, teachers cannot provide information on how learning takes place in the minds of students (shepard, 2000). from this ground, the researchers measure the confidence judgment of students in taking test. it is measured with test predictions on the macro-level of confidence judgement (cf rosenthal et al., 2010; krebs & roebers, 2012; and hickey, 2014). the first part of the study focused on the monitoring aspect metacognition. it highlights the nature of test scores and confidence judgment. the second part of the study was a proposed module to help students’ in the accuracy of prediction in taking test based. this is the control aspect of the self-regulated learning, which can be observed when the module is implemented for its effect to enhance students’ confidence. there are two instruments used in this study. these are teacher-made test in english and test prediction forms. the teacher-made test was validated by the english teachers, who also helped in the study. to establish the reliability and validity of the instrument, the researchers used the table of specification for content validation and conducted a test of reliability from the data that was provided by the english teachers. it is composed of sixty items. the test prediction forms were validated by research and educational experts in the field. its face validation was also conducted with another group of graduating high school students. the procedure for the data gathering highlights the necessary steps in the collection of data for interpretation. weeks before the actual schedule of the test in english, the researchers went through the following procedures: (1) approval from the leaders in the school community; (2) orientation of english teachers and test proctors on the nature of the study; (3) gathering of pertinent information before the actual test administration; (4) preparation of material; and (5) gathering of test result after the test. the data collected were used to compute for the t-test of correlated means in answering the hypotheses of the study. results and discussion this study aimed to determine the following hypotheses and develop a module based on these findings: (1) is there a significant difference between students’ post-test prediction and actual test score?; (2) is there a significant difference between pre-test prediction and post-test prediction?; (3) is there a significant difference between students’ pre-test prediction and actual test score?; and (4) what module can be develop to enhance students’ confidence in test-taking? hypothesis 1. table 1 shows that there is a significant difference between the students’ pre-test prediction and post-test prediction. it can be said that students are overconfident in their pre-test predictions based from their post-test predictions. the overconfidence on pre-test predictions or its inaccuracy can be calibrated through their accurate post-test predictions to get a proximate value of the pre-test predictions. the lesson on confidence judgment can addressed this need. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 125 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare hypothesis 2. table 2 shows that there is a significant difference between the students’ pre-test prediction and actual test score. this result indicates students’ low performance on mastery of the english subject as observed in the actual test scores. considering that the pre-test prediction are much higher than it. students’ low performance can proximate this difference by providing the following lessons in the proposed module. hypothesis 3. table 3 shows that there is a significant difference between the students’ post-test prediction and actual score. this result can be interpreted that students are overconfident on their post-test predictions compared with the actual test scores. this overconfidence is expected to be calibrated with the following lessons, which are focusing on study skills and habits and test-taking strategies. the four lessons found in the module are designed to help students in their academic work, i.e. taking test. the whole activities found in the module are made in such way that students can simulate the test taking situation. in particular, this will make students confidence judgment be accurate as their go through the learning process. these include lesson on confidence judgment, goal setting, developing study skills and habits, and using test-strategies. conclusion based on the findings that determined, students’ are generally overconfident in predicting their actual score in a teacher-made test. however, one thing needs important mentioning in this general observation. that is when the students were to provide their post-test prediction, it did not help them accurately adjust predictions in reference to their target actual or pre-test predictions which is quite unexpected. instead, the students’ overconfidence was exacerbated as observed in the post-test table 1: computed values of pre-test prediction and post-test prediction n = 575 pre-test prediction post-test mean 28.23 30.92 standard deviation 7.12 8.80 pearson correlation 0.51 computed t stat 8.03 t critical two-tailed 1.96 table 2: computed values of pre-test prediction and actual test scores n = 575 pre-test prediction actual score mean 28.23 23.74 standard deviation 7.12 5.34 pearson correlation 0.30 computed t stat 14.37 t critical two-tailed 1.96 table 3: computed values of post-test prediction and actual test scores n = 575 post-test prediction actual score mean 30.92 23.74 variance 77.37 28.52 standard deviation 8.80 5.34 pearson correlation 0.23 computed t stat 18.78 t critical two-tailed 1.96 126 t.m. eseo, a.b. mangaoil & b.m. sedilla, confidence judgment and test scores © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare prediction. this observed overconfidence predicts an actual score that was observed on the computed mean of test predictions, which are above the computed mean of actual scores. there is a need to conduct research and activities that will help students, who are overconfident to elaborate further its inconsistent result for students to have accurate predictions of actual test scores and for an enhanced confidence judgment. the recommendation for research aimed to gain a better understanding of why the students turned out to be overconfident. what are the factors that affect students’ overconfidence in a teacher-made test? how do these variables relate with each other? what are the practical applications of this knowledge to help students predict scores accurately? specifically, to identify what are the factors that affect students’ in pre-test prediction and post-test prediction; pre-test prediction and actual test score; post-test prediction and actual test-score; prior to taking a teachermade test, such as (i.e. age, test anxiety, and motivation); behavioral approaches in taking a teacher-made test (i.e. use test strategies, goal setting skills, and study habits); level of emotions during, before and after taking the test; perception of the test material (before and after) taking the teacher-made test with regards to its level of difficulty and test expectancy; and, lastly, test the module for its effectiveness.1 references bajar, p.a. 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(2011). “selfregulated learning and performance: an introduction and an overview” in b.j. zimmerman & d.h. schunk [eds]. handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance. new york: routledge, pp.1-12. 128 t.m. eseo, a.b. mangaoil & b.m. sedilla, confidence judgment and test scores © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare students of san pablo city national high school in the philippines (source: http://www.ugnayan.com/ph/laguna/sanpablo, 15/1/2017) the participants of this study were graduating high school students of san pablo city national high school composed of five hundred seventy-five students. the participants belong to the last batch of basic education curriculum for the school year 2014-2015, which is being replaced by the new curriculum known as the “k to 12 program” through the initiative of the department of education in the year 2011. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 59 info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2016 to date, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sosiohumanika and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare60 tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016, the tawarikh journal will be organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/tawarikh and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: tawarikh. journal2009@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 61 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare62 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 63 sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to date, the sipatahoenan journal has been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare64 it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal firstly has been published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insancita journal has been organized by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals. com/index.php/insancita and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 65 it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly be published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016, the mimbar pendidikan journal will be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik.jurnal.upi@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare66 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 67 formulir berlangganan jurnal yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya nama lengkap dan gelar : tempat/tanggal lahir : pekerjaan : alamat kantor (lengkap), : termasuk no phone. alamat rumah (lengkap), : termasuk no hp dan emel. mohon dicatat sebagai anggota / pengurus *) aspensi (asosiasi sarjana pendidikan sejarah indonesia) dengan cara berlangganan jurnal ilmiah selama 1 tahun / 5 tahun dan membayar uang sebesar idr 300,000 (tiga ratus ribu rupiah indonesia) / idr 1,500,000 (satu juta lima ratus ribu rupiah indonesia). untuk pelanggan dari luar negeri adalah usd 50 (lima puluh dolar amerika serikat) per tahun; atau usd 250 (dua ratus lima puluh dolar amerika serikat) per lima tahun. uang tersebut telah saya transfer ke: bank btn (bank tabungan negara) kantor kas panyileukan, bandung, jawa barat, atas nama: jurnal educare aspensi, dengan nomor rekening: 01024-0150-000571-7, dan sweef code: btanidja. adapun jurnal ilmiah yang ingin saya langgan adalah (pilih salah satu): 1. sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (terbit tiap mei dan november). 2. educare: international journal for educational studies (terbit tiap februari dan agustus). 3. tawarikh: international journal for historical studies (terbit tiap april dan oktober). 4. atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (terbit tiap bulan juni dan desember). 5. susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (terbit setiap maret dan september). 6. sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education (terbit april dan oktober). 7. insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia (terbit setiap februari dan agustus). 8. mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (terbit maret dan september). agar cv singkat saya terpajang dalam “who’s who” website aspensi, berikut ini saya sertakan pas photo terkini berwarna ukuran 4 x 6 dan bukti transfer berlangganan jurnal. sekian dan terima kasih. hormat saya, ………………………………………………. *) coret yang tidak perlu. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare68 inviting to become the subscriber number : x/red.edu/viii/2016 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : acknowledgement as loyal reader. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 9(1) august 2016 can be published. so sorry for the late publication. however, we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully that you will interested in to subscribe the educare journal countinously. the journal subscription fee for indonesian scholars is idr 300,000 (three hundred thousand rupiah indonesia) per year; or if you want to become the committee of aspensi, you have to subscribe it as amount as idr 1,500,000 (one million and fi ve hundred thousand rupiah indonesia) for five years. for foreign scholars, the journal subscription fee is usd 50 (fi fty dollars united states of america) per year; or usd 250 (two hundred and fi fty dollar united states of america) for five years. for paying the subscription fee, you are able to transfere it via: bank btn (bank tabungan negara) kantor kas panyileukan, bandung, jawa barat, indonesia; on behalf of: jurnal educare aspensi, with account number: 01024-01-50-000571-7, and sweef code: btanidja. having done it, please you inform us through e-mail or sms to: +628122178018. as we know that the educare journal is firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index. php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: august 30, 2016 best regards, sri redjeki rosdiandi, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung. untitled educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 65 dr. waspodo tjipto subroto is senior lecturer at the faculty of education unesa (universitas negeri surabaya or state university of surabaya), jalan kentingan, surabaya city, east java, indonesia. mobile: +6281333213333. e-mail: waspodotjipto@yahoo.co.id the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment in improving the quality of education in the elementary schools waspodo tjipto subroto abstract: teachers have importance position and roles to increase the quality of teaching and learning process, so that the performance of the teachers must also be improved. empowering the teachers’ performance is visible to increase the quality of education in the elementary schools in surabaya city, east java, indonesia. this study is intended to explore on how to implement the empowerment for teachers (education qualification, training, and briefings) related to education quality. the study was conducted to the sample of 174 small clusters by using stratified cluster sampling technique. applying structural equation modeling analysis, the research-intensive as the findings followed. this research finding showed that education qualification of teachers influenced the teachers’ performance and also the education quality at elementary schools. besides that, it influenced education in service training to teachers’ performance and education quality. moreover, teachers’ professional training also influenced the performance and the education quality. the research conclusion stated that empowerment of teachers has influenced the increase of performance with indicators of knowledge, attitude, and skills to increase the education quality. so, the quality of elementary schools with value indicator increased not only the quantity but also quality of teaching and learning process. key words: teacher performance, empowering, indonesia human resources, elementary schools, teaching and learning process, and quality of education. introduction indonesian government’s efforts to enhance the quality of teachers have actually been done through various forms of policy. the enactment of uu (undang-undang or act) number 14 year 2005 about teachers and lecturers is the basis of policies to strengthen the existence of teachers as professionals, like other professions. professional quality of teachers has always been pursued, either through the provision of educational qualifications or in-service training activities, with its various forms such as education and training, refresher courses, and involvement in various seminars to update his/ her insights in pedagogy and academic competence. the government began to realize how strategic the role of teachers in delivering the younger generation to be qualified and competitive human resources (hr) waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 66 to realize common prosperity (supriyono, 1989). the history of civilization and progress of nations in the world showed us that instead of natural resources abundance of the dominant nation to usher in prosperity, the toughness of competitiveness and excellence of science and technology (science and technology) were exactly what role the nation to reap welfare. even mastering science and technology, human resources tended to use technology to master the natural resources of other nations. improving the teachers’ quality dynamic development of society is rapidly moving along with the progress of science and technology that requires all parties to adapt the changes occur in the community. the advance of science and technology has given rise to a new paradigm for success, namely the competition. challenges of increasingly keen competition in the era of globalization requires increased quality and efficiency of the profession on an ongoing basis, so that competitiveness can be more competitive professionals. the era of globalization changes the nature of the work of amateurs toward professionalization in all areas and life aspects. included in the global change is the teaching profession. in accordance with the changing demands of global society, teachers are also required professional tasks in the field (deckey & adam, 1995; and ie, 2000). professional teachers, rather than as tools for transmitting the culture, are to transform it into a dynamic cultural direction and require mastery of science and technology, high productivity, and quality of work that can improve competitiveness. adequate educational development investment will be able to move the local economy with a large multiplier effect through school construction, procurement and maintenance of education infrastructure, and increasing teachers’ quality. quality public is not only able to seize every available job opportunities through investment but also to create new jobs. moreover, the problem of education is a cross-sectoral issue, so there must be commitment from all parties, especially the educational policy makers, to take policy-oriented quality of education. for policies, to improve higher education quality, if it is addressed consistently, it will produce graduates who are competent and finally able to produce competitive citizen role in large numbers. educational programs to improve the quality of human resources become very important because many problems found in government institutions, community institutions, and activities in the community that its effectiveness depends on the quality of human resources, both in intellectual ability and moral integrity in its responsibility to society. human resources, according to t.l. leap and m.d. crino (2002), is one key factor in moving towards prosperity. creating highly competitive and quality human resources and skills is the demand of development towards prosperity. economic globalization is a process of economic and trade activity that brings together market forces increasingly integrated for efficiency and enhance competitiveness. the low human development index of indonesia has had an impact on the competitiveness of indonesia’s declining ability. deterioration of competitiveness educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 67 is resulted in the low quality of indonesia education. the low quality of indonesian education is affected by several components supporting the education process, among others: the quality of teachers, learning tools such as textbooks, instructional media, learning resources, and learning laboratory equipment that has not been adequate. the lack of educational support component is influenced by the lack of educational fund allocation from the state revenues and expenditures budget or apbn (anggaran pendapatan dan belanja negara) as well as donations from the public education such as parents. the teacher’s role is very important in improving the quality of education in indonesia, so that law number 14 year 2005 on teachers and lecturers, article 8 asserts that teachers must have academic qualifications, competency certificates, educators, and mental and physical health as well as having the ability to realize the goal of national education (depdiknas ri, 2006). to improve the quality of teachers, the education office or disdik (dinas pendidikan) in east java province cooperated with the unesa (universitas negeri surabaya or state university of surabaya) organized a partnership in improving the teachers’ competence through refresher education or continuing education. according to sahudi (2009), implementing this program is due to the competence of teachers in surabaya that has not been optimal. furthermore, e. mulyasa (2005) states that state schools in general are still apprehensive. whereas the development of education in surabaya as a metropolitan city is very rapid, when the capacity is inadequate, teachers will hurt students. other program to improve the quality of teachers is to encourage further studies for teachers who have bachelor degree (s1) at a cost from surabaya city education office. training and professional teacher education or plpg (pendidikan latihan dan penataran guru) held by the state university of surabaya on elementary school teachers is also in an attempt of teachers’ performance empowerment to improve the quality of the estuary profession in improving the quality of education. further studies and a variety of trainings given to teachers are expected to have an impact on improving the quality of learning services that ultimately improves the quality of education. the problems above are summarized in the formulation as follows: “how does the empowerment of teachers’ performance to improve the quality of education at the elementary school in surabaya?” the present study aims to examine the effectiveness of further study and a variety of trainings given to teachers in improving the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya, east java, indonesia. add note that there are some terminology paradigm that had evolved among others: populistbased development, characterized by participatory development, and human development. today, the building based on economic growth has indeed succeeded in making the wealth, but failed in realizing equitable prosperity and even reverse many of which pose difficult problems to be solved. community development is basically emphasizing on the importance of poverty eradication through various empowerment of marginalized groups, namely an increase in living standards for people who are lack of capacity in a sustainable economy. waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 68 theoretical review government is required to create and optimize human resources in various fields according to its needs. the analysis of this study is based on the theory of empowerment of human resources in accordance with the need to improve the quality of education towards the creation of superior human resources and competitive begins from the improved quality performance of professional education personnel. empowerment contains two terms, namely: (1) to give the power, transferring power, and delegating authority to others; and (2) to give abilities to attempt, or to give the ability (haris, 2002). it means that the concept of improving the quality of education has not optimized yet the performance of teachers’ empowerment, which has a role in improving the quality of education. empowering educators embodies a nuanced capacity building of human resources in empowering educators through the development of various abilities (performances) and responsibilities as well as synergistic atmosphere between government (public) with the teacher. effort to optimize the ongoing performance of teachers is an important factor than other factors in improving the quality of education. this has been recognized and implemented by the government through the assignment of further studies, a variety of trainings, and upgrading of teachers. teacher performance as well as job performance are results of activities that have been implemented or will be done by the teacher according to his/her profession as a teacher. in this context, andrew eaglen et al. (2000) define performance as “something done or products / services produced or provided by someone to a group of people”. while rao (cited by mulyasa, 2005) suggests that the performance is the result of ability and effort. according to d. furtwengler (2002), the performance is successful achievement role earned one of his/her deeds. performance is the behavior displayed by individuals or groups. in reaching something, one is usually motivated by the performance. motivation is an important element that should be owned by everyone, because the role of motivation serves as a spur to performance. performance is the capacity that one has to perform or complete a job. enterprises are the time and effort spent to achieve one’s motivation. while the motivation is the hope, desire, impulse, and urge to achieve something. motivation is defined as an attitude (accept or reject) related to interest, ability, skill, or strength. in connection with someone, then, the motivation is intended as an ability, skill, or force someone to perform a task that becomes their responsibility. the ability of a person is basically a result of the learning process, which includes aspects of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. according to richard m. steers (2001), learning outcomes are changes that include cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. furthermore, the opinion of jerome s. arcaro (2005) states that the learning outcomes includes three domain, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor which is often called “taxonomy of education objectives”. capability which includes three aspects will affect the performance of someone who in turn will affect the organization’s success rate, which in this case the quality of education. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 69 mcclelland states that there is a positive relationship between a person’s motivation and performance (cited by steers, 2001). this means that every worker who has high motivation to work will produce a high performance as well. likewise, that empowerment has a positive relation to one’s motivation. techniques to motivate the performance of teachers, according to mangkunegoro (2005), among others are: (1) engineering needs, and (2) persuasive communication techniques. meeting the needs of teachers is an essential foundation for work behavior. management may not be able to motivate teachers without an adequate needs. according to maslow, hierarchy of teachers’ needs includes: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (cited by coombs, 2005; and sudradjat, 2005). conceptual framework and research hypothesis this study tried to uncover the role of teacher empowerment in promoting the quality of its performance in the hope of improving the quality of education in elementary schools in surabaya, east java, indonesia. the framework that has been designed in this study is as follows: increase of education quality (y2): *result of national exam (y2.1) *result of school exam (y2.2) qualification (x1) *highschool (x1.1) *diploma 1 (x1.2) *diploma 2 (x1.3) *diploma 3 (x1.4) *graduate (x1.5) training (x2) *curriculum (x2.1) *syllabi (x2.2) *plan of learning (x2.3) up grading (x3) *guideline (x3.1) * meeting (x3.2) *article of teacher (x3.3) teacher performance (y1): *skill (y1.1) *value and attitude (y1.2) *knowledge (y1.3) figure 1: conceptual of framework based on the background and the basic theoretical framework in this study, the research hypothesis can be formulated as follows: first hypothesis: “increased educational qualifications of teachers will bring significant influence to the improvement of teachers’ performance, among others in knowledge, skills, and attitudes to implement the learning”. waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 70 second hypothesis: “performance of teachers in the syllabus and learning implementation plan or rpp (rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran), implements and evaluates the learning effect on student learning outcomes in improving the quality of education in elementary schools, such as the quality of the national examination and school final examination”. third hypothesis: “increased empowerment of the teacher’s performance such as educational qualifications, training, and upgrading will bring a significant effect on improving the quality of education in elementary schools which includes quality of the national examination and the school final examination”. research methodology this study aims to describe and analyze the effect of empowerment on improving the quality of teacher performance in elementary school education in surabaya city, east java, indonesia. this study is also an attempt to discover, develop, and test the truth of the influence of the empowerment of teachers’ performance on productivity performance in an effort to improve the quality of education in elementary schools. in accordance with its objectives, the study was designed as a research model explanatory, i.e. to explain how the role of empowerment of teachers’ performance in improving the quality of its performance in order to enhance productivity performance, so as to improve the quality of education in the elementary schools. scope of research. to focus the study, the topic was limited to the empowerment of teachers in improving productivity performance in improving the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya, east java, indonesia. the focus of this research is to increase teachers’ empowerment through increased educational qualifications and training and upgrading. while the productivity performance of teachers includes the ability to develop syllabus and learning implementation plan or rpp (rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran), and implementing the learning and skills to guide students in intensive learning in school. improving the quality of education is embodied in the criteria for increasing the grade of national examination or unas (ujian nasional) and the school final examination or uas (ujian akhir sekolah). population and sample. the population in this study was all elementary school teachers who served in the city of surabaya, both public elementary schools and private elementary schools which amounted to 11,650 people that spread out in 569 of public elementary schools and 415 of private elementary schools. the determination of the sample in this study was using cluster techniques or cluster sampling based on the area; and the population of elementary school teachers was divided according to sub-districts in surabaya. districts that serve the study site consist of 29 districts in the working area of the government of surabaya municipality. each cluster is determined six respondents consisting of three teachers at 6 grade of public elementary schools and three teachers also at 6 grade of private elementary schools. thus, each of these clusters will be taken six districts educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 71 of elementary school teachers as a sample to be representative of the population sub-districts, so the overall sample size is 29 x 6 = 174 samples. finally, the appropriate type of data analysis is an important factor in addressing the research. to consider the issue after the proposed goals and hypothesis and data are available, then this study used two kinds of analysis, namely: (1) descriptive analysis, and (2) multivariant regression analysis model with sem or structural equation modelling version 4.0 (ferdinand, 2000; and langbein, 2002). result and discussion the description of research variables. first, it is about the “educational qualification”. based on the indicators studied, it appears that some essential things are associated with: (1) undergraduate qualification s1; (2) diploma 3; (3) diploma 2; (4) a diploma; and (5) graduate. the data indicates that higher educational qualifications categorized will have an impact on the ability of teachers in developing adequate performance. a good performance will support the achievement of good work. table 1: frequency distribution of respondents’ educational qualification no education qualification criteria frequency f % % cumulative 1 high school very poor 6 3 4 2 diploma 1 poor 45 26 29 3 diploma 2 quite 24 37 66 4 diploma 3 good 24 14 80 5 graduate very good 34 20 100 n: 174 100 second, it is about the “training of learning”. based on the indicators studied, it appears that some essential things are associated with: (1) activity in adequate training; (2) an adequate source of training materials; (3) adequate training instructor; (4) facilities supports; and (5) colleagues to support. this shows that the preparation of training syllabus and lesson plans with high category will have an impact on the implementation of learning. table 2: frequency distribution training of learning respondents no training of learning criteria freqeuncy f % % cumulative 1 never very poor 6 3 9 2 rarely poor 45 26 34 3 frequently quite 24 37 65 waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 72 4 more good 24 14 87 5 very often very good 34 20 100 n: 174 third, it is about “professional upgrading” in scientific work and innovative learning. upgrading the data shows that by the upgrading of the categories will often have an impact on the completion of the task as well. the upgrading is like: (1) training of scientific writings; (2) training to develop the instructional media; and (3) training of innovative learning models. by the good work, it will have an impact on the achievement of high performance. table 3: frequency distribution of professional upgrading followed by respondents no upgrading criteria frequency f % % cumulative 1 1 – 3 very rarely 6 4 4% 2 4 – 6 rarely 49 28 32% 3 7 – 9 fair 72 41 73% 4 7 – 9 often 35 20 93% 5 10 – more veri often 12 7 100% n: 174 100% fourth, it is about the “teacher performance”. the data below shows that the presence of categorized high performance will impact the good work culture. a good working culture will support the achievement of good work, then, it will impact on achieving high performance. table 4: frequency distribution of respondents performance levels no teacher performance criteria of plan frequency f % % cumulative 1 very low 60 – 65 13 7.47 7.47% 2 low 66 70 31 17.81 25.20% 3 self 71 – 75 43 24.71 49.91 % 4 high 76 – 80 74 42.52 92.43% 5 very high 81 – 100 13 7.47 100% n: 174 100% fifth, it is about the “quality of education”. based on the indicators studied, it appears that some essential things are associated with: (1) intellectual ability; and (2) mastery of the knowledge and skills which are possessed by work. it shows that with a lot of teachers who have the ability to work with the high category will have an impact on the completion of the task as well. the good work will have an impact on the achievement of high performance. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 73 table 5: frequency distribution of educational quality in national examination no quality of education criteria frequency f % % cumulative 1 3 – 5 very low 4 2.29 2.29% 2 5 – 6 low 35 20.15 22.44% 3 6 – 7 self 59 33.90 56.34% 4 7 – 8 high 62 35.63 91.97% 5 8 – 10 very high 14 8.04 100% n: 174 100% on the sem (structural equation modelling) test results. judging from the below data (table 6), the probability of cr and its significance on the significance level can be found that the effect of empowerment including educational qualifications, training, upgrading of teachers affect teacher performance, and quality of education in elementary schools at the city of surabaya, as following here: (1) educational qualifications of teachers have positive influence on the performance of teachers; it means that hypothesis is accepted; (2) training preparation of the learning device has a positive effect on teacher performance; it means that the hypothesis is accepted; (3) upgrading to write scientific papers to the teachers has positive influence on the performance of teachers; it means that hypothesis is accepted; (4) teacher education qualifications have a positive influence on the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya; it means that hypothesis is accepted; (5) training the learning positively affects the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya; it means that hypothesis is accepted; (6) upgrading to write scientific papers on the teacher does not affect the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya; it means that the hypothesis is rejected; (7) empowerment of teachers has a positive effect on the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya; it means that hypothesis is accepted; and (8) the most dominant variable influences the empowerment of teachers is the education and training qualification, while the most dominant influence of the education quality is empowerment. table 6: test results analysis of teacher empowerment that include educational qualifications, training, and upgrading no variable co-eficiency se cr >1.96 probability <0.05 result 1 performa – education 2.36 0.258 2.815 0.004 significant 2 performa – training 1.24 0.09 2.326 0.013 significant 3 performa – upgrading 0.68 0.502 1.98 0.06 significant 4 qualility – education 0.89 0.392 1.97 0.06 significant 5 quality – training 2.56 0.56 2.812 0.007 significant 6 quality – upgrading 0.03 1.341 1.036 0.002 no-significant 7 quality – performa 3.05 1.341 1.981 0.046 significant waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 74 analysis of research results the analysis of exposure data is based on empirical and theoretical findings and previous studies relevant to the research conducted. the discussion is intended to explain the appropriateness and relevance of each dependent variable and independent variables. from the tests using the program amos 4.0 by the analysis of sem (structural equation modelling), test results of both models through the overall test and measurement test can be drawn that the multilevel model can explain the phenomenon of quality of education in elementary schools in surabaya in several important aspects.the results of this study gives an answer that is very good multilevel model to explain the business model of empowering teachers to improve the quality of education at the elementary schools in surabaya, or accept the hypothesis. by analyzing the effect of empowerment that includes educational qualifications, training, and upgrading of learning media as well as scientific writings on teachers’ performance and quality of education in primary schools at the surabaya city expected us to develop an understanding that the empowerment of teachers will affect the performance of teachers; and finally it can also affect the quality of elementary schools in the city of surabaya. the current study found a model that links the five variables proposed in the conceptual model. the five variables include: (1) education qualifications, (2) training device development learning, (3) upgrading writing the scientific papers, (4) teacher performance, and (5) quality of teacher education. indicators of the five variables were identified, and the researcher eliminated one indicator because it does not qualify loading factor, an indicator of educational quality variable is the value of semester. so that indicators that can be used as a measure of the variables are as follows: first, education variable is measured through indicators: high school, diploma1, diploma 2, diploma 3, and graduate; and two indicators are jointly able to explain the variable. one of the two indicators that are most explainable is a formal education or graduate (s1). second, training variable is measured by indicators: development of syllabus, learning implementation plan, and devices learning. all three indicators are jointly able to explain the variable, and one of these three indicators which is the most capable to explain the variable is the preparation of training syllabus and preparation of learning implementation plan or rpp (rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran), and the most recent is a learning device. third, upgrading of teacher variable is measured through indicators: activity inservice classroom action research or ptk (penelitian tindakan kelas) and innovative learning. the indicators are jointly able to explain the variables of these indicators. the most capable indicator to explain the variable is an innovative learning model development activities. fourth, teacher performance variable is measured through indicators: knowledge, attitudes, and skills of teachers. all three indicators are jointly able educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 75 to explain the variable and of these three indicators which are the most capable to explain the variable are the knowledge and attitudes and skills. fifth, the variable quality of education is measured through indicators: the quality and quantity of learning value. both indicators are jointly able to explain the variable and the two indicators are the most capable of explaining the value of variable quality and quantity of learning. in addition, for finding a new model as mentioned above, it is also found the influence of the variable effects of empowerment that includes educational qualifications, training, and upgrading of teachers which affect the performance of teachers and quality education in the elementary schools in surabaya as the results of hypothesis testing. an explanation of the effect of empowerment variables, including educational qualifications, training, and upgrading of teachers on the performance of teachers and quality education in the elementary schools at surabaya city, are as following here: first, the influence of empowerment includes educational qualifications, training, and upgrading of the teacher against teacher performance. from the results of descriptive analysis, it is found that the elementary school teachers in the city of surabaya, in general, have a high performance in the criteria. the high performance of teachers is supported by the empowerment of teachers, including educational qualifications, training, and upgrading as its attributes. the analysis of sem (structural equation modelling) found that teacher performance is influenced by the empowerment of potential teachers. second, from the above test, it is obtained that the three indicators that can be used as a measure of empowerment in explaining variables namely: educational qualifications, training, and refresher courses. three indicators are jointly able to explain the variables of empowerment, of these three indicators are most capable to explain educational qualifications, followed by his/her username and inservice training for teachers. it can be concluded that the test results with the analysis of sem program amos 4.0 shows that empowerment has positive effect on teacher performance. in particular, the empowerment has three indicators, namely: education qualifications, training and learning device, and upgrading of teachers. all three indicators are jointly able to explain the variables of empowerment, of these three indicators are most capable to explain the educational qualifications, followed by training his/her username, then the most recent scientific work is the upgrading of teachers. it is meant to enhance the empowerment of teachers in the primary schools in surabaya that needs to improve the educational qualifications, followed by adequate training and refresher courses, and upgrading courses should be in accordance with its activity. the influence of empowerment includes educational qualifications, training, and upgrading of teachers against the quality of education. from the results of descriptive analysis, it is found that the quality of education in primary schools in surabaya shows the quality of education in the high category, while the low category is the indicators of the quality and quantity. finally, from the results of sem analysis, the indicators that can explain the variable quality of education are: the value of the national exams and the school waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 76 final exams. both indicators are jointly capable to explain and both indicators which are the most capable to explain the quality value and quantity of learning. conclusion and suggestions based on the results of research and discussion that have been done above, it can be summed up as follows: empowerment of teachers’ abilities, including an increase in educational qualifications, training, preparation of syllabi and lesson plans, as well as the upgrading of the teachers, have positive influence on the performance of teachers. empowerment of teachers’ abilities that includes an increase in educational qualifications, training, preparation of syllabi and lesson plans, as well as the upgrading of scientific writings have also influenced positively to the quality of education. teachers’ performances (through the indicators of knowledge, attitudes, and skills) have had the positive influence on the quality of education (quality and quantity of the study). performance of teachers has an important role in influencing education quality improvement at the elementary schools in surabaya city, east java, indonesia. some suggestions are put forward in this study, among others are as following here. first, the educational qualifications of all elementary school teachers in surabaya needs to be synchronized to the graduate (strata 1). improving the teacher education qualification should be pursued because the teacher’s performance is affected by teacher empowerment, including education qualification. second, it needs periodic training to enhance teachers’ ability in formulating the syllabus and lesson plans and teaching tools, because such training can improve the performance of teachers in planning and implementing learning. finally, third, the upgrading of teachers about writing scientific papers and innovative learning need to be given to the teacher because it may indirectly improve its performance in implementing the learning and teaching process. references arcaro, jerome s. (2005). quality in education: an implementation handbook. new york: st. lucie press. coombs, p.h. (2005). the world crisis in education. new york: oxford university press. deckey & adam. (1995). basic principles of student teaching. new jersey: prentice-hall, inc. depdiknas ri [departemen pendidikan nasional republik indonesia]. (2006). undang-undang nomor 14 tahun 2005 tentang guru dan dosen. bandung: penerbit umbara. eaglen, andrew et al. (2000). “modelling the benefits of training to business performance in leisure retailing” in strategic change, vol.9(5), august. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(1) 2012 77 ferdinand, augusty. (2000). structural equation modelling: amos 4.0. semarang: undip [universitas diponegoro] press. furtwengler, d. (2002). performance assessment. yogyakarta: andi publisher. haris, richard. (2002). personnel administration in education. boston: ally and bacon inc., third edition. ie [international education]. (2000). highlights from the second world congress of education international. washington dc: ie, july. langbein, laura irwin. (2002). discovering whether programs work: a guide to stastistical methods for program evaluation. santa monica: goodyear publisher company. leap, t.l. & m.d. crino. (2002). personnel/human resources management. new york: macmillan publishing company. mangkunegoro. (2005). evaluasi kinerja sumber daya manusia. jakarta: refika aditama. mulyasa, e. (2005). menjadi guru profesional: menciptakan pembelajaran yang aktif, kreatif, dan menyenangkan. bandung: rosdakarya. sahudi. (2009). “refresher courses and advanced studies for teachers in the city of surabaya”. unpublished report. surabaya: dinas pendidikan kota surabaya. steers, richard m. (2001). motivation and work behavior. new york: mcgraw-hili, inc. sudradjat, day. (2005). manajemen berbasis sekolah: meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan melalui implementasi mbs. jakarta: graphic cekas notices. supriyono. (1989). manajemen sumber daya manusia. jakarta: rineka cipta. waspodo tjipto subroto, the influence of teachers’ performance empowerment 78 picture of indonesia human resources (source: www.google.com, 15/7/2012) the low human development index of indonesia has had an impact on the competitiveness of the nation’s declining ability of indonesia. deterioration of competitiveness is derived from the quality of education in indonesia is still also low. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized and managed by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia and briman (brunei-indonesiamalaysia academic network) institute in bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam, since 2018 to date. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and suciandi@upi.edu website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: “cartoon of character education in indonesia”. (source: http://jakartaglobe.id/blogs/watatita, 28 february 2018). copy right © 2018 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia and briman (brunei-indonesia-malaysia academic network) institute in bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. guest editor: prof. dr. jose m. ocampo, jr. pnu, philippine normal university, manila, philippines.e-mail: juno_6970@yahoo.com editor-in-chief: dr. nurul zuriah umm, muhammadiyah university of malang, malang city, indonesia. e-mail: zuriahnurul@gmail.com managing editor: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: atriwusidna@gmail.com expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti, s.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including references and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. all published articles, including abstract, authors’ photograph, and full text in pdf, will be displayed in the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare/guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 1 mohd zarawi mat nor the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school: a case study abstract: since the roles of supervisor are important in order to produce professional counsellors’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills, tti (teachers training institute) is suggested to revise its qualifications of its lecturers. generally, practicum supervision process is a vital component in any profession, including guidance and counselling field. this qualitative case study aimed at exploring the process of practicum supervision of guidance and counselling teachers in primary school in ite (institute of teacher education) in malaysia. there were 28 participants participating in the study: 7 lecturers and 21 supervisees. a total of 21 in-depth interviews and 7 fgd (focus group discussions) were carried out in data collection process and later were analysed manually based on the n-vivo programme procedure. the results have shown that one theme, three sub-themes, and four categories were emerged. the theme is procedure of management and structuring of practicum supervision of guidance and counselling teachers in primary school; subthemes are prior supervision phase, current supervision phase, and post-supervision phase. the categories are structure and contract of supervision, contextual orientation, types of supervision, methods of supervision, evaluation, and conclusion contract. peer checker, member checks, cohen-kappa index, and audit trail techniques have been applied in order to seek validity and reliability of the data. impact of the study and recommendations are also discussed. key words: practicum supervision; guidance and counselling; teachers in primary school; teachers training institute; professional counsellors. about the author: dr. mohd zarawi mat nor is a senior lecturer at the department of medical education, school of medical sciences usm (science university of malaysia), 16150 kubang kerian, kelantan, malaysia. for academic interests, the author is able to be searched via his e-mail at: zarawi@usm.my how to cite this article? nor, mohd zarawi mat. (2016). “the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school: a case study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(1), august, pp.1-12. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (march 11, 2016); revised (may 20, 2016); and published (august 30, 2016). introduction highly competencies in various aspects, in order to soar upwards performance of an organisation, have been a prominent agenda in many professions, including the counselling teacher’s education. therefore, moe (ministry of education) malaysia has been emphasizing its efforts to produce the best school counsellors. as addressed by the government, many programmes and activities have been planned to ensure its vision and mission is properly achieved (moe malaysia, 2005; and nor, 2014). in counselling profession, the quality of teaching and effective curriculum has been given attention by the moe malaysia. besides, quality of supervisions process for guidance and counselling teachers in training is also prioritised. in this context, c.r. dunn (1998) has stated that the importance of the mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare2 counsellor supervision can be seen on its role to share knowledge to a professional profession (dunn, 1998). j.m. bernard & r.k. goodyear (2004) have also defined the “supervision process” as below: a means of transmitting the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of a particular profession to the next generation of that profession. this relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purpose of enhancing the professional functioning of the junior member(s), monitoring the quality of services offered, and serving as a gatekeeper for those who are to enter the particular profession (bernard & goodyear, 2004:6). the ite (institute of teacher education) in malaysia has been conducting a counselling programme in its selected campuses, since 1990. the aim of the programme is to provide a pool of qualifed of guidance and counselling teachers, which will service in primary schools in the country. the qualifications for the programme are as follows: (1) having first degree in the significant discipline; and (2) interested in teaching and learning (cf cochran-smith, 2001; and biggs, 2003). the duration of the programme is three semesters: two semesters (24 weeks) for theoretical subjects; and one semester (12 weeks) for practicum session. during the period of the practicum session, they are placed in an appropriate school nearest to the college. throughout the practicum sessions, they need to complete programmes or activities, besides the basic task which is teaching process. it includes individual counselling sessions, group counselling sessions, career programmes, parenting services, staff development programmes, and other activities as instructed by its headmaster (cochran-smith, 2001; and moe malaysia, 2005). each student is mentored by a lecturer being known as campus supervisor, who is responsible to observe, guide, and consult them. the roles of the campus supervisors are: (1) providing supervision and consultation services for three times during the practicum period; and (2) assessing his/ her supervisees by using specific forms that are provided by the practicum committee (cf ngidi & sibaya, 2003; and kiggundu & nayimuli, 2009). as aforementioned, quality supervision process is vital in producing highly competent school counsellors. therefore, examining the process of supervisions is required in order to explore the useful information to enhance quality of its services (leddick, 1994; and biggs, 2003). yet, currently no study on the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school is conducted. therefore, the present study, which aimed at exploring the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school, is significant in order to provide useful information on the topic. literature review. l.d. borders & g.r. leddick (1987) have conducted a survey in order to address a guideline for the counselor supervision process. a total of 450 educational training counsellors participated in the study. the results have shown that four competencies are needed by the counselor, which are: (1) conceptual knowledge on the supervision process; (2) various skills of intervantion; (3) strong of facilitating and communacation skills; and (4) postive of personality trait (borders & leddick, 1987). c. katrina (2008) has conducted a research on the school counsellor experiences in three aspects, which are clinical supervision, programme supervision, and administration supervision. the results have shown that programme and administration supervisions are more relevant for the primary school compared to the secondary school (katrina, 2008). in addiction, there are three themes that have emerged, which are: (1) the relationship between counsellor and students; (2) identity professional development; and (3) the role of school counsellors (cf borders & leddick, 1987; and katrina, 2008). methods participants and location of the study. the research term used for qualitative sampling is purposive sampling. in purposive sampling, researchers intentionally select individuals and sites to learn or understand the central educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 3 phenomenon (creswell, 2002). the standard used in choosing participants and sites is whether they provide “useful” information (patton, 1990). according to l. gay & p. arasian (2000), since qualitative researchers seek quality from participants and not quantity, participant selection is “designed” to identify participants, who can provide information about the particular topic and setting being studied (gay & arasian, 2000). in this research, maximal variation sampling is used. maximal variation sampling is a purposive sampling strategy, in which the researcher samples cases or individuals that differ on some characteristic or trait. this strategy is parallel to the purpose of the study in exploring the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school. participants in this study must meet the following criteria: (1) experienced in supervising of counselling practicum process for more than 10 years; and (2) has been shown good performance in counselling supervisions. a total of 28 participants, who were working in tti (teachers training institute) in peninsular of malaysia, are participating in the study. maximum variation type of sampling is utilized in order to justify the participants of the study. they are 7 lecturers and 21 students. the potential participants are identified from their administration records. then, they are contacted to confirm of their willing to participate in the study orally. they officially received official letter that offer them to be participants. a specific meeting was arranged to conduct in-depth interview and observations at the school of practicum. data collection procedure. in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and documents analysis were utilised in the data collection process (harrell & bradley, 2009). these methods were chosen, due to its strengths to collect in-depth data on the process of practicum supervisions during period of the practicum in actual locations. in order to standardize the interviews format and professional ethic for conducting interviews, it was conducted based on the interview protocols that were developed beforehand. the interview protocols consist of three components: introduction, main questions, and conclusion (creswell, 2002; and harrell & bradley, 2009). the first component functioned as warming up questions, before starting the further conversation. the second component focuses on the research objectives. besides the main questions, probing questions also addressed in this component. the third component is conclusion part, in which participants were requested to share their inputs that were not included in the conversation. through the sessions, tape recorder, as permitted by those participants, was used to ensure the information gained from the interviews was not missing. the interviews were continuously done until saturated point achieved. the data collection process took place in the duration of six months from january 2013 to june 2013. this process produces 28 scripts of interviews that was later analysed manually based on the n-vivo programme procedure (creswell, 2002; and harrell & bradley, 2009). besides, observations are also applied to gather the data. it took place in two situations: before and after the supervision process. the aim of observation is to support data that gained from the interviews. observations were conducted based on the set of checklist that prepared beforehand (creswell, 2002; and harrell & bradley, 2009). document analysis is also utilised in this study. there are three types of documents being used: documents that addressed by moe (ministry of education) malaysia; students’ reflection journal; and lectures’ reflection journal. data analysis procedure. data analysis process started since the first interview exercise finished. three steps involved in the data analysis procedure: management of data; understanding of data; and interpretation of data (creswell, 2002; and harrell & bradley, 2009). management of data. the first step started with transcribing the interview mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare4 transcripts. data from the tape recorders were transcripted into verbatims. each transcript was given code index. for instance: p-1, 2/6/2013; p-2, 5/6/2013; and p-3, 12/3/2013. it means: p-1 = participant number 1; and 2/6/2013 refers to the date interview conducted on the 2nd june 2013. p-2 = participant number 2; and 5/6/2013 refers to the date interview conducted, on the 5th june 2013. p-3 = participant number 3; and 12/3/2013 refers to the date interview conducted, on the 12th march 2013. understanding of data. also, the similar code index was given to the observations data as dtr, 25/1/2013; it means dtr = dokumen tidak rasmi or unofficial document; and 25/1/2013 refers to the date the document recorded, on the 25th january 2013. dr, 17/1/2013, it means dr = dokumen rasmi or official document; and 17/1/2013 refers to the date the document recorded, on 17th january 2013. upon completing the data code indexing process, the next step was understanding the data. researcher read verbatim texts line by line and sentence by sentence in order to find out the concepts, ideas, and terminologies that relate to the research objectives. researcher will, then, choose relevant information that can assist him to answer the research objectives. interpretation of data. data interpretation is an on-going process to group, the data gained from the second step. this process is known as coding process by using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding technique that applied in grounded theory method (creswell, 2002; and harrell & bradley, 2009). during open coding, the data will be sorted into emerging themes and regrouped them for similarities and differences. from there, categories of information to search for the phenomenon being studied are developed. at this step, researcher will read the verbatim transcripts actively in order to identify the similarities and differences of the concepts, ideas, and terminologies identified at the second step. research objectives acted as a controller to help researcher focuses on the specific concepts, ideas, and terminologies that can potential led answering the research objectives. these concepts, ideas, and terminologies were grouped in specific themes and categories. this actions were continuously done until all the concepts, ideas, and terminologies grouped in themes and categories that relate to the research objectives identified. in axial coding, similar concepts or themes are linked together to identify a single category based on their homogeneous conditions within similar contexts. axial coding consists of the researcher breaking one category into sub-categories and comparing the interrelationship of that category. in this phase, researcher asked questions about the meaning of the data and emerging concepts; and continuously made comparisons to differentiate data and concepts throughout the study (strauss & corbin, 1998). the last phase in the coding process consists of identifying specific core categories from the categories discovered in the axial coding phase. selective coding is the phase of selecting the core category, systematically comparing it to other categories, and conforming those connections (strauss & corbin, 1998; and lawrence & tar, 2013). during selective coding, a story that connects the sub-categories and categories around the core category is built. so, those relationships against the collected data are validated. validity and reliability of the findings. in order to seek validity of the data, four measures have been taken: triangulation, awareness to the researcher biases, review by the participants, and via thorough description. in this research, researcher has applied three techniques in data collection process: interview, observation, and document analysis. by using these different data collection methods, it has made the data more valid and reliable (strauss & corbin, 1998; and lawrence & tar, 2013). researcher has also requested the participants to review the raw data. also, participants are asked to comment on the themes and categories that suggested by researcher. all the given response and comments are included in the report (strauss & corbin, 1998; creswell, 2002; harrell & educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 5 bradley, 2009; and lawrence & tar, 2013); so that the research credibility will increase. in this research, a thorough explanation of the data is presented regarding the phases in the supervision process. a thick and indepth explanation provided by the researcher enables the readers to come out with personal conclusion concerning the outcomes of different settings or similar context. meanwhile, in seeking reliability of the research, three methods have been applied: audit trail, peer checking, and using cohen kappa index (strauss & corbin, 1998; creswell, 2002; harrell & bradley, 2009; and lawrence & tar, 2013). audit trail is utilised by requesting someone outside the research to check the narrative in order to confirm its credibility. in this context, researcher has asked a reader to check the report and all documents, which are related to the data collection process for verification. finished grouped data has been referred to the expert panels for reviewing and verification. this process is known “peer checking” (strauss & corbin, 1998; creswell, 2002; harrell & bradley, 2009; and lawrence & tar, 2013). for this purposes, the researcher has requested three experts in the counselling field, who are two ite (institute of teacher education) lecturers and one pihe (public institution of higher education) lecturer in malaysia. the researcher has taken into account all the responses given by the panels. lastly, the researcher can measure the reliability by determining the cohen-kappa index, where the researcher does the coding agreement degree level and the coding is conducting by the field experts (cited in ishak et al., 2010). this is done by matching the list of themes and sub-themes with the operating definition to measure its reliability. the value given by cohen-kappa index value is 0.88. such value is considered as a good reliability. this means that the analysis unit made by the researcher correlates with the suggested themes. findings and discussion this qualitative case study is aimed at exploring the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school. the findings addressed are the results of the researcher’s interpretations of data analysis, which covers interviews, observations, and documents. the findings have shown that there are one theme, three sub-themes, and five categories of practicum supervision process on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school. the theme is procedure of management and structuring of practicum supervision process on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school; sub-themes are prior supervision phase, current supervision phase, and post-supervision phase. theme 1: procedure of management and structuring of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school. the procedure of management and structuring of practicum supervision process is a system being practised by the lecturers in conducting supervision process on the guidance and counselling teachers. there are three subthemes of supervisions process, which are: (1) prior supervision phase; (2) current supervision phase, and (3) post-supervision phase. these sub-themes are discussed in detail bellow. sub-theme 1: prior supervision phase. there is one category emerged under sub-theme of prior supervision phase, which is structuring and supervision contract. it refers to ways of the supervision processes are organised. this sub-category is proven via a briefing that has been given by the tti (teacher training institute) counselling unit to the supervisees. findings have shown that this category has emerged in seven participants. for instance, observations data of lecturers a and b. analysis of interviews data from four participants: b, d, e, and g have confirmed the result. for instance, participant g has stated as follows: [...] yes sir (researcher) that briefing was a compulsory activity for them (supervisee) as instructed by the ted or teacher education department (interview with participant 01:g, 2/6/2013). observations data have shown that the briefing has been conducted in a specific room quipped by an lcd (liquid crystal display) and a laptop. the size of the room is 30 feet mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare6 by 30 feet. the document data analysis has shown that the information is parallel with a document entitled “guideline of practicum for training teachers effective on february 2005, reference number kp(bpg) 9561/ jld.71(18)” in dr (dokumen rasmi or official document)-01, on 17 january 2013. the content of the briefing has been confirmed by the participants a and c, as bellow: […] before starting the practicum sessions, we have done a briefing on the rules of the practicum sessions, it includes documents that should be prepared […]. they have to prepare a few folios, then, we have to sign them. next, we share our expectations towards them (interview with participant 02:a, 20/1/2013). i organised the briefing to inform the activities that they should conduct for the 12 weeks of the practicum sessions. it includes preparation for the individual and group counselling, the total of counselling sessions that should be carried out. besides, the observation schedules were also given to the supervisees (interview with participant 03:c, 25/1/2013). data from the supervision activities schedule have supported the aforementioned statement. it covers the supervisor name and the ways of the observations conducted. these informations were written in a4 size paper and were distributed to the supervisees. sub-theme 2: current supervision phase. the most important phase in the supervision process is the current supervision phase. there is one category emerged in the phase, which is contextual orientation. the contextual orientation is an attempt to introduce new things to someone that he/his should do. it includes information that is given to the school, where the supervisee practises. the aimed is to introduce the lecturers to the school administration. data analysis has shown that participants have practised the contextual orientation that attended by the researcher, school administrations, lecturer, and supervisees. the contents of the contextual orientation are the school and location supervisor’s role during the practicum period. data from the document analysis, which is the set of the practicum implementation guide, has confirmed the result. three of seven schools have conducted the briefing, which were attended by its headmasters; and four schools were attended by the senior teachers. the objective of the meeting is to inform the responsibility of headmaster and location supervisor during the practicum sessions. data from interviews have confirmed the result. in the interview, the supervisor c has stated that: i meet up the school headmaster for giving him some inputs of the practicum process, such as the roles of supervisees and the location supervisors. […] besides, the duration of observations of the practicum sessions, were also discussed, i also detail up on the payment for him (interview with participant 04:c, 25/1/2013). students teacher, supervisor, location supervisor, and headmaster also attended the discussion. the briefing has focused on few aspects, such as period of teaching, counselling sessions, and i have reminded him on the importance of his support to the supervisee (interview with participant 04:c, 25/1/2013). these facts have been confirmed by the data of observations and documents analysis. for instance, the researcher has noted as below: alhamdulillah (thanks god), it was seen that my observation was successful […] the supervisors have performed the briefing well (cited in dtr-04, 25/1/2013). sub-theme 3: post-supervision phase. the sub-theme of the post-supervision phase has emerged in two categories: (1) evaluation category; and (2) conclusion contract category. these two categories are discussed in detail bellow. category 1: evaluation category. evaluation is a system of information gathering on activities of teaching and learning process for analysing an information, so that the best decision could be done properly (fu, 2013; and nor, 2014). in the counselling practicum context, the evaluation process is about assessment of the supervisee’s achievement. the sub-category of formative and summative evaluation has emerged in category of the evaluation. the evaluation form of pr1/bk (form for supervisor 1) is utilised to assess the supervisees’ achievement. the type of the summative evaluation using pr2/bk (form for supervisor 2) is done at the end of the supervision process. it aimed at evaluating the supervisee’s achievement. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 7 data analysis has shown that it was emerged of 7 times. formative evaluation sub-category. the results have shown that the sub-category of formative evaluation has emerged every time in the supervising process. researcher has noticed that the supervisors have given an original copy of pr1/bk (form for supervisor 1) form to his supervisee. this data has been supported by the interviews data. for example, supervisor a has responded as follows: […] assessing of the students is a compulsory exercise […] we gave them the pr1/bk form upon completing a supervising process […] we have to give them three forms for the whole supervision process (interview with participant 05:a, 20/1/2013). in answering a question on the purpose of the pr1/bk (form for supervisor 1), lecturer f has responded as below: […] yes, we want to make sure the students’ achievement was evaluated based on the session done […] we gave level 2 or level 3 of achievement and also given the reasons behind the levels, so that they know of their performance status. then they will upgrade their performance if the grade is low (interview with participant 06:f, 11/3/2013). data from the document analysis has confirmed the result. for instance, pr1/bk (form for supervisor 1) forms of gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-4, gp-5, and gp6, who were under supervisor b have shown that they have three copies of the forms (interview with participant 07:b, 1/3/2013). these results are also similar with the data gained from gp-13, gp-14, and gp-15. summative evaluation sub-category. analysis data made by the researcher on the observations, interviews, and documents have shown that the sub-category of summative evaluation has emerged seven times; one for each supervisees. the form used is pr2/bk (form for supervisor 2), which is different compared to the pr1/bk form. the data analysis has shown that the summative evaluation is practised by the supervisors. for instance, supervisor b has stated as below: yes […] supervisors are required to fill up those forms at the end of the sessions […] mark was given such as 80%, 90% [...] the mark given to the supervisee is a secret one (interview with participant 07:b, 1/3/2013). the supervisor c has confirmed of its confidentiality as follows: […] emm […] cannot be informed to the supervisee, this is a confidentiality issue, its different compared to the pr1/bk type of form. at the end, the mark given will be submitted to the practicum committee. for your information, the mark given to the supervisee was agreed by the location supervisor too (interview with participant 08:c, 10/4/2013). the mark is an average after discussing with the location supervisor. this result was supported by the supervisor e, as follows: […] for your information, the mark includes the evaluation made by the location supervisor, first, marks were totalled, then divided in two, so the average is a final mark that we send to the practicum committee […] then the supervisees will receive it (interview with participant 09:e, 8/4/2013). this data has been supported by data from fgd (focused group discussion) of supervisees; they insisted that they are informed that the mark given is secret and the result will be released in the examination slip. this data has been supported by a journal written by gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-21, as follows: alhamdulillah, everything was settled. the supervision process ended. i am very happy today. although i did not know the mark i got, i am sure that i passed the practicum (cited in dtr-01, 8/4/2013). category 2: contract of conclusion. contract of conclusion is a process, whereby supervisee is informed that the supervision activity is ended. there are two sub-categories under the contract of conclusion category: (1) subcategory of reflection; and (2) sub-category of termination. these two sub-categories are discussed in detail bellow. sub-category of refl ection. reflection is a remembering and thinking process on counselling activities in order to analysis and evaluate its impacts, including thinking on ways to improve a performance for the future (fu, 2013; and nor, 2014). the observations, interviews, and documents data analysis have mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare8 shown that this sub-category has emerged of 21 times. for instance, supervisors a, e, and g have asked their supervisees to share their experiences that gained from the supervision sessions. this data has been confirmed as shown in a dialogue between supervisor a and gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-1, as below: supervisor a: “can you explain your experiences that gained throughout the supervision sessions?”. gp-1: “i felt that i have gained lot of knowledge and skills during the supervision sessions […] i knew very well my tasks […] many things to be done and quite challenging. also i have learnt the ways to seek colleagues support in implementing a programme” (as cited in an interview with participant 10:a, 17/2/2013). this result was supported also by the supervisor e, when he was asked by the researcher, as follows: researcher: “what are the components being focused when discussing with your students?”. supervisor e: “[…] reflection is my practise upon the supervision process completed […] i encouraged my students to share their experiences once completing the supervision, in order to examine weaknesses and strengths of the supervision. i also told them how to enhance the supervision process in the future” (as cited in an interview with participant 11:e, 4/3/2013). this result is also supported by the document analysis data of gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-20 made by the researcher, as follow: […] reflection that made by the supervisor was very useful. when he asked me to reflect on the back, i have found some weaknesses in the decision making skills (cited in dtr-02, 2/3/2013). sub-category of termination. data analysis has shown that there are two elements under sub-category of termination, which are: (1) element of minor termination; and (2) element of major termination. firstly, element of minor termination. the analysis data on the observations made by the researcher has proved the element of minor termination. for example, supervisor a has stated the following ideas to the gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-1, gp-2, and gp-3 at the end of the supervision process, as follows: […] good teacher! my first evaluation process has ended. hopefully, you all seriously focus on my comments previously [...] we meet again in one week […] the actual date will be informed later (as cited in dtr-04, 20/1/2013). the interviews data analysis made by the researcher has confirmed the result. for instance, the gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-19 has expressed the following statement: […] after he gave me the mark and share some ideas, he told that the supervision process was ended (interview with participant 12:h, 11/4/2013). secondly, element of major termination. the element of major termination is a statement made by supervisors that the supervision process has ended. at this phase, supervisors have expressed their support to the supervisee. the termination occurred at the end of the third supervision process. for instance, supervisor a has expressed his statement to the gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-1, gp-2, and gp-3, as follows: […] so the supervision process is ended […]. i hoped you have learnt meaningful experiences throughout the supervision process […] the mark of evaluation will be given to the practicum unit for the next action […] so my task has ended here […]. thank you very much for your support (interview with participant 13:a, 30/3/2013). this finding is supported by the observations data. for example, supervisor b said thank you and shake hands to his supervisee that describes the supervision process was finished (interview with participant 07:b, 1/3/2013). the similar data gained from the gp (guru pelajar or student teacher)-19, gp-20, and gp-21. for instance, the gp-20 has stated as follows: […] today is the last day i have been observed by my supervisor. it means that there is no more supervision after this. throughout the supervisions process, many sweet and bitter experiences that i have learnt […] and the last word from my supervisor to me is good luck and do the best (as cited in dtr-01, 8/4/2013). educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 9 the research aimed at exploring the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school. the results have shown that the supervisors have divided the supervision process into three phases, which are before supervision, current supervision, and postsupervision. these evidences have shown that the supervisors well understood of their responsibilities in supervising relationship. it is parallel with the m. carroll (1996)’s statement that supervision process is not a suddenly activity (carroll, 1996). the arrangement of the phases of supervision is consistent with the m. carroll (1996)’s idea, who has listed four phases of the practicum supervision process, which are: (1) initial assessment and supervision contract development; (2) maintained of supervision; (3) evaluation on supervision relationships; and (4) termination of supervision relationship (carroll, 1996). although supervisors of this study have arranged three phases of supervision process, its functions and activities are similar with m. carroll (1996)’s idea. the arrangement of difference phases of supervision process is proof that the supervisions process has its target. each phase has its function that affects the supervisee learning process. the objective of the phase of before supervisions is to describe the items, which will be focused in supervision process that covers of what, how, who, and when the supervision process be conducted. this early information are important for the students teacher in order to set-up their strong mental and physical preparation before starting practicum activities; so that the possibilities of negative impacts, such as fear among the counsellor in training, is reduced (costa, 1994). the component of the supervision contract is a detail information of supervisee and supervisor expectations. this component is important as it is a platform for discussing between supervisee and supervisor that lead to a common agreement between them (mohamed, 2008). so, the possible problems raised are minimal. this is parallel with a research findings conducted by j.m. benshoff & p.o. paisley (1996) that counsellors in training not just cannot sleep, but also face problems on how to face their clients (benshoff & paisley, 1996). the result is supported also by j.m. campbell (2006)’s statement that at early stage, supervisees need a structured instruction and information (campbell, 2006). therefore, through the development of a structure and supervision contract, the detail information of the supervision process is known by the supervisee, so that they are able to prepare earlier. the phase of current supervision is also practised by the supervisors. this phase is very vital component as it is where an actual supervision process is going on. there are two aspects that focused in phase, which are: (1) the items that will be supervised; and (2) the methods being applied in supervising. the last phase is post-supervision process. the function of this phase is to terminate the supervision process (leddick, 1994; and nor, 2014). it is suggested that tti (teacher training institute) organised a special course, which is compulsory and continuously done on the supervision process to lectures, especially to the new ones (mohamed, 2008; and nor, 2014). having specific skills and knowledge on the best method of supervision is crucial to supervisor (bernard, 1981); as the specific training in the supervision is still needed (kaiser & barretta-herman, 1999). conclusion since the roles of supervisor are important in order to produce professional counsellors’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills, tti (teacher training institute) is suggested to revise its qualifications of its lecturers. the priority must be given to applicants who have doctorate in counselling and also have experiences as school counsellor for more than five years. furthermore, they must have degree and master in counselling. besides, supervisor should be given continuously exposure on the school counsellor scope of services, so that they acquired knowledge on the current school counsellor issues. since this study has its limitations, further study on the supervision process is needed. a comprehensive study on factors mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare10 influencing the practicum process should be conducted. besides, the similar study that involves secondary schools should be done, so that the expected findings can be compared between characteristics of counselling process in primary and secondary schools. in term of setting of the study, it is suggested that the similar topic is conducted in different locations, such as hospital and welfare agencies. this research is significant for lecturers to identify the features of practicum supervision process. the findings have shown that tti lecturers have been practising a systematic approach in conducting counselling supervision.1 references benshoff, j.m. & p.o. paisley. (1996). “the structured peer consultation model for school counsellor” in journal of counselling & development, 74(3), pp.314-318. bernard, j.m. (1981). “in service training for clinical supervisors” in professional psychology, 12(6), pp.740-748. bernard, j.m. & r.k. goodyear. (2004). fundamentals of clinical supervision. boston, ma: pearson, 3rd edition. biggs, john b. (2003). teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does? buckingham: society for research into higher education, 2nd edition. borders, l.d. & g.r. leddick. (1987). handbook of counseling supervision. alexandria, va: american association for counseling and development. campbell, j.m. (2006). essentials of clinical supervision. usa [united states of america]: wiley. carroll, m. (1996). counselling supervision: theory, skills, and practice. london: cassell. cochran-smith, marilyn. 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(2002). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. dtr (dokumen tidak rasmi or unofficial document)-01, on 8 april 2013. it is available and owned by author. dtr (dokumen tidak rasmi or unofficial document)-02, on 2 march 2013. it is available and owned by author. 1statement: herewith, i have declared that this paper is my original work; so, it is not product of plagiarism and not yet also be reviewed as well as published by other scholarly journals. dtr (dokumen tidak rasmi or unofficial document)-04, on 20 january 2013. it is available and owned by author. dtr (dokumen tidak rasmi or unofficial document)-04, on 25 january 2013. it is available and owned by author. dunn, c.r. (1998). the necessity of providing clinical supervision for school counsellor. new york: eric u.s. department of education. fu, jo shan. (2013). “ict in education: a critical literature review and its implications” in ijedict: international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, volume 9, issue 1, pp.112-125. available online also at: file:///c:/users/acer/downloads/ edict-2012-1541.pdf [accessed in kubang kerian, malaysia: march 2, 2015]. gay, l. & p. arasian. (2000). educational research: competencies for analysis and application. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall, 6th edition. “guideline of practicum for training teachers effective on february 2005, reference number kp(bpg) 9561/jld.71(18)” in dr (dokumen rasmi or official document)-01, on 17 january 2013. it is available and owned by author. harrell, margaret c. & melissa a. bradley. (2009). data collection methods: semi-structured interviews and focus groups. arlington, va: rand corporation. available online also at: http://www.rand.org/ content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2009/ rand_tr718.pdf [accessed in kubang kerian, malaysia: march 2, 2015]. interview with participant 01 or g, one of the teachers at the primary school, in malaysia, on 2 june 2013. interview with participant 02 or a, one of the teachers at the primary school, in malaysia, on 20 january 2013. interview with participant 03 or c, one of the teachers at the primary school, in malaysia, on 25 january 2013. interview with participant 04 or c, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 25 january 2013. interview with participant 05 or a, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 20 january 2013. interview with participant 06 or f, one of the lecturers for supervision at the primary school, in malaysia, on 11 march 2013. interview with participant 07 or b, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 1 march 2013. interview with participant 08 or c, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 10 april 2013. interview with participant 09 or e, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 8 april 2013. interview with participant 10 or a, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 17 january 2013. interview with participant 11 or e, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 4 march 2013. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 11 interview with participant 12 or h, one of the gp (guru pelajar or student’s teachers), in malaysia, on 11 april 2013. interview with participant 13 or a, one of the supervisors for the primary school, in malaysia, on 30 march 2013. ishak, noriah et al. (2010). kajian kes dalam penyelidikan pendidikan. kuala lumpur: mcgraw hill education. kaiser, t.l. & a. barretta-herman. (1999). “the supervision institute: a model for supervisory training” in clinical supervision, 18(1), pp.33-46. katrina, c. (2008). “an evaluation of school counsellors supervision”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. usa [united states of america]: university of texas. kiggundu, edith & samuel nayimuli. (2009). “teaching practice: a make or break phase for student teachers” in south african journal of education, vo.29, no.3, august. available online also at: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_ar ttext&pid=s0256-01002009000300004 [accessed in kubang kerian, malaysia: march 2, 2015]. lawrence, japhet & usman tar. (2013). “the use of grounded theory technique as a practical tool for qualitative data collection and analysis” in electronic journal of business research methods, volume 11, issue 1. available online also at: file:///c:/users/acer/downloads/ejbrmvolume11-issue1-article289.pdf [accessed in kubang kerian, malaysia: march 2, 2015]. leddick, g.r. (1994). “counsellor education clinics as community resources” in developing and directing counsellor education laboratorian. alexandria, va: aca press, pp.147-152. moe [ministry of education] malaysia. (2005). guidelines on practicum for pre-service teacher. kuala lumpur: teacher education section, ministry of education malaysia. mohamed, othman. (2008). counselling supervision practise. serdang: upm [universiti putra malaysia] press. ngidi, d.p. & p.t. sibaya. (2003). “student teacher anxieties related to practice teaching” in south african journal of education, 23, pp.18-22. nor, mohd zarawi mat. (2014). “supervisors’ practice in conducting supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school” in atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan, vol. 4(1) june, pp.73-84. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and unsur cianjur, issn 2088-1290. available online also at: file:///c:/users/acer/ downloads/156-306-1-sm.pdf [accessed in kubang kerian, malaysia: march 2, 2015]. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation methods. beverley hills, ca: sage. strauss, a.l. & j. corbin. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. london: sage publications, ltd., firstly published in 1990. mohd zarawi mat nor, the process of practicum supervision © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare12 the process of practicum supervision (source: http://www.boardingschoolreview.com, 3/7/2015) highly competencies in various aspects, in order to soar upwards performance of an organisation, have been a prominent agenda in many professions, including the counselling teacher’s education. therefore, moe (ministry of education) malaysia has been emphasizing its efforts to produce the best school counsellors. as addressed by the government, many programmes and activities have been planned to ensure its vision and mission is properly achieved. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 29 jenny p. cruz students’ environmental awareness and practices: basis for development of advocacy program abstract: environmental degradation has been a problem, which needs to be address to meet sustainability. it is important to consider the balance between human activity development and environmental protection requires a sharing of responsibilities that can be equated with the behaviour towards the environment and natural resources. preservation of the environment is one of the concerns of the philippines government through the denr (department of environment and natural resources). however, it will be a great help if every citizens will be involved most especially the youth. there are some studies conducted about environmental preservation with different outcomes, such as modified environmental awareness scale; development of lesson exemplars; modular package on environmental awareness protection and conservation, etc. aiming to produce an environmental advocacy program, this study was conducted to promote the environmental awareness of the students through active participation in the different environmental programs and activities through the joint effort of the participating school’s organization. the descriptive method of research was used in this study, which looked into the environmental awareness and practices of the selected fourth year high school students in the philippines. the instrument of eas (environmental awareness scale) was modified to give emphasis on the environmental problems and issues evident at present. findings of the study were the basis for development of an environmental advocacy program. key words: environmental awareness; high school students in the philippines; environmental awareness scale; environmental practices; advocacy program. about the author: jenny p. cruz is a teacher at the santa elena high school, w.c. paz street., santa elena, marikina city, philippines; and an alumna of pnu (philippine normal university), in which she has graduated last april 2015. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail at: arthurpnu@yahoo.com how to cite this article? cruz, jenny p. (2016). “students’ environmental awareness and practices: basis for development of advocacy program” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(1), august, pp.29-40. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (february 22, 2016); revised (june 30, 2016); and published (august 30, 2016). in this study, the researcher believes that by having an environmental awareness and by performing positive environmental practices, environmental sustainability can be achieved. this study aimed to answer the following questions: (1) what is the level of environmental awareness of the selected 4th year high school students?; (2) how do the students demonstrate their environmental practice at home and in school as an outcome introduction the youth of today must be challenged to play a big role in preserving the environment for their future needs. it is cited in chapter 25 of the agenda 21 that it is imperative that youth from all parts of the world participate actively in all relevant levels of decisionmaking processes, because it affects their lives today and has implications to their future (de boer, 2010; and arlemalm-hagser, 2013). jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare30 of their awareness in terms of: recycling, tree planting and clean-up drive, water and energy conservation, school’s environmental club, non-use of harmful products, creative possible solution, and social media exposure; and (3) what environmental advocacy program can be developed to strengthen and deepen the environmental awareness and practices of the students? conceptual framework. environmental awareness is necessary to solve environmental problems that we are facing at present. but, this awareness will be much effective if we put it into practice. the youth are supposed to be one of the best agents of change for they will be the new generation that will inherit the wealth of the environment (gardner & stern, 2002; agarwal & nangia, 2005; and reyes, 2009). the perspectives of environmental education seem to be, consecutively, related to positivism (knowledge about the environment); constructivism (activities in the environment); and the critical theory (actions for the environment) of education (robottom & hart, 1993; palmer & neal, 1994; and robottom, 2004). in order to solve environmental problems that we have, environmental practice must be looked upon. environmental awareness will be an effective tool in achieving sustainability, if it is concurred with positive practices towards environmental care. it is the “praxis”, as defined by p. freire (1972), which will lead to sustainability. it indicates life practice formed from both reflection and action (freire, 1972). the self-striving to transform the world creatively, according to an emerging vision based on its own values, actualizes itself as actualizes its vision.1 there is a must to have not only practice, but praxis aside from having an environmental awareness; because “praxis”, as p. freire (1972) defines, it is reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it (freire, 1972). the conceptual paradigm of this study, as shown in figure 1, stresses that the students’ environmental awareness, which is based 1as cited in “encyclopedia of the social and cultural foundations of education, 2008”. available online at: http:// www.markfoster.net/struc/praxis.html [accessed in marikina city, philippines: august 4, 2015]. on the modified environmental awareness scale instrument of j. canarias (2005) is subdivided into two levels (canarias, 2005). level i consist of: (1) knowledge of environmental concept/state of environment; and (2) knowledge of environmental issues/problem (canarias, 2005). the knowledge of environmental concept/ state of environment is regarded as the familiarity of the respondents on the facts about the ecology, latest policies, and laws about the environment; while the knowledge of environmental issues/problems is regarded as the familiarity of the respondents on the recent issues/problems, which are happening in the present which have caused the degradation of the environment (cf opschoor & turner, 1994; valles, 2002; and harris, 2004). the interpretation of the responses can fall under highly aware, moderately aware, slightly aware, and not aware, depending on the mean that will be gathered in each item. level ii of the students’ environmental awareness consists of the following: (1) awareness of the needs to formulate alternative solution; (2) awareness of the need to take action in solving problems; and (3) awareness of the need to possess a high degree of commitment and advocacy (opschoor & turner, 1994; balmaceda, 2004; and canarias, 2005). the awareness of the needs to formulate alternative solution is regarded as the familiarity of the respondents to make a wise choice in solving the environmental problems. the awareness of the need to take action in solving problems is regarded as the praxis or the reflection and action of the respondents and on how they act upon in taking care of the environment. the awareness of the need to possess a high degree of commitment and advocacy is regarded as the familiarity of the respondents to their need to participate in the different activities and programs that will preserve the environment (madsen, 1996; and tietenberg, 2006). the interpretation of the responses can fall under: always does the task, sometimes does the task, seldom does the task, and not at all, depending on the mean that will be gathered in each item. the environmental practices educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 31 students’ environmental awareness level i level ii b. knowledge of environmental issues/problems a. knowledge of environmental concepts/ state of environment c. awareness of the need to posses a high degree of commitment & advocacy b. awareness of the need to take action in solving problems a. awareness of the need to formulate alternative solution students’ environmental practices a. recycling b. tree planting and clean-up drive c. water and energy conservation d. school’s environmental club e. non-use of harmful products f. creative possible solutions g. social media exposure highly aware moderate aware slightly aware not aware always does the task sometimes does the task seldom does the task not at all development of an environmental advocacy program figure 1: conceptual paradigm of the study in this study covers: (1) recycling; (2) tree planting and clean-up drive; (3) water and energy conservation; (4) participation in school’s environmental club; (5) non-use of harmful products; (6) creative possible solution; and (7) social media environmental exposure. the possible responses in level i, such as: moderately aware, slightly aware, and not aware; as well as the responses in level ii, such as sometimes does the task, seldom does the task, and not at all are connected with an arrow to another construct, which is the development of an advocacy program. the suggested activities in the eap (environmental awareness program) will be developed to help the students to deepen their environmental awareness for the responses in level i with moderately aware, slightly aware or not aware; and to increase their environmental practices for the responses in level ii with sometimes does the task, seldom does the task or not at all jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare32 (canarias, 2005; and domingo, 2007). in this context, d. tilbury (1995), as cited also in j.e. dos santos et al. (2000), points out in the context of the eep (environmental education praxis), the involvement of the social actors, through responsibilities, will look for action and participation upon having an awareness, knowledge, and educative competencies (tilbury, 1995; and santos et al., 2000). the eap will help the students to be more aware of the condition of our environment (santos et al., 2000; and miranda, 2008). it will also encourage them to participate in different programs and activities that will deepen their environmental awareness and practices. the eap is composed of ten suggested programs and activities that aim to preserve the environment and deepen their environmental awareness and practices (barry, 1999; santos et al., 2000; and louka, 2006). the following are the suggested programs and activities included in the eap: (1) symposium of the seven eco-systems; (2) facebook environmental group; (3) househouse visitation for giving leaflets about the environment; (4) synchronized school clean-up drive; (5) a trip to clean the community; (6) recycle mania competition; (7) green day; (8) waste-free lunches; (9) green team; and (10) environmental fund campaign through making a product out of recyclable materials (santos et al., 2000; and enger & smith, 2013). please see again figure 1. literature review. l. sharmin (2003) conducted a study about the assessment of environmental awareness of the students with primary education; and revealed that they have a better awareness about safe water, safe sanitation practice, and importance of trees. the students are poorly aware about environmental pollution, like air, water, and soil pollution; and the problem with arsenic (sharmin, 2003). e. garcia (1997) has developed a scale to measure environmental awareness of college freshmen at the pnu (philippine normal university). one of his recommendations is that the instrument may be used for subsequent research directions on environmental awareness. further studies on environmental awareness, which include other variables, were also recommended (garcia, 1997). the instrument of eas (environmental awareness scale) by e. garcia (1997) was modified by j. canarias (2005). in his study, j. canarias measured the environmental awareness level of the selected second year high school students, which served as basis for development of lesson exemplars for teachers. his findings revealed that the modified environmental awareness scale may be used as a valid and reliable instrument in assessing the level of environmental awareness of his population (canarias, 2005). the last three items, in which the students were rated low, were included in the development of lesson exemplars for teachers. the study done by j. ato (2002) noted that there is a correlation between students’ knowledge and awareness, but none between knowledge and practices, and awareness and practices. she recommended that teachers and administrators should emphasize reuse, recycle, and refuse; and making of compost pits as good practices towards environmental care or as friendly practices. likewise, teachers should integrate more the value of advocacy for the environment in their subjects and teach students specific strategies for advocacy (ato, 2002). different environmental practices were given attention in the present study, which is also discussed in other studies. some of these studies were done by a. gallardo (2008) and j. norris (2013). the data gathered by a. gallardo (2008), in her study, imply low levels of implementation of segregation/collection, transportation, and storing waste was deduced from unanimous reactions among administration, the faculty members, and the students (gallardo (2008). as cited in the study made by j. norris (2013), the practices of students in terms of waste management practice is highest in terms of cleaning for improper waste disposal, immediately turning off faucets after using tap water for water conservation, and energy use and saving energy for energy conservation (norris, 2013). the present study relates with the aforementioned studies by j. ato (2002); educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 33 a. gallardo (2008); and j. norris (2013), in the sense that their study focused on the correlation of the environmental awareness and their participants’ practices. moreover, the study done by j. ato (2002), for example, relates with the present study, because the researcher recommended that reuse, recycle, and refuse as being part of a good practice was also be looked into (ato, 2002). the environmental practices cited by a. gallardo (2008) and j. norris (2013), in their studies, also correlate with the present study, because almost the same practices were also discussed by the researcher (gallardo, 2008; and norris, 2013). the deterioration of the global environment is such that it has reached a scale that encompasses the vital life support systems of the biosphere. scientists, educators, and policymakers, who have studied the environmental problems facing the world today, believe that the threat to the environment is extremely serious; and the majority agree that immediate action is needed (snow & benford, 1992; guzman et al., 2000). studies about environmental problems and environmental issues were also done in relation to environmental education. the study of m. mani (2006), for example, revealed that in the province of romblon, philippines, forest ecosystem ranked first on the seriousness of problems followed by coastal resources, fresh water system, land mineral, and human resources. in the distribution of local environmental problems, forest denudation was perceived as the number one problem followed by degradation of coral colonies, garbage, pollution, and poverty (mani, 2006). the study done by z. san felipe (2003) revealed that students have high level of awareness on environmental issues on forest resources, air, and general environmental issues; but they have moderate level of awareness on environmental issues on water resources. one of her recommendations was the exposure of the students to print and broadcast media to increase their awareness on environmental issues (felipe, 2003). the study of z. san felipe (2003) and m. mani (2006), whose studies focused on the environmental problems and issues, related with the present study (felipe, 2003; and mani, 2006). however, the present study encourages the use of social media, particularly facebook, in strengthening the environmental awareness of the students compared to the study of z. san felipe, which focused on print and broadcast media (felipe, 2003). based on the researches reviewed by the researcher, she gained insights on different environmental problems and practices as revealed in almost similar studies that have been undertaken. the researcher were able to come up with a study that will focus not only on awareness, but also on students’ environmental practices as basis for developing an advocacy program, which the other researchers were not able to focus in the studies that they have done. as cited in the journal of information policy, the concept of “advocacy” goes well beyond the notion of advocating for championing, or supporting a specific viewpoint, or cause (cf brown, 2000; and obar, zube & lampe, 2011). often applied in the political concept, the term suggests a systematic effort by specific actors, who aim to further to achieve specific policy or goals (obar, zube & lampe, 2011). the term “environmental advocacy” refers to a wide variety of careers, avocations, and activities. it includes work in certain forms of environmental law and environmental policy, careers with mainstream environmental groups, and participation in radical activist groups.2 advocacy program is a must in the school level. “greening” a school does not mean simply planting trees or keeping the campus clean. more than that, it means making the school an environmentally sustainable community, where concern for the environment is reflected in every operation, whether academic or administrative. the greening process may also be extended to include outreach work for adjacent communities and advocacy in local and 2see, for example, “environmental advocacy”. available online at: http://www.uwosh.edu/home [accessed in marikina city, philippines: october 13, 2013]. jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare34 national environmental issues (soriano, 1995; brown, 2000; and ofreneo, 2012). there are several studies done in the philippines, which aim to have an environmental advocacy program. one of it is the study done by n. paringit (2012), which cited that in order for the private companies which are manufacturing and selling “green” products, the researcher suggested to make their products more visible in the eye of the consumers, such as making commercials, brochures, paraphernalia’s, billboards, having a documentation of the products that they are selling and seeking for a help from the government to promote and support advocacy (paringit, 2012). the present study relates with the study done by n. paringit (2012), because it intends to develop an advocacy program after the level of awareness of the respondents are measured. in the study done by j. canarias (2005), his developed lesson exemplars for teachers answered the need of the teachers for resource materials in teaching second year high school students in doing the tasks of formulating solution, taking action and possessing a high degree of commitment, and advocacy on environmental conservation and protection (canarias, 2005). the present study is almost similar to the present study considering that the instrument used is a modification of the instrument used by j. canarias (2005), yet it is somewhat different in the year level of the respondents, in which the fourth year level high school was used instead of the second year level high school, which was used by j. canarias (2005) in his study. as cited in the study made by e. moralda (2003), her respondents’ environmental practices level can be used in coming up with interesting and varied programs of action and involvement for the resolution of problems, and issues related to the preservation of the integrity of creation (moralda, 2003). this study correlates with the present study, because one of its goals is to develop an advocacy program based on the level of awareness of the respondents. the study done by e. garcia (1997) made use of an environmental awareness scale instrument, which aimed to measure the level of awareness of the need of possessing a high degree of commitment, and advocacy to the environment which is in the part ii level of the instrument (garcia, 1997). the same environmental awareness scale was modified by j. canarias (2005) in his study, which was be also used in the present study with some modification in order to include the environmental problems and issues at present, and to suit the level of the chosen respondents in the study, which makes it different from the two aforementioned studies (canarias, 2005). the present study is distinguished from the studies reviewed above in the sense that attempted to come up with an advocacy program based on the level of environmental awareness and practices of the respondents. methods the descriptive method of research was used in this study, which looked into the environmental awareness and practices of the selected fourth year students (sevilla et al., 1984; babbie, 1999; and denzin & lincoln, 2003). the instrument of eas (environmental awareness scale) by j. canarias (2005) was modified to give emphasis on the environmental problems and issues evident at present (canarias, 2005). it was administered to two hundred sixty-two (262) out of seven hundred sixty-two (762) randomly selected fourth year high school students of santa elena high school in marikina city, the philippines, for school year 2013-2014, by using the slovin’s formula with 5% margin of error.3 statistical mean were gathered for each items in the eas and interpretations were given (calderon & gonzales, 1993; robottom & hart, 1993; and bailey, 2008). for level i of the environmental awareness scale: highly aware for weighted mean of 2.50-3.00; moderately aware for 1.50-2.49; slightly aware for 0.50-1.49; and not aware for 0.00-1.49. for level ii of the environmental awareness scale: always does the task for weighted mean 3see “slovin’s formula: what is it and when do i use it?”. available online at: http://www.statisticshowto.com/how-touse-slovins-formula/ [accessed in marikina city, philippines: august 4, 2015]. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(1) august 2016 © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare 35 of 2.50-3.00; sometimes does the task for 1.502.49; seldom does the task for 0.50-1.49; and not at all for 0.00-1.49. results and discussion the level of environmental awareness of the selected 4th year high school students. based from the data gathered from the instrument, the over-all weighted mean was 1.73, which signifies that the respondents were moderately aware of the knowledge of environmental/ state of the environment, which was revealed in sub-test i. it was supported by the result of the over-all weighted mean of sub-test ii, which gathered 1.80 signifies that the respondents were moderately aware of the knowledge of environmental issues/problems (cf codeniera, 2003; and canarias, 2005). the over-all weighted mean of sub-test i and ii of level i, which were gathered based from the responses in the modified eas (environmental awareness scale) were very close with each other with only 0.07 difference which proves that the respondents were moderately aware of the environmental concepts included in the instrument (cf canarias, 2005; and domingo, 2007). the students’ participation in environmental programs, based from the data gathered from the instrument, revealed that: first, recycling. an over-all weighted mean of 1.98 was computed, which signifies that the respondents sometimes do the task. the eas (environmental awareness scale) items pertaining to this activity include: using recycled materials in submitting projects in school instead of buying new one like folder and wrapper; things that can still be used are given to others instead of throwing or putting it in the storage; using leftover foods in compost pit; segregating things that can be sell in the junkshop or can be recycled; and discussing environmental matters like waste segregation and recycling in the family (cf ray, 1999; southwood, 1999; and mukherjee, 2012). second, tree planting and clean-up drive. an over-all weighted mean of 1.32 was computed, which signifies that the respondents seldom do the task. the responses about tree planting and clean-up drive is consists of five items, in which it focused on the following: to draw, write, and think of alternative solutions to the environmental problems in the community; participating in tree planting program to reduce air pollution; having self-initiative in keeping the surroundings clean by picking-up the trashes; participating in building a community garden; and participating in clean-up drive (cf cohen, 1993; bachelet et al., 2001; and betts, 2007). third, water and energy conservation. an over-all weighted mean of 2.15 was computed, which signifies that the respondents sometimes do the task related under these activities. the responses about water and energy conservation is consists of four items, in which it focused on the following: avoid wasting water by using glass, when brushing teeth and using basin when washing the dishes; turning-off the lights and electric fan inside the classroom if not in used; using solar flashlight and calculator; and supporting local programs on conservation through conserving electricity at home and in school (cf everts et al., 1996; fontanilla, 2003; primack, 2004; raven et al., 2010; and desa et al., 2013). fourth, school’s environmental club. an over-all weighted mean of 1.39 was computed, which signifies that the respondents seldom do the task of participating in this activity. the responses about sec (school’s environmental club) is consists of three items, in which it focused on the following: joining environmental organization in the school which aims to protect the environment like the yes-o club; persuading schools, churches, and libraries to conduct a talk about the environment; and having the initiative to keep the surroundings clean inside and outside the classroom without being told or seen (cf power, 2009; and alexander & britto, 2013). fifth, non-use of harmful products. an over-all weighted mean of 1.94 was computed, which signifies that the respondents sometimes do the task under this activity. the responses about non-use of harmful products is consists of four items, in which it focused on the following: avoidance of the use of plastic by bringing eco bag; jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare36 avoiding the use of non-biodegradable with harmful content products, like styrofoam; avoiding the use of soap with more than 0.5% of phosphate; and not using products with toxic ingredients, like styrofoam, hairsprays, and paint which is made up of oil (cf ball, 2002; and sengölge & vincenten, 2013). sixth, creative possible solution. an over-all weighted mean of 1.82 signifies that the respondents sometimes do the task regarding this activity. the responses about cps (creative possible solution) is consists of four items, in which it focused on the following: the need to formulate alternative solutions to avoid the things that will destroy the environment; weighing the advantages and disadvantages of harmful practices to the environment; judging what is useful or not in the environment; thinking of ways to protect the environment and to preserve the natural resources; and focusing on the cause of environmental problem through analyzing and acting on how to avoid it (cf cadiao, 2009; and brandon & lombardi, 2011). seventh, social media exposure. an over-all weighted mean of 1.57, which signifies that the respondents sometimes do the task. the responses about sme (social media exposure) is consists of four items, in which it focused on the following: having self-awareness through research about the environmental issues here and around the world through reading and watching news; helping the media to spread the environmental news through sharing and liking posts in facebook; having an interest in reading posts in the social media which is about the condition of the environment in order to have awareness and do the right thing to protect the environment; and writing letter to publication to bring environmental concerns to light (cf shrum, 2009; vega et al., 2009; and vonderen & kinnally, 2012). conclusion based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions are hereby drawn that the selected fourth year high school students manifested moderate awareness on the different concepts, issues, and problems of the environment. as an outcome of their awareness, students sometimes do the tasks, which pertain to recycling, water and energy conservation, non-use of harmful products, creative possible solution, and social media exposure. however, they seldom do the tasks of tree-planting, clean-up drive, and participating to school’s environmental club. the items in the eas (environmental awareness scale) with a low mean result with an interpretation of slightly aware under level i; and sometimes does the task as well as seldom does the task in level ii were the bases in developing an eap (environmental advocacy program). it is recommended that the teachers should strengthen the integration of environmental concepts, principles, and practices in various subjects in the high school level. the school should institutionalize different environmental programs and projects for students as well as the teachers to actively participate in. environmental programs and projects in the school and likewise in the community should be sustained through adequate funding, support of the teachers, and actively participation of various student organizations. the extent of students’ and teachers’ knowledge about the environmental concepts can also be measured and compared with their environmental practices. the students’ observation in the community’s environmental activities might be included to further elaborate the environmental practices not only in school and at home. an in-depth study to explore other factors that hinder the students in actively participating in environmental care can also be done for further research.4 references agarwal, g. & i. nangia. 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(2012). “media effects on body image: examining media exposure in the broader context of internal and other social factors” in american communication journal, volume 14, issue 2, spring. available online also at: http://ac-journal.org/journal/pubs/2012/ spring%202012/mckinnally3.pdf [accessed in marikina city, philippines: august 4, 2015]. jenny p. cruz, students’ environmental awareness and practices © 2016 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare40 environmental education in the philippines (source: http://www.philstar.com/good-news, 9/10/2015) the selected fourth year high school students in the philippines manifested moderate awareness on the different concepts, issues, and problems of the environment. as an outcome of their awareness, students sometimes do the tasks, which pertain to recycling, water and energy conservation, non-use of harmful products, creative possible solution, and social media exposure. however, they seldom do the tasks of tree-planting, clean-up drive, and participating to school’s environmental club. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 7© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the author: norshidah nordin is a lecturer at the faculty of education uitm (universiti teknologi mara), seksyen 17, 40200 shah alam, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via mobile phone at: +60133373410 or via e-mail at: shidah147@gmail.com how to cite this article? nordin, norshidah. (2014). “do academic leaders matters? a study on transformational leadership behavior in a higher learning institution” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.7-18. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/ do-academic-leaders-matters/ chronicle of the article: accepted (february 2, 2014); revised (april 25, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). strategic plan (2020) has expressed a vision to transform its academic institutions. thus, to realize this vision, developing leadership is one of the key elements in achieving the university agenda (sirat, ahmad & azman, 2012). in this sense, academic leaders such as the universities administrators, deans, academic coordinators, and even head of the programs played important roles in fostering a culture of excellence to attract the most able to motivate the existing academics. on the contrary, morshidi sirat, abdul razak ahmad & norzaini azman (2012) found that identifying and developing potential leaders is often inadequate. therefore, the leaders in the universities were often chosen by default that is neither they were trained to be leaders nor aware of performance expectations (heuer, 2003:740). hence, in bringing about a change event, introduction global trends have shown that higher learning institutions need to reform their mission and to better utilise their academia, in order to meet the challenges posed to higher education in the 21st century (wilkenson et al. eds., 2004). in this context, academic institutions, including malaysia, are progressively undergoing a process of innovation and institutional reform (sadeghi & lope pihie, 2012). nevertheless, in the process of transformation, j. ford & r. backoff (1988) stated the critical aspects that the institutions need to handle seriously are the issues of governance, management, and functioning of the organizations. given this juncture, in order for the higher learning institutions to remain relevant and competitive, the malaysian national higher norshidah nordin do academic leaders matters? a study on transformational leadership behavior in a higher learning institution abstract: the effects of globalization, advancement of information and communication technology, together with economic volatile situations have forced academic institutions to adapt to strategic changes, so that they could remain relevant and competitive advantages. hence, effective and efficient leadership behavior has become more critical than ever. previous studies showed that transformational leaders’ support is seemed to be an essential factor in promoting institutional success. however, to what extend this is true, especially in the local public universities. therefore, this study was intended to examine the nature of transformational leadership behavior and its augmentation effects as perceived by the academics in a malaysian higher educational institution. using a stage cluster sampling, a total of 169 academic staff from uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) in shah alam, selangor, malaysia participated in the study. the result revealed the academic staff perceived that their superiors exhibited a transactional leadership style rather than transformational leadership style. the study also revealed that augmentation of transformational leadership was moderate. hence, this study has several practical implications for policy makers and academic leaders in higher learning institutions to provide leadership program, particularly in making organizational change efforts successful. key words: leadership, globalization, transformational, transactional, effectiveness, extra-effort, higher learning institutions, and satisfaction. norshidah nordin, do academic leaders matters? 8 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com asma et al. noted that academic leaders need to know the values of their workforce and identify work habits which can strengthen or weaken change initiatives (cited in nordin, 2013). although, it is sheer from literature that leadership is the key to effective educational reform (hofstede, 1980; bass, 1998; and harker & sharma, 2000); it seems that leadership for managing transformation and change is imperative and critically needed. besides, previous studies showed that transformational leaders’ support is seemed to be an essential factor in promoting effective organization (bass & avolio, 1997; bass et al., 2003; and de cremer & van knippenberg, 2005). however, to what extend this is true, especially in the local public universities. the nature of transformational leadership behavior the original ideas of transformational and transactional leadership theory was first developed by j.m. burns (1978) based on political scenario; and later, b.m. bass (1985) refined this theory and introduced it into organizational context. nevertheless, b.m. bass (1995) and b.m. bass & b.j. avolio (1997) extended the theory of leadership that consists of transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, and augmentation effects. according to b.m. bass (1985), transactional leadership develops from the exchange process between leaders and subordinates, wherein the leader provides reward exchanges for subordinates’ performance. on the other hand, transformational leadership behaviors go beyond transactional leadership, and motivate followers to identify with the leaders’ vision and sacrifice their interest for that of the group or the organization. in addition, b.m. bass (1985) defines the transformational leaders as one who stimulates awareness and interest in the group or organization, increases the self-assurances and confidence of individuals or groups, and attempts to move the concerns of subordinates to achievement and growth rather than existence. these leaders search for new ways of working, seek opportunities, and prefer effectiveness to efficiency (cf lowe, kroeck & sivasubramaniam, 1996). b.m. bass (1985) again described transformational leadership behavior as having the following traits in table 1. on the other hand, by comparing transformational leadership behavior, b.m. bass (1985) described transactional leaders as one who prefers a leader member-exchange relationship, whereby the leader fulfils the needs of the followers in exchange for their performance meeting basic expectations. this leader has a preference for risk avoidance to allow them to achieve goals. b.m. bass & f.j. yammarino (1991) summarized several different types of behavior inherent in transactional leadership in table 2. transactional and transformational leadership are known to bring about great attention among many scholars in leadership studies. adopting either transformational or transactional leadership behavior helps in the success for the organization effectiveness (laojavichien, fredendall & cantrell, 2009). exclusively, both transformational leadership and transactional leadership assist in predicting subordinates’ satisfaction with their leaders (bennett, 2009). nevertheless, there were some instances where both factors do not contribute to satisfaction to subordinates and partly provide as explanatory variables. for example, certain studies found that it is the combination of the transactional leadership’s contingent rewards and the transformational leadership’s care for individual needs that contribute to a dynamic and contented workforce (chen, beck & amos, 2005). another research similarly concluded that the difficult intricacy of the work and job objectives can be best monitored and administered by the transactional leadership, while the transformational leadership allows such complex process to become less daunting and more acceptable (jansen, vera & crossan, 2009). on the transformational leadership behavior and gender. literature noted that higher education environment has only been begun to accommodate women in its classrooms, position of power, literature and language, and facilities (ingleton, 1995). nevertheless, r.g. lord, c.l. de vader & g.m. alliger (1986) asserted that relationship of masculinityeducare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 9© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com femininity is an important personality trait in forming leadership perceptions. studies related leadership behaviour and gender difference were numerous (gregory, 1990; bass & avolio, 1997; and anderson et al., 2006). for example, a study done by s. kawatra & v.r. krishnan (2004) found that feminine leadership enhances people-orientation, collaboration, and teamorientation; and reduces aggressiveness, competitiveness, and results-orientation. parallel, b.m. bass & b.j. avolio (1997) suggested that women managers, have more idealized influence, are more inspirational and individually considerate than men. men are higher in management-by-exception and laissezfaire leadership, both being less pro-active styles and linked to less effective outcomes. on the contrary, a study done by a.h. eagly & s.j. karau (1991) showed that male focused more on task-oriented aspects of group process than female; and women focused more on interpersonal aspects. however, a. gregory (1990) claimed that there was no difference between leadership style and gender. on the same note, t.w. kent et al. (2010) found that men and women leaders behave as leaders in the same way. in sum, many results related to leadership style and gender were inconsistent (karau & eagly, 1999; and kim & shim, 2003). however, there were studies looked at the specific behaviours employed by male and female, particularly in a local context. on the transformational leadership behavior and its effectiveness leadership outcomes. one of the essentials elements of leadership that provides toward leadership effectiveness is the style of the leaders (sadeghi & lope pihie, 2012). a leadership style is a relatively stable pattern or behavior display by leaders (eagly & johannesen-schmidt, 2001); while guiding employees at workplace towards organizational achieving goals (certo & certo, 2006). theories in transformational leadership, in particular, have highlighted the importance of leadership being able to cooperate with the leader towards collective goals and personal table 1: characteristics of transformational leadership behavior transformational leadership behavior characteristics charismatic behavior. leaders provide vision and a sense of vision, mission; instill pride and gain respect and trust. idealized influence. leaders behave as role models for their followers. they demonstrates high standards of ethical and moral conduct and avoids using power for personal gain. inspirational motivation. leaders are inspiring and motivating in the eyes of their subordinates by providing meaning and challenges to their followers’ work. intellectual stimulations. leader arouses in subordinates an awareness of problems, recognition of their beliefs and values, and an awareness of their own thoughts and imagination. individualized consideration. leaders give personal attention, treat each employee individually, and coach and advise him/her. table 2: characteristics of transactional leadership behavior transactional leadership behavior characteristics contingent reward. leaders provide reward are for good effort, good performance, and to recognize accomplishments. management by exception (active). leaders involve in monitoring subordinates and correcting actions, when necessary, to ensure that work is carried out effectively. management by exception (passive). leaders involve intervening only if standards are not deviations from acceptable performance standards. norshidah nordin, do academic leaders matters? 10 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com involvement in the job (burns, 1978; shamir, house & arthur, 1993; and bass, 1995). accordingly, identifying leader’s abilities to promote positive attitudes and behavior towards job and the organization may be of great importance to the effective functioning of the organizations (dirks & ferrin, 2002). hence, transformational leadership behavior has been judged to be important because of its connection with effective leaders. in this context, f. molero et al. (2007) stated that one of the main predictions of the model of b.m. bass (1985 and 1998) is termed as augmentation effect. t.a. judge & r.f. piccolo (2004) suggested that augmentation is something to amplify or extend. nonetheless, literature showed that this effect of transformational leadership increases the explanatory capacity of transactional leadership to predict followers’ satisfaction and achievement (waldman, bass & yammarino, 1990; avolio & howell, 1992; and jansen, vera & crossan, 2009). b.m. bass (1998) quoted also that transactions are at the base of transformations. in fact, transactional leadership results in followers meeting expectations, upon which their end of the bargain is fulfilled and they are rewarded accordingly. on the other hand, transformational leadership is required so that it could motivate employees to move beyond expectations. therefore, without the foundation of transactional leadership, transformational effects may not be possible (judge & piccolo, 2004). in sum, b.m. bass et al. (2003) suggested that transformational leaders are expected to enhance the performance capacity of their followers by setting higher expectations and generating a greater willingness to address more difficult challenges. transactional contingent reward leadership should also relate positively to performance in that such leaders clarify expectations and recognize achievements that positively contribute to higher levels of effort and performance. given this juncture, leaders who employ in transformational behavior could produce many positive outcomes. indeed, empirical evidence has suggested that the positive effect of transformational leadership on effectiveness and performance is connected to outcomes that most organizations, individuals, and leaders probably would value (judge & piccolo, 2004; and burke et al., 2006). hence, in this study, the augmentation effects of transformational leadership was proposed by b.m. bass (1995), which are individual extra effort, job satisfaction, and perceived unit effectiveness. extra effort is related to extra roles made by the subordinates to fulfill a task or goal, because of the leadership behavior of their superior. extra effort means going beyond expectation, where subordinates are willing to do more than the expectations set by the superiors. the element of unit effectiveness means the capability of the superior in executing their tasks and leading the subordinates to meet the goal of the division. the subordinate perceived that their leaders as effective to them and to the unit as well. job satisfaction represents subordinates satisfaction towards their superior in approaching their day to day job. b.m. bass (1995) explained that the dimensions involved in measuring job satisfaction are the methods used in leading and working with subordinates in a satisfactory manner. literature showed that there were strong correlations between scores on transformational leadership and extra effort (bycio, hackett & allen, 1995); and performance evaluations (hater & bass, 1988). besides, transformational leadership appears to produce higher performance at the group (sosik, avolio & kahai, 1997); and organization or business unit (howell & avolio, 1993) levels as well. as a result of these positive effects, transformational leaders should be rated as more effective by others in a position to observe their behavior. a study done by f. molero et al. (2007) revealed a positive relationship between transformational leadership and augmentation effects. however, r.p. vecchio, j.e. justin & c.l. pearce (2008) carried out a study and collected samples from 179 high school teachers and their principals were examined with hierarchical regression analysis. augmentation analysis indicated that transactional leadership had a stronger role in explaining unique criterion variance beyond the contribution of transformational educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 11© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com leadership, than did transformational leadership relative to transactional leadership. having much said about transformational leadership and its impact of organizational effectiveness and outcomes, conversely, little is known about preparing effective academic leadership in the contexts of higher educational institutions (bolman & deal, 1992). besides, according to p. trivellas & d. dargenidou (2009), leadership in higher learning settings is problematic due to dual systems, conflicts between professional and administrative authority, the unclear goals and other special properties of normative and professional organizations. nevertheless, academic leaders and departments play important roles in the success of institutions of higher education (coats, 2000). nonetheless, literature on leadership at higher educational institution is relatively small (bass, 1995), particularly in malaysian higher education institutions (lo, ramayah & de run, 2010). therefore, this study was intended to investigate the nature of leadership behavior exhibited by the superior as perceived by the academic staff in a higher learning institution. objective of the study and methods the objectives of the study were four-folds, namely to determine: (1) leadership behavior exhibit among the superior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm or universiti teknologi mara in shah alam, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia; (2) the differences between leadership behavior and gender; (3) the level effective leadership outcomes or augmentation effect of leadership behavior on academic staff of uitm; and (4) the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership behavior on leadership outcomes. this study employed a survey method using cross sectional research design. a self report questionnaire was used to gather information related to the objectives of the study. this study was based on a conceptual framework that combines part of the adapted theory of transformational leadership theory (bass, 1985). the perceived leadership behavior is reflected in the transformational leadership theory (bass, 1985). an instrument called the multifactor leadership style questionnaire (mlq-5x form) was developed from b.m. bass & b.j. avolio (1997); and used in the study. the instrument consisted of 45 items which measured the full-range of leadership styles and behaviors, namely transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and augmentation effect among the subordinates. the leaders’ behaviors depicted in each item were measured using 5-point scale, where 4 = “frequently, if not always”; 3 = “fairly often”; 2 = “sometimes”; 1 = “once in a while”; and 0 = “not at all”. the mlq is strongly predictive of leader performance (bass, 1995). the constructs of effective leadership outcomes in this study were measured using augmentation effects towards leadership behavior of the superior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) in shah alam, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. the augmentation effects were individual extra effort, job satisfaction, and leader effectiveness. sample items for each respective subscale would be, “uses method of leadership that is satisfying” and “gets me to more than i expected to do”, is effective in meeting my job-related needs. the samples were drawn from the academics of uitm from main and branch campuses of the malaysian peninsula. hence, using r.v. krejcie & d.w. morgan (1970)’s table, a sample size of 357 was determined. however, a total of 169 academics participated in this study. these academic staffs consist of 36% males and 64% females from difference disciplines. the mean age of the respondents was 38 years old. findings and discussions objective 1: analysis on the perceived leadership behavior exhibit by the superior of uitm. table 3 displays the transformational leadership behavior of the superior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) in shah alam, selangor darul ehsan, malaysia. the overall mean scores showed that the academic staff of uitm perceived that their superior exhibit a moderate transformational leadership behavior (m = 2.15, sd = 1.11). norshidah nordin, do academic leaders matters? 12 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 3: perceived transformational leadership behavior exhibit by the superior of uitm transformational leadership mean sd (standard deviation) idealized infl uenced (attributed): 1. instills pride in me for being associated with him/her 1.99 1.219 2. goes beyond self-interest for the good of the group 2.05 1.231 3. acts in ways that builds my respect 2.19 1.158 4. displays a sense of power 2.50 1.049 average mean scores 2.18 1.16 idealized infl uenced (behavior): 1. talks about him/her most important values and beliefs 2.11 1.134 2. specifies the importance of having a strong sense of purpose 2.22 1.093 3. considers the moral and ethical consequences of decisions 2.45 1.163 4. emphasize the importance of having collective sense of mission 2.27 1.091 average mean scores 2.26 1.12 inspirational motivation: 1. talks optimistically about the future 2.50 1.004 2. talks enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished 2.50 1.080 3. articulates a compelling vision of the future 2.44 1.061 4. expresses confidence that goals will be achieved 2.45 1.014 average mean score 2.47 1.03 intellectual stimulation: 1. re-examine critical assumptions to questions whether they are appropriate 1.87 .988 2. seeks differing perspectives when solving problems 2.22 1.050 3. gets me a look at problems from many different angles 2.02 1.132 4. suggests new ways of looking at how to complete assignments 1.46 1.219 average mean score 1.89 1.09 individual consideration: 1. spends time teaching and coaching 2.02 1.205 2. treats me as individual rather than just a member of a group 1.95 1.182 3. considers me as having differing needs, abilities and aspirations from others 1.88 1.127 4. helps me to develop my strengths 2.04 1.172 average mean score 1.97 1.17 overall average mean scores 2.15 1.11 mean indicator: low = 0 – 1.33; moderate = 1.34 – 267; and high = 2.68 – 4.00. the result showed that all the components in transformational leadership were moderate. however, the finding revealed that among the five dimensions of transformational leadership behavior, inspirational motivation had the highest mean score (m = 2.47, sd = 1.03); followed by idealized influenced behavior (m = 2.26, sd = 1.12); idealized influenced behavior (m = 2.18, sd = 1.16); and the least mean score intellectual stimulation (m = 1.89, sd = 1.09). this finding, as showed in table 3, suggests that the academic staff of uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) perceived that their superior to some extend are inspiring and motivating, providing meaning and challenges to their followers’ work. however, on the other end, they perceived that their leaders were lacked of innovation and creativity in leading their subordinates. further analysis was carried out to examine the nature of transactional leadership behavior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm as shown in table 4. table 4 demonstrates the transactional leadership behavior of the superior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 13© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 4: perceived transactional leadership behavior exhibit by the superior of uitm transactional leadership behavior mean sd (standard deviation)  contingent reward: 1. provides me with assistance in exchange for my effort 1.90 1.052 2. discuss in specific terms who is responsible for achieving performance targets 2.24 1.074 3. makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved 2.14 1.109 4. expresses satisfaction when i meet expectation 2.27 1.187 average mean score 2.13 1.105 management by exception (active): 1. focuses attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions and deviations from standards 1.98 1.160 2. concentrate his/her full attention on dealing with mistake, complaints and failures 2.37 1.135 3. keep tracks of all mistake 2.26 1.131 4. directs my attention towards failures to meet standard 2.33 1.078 average mean score 2.23 1.12 management by exception (passive): 1. fails to interfere until problems become serious 1.50 1.130 2. waits for things to go wrong before taking action 1.50 1.256 3. shows that he /she is firm believe in ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it 1.51 1.169 4. demonstrates that problems must become chronic before taking action 2.19 1.158 average mean score 1.52 1.17 overall mean scores 2.28 1.13 mean indicator: low = 0 – 1.33; moderate = 1.34 – 267; and high = 2.68 – 4.00. (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology). the findings showed that all dimensions in the transactional components mean scores were moderate. however, the result illustrates that dimension of management by exception (active) has the highest mean score (m = 2.23, sd = 1.12). on the other hand, the least mean score was management by exception passive (m = 1.52, sd = 1.17). this result suggests that the respondents perceived that their leaders watch closely for mistakes, take corrective action before the subordinates make severe error to happen (judge & piccolo, 2004; and northouse, 2007). this study also supports the study done by amir sadeghi & zaidatol akmaliah lope pihie (2012). nevertheless, the overall mean score showed that academic staff of uitm perceived that their leaders were slightly more towards transactional leadership behavior (m = 2.28, sd = 1.13) as compared to transformational leadership behavior (m = 2.15, sd = 1.11). in other words, this study reflects that the respondents perceived that their leaders clarify followers’ responsibilities, performances objectives, and their tasks must be completed (epitropaki & martin, 2005). objective 2: analysis on the differences between leadership behavior and gender. based on the independent t-test shown in table 5, there was no significant differences in leadership behavior base on respondents’ place of hometown; where transformational leaders (t = .892, p = 0.374) and transactional leaders (t = -.1298, p = .196). therefore, the result indicates that gender, i.e. whether the females or males, do not show any significant effect on leadership behavior. this study is parallel to research done by a. gregory (1990). objective 3: analysis on the level of effective leadership outcomes among the academic staff. table 6 showed the distribution of mean scores for leadership outcomes (augmentation effects) towards the leadership style of respondents’ immediate superior. in term of augmentation norshidah nordin, do academic leaders matters? 14 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com effect by extra effort by subordinates, the result depicts that the overall mean score were average (m = 2.08, sd = 1.13). the highest mean score in this dimension was item number 3, “increases my willingness to try harder” (m = 2.17, sd = 1.130). in term of augmentation effect by superior effectiveness, the finding showed that the overall scores was moderate (m =2.15, sd = 1.116). the highest mean score in this dimension state as superior is effective in meeting organizational requirements (m = 2.35, sd = 1.083). nevertheless, the overall mean scores for subordinates also showed a moderate value (m = 2.20, sd = 1.138). the highest mean score in this dimension stated that “superior works with me in satisfactory way” (m = 2.26, sd = 1.108). hence, overall finding depict that mean scores on all the augmentation effects, namely: extra effort (m = 2.08, sd = 01.13); table 5: independent t-test between leadership behavior and gender n mean sd t df p transformational: male 61 2.2572 .83105 .892 166 .374 female 107 2.1417 .79285 transaction: male 61 2.2062 .52538 -1.298 166 .196 female 107 2.32207 .56363 table 6: the level of effective leadership outcomes augmentation effects by mean sd (standard deviation extra effort by subordinates: 1. gets me to more than i expected to do 1.97 1.150 2. heightens my desire to succeed 2.11 1.148 3. increases my willingness to try harder 2.17 1.130 average mean score 2.08 1.13 superior effectiveness: 1. is effective in meeting my job-related needs? 2.16 1.046 2. is effective in representing me to higher authority? 1.87 1.183 3. is effective in meeting organizational requirements? 2.35 1.083 4. leads group that is effective 2.23 1.158 average mean score 2.15 1.116 subordinate satisfaction: 1.uses methods of leadership that are satisfying 2.15 1.168 2.works with me in satisfactory way 2.26 1.108 average mean scores 2.20 1.138 mean indicators: low = 0 – 1.33; moderate = 1.34 – 2.67; and high = 2.68 – 4.00. leaders’ effectiveness (m = 2.15, sd = 1.116); and satisfaction (m = 2.20, sd = 0.1.138) were at moderate level. the findings are consistent with the study done by amir sadeghi & zaidatol akmaliah lope pihie (2012). the result suggests that the leadership behavior exhibited by the superior of uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) have not reached the specifications of ideal leaders. objective 4: analysis on the relationship between leadership behaviors on leadership outcomes. table 7 shows the value of correlation coefficient between leadership behavior and effective leadership outcomes which were extra effort, leader effectiveness, and satisfaction. the results showed that there was a positive and high relationships between extra effort (r = 0.807, p = 0.00); effectiveness (r = 0.853); satisfaction (r = 0.833, p = 0.00) on educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 15© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com leadership behavior. this study is in line with the research carried out by t.a. judge & r.f. piccolo (2004). the result suggests that augmentation effects of transformational leadership tend to provide ultimate satisfaction, foster inspiration, and excitement to put extra effort among subordinates. this study was intended to investigate the nature of leadership behavior of the superior as perceived by the academic staff of uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology). the finding suggested that the respondents perceived their superiors as showing moderate transformational and transactional leadership behavior. nonetheless, it is indeed empirically proven that leadership does matters. in fact, some characteristic of transformational leadership, such as idealizes influence (charisma), individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation were moderately exhibited among the superior academic leaders in uitm. this finding suggests that academic leaders of uitm have the tendency to elevate the desires of followers for achievement and self-development, while also promoting the development of groups and organizations (bass & avolio, 1997). however, the result showed that these academic leaders were lacking in intellectual stimulating and individual consideration. therefore, b.m. bass & b.j. avolio (1997) suggested again that one of the ways to obtain effective transformational leadership behavior is to train them early in their careers and provide retaining at the later career stages. another interesting scenario is, that the data revealed, that the mean score of transactional leadership style was slightly higher than the mean score of transformational leadership style indicating that the academic staff perceived that their superiors exhibited a transactional leadership style rather than transformational leadership style. therefore, it can be inferred that the leaders were perceived more as motivating followers primarily with management by exception (active) and contingent-reward based exchanges. in this sense, the leaders were perceived to be task-oriented rather than developing a closer relationship between leaders and followers. subsequently, u.d. jogulu (2010) asserted that the emergence of transactional leadership in the malaysian context underscores the acceptance of a paternalistic style of a leader-subordinate relationship which is culture-specific. in this sense, the managers feel comfortable in leading in a transactional manner by being more directive or setting clear limits and expectations to their followers because of the identified societal value of “paternalism”. this contention supports other empirical studies of s.g. redding (1990) and a. abdullah (2001), where paternalistic leadership is perceived positively. nevertheless, it is indeed interesting to find that academics of uitm perceived leadership behavior of their superior have profound impact on effective leadership outcome, namely: extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. this finding is consistent with previous studies, for examples from j.m. howell & b.j. avolio (1993); t.a. judge & r.f. piccolo (2004); and f. molero et al. (2007). on that note, it is suggested that exhibiting both transactional and transformational is equally important because both types of leadership behavior somewhat have significant impact on leadership outcomes. in fact, b.m. bass (1985) claimed that transformational leadership does not detract from transactional, rather it builds on it, broadening the effects of the leaders on effort and performance. table 7: correlation coefficient between leadership behavior and leadership outcomes leadership behavior p-value extra effort 0.807 0.00 leaders effectiveness 0.853 0.00 subordinate satisfaction 0.833 0.00 norshidah nordin, do academic leaders matters? 16 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com conclusion hence, based from the findings, several conclusions could be highlighted as below: first, the academic staff perceived that their superior exhibit both moderate transformational and transactional leadership behavior. however, the mean score showed that the academic leader portray a more transactional leadership behavior as compared to transformational leadership. second, the levels of augmentation effects of leadership behavior were moderate on extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction of the academic staff. third, there was no significant differences between leadership behavior and gender. fourth, there were significant relationships between leadership behavior on leadership outcomes. thus, the findings of this study have several practical implications to the academic leaders, deans, and managers of higher learning institutions. first, given the role in public educational institutions which include governance issues and political sensitivity, many public academic leaders appear to be mere conduits for external requirements rather than providers of a sense of direction and purpose for staff. hence, there is a critical need for strong academic leaderships that could set its mission, values, direction, and maintain a clear focus on the goal, especially to make the change efforts successful. in this line, transformational leadership behavior is useful, because of their ability to assist group members to realign their personal values according to their transformational leader’s vision and goals, which creates strong values of internalization, cooperation, and congruence among followers (shamir, house & arthur, 1993; shamir, 1995; beer & nohria, 2000; and jung & avolio, 2000). second, the result of this study indicated that in generating both systems wide change and alteration of subordinates performance and satisfaction, the organization need both transformational and transactional leadership style. thus, in this context, transformational and transactional style as proposed by b.m. bass & b.j. avolio (1997) could be used in relation to ability and willingness of subordinates to perform the assigned tasks. besides, academic leaders also need leadership skills and abilities to lead towards academic and research excellence. to this end, uitm (universiti teknologi mara or mara university of technology) or any other organizations in malaysia need to provide training and on the job experiences as part of their effort to develop their academic leaders and managers. one of the training courses that could be considered is leadership development program. the goal of the program is to prepare and encourage leaders to act more effectively in the leadership situations they face. besides, the leadership program should help the participants becomes more intellectually stimulated, inspire motivation, individual considerations and charisma. this nature of leadership development program is very much needed by organizations in order to compete in a turbulent and uncertain environment. although the results are encouraging, the present study also has some limitations. this study has focused on only one organization that is uitm. it is important to take into consideration that uitm, in its own way, is unique from other learning institutions in terms of its vision, mission, structure, communication systems, and management style. besides, the study has only focused on academic staff. thus, a larger sample of employees would have allowed for more accurate results and increase confidence and generalizability. references abdullah, a. 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(2004). performance management of academic staff in south african higher education: a developmental research project. bloemfontein: centre for higher education studies and development, university of the free state. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 161 minh-quang duong is a lecturer at the faculty of education, university of social sciences and humanities vnu-hcm (vietnam national university of ho chi minh city) in vietnam; and currently as ph.d. student at the department of educational policy and administration ncnu (national chi nan university) in taiwan (roc). e-mail: flowerfour84_dl@yahoo.com the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy of vietnamese university students: a case study of vietnam national university – ho chi minh city minh-quang duong abstract: the literature shows that curriculum has a profound effect on student achievement and plays a crucial role in enhancing students’ problem-solving efficacy. meanwhile, problemsolving is a cognitive process. problem-solving is such an important competence that it focuses on its students becoming effective problem solvers by applying logical, critical, and creative thinking to a range of problems. problem-solving can provide the site for learning new concepts and for practicing learned skills. this study was conducted to explore the relationship between academic learning and problem-solving efficacy in vietnamese university students. the study used a questionnaire to survey with 700 students from five member universities at vietnam national university of ho chi minh city. results of this study indicate that vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy was in the range of “average” to “high” response. there were significant differences in problem-solving efficacy among students at the five universities. the study also found that vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy is significantly influenced by their backgrounds and academic learning. key words: academic learning, problem-solving efficacy, cognitive process, and vietnamese university students. introduction higher education in vietnam has gradually improved in terms of number and types of institutions and forms of training, in order to meet the needs of the socio-economic development. one of the objectives of higher education in vietnam is to improve students’ practical competencies (nasrv, 2005). developing student competencies has been increasingly emphasized in the process of setting educational objectives as well as designing curriculum and learning materials in vietnamese higher education (nguyen, 2009). however, higher education is now facing big challenges: the government no longer controls higher education institutions and is not able to facilitate or promote improvement of training quality in the system as a whole. minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 162 student quality in vietnamese higher education is an important problem. the results study of a.t. tran (2009) and b. luong (2010) found that 50% of graduates from universities and 60% of graduates from vocational education and colleges have to be retrained. when surveyed students from universities in ho chi minh city said that they only have 25% of the skills, they need 54% said that they can work in a group setting, and 45% said they have good communication skills (luong, 2010). problem-solving is also a cognitive process. it is important because it helps students become effective problem solvers by applying logical, critical, and creative thinking to a range of problems (wilson, 1993). problem-solving can provide the site for learning new concepts and for practicing learned skills (kilpatrick, swafford & findell, 2001). educators should not only focus on teaching students established knowledge they most learn, but also teach students how to think and solve new problems. the development of problem-solving competence is, therefore, an important mission for faculty to develop for their students (pajares & kranzler, 1995). educational systems at all levels from elementary schools to professional institutions impart knowledge and teach cognitive skills; and all consider problemsolving competence to be one of the most important (frederiksen, 1984). d.v. pavesic (1991) and d. breiter and c. clements (1996) emphasized the importance of problem-solving competence as the key focus of future curriculums and consider it the heart of learning (see also schommer-aikins, duell & hutter, 2005). the development and the use of problem-solving efficacy also can improve learning. according to a.d. rossman (1993), when students use problem-solving competence, the role of the student changes from a passive recipient of information to a participant in the creation of understanding. thus, the literature encourages the development of problem-solving competence as necessary for career success (gustin, 2001; and zekeri, 2004). despite the elaboration of the importance of problem-solving efficacy to university students in previously stated research, there has not yet been much research into the problem-solving efficacy of vietnamese university students. according to d.r. sadler (1983), academic learning is a process. academic learning occurs when a student knows what is to be achieved, works out ways of doing it, and can tell when progress is being made. if academic learning is to take place, this state of affairs implies a dual role for the teacher: helping the student develop concepts of excellence and skills, and strategies to achieve it. academic learning also involves more complex activities, including problem solving, reasoning, and the understanding of complex intellectual and scientific principles (geary, 2001). problem-solving efficacy has become the means to rejoin content and application in a learning environment for basic skills and their application in various contexts. today, there is a strong movement in education to incorporate problem-solving as a key component of the curriculum. a key element to emerge from the secretary’s commission on achieving necessary skills report was that “teaching should be offered educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 163 in context, and students should learn content while solving realistic problems” (krikley, 2003). in quality assurance terms, learning outcomes and theoretical knowledge in the curriculum need to be demonstrably connected to practical competences, including problem-solving competence (shakespeare & hutchinson, 2007). this study uses a.w. astin’s input-environment-outcome (i-e-o) model to analyze how student experiences during the university affect their problem-solving efficacy. in the i-e-o model: input refers to student characteristics at the time of university entry; environment refers to institutional interventions, including educational programs and student experiences; and outcome refers to student achievement, development, and growth (astin, 1991; and pascarella & terenzini, 2005). unfortunately, there has not yet been much research into the problem-solving efficacy of vietnamese university students. thus, this study was conducted to explore the relationship between academic learning and problem-solving efficacy of vietnamese university students. specifically, this study examines three research questions: (1) how good is vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy in general? (2) do significant differences in problem-solving efficacy exist among students at different universities? (3) how is vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy affected by their backgrounds and academic learning experiences? the results of this study will be useful to administrators and faculty in vietnam national universityho chi minh city; the study will also help fill the gap in the literature on vietnamese university student problem-solving efficacy development.1 method dependent and independent variables. problem-solving efficacy is the dependent variable in this study. it consists of four items, namely: (1) data analysis competence; (2) critical thinking competence; (3) present solution competence; and (4) generate innovation competence. in this study, factor analysis and internal consistency analysis (cronbach’s alpha) were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of this constructed measurement for student competence. the selected criterions are: (1) factor loading ≥ 0.6, eigenvalues ≥ 1, cumulative explanation ≥ 0.6 or 60%, item-total correlation ≥ 0.5, and coefficient alpha ≥ 0.6 (hair et al., 2006). factor analysis was performed to ensure the validity of the construct (dependent variable). table 1 shows the result of factor analysis. 1acknowledgment: i would like to acknowledge my sincere gratitude to the anonymous, proofreader, and institutors for their kindness, support, assistance, valuable advice, synthesized comments on revision, and detailed editing throughout; and to the reviewers for their constructive criticism and edits. minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 164 table 1: factor analysis result of the four elements constructing students’ problem-solving efficacy in the study variable factor loading eigenvalues cumulative explanation item-to-total correlation cronbach’s alpha 1. data analysis: ques tion: “how is the data analysis competence of your problem?” on 5-points scale, where 1 = very low, and 5 = very high. 0.734 2.560 63.991 0.547 0.810 2. critical thinking: question: “how is the criti cal thinking competence of your problem?” on 5-points scale, where 1 = very low, and 5 = very high. 0.829 0.666 3. present solution: ques tion: “how is the present solution competence of your problem?” on 5-points scale, where 1 = very low, and 5 = very high. 0.855 0.710 4. generate innovation: question: “how is the gener ate innovation competence of your problem?” on 5-points scale, where 1 = very low, and 5 = very high. 0.776 0.593 note: data were analyzed with principle component analysis. the independent variables of this study include four blocks of student academic learning (see table 2). the first block is student background, including gender, class ranking, and family income. the second block is teaching approach, including oneway instruction, group discussion, and multimedia. the third block is curriculum emphasis, including memory emphasis, integration emphasis, and application emphasis. the fourth block is learning engagement, including frequency of library use, time spent on course work per week, levels of involvement in class activities, and frequency of teacher consultation. they survey consisted of a series of questions using a 5-point likert scale. sample. this study selected a random sample of was 700 students out of 47,742 students in five universities at vietnam national university of ho chi minh city (vnu-hcm), namely 253 students at the university of technology (37.9% female students), 169 students at the university of social sciences and humanities (61% female students), 101 students at the university of economics and law (45.6% female students), 34 students at the university of information technology (29.4% female students), and 143 students at the university of science (46.85% female students). participants in this study were third year full-time students who were educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 165 studying on campus. according to y. huang and s.m. chang (2004), third year students are considered the best population for observing student involvement and development at the university. table 2: questionnaire items and coding schemes for independent variables questionnaire items coding schemes 1. student background: gender -on a 2-point scale, where 0 = female, 1 = male class ranking at university, have you ever stood on the top third of your class? on a 2-point scale, where 0 = no, 1 = yes family income how much is your annual family income? on a 6-point scale, where 1 = under 20,000,000 vnd and 6 = over 60,000,000 vnd (1usd is roughly equivalent to 20,000 vnd) 2. teaching approach: one-way instruction how often does your teacher use the one-way instruction? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = never, and 5 = always group discussion how often does your teacher use the group discussion method? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = never, and 5 = always multimedia how often does your teacher use multimedia in teaching? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = never, and 5 = always 3. curriculum emphasis: memory emphasis how do the academic subjects emphasize your memory capacity? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = very weak, and 5 = very strong integration emphasis how do the academic subjects emphasize your integration capacity? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = very weak, and 5 = very strong application emphasis how do the academic subjects emphasize your application capacity? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = very weak, and 5 = very strong 4. learning engagement: frequency of library use how often do you go to the library? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = never, and 5 = always time spent on course work per week hours a student spent on course work per week levels of involvement in class activities how often do you actively participate in classroom activities such as discussions or posing question? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = never, and 5 = always frequency of teacher consultation how willing are you to ask for your teacher’s consultation about academic related questions as well as daily issues? on a 5-point scale, where 1 = very weak, and 5 = very strong minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 166 data gathering procedure design. a questionnaire survey was used to gather data in this study. after the questionnaire draft was designed, this study performed a two-stage preliminary survey to ensure the respondents’ understanding of the survey questions (stage 1 of preliminary survey), then to examine the feasibility of the survey design (stage 2 of preliminary survey). the writer personally distributed the questionnaire to the students. before distributing the questionnaire, a guideline was read to the students, explaining the following points: (1) the purpose of the study; (2) a request for students not to write their name on the questionnaire; (3) assurance that questionnaires would not be handled or reviewed by any other person; (4) further assurance that the completed questionnaires would be analyzed for research purpose only; and (5) all personal information remains confidential. there was no time limit for students to answer the questionnaire. data analysis method. this study used spss 13.0 software to process the data. the statistical method was employed to answer three research questions. descriptive analysis was used to answer the first research question of “how good is vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy in general?”; analysis of variance (anova) was used to answer the second research question of “do significant differences in problem-solving efficacy exist among students at different universities?”; and multiple regression method was used to answer the third research question of “how is vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy affected by their backgrounds and curriculum learning experiences?”. results and discussion first, vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy in general. as shown in table 3, vietnamese university students’ average problem-solving efficacy (m = 3.41, sd = 0.55) was located within the range from “average” (point 3) to “high” (point 4) in the 5-point likert’s scale employed in the questionnaire. table 3: means and standard deviations of university students’ problem-solving efficacy among five universities universities m sd average of five universities: 3.41 0.55 university of technology 3.51 0.50 university of social sciences and humanities 3.45 0.54 university of information technology 3.06 0.55 university of science 3.25 0.59 university of economics and law 3.41 0.55 the results of this study are different from the previous studies of moet [ministry of education and training] vietnam (2001); t.l.h. nguyen (2005); educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 167 t.j. vallely and b. wilkinson (2008); and b. luong (2010) which showed that vietnamese university students are weak in problem-solving efficacy. these studies were based on large scale surveys, including public and private universities. the current study, however, was conducted with students of vnu-hcm (vietnam national university of ho chi minh city) as its subject. vnu-hcm is a system of prestigious public universities in vietnam. the difference between the current study and previous ones is probably due to the sample examined in the study, which consists of better students. however, both this study and the previous ones have found that the problem-solving efficacy of vietnamese university students is unsatisfactory. problem-solving is important for students to become effective problem solvers in their professions (wilson, 1993; and hamza & griffith, 2006) and for later career success (gustin, 2001; and froman, 2002). thus, the vietnamese government should invest more resources in enhancing the problem-solving efficacy of all students in desiging instructional programs. second, the differences of problem-solving efficacy among students in universities. for students at the five campuses of vnu-hcm (vietnam national university of ho chi minh city), the results of table 4 show that students at the university of technology had the highest problem-solving efficacy (m = 3.51, sd = 0.50), and students at the university of information technology had the lowest problem-solving efficacy (m = 3.06, sd = 0.55). the results of post-hoc comparisons showed siginificant differences in problemsolving efficacy for students at the five universities (f = 9.362, p < 0.001). these comparisons indicated that students at the five universities can be categorized into two groups: high level of problem-solving efficacy of students in the universities of technology, social sciences and humanities, and economics and law; and low level of problem-solving efficacy of students at the university of information technology and the university of science. within the two groups, there was no significant difference in students’ problem-solving efficacy. table 4: anova results of students’ problem-solving efficacy in the five universities of vnu-hcm universities m sd f sig. post-hoc comparisons 1. university of technology 3.51 0.50 9.362 .000 (1,2,5) > (3,4) 2. university of social sciences and humanities 3.45 0.54 3. university of information technology 3.06 0.55 4. university of science 3.25 0.59 5. university of economics and law 3.41 0.55 this study compared five different universities at the vnu-hcm, representing five different academic disciplines. there is little empirical research on the minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 168 relationship between academic disciplines and problem-solving efficacy for students in vietnam or even for student in other parts of the world. the results of this study, thus, cannot be compared to the results of previous studies. further, research about the relationship between academic disciplines and problem-solving efficacy of students can help fill this gap in the literature. third, students’ problem-solving efficacy verses student background, teaching approach, curriculum emphasis, and learning engagement. for the whole sample, the results of table 5 indicated that the regression model proposed by this study explained 17.5% of vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy (r2 = 0.045 to 0.406). however, the regression model had rather different explanatory power for students’ problem-solving efficacy in the five universities. table 5: regression analysis results among the dependent variable and independent variables at the whole sample and each university variable the whole sample ut ussh uit us uel beta (β) 1. student background: gender 0.069* 0.153* class ranking 0.124** 0.222** family income 0.102** 0.188* 2. teaching approach: one-way instruction 0.071* 0.311*** group discussion multimedia -0.409* 3. curriculum emphasis: memory emphasis integration emphasis 0.144*** 0.247** application emphasis 4. learning engagement: levels of involvement in class activities 0.162*** 0.169* 0.205* 0.237* frequency of library use time spent on course work per week 0.107** 0.141* frequency of teacher consultation 0.088* 0.223** adjusted r2 0.175 0.045 0.212 0.406 0.117 0.230 note. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. at the university of technology (ut), the results showed that levels of involvement in class activities (β = 0.169, p < 0.05) and time spent on course work (β = 0.141, p < 0.05) significantly benefited students’ problem-solving efficacy (r2 = educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 169 0.045). at the university of social sciences and humanities (ussh), all three items of student’s backgrounds of gender (β = 0.153, p < 0.05), class ranking (β = 0.222, p < 0.01), and family income (β = 0.188, p < 0.05), as well as curriculum emphasizing integration (β = 0.247, p < 0.01) significantly correlated student’s problem-solving efficacy (r2 = 0.212). at the university of information technology (uit), teaching approach of employing multimedia (β = -0.409, p < 0.05) significantly hindered students’ problem-solving efficacy (r2 = 0.406). at the university of science (us), involvement in class activities (β = 0.205, p < 0.05) and frequency of consulting teacher (β = 0.223, p < 0.01) significantly empowered students’ problem-solving efficacy (r2 = 0.117). at the university of economics and law (uel), teaching approach of one-way instruction (β = 0.311, p < 0.001) and involvement in class activities (β = 0.237, p < 0.05) significantly enhanced on student’s problem-solving efficacy (r2 = 0.230). no other independent variable correlated with students’ problem-solving efficacy. vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy is significantly influenced by their backgrounds and academic learning. there are different affecting variables at different universities. based on these differences, universities should design interventions to enhance students’ problem-solving efficacy. as an example, university of social sciences and humanities may very well consider curriculum emphasizing integration, and university of information technology may want to avoid a teaching approach employing multimedia. the only variable across the universities is student involvement in class activities. in this study, involvement in class activities significantly affects the problemsolving efficacy of students at three universities, namely university of technology, university of science, and university of economics and law. the research of s.t. bossert (1988) showed that student involvement in class activities promoted student performances. specifically, recent meta-analyses suggested that student involvement in class activities benefited students at all age levels, of all subject areas, and for a wide rage of tasks, such as those involving problem-solving efficacy (johnson, johnson & maruyama, 1983; slavin, 1983; and astin, 1991). in each university, in order to make a policy for the instructional programs and to select a teaching method or to evaluate the studying result of the student, experts or the program makers of vnu-hcm (vietnam national university of ho chi minh city) should be notably concerned about this factor. if we must decide a universal intervention to enhance problem-solving efficacy of students across the universities in vietnam, it might very well be student involvement in class activities. conclusion the study found that vietnamese university students’ problem-solving efficacy was below high. meanwhile, vnu-hcm (vietnam national university of ho chi minh city) is expected to serve as vietnam’s premier institution of higher education, to reach national and international levels of excellence in education, and to contribute minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 170 to the socio-economic development of the entire country (vnu-hcm, 2009). thus, administrators, faculty, and scientists at vnu-hcm should pay special attention to enhancing their students’ problem-solving 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(2004). “college curriculum competencies and skills former students found essential to their carrers” in college student journal. minh-quang duong, the effects of academic learning on problem-solving efficacy 172 one of the students’ activities in the vietnam universities (source: photo album of minh-quang duong, 10/10/2012) higher education in vietnam has gradually improved in terms of number and types of institutions and forms of training, in order to meet the needs of the socio-economic development. one of the objectives of higher education in vietnam is to improve students’ practical competencies. educare 5-2 2013.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 117 musa matovu is a ph.d. candidate at the institute of education iium (international islamic university of malaysia), gombak campus, p.o. box 10, 50728 kuala lumpur, malaysia; and also a lecturer at the faculty of education iu (islamic university) in uganda. he can be contacted via his e-mail address at: matovumousa@yahoo.com education dualism and secularism: an integrated education approach to the education system in uganda musa matovu abstract: dualism in education is not good for muslim education and an integrated curriculum should be opted in order to resist secularism in muslim communities. the purpose of this paper was to underscore the rapid spread of secularism and the acceptance of education dualism in the muslim education in uganda. this paper gives a detailed explanation of education dualism and secularism in muslim communities, most especially in uganda. the paper also discloses that integration of the curriculum (“modern” and religious knowledge) is overdue to improve on the muslim education in the country. with the use of document analysis method, this paper explicates secularism and education dualism, and also mentions on how they have penetrated and been accepted by the ugandan muslims community without scrutiny. this paper discloses the challenges of education dualism and secularism in the muslim education which have led to muslims’ intellectual, cultural, and social divergences from al-qur’an and al-sunnah in their education systems and practices. also the paper proposes the possible solutions on how to exterminate education dualism and secularism from the muslim education and communities in uganda. in general, the scene of explanation of secularism and education dualism in muslim communities in this paper was based on the ugandan experiences. key words: education dualism, secularism, integration, ugandan muslims community, and challenges and solutions. introduction education is a process of infusing something into human beings to make them productive and to live happy life in their societies (al-attas, 1980; and lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). the knowledge acquired by human beings through education helps to direct them into a proper path through their life expeditions. this is because “good” education has the ability to shove human being into better persons if it is well blended with islamic values (abu sulayman, 1988 and 1994a; and lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). the supremacy of education to change human beings positively has made education important since the inception of islam (al-alwani, 1995). education in islam is derived from the first revelation to prophet muhammad pbuh (peace be upon him) in surat al-alaq where allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala) musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 118 commanded the prophet muhammad pbuh to read in order to combat illiteracy. the epistemology of education to human beings is patently pronounced in alqur’an in surat al-alaq in which allah swt says: proclaim! recite in the name of your lord who created. created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood. proclaim! recite and your lord is most generous. he who taught by the pen (al-qur’an al-karim, 2007, 96:1-4). dualism in education the most noteworthy studies in muslim education today are geared towards eradicating education dualism from the muslim education systems (al-faruqi, 1982 and 1988; abu sulayman, 1994a and 1994b; al-alwani, 1995; allawi, 2009; haneef, 2009; and siddiqi, 2011). dualism is a situation of being in doubles or pairs. education dualism is referred to as a situation where we have two different education systems in teaching students in schools (al-faruqi, 1988; nasr, 1992; and al-attas, 1993). education dualism might comprise of science and non-science or religious and modern education among others. in education dualism, the different education systems are conducted parallel to one another (al-attas, 1993). in current education system in uganda, dual education exists in terms of the religious and modern education or naqli/al-din and aql/dun’ya respectively (rahman, 1988; al-attas, 1993; and khalil, 1995). in dual education systems, the islamic education (al-din) focuses only on the religious knowledge with less emphasis on modern or worldly (dun’ya) knowledge. on the other hand, modern education greatly focuses on worldly (dun’ya) knowledge and less or no emphasis on religious (din) knowledge (lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009; and peter, hamzah & udin, 2011). according to islam, the separation of religious (din) knowledge from modern or worldly (dun’ya) knowledge is not allowed because modern knowledge is just part of the religious knowledge (al-faruqi, 1982; abu sulayman, 1994a; and sikand, 2009). modern knowledge should be taught along with religious knowledge because in islam, al-qur’an is the most reliable source for all kinds of knowledge and authentic guidance for scholars in all fields of modern knowledge. according to islam, all knowledge in the universe is subservient of the revelation (rahman, 1988; al-alwani & khalil, 1991; and lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). the religious knowledge gives modern education an islamic epistemology with a model of eternal values which are key features in any muslim education system (sardar, 1985). modern education alone which is not guided by religious knowledge or din produces “mechanistic man” who can only do what he is trained but without guidance of any moral values (akhlak) or wisdom (hikmah) from allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala). the consumption of only modern education by muslims has been queried by scholars because students do not benefit from all kinds of knowledge: religious (din) educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 119 and modern (dun’ya) knowledge (sikand, 2009). upon this, scholars have mentioned that bifurcation of the curriculum in the muslim education today is the cause of the malaise in the ummah (abu sulayman, 1994a and 1994b; and haneef, 2009). dualism in muslim education has been noted to bring about disproportions among individuals after their professional development (al-attas, 1993; and abu sulayman, 1994a). students who study in religious education system gain only religious knowledge and they do not consider modern knowledge as relevant to them (haneef, 2009; peter, hamzah & udin, 2011; and siddiqi, 2011). at the same time, students who study in modern or secular education study subjects like chemistry, mathematics, physics, geography among others become experts in their professions but lack religious knowledge (al-faruqi, 1988; brohi, 1988; iiit, 1988; al-attas, 1993; lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009; sikand, 2009; peter, hamzah & udin, 2011; and siddiqi, 2011). most muslim scholars have fronted integration of the education curriculum or the adoption of an eclectic model of education as the most apposite approaches in eradicating education dualism from muslim education systems (al-faruqi, 1982 and 1988; abu-sulaiman, 1988, 1994a and 1994b; rahman, 1988; al-attas, 1993; khalil, 1995; and sikand, 2009). in an integrated curriculum, the religious knowledge or din gives graduates a sense of diligence in the way they accomplish their work as their characters are presided over by religious knowledge (rahman, 1988). also i.r. al-faruqi (1988) opined that both the religious and modern education systems should be integrated for students to have appropriate knowledge. integrating the curriculum would help to get graduates to execute their duties as good citizen who have acquired modern knowledge and at the same time as good men who have acquired religious knowledge (baba, 2010). integrated education has been recommended by most scholars because it brings about impartial human being as both kinds of knowledge (religious and modern) touch all the aspects of the human domains (al-attas, 1993; baba, 2006; and lubis & wekke, 2009). a curriculum with both religious and modern knowledge produces stability among individuals from the islamic perspective in terms of the minds, bodies, and the souls or by developing their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains (brohi, 1988; rahman, 1988; al-alwani & khalil, 1991; al-attas, 1993; baba, 2006 and 2010; haneef, 2009; lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009; lubis & wekke, 2009; and siddiqi, 2011). integrated education gives students training which make them become proficient in their professions and also become devoted to allah swt in their work while considering the hereafter (lubis, 2008). an integrated curriculum unifies the different kinds of knowledge with an aim of developing the ummah in relation to al-qur’an and al-sunnah (rahman, 1988; and al-alwani & khalil, 1991). integrated education works on the principle that if students understand modern knowledge and their religious obligation to mankind in accordance to the al-qur’an and al-sunnah they serve effectively, they are just, and pious in their profession (al-faruqi, 1988; rahman, 1988; al-alwani & khalil, 1991; abu sulayman, 1994b; and khalil, 1995). teaching religious and modern knowledge to students at the same musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 120 time produces graduates who do not involve themselves in negative activities due to their fear of allah swt (rahman, 1988; al-alwani & khalil, 1991; khalil, 1995; lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009; lubis & wekke, 2009; and baba, 2010). there are various models and modes of integration in education but according to muslim scholars, they have called for adopting an integrated education which is islamic in nature (tawhid). in an integrated curriculum, there is union of knowledge for students to study both islamic and modern knowledge at the same time. this is because according to al-qur’an, the reality of education and the world is gift from allah swt (rahman, 1988; haneef, 2009; and lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). also, islam rejects the duality of religion and science, the world and the hereafter, and virtues and vices because the natural and empirical sciences have the same religious status as theology and philosophy of the divinity (lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). knowledge islamic knowledge modern knowledge arts, medicine, engineering, psychology, astronomy, e.t.c. al-qur’an, sunnah, shari’ah, usul fiqh, e.t.c. figure 1: integration or eclectic model of education the neglect of the religious studies in the teaching of the empirical sciences is not of worth in the muslim education (lubis, 2008). so, if the education is integrated in nature, it helps students to be capable of carrying out their professions as servants of allah swt and followers the prophet muhammad pbuh (lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). integrated education can also help students to uphold the islamic belief, the laws (shari’ah), and the islamic morals in their professions and all their ways of life (al-alwani, 1995; haneef, 2005; and lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). secularism in muslim communities there is an expanded search for understanding of the terms secular, secularism, and secularization as there is rapid westernisation of muslim communities (brohi, 1988; iiit, 1988; abu sulayman, 1994a; and haneef, 2009). the term secularism educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 121 is traced to have been first used by george jacob holyoake in the 1840’s which he used to refer to a variety of utilitarian social ethics which sought to improve human life through reason, science, and social organization (monshipouri, 1998). the term secular is derived from a latin word saeculum which refers to people who are preoccupied with only worldly matters (al-attas, 1993). secularism or secularization refers to a spirit, tendency, political or social philosophies that reject all forms of religious beliefs and worship from civil matters and education systems (al-attas, 1993; tamimi, 2000; kuru, 2007; allawi, 2009; and encyclopaedia britannica, 2011). according to secularists, this means that all the affairs of this world should be settled purely from the worldly viewpoint in accordance to people’s own wishes and expediency. according to muslim scholars, the term secularism means ilmaniyyah, if it is derived from the word ilm (science) or it is alamayyah if it is derived from the word alam (world) (al-attas, 1993; and tamimi, 2000). another meaning of secularism, according to al-qur’an, is al-hayaat ad-dun’ya which means the worldly life. the word dun’ya is derived from the arabic word, dana, which means something being brought nearer. so, it is the world which is brought nearer to the senses, experience, and consciousness of man than the hereafter (al-attas, 1993; and tamimi, 2000). this overwhelms man to distract him from being consciousness of his final destination which is beyond it (al-aakhirah). as the hereafter comes at the end of our lives, it is felt as far, and this accentuates the distraction created by the worldly life (al-attas, 1993; and tamimi, 2000). in secularism, man uses his rationality, empirical evidence, and logic to reason over the various issues in this world without reference to the divine guidance (islam). this has made man to be derailed from the revelation (al-qur’an and al-sunnah), and to destroy the islamic legacy to only become pre-occupied with “worldly” matters which are not beneficial to him in the hereafter. it is known that around the 15th century, muslims had greater mighty in terms of political, military, and intellectual civilisation than the west (al-attas, 1993; and abu sulayman, 1994a). but due to muslim societies adopting secularism, muslims dropped their civilisation to adopt western cultures (secularism) which are not compatible with islam. the adopted secularism has influenced the education systems and ways of life in muslim communities to become either irrelevant or incomplete, to degrade their legacy and civilisation, to label them backward, involve them in political violence and genocides, and has brought them excessive poverty and injustice which have faced muslims from the atlantic to the pacific (al-faruqi, 1988; al-attas, 1993; and abu sulayman, 1994a). this is because secularism and its immediate faiths do not consider the impact of religious values and the hereafter in executing worldly affairs. to this, the revelation (al-qur’an) mentions that the hereafter is better than worldly life and everlasting (al-qur’an al-karim, 2007, 3:185; 6:32; 29:64; 7:169), and dreadful punishment will be administered upon those who utterly immerse themselves into worldly life than the hereafter. according to this, the holy alqur’an says: musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 122 these are the people who buy the life of this world at the price of the hereafter: their penalty shall not be lightened nor shall they be helped (al-qur’an al-karim, 2007, 2:86). it was around the mid 19th century when muslims began to feel the overwhelming pressure of secularism which came in disguise of modernisation (iiit, 1988; alattas, 1993; abu sulayman, 1994a; monshipouri, 1998; tamimi, 2000; zakariyya & abu-rabi, 2005; and kuru, 2007). the movement toward secularism has been in progress during the entire course of modern history (encyclopaedia britannica, 2011). secularists think that the islamic religion is against science, but the islamic religion and civilization have never been against science (zakariyya & abu-rabi, 2005). these fears have raised several debates on secularization as a modern cropping phenomenon in the islamic world (berger, 1973; martin, 1978; bruce, 1992; casanova, 1994; taylor, 1998; tamimi, 2000; asad, 2003; and norris & inglehart, 2004). secularism has made young muslim elites to start challenging islamic traditions and cultures which have already been defined in al-qur’an and al-sunnah (al-attas, 1993; and somer, 2007). according to various scholars, secularism and its impact to the muslims communities has been highlighted as a root of atheism. this is because of its divergence of muslims from al-qur’an and al-sunnah, and its ignition of moral decadence and spiritual crises in muslims societies (khalid, 2011). there are two models of secularism that evolved from two different contexts according to literature. the first model of secularism evolved from france which is anti-religious and seeks to eliminate or control religion. the second model of secularism evolved from the anglo-american experience which disguises to protect religions from state intervention but encourages faith-based social networking to consolidate civil societies (esposito, 2000). according to the islamic belief, islam is a political system and it constitutes of political ideologies which secularism has persistently suppressed. this has made scholars to conclude that secularism is a competing ideology to the islamic belief and ways of life (al-attas, 1993; and khalid, 2011). secularism has forced its way even into the islamic education systems to change the curriculum, methodologies of teaching, teachers’ ways of life and beliefs, and school environments. today what are taught in schools, colleges, and universities under secularism are only individualism, consumerism, careerism, and anthropocentrism which are against the islamic practices (mohamed, 2012). this shows that the emergence of secularism in muslim communities is a reflection of specific needs of muslim communities. the acceptance of secularism in muslim communities means people stay in darkness (jahiliyyah) as secularism applauds neglect of islam which is comprehensive system of worship (ibadah) and legislation (shari’ah). the acceptance of secularism might mean abandonment of shari`ah, a denial of the divine guidance, and a rejection of allah swt’s injunctions (al-qaradawi, 2011). it is indeed a false claim that religious (islamic) knowledge is not a proper requirement in education systems of the present age. educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 123 f. zakariyya and i.m. abu-rabi (2005) considered secularism as a continuation of the islamic tradition. secularism advocates for rationalism, criticism, logic, and intellectual independence all of which are part of islam. the complete acceptance of a legislation and knowledge formulated by humans means a preference of the humans’ limited knowledge and experiences to the divine guidance. to this, allah swt asks human being that: say! do you know better than allah? ah! who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from allah? (al-qur’an al-karim, 2007, 2:140). according to this, the call for secularism while neglecting islamic education among muslim education might be interpreted as a denunciation of allah swt’s injunction; that is, he knows most. in analysis of the current trends in the muslims communities’ education in uganda, secularism has reduced muslims’ indebtedness to the islamic belief and cultures, their natural inclination to allah swt (fitrah), their submissiveness, and their exercise of islamic justice (al-attas, 1993). from this, it is indeed clear that secularism is cause of many problems in the ummah today (al-faruqi, 1988; al-attas, 1993; and abu sulayman, 1994a). penetration of secularism into muslim communities secularisation in the muslim communities has been brought by western ways of thinking, judging, and believing among muslim intellectuals who have been undeservedly influenced by the west and are astonished by scientific and technological achievements (al-attas, 1993). such beliefs and thinking has shown their infidelity and lack of true understanding of the full grasp of both the islamic and the western world view (al-attas, 1993). at the same time, muslims’ adoption western ways of thinking has made them lose their essential belief and modes of thought in islam. in some muslims’ communities in uganda, it has been observed that some prominent personalities have consciously or unconsciously distributed their ignorance and confusion about islam due to the influence of secularism into their communities they lead. this has made people divert to secularism and western ways of life from the islamic belief and ways of life which the allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala) disregards (al-qur’an al-karim, 33:62; and 17:77). also, though often denied it can be noted that muslim countries which were colonised by the west like uganda are still governed according to the western secular paradigm (esposito, 2000). most of these countries feel comfortable with the way of life their people are living without any threat. muslim communities in uganda have adopted and are delighted with the western cultures and ways of life than the islamic ways of life. at the world level, this has also made muslim majority countries like egypt, turkey (nilufer, 1996; navaro-yashin 2002; and kuru 2009), tunisia (moore 1965), and several others to pronounce that they are secular than islamic nations. musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 124 the adoption of the secular way of life in muslim societies has also been linked to the crises in the muslim world today due to the secular systems of governance and the ways of life muslim countries have adopted which are not islamic in nature. it should be noted that according to the revelation, islam does not derogate the world but it contemplates and reflects upon its wonders to derive practical benefits. islam is not fighting secularism as it might be thought by the west but it just only warns of its distracting nature to human life in this world and the hereafter (fatemi, 2008). challenges of secularism and education dualism. in the changing socio-religious altitude in the world today, the western civilization in form of secularism or secularization is rapidly influencing the muslim education and ways of life (al-attas, 1993). the imported solutions adopted by muslim communities to solve day-today problems have offered a neutral ground to accept the disastrous secularism in muslim communities without scrutiny. this has led most muslim communities to separate religion from modern education and in their ways of life. according to the prevailing factors within the ummah today, there are problems which need urgent attention but muslims seem to be unaware of them. these have been enrooted in their education systems to cause crises of knowledge (abu sulayman, 1994a). the secular or modern education system being embraced by muslim communities today without sanctions does not emphasise moral values among students in schools and colleges. this has made education systems in muslim communities to produce students with high technical skills but no moral values. with the existence of education dualism in muslim communities’ education systems, the modern and religious knowledge have been separated. this has made it quite unfeasible to teach the students morality but only to be imparted with worldly knowledge. students graduate from universities and colleges with a lot of modern knowledge but without the understanding of their religion and its practices (peter, hamzah & udin, 2011). this has made graduates to involve themselves in various unethical conducts in their professions (al-attas, 1993). according to different observations by muslim scholars, it has been highlighted that the impact of dualism in education has put education in the muslim communities at a stake most, especially the academic output from their secular schools and colleges. the education systems in muslim communities today produce intellectuals who have no sufficient knowledge of the history of islam and are not able to fight/resist secularism (arkoun, 1994; and khalid, 2011). muslim scholars have contemplated that even if students attain high academic achievement but without moral values; they are likely to serve without the understanding of what allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala) prescribed to them. people becoming highly educated but without moral values tend to leave in their own world and lack concern for others. one can imagine what is happening when people who have no understanding of allah swt are continually developing sophisticated war technologies! this might in future create havoc in society because they might look at satisfying educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 125 themselves than allah swt (pavlova, 2009). it has also been noted by several scholars that one of the major failures of most muslim communities and scholars today is that they have accepted secularism without debate or rigorous scrutiny (khalid, 2011). this has made them take on systems they believe that are good but without due assiduousness. the intellectuals and political elites who have received western education and have become westernised in all their ways are core igniters of secularism in muslim communities. their actions and decisions are usually to gratify themselves and people to enjoy their world with not the hereafter (al-akhirah). solutions to secularism and education dualism. islam totally rejects any application of the concepts secular, or secularization, or secularism as they do not hold or support the application of the islamic belief and ways of life or ibadah (kamali, 2008). secularism has been noted to belong to the intellectual history of christian religious experiences and consciousness (al-attas, 1993; and abu sulayman, 1994a). in this reflection, secularism has an upper hand of spreading the christian doctrine into muslim communities. as earlier mentioned, the most amenable way of solving the problem of secularism and education dualism in muslim education would be through integration of the curriculum. this would make muslim children consume education which is integrated in nature; having both modern and religious knowledge. today, the need for integrated education in any muslim community is a necessity but it might fail due to lack of will to integrate the curriculum or due to lack of funds to take on dual education. the integrated curriculum would call for more funds to teach both religious and modern studies in schools or higher education institutions. with the integration of curriculum, the new schools or colleges would be an alternative to both traditional religious schools (madrasahs) as well as to secular or modern education schools (sikand, 2009). in this situation, the traditional religious schools (madrasahs) which have little or no room for modern subjects would embrace modern knowledge in their islamic studies. hence, this will insulate muslim schools and educational institutions from the insidious challenge of secularism and also to have graduates of muslim institutions having both modern and religious knowledge. also academic instructors would be encouraged to sow islamic values with a world view in their lessons to guide students with positive values of tolerance, moral responsibility, concern for the underprivileged, and a sense of religion in executing their duties and in their ways of life. this is because education is not only important to produce people with technical skills but also to produce people with islamic values. it has been highlighted by scholars that secularism is a disaster in muslim communities’ education. in eradicating secularism from any muslim education system, the ultimate solution mentioned by most scholars is the integration of the education curriculum (modern and religious) in order to meet the challenges of modern times (al-faruqi, 1982). though many scholars have mentioned, the integration of education curriculum is the best way to improve muslims education musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 126 due to many muslims education systems have not integrated their curriculum. i.r. al-faruqi (1982) and m.a. haneef (2009) highlighted that integration of the curriculum to be effective, there should be mastery of the modern disciplines among academics, master the islamic legacy, creative synthesis between the legacy and modern knowledge, and authorities in islamic thought with a motive to fulfil the divine of allah swt. this would help to insert a body of islamic worldview in the modern knowledge so as to be aligned to the teachings of al-qur’an and alsunnah. this would also kill the nostalgic thoughts by modern educationists that religion and past civilisations, for example the islamic civilisation, has nothing to contribute to the current education systems in the current world. in another approach to get rid of education dualism and secularism from muslim education, two things should be undertaken: (1) the isolation of key elements that make-up western culture and civilization from every branch of knowledge; and (2) infusion of islamic elements and key concepts into all branches of knowledge (al-attas, 1993; and haneef, 2009). at the lower level, the modern education curriculum should be infused with the general islamic studies, basic arabic, and recitation (nazira) of the al-qur’an alongside other general subjects like history, physics, chemistry, english, mathematics, geography, among others. in higher classes, the curriculum should have islamic religious studies which would include memorisation of al-qur’an, hadith, fiqh, and advanced arabic studies alongside modern subjects like english, economics, history, general knowledge, political science, among others (sikand, 2009). this would instil a vision of islam in the modern knowledge and students to study compulsory islamic civilisation which will boost their sense of islamic identity and awareness of the islamic vision and mission (al-faruqi, 1988). integration of the curriculum should have consensus between those empowered with the islamic knowledge (ulama) and those who manage the education systems (umara). this would be able to create a hospitable environment for the newly integrated curriculum in terms of what will be taught and in its management. this synergy between the two groups will lead to the harmonising of the different education systems or types of knowledge. also in other requirements, there should be an extensive expansion of the existing scholarship within both fields (modern and religious knowledge), and also to have an open window for comparative advantage to other past civilisations like the great islamic civilisation (al-attas, 1993). the muslim institutions in the country like the islamic university in uganda and the uganda muslim supreme council should try to deepen the understanding of their entire stakeholders about the benefits of integrating the curriculum and its benefits to the ugandan muslim community. this would be an eye opener to the muslims about the “aliens” in their education system and will end dualistic education for students to access both modern and religious knowledge at the same time. according to the characteristics of secularism and education dualism in the muslim communities in uganda today, it is something which they should rightly protest. this is because it is a phenomenon which has merged the entire educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 127 muslim spheres, the conscience of muslim society, morality of people, and even the education system (khalid, 2011). protesting secularism and education dualism would protect the ummah and islamic institutions in future which would employ graduates from islamic institutions if they possess proper islamic values. the graduates from madarasahs and islamic institutions will possess both high technology (high-tech) and high islamic moral values (high-touch) to put more confidence in those who will employ them because of their professionalism and trust (amaanah). islamic institutions would not only produce people to become religious leaders and mosques imams but also will train people who are “good” doctors, lawyers, engineers, social scientists, and so on (sikand, 2009). it can also be hoped that the graduates of the integrated curriculum will be free from un-islamic practices such as discrimination, monopoly, exploitation (ribah), charging interest (usary) among others which allah swt forbid. despite the delay in the integration of curriculum in the different muslim communities, it is still a necessity for the muslims who consume western education which is highly blended with the christian faith and ways of life. this would help muslims to take on western education with due diligence while blocking secularism and secularization from entering their societies despite a clash of civilizations in the process. education dualism and secularism in uganda education dualism and secularism began to surface in the ugandan education system and communities after the coming of the europeans (colonialists). although islam arrived in uganda before christianity, to date christianity has more followers than islam. according to history as early as the 17th century, islam was already in east africa before any other faith, but to date, the number of muslims and islamic indicators like mosques and schools are still low within the muslim communities while also muslims are ranked in the minority groups. at the inception of islam in uganda, a good number of people converted to islam with even some of the traditional leaders in buganda kingdom. islam was first introduced in uganda when arab traders came to east african to do business with the business men in uganda. due to the interaction between the ugandan and the arab traders, this made ugandans to appreciate the goodness of islam and took it on as their religion in big numbers. this made islam to dominate politics and the education system at that time. mosques and schools (madarasahs) were established in different parts of the country and islam was the major belief and way of life of the people who accepted it. islam had a long reign of over 32 years before other faiths were introduced. but the start of the decline of islam and introduction of secularism and dual education was after the coming of the colonialists in the 18th century. the first missionaries from spain, france, and britain arrived in uganda in 1877. the missionaries came in camouflage of doing business but later started musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 128 to spread christianity and even to capture political power (colonialism). this led to the breaking out of consecutive wars between the muslims and the christians who tried to resist them from spreading christianity and their struggles for power. the over powering of muslims by the colonialists greatly led to the decline in the number of muslims as the colonialists continually suppressed islam which they saw as a threat to christianity (kateregga, 1993). after the defeating of muslims by the christians, this brought a genesis of spreading of the christian faith which today has evolved into secularism to easily be consumed by muslims. christians took over the control of the education system which was a tool for developing human resource to which some muslim parents stopped taking children to schools which had become conversion centres of their children (kateregga, 1993). this created an education gap between muslims and christians up to the current date. christians established several churches while they fought mosques’ leaderships to kill them or exile them. the continued belligerence on islam and its institutions kept on reducing converts to islam while also those who were already muslims kept on being killed and massacred (kateregga, 1993). this had great impact on the unity, pride in culture, and beliefs of muslims which made some weak muslims to give in to christianity. this was due to their fear for their lives and being isolated on using public facilities such as hospitals and schools which were controlled by the church at that time. this was a stepping stone to welcome secularism and dualistic education in uganda which previously had an integrated islamic education system and leadership in the different parts of the country. in uganda today, muslims are estimated to be around 12% of the total population estimated to be 34.5 million, christians 82% and 6% for others. most schools in the country are under government and christian organisations, and just a few for muslims. most muslims take their children to public schools which are a model of western civilisation (secularism) and even some to christian schools assuming that they only study modern knowledge from these schools. the single islamic education system which had started in the country though at a low pace in the central parts of uganda in the traditional madarasah system gradually declined due to the fights on islam by the colonialists. most madarasah died out as some of the ulemas who had started them and those who were products were killed as others fled for their lives. the loss of strength by madarasahs gave the colonialists the leverage to introduce modern education to spread their english, french, and other modern languages which are channels of secularism. this made islam to lose out as it did not have a place in such an education system. the major alternative for muslim education in uganda today is the western or modern education as muslims have not given much attention to religious (madarasah) education. muslims take their children to the western education schools assuming that western or modern education is not harmless to their children and it is the best for muslims as their children are able to speak english like europeans. they front reasons such as their children must study secular education in order to be educare: international journal for educational studies, 5(2) 2013 129 competitive in the job market in a christian dominated country. other parents have commented that if their children studied religious studies, they can only be teachers or imams of mosques which is not in their interest. even up today, muslims have not realised that the western education their children are taking without islamic studies is medium of the christianity, western cultures, and ways of life which are not compatible to islam. the coming of secularisation in uganda was alongside the christian religion in camouflage that the colonialists were going to help the traditional leaders (kings) to consolidate their political powers. but after the colonialists had settled and felt that they had gained a firm ground, they turned against the traditional leaders (kings) to oust them of their political power and to spread their western ways of life and christianity. at this time, religion was separated from the state for the religion to stay in people’s personal lives and politics to concentrate on ruling the country. secularism to the people in uganda was concealed in terms of their political approach, religion (christianity), and within the education system. the british who promoted secularism stayed in administrative power, while the french and spanish concentrated in churches but with support from the british colonial government which was in political power. the muslim religious leadership and institutions stayed in existence but were reaped of all their religious practices, freedom, political power, and community mobilisation forces. in 1898, the colonial administrative law openly declared the separation of religion from administration and education when it revealed that there were no such thing as a state religion but to the surprise the colonial government stayed supporting christianity in all aspect. on the other hand, muslims continued to suffer from suppression of the colonial government without proper freedom to practice their religion, teaching it in schools, and also imposing secularism onto them. in uganda, like any other country, the implementation of any education system must be in line with the national education philosophy. as the notion of education in uganda is geared towards human and national development in a holistic and an integrated manner, there is need for an integrated education system to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically sound based on the revealed knowledge (peter, hamzah & udin, 2011). this calls for the integration of religious and modern knowledge in the education curriculum to stop secularism in the muslim communities. this would help islamic institutions’ graduates in achieving high level of personal well-being as well as contributing to the harmony and betterment of their families, society, and the nation at large (peter, hamzah & udin, 2011). conclusion it should be noted that dualism in education is not good for muslim education and an integrated curriculum should be opted in order to resist secularism in muslim communities in uganda. the utmost objectives of integrated education should be to musa matovu, education dualism and secularism 130 produce competent professionals who are devoted to their allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala). the religious studies graduates would have taken in an integrated curriculum would bring long life which would boost their moral, physical, and spiritual development in terms of their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains (al-ataas, 1993; and lubis & wekke, 2009). it can also be concluded that the best model of education in muslim communities in uganda should be integrated in nature based on al-qur’an and al-sunnah (lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). in an integrated curriculum, learners would be able to consider the world and the hereafter in their education simultaneously. it would also be of great value when students with high academic achievements have good morals to protect them from getting involved in forbidden activities by allah swt. through integrated education, muslim graduates would be trained to understand and uphold the islamic belief, the law (shari’ah), and the morals in their lives (lubis, mustapha & lampoh, 2009). integrated education would offer guidance to human kind and also promote a healthy civilization to reject education dualism in order resist secularism from spreading in the muslim communities in uganda. references abu sulayman, a.h. 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(2005). myth and reality in the contemporary islamist movement. london: pluto press, translated by ibrahim m. abu-rabi’, 1st edition. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 23© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a endang komara curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia abstract: the curriculum is a set of plans and arrangements concerning objectives, content and instructional materials, and ways used as guidelines for the implementation of learning activities to achieve certain educational goals. the purpose of indonesian national education is to develop the potential of learners to become human beings, who believe and fear to allah as one god, have a noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen. indonesia has incorporated civic education programs in the school curriculum about a decade after the proclamation of independence in august 1945. this article, by using the qualitative method and descriptive approach, tries to explore the curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia. the findings show that more than half a century of educational education, even at all levels of education from elementary, secondary to higher education, still leaves the general and classical issues of low levels of political literate, moreover to achieve the goal of creating intelligent and skilled indonesian citizens. political literacy is not only political knowledge, but the ability of citizens who qualified both in aspects of knowledge, skills, and values and attitudes. in learning of civic education, teachers are required to develop an interesting learning process, fun, challenging, and forming learners to be able to think critically and constructively. civics teachers should be able to present contextual learning materials, relate subject matter with real conditions in the field, set theory with practice, between expectations and reality, identify problems, and encourage learners to come up with alternative problem solving. key words: curriculum development; teaching-learning process; social life; citizenship education; teachers of civics education. about the author: prof. dr. haji endang komara is a full professor in sociology of education and as head of stkip (college of education and teacher training) pasundan in cimahi, west java, indonesia. for academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via his e-mail address at: endang_komara@yahoo.co.id how to cite this article? komara, endang. (2017). “curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august, pp.23-32. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (may 20, 2017); revised (july 3, 2017); and published (august 30, 2017). objectives, as already formulated in law number 20 of 2003, is for the development of the potential of learners to be a human being who believes and cautious to god almighty, have a noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen (cf fadjar, 2003; and iorio & yeager, 2011). the 2013 curriculum is designed with the introduction according to the law of national education system number 20 year 2003, article 1, paragraph (19), curriculum is a set of plans and arrangements concerning objectives, content and instructional materials, and ways used as guidelines for the implementation of learning activities to achieve certain educational goals (fadjar, 2003). furthermore, the national education endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching 24 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare objective of preparing the people of indonesia to have the ability to live as individuals and citizens who are faithful, productive, creative, innovative, and affective; and able to contribute to the life of society, nation-state and civilized world (azis, 2016). curriculum is an educational instrument to be able to bring indonesians who have the attitude, knowledge, and skills competencies, so that they can be productive, creative, innovative, and affective individuals and citizens (azis, 2016; and suyahman et al., 2017). one of the steps in the preparation of the 2013 curriculum is the rearrangement of citizenship education or pkn (pendidikan kewarganegaraan) into pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) and citizenship education or ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewarganegaraan), which includes: firstly, change the name of pkn (civic education) to ppkn (pancasila and citizenship education). secondly, placing ppkn subjects as an integral part of the subject group that has the mission of strengthening the nationality. thirdly, organizing the national competence standards and basic competencies and indicators of ppkn by strengthening pancasila values and morals, the values and norms of the 1945 constitution of the republic of indonesia, the values and spirit of bhineka tunggal ika (unity in diversity), and the insight and commitment of the nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia or unitary state of the republic of indonesia). fourthly, consolidate the development of learners in dimensions: civic knowledge, civic attitudes, civic skills, civic constancy, civic commitment, and citizenship competence. fifthly, develop and apply various models of learning in accordance with the characteristics of ppknoriented development of the character of learners as smart citizens and a good intact. sixthly, develop and apply various models of learning process assessment and learning outcomes of ppkn (nurdin, 2015; and suyahman et al., 2017). this article, by using the qualitative method and descriptive study (creswell, 2003; johnson & onwuegbuzie, 2004; carter & littler, 2007; and williams, 2007), tries to analysis the curriculum and civic education teaching in indonesia, especially by discussing two matters: (1) civic education curriculum structure; and (2) civic education learning. findings and discussion first, civic education curriculum structure. in article 3 of law number 20 year 2003, on sisdiknas (sistem pendidikan nasional or national education system) imperatively outlined that: national education functions to develop the ability and form the character and civilization of a dignified nation in order to educate the life of the nation, aims for the development of potential learners in order to become a human being who believes and cautious to god almighty, have noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen (fadjar, 2003). therefore, the idealism of the formation of the character and civilization of dignified nation to educate the life of the nation, and make man/woman as a democratic and philosophically responsible citizenship, socio-political and psycho-pedagogical, is a sacred mission of civic education. as can be observed also in the elucidation of article 37, paragraph (1) that civic education is intended to form learners into human beings who have a sense of nationality and love of the homeland (nurdin, 2015; and suyahman et al., 2017). in that context, civic education is basically a nationality education or character education of the nation. all these imperatives or demands necessitate the need for our new appreciation of civic education as a scientific concept, instrumentation, and whole education praxis in turn can foster the “civic intelligence”, “civic participation”, and “civic responsibility” as children of the nation and citizens of indonesia (affandi, 2013). historical-epistemologically and pedagogically, civic education as a curricular program in indonesia began with the introduction of civics subjects in the 1962 high school curriculum containing material on indonesian governance under educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 25© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the 1945 constitution (departemen p&k, 1962). at that time, civic or civics subjects consisted essentially of learning experiences excavated and selected from the disciplines of history, geography, economics, and politics, presidential speeches, human rights declarations, and knowledge of the united nations (somantri, 1967:7). the term of civics was not formally found in the 1957 curriculum as well as in the 1964 curriculum. however, material in the 1957 junior and senior high school curriculum was the subject of constitutional order and law, and in the 1964 curriculum, there was a subject of general knowledge which included the knowledge of government (nurdin, 2015; and suyahman et al., 2017). later in the 1968 and 1969 curriculum, the term of civics and citizenship education are used interchangeably. for example, in the 1968 curriculum for sd (sekolah dasar or elementary school), the term “state citizenship education” is used as subjects, which include indonesian history, indonesian geography, and civics (translated as citizenship knowledge). in the junior high school 1968 curriculum used the term citizenship education, which contains the history of indonesia and the constitution, including the 1945 constitution. while in the senior high school 1968 curriculum, there are subjects of state citizenship education which contains material, especially with respect to the 1945 constitution. meanwhile in the 1969 curriculum for spg (sekolah pendidikan guru or school of teacher education), subjects education citizenship of the state whose content mainly concerns the history of indonesia, the constitution, the knowledge of society, and human rights (departemen p&k, 1969; and nurdin, 2015). in addition, in the curriculum of ppsp (proyek perintis sekolah pembangunan or pioneer project of school development) used several terms, namely citizenship education, social studies, and civics and law. for elementary school or sd (sekolah dasar) 8 years in ppsp used the term of citizenship education, which is an integrated of ips (ilmu pengetahuan sosial or social studies) subject and like integrated social studies in america. there, the term of citizenship education seems to mean the same as ips education. in the four-year high school, the term of social studies are used as an integrated ips teaching for all classes and teaching social studies that are separate in the form of geography, history, and economics teaching as major programs in the ips majors. there are also subjects of citizenship education as the core subjects that must be taken by all students. while civics and law subjects are given as major subjects in the ips minors (ppsp ikip bandung, 1973). furthermore, in the 1975 curriculum, the term of citizenship education is changed to pmp (pendidikan moral pancasila or pancasila moral education), which contains pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia)’s material as described in the p4 (pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila or guidance on appreciation and practice of pancasila). this change is in line with the education mission mandated by mpr ri (majelis permusyawaratan rakyat republik indonesia or people counsultative council of the republic of indonesia)’s resolution ii/mpr/1973. this pmp subject is a compulsory subject for elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, school of teacher education, and vocational school. this pmp subject must also be retained in both the term and its contents until the enactment of the 1984 curriculum, which is basically a refinement of the 1975 curriculum (depdikbud ri, 1976). with the enactment of law number 2 of 1989 on the national education system, which outlines the curriculum content of pancasila education and citizenship education, as a compulsory subject of curriculum of all pathways, types, and levels of education (article 39), the 1994 basic education curriculum and secondary education accommodates the mission new education by introducing the subjects of ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewarganegaraan or pancasila and citizenship education). unlike the previous curriculum, the 1994 ppkn curriculum organizes its learning materials not based on the p4 value point formula, but based on the concept of endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching 26 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the extracted values of p4 and other official sources laid out by the widespread spiral approach or spiral of concept development (cf taba, 1967; nurdin, 2015; and suyahman et al., 2017). this approach articulates the principles of pancasila with its value for each level of education and class and quarterly in each class (nurdin, 2015). in accordance with mpr ri’s decree no.ii/mpr/1998 on the gbhn (garis-garis besar haluan negara or broad outline of the nation’s direction), pancasila education includes education of p4, pancasila moral education, history education of national struggle, and elements that can continue and develop the soul, spirit, and values of the struggle, especially values 1945 to the younger generation. from there, pancasila education has the dimensions of ideological education, values and moral education, and education struggle (nurdin, 2015; and suyahman et al., 2017). when analyzed carefully, both the terms used and the mission formulation and organization of the content of civics or state knowledge, state citizenship, pancasila moral education, and pancasila and citizenship education, in the world of schooling that grew for almost four decades (1960s to the early 2000s) demonstrated a fundamental inconsistency of thinking reflecting the occurrence of a conceptual crisis; and, in fact, it had an impact on the conceptual and operational pedagogical crises (nurdin, 2015). according to udin s. winataputra & dasim budimansyah (2007), it should not be considered strange, because this situation is like the situation experienced in the united states of america, where civics, civic/citizenship education, and social studies/social science education since its inception in the 1880s until the publication of ncss (national curriculum standards for social studies) academic documents in 1994, namely: “curriculum standards for social studies: expectation of excellence” (winataputra & budimansyah, 2007:158). nevertheless, they have now managed to overcome the conceptual and curricular crises. at least, they have now reached an academic and programmatic consensus which will, in turn, guide the coherent curriculum (cf andriot, 2007; winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; and nurdin, 2015). for indonesia, a similar consensus is very important and desirable to get a suitable paradigm of social education in schools. but, until now, it has not been achieved. up to the enactment of the 1994 curriculum, there are three types of social education, namely: pancasila and citizenship education required for all types, pathways, and levels of education; ips (ilmu pengetahuan sosial or social studies) as the flag of a group of subjects of earth science, national history, and general history at the elementary level of education; and stand-alone social subjects separately, such as geography, history, economics, sociology, anthropology, and state governance in secondary schools (winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; and nurdin, 2015). the essence of ppkn is civic literacy, civic engagement, civic skills and participation, civic knowledge, and civic responsibility. the name of ppkn is not new to the national education curriculum. in the 1994 curriculum, the name of ppkn also appeared; then, in the 2006 curriculum was “lost”; and in 2013 curriculum, pancasila has been reappeared (nurdin, 2015). in the 2006 curriculum mentioned that the national education function is to develop the ability and shape the character and civilization of a dignified nation to educate the nation’s life; aims for the development of potential learners to be a human being who believes and cautious to god almighty, noble, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen. while in the 2013 curriculum citizenship education, the aims are to develop learners into indonesian people, who have a sense of nationality and love of the homeland, which is imbued by the values of pancasila and the 1945 constitution (cf winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; and nurdin, 2015). the scope of curriculum or key substance of civic has changed into ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewarganegaraan or pancasila and citizenship education). the 2006 ppkn curriculum includes: unity and national unity; norms, laws and regulations; human rights; needs of citizens; state constitution; educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 27© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare power and politics; pancasila; and globalization (winataputra & budimansyah, 2007). while in the 2013 ppkn curriculum includes: pancasila as the foundation of the state and the nation’s life view; the 1945 constitution as the basic law which becomes the constitutional basis of the life of society, nation, and state; bhineka tunggal ika (unity in diversity) as a manifestation of the diversity of social life, nation, and state in a cohesive and whole diversity; and the nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia or unitary state of the republic of indonesia) as a form of the state of indonesia (nurdin, 2015). second, civic education learning. according to j. branson (1999), the purpose of civic education is quality and responsible participation in political and community life at local, state, and national levels (branson, 1999:7). the goal of civics learning, according to ministry of national education in 2006, is to provide the following competencies: (1) critical, rational, and creative thinking in response to citizenship issues; (2) participate intelligently and responsibly, and act consciously in the activities of society, nation, and state; (3) growing positively and democratically to form self-form based character of society in indonesia to live together with other nation; and (4) interact with other nations in the rules of the world directly by utilizing information and communication technology (cf winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; tovmasyan & thoma, 2008; and nurdin, 2015). the purpose of civics, proposed by a. kosasih djahiri (1994/1995) is, firstly, in general the objective of civics should be steady and support the achievement of national education, namely: introduce the life of a nation that develops the indonesian people completely. that is man who believe and pious to god almighty and virtuous noble character, possess the ability of knowledge and skill, physical and spiritual health, personality steady and independent and sense of responsibility of society and society (djahiri, 1994/1995:10). secondly, moral that is expected to be realized in everyday life is a behavior that exudes faith and piety towards god almighty in a society consisting of various religious groups, humanitarian behavior that is just and civilized, behavior that supports people who prioritize the interests of the common interest above individuals and groups, so that differences of opinion or interest are addressed through consensus, as well as behaviors that support efforts to realize social justice of all indonesian people (djahiri, 1994/1995; winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; and nurdin, 2015). meanwhile, according to sapriya (2011), the purpose of civic education is the participation of full sense and responsibility in the political life of citizens who are obedient to the values and basic principles of constitutional democracy of indonesia (sapriya, 2011). effective and responsible citizen participation requires the acquisition of a set of science and intellectual skills and the skills to participate. such effective and responsible participation can be further enhanced through the development of certain dispositions or traits that enhance the ability of individuals to participate in the political process and support the functioning of a sound political system and the improvement of society (sapriya, 2011; and nurdin, 2015). the general goal of civic learning is to educate citizens to be good citizens, depicted with patriotic, tolerant, loyal citizens of the nation and state, religious, democratic, and to be true pancasilaist (somantri, 2001:279). the function of civics subject is as a vehicle to form intelligent, skillful, and faithful citizens who are loyal to the nation and state of indonesia by reflecting on their thinking habits and acting in accordance with the pancasila, or five basic principles of the republic of indonesia, and 1945 constitution (somantri, 2001; winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; and nurdin, 2015). thus, it can be concluded that the purpose of the state to develop citizenship education so that every citizen becomes a good citizen, i.e. citizens with intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual intelligence, have a sense of pride and responsibility, and able to participate in community life. the idea of the need for citizens having political literate has existed and developed endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching 28 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare since the founding of a state. this is very rational because every country has lofty ideals whose existence needs to be maintained and maintained. efforts to maintain the existence of the state is done, among others, by building the citizen intelligence in the political field. this effort can be pursued through the form of learning, so that all ideals can be realized in a real way (winataputra & budimansyah, 2007; tovmasyan & thoma, 2008; and nurdin, 2015). according to ian davies & sylvia hogarth (2004), there are two approaches that are no longer relevant until it needs to be rejected. firstly, the so-called “civics” model is narrowly interpreted. this model is regarded as a process of transmitting factual knowledge and learning methodology that emphasizes literate as a product. whenever this approach is tested, it still does not inspire and does not guide learners to be good citizens. the secondly approach to be rejected is called the “big issues” model. this model characterizes the learner’s introduction of a debate on political issues that emphasize political freedom as a mere process (davies & hogarth, 2004). why are not these two models getting recommendations? there are two things that are weaknesses: (1) the teacher only tries to raise controversial issues as a case in the hope that this effort is impacted and widely understood, it does not happen; and (2) learners who have in-depth knowledge of certain issues, then selected because they are deemed relevant to current issues, but those issues are raised by the media not by educational experts and do not occur in the learning process in the classroom, get decent political material (cf stassen, doherty & poe, 2001; and chicotas, 2009). the alternative model, recommended by ian davies & sylvia hogarth (2004), is the “public discourse” model. this model seeks to facilitate learners to master the language, concepts, arguments, and social skills as a condition of thinking and talking about life from a political point of view. this model emphasizes processes and products. also in this model, actual knowledge is important, but it is utilized for other more important capabilities of political pluralism (davies & hogarth, 2004). this alternative model is supported by many experts, including p. newton, r. driver & j. osborne (1999), who suggest that engaging learners in an active debate, it is considered very appropriate to develop the concept (newton, driver & osborne, 1999). the uk (united kingdom)’s project of civic education also found that schools that have a democratic practice model are very effective in enhancing civic knowledge and engagement (print & lange eds., 2012). there are certainly many challenges in creating the right lesson for political upheaval. such as the lack of professional experience, the low level of learners’ knowledge, the confusing nature of political science (which needs to be applied and which need to be ignored), the type of behavior expected of learners and innovative and progressive models that can be used, although often confusing. from this fact, it appears that to reach citizens who are politically literate much influenced by the ability of teachers and readiness of learners. therefore, to build a political literate required appropriate learning strategies (stassen, doherty & poe, 2001; and leithwood et al., 2004). the alternative public discourse model, recommended by ian davies & sylvia hogarth (2004), can be applied to the variation of r.j. marzano (1992)’s strategy or theory of learning called “dimension of learning” (marzano, 1992; and davies & hogarth, 2004). according to this theory, the learning process will succeed if the teacher starts with giving perception and positive attitude (positive perception and attitudes) to the students. at this stage, the teacher gives motivation to the students about the importance of political literacy for the citizen (cf marzano, 1992; davies & hogarth, 2004; and print & lange eds., 2012). with the implementation of this strategy, then the next stage will occur, i.e. students will naturally seek to gain knowledge and seek to integrate with the knowledge that already exist on him/her (acquiring and integrating knowledge). when this process has happened, the students no longer need to educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 29© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare be encouraged to explore knowledge because by itself, and they will try to expand and improve the knowledge it has (extending and refining knowledge). he/she will, then, use the knowledge meaningfully, so that he/she will eventually use his/her knowledge as a productive habit of mind (stassen, doherty & poe, 2001; and leithwood et al., 2004). conclusion education is an effort to promote the growth of manners (inner strength, character), mind (intellect), and the body of children. they cannot be separated, so that we can advance the perfection of our children’s lives. national education functions to develop the ability and form the character and civilization of dignified nation in order to educate the life of the nation, aims to develop the potential of learners to become human beings who believe and piety to god almighty, noble, healthy, knowledgeable, skilled, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen. the teacher is a model for the learners, and the performance of teachers is very influential on the continuation of learning learners. teacher can present an interesting learning process, motivating and inspiring, obtained from the knowledge and experience of teachers who always updated with a variety of positive inputs obtained from various learning resources. knowledge and experience can be obtained from books, mass media, conference’s activities or through education training. in the learning process, teachers are required to produce works and innovations that can be enlightening to be applied in the learning process, so that it can grow all potential learners and they are not just bias reach, but bias beyond its ideals. teacher is not only a teacher, but more than that the teacher is an educator. as an educator, teachers must have various capabilities as a competence that must be owned as a professional educator. good pedagogics competence, personality, social, and professional manners. the development of civics and civic education in indonesia occurred in the first year, when citizenship in 1957 had discussed how to obtain and lose citizenship. civics in 1962 appeared in the form of political indoctrination. citizenship education in 1968 was as an element of the nation’s citizenship education with nuanced education of social studies. citizenship education in 1969 appeared in the form of constitutional teaching and mprs ri (majelis permusyawaratan rakyat sementara republik indonesia or provisional people counsultative council of the republic of indonesia) decisions. citizenship education in 1973 identified with teaching social studies. the moral education of pancasila (five basic principles of the republic of indonesia) in 1975 and 1984 appeared to replace pkn (pendidikan kewargaan negara or citizenship education) with the content of the p4 (pedoman penghayatan dan pengamalan pancasila or guidance on appreciation and practice of pancasila)’s discussion. pancasila and citizenship education in 1994, as a merger of pancasila and citizenship education materials, appeared in the form of teaching the concept of value that was extracted from pancasila and p4. civics in 2006 included the unity and unity of the nation; norms, laws, and regulations; human rights; needs of citizens; state constitution; power and politics; pancasila; and globalization. ppkn (pendidikan pancasila dan kewarganegaraan or pancasila and citizenship education) in 2013 was covering pancasila as the country’s foundation and the nation’s life view; the 1945 constitution as the basic law which becomes the constitutional basis of the life of society, nation, and state; bhineka tunggal ika (unity in diversity) as a manifestation of diversity of society, nation, and state in a cohesive and intact diversity; and the unitary state of the republic of indonesia or nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia) as a form of the state of indonesia. the scope of civic education covers all the programs of the school; civic education includes a range of teaching and learning activities that can foster better life and behavior in a democratic society; and in civic education includes matters concerning the experience, the public interest, the personal, endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching 30 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and the objective requirements of living the state. through civics learning, students are expected, firstly, to understand and master the logic of pancasila concept and norm as the philosophy, ideological basis, and life view of the republic of indonesia. secondly, the constitutional literacy, namely uud (undangundang dasar or constitution) of 1945, and the law in force in the republic of indonesia. thirdly, live and believe in the moral order contained in the above. fourthly, practice and standardize the things above as a self-behavior attitude and life with full confidence and reason.1 references affandi, idrus. 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(2004). review of research: how leadership influences student learning. usa [united states of america]: the wallace foundation. available online also at: http:// www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/ documents/how-leadership-influences-studentlearning.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: june 10, 2016]. marzano, r.j. (1992). a different kind of classroom: teaching with dimensions of learning. alexandria: the association for supervision and curriculum development. available online also at: https://files. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed350086.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: june 10, 2016]. newton, p., r. driver & j. osborne. (1999). “the place of argumentation in the pedagogy of school science” in international journal of science education, volume 21. nurdin, encep syarief. (2015). “the policies on civic education in developing national character in indonesia” in international education studies, vol.8, no.8. available online also at: file:///c:/users/ acer/downloads/51660-177750-3-pb.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: june 10, 2016]. ppsp ikip [proyek perintis sekolah pembangunan, institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan] bandung. (1973). program kurikulum studi sosial sekolah dasar pembangunan. bandung: penerbit ppsp ikip bandung. print, m. & d. lange [eds]. (2012). schools, curriculum, and civic education for building democratic citizens. rotterdam, boston, taipe: sense publishers. available online also at: https:// www.sensepublishers.com/media/1470-schoolscurriculum-and-civic-education-for-building.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: june 10, 2016]. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(1), august 2017 31© 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare sapriya. (2011). “ontologi pendidikan keawarganegaraan dan perannya dalam pembangunan karakter pribadi dan kebangsaan indonesia” in d. budimansyah & k. komalasari [eds]. pendidikan karakter, nilai inti bagi upaya pembinaan kepribadian bangsa: penghargaan dan kehormatan 70 tahun prof. dr. h. endang somantri, m.ed. bandung: widya aksara press, pp.136-150. somantri, n. (1967). peladjaran kewargaan negara di sekolah. bandung: ikip [institut keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan] bandung press. somantri, n. (2001). community civic education: basic concept and esensial elements. bandung: ciced [center for indonesian civic education]. stassen, m.l.a., k. doherty & m. poe. (2001). coursebased review and assessment: methods for understanding student learning. amherst, usa [united states of america]: office of academic planning & assessment, university of massachusetts. available online also at: https://www.umass.edu/oapa/oapa/ publications/online_handbooks/course_based.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: june 10, 2016]. suyahman et al. (2017). “descriptive study implementation of learning pancasila education and civics (ppkn) with character education ubtegrations for students junior high school (smp) 1 in regency of boyolali” in journal of education and social sciences, vol.7, iss.1 [june]. available online also at: http://jesoc.com/wp-content/ uploads/2017/08/jesoc-7_36.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: july 3, 2017]. taba, h. (1967). teacher handbook for elementary social studies. palo alto, ca: addison-wesley. tovmasyan, t. & m.t. thoma. (2008). “the impact of civic education on schools, students, and communities”. available online at: http://www.crrc. am/hosting/file/_static_content/fellows/fellowship07 [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: july 3, 2017]. williams, carrie. (2007). “research methods” in journal of business & economic research, volume 5, number 3 [march]. available online also at: file:///c:/users/ acer/downloads/2532-article%20text-10126-1-1020110207.pdf [accessed in cimahi, indonesia: july 3, 2017]. winataputra, udin s. & dasim budimansyah. (2007). civic education: konteks, landasan, bahan ajar, dan kultur kelas. bandung: program studi pendidikan kewarganegaraan sps upi [sekolah pascasarjana, universitas pendidikan indonesia]. endang komara, curriculum and civic education teaching 32 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare teaching and learning of civic education in indonesia (source: https://www.educatemagis.org, 28/10/2016) the scope of civic education covers all the programs of the school; civic education includes a range of teaching and learning activities that can foster better life and behavior in a democratic society; and in civic education includes matters concerning the experience, the public interest, the personal, and the objective requirements of living the state. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, sekretariat aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com website: www.educare-ijes.com and www.mindamas-journals.com cover disgn: “cartoon of education” (source: http://gambarlucu.co, 27 february 2017). copy right © 2017 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. honorable patron: chairperson of aspensi, the association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com editor-in-chief: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. m. syaom barliana upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: aombarli@yahoo.com prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohd shakir amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: aligarhshakir@gmail.com prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: journal.educare@upi.edu secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: journal.educare@upi.edu guideline/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www. worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get the journal prints, and his/ her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print, but his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except based on written requests from the authors. for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare /guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare 2-2012.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 155 the influence of transformational leadership on teacher commitment towards organization, teaching profession, and student learning in secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia sii ling @ mee ling abstract: a principal’s role is critical in sustaining or diminishing teacher commitment. teacher commitment recorded only average in malaysia. accordingly, the researcher is interested in studying the relationship between transformational leadership and teacher commitment in the educational institution, exclusively in the government secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia. the survey instrument was developed based on conceptual framework on transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and literature review. quantitative survey method was applied and four broadly hypothesized relationships were tested with a sample of 1,014 trained teachers serving in twenty-seven secondary schools in miri, sarawak. the findings showed either direct or indirect relationship between transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and moderators. they offer insights on how leadership practices affect teachers’ commitment and sense of teaching efficacy. it also necessitates for leadership development of school leaders to acquire transformational leadership qualities that are crucial in changing teachers’ attitude and improving their commitment level. future endeavors should compare these findings with similar predictors, criterion, and moderators in other areas. key words: school leadership, principal’s role, teacher commitment, transformational leadership, and educational institution in sarawak, malaysia. introduction a principal is the most powerful and influential individual in school. the role of a school principal is considered as the first and foremost important person in ensuring the effectiveness of the school and efficiency in running the school (sabariah et al., 2002). thus, educators and policymakers alike seek a frame for effective leadership that can produce sustainable school improvement and continuous teacher commitment (lambertz, 2002). it was also purported by b.m. bass (1990) that leadership style that encourages employees’ commitment is essential for an organization to successfully achieving their goal. sii ling @ mee ling is a ph.d. student at the faculty of education um (university of malaya), kuala lumpur, malaysia. for academic purposes, she can be contacted at: lot 822, bunga raya 4, taman bumiko, 98000 miri, sarawak, malaysia. e-mail: me2867sl@yahoo.com sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 156 school leadership is absolutely crucial to energize and bring dynamism to our schools. it is the vital role of a school leadership to nurture professional growth and bring effective leadership to bear in schools. it is also definitely the utmost role of the most effective and dynamic school leadership that a school leader should take heed and adopt as it affects the level of teacher commitment in the education arena in malaysia. school leadership has become a priority in education policy agendas internationally. it plays a key role in improving school outcomes by influencing the motivations and capacities of teachers, as well as the school climate and environment. studies on the school leadership moreover, researchers like s.m. hord (1992); t.j. sergiovanni (1992); k. leithwood, d. tomlinson and m. genge (1996); m. fullan (1996); d.t. conley (1997); l.e. wood (1998); l.w. reid, j.t. roberts and h.m. hilliard (1998); j.m. perez et al. (1999); and p. tesker and m. schneider (1999) point out that a number of studies emphasize the importance of transformative leadership for school principals. it is significantly important for school principals to embrace transformational leadership as it affects the level of teacher commitment. besides, principal’s leadership has great influence towards the school achievement quality, students’ achievement, and teachers’ commitment (ibrahim, 1998). the role of the principal is critical in sustaining teacher commitment by being attentive to personal and school context factors. moreover, the principal’s role is equally critical in addressing the system context factors that diminish teacher commitment (day, elliot & kington, 2005). today, principals are being evaluated by student achievement on standardized achievement tests (kavanaugh, 2005). therefore, l.j. matthews and g.m. crow (2003) noted that the demand of raising student achievement has placed an unprecedented level of public scrutiny on the job performance of principals. to appropriately meet the challenge of tomorrow’s schools, the new approach demands that the principal, staff, parents, and community work together sharing a vision of how to help all students achieve (lunenburg & irby, 2006). in brief, an examination of the influence of school leaders on the process and outcomes of schooling is essential to the larger context of educational improvement. therefore, the study of principal leadership can be informative to schools just as the study of leadership in other organizations is valuable to understanding organizational outcomes (yukl, 2006). traditionally, the teaching role has been one of nurturing and developing students’ potential. however, teachers’ work today comprises a complex mix of various factors that include teaching, learning new information and skills, keeping abreast of technological innovations, and dealing with students, parents, and the community. these are demanding roles and there are growing concerns about teacher well-being and competence. in particular, teachers are experiencing increasing levels of attrition, stress, and burnout (pillay, goddard & wilss, 2005). educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 157 on top of that, sabariah et al. (2002), in their research, discovered that the level of teacher’s organizational commitment was only average in malaysia. this is definitely not a healthy phenomenon if a nation aims to progress holistically in education system. this average level of teachers’ commitment to their profession absolutely needs immediate and serious attention. moreover, teachers’ commitment is reported to decrease progressively over the course of their teaching career (huberman, 1993; and fraser, draper & taylor, 1998). at the beginning of a teacher’s career, there is an early stage of commitment to teaching associated with the choice of professional identity followed by a stage of experimentation and search for new challenges; teachers often experience a stage of conservatism and which can lead to eventual disengagement. this transition, from an enthusiastic engagement with the profession to a more distanced and limited involvement, reduces a teacher’s willingness to reform classroom practice, engagement to school initiatives and levels of participation in extra-curricular activities. a decrease in commitment levels during the course of the teaching career is also problematic in relation to the retention of experienced teachers in the classroom. thus, attention should be given to alleviating this issue or it would lower the quality of teachers’ commitment in the educational system (huberman, 1993). besides, n. fauziah et al. (2008) also discovered that teachers had low to moderate levels of professionalization, and there was no correlation between affective commitment and job environment in a study conducted in malaysia. it also reported that teachers only had moderate levels of affective, continuance, and normative commitment. thus, a more dynamic principal leadership style is needed and must be studied in order to improve the teachers’ commitment level. most importantly, the level of commitment is directly influenced by the principal’s leadership. hence, k. singh and b.s. billingsley (1996) indicated the importance of principal leadership in enhancing teacher commitment and the effect principals can have on teachers’ collegial relationship in a study. furthermore, lack of acknowledgement and professional support from school leaders diminished teachers’ commitment (elliott & crosswell, 2001). in addition, commitment to the workplace is becoming understood as a hallmark of organizational success (rosenholtz & simpson, 1990). the level of teachers’ commitment is seen as a key factor in the success of current educational reform agenda (crowley et al., 1998). furthermore, transformational approaches to leadership have increasingly been advocated for schools and the importance of individual principal-teacher relationship in schools was highlighted (mccormick, 2004). besides, transformational leadership would contribute to teacher commitment to organization values, exclusively through collective teacher efficacy. moreover, leadership would have direct effects on teacher commitment and indirect effects through teacher efficacy. furthermore, transformational leadership had an impact on the collective teacher efficacy of the school, teacher efficacy alone predicted teacher commitment to community partnerships, and transformational leadership had direct and indirect effects on sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 158 teacher commitment to school mission and commitment to professional learning community (ross & gray, 2006). besides, transformational leadership enhances an organization by raising the values of members, motivating them to go beyond self-interest to embrace organizational goals, and redefining their needs to align with organizational preferences (ross & gray, 2006). in addition, transformational leadership also contributes to a closely related concept, organizational citizenship which refers to an individual’s willingness to go beyond the formal requirements of the job, to engage in productive functions, and to enhance organizational effectiveness (koh, steers & terbong, 1995; leithwood, tomlinson & genge, 1996; and nguni, sleegers & denessen, 2006). the researcher is interested in studying the relationship between transformational leadership and teacher commitment in the educational institution, exclusively in the government secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia. minimal research attention has been directed towards the relationship between transformational leadership practices and teacher commitment in secondary schools in malaysia, essentially in sarawak. however, there has been research on the relationship between teachers’ commitment and job satisfaction. numerous reasons that lead to job satisfaction are high salary, favorable working environment, and rewards. nevertheless, the major cause of job satisfaction is the principals who embrace transformational leadership quality that enhances its impact to the teachers’ commitment to their profession and, thereafter, bring positive impact to the students’ academic performance. the deficiencies in our existing knowledge about the relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and teacher commitment are obvious. by examining this relationship between transformational leadership and teachers’ commitment in education institutions, we can increase our understanding on the importance of transformational leadership and its impact on the teachers’ commitment. moreover, this study provides the basics for assessing and improving the school principals’ leadership qualities in sarawak, malaysia. next, it helps the principals to acquire transformational leadership qualities which perceived to get teachers’ commitment. besides, it alerts the ministry of education of malaysia to understand the needs of implementing transformational leadership among the school principals to gain teacher commitment in malaysia. teacher commitment has been identified as one of the most critical factors for the future success of education and schools (huberman, 1993). the level of teachers’ commitment is considered to be a key factor in the success of the current educational reform agenda as it heavily influences teachers’ willingness to engage in cooperative, reflective, and critical practice. this is because teaching is a complex and demanding profession. to sustain their energy and enthusiasm for the work, teachers need to maintain their personal commitment to the job (day, 2000). this concept of commitment, as investment of personal resources, has long been associated with the professional characteristics of a teacher. besides, teaching is a educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 159 complex and demanding work and there is a daily need for teachers to fully engage in that work with not only their heads but also their hearts (day, 2000). aim, objective of study, and research questions the purposes of this study were to investigate: (1) the level of teacher commitment; (2) teachers’ perception of their principal’s transformational leadership qualities; (3) the relationship between transformational leadership i.e. idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration with teacher commitment i.e. towards organization, towards teaching profession, and towards student learning; (4) the relationship between moderators and teacher commitment; and (5) the differences in the mean scores among the transformational leadership and teacher commitment components in relation to teachers’ demography i.e. age-group, years of teaching experience, status, and service category. the questions formulated are as follows. first, what is the extent of the principal’s practice of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) in secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia? second, what is the extent of teacher commitment (towards organization, towards teaching profession, and towards student learning)? third, what are the extents of relationship between moderators (teacher efficacy and teaching experience) and teacher commitment? and finally, fourth, what are the differences in the mean scores of transformational leadership and teacher commitment in relation to teachers’ demography (age-group, years of teaching experience, status, and service category) in this study? conceptual framework and literature review on the “transformational leadership theory” is grounded on the theory by b.m. bass and r.e. rigglo (2006). on the other hand, the framework on “teacher commitment” is adapted from v. dannetta (2002). on the transformational leadership theory. factor analytic studies from b.m. bass (1985) to j.m. howell and b.j. avolio (1993) and from p. bycio, r.d. hackett and j.s. allen (1995) to b.j. avolio, b.m. bass and d.i. jung (1997) have identified the components of transformational leadership: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. first, it is “idealized influence”. transformational leaders behave in ways that allow them to serve as role models for their followers. the leaders are admired, respected, and trusted. followers identify with the leaders and want to emulate them; leaders are endowed by their followers as having extraordinary capabilities, persistence, and determination. thus, there are two aspects to idealized influence: the leaders’ behaviors and the elements that are attributed to the leader by followers and other associates. in addition, leaders who have a great deal of “idealized influence” are willing to take risks and are consistent rather than arbitrary. they sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 160 can be counted on to do the right thing, demonstrating high standards of ethical and moral conduct. second, it is “inspirational motivation”. transformational leaders behave in ways that motivate and inspire those around them by providing meaning and challenge to their followers’ work. team spirit is aroused. enthusiasm and optimism are displayed. leaders get followers involved in envisioning attractive future states; they create clearly communicated expectations that followers want to meet and also demonstrate commitment to goals and the shared vision. “inspirational motivation” leadership and “inspirational motivation” usually form a combined single factor of charismatic-inspirational leadership. the charismatic-inspirational factor is similar to the behaviors described in charismatic leadership theory (bass & avolio, 1993). third, it is “intellectual stimulation”. transformational leaders stimulate their followers’ efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching old situations in new ways. creativity is encouraged. there is no public criticism of individual members’ mistakes. new ideas and creative problem solutions are solicited from followers who are included in the process of addressing problems and finding solutions. followers are encouraged to try new approaches, and their ideas are not criticized because they differ from the leaders’ ideas. fourth, it is “individualized consideration”. transformational leaders pay special attention to each individual follower’s needs for achievement and growth by acting as a coach or mentor. followers and colleagues are developed to successively higher levels of potential. “individualized consideration” is practical when new learning opportunities are created along with a supportive climate. individual differences in terms of needs and desires are recognized. the leaders’ behavior demonstrates acceptance of individual differences. a two-way exchange in communication is encouraged and management by making around workspace is practical. interactions with followers are personalized. the individually considerate leader listens effectively. the leader delegates tasks as a means of developing followers. delegated tasks are monitored to see if the followers need additional direction or support and to assess progress; ideally, followers do not feel they are being checked on (bass & rigglo, 2006). on the teacher commitment. v. dannetta (2002) points out that regardless of the efforts of the most capable leaders in a school, accomplishing school goals depends in large part on a better understanding of the sources, nature and development of a teacher’s commitment. an understanding of teachers’ level of commitment is important because it reflects their personal interpretation of how absorbing and meaningful their work experiences are. commitment refers to one’s level of involvement in the organization. commitment describes an outcome in which one agrees with a decision or request and makes a great effort to carry out that decision or request effectively (yukl, 2006). for a complex, difficult task, commitment is usually the most successful outcome educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 161 from the perspective of the agent who makes an influence attempt (yukl, 2006). teacher commitment has been emphasized in three broad categories: commitment towards organization, commitment towards teaching profession, and commitment towards student learning (dannetta, 2002). first, “organizational commitment” definitions include the belief in and acceptance of organizational goals and values; willingness to exert effort on the organization’s behalf; and a desire to remain in the organization (mowday, porter & steers, 1982). second, “commitment towards teaching profession” is generally the degree to which one has a positive, affective attachment to one’s work (firestone & rosenblum, 1988; and coladarci, 1992). third, “commitment towards student learning” focuses on the degree to which teachers are dedicated to student learning regardless of the other issues that may be involved (e.g. academic difficulties and social background). first, on the “commitment towards organization” creates a sense of community, affiliation, and personal caring among adults within the schools and facilitates integration between personal life and work life (louis, 1998). many factors impact teachers’ levels of “commitment towards organization”. specifically, previous studies show that teachers’ “commitment towards organization” is influenced by: beliefs and acceptance of organizational goals (mowday, porter & steers, 1979 and 1982; and riehl & sipple, 1996); level of involvement in decision making (kushman, 1992); orderly climates conducive to learning (rosenholtz, 1989; and kushman, 1992); and student achievement (kushman, 1992). s.j. rosenholtz (1989) suggested two workplace factors that shape teacher commitment towards organization-psychic rewards and task autonomy. psychic rewards are important in shaping organizational commitment. for the work to the motivating, people must have knowledge of the success of their efforts (hackman & oldham, 1980). the amount of positive feedback one receives from doing work and one’s knowledge of his or her own performance are directly related. feedback can be obtained directly from the work itself or it can be obtained from external recognition and approved that may be offered by others within the organization. when people are able to gain estimates of their particular worth based upon positive performances, it amounts to psychic rewards (rosenholtz, 1989). increased task autonomy is another organizational condition that s.j. rosenholtz (1989) suggested can enhance teacher commitment. professional autonomy has a strong association with teacher commitment and gives teachers a sense of making greater contributions to the organization (nir, 2002). again, s.j. rosenholtz suggested that as people are given more autonomy and discretion to exercise judgment and choice, they become more aware of themselves as causal agents in their own performance. professional independence and discretion bolster motivation, responsibility, and commitment while a lack of autonomy is cited as a reason for dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and defection (chapman & hutcheson, 1982). when specific rules and mandatory teaching practices are counter to the professional practices that teachers know are successful, frustrations develop that can outweigh their rewards and inevitably the academic success of the school suffers (rosenholtz, 1989). sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 162 second, on the “commitment towards teaching” refers to the teaching profession in a general sense. accordingly, w.a. firestone and s. rosenblum (1988) described this dimension as emphasizing fulfillment from exercising craft skill. they also suggested that higher levels of commitment are experienced when there is a sense of relevance or purpose in one’s work. teachers with no sense of relevance on their teaching are not as committed as others, possibly due to the frustrations of their work. not only do teachers leave the profession because of frustration but also because they become attracted to alternative activities (fresko, kfir & nasser, 1997). commitment and the degree to which teachers are satisfied and enjoy what they are doing are interactions that take place throughout a teacher’s career (fresko, kfir & nasser, 1997). meanwhile, w.a. firestone and j.r. pennell (1993) noted that the committed teacher is one who is intrinsically motivated because of a sense of meaning in the job responsibilities. the level of commitment is further enhanced when there is a connection to the larger purpose as opposed to a routine task. to maximize intrinsic motivation and commitment, tasks should be neither too complex new too simplistic, but optimally challenging (deci & ryan, 1985). it is incumbent upon administrators to discern the difference and provide the appropriate support as needed in various situations. administrative support for teachers can enhance teacher commitment to teaching (firestone & rosenblum, 1988). support from administrators contributes to teachers’ performance and willingness to stay in the teaching field (dworkin, 1987). a primary area of support is student discipline. teachers expect the principal to control the public spaces in the school and to be sympathetic when teachers have problems with uncontrollable students (firestone & rosenblum, 1988). teachers also expect administrators to reduce paperwork, support them in parental disputes, and minimize outside interruptions to their classroom (rosenhlotz, 1985). third, on the “teacher commitment towards students” can be conceptualized as a commitment to students as unique, whole individuals (louis, 1998) or as a commitment to student learning. w.k. hoy and his colleagues’ conception of teacher commitment consist of the committed behaviors directed toward both the social and intellectual development of students (hoy & tarter, 1997; and hoy & sabo, 1998). commitment to students as unique, whole individuals is a form of commitment that may motivate teachers to interact with students on a more sensitive level such as adolescent development issues or extracurricular activities (louis, 1998). so, “commitment towards student learning” involves teacher dedication to helping students learn regardless of academic difficulties or social background (dannetta, 2002). as student learning increases, teachers gain intrinsic rewards and thus become more committed (kushman, 1992). teacher commitment to students may not necessarily contribute much to student learning (firestone & rosenblum, 1988). although high teacher commitment may not increase academic success, w.a. firestone and j.r. pennell (1993) noted that low teacher commitment contributed educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 163 to a reduction in student achievement. teachers with lower levels of commitment develop fewer plans to improve the academic quality of their instruction. they are less sympathetic toward students, have more anxiety, and have less tolerance for frustration in the classroom. methodology and research limitation quantitative survey method was applied and four broadly hypothesized relationships were tested with a sample of 1,014 trained non-graduate and graduate teachers serving in twenty-seven secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia. data were gathered via survey instruments entitled “transformational leadership and teacher commitment” developed based on conceptual framework on transformational leadership (bass & rigglo, 2006); teacher commitment (dannetta, 2002); literature review; and two components of moderators i.e. teacher efficacy (guskey & passaro, 1994) and teaching experience (adeyemi, 2008). a survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data as e. babbie (2001) suggested that survey is the best tool to collect authentic data from a big population through a sampling technique. the general theoretical correlation between these three variables and their components were shown in figure 1 below. the variables were: transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration); teacher commitment (towards organization, towards teaching profession, and towards student learning); and moderators (teacher efficacy and teaching experience). next, a survey research was the most suitable tool used in this study as the researcher did not have any authority over the transformational leadership practices in secondary schools in sarawak. moreover, any practices, plans or others concerning transformational leadership was beyond the ability of the researcher. besides, a research design was also best used to analyze a big and scattered population of teachers in sarawak. in addition, there were many researchers who had used a quantitative survey research to conduct studies on transformational practices and teacher commitment (amoroso, 2002; barbuto, 2005; antonakis, avolio & sivasubramaniam, 2007; and others). this study employed a survey questionnaire as it could present sensitive questions for the respondents to answer, and the respondents would also feel more relaxed in giving their feedback since their identities were protected (sekaran, 2003). next, it was also more practical and effective to be used for a big population as it could accommodate a bigger sample size that improved statistical accuracy by determining the population parameter and thus reducing the sampling error (konting, 2005). besides, it was cheaper and faster to conduct, and easier to enter the data into the computer and analyzed them more fairly using the consistent format (othman, 2002). sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 164 idealized influence inspirational motivation individualized consideration commitment to student learning commitment to teaching experience commitment to organization teacher efficacy teaching experience intellectual stimulation figure 1: possible relationships between transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and moderators. (source: adapted from v. dannetta, 2002; and b.m. bass & r.e. rigglo, 2006). l.r. gay and p. airasian (2000) suggested that a sample of 10-20% of the population is sufficient to carry out the research. however, the researcher increased the number of total respondents to 1,014 (53.26%) as j. pallant (2007) had suggested that choosing a larger sample size than what was needed was necessary. this was to enable a possible sufficient collection of data, should there be any spoilt survey questionnaires such as respondents did not return the instrument or did not attempt in answering the instrument completely. the samples were confined to school principals, trained non-graduate, and graduates teachers serving in twenty-seven government secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia as it contained sufficient samples whose qualification, certification, job confirmation, service category, and promotion were similar in the ministry of education in malaysia. it was also in accordance to what u. sekaran (2003) had suggested that certain groups were adequately represented through the assignment of a quota. next, it was a convenient sampling as the researcher was a trained graduate teacher serving in a government secondary schools in miri and it was believed it would yield the most accurate assessment of their principals’ leadership behaviors. educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 165 besides, p.f. amoroso (2002) suggested that gathering data from teachers working with a principal on a daily basis was determined to be the best source of this specific research design. it was a stratified random sampling based on the listed government secondary schools in sarawak as it was suitably used to obtain samples from a big and scattered population (mertzens, 1998; babbie, 2001; and konting, 2005). besides, it also ensured an availability of special characteristics which were needed to run statistical analysis in a study (cresswell, 2005). next, it could also reduce sampling error (konting, 2005). furthermore, disproportionate sampling was used as it had a sufficient representation of data which were necessary to examine the comparison in any hypotheses (sekaran, 2003). to collect data, a self-developed survey questionnaire was used as it permitted the collection or reliable and reasonably valid data in a sample and was cheap to administer (anderson & arsenault, 2002:170). it was motivated to collect data from a large number of respondents (mcburney, 2001:239). next, j.w. cresswell (2005) also suggested that the information in an instrument could also be used to answer research questions as required in a study. the “transformational leadership and teacher commitment questionnaire” consisted of six sections (school profile, principal’s and teacher’s profile, the practice of transformational leadership, teacher commitment level, and moderators), and had a total of 117 items. the questions on school profile, principals and teacher’s profile were in nominal scale, and the other sections dictated the responses on a five-point likert-scale like 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = moderate, 4 = often, and 5 = always; and 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = moderately agree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree. to ensure the clarity and readibility of the instructions, and the contents of the questionnaire, it was piloted to teachers in bintulu (another division) in sarawak, because b.w. tuckman (1999) had suggested that pilot study was essential to be conducted among the population which would not be taken as the real samples in a study. to achieve a better response rate, the feedback from some respondents were identified and rectified. to examine the reliability of the instrument, cronbach’s alpha was calculated to measure the internal consistency reliability of transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and moderators. the results showed the internal consistency reliability was above 0.90 in final stage excluding “commitment towards student learning”, “teacher efficacy”, and “teaching experience” which were below 0.75. however, all the scales had acceptable reliability as many researchers report that anything above 0.6 is acceptable. next, to examine its validity, the research instrument was analyzed using factor analysis. the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) values measure of sampling adequacy were well above the acceptable level of 0.6 and thus factorability was assumed (coakes, steed & dzidic, 2006). sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 166 the collected data were analyzed using spss (statistical package for the social science) version 15.0 program for windows for descriptive and inferential statistics. descriptive analysis, like mean scores and standard deviation, were used to examine the findings. inferential statistics like correlation analysis was used to examine the strength and linear relation direction between two variables (pallant, 2007). next, multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis that a significant relationship existed between transformational leadership and teacher commitment, and between moderators and teacher commitment. besides, analysis of variance (anova) and multivariate analysis of variance (manova) were used to determine the significant differences in mean scores among transformational leadership and teacher commitment components in relation to demography. it has relied primarily on samples drawn specifically from the trained teachers serving in secondary schools in miri, sarawak at a fixed period time only. hence, the direction of casualty cannot be determined. next, it is uncertain that the obtained results can be generalized to all the trained non-graduate and graduate teachers in other divisions in sarawak. besides, it is not a longitudinal study, and like any other cross-sectioned study, it can only provide a static perspective on fit. thus, only conclusions or discussions of the general relationships between the variables were drawn in this study. moreover, respondents were told that the questionnaires were collected mainly for research purposes which are likely to result in less self-enhancement than when data are collected for administrative purposes (farh & werbel, 1986; and korsgaard, schweger & sapienza, 2004). next, some teachers might have preconceived opinions and expectations regarding differences in their principal’s leadership behaviors and thus they might rate their leadership negatively as a way to seek revenge to blacklist him or her. on the other hand, some teachers might just simply answer the items for the sake of submitting the instruments. besides, some might have rated their commitment level higher as a way to please themselves and their principal. all these unfavorable behaviors might distort the reliability and validity of the instrument. furthermore, some showed reluctance to respond to the instrument as they feared that their principal might check and read their answers and thus affected their annual performance report. next, different cultural and international contexts may limit the generalizability of results. it is unclear whether the findings may have the same implications for teachers in different cultural environment as the values of the participants in this current study might not accurately represent the values of other countries. comparative studies across cultures, schools in other divisions or areas are needed in order to truly understand many of the constructs, included in the study. research findings the model was specified and tested using pearson correlation, multiple regression, anova (analysis of variance) and manova (multivariate analysis of variance) educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 167 analysis, and was found to fit the data reasonably. the high cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.723 to 0.954. it indicated that the items used for measuring transformational leadership and teacher commitment were reliable. on the other hand, kmo (kaiser-meyer-olkin) values which ranged from 0.617 to 0.868 showed that sampling adequacy was far greater than 0.6 and thus indicating that the instrument was significant (coakes, steed & dzidic, 2006). the statistical values for skewness and kurtosis recorded between -1.96 to +1.96 and thus the data were of normal distribution and were suitable for data analysis (chua, 2008). for skewness, it ranged from 0.036 to 0.612; and for kurtosis, it ranged from 0.054 to 0.671 in this study. on the extent of principal’s transformational leadership practice. teachers perceived an overall low level of their principals’ transformational leadership qualities as the mean scores recorded only 30.09. “idealized influence” recorded 41.88, “intellectual stimulation” stood 21.83, “inspirational motivation” recorded 27.77, and “individualized consideration” stood 28.86. on the extent of teacher commitment. teachers demonstrated an average level of commitment as the mean scores recorded 55.84. “commitment towards organization” recorded 93.96, “commitment towards teaching profession” stood 56.13, and “commitment towards student learning” recorded 17.43. on the extents of relationship between transformational leadership and teacher commitment. there were partially significant linear correlations between transformational leadership and teacher commitment (r = 0.443). “individualized consideration” recorded the strongest linear correlation (r = 0.516), and “inspirational motivation” had the weakest linear correlation (r = 0.463) with “commitment towards organization”. next, “inspirational motivation” had the strongest linear correlation (r = 0.398), and “intellectual stimulation” (r = 0.335) had the weakest linear correlation with “commitment towards teaching profession”. besides, “intellectual stimulation” had the lowest correlation (r = -0.18) with “commitment towards student learning”, and it was not significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). significantly, “individualized consideration” (b = 0.370, p<0.05) contributed 26.6 percent of the variance (r square = 0.266) in “commitment towards organization” as indicated by the f-value of [f(1.1012) = 367.202]. it indicated that “individualized consideration” (b = 0.516, p<0.05) was the main factor which caused the respondents to “commit towards organization”. the combination of both “individualized consideration” (b = 0.370, p<0.05), and “idealized influence” (b = 0.182, p<0.05) caused an increase of 1.2 per cent (27.8 – 26.6 per cent) to the variance (r square = 0.275) in “commitment towards organization” [f(2.1011) = 194.753, p<0.05]. in brief, “idealized influence” and “individualized consideration” were predictors of “commitment towards organization”. next, significantly, “inspirational motivation” (b = 0.264, p<0.05); “individualized consideration” (b = 0.295, p<0.05); and “intellectual stimulation” (b = 0.122, p<0.05) contributed 18.1 percent of the variance (r square = 0.181) sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 168 in “commitment towards teaching profession” as indicated by the f-value of [f(3.1010) = 74.328]. it indicated that “inspirational motivation” (b = 0.398, p<0.05) was the main factor which caused the respondents to commit towards teaching profession. the combination of both “inspirational motivation” (b = 0.229, p<0.05), and “individualized consideration” (b = 0.218, p<0.05) caused an increase of 1.9 per cent (17.7 – 15.8 per cent) to the variance (r square = 17.7) in “commitment towards teaching profession” [f(3.1011) = 108.948, p<0.05]. besides, when “intellectual stimulation” (b = 0.122, p<0.05) was included, all the three independent variables contributed 18.1 per cent (r = 0.043) of the variability in “commitment towards teaching profession” [f(3.1010) = 74.328]. in brief, “inspirational motivation”, “individualized consideration”, and “intellectual stimulation” were predictors of “commitment towards teaching profession”. however, “idealized influence”, “inspirational motivation”, “intellectual stimulation”, and “individualized consideration” were not predictors of “commitment towards student learning” in this study. on the extents of relationship between moderators and teacher commitment. there were significant linear correlations between moderators and teacher commitment. “teacher efficacy” had the strongest linear correlation (r = 0.377) with “commitment towards organization”, and the weakest linear correlation (r = 0.107) with “commitment towards student learning”. next, “teaching experience” had the strongest linear correlation (r = 0.292) with “commitment towards organization”, and the weakest linear correlation with “commitment towards student learning” (r = 0.029), and it was significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. next, significantly, “teacher efficacy” (b = 0.308, p<0.05) and “teaching experience” (b = 0.143, p<0.05) contributed 15.8 percent of the variance (r square = 0.158) in “commitment towards organization” as indicated by the f-value of [f(2.1011) = 94.890]. in brief, “teacher efficacy” and “teaching experience” were factors to “commitment towards organization”. besides, significantly, “teacher efficacy” (b = 0.274, p<0.05), and “teaching experience” (b = 0.156, p<0.05) contributed 14.1 percent of the variance (r square = 0.141) in “commitment towards teaching profession” as indicated by the f-value of [f(2.1011) = 82.919]. in brief, “teacher efficacy” and “teaching experience” were factors to “commitment towards teaching profession”. moreover, significantly, “teacher efficacy” (b = 0.107, p<0.05) contributed 10.7 percent of the variance (r square = 0.107) in “commitment towards student learning” as indicated by the f-value of [f(1.1012) = 11.633]. in brief, “teacher efficacy” was a factor to “commitment towards student learning”. on the differences in mean scores among transformational leadership and teacher commitment components in relation to demography. to explain about the differences, there are three sections as follows: first, differences in mean scores among transformational leadership qualities in relation to demography. there was a significant difference in mean scores among educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 169 transformational leadership qualities in relation to teachers’ age-group [f(4,1009) = 3.756, p = 0.005], and years of teaching experience [f(7,1006) = 2.456, p = 0.017]. therefore, the null hypotheses were rejected at the 0.05 level. however, there was a non-significant difference in mean scores between transformational leadership components and teachers’ status [f(2,1011) = 2.435, p = 0.088], and service category [f(5,1008) = 2.117, p = 0.061]. therefore, the null hypotheses were confirmed at the 0.05 level. second, differences in mean scores among teacher commitment components in relation to demography. there was a partial significant difference in mean scores between teacher commitment components and teachers’ age-group [f(4,1009) = 1.643, p = 0.161]. therefore, the null hypothesis was partially rejected. the general findings were “commitment towards organization” [f(4,1009) = 3.509, p = 0.007]; “commitment towards teaching profession” [f(4,1009) = 0.739, p = 0.566]; and “commitment towards student learning” [f(4,1009) = 1.732, p = 0.141]. next, there was a significant difference between teacher commitment components and years of teaching experience [f(7,1006) = 3.286, p = 0.002]. therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected at the 0.05 level. the general findings were “commitment towards organization” [f(7,1006) = 3.224, p = 0.002]; “commitment towards teaching profession” [f(7,1006) = 2.678, p = 0.009]; and “commitment towards student learning” [f(7,1006) = 0.989, p = 0.438]. moreover, there was a non-significant difference between teacher commitment components in relation to teachers’ status [f(2,1011) = 0.812, p = 0.444]; and service category [f(5,1008) = 1.707, p = 0.130]. therefore, the null hypotheses were confirmed at the 0.05 level. third, multivariate analysis of variance (manova). there were no significant differences in the mean scores for transformational leadership practices in relation to age-group [f(4,1014) = 1.425, p = 0.120, pillai’s trace = 0.026]; service category [f(20,1014) = 0.918, p = 0.564, pillai’s trace = 0.021]; years of teaching experience [f(28,1014) = 0.982, p = 0.492, pillai’s trace = 0.031]; and status at school [f(8,1014) = 0.895, p = 0.520, pillai’s trace = 0.008]. thus, the null hypotheses were not rejected. moreover, there were no significant differences in the mean scores of transformational leadership practices for the interaction effects between demography in relation to transformational leadership practice. discussion of findings on the extent of transformational leadership practices. the findings (a low level of transformational leadership practices) did not support the studies which highlighted the dynamism of transformational leadership that could bring changes to the level of teacher commitment. according to b.m. bass (1990:21), transformational leadership occurs when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their employees, when they generate awareness an acceptance of the purposes and mission of the sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 170 group, and when they stir employees to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group. together, heightened capacity and commitment are held to lend to additional effort and greater productivity (leithwood & jantzi, 2000; barbuto, 2005; and spreitzer, perttula & xin, 2005). on the extent of teacher commitment. the findings (a moderate level of teacher commitment) matched with the studies that teachers in malaysia had low to moderate levels of professionalisation, and the study also reported that teachers only had moderate levels of affective, continuance, and normative commitment (fauziah et al., 2008). many factors impact teachers’ levels of commitment towards organization. specifically, previous studies showed that teachers’ commitment towards organization was influenced by: beliefs and acceptance of organizational goals (mowday, porter & steers, 1979; and riehl & sipple, 1996); level of involvement in decision making (kushman, 1992); orderly climates conducive to learning (rosenholtz, 1989; and kushman, 1992); and student achievement (kushman, 1992). on the extents of relationship between transformational leadership and teacher commitment. there were partially significant linear correlations between transformational leadership and teacher commitment. first, “individualized consideration” and “idealized influence” were factors to “commitment towards organization”. this finding matched with a study that “individualized consideration” is one of the most important factors in describing transformational leadership in collectivistic culture when an emphasis on teamwork was also expected (karen et al., 2005). next, “inspirational motivation”, “individualized consideration”, and “intellectual stimulation” were factors to “commitment towards teaching profession”. besides, there were no factors influencing “commitment towards student learning”. it matched with the previous study that teachers were reluctant to show “commitment towards student learning” as teachers were most dissatisfied with student motivation and discipline, lack of recognition, and administrative support (darling-hamond, 1999). in brief, the findings were partially supporting with the studies that transformational leadership had a significant positive effect on organizational commitment (koh, steers & terbong, 1995; and geijsel, sleegers & berg, 2003). higher levels of organizational commitment are reported among employees when leaders are perceived as being more transformational. moreover, transformational leadership behaviors were found to have significant impact on teacher commitment (amoroso, 2002). furthermore, k. leithwood et al. (2004) also reported that transformational leadership had significant direct and indirect effects on teachers’ commitment to change. on the extents of relationship between moderators and teacher commitment. there were significant linear correlations between “teacher efficacy” and teacher commitment. the findings support with studies that teachers who have higher levels of teaching efficacy are better able to cope, have higher levels of commitment to educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 171 teaching, and experience greater satisfaction with their job (nir & kranot, 2006); and the school principal plays an important role in fostering teacher commitment and teacher efficacy (vanderstoep, anderman & midgley, 1994). next, school administrators can also enhance teacher commitment by building teachers’ selfefficacy (chan et al., 2008). besides, the findings supported the hypothesis that “teacher efficacy” and “teaching experience” were factors determining teacher commitment (towards organization, towards teaching profession, and towards student learning). the findings support the studies “teacher efficacy” and “teaching experience” have significant positive effects on teacher commitment. furthermore, a key individual variable that has been consistently found to be a significant predictor of teacher commitment is teacher efficacy (coladarci, 1992; and ebmeier, 2003). for teaching experience, it has been documented that as teachers’ service durations get longer, their organizational commitment levels increase (celep, 2000). this was apparent based on increases in the levels of commitment to the school, teaching work, and work group (solomon, 2007). in brief, there were significant linear correlations between “teacher efficacy” and teacher commitment. next, “teacher efficacy” and “teaching experience” were factors to teacher commitment (towards organization and towards teaching profession). however, “teaching efficacy” was a factor to “commitment towards student learning”. on the differences in mean scores between transformational leadership and teacher commitment components in relation to demography. to discuss about the differences, there are three sections as follows: first, differences in mean scores among transformational leadership components in relation to demography. there were significant differences among age-group and years of teaching experience components in relation to “idealized influence”, “inspirational motivation”, and “intellectual stimulation” but not “individualized consideration” quality shown by their principal. however, there were no significant differences among status at school and service category components with regards to “idealized influence”, “inspirational motivation”, “intellectual stimulation” but there were significant difference in relation to “individualized consideration”. in brief, there were partially significant differences among transformational leadership components in relation to demography. second, differences in mean scores among teacher commitment components in relation to demography. there were significant differences among agegroup components in relation to “commitment towards organization” but not “commitment towards teaching profession” and “commitment towards student learning”. next, there were significant differences among years of teaching experience in relation to their “commitment towards organization” and “towards teaching profession”, but not “commitment towards student learning”. besides, there were no significant differences among status at school in relation to teacher commitment. furthermore, there were no significant differences among service category in relation to their “commitment towards organization”, “towards student sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 172 learning” but there were significant differences in relation to “commitment towards teaching profession”. in brief, there were partially significant differences among demography and teacher commitment. third, differences in mean scores among demography on transformational leadership and teacher commitment. there were no significant differences among demography in relation to transformational leadership and teacher commitment. this is the first paper that studies the influence of four dimensioned transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) and selected moderating variables (teacher efficacy and teaching experience) on the three broad conceptualization of teacher commitment (towards organization, teaching profession, and student learning). to some extent, the findings demonstrated that there was either direct or indirect relationship between transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and moderators (teacher efficacy and teaching experience). conclusion and suggestion clearly, the findings show supporting evidence for the notion that transformational leadership behaviors are strongly correlated to employees’ sense of commitment. as previously discussed, teacher commitment has been linked with commitment towards organization, towards teaching profession, and towards student learning; it is logical to assume that the practice of transformational leadership behaviors by school leaders enhances teacher commitment in secondary schools in miri, sarawak, malaysia. since no study has been conducted examining the relationship of transformational leadership and teacher commitment, exclusively among the trained teachers in miri, this study would be viable and relevant to improve the school academic performance in sarawak, malaysia. this study has highlighted the importance of transformational leadership and moderators (teacher efficacy and teaching experience) in improving the level of teacher commitment; and future endeavors should compare these findings with similar predictors, criterion, and moderators in other areas. besides, it suggests that the school principals should seriously consider transformational leadership qualities in improving teacher commitment level in the school. besides, future research could consider multiple sources of performance ratings such as employing self and peer-evaluations, in addition to supervisory ratings (barksdale & werner, 2001). it did not examine the level of teachers’ commitment by the school principals as a confirmation on teachers’ self-assessment of their commitment in schools. thus, another potential area for research is empirically testing and confirming teachers’ commitment level in schools by the school principals. moreover, the sample size should also be increased with samples drawn from diverse locations or areas so as to promise generalizability of findings. future research should examine the impact of transformational leadership qualities and moderators in order to supplement and complement the findings of the educare: international journal for educational studies, 4(2) 2012 173 current research. notably, from the results, teacher efficacy and teaching experience can be taken as independent variables in determining teacher commitment in schools. nonetheless, the line of research can still be expanded by exploring other determinants which could be taken as predictors and moderators of teacher commitment. furthermore, teachers are influenced not just by their principals but also more generally by their peers (fellow colleagues) with whom they interact on a daily basis in the organization contact (johanson, 2000; and lamertz, 2002). besides, factors like situation and school climate would probably have an impact on teachers’ level of commitment. next, it was noted that leaders use interpersonal or inspirational influence tactics when encouraging colleagues to do tasks that they highly resist or when seeking performance beyond expectation (bass, 1985; and barbuto, 2005). thus, future research could investigate the impact of fellow colleagues, characteristics of the situations, the school climate, and the characteristics of the followers and leaders on improving teachers’ commitment level in schools (yukl, 2006). in addition, data were confined to miri, sarawak; and thus the results were limited to generalization to the population as a whole. therefore, it is recommended to conduct a state or national sample that would likely yield results that is more reflective and generalizable to the state or national population. moreover, it was designed to exclusively measure trained teachers’ perception of their principal’s transformational leadership qualities, and their own level of commitment. expanding this study to include principals may result in a comparative research study that would compare the results of principals and teachers’ responses. it would provide insights about principals’ perceptions of their leadership behaviors compared to the perceptions of their teachers. it will thus be beneficial in the development of collaborative training opportunities. besides, it was designed through quantitative methods which did not allow further exploration of teachers’ responses on survey items. it is, therefore, recommended to design a comprehensive qualitative study that includes an interview which allows respondents to write down responses in accordance to the questions. this will provide essential information on the other factors that determine teacher commitment. moreover, a study is needed to explore the collaboration efforts used between university administrator training programs and government schools to increase the awareness of the importance of transformational leadership qualities and the sense of teacher efficacy in improving teacher commitment level among newly trained school administrators. these findings add to the field of studies that transformational leadership continues to be a key element in gaining teacher commitment. it also offers suggestions for policy-amendable strategies which would then increase awareness of the significant positive impact that transformational leadership qualities and sense of teacher efficacy have in gaining teacher commitment. sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 174 references adeyemi, t.o. 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(2006). leadership in organization. new jersey: upper saddle river, prentice hall, 6th edition. sii ling @ mee ling, the influence of transformational leadership 178 school leadership is absolutely crucial to energize and bring dynamism to our schools. it is the vital role of a school leadership to nurture professional growth and bring effective leadership to bear in schools. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 87© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare anggun badu kusuma & reni untarti the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error in form of pictures on the geometry of space subject abstract: the space geometry is one of the major subjects, which must be taken by the students of the mathematics education. the aim of the courses is to make students are able to master the form geometry in three dimensions. competencies must be mastered include the ability to draw space, the ability to draw the slice field, and the ability to determine the extents of the slice field. based on the competencies, the material of the space geometry was not an easy matter to be mastered by students. students needed their imagination to visualize the shape, which came from the twodimensional images shaped into a three dimensional or vice versa. these difficulties did not only occur on the students, but also the mathematics teachers, who had the learning process in the schools. this research belonged to qualitative descriptive study, in which the subject of this research was the class a second semester students of mathematics education study program of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, in academic year 2015/2016, which belonged to the class of the shape geometry. the instruments which were used were the observation sheet and the documentation in the form of photographs or videos. the research procedures consisted of the steps in the lesson study in 3 cycles. each cycle consisted of plan, do, and see steps. the result of the study was that the students’ error of mathematical communication ability was in the form of pictures on the space geometry subjects occurred on the drawing procedure in the determination of the slice field; the concept of an image in three dimensions; and the students’ concept in the fields analysis. key words: mathematical communication skill; lesson study; geometry of space; form of pictures; students’ concept. about the authors: anggun badu kusuma and reni untarti are the lecturers at the departement of mathematics education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. e-mails: anggunbadu@ump.ac.id and reniuntarti@gmail.com suggested citation: kusuma, anggun badu & reni untarti. (2018). “the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error in form of pictures on the geometry of space subject” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february, pp.87-94. bandung, indonesia and bs begawan, brunei darussalam: minda masagi press owned by aspensi and briman institute, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (december 13, 2017); revised (january 15, 2018); and published (february 28, 2018). introduction the space geometry is one of the major subjects, which must be taken by the students of the mathematics education (ta, 2016). the aim of the courses is to make students are able to master the form geometry in three dimensions. competencies must be mastered include the ability to draw space, the ability to draw the slice field, and the ability to determine the extents of the slice field (reilly, 1998; and ta, 2016). based on the competencies, the material of the space geometry was not an easy matter to be mastered by students. students needed their imagination to visualize the shape, which came from the two-dimensional images anggun badu kusuma & reni untarti, the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error 88 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare shaped into a three dimensional or vice versa. these difficulties did not only occur on the students, but also the mathematics teachers, who had the learning process in the schools (cf eryaman, 2009; kariadinata, 2010; and evbuomwan, 2013). this condition based on the results of research, which shows that teachers of mathematics often had problems when drawing three-dimensional slice field (budiarto, koespono & nindyo, 1998; and lee & zeppelin, 2014). other studies had also shown that the problems, which happened in the space geometry were in the construct the form of geometry (pressman, 1997; and kariadinata, 2010). the problems experienced by students above was closely associated with one of mathematical ability, that was mathematical communication ability. communication is the process of submitting an idea or ideas to others (shadiq, 2009; and chun, 2015). the delivery of this idea can be done by using a variety of ways, either oral or written. the communication in mathematics learning focused on the importance of the ability to speak, write, draw, and describe various mathematical concepts (bold, 2001; and van de walle, 2007). with these conditions, the communications required the interactions, so that it created the understanding and the changing in common (dansereau & markham, 1987; and soekamto et al., 1993). in this three dimensional problems, the more specific communication and corresponding to the context of the problem capabilities were the ability of mathematical communication. mathematical communication is an activity for organizing, communicating, analyzing, and evaluating a mathematical idea, and using mathematical language appropriately (nctm, 2000). another definition said that the ability of mathematical communication was the ability to connect real objects, images or diagrams into mathematical ideas that was orally spoken or written through real objects, images, diagrams or algebra, and to declare everyday events using mathematical language (syaban, 2006). in other words, the components in the mathematical communication included vocabulary, symbols of algebra, a representation of the visual forms, tables, and charts (morgan, 2002). based on these definitions, the ability of mathematical communication was a prerequisite for the development of ideas or mathematical ideas (kilpatrick, hoyles & skovsmose, 2005). it was because without any mathematical communication, the mathematical idea would be kept only in one's mind. in education, this condition was very dangerous, because students could not develop and convey the knowledge they had to others (flevares & schiff, 2014). in addition, lecturers also could not know the ability of the student. communication problems within the students could not be solved quickly, but this required a kind of process and practice. with this process and practice, students were expected to be accustomed to communicate mathematically. to find out the students' mathematical communication abilities, we could see from their ability to express ideas. the expression of the idea could be: expenditure of mathematical ideas orally, written, demonstration, or visual; and proper use of language, notation, and mathematical structure (nctm, 2000). in this study, the focus of the learning is the lesson study. lesson study is an approach that can improve the quality of learning and it comes from japan (susilo et al., 2009). lesson study aims to improve knowledge of the concept of learning community (syamsuri & ibrohim, 2009). by using the lesson study, teachers can learn from conditions that occur in the classroom (kemendiknas ri et al., 2012). based on the explanation above, the researchers intended to do the research about the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills eror in form of pictures on class a of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) mathematics education student of second semester in academic year 2015/2016 in the geometry of space subject based on lesson study. methods this research was a descriptive qualitative research, and the implementation was based educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 89© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare on the stage of the lesson study (jacobs, lee & ball, 1996; creswell, 1998; and elliott & timulak, 2005). stages of the lesson study included a plan (planning), do (execution), and see (reflection and evaluation). the plan started with doing the preparation against technical and needs that wold be made in learning. “do” was the implement activities which were planned in the action plan. “see” was the reflection and evaluation of the activities of learning activities (jacobs, lee & ball, 1996). this research was done on the even semester academic year 2015/2016 in mathematical education courses at the ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. the subject of this research was the class a semester ii students of mathematics education study program at the ump in academic year 2015/2016, which belonged the space geometry class. the data collection techniques used in this study were the observation and the documentation (creswell, 1998; and kawulich, 2005). the data in this study was done with the observation which was made by 3 professional observers, they were: anggun badu kusuma, m.pd.; reni untarti, m.pd.; and wanda nugroho y., m.pd. the observation was guided by the observation sheets of questions related mathematical communication skills of the students. the documentations which were obtained in this research in the form of videotapes and photograph of each the activities of the plan, do, and see, as well as the results of the work of the students. after the data was retrieved, then, the data was analyzed in qualitative descriptively, such as following here (cf creswell, 1998; pope, ziebland & mays, 2000; attride-stirling, 2001; and elliott & timulak, 2005): firstly, data reduction. this step was done to choose the data whether it was appropriate in accordance with the research issues or not. for this research, the data which used was the data which supported the communication skills of students. secondly, presentating the data. after the appropriate data was selected, then, the data was presented in the form of pictures or the explanation of descriptions. thirdly, triangulation of data. in this process, the data that was presented was adjusted from another source, for example, the data that was from observational results was suited with the data from the results of the documentation. fouthly, the withdrawal of the conclusion. after the data was adjusted, then, it became conclusions about how the communication ability of college students of the subject of research. results and discussion identification of the communication skills of the students in this research was known by the results of the work of the students and the presentation in the class. the findings in every cycle are following here: cycle i. the learning material on the first cycle is painting the slice field on the cube. the finding on cycle i as follows: firstly, the drawing procedure in determining the slice field was not heeded yet. for example, the students did not give number sort on any line painted. this affected on the process of rechecking the images, in which the students were confuse when they were asked to re-explain in painting the iris fields that had been drawn. look at figure 1, it was a student which was drawing and there was no number sort yet on any line that was drawn. if the drawing procedure was correlated with the mathematical communication skill, it meant that the students could not be able to convey their idea correctly in written. secondly, most of the student's ability in understanding the concept of intersect line was still low. for example, the students considered that two lines crossing could intersect in a single point, whereas two lines crossing could not intersect at a point. this error happened, because the ability of the students in representing 3 dimensions shape in figure 2 dimensions was still low. it meant that the students could not be able to convey their idea correctly visually. from figure 1, it could be seen that the student tried to determine the point z which was an intersection between line rr' with the line ef, even though the two lines would not anggun badu kusuma & reni untarti, the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error 90 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare intersect, since both of the lines crossed each other. thirdly, the students didn’t not understand the concept of the slice field yet. this can be seen in figure 2. from the figure 2, it could be seen that the students marked out the slice field to the geometry. this mistake showed that the students could not be able to convey their idea correctly visually. fourthly, the concept of students about how the formation of the line was still low. it could be seen when the students made a line, they used only one point. whereas by passing through the single point could be made not only one line. this mistake happened, because there was a lack of the students’ concept understanding of the line and the students’ skill in conveying the mathematical idea visually was low as well. fifthly, there were still many students who had difficulties to develop the concept of the intersection of two lines in one plot, especially if the known points were not on the edge of a space. the example of images space was like in figure 3, when the point r was on the field adhe, but it was not on the edge the space abcd and efgh. related to the mathematical communication skill, this phenomenon showed that the students also were not be able to present their mathematical idea into the visual picture. in the first cycle, there were two errors related to the students’ mathematical communication skill in drawing the sliced field on the cube, such as: firstly, the students were not be able to convey their idea in written. it could be seen when the students did not mention the steps in drawing the sliced field on the cube. when the students were asked to re explain it, they would be confused. finally, the students realised their lack that had been done. when the students had finally realised about it, hopefully they would not do the error anymore. secondly, the students were not be able to represent their mathematical idea in visual image. visual representation helped the students to solve the problem by connecting the information, which had been found on the figure 1: crossed line figure 2: errors in marking the slice field mathematical problem which was needed to solve the problem (woodward et al., 2012; and barmby et al., 2013). in the other word, when the students were not be able to represent their problem in the visual form, they would have difficulty in solving the problem. cycle 2. learning materials on the second cycle are painting the slice field at phiramid. the findings of the on cycle ii as follows: firstly, the student still did not give the code sequence of line pictures that educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 91© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare was formed. this can be seen in figure 4. although the errors still happened to the students, the amount of them was less than the first cycle. it meant that the students had tried to communicate their ideas in written. secondly, another procedure that was forgotten by the student in drawing the slice field was that they did not pay attention to the pencil scratches thickness on the drawing. this result that it was not able to distinguish which the line that was still an experiment and the one that had been an outcome. in addition, from the beginning since they had drown thick strokes as the error occured, then, the trace was not clean and could not be deleted clearly, and it made the figure looked dirty. this can be seen in figure 4. thirdly, the students do not yet understand the concept of the axis affinity. this can be seen in figure 5. from the figure 5, it looked that axis affinity that students aimed at was the line rq. this case went against the concept of the affinity of the axis. because they had missconcept of this affinity axis, it had an effect on the results of the figure that would be got. axis affinity mostly determined the formation of other lines that in one field. fourthly, the students do not yet understand the concept of a point. note dan see in figure 6. from the figure 6, it looked that the way that the students determined the point o was done randomly. students should look for the lines that intersect each other and, then, it was continued by the new point. in these images, the students determined any point o on the line l and then they connected the point o with the point q, so that it formed a line oq. fifthly, for the more difficulty question, the students couldn’t determine how to start to draw the figure. the students wrongly connected all points. this can be seen in figure 7. the finding number 3, 4, and 5 showed that the students did not understand yet the concept related to the material which was learnt. the understanding is the essential part so that the students can overcome their own problem (nctm, 2000; and newton, 2015). based on the finding, it could be concluded figure 3: the point is outside of the edge figure 4: drawing procedure errors figure 5: error determining axis affinity anggun badu kusuma & reni untarti, the identification of the students’ mathematical communication skills error 92 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare that when the students could not understand the material which was learnt, then they could not communicate their mathematical ideas and finally they could not overcome their problem. cycle 3. the learning process on the third cycle was painting the slice field on the cube as well as calculating the extent. the findings of the on cycle 3, as follows: firstly, in this cycle, there was a new problem of the student that was that students experienced the obstacle toward the concept of comparison. the student could not draw if the data lines were known in the form of comparison. for example: student couldn’t draw the line ab and point k on the line ab with ak ∶ kb = 2, but he could draw ab ∶ ak = 3 : 2. even though the two problems were similar, but the students were confused. this problem occured, because the students could not apply the form of comparison in a figure. secondly, the student could not determine the name of the iris field that was formed. if a student was not able to determine the name of the two-dimension figures from of the iris that was formed, then the student had difficulty in determining the area (cf paulu, 2001; sava, 2007; and kariadinata, 2010). it happened, because the students could not acknowledge the features on the figure, so that they would have a difficulty in counting the area. on cycle 3, the issues facing college students still remain with regard to the inability of students to understand concepts which in the end, they weren’t able to express mathematical ideas as they are in the form of writings or visual. conclusion based on the findings of the three cycles, it could be said that the miscommunications of mathematical student that were found, firstly, the procedure of drawing in the determination of the field of iris. student mathematical communication errors in the drawing procedure were: determining which line with thick or thin pencil stroke; giving the numbers sort in any lines which were formed; and the hygiene of the paper. those errors made the students had the difficulty in conveying the figure 6: error determining point figure 7: the geometry difficulty level which is more difficulty mathematical ideas in the written form and the visual form, so that the people could not understand what the students thought. secondly, the concept of figure in three dimensions. these errors were that the students were not being able to explain and imagine the shapes of three dimensions, which were presented in the form of images (in the form of two dimensions). furthermore, for the vice versa, the students could not imagine the real shape of the figures of three dimensions which were given. it meant that the students had the difficulty to express their mathematical ideas in the visual form. thirdly, the concept of students in the field analysis. the mathematical communication error analysis of students in this field were: educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 93© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare (1) the misunderstanding of the concept of points, lines, and fields. some concepts were not mastered, such as that there was one intersection that passed through the two lines which intersected each other, one line could be made by passing through two points, there 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(2012). improving mathematical problem solving in grades 4 through 8: a practice guide. washington, dc: ncee [national center for education evaluation] and regional assistance, institute of education sciences, u.s. department of education. available online also at: http:// ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications_reviews. aspx#pubsearch [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: october 28, 2016]. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 27© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the authors: dr. anuar din is a senior lecturer at the school of education and social development ums (malaysia university of sabah), 88400 kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia; sabdin hussin alipin is a teacher at sabah education department, kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia and graduate master of education (education management) from ums; and dr. abdul said ambotang is a senior lecturer at the school of education and social development ums in kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia. the authors can be contacted via e-mails address at: anudin@ums.edu.my, sabdyn_81@yahoo.com, and said@ums.edu.my how to cite this article? din, anuar, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang. (2014). “principals’ leadership style and stress with teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.27-42. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educareijes.com/principals-leadership-style/ chronicle of the article: accepted (march 20, 2014); revised (may 30, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction a massive development in each country lies critically on its place within the education and development agenda. once you have signed the agreement as being an educator, it is certain rise and fall of a nation lies on his or her shoulder. responsibility pledged not only to disseminate knowledge to students, but people usually expect more than that. it is undeniable that phrases like teachers are like candles that burn themselves to light the way for others since they are facing many challenges over the years until the present time. indeed, the teacher not only undertake the task as teachers who are committed to teaching, but also educate and transform man named students who have not mastered the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic to be a successful man (dirwan & seman, 2001; and ambotang, 2010). therefore, there is no denying that teachers need to handle all responsibility for achieving a more rapid development of the country. in embracing globalization without boundaries, the role of the teacher is needed because without them, progress to be achieved will be retarded. teachers are given a role in the forefront to block everything that could undermine the country. through the perspective of community, great teachers are those who have high selfesteem, integrity, knowledgable, efficiency, creativity, dedication, diligence, and competence in pedagogy and attitudes to anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers with intention of leaving the teaching profession abstract: the principal plays an important entity in the school’s success. in order to produce an excellent school, the principal must pay attention to good working conditions for teachers. factors of the principal’s school management and leadership greatly affects aspects of teachers’ satisfaction and their comfort in handling their jobs as a teacher in the school. this study aims to investigate the leadership style and stress among teachers with the intention of leaving the teaching profession. a total of 165 respondents were involved in this study. this study is a survey using quantitative methods. the questionnaire used in this study. data were analyzed by computer software statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 20.0 using t-test, one way anova, and pearson correlation analysis; and the data obtained are described through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. the results showed a significant relationship (r = .195, p < 0.05) between the style of leadership with the intention of leaving the teaching profession. the results also showed a significant correlation (r = .293, p < 0.01) between teacher stress with the intention to leave the teaching profession among teachers. in addition, the study also showed that the intention to leave the teaching profession based on demographic factors of gender, age, education level, job category, and length of service among teachers is simple. at the end of the discussion, the researchers expressed some implications of the study and further research recommendations. key words: leadership style, stress, intention of leaving the teaching profession, the role of teacher in malaysia, and demographic factors. anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 28 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com continue to drive excellence. teachers’ ability to disseminate knowledge translated in appearance, attitude, and high self worth that will accelerate the appreciation of teaching and learning. a great teacher will be able to advance the profession of education and teaching at a higher level. responsibility and trust given to the teacher, then finally move the ministry of education (moe) malaysia to introduce the education development master plan (2006-2010) in the interest of upholding the teaching profession. therefore, teachers need to be aware of the importance of their role in the educational arena to produce a method or a more high-impact strategies in strengthening the education community in our country. prime minister, datuk seri najib tun razak, at the launch of the preliminary report education development plan 2013-2025, recently described the plan as a comprehensive and thorough. this long-term plan has outlined 11 shifts that must be addressed, include the transformation of teaching as a profession of choice and ensure highperformance leader stationed at each school (cited in mynewshub, 13/12/2012). through the moe malaysia, the transformation of the education system developed by education development plan 2013-2025, among others, aims to produce an education system based on five features aspirations of access, quality, equity, solidarity, and efficiency. in an increasingly competitive global environment, the country needs a transformation in the entire education system to meet the demands of developing countries under the new economic model (nem), economic transformation programme (etp), and government transformation programme (gtp). research background the data, taken from the ministry of education (moe) malaysia in october 2012, stated that civil servants who worked as a teacher is of 412,720 people. this gives an impression that civil servant who works as teachers represent about 29 per cent over the total civil servants in malaysia. this data also shows the number of teachers working in secondary schools is of 176,407 people, whereas the number of teachers working at the primary sechools level is the total of 236,313 people. meanwhile, new data obtained from the information and communication unit, the sabah state education department found that the number of secondary school teachers in the sabah until 10 april 2013 stood at 15,033 people. of this amount, a total of 6,143 people, or 40.86 per cent, are males and 8,890 people, or 59.14 percent, are females. meeting the challenges in the learning environment of the 21st century, the government through the moe malaysia has outlined a number of strategies in an effort to upgrade the teaching profession at the same profession as the top choice in the job market in the near future. among the work that has been done, including the moe malaysia to increase the professionalism of teachers through the special program for the teaching diploma, graduate teacher programme, twinning program of the institute of aminuddin baki (iab) with the university officer training scheme and abroad, upgrading the lecturer in teaching institute that have basic degrees are encouraged to apply for scholarships for a master’s degree or ph.d., either locally or abroad, and many more. at the same time, educators are also offered with a variety of rewards and promotion opportunities as the post of the outstanding principal, excellent teachers, and promotional posts for “time base” (ambotang, 2010). zaidatol akmaliah lope pihie (2001) explains that one of the reasons there is a problem in school administration, when school leaders or less taking into account, the tendency of teacher dissatisfaction factors. a review taken from f.c. lunenberg & a.c. ornstein (2000) also found that leadership behaviors practiced by school leaders have a major influence on job satisfaction of the teacher. abdul shukor abdullah (2004) asserts that elements of management and leadership are a key factor in achieving effectiveness and downs of school. thus, at the school level, principals are leaders, managers, and administrators who will perform a variety of functions and should have the competence and wisdom educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 29© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com to affect leadership. in order to ensure there is an increase in productivity, teachers are burdened with multiple tasks and additional responsibilities. in 2005, the national union of the teaching profession (nutp) claimed that the level of stress among teachers in this country is a serious concern due to the increasing workload (cited in mohd noor, 2011). ishak mad shah (2004) states that the cause of the stress management in the workplace is the workload. we are currently making a progress in the field of knowledge-based economy, thus claiming the all educators to work even harder in terms of improving their level of knowledge, especially in education arena. in other words, the teacher demanded to change their view of their surroundings. ishak mad shah (2004) was also stated that the cause of the stress management in the workplace is causing by workload. to the extent that malaysia is currently illustrates a massive progress in the field of the knowledge-based industries; claiming all educators to double up their effort to improve the level of their knowledge, especially in the education system. this change will certainly cause stress and workload among teachers. massive reforms in education system happens in our country such as the implementation of education curriculum for primary schools or kbsr (kurikulum bersepadu sekolah rendah), integrated curriculum for secondary schools (icss), the implementation of the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in english or ppsmi (pengajaran dan pembelajaran sains dan matematik dalam bahasa inggeris), life long learning, proposal for all students to passed in their requiring english, bahasa malaysia (malay language), and uphold policies to strengthen english or mbmmbi (memartabatkan bahasa malaysia dan memperkukuh bahasa inggeris), and the implementation of the standard curriculum for primary schools or kssr (kurikulum standard untuk sekolah rendah) has added more responsibilities and workload among teachers in schools. due to the changes which challenge teachers’ traditional roles, responsibilities, practices, and a sense of professionalism with current teacher’s workload and inefficiencies of managing multiple times of task in hand enough to explain the changes in the minds of the teachers of their future in the teaching profession. however, shuib dirwan & johari seman (2001) indicated that teachers’ work is easier, with shorter working hours and more school holidays. instead, teachers perceived problems are faced with a various attitudes from their students, and their problem is also reflected in the comment from their student’s parents and their attitudes towards the teacher. to make it even worst, teachers are now faced with an added responsibility of involving the higher authorities, governments, ngos (nongovernmental organizations), and other leadership styles: situational leadership (contingency) teacher’s stress:  workload  time constraint  student’s behavior  reward and appreciation  limited resource intention of leaving teaching profession figure 1: the conceptual framework of principal leadership styles and stress among teachers’ intention of leaving the teaching profession anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 30 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com organizations that involved and a variety of personal problems causing these teachers intended to leave the profession early. in addition, teachers recount huge or excessive work load that is sometimes carried to the bedroom. overtime is rarely appreciated not to mention the lack of incentives received by these teachers. based on the conceptual framework shown in figure 1, the focus of the study is the extent to which the independent variables of leadership style and teacher stress in a relationship with the intention of leaving the teaching profession. this means that the frame of this study is not meant to showcase the evaluation in terms of student outcomes such as improved productivity or increased brilliance, but more focused on the process of leadership played by school leaders to show the same to the perception of teachers on the development and future of their career. in addition, the study also provides a framework how stress factors under study could reflect the level of acceptance of teachers and implications for the teaching profession as a whole within the study population. in the context of this research, the researchers are more emphasis on leadership style or contingency situations. assuming the leadership styles and its different leadership model is better in any different situations and it flashed easily changed for the leaders to choose a style that suits the present situation that they want to apply. according to s.p. robbins (2000), in his “theory of organizational behavior”, divide this situation into five main theories: (1) theory of fiedler; (2) hersey and blanchard’s situational leadership theory; (3) leader-member exchange theory; (4) path-goal theory; and (5) model-leader participation. based on previous studies, mohd kassim ibrahim (2003), and adaptation in the context of education, there is no doubt that the study of leadership in terms of the behavior displayed by the leaders were able to identify a consistent relationship between the style of leadership behavior and their group performances. however, what is not taken into account regarding the situational factors that influence success and failure. for example, the school principals in urban and rural area schools can demonstrate effective leadership, but in a different leadership styles. how could this happen? the answer is both urban and rural areas are different in terms of infrastructure and access advantages and different environmental situations. universal theory fails to take this into account. principals who work in remote areas can be an effective leader, but is his leadership style can be effective in the urban schools areas? probably not, situations change and leadership style will vary according to circumstances. unfortunately, approach behavior (behaviorism) does not take the changes in the situation. thus, the researchers are interested to learn more leadership situational based on the perception among secondary school teachers that involved in the study. effective leadership depends on the individual’s right to condition, or the current situation, and the availability of appropriate groups for the current situation and the subordinate groups. thus, the behavior of the leader, its followers or subordinates, organizational climate, and the goal should be taking into account. situational leadership, or contingencies such leadership, is a leadership theory emerged because of the weaknesses and failure of leadership theories available. thus, through this theory assumed that different situations require personality patterns and styles of leadership to give a greater impact to be an effective leadership. according to aminuddin mohd yusof (1990), situational leadership theory seems simple and can be applied in many situations. however, as shown in the theories that have been discussed before, the world-of-work is definitely a complex world because there are many factors that influence the relationship between leader effectiveness. meanwhile, s.p. robbins (2000) predicts that leadership success is more complex than a set number of selected attributes or behavior. failure to achieve a consistent result in a focus on the influence of circumstances or situations. the relationship between leadership style and effectiveness is proposing under situations a whereby x style is more suitable, while the y style is more appropriate to the situation b, and educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 31© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com z style is suitable in the style of c. but what is the situation a, b, c, and so on? it is one thing to say that effective leadership depends on the situation and other things to isolate the situation. according to s.p. robbins (2000) also, critical situations can influence leadership effectiveness. the development of contingency theory or situations involving variables such as the structure of the task being performed, the quality of the leader-follower relationship, the power of the leader, follower role clarity, group norms, availability of information, compliance against the leader, and follower’s maturity variable stress that the they possessed. the stress variable covers very extensive discussion and present in a variety of contexts and situations in various stages. various theories and models associated with stress. but, in the context of this research, it narrowed down the scope of the study to lead to stress faced by secondary school teachers selected based on population. therefore, the stress teachers discussed was the factor workloads, time constraints, bureaucratic students, appreciation, and support and lack of resources. the principal plays an important entity in the school’s success. as a leader, principals do not interact with the last of his subordinate staff in a positive and committed to the school. this assertion is supported by r.l. andrew & j. morefield (1991) and also shahrin hashim & nordin yahya (2008), who stated that in order to produce an excellent school, the principal must pay attention to good working conditions for teachers. they found that factors of the principal’s school management and leadership greatly affects aspects of teachers’ satisfaction and their comfort in handling their jobs as a teacher in the school (andrew & morefield, 1991; and hashim & yahya, 2008). in addition, the skills or the ability to understand the style of his followers also an advantage to prevent or resolve problems related to human relations in organizations (subramanian, 2006). the main criterion of leadership is the ability to learn from experience to improve the ability to deliver their abilities. there is a research that has been done by mohd kassim ibrahim (2003) on the relevance of the leadership style of the teacher job satisfaction; and through this research, it involve teachers and students in 61 schools using questionnaires and interviews. the study found that the directing leadership style is the dominant leadership style practiced in the schools, rather than participative leadership style, leadership style, and achievement oriented leadership style. the study also found that path-goal theory is relevant to the study of leadership styles of secondary school principals (kassim ibrahim, 2003). a study was conducted by hussein ahmad (1993) on leadership style involving over 154 respondents among the principals in malaysia at aminuddin baki institution. the results showed that there were significant differences on the practice of leadership styles of school principals in malaysia. the study also shows that the dominant leadership style practiced by the principal is human-oriented (peopleoriented-leadership style) and no significant relationship between leadership style and human oriented with their background factors such as gender, professional qualifications, experience, and location (ahmad, 1993). according to hatta sidi & mohamed hatta shaharom (2005), the stress is a part of human life since time immemorial and it is unnoticed. it is a fact that stress changes over time. it is also commonly experienced by all people when you are in bad situation (sidi & shaharom, 2005). meanwhile, b.l. seaward (2006), according to its latest findings show that 70 percent to 80 percent of disease experienced by humans now are the effects of stress. the data presented by the national center for health statistics reported in the year 2000 asserts that most problem of human disease correlates with stress (eg, cancer, heart disease, and stroke); and it is difficult to control and prevented with medication (seaward, 2006). stress requires comprehensive healing which include changes in lifestyle, thinking, emotional, spiritual, or behavior that takes long and strong commitment based on a systematic procedure. s.p. robbins (2000) also mentioned that stress can be seen in various ways and can be divided into three types of categories: anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 32 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com physiological, psychological, and behavioral. the management level does not bother the low-to-moderate levels of stress experienced by their employees. this is due to stress at this stage can improve the quality of work. but, if the level of stress is too high or too low for a long period of time, it can lower a person’s morale; thus, their job performance and satisfaction will decreased. thus, the leader of the organization must take reasonable steps to overcome this problem. m. borg & g. mark (1990) have found that in britain, the phenomenon of stress in the teaching profession when a comparison was made with their other work; it shows that the teaching profession was found to have high levels of stress. this assertion is supported by data provided by the health and safety executive to support teaching is one of a very stressful job. it founds that 41 percent of teachers reported have a high stress level. this study compares the teaching profession with a career as a nurse who has a stress level of 31 percent; those, who involved in management work with 29 percent and in other professional and support field consist of 27 percent (borg & mark, 1990). based on the results of interventions carried out by the moe (ministry of education) malaysia, in 2012 found that there were about 530 people, or 0.128 percent of teachers in malaysia, face a mental disorder due to stress. the findings also revealed that stress contributes to 24 percent of the 12 causes of mental disorder identified by the moe malaysia. the implementation of the transformation of education and education reform has previously made the role and responsibility of the teacher to be larger, challenging, and more complex. due to the challenges and increased responsibilities and changing curriculum and the new curriculum in the education system is often associated with the phenomenon of teachers decided to change their careers and retire earlier (syed sofian syed salim & rohany nasir, 2010). this shows that this stress has caused many problems that lead to the intention to leave the profession. accroding to the nutp (national union of the teaching profession)’s research in 2005, in related to stress among teachers, found that the teaching staff who work in stressful conditions is around 69 percent of the total respondents which is 9,328 teaching staff (cited in utusan malaysia, 16/1/2006; and mohd noor, 2011). the study found that among the factors that cause stress among teachers are the workload, time constraints, student’s behavior, appreciation, and support and lack of resources. many studies conducted related stress among the teachers (fitri shahari, 2006; valli & buese, 2007; lemaire, 2009; and mohd noor, 2011) relate the stress among teachers can have greater impact on their career. a research has also been conducted by woo sew fun (2008) on the factor that drives the working pressure (stress) among teachers of sjkc (sekolah jenis kebangsaan china or chinese vernacular school) in malaysia, involving 50 respondents in three schools in wilayah persekutuan (federal territory) kuala lumpur by using a questionnaire to obtain data. the results shows that the stress levels or stress experienced by teachers from the three schools selected to be at moderate pressure on the mean scores of 2.348 (sew fun, 2008). therefore, in this study showed that the main factor that causes stress is a factor of time constraints than other factors. this is due to the teachers tied to their profession, while at the same time are also burdened by other ancillary tasks that ultimately cause stress to teachers. human relationship is vital to ensure the stability and harmony of an education system. thus, the principal is the person responsible for creating a condusive atmosphere with his subordinates. principals who are not skilled in interpersonal relationships would have problems to get cooperation or collaboration from the teachers. principals also often seem to ignore human relationships when appointed to that position. principals should be able to distinguish the role of school administrators in the role of education managers. there are handfuls of professional principals who criticize and rebuke any teacher who is not a prudent manner and regardless of place or situation. as a result, some of the teachers who prefer to marginalize themselves, to be passive, do not educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 33© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com respect the head, and daring move to another school. so, unfortunately, there is a desire to leave the profession immediately, due to the effects of conflict between principals and their subordinates (yahya, yahya & ismail, 2008). a study done by h.c. tan (1996), in related to stress among teachers working in chinese primary school in gombak district, shows that the average level of stress in the teaching profession is at a moderate level. the study that has been conducted by noor azzuddin aziz (1990), in regards with the relationship between job stress, job satisfaction, and propensity to quit among teachers working in rural areas using the quantitative methods, has been found that there is a relationship between job stress and job satisfaction in the teacher’s career. the findings of the study by syed sofian syed salim & rohany nasir (2010), related to emotional intelligence on job stress and intention to stop due to excessive workload of the teaching profession, found also that emotional intelligence has a positive and significant relationship with the intention to leave the profession. other aspects such as social skills can be an important factor on the behavior of members of the organization, especially on one’s devotion to career fields and organizations where they work. these skills need to be used by teachers to administrators, teachers and their colleages, teachers and students, and parents of students have been able to prevent the teacher from teaching the intention of leaving their work early. a study conducted by syed sofian syed salim & rohany nasir (2010) also found that gender does not give effect to the intent variable pressure and resigned from the teaching profession. this is in line with the results obtained by mohd azhar (2004) shows that emotional intelligence of men and women are more alike than different. this indicates that gender does not give any effect on the level of emotional intelligence. problem statement, objectives, and research hypotheses becoming a teacher is a noble career that is considered to be a profession that is coveted by many job seekers (mad shah, 2004). however, it has also been highlighted that many teachers nowadays, who are serving in the profession, expressed their desire to leave the profession at an early stage. ghazali othman (1979) shows that there were approximately 38.7 percent of teachers in malaysia are on the low level of job satisfaction is caused by high levels of stress and reduced morale and prompted to quit the job before their retirement. according to the teachers service unit, until 2004, there are many teachers have been applied to leave the teaching; and in 2003, there were 529 teachers who resigned from the profession and among them were 412 teachers have been resigned due to personal reasons. the effectiveness of a school in this country is closely linked to the performance of the principal leaders, whether it is efficient and effective (cited in http://www.moe.gov.my/ en/praperkhidmatan, 5/4/2014). nursuhaila ghazali (2007) says that the principal is a top leader in the school and they need to interact with teachers’ attitudes to achieve their goals. instead, schools nowadays are facing various problems and the complexity is also associated with a leadership style which is less prominent (subramanian, 2006). criticism associated with leadership ability for a long time should be no longer heard (salwana alias, 2010). the findings of the study made by azlin norhaini mansor (2006) reported that in some situations, the principals seem still less proactive, less creative, less innovative, often lose focus and concentrate on the actual goals of their management as often face the same problem. azlin norhaini mansor also noted that there are some principals do not open up and show a passive attitude, particularly when facing management problems (norhaini mansor, 2006). therefore, the leadership style may be one of the aspects that contribute to the desire for these teachers to leave the teaching profession. according to the nutp (national union of the teaching profession) in 2005 review, in related with stress among teachers, found that the teaching staff who work in stressful conditions is 69 percent of the total respondents, which is comprise of 9,328 teaching staff (cited in utusan malaysia, anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 34 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com 16/1/2006; and mohd noor, 2011). moreover, much research related stress among the teachers, which includes mohd fitri shahari (2006); l. valli & d. buese (2007); woo sew fun (2008); j. lemaire (2009); and fazura mohd noor (2011), which relates the stress in teachers, can bring a greater impact on their careers. a string of challenges and increased responsibilities in the education system is often associated with the phenomenon of teachers decided to change their careers and retire earlier (syed salim & nasir, 2010). this shows that the stress has caused all sorts of problems down to a desire for many teachers to leave the teaching profession. research objectives of this study are: (1) to identify the desire to leave the teaching profession based on demographic factors such as gender, age, job category, education category, and length of service; (2) to investigate the relationship between leadership style with the desire to leave the teaching profession; and (3) to examine the relationship between teacher stress with the desire to leave the teaching profession and research hypotheses of this study are: (1) h 01 , “there is no significant relationship between the leadership styles with the desire to leave the teaching profession”; and (2) h 02 , “there is no significant relationship between teacher stresses with the desire to leave the teaching profession”. research method this research is using a quantitative method. therefore, this study will be using a questionnaire as an instrument. chua yan piaw (2006) states that a survey research strategy is appropriate in order to get a descriptive picture of the research. meanwhile, according to mohd najib abdul ghafar (1999), a quantitative approach is based on categories, such as quantity and frequency of use scores in analyzing the data. mohd majid konting (1990) noted that the questionnaire can be used to get the facts, beliefs, feelings, and desires. in addition, the questionnaire more practical use for large populations. according chua yan piaw (2006), the study of the relationship or correlation is intended to investigate the extent to which variations in one factor balanced with variations in one or more other factors based on the correlation coefficient. mohd majid konting (1990) states that correlation study examined the relationship between the variables that exist in a problem. this study was to examine the relationship between variables; thus, giving researchers the opportunity to make a prediction score and explain the relationship between the variables. the research was conducted in all secondary schools in the district of pitas, sabah. in this study, it refers to a target group of the research activities carried out (yan piaw, 2006). the study populations are taken from all teachers from the secondary schools in the district of pitas, sabah. according to figures obtained from the information and communication unit, the sabah state education department or jpns (jabatan pendidikan negeri sabah), total population (n) consists of secondary school teachers who served in the pitas district until the month of april 2013 was estimated 287 people. sampling refers to the process of selecting a certain number of respondents from the population to the understanding of the properties of the sample in order to show the researcher to make generalizations about the properties of the sample population (salant & dillman, 1994; sekaran, 2003; and lee chuan, 2006). in determining the sample size of this study, the researchers refer to the determination of sample size tables provided by r.v. krejcie & d.w. morgan (1970). therefore, based on the sample size determination formula of r.v. krejcie & d.w. morgan (1970), if the population is of (n) = 287, then the appropriate sample size is the sum of (s) = 165. however, to increase the level of confidence and to reduce the error to the findings, the larger the sample size used a total of 170 people. therefore, in this study, a total of 170 questionnaires were distributed in person directly to the respondents. out of the total number of forms that have been distributed, around 167 questionnaires were obtained and only 165 questionnaires only used as research data after the data cleaning process is done. in this study, the sampling method used was stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 35© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com stratified random sampling allows the study population is divided into sub-populations that do not overlap in terms of demographic characteristics desired. a research instrument for the purpose of this study is using a questionnaire. it aims to collect as much data and information. the questionnaire is divided into four sections, namely: (1) part a: demographic information; (2) part b: to measure leadership style adopted from mohd kassim ibrahim in 2003; (3) part c: to see the stress level among teachers adopted from fazura mohd noor in 2011 and woo sew fun in 2008; and (4) part d: focused on information about teachers desire to leave the teaching profession adopted from sulin eban@suelyn in 2004. this questionnaire is using five point likert scale. the data collected through questionnaires were analyzed using the computer software of spss (statistical package for the social sciences) version 20.0 for the validity and reliability of the instrument. data were analyzed using two statistical methods of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics were used because the data generated can be considered as a summary of the entire set data. it also can provide information directly and easily (walsh & fisher, 2005). in this study, descriptive data analysis is used to describe the demographic information of the respondents’ gender, age, job category, education level, and length of service in terms of frequency, percentage, and mean score. inferential statistics such as independent t-test, oneway anova, and pearson correlation (r) were used in analyzing the data. the test was to see the score of the intention to leave the profession based on the gender of male and female. pearson correlation analysis (r) was to determine the strength of the relationship between the dependent variable, namely the desire to leave the teaching profession with the independent variables of leadership style and teacher stress level. this analysis was also used to determine the strength of relationship intention to leave the profession based on the principal situations leadership style and teacher stress factors (yahya et al., 2007). a pilot study was conducted involving 30 respondents consisting of teachers working in the state of sabah in kota kinabalu and tuaran. the results obtained showed that the cronbach alpha for the variable leadership style is 0.946, for teachers as a whole stress factor is around 0.891 to 0.950. meanwhile, the cronbach alpha for the variable intention to leave the teaching profession is 0.737. this means that, on a scale of f.j. hair et al. (2007), shows an analysis of the instrument’s reliability was good to excellent. result and discussion first, intention to leave the teaching profession based on demographic factors. the mean score analysis carried out for the variable means the desire to leave the teaching profession based on demographic factors such as gender, age, education level, job category, and length of service. based on table 1, the results showed that the mean score (m = 3.30, sd = .425) were taken from the male respondents, while the mean score (m = 3.25, sd = .543 were coming from the female respondents. a detailed analysis show, the mean score for intention to leave the profession by gender is at the average level. thus, these findings showed that the intention to leave the teaching profession based on male and female among teachers was in a moderate level. meanwhile, based on table 2, the results showed that the mean score (m = 3.30, sd = .455) was showed in the age category of 21-30 years; mean score (m = 3.27, sd = .562) were taken from the age category of 31-40 years; mean score (m = 3.27, sd = .208) for the age category of 41-50 years; and the mean score (m = 2.86, sd = .764) for the age category of 51 years and above. advanced analysis shows the mean score for intention to leave the profession in each age category is located at the mean score (m = 2.34 – m = 3.67) which is at the average level. thus, these findings showed that teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession based on age demographics among teachers was shown in a moderate level. in addition, by referring to table 3, the results showed that the mean score (m = 3.09, sd = .706) for the education category stpm anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 36 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com (sijil tinggi persekolahan malaysia) or diploma; mean score (m = 3.31, sd = .443) are taken from the undergraduate category; and the mean score (m = 2.95, sd = .446) for others. overall, the mean score for teacher’s intention to leave the profession in every level of education is to be a mean score (m = 2.34 – m = 3.67) which is at the average level. thus, these findings indicate the category of teacher’s intention to leave the teaching profession based education was at the moderate level. based on table 4 shows that the findings taken from the questionnaire that the teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession based on their job descriptions. the mean score (m = 3.37, sd = .290) is taken from the senior assistant; a mean score (m = 3.57, sd = .492) was for the post of head department; a mean score (m = 3.23, sd = .600) was from the head of panel; and the mean score (m = 3.27, sd = .452) for those from the regular academic teachers. overall, the mean score for intention to leave the profession based on the demographic level of education was to be a mean score (m = 2.34 – m = 3.67) which is at the average level. thus, these findings indicate the desire to leave the teaching professionbased on their position was at the moderate level. based on table 5, the study showed that a mean score (m = 3.27, sd = .504) were those with the teaching length service of 6 years and under; the mean score (m = 3.22, sd = .493) were those length of service for the tenure of table 1: intention to leave the teaching profession based on gender gender n mean standard deviation male 82 3.30 .425 female 83 3.25 .543 n = 165 table 2: the intention of leaving the teaching profession based on age age n mean standard deviation 21 – 20 years 72 3.30 .455 31 – 40 years 72 3.27 .562 41 – 50 years 19 3.27 .208 51 years and above 2 2.86 .764 n = 165 table 3: the intention of leaving the teaching profession based on education category education level n mean standard deviation stpm/diploma 20 3.09 .706 undergraduate 141 3.31 .443 others 4 2.95 .446 n = 165 table 4: the intention of leaving the teaching profession based on job post n mean standard deviation senior assistant 5 3.37 .290 head department 6 3.57 .492 head of panel 37 3.23 .600 teachers 117 3.27 .452 n = 165 educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 37© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com table 5: intention of leaving the teaching profession based on length of service length of service n mean standard deviation 6 years and below 76 3.27 .504 6 – 10 years 41 3.22 .493 11 – 15 years 29 3.38 .542 16 20 years 11 3.34 .177 21 years and above 8 3.18 .385 n = 165 table 6: principal leadership style’s in relationship with the intention of leaving the teaching profesion intention of leaving the teaching profession principal’s leadership styles pearson’s correlation .195 sig .012 n 165 p < 0.05 (2-tailed) table 7: relationship between teacher stresses with intention of leaving the teaching profession intention of leaving the teaching profession teacher’s stress pearson correlation .293 sig .000 n 165 p < 0.01 (2-tailed) 6-10 years; the mean score (m = 3.38, sd = .542) for the tenure of 11-15 years; the mean score (m = 3:34, sd = .177) for the tenure of 16-20 years; and the mean score (m = 3.18, sd = .385) were for those teachers who have been taught for 21 years and above. overall, the mean score for intention to leave the profession in the service was located at the mean score (m = 2.34 – m = 3.67) which is at a moderate level. thus, these findings indicate the teacher’s intention to leave the teaching profession based on their length of service was at the moderate level. second, principal leadership styles relationship with the intention of leaving the teaching profession. h 01 stated that “there is no significant relationship between the leadership styles with the desire to leave the teaching profession”. based on table 6, the results showed a significant relationship (r = .195, p < 0.05) between the leadership style with the teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession. based on the interpretation of the correlation coefficient of j.a. davis (1971) asserts that this relationship is a positive, but weak. therefore, the hypothesis (h 01 ) stating that “there is no significant relationship between the leadership styles with the teacher’s desire to leave the teaching profession” was rejected. third, teacher stress relationship with intention of leaving the teaching profession. h 02 stated that “there is no significant relationship between teacher stresses with the desire to leave the teaching profession”. based on table 7, the results showed that a significant relationship (r = .293, p < 0.01) between stress teacher with the desire to leave the teaching profession. based on the interpretation of the correlation coefficient of j.a. davis (1971), it indactes that this relationship is a positive, but weak. therefore, the hypothesis (h 02 ) stating that “there is no significant relationship between teacher stress and their desire to leave the teaching profession” were rejected. overall, these findings indicate that the desire to leave the teaching profession based anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 38 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com on demographic factors was in moderate level. this means that there is a tendency to leave the teaching profession among teachers, but did not reach the level of concern or too critical to affect the energy requirements for development of teacher education and elevate the teaching profession. this is in line with the statements of the prime minister of malaysia, datuk seri najib tun razak, during the launch of the national education development plan 2013-2025, among others, has outlined eleven major shift, including the transformation of the teaching profession as the next choice to produce a high performing leaders (cited in mynewshub, 13/12/2012). unlike explanation, isabel rots, g. kelchtemes & a. aeltermen (2012) noted that some countries were found to be lacking in the teaching profession and the problems associated with the number of applicants for the position of teacher of the very few, too many pre-service teacher educators are leaving the profession, and too many students are not interested in education to enter the teacher workforce. similarly, the finding akihito shimazu (2003) stated that in 2000, of 0.24 percent of the teachers had to postpone a job as a teacher because of mental problems or stress time, the behavior of students that the students perceived in the classroom, parents, and the excessive pressure of work. however, this scenario is quite different in malaysia, particularly in this profession. based on information from the division of teacher education moe (ministry of education) malaysia, the number of applicants for postgraduate teaching course or kpli (kursus perguruan lepasan ijazah) in 2009, reached up to 68,000 candidates compared to the real needs of 2,000 candidates needed only (cited in http://www.moe.gov.my/en/ praperkhidmatan, 5/4/2014). this study also pointed out that there is a relationship between leadership styles with a desire to stop working as teachers. this means, the leadership style is not as dominant factor to the problem. however, the relationship that exists between these two variables is not trivial at first glance. according to abdul ghani abdullah, abd rahman abd aziz & tang keow ngang (2008), leadership style bias affects the emotional and physical affects teachers and teacher professionalism and their life. long-term effects involve social problems and work performances caused teachers to be depressed, rigid quality decision making in terms of teaching and learning, increased absenteeism, and a desire to move to another school. leadership style, which is too geared towards a leadership style, caused a feeling of protest or dissatisfaction among teachers. instead, variations of the leadership style that can be imparted in any circumstances are able to reduce the tension or resistance among teachers. according to azizi yahya, nordin yahya & sharifuddin ismail (2008), asserts that the principals’s way of management that covers in all aspects in handling the teachers under his leadership is essential to absorb the pressure so as not to produce conflict among the stakeholders. the finding is consistent with the explanation of s.p. robbins (2000) that the critical situation certainly influences the effectiveness of leadership. the leadership styles involves structural situation in the task being performed, the quality of the leaderfollower relationship, the power of the leader, follower role clarity, group norms, and conformity followers against the leader and follower maturity. the results can be correlated by f.e. fiedler & j.e. garcia (1987), which control the situation very well when a very good relationship with our employees can be produced; this study has been thoroughly conducted. the result of the findings was also meets the situational leadership theory proposed by p. hersey & k.h. blanchard (1996), which emphasizes that the leadership styles need to be flexible and must adapt themselves according to the situation that can be modify using the the situation and task, and relationship behaviors approach. abdul ghani abdullah, abd rahman abd aziz & tang keow ngang (2008) were also suggesting that leaders who have personally admirable teacher can reduce the desire to move or leave the teaching profession. path-goal theory by r.j. house (1993) states that the primary function of a leader is educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 39© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com to make an important goal for the followers or employees and outline the path to the achievement of those goals. the findings show that there is among the teachers felt their principals set goals or targets that must be taken and work accomplished, but not followed up by a factor of consideration and by proving a support and clear instructions. situation has led to feelings of depression and unsatisfied with the type of leadership shown by the head administrator. despite the weak link between the leaders and subordinates, this study shows there is among teachers who intend to leave the profession due to the leadership style which sets out their goals that are too high and, at the same time, not balanced with reward factors or support that these subordinates must deserves. according to s.p. robbins (2000), in the path-goal theory, there are four behaviors identified which are the directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leaders. therefore, mohd kassim ibrahim (2003) explains that the concept of leadership that should be flexible, there must be a point and time that leaders need to incorporate more of a leadership style based on approach to the current situation in need. conclusion the results showed that there was a significant relationship between teacher stresses with their intention to leave the teaching profession. although this study found a weak findings but nevertheless, this issue must be dealt with stress wisely so as not to affect the lives of our teachers, the development of the profession, and to inhibit the quality of the education system. this study reinforces the findings of the study by the nutp (national union of the teaching profession) in 2005 that found a total of 69 percent among the 9,328 respondents participated in the survey agreed that they work under stress due to the whims of students and excessive workloads (cited in mohd noor, 2011). this finding can be attributed to the theory that has been discussed before. for example, the findings fit associated with models developed by j.g. boyle et al. (1995) states that there are five sources of stress among teachers, including excessive workload, the student’s behaviors, and the recognition that cause stress to teachers. the study is also expressed in the level of demand that exceeds one’s ability as expressed through stress model by j.m. atkinson (1988). in this model indicated that the source of stress comes from external and internal pressure. external pressure as job characteristics (time limits, job abuse); social culture (competition); and physical environment (do not providing a condusive working environment) for the teachers to do their job. meanwhile, the internal pressure involves numerous of variables such as teachers’ cognitive level, teacher’s work efficient, emotional and their physical health (atkinson, 1988). based on this research, there are some other suggestions in related to teacher’s desire to leave the teaching profession can be considered to extend the scope of the leadership style and teacher stress or other factors as appropriate. further research could also focus on other components found in the leadership style and teacher stress factor in relationship with teacher’s intent to leave the teaching profession. possible research can be seen from another angle style as autocratic leadership, transformation, and so on focused on the stress problem. perhaps there are other factors as it deems appropriate stress associated with the desire to leave the teaching profession as a career opportunity, self attitudes, relationships with parents, and so on. the findings only involved leadership style and teacher stress in this research. however, the results show that the relationship of these two variables is a weak positive relationship with teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession. thus, there are likely other factors or other more dominant reasons that can be associated with this study. references abdul ghafar, mohd najib. 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(1996). “work load among chinese primary school teachers in gombak district, selangor”. unpublished master dissertation. kuala lumpur: um [university of malaya]. utusan malaysia [newspaper]. kuala lumpur, malaysia: january 16, 2006. valli, l. & d. buese. (2007). “the changing roles of teachers in era of high-stakes accountability” in american educational research journal, 44(3), pp.519-530. walsh, k. & d. fisher. (2005). “action inquiry and performance appraisals: tools for organizational learning and development” in journal of learning organization, vol.12(1), pp.26-41. yahya, azizi et al. (2007). mastering the educational research: theoritical analysis and data interpretation. kuala lumpur: pts profesional publishing. yahya, azizi, nordin yahya & sharifuddin ismail. (2008). principal leadership behavior and the relationship with the work pressure towards the school effectiness in a selected schools in negeri sembilan. skudai, johor: faculty of education and management utm (malaysia university of technology]. yan piaw, chua. (2006). research method and applied statistics: basic on research statistics. kuala lumpur, malaysia: mcgraw-hill sdn. bhd. anuar din, sabdin hussin alipin & abdul said ambotang, principals’ leadership style and stress among teachers 42 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com minister of education and teachers in malaysia (source: www.google.com, 20/5/2014) the findings only involved leadership style and teacher stress in this research. however, the results show the relationship of these two variables is a weak positive relationship with teacher’s intention of leaving the teaching profession. thus, there are likely other factors or other more dominant reasons that can be associated with this study. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 129 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2016 to date, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sosiohumanika and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com 130 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016, the tawarikh journal will be organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/tawarikh and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: tawarikh. journal2009@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 131 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com 132 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 133 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to date, the sipatahoenan journal has been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com 134 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal firstly has been published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insancita journal has been organized by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals. com/index.php/insancita and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 135 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal was firstly be published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016, the mimbar pendidikan journal will be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik.jurnal.upi@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com 136 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scholarly journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture was andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and senior lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in joining the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from left to right are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 137 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 9, number 1 (august 2016) and number 2 (february 2017) no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 1 bilal ahmad bhat amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, uttar pradesh, india teachers’ perception towards total quality management in secondary schools vol.9(1), august, pp.41-48. 2 emy sudarwati & yana shanti manipuspika unibraw (brawijaya university) in malang city, east java, indonesia cooperative learning strategy for improving students’ critical reading ability: a case study in english study program of brawijaya university vol.9(1) august, pp.13-28. 3 jenny p. cruz santa elena high school, w.c. paz street., santa elena, marikina city, philippines; and an alumna of pnu (philippine normal university) students’ environmental awareness and practices: basis for development of advocacy program vol.9(1), august, pp.29-40. 4 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera skb (sidho-kanho-birsha) university, purulia, west bengal 723104, india attitude of post graduate students towards mobile learning vol.9(2), february, pp.111-120. 5 minda i. cabilao valencia pnu (philippine normal university) in manila, philippines gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution in the philippines vol.9(2), february, pp.85-94. 6 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir buet (bangladesh university of engineering and technology) in dhaka 1000, bangladesh; and ukm (national university of malaysis) in bangi, selangor, malaysia rhetorical structure of introduction in applied linguistics research articles vol.9(2), february, pp.69-84. 7 mohd zarawi mat nor usm (science university of malaysia), 16150 kubang kerian, kelantan, malaysia the process of practicum supervision on guidance and counselling teachers in primary school: a case study vol.9(1), august, pp.1-12. 8 risa haridza & karen e. irving educational authorities of pontianak city, public middle school 3 pontianak, jalan kalimantan 123, pontianak 78116, west borneo, indonesia; and osu (ohio state university), 1945 north high st columbus, ohio 43210, usa (united states of america) the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum: a comparison study vol.9(2), february, pp.95-110. 9 shemsu ligani, baressa anbessa & bula kere bhu (bule hora university), bule hora, ethiopia assessments of students’ practical skill in laboratory: a case study in second year chemistry students of bule hora university, ethiopa vol.9(1), august, pp.49-58. 10 tristan m. eseo, armina b. mangaoil & bettina m. sedilla special education teacher at the paaralang pag-ibig at pag-asa at san pablo city, laguna, philippines; and pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, philippines confidence judgment and test scores: basis for proposed confidence enhancement vol.9(2), february, pp.121-128. 138 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare inviting to become the authtors number : x/red.edu/ii/2017 enclosure : 1 (one) journal form. concern : inviting to become the authors and subscribers. dear, sir/madam assalaamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you). hopefully you are good in health, under the protection of allah swt, and can perform your daily activities well and successfully. then, we’d like to inform you that alhamdulillah (thank god), the educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 9(2) february 2017 can be published. so sorry for the late publication. however, we’d like to thanks and appreciate to you for improving the journal. and herewith, we give you 1 (one) journal cover of educare as a gift and acknowledgement. hopefully you will interested in to become the authors and subscribers for the educare journal countinously. please submit the manuscripts to be published in our scholarly journals to conventional e-mails address at: ijes.educare@gmail.com and journal.educare@upi.edu as we know that the educare journal is firstly published on 17 august 2008, in the context to commemorate the indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. for further information abour the educare journal – including guidelines for the authors, current and back issues – since early 2016, the website of educare journal has been migrated from web based on wp (word press) towards web based on ojs (open journal system) at: www. mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare your good attention and cooperation are highly appreciated. wassalaamu’alaikum wr.wbr. (peace be also upon you). bandung, indonesia: february 27, 2017 best regards, sri redjeki rosdiandi, m.m.pd. director of minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 169© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare info-edu-tainment sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. starting issue of may 2016 to date, the sosiohumanika journal has been organized by the lecturers of pps unipa (graduate program, university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java; and starting issue of may 2016, it will also be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sosiohumanika journal is published twice a year, i.e. every may and november. for further information, please searching the website at: www. mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sosiohumanika and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail. com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 170 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since issue of april 2012 to april 2014, the tawarikh journal has been organized by the lecturers of history education department uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi; since issue of april 2016, the tawarikh journal will be organized by the lecturers of faculty of adab and humanities uin sgd (state islamic university, sunan gunung djati) bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the tawarikh journal is published twice a year, i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching the website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/tawarikh and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: tawarikh. journal2009@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 171© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since issues of june 2012 to december 2014, the atikan journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip unsur (faculty of education and teacher training, suryakancana university) in cianjur, west java; since issues of december 2014 to june 2015, the atikan journal was also organized by the lecturers of fpok ipu (faculty of sports and health education, indonesia university of education) in bandung; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the atikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/atikan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan. jurnal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 172 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since issue of september 2013 to date, the susurgalur journal has been organized by the lecturers of apb ubd (academy of brunei studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program fass ubd (faculty of arts and social sciences, university of brunei darussalam) in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the susurgalur journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/susurgalur and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 173© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare sipatahoenan: south-east asian journal for youth, sports & health education. this journal was firstly published on april 21, 2015. since issue of april 2015 to date, the sipatahoenan journal has been organized by the central executive board of apaksi (association of all indonesian sports’ experts and practitioners) in bandung; supported by kemenpora ri (ministry of youth and sports of the republic of indonesia) in jakarta; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the sipatahoenan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every april and october. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/sipatahoenan and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sipatahoenan.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 174 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it has been published, insancita: journal of islamic studies in indonesia and southeast asia. this journal firstly has been published on february 5, 2016. since issue of february 2016, the insancita journal has been organized by alumni of hmi (association of islamic university students) who work as lecturers at the heis (higher education institutions) in indonesia; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the insancita journal is published twice a year, i.e. every february and august. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www. mindamas-journals.com/index.php/insancita and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: insancita.journal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 175© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare it will be published, mimbar pendidikan: jurnal indonesia untuk kajian pendidikan (indonesian journal for educational studies). this journal will firstly be published on march 11, 2016. since issue of march 2016, the mimbar pendidikan journal will be organized by the lecturers of upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; and jointly published by upi press and minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the mimbar pendidikan journal is published twice a year, i.e. every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals. com/index.php/mimbardik e-mail address: mimbardik.jurnal.upi@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 176 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare signing ceremony of moa (memorandum of agreement) between fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java and minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 27th december 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scholarly journals” is a core business of the aspensi; and “talk less, work more” is the motto of minda masagi press in bandung. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 177© 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 8, number 1 (august 2015) and number 2 (february 2016) no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 1 affero ismail, norhasni zainal abiddin & andi suwirta uthm (malaysia university of tun hussein onn) in johor, malaysia; upm (university of putra malaysia) in serdang, selangor, malaysia; upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung, west java, indonesia developing effective workforce via industrial based project supervision: a case in malaysian technical and vocational education and training institutions vol.8(2) february, pp.159-168. 2 ahmad & anton jaelani ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto, central java, indonesia developing a simulation of transformation geometry by using flash vol.8(2) february, pp.129-138. 3 anant kumar varshney amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india attitude of rural and urban undergraduate students of aligarh muslim university towards computer vol.8(1) august, pp.97-104. 4 christina andin @ nur qistina, abdul said ambotang & musirin mosin ums (malaysia university of sabah), 88400 kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia teaching thinking skills in teacher education vol.8(1) august, pp.31-44. 5 farhana mohamad radzi & siti salwa md sawari iium (international islamic university of malaysia) in gombak, kuala lumpur, malaysia; and utm (malaysia university of technology) in kuala lumpur, malaysia recognize teachers’ perception of the schoolbased assessment (sba) effectiveness in increasing students’ achievement in mathematics vol.8(2) february, pp.139-146. 6 huang jian cufe (central university of finance and economics) in beijing, china. address: 39 south college road, haidian district, beijing, people republic of china, 100081. reconceptualization of the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment vol.8(1) august, pp.1-10. 7 johni dimyati ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia a study of education history on gifted children: research on their learning achievement as they started their school under seven vol.8(1) august, pp.45-54. 8 jadith tagle, rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. faculty of de la salle schoolgreenhills, philippines; and pnu (philippine normal university), manila, philippines developing algebraic thinking skills among grade three pupils through pictorial models vol.8(2) february, pp.147-158. 9 krizna rei m. palces, arthur s. abulencia & wensley m. reyes pnu (philippine normal university), taft avenue, manila 1000, the philippines predicting the priorities of multicultural education in a philippine teacher education institution: an exploratory study vol.8(1) august, pp.63-72. educare: international journal for educational studies, 8(2) february 2016 178 © 2016 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare no authors institutions title of article vol/pages 10 marites c. geronimo, marie grace s. cabansag & agnes s. reyes pnu (philippine normal university) in visayas, cabahug st., cadiz city, negros occidental, philippines; and . pnu (philippine normal university) in north luzon, aurora, alicia, isabela, philippines indigenous utilization of resources and conservation practices of the agta of lupigue, ilagan city, isabela, philippines vol.8(2) february, pp.115-128. 11 mohd hasan & mohammad parvez amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh, uttar pradesh, india a study of under-graduate students’ attitude towards computer vol.8(1) august, pp.23-30. 12 nabi ahmad & b. razia amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india study habits in relation to socio-economic status and gender among muslim adolescents vol.8(1) august, pp.73-80. 13 neha sharma amu (aligarh muslim university) in aligarh, uttar pradesh, india a study of the impact of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession vol.8(1) august, pp.55-62. 14 siti maryam unsur (university of suryakancana) cianjur, jalan dr. muwardi, komp pasirgede raya, belakang rs sayang, cianjur, west java, indonesia scheme implementation as an effort to build originality in writing vol.8(1) august, pp.11-22. 15 susanto ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia fish community in serayu river, banyumas residency, central java, indonesia vol.8(1) august, pp.81-96. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 69 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir rhetorical structure of introduction in applied linguistics research articles abstract: the ra (research article) is considered to be the main channel of knowledge production. however, for student writers and novice scholars writing, ra is a challenging task. it is partly because of lack of exposure to and awareness of the rhetorical structure of ras (research articles) in the intended discipline. the objective of this study is to identify the rhetorical moves of ras in applied linguistics and explaining their communicative functions that can be used for pedagogic purposes for novice scholars in this discipline. analyses of moves and their constituent steps together with their frequency count would help suggest obligatory and optional moves in the introduction section. also analysis of move structural patterns, which would enable to draw possible move sequencing is within the purview of this study. a corpus of 20 empirical ras of leading and representative 4 journals in applied linguistics have been analyzed following j.m. swales (1990 and 2004) move analysis of introduction sections of empirical ras. results were obtained through software coding of moves of these 20 ras, and through qualitative analysis of communicative functions of moves and steps. from the frequency count of moves and steps, it is found that some moves and their constituent steps are obligatory, while others are optional. findings show they both conform to and depart from j.m. swales’ cars (create-a-research-space) model in 1990 and 2004. the findings of the study will facilitate better understanding of ras in applied linguistics for novice scholars and contribute to these scholars’ efforts to publish their research in this field. key words: introductions; research articles; rhetorical structure; move analysis; genre. about the authors: mizanur rahman is a ph.d. candidate in english language studies at the ukm (national university of malaysia); and also an assistant professor at the department of humanities buet (bangladesh university of engineering and technology) in dhaka 1000, bangladesh. assoc. prof. dr. saadiyah darus and assoc. prof. dr. zaini amir are the lecturers at the school of language studies and linguistics, faculty of social sciences and humanities ukm, 43600 ukm bangi, selangor, malaysia. for academic interests, the authors can be contacted via e-mail at: m.rahman.1978@gmail.com how to cite this article? rahman, mizanur, saadiyah darus & zaini amir. (2017). “rhetorical structure of introduction in applied linguistics research articles” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(2), february, pp.69-84. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (september 27, 2016); revised (january 27, 2017); and published (february 27, 2017). introduction among variety of genres in academic setting ras (research articles) have received the highest attention as it is one of the major means of production and dissemination of knowledge. not surprisingly, ras written in english is at the centre of research focus with occasional concentration given to ras of other languages, especially from the perspective of contrastive rhetoric. scholars have analyzed different sections of ras in numerous disciplines. in some of them complete rhetorical structure of ras, e.g. in biochemistry: b. kanoksilapatham (2005); in medical science: k.n. nwogu, (1997); in computer science: s. posteguillo (1999); in chemistry: f.l. stoller & m.s. robinson (2013); and in law: g. tessuto 70 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare (2015), have been analyzed. the introduction section has been widely studied in a range of areas, such as in social sciences: i. ozturk (2007); c.k. loi (2010); c.k. loi & m.s. evans (2010); e. sheldon (2011); and l. lin (2014); in pure, natural, and applied sciences: b. kanoksilapatham (2007 and 2008); w. shehzad (2008); h. ping, z. zhengyu & w. qingqing (2010); m.m. del saz-rubio (2011); h. graves, s. moghaddasi & a. hashim (2014); and following by j.m. swales (1990)’s cars (create-a-research-space) model. drawing inspiration from this model, other sections of ras have been analyzed, for example: method sections in j.m.h. lim (2006); i. bruce (2008); m. peacock (2011); and s. gollin-kies (2014); results sections in d.k. thompson (1993); p. brett (1994); i.a. williams (1999); i. bruce (2008); h. basturkmen (2009); and j.m.h. lim (2010); and discussion sections in a. hopkins & t. dudley-evans (1988); r. holmes (1997); and m. peacock (2002). similarly, assessment of linguistic features of ras has been done, such as: lexicogrammatical choice by b. kanoksilapatham (2008); linguistic mechanism by j.m.h. lim (2010); linguistic features of evaluative stance by a. khamkhien (2014); metadiscoursal elements, namely, hedges and boosters by m. takimoto (2015); etc. as a discipline under social sciences, introduction section of ras in applied linguistics have been investigated in some studies, yet the attention given to it is not sufficient considering the challenges associated with writing introduction of ras by novice writers. three prominent studies on the introduction sections of ras in applied linguistics cover several significant issues in regard to this beginning sub-genre of ra. in this context, i. ozturk (2007) shows that there are sub-disciplinary differences in the formation and pattern of move structure (ozturk, 2007). in this study, second language acquisition and second language writing, two different domains of applied linguistics, were reported to be reliant on different move structures. second language acquisition largely conformed to traditional cars (create-a-researchspace) model, while second language writing relied mostly on move 1 and move 3 with recurrent use of step 2 of move 1 “making topic generalizations”, and step 3 of move 1 “reviewing items of previous research”. in e. sheldon (2011)’s work, move structure and patterns were also found to be diverse across cultures. e. sheldon’s examination of ras written in english, in international journals vis-à-vis ras written in spanish and ras written in english by spanish writers, shows that there is a close resemblance between cars model and ras written in english journals, while spanish ras show propensity to some culture bound norms (sheldon, 2011). however, with increased “intercultural and interlingual contacts caused by globalization” (hyland, 2005), both spanish ras and l2 (second language) english, ras follow the norms of introduction section of l1 (first language) english ras. moreover, l. lin (2014) identified that there are instances when one category is not adequate to classify communicative functions and structure of ras in applied linguistics, when introduction is followed by an independent literature review section (lin, 2014). the two types of communicative moves recognized by l. lin (2014) are “traditional cars type” and “innovative two move orientation type”; the former as the name suggests largely conforms to cars model, while the latter is comprised of only two moves, namely: “identify the issue” and “present the study” (lin, 2014). these studies in applied linguistics together with other studies advance the move-based study in the area of genre analysis. however, to our knowledge, introduction of ras in applied linguistics with an orientation to elt (english language teaching) has not been addressed so far. admittedly, applied linguistics is a “diverse and contested area” (ruying & allison, 2004:266), and elt occupies a prominent place in it. with globalization and associated spread of english as an academic lingua franca, there is ever increasing demand of english teaching and learning; it is, therefore, important to do the generic analysis of applied linguistic ras with elt orientation. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 71 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare table 1: list of ras (research articles) published in four journals al (applied linguistics): shi, l. (2010). “textual appropriation and citing behaviors of university undergraduates” in applied linguistics, 31(1), pp.1-24. (al-1) o’halloran, k. (2011). “investigating argumentation in reading groups: combining manual qualitative coding and automated corpus analysis tools” in applied linguistics, 32(2), pp.172-196. (al-2) dobao, a.f. (2012). “collaborative dialogue in learner–learner and learner–native speaker interaction” in applied linguistics, 33(3), pp.229-256. (al-3) millar, n., b. budgell & k. fuller. (2013). “‘use the active voice whenever possible’: the impact of style guidelines in medical journals” in applied linguistics, 34(4), pp.393-414. (al-4) ren, w. (2014). “a longitudinal investigation into l2 learners’ cognitive processes during study abroad” in applied linguistics, 35(5), pp.575-594. (al-5) tq (tesol quarterly): file, k.a. & r. adams. (2010). “should vocabulary instruction be integrated or isolated?” in tesol quarterly, 44(2), pp.222-249. (tq-1) ferris, d. et al. (2011). “responding to l2 students in college writing classes: teacher perspectives” in tesol quarterly, 45(2), pp.207-234. (tq-2) park, g. (2012). “‘i am never afraid of being recognized as an nnes’: one teacher’s journey in claiming and embracing her nonnative‐speaker identity” in tesol quarterly, 46(1), pp.127-151. (tq-3) macaro, e. & j.h. lee. (2013). “teacher language background, codeswitching, and english‐only instruction: does age make a difference to learners’ attitudes?” in tesol quarterly, 47(4), pp.717-742. (tq-4) kayi‐aydar, h. (2014). “social positioning, participation, and second language learning: talkative students in an academic esl classroom” in tesol quarterly, 48(4), pp.686-714. (tq-5) esp (english for specific purposes): kassim, h. & f. ali. (2010). “english communicative events and skills needed at the workplace: feedback from the industry” in english for specific purposes, 29(3), pp.168-182. (esp-1) soler-monreal, c., m. carbonell-olivares & l. gil-salom. (2011). “a contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of english and spanish phd thesis introductions” in english for specific purposes, 30(1), pp.4-17. (esp-2) cheng, s.w. (2012). “‘that’s it for today’: academic lecture closings and the impact of class size” in english for specific purposes, 31(4): 234-248. (esp-3) hafner, c.a. (2013). “the discursive construction of professional expertise: appeals to authority in barrister’s opinions” in english for specific purposes, 32(3), pp.131-143. (esp-4) graves, h., s. moghaddasi & a. hashim. (2014). “‘let g = (v, e) be a graph’: turning the abstract into the tangible in introductions in mathematics research articles” in english for specific purposes, 36, pp.1-11. (esp-5) elt (english language teaching): bhattacharya, a. & k. chauhan. (2010). “augmenting learner autonomy through blogging” in english language teaching, 64(4), pp.376-384. (elt-1) rebuck, m. (2011). “using the l1 ‘errors’ of native speakers in the efl classroom” in english language teaching, 65(1), pp.33-41. (elt-2) yilmaz, s. & s. akcan. (2012). “implementing the european language portfolio in a turkish context” in english language teaching, 66(2), pp.166-174. (elt-3) evans, s. (2013). “designing tasks for the business english classroom” in english language teaching, 67(3), pp.291293. (elt-4) serrano, r., e. tragant & a. llanes. (2014). “summer english courses abroad versus ‘at home’” in english language teaching, 68(4), pp.397-409. (elt-5). as it is found in literature that different domains of disciplines have distinct move structures; therefore, the present study focuses on the move structure of introduction sections of ras in applied linguistics. the move structure identified was compared with cars model to show the degree of variability of move structure of applied linguistics with the cars model. moreover, studies undertaken on the move pattern of the introductions sections of ras in other disciplines underscore the necessity of carrying out research in applied linguistics (salager-meyer, 1992; and swales & feak, 2004). in this respect, the purpose of the study is two folds. firstly, the identification of rhetorical moves and explaining their communicative functions in applied linguistics that can be used for pedagogic purposes for novice scholars in this area. analyses of 72 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare moves and their constituent steps together with their frequency count would help suggest obligatory and optional moves in the introduction section. secondly, analysis of move structural patterns which would enable to draw possible move sequencing. this study, will thereby show, the communicative functions of moves and steps together with their frequency of occurrence. also to draw a possible move sequencing is within the purview of this study. it can also contribute to genre theory by exploring whether the rhetorical structure of this discipline conform to or depart from traditional cars model. this corpus based study with its genre analytic approach will enable researchers and practitioners to develop teaching materials, which are authentic and supported by research. methods data collection and analysis. a corpus of 20 ras (research articles) from four journals published during 2010-2014 within the field of applied linguistics was compiled. the journals selected are: esp (english for specific purposes), tq (tesol quarterly), al (applied linguistics), and elt (english language teaching journal) on the criteria of reputation, accessibility, and impact factor. the list of ras published in four journals are shown in table 1. these journals have high reputation among english language teaching researchers and practitioners; and these journals’ impact factor and citation reports are proofs of their acceptability in the concerned discourse community. in jcr (journal citation report) social science report, in 2013,1 the impact 1see, for example, “citation metrics workshop – journal citation report (jcr) prepared by cited reference team, nus libraries, on march 2013”. available online at: http://www.lib. nus.edu.sg/ilp/crt/2013/wos/journal%20citation%20reports. pdf [accessed in bangi, malaysia: february 12, 2016]. factor and number of citations of these journals are presented in table 2. these journals were accessible to the first author of this paper as he could collect the ras (research articles) published in these journals through ppv (pay per view) request from the library, where the research was carried out. these selection criteria were matched with two other factors, as follows: firstly, one expert informant, a university lecturer holding doctoral degree and published widely in applied linguistics, were consulted for journal and ra (research article) selection. he was of the opinion that esp (english for specific purposes) and al (applied linguistics) publish ras within the broad spectrum of applied linguistics; however, elt (english language teaching) is a prime concern of them, whereas tq (tesol quarterly) and elt are dedicated to english language teaching and research. therefore, he recommended these journals to be included in this study that aimed to analyze rhetorical structure and linguistic feature of ras devoted to elt. secondly, it was also found that y. ruying & d. allison (2004), in their study of macrostructural analysis ras, chose these same journals as they “retained a focus on applied linguistics in relation to english language teaching” (ruying & allison, 2004:266). five articles from each journal from the period of 2010-2014 were chosen following a stratified random sampling. author, paper type, and year of publication were the strata for sampling the ras from the above mentioned journals. the ras selected for the corpus were all empirical and original research articles drawn from under the categories of “articles” in al, tq, and elt, and “original research articles” in esp. to ensure that the elements of subjectivity table 2: impact factor and number of citations of the selected journals journal title impact factor total citations applied linguistics 1.846 1,435 tesol quarterly 1.000 1,487 english for specific purposes 0.953 655 english language teaching 0.759 531 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 73 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare do not affect the corpus selection, only one article from an author was selected. to avoid the idiosyncrasies of a single issue, only one article per journal per year was selected and it was further ensured that thematic and topical varieties were maintained with the selected articles. also special issues published in the selected journals within the timeframe of the corpus were deliberately avoided with the conjecture that articles of similar thematic nature might show the propensity of adhering to similar rhetorical structure. for more details on corpus compilation of the present study refer to m. rahman, s. darus & a. zaini (2015). the corpus of the present study which comprised of 20 ras is sufficient considering other studies in genre analysis of ra corpora were compiled with 20 or fewer ras (cf brett, 1994; nwogu, 1997; samraj, 2002; lim, 2006; and kanoksilapatham, 2008). having completed the selection of ras from four journals, a reference code was ascribed to each of the ra consisting of abbreviations table 3: the cars model for ra introductions (swales, 1990:141) move 1. establishing a territory step 1. claiming centrality and/or step 2. making topic generalizations and/or step 3. reviewing items of previous research move 2. establishing a niche step 1.a. counter-claiming or step 1.b. indicating a gap or step 1.c. question-raising or step 1.d. continuing a tradition move 3. occupying the niche step 1.a. outlining purposes or step 1.b. announcing present research step 2. announcing principle findings step 3. indicating ra structure table 4: j.m. swales’ revised model for research article introductions (2004:230 and 232) move 1: establishing a territory (citations required)*** via topic generalizations of increasing specificity move 2: establishing a niche (citations possible)*** via step 1a: indicating a gap or step 1b: adding to what is known step 2: presenting positive justification* move 3: presenting the present work via step 1: announcing present research descriptively and/or purposively (obligatory) step 2: presenting research questions or hypotheses* step 3: definitional clarifications* step 4: summarizing methods* step 5: announcing principal outcomes** step 6: stating the value of the present research** step 7: outlining the structure of the paper** * optional and less fixed in order ** probable in some academic disciplines *** possible cyclical patterning of moves particularly in longer introductions 74 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare derived from the initials of the journals along with a numeric according to the chronology of publication year. see again table 1. j.m. swales (1990)’s cars (create-aresearch-space) model and revised cars model, in 2004, were the basis for coding the introduction sections of ras (swales, 1990 and 2004); however, data coding was also influenced by m.m. del saz-rubio (2011) and l. lin (2014). see tables 3 and 4. as a first step, two level rhetorical analyses (move and step) were conducted for the entire corpus. this process was straight forward except for the occasional circumstances, when an individual sentence contained two moves. in such cases following previous studies (crookes, 1986; ozturk, 2007; del saz-rubio, 2011; sheldon, 2011; and lin, 2014), the move unit that demonstrated most salient function was considered. an example is shown below: the research so far has considered the rewards and challenges experienced by native-englishspeaking teachers (nests) as well as nnests, yet attention to diversity within these groups has been limited (park, 2012:129, as in tq-3). in this instance, the first segment of the sentence reviews literature (move 1, sep 3) and the later part of the sentence indicates a gap (move 2, step 1a). in this case, move 2, step 1a seems more salient; therefore, the entire sentence was coded as move 2, step 1a. the coding was mainly conducted by the first author; however, for ensuring reliability a section of the corpus was coded by a second rater, who had expertise in second language acquisition research and who was familiar with genre analysis. the first author used winmax’s qda program (maxqda, 2012) for coding the texts of the corpus. results and discussion communicative functions of moves and steps and their frequency. the cars (create-a-research-space) model of introduction proposed by j.m. swales (1990) is comprised of three moves, which are realized by several constituent steps where some of the steps are obligatory and some are optional (swales, 1990:141). the functional role of introduction of ras (research articles) is to situate them contextually in a research study by discussing the literature relevant to the study, by presenting the originality of the study, and also by describing principal aspects of the study (swales, 1990). all three introductory moves were found to be obligatory on the ras of applied linguistics based on cut off frequency followed in b. kanoksilapatham (2005), which is table 5: frequency of moves and steps in 20 introductions moves/steps al tq esp elt total (%) m1 establishing a territory 5 5 5 5 20 (100%) s1 claiming centrality 4 4 4 5 17 s2 topic generalizations 5 5 5 5 20 s2 citations/literature review 4 5 5 2 16 m2 establishing a niche 5 5 5 2 17 (85%) s1 (a) indicating a gap or 4 5 5 2 16 s1 (b) adding to what is known 0 0 1 0 1 s2 presenting positive justification 2 2 2 1 7 m3 presenting the present work 5 5 5 5 20 (100%) s1: announcing present research descriptively and / or purposively 5 5 5 5 20 s2: presenting research questions or hypotheses 5 4 1 2 12 s3: definitional clarifications 3 0 0 2 5 s4: summarizing methods 0 0 0 0 0 s5: announcing principal outcomes 0 0 0 0 0 s6: stating the value of the present research 0 3 3 2 8 s7: outlining the structure of the paper 2 0 0 0 2 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 75 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare occurrence of at least 60% of the moves and their constituent steps (kanoksilapatham, 2005). the frequencies of rhetorical moves and steps of the corpus comprised of introduction sections 20 ras are shown in table 5. the functions and realizations of each move and steps are explained afterwards. the moves and steps of the present corpus have been identified with swales’ cars model (1990, 2004). see table 5. it can be noticed in table 5 that the frequency of occurrence of both move 1 and move 3 is 100%, while move 2 is 85%. following b. kanoksilapatham (2005), the cut off frequency for the present study is determined as 60%, i.e. if a move or a step occurs 60% and above it is an obligatory move, while if a move or a step occurs less than 60% it is an optional move (kanoksilapatham, 2005). all three moves were found to be obligatory in the present corpus for their occurrence above the cut off frequency. to demonstrate the characteristic features of each move/step, their objectives and the way the realized in the ras (research articles) are discussed further. move 1: establishing a territory. it denotes the study to be reported is important and significant in the established research field and, therefore, bears ample importance or worthy of investigation. as sketched in the j.m. swales (1990) framework of move 1, it has three aspects or steps. it is an obligatory move because of its 100% occurrence in the present corpus (swales, 1990). in most cases, the introduction sections of corpus of the present study began with this move though the occurrence of steps was found not to always appear in the form as envisaged. step 1: claiming centrality. it marks the assurance that the topic and field chosen bears considerable importance and significance in the established research. as can be seen in table 5, its presence is fairly common in the corpus as out of 20 ras (research articles) it is present in 17 ras. it can be further noticed in table 6 that claiming centrality has occurred 22 times throughout the corpus and its average frequency is more than 1, which suggest that it is an obligatory step in applied linguistics corpus. see table 6. the way claiming centrality is realized in the ras (research articles) is shown in the following examples: # the analysis of specific purpose genres, such as research articles, research reports, grant proposals, texts for professional purposes and theses, is a growing area of research and pedagogical endeavour (soler-monreal, carbonell-olivares & gil-salom, 2011, as in esp-2). table 6: total frequency and average occurrence of steps in 20 introductions moves steps total average occurrence per sections m 1: establishing a territory s1: claiming centrality 22 1.1 s2: making topic generalizations 73 3.65 s3: citation / literature review 87 4.35 m 2: establishing a niche s 1a: indicating a gap 32 1.6 s 1b: adding to what is known 1 0.05 s2: presenting positive justification 7 0.35 m 3: presenting the present work s1: announcing present research descriptively and/ or purposively 35 1.75 s2: presenting research questions or hypotheses 13 0.65 s3: definitional clarifications 4 0.2 s4: summarizing methods s5: announcing principal outcomes s6: stating the value of the present research 9 0.45 s7: outlining the structure of the paper 2 0.1 76 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare # the elp has been implemented in many european countries since 2001, and its pedagogical effectiveness as a means of promoting learner autonomy was researched intensively in pilot studies (yilmaz & akcan, 2012, as in elt-3). step 2: making topic generalizations. it is the process of the gradual drawing on from broader to the particular field that the study is dealt with. it is the only step in move 1 that marks its presence throughout the entire corpus, i.e. topic generalizations is available in all 20 introduction sections. however, it can be seen in table 6 that it is not the highest occurring step in move 1. the average occurrence of this step per introduction section is above three, while the total occurrence is 73. the realization of move 1 step 2 is illustrated in the excerpts below: # the role of collaboration in l2 learning has been emphasized by the study of interaction from a sociocultural theory of mind perspective (dobao, 2012, as in al-3). # one aim has been to work out the writing conventions in disciplines as social practices of discourse communities (graves, moghaddasi & hashim, 2014, as in esp-5). step 3: citation / literature review. it is the review and reference to previous literature pertinent to the study. similar to move 1 step 1, this step is available in 17 ras (research articles) though the number of total occurrence is highest among the steps of move 1 which is 87. it is also noteworthy that the total occurrence of move 1 step 3 is not only highest in move 1, but it is also the maximum occurrence of a step throughout the corpus. the way this step is found in the corpus of this study is shown in the following examples: # in an integrated approach, focus on linguistic form (in this case vocabulary items), whether planned or incidental, occurs in the context of communicating meaning (e.g., ellis et al., 2001b; and long & robinson, 1998) [kayi‐aydar, 2014, as in tq-5]. # […] motivation and autonomy are seen as interwoven with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors playing a significant role (deci & ryan, 1985; and oxbrow, 2000) [serrano, tragant & llanes, 2014, as in elt-5]. all the steps under move 1 are present in almost all the ras (research articles) and throughout applied linguistics introductions and the identified moves and their constituent steps are “recursive” and “cyclical” in nature. it is found in table 5 and 6 that applied linguistics ras demonstrate high use of step 3: citation / literature review, a total 87 occurrence with an average occurrence of 4.35, whereas step 2: making generalizations of increasing specificity occurred 73 times with an average of 3.65. moreover, step 1: claiming centrality is also frequently occurred with an average occurrence 1.1. as disciplinary variation is common characteristic in genre formation, it is not surprising that unlike the frequent occurrence of move 1 step 3 in the present corpus, computer science ra introductions often lack in move 1 step 3 possibly, because of its comparatively short history that restrict researchers in the high use of literary citations (cooper, 1985; hughes, 1989; and posteguillo, 1999). thus, contrastive analysis enables us to understand varying disciplinary choices in the application of moves and steps, and to become aware of the practices conventional in a particular discipline. the analysis of three steps of introductions showed that move 1 of applied linguistics corpus conformed to j.m. swales (1990) model, whereas move 2 and 3 largely conformed to j.m. swales (2004) model. hence, j.m. swales, in his 2004 model, merged the three steps of move 1 of his 1990 model into one and, thus, apparently eliminated the difficulty of distinguishing literature review from topic generalizations (swales, 2004). the present corpus, however, showed the distinct nature of both topic generalizations and literature review. therefore, unlike j.m. swales (2004) model, these two steps were shown separately in the present corpus. move 2: establishing a niche. w. shehzad (2008) referred move 2 as a “mini-critique”, which serves the purpose of linking studies undertaken in the field with the current research and assisting the discipline to move forward (shehzad, 2008). it draws attention to the existing weaknesses and gaps educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 77 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare of a particular field to the members of a disciplinary community. table 5 shows that step 1a (indicating a gap) is the most dominant step as found among the steps of move 2. it is not only present in 16 ras (research articles), table 6 shows the total occurrence of this step throughout the corpus is 32. on the other hand, step 2 (presenting positive justifications) occurred less frequently in the corpus. however, because of 85% occurrence in the corpus, move 2 is considered to be an obligatory move. move 2 step 1a: indicating a gap. move 1 step 1a plays the role of finding gaps, limitations or weaknesses of previous research and, thus, directly or indirectly justifies the rationale for conducting new study. as mentioned, it is the most dominant step in move 2 occurring an average of 1.6 in each section of the corpus. the frequent occurrence of this step makes it an obligatory step in the present corpus. some examples of this step are given below: # analyses of learners’ cognitive processes involved in the production of speech acts are still lacking (ren, 2014, as in al-5). # despite this, there are also many children and teenagers who go abroad to learn an l2 (especially english) and very little research exists analysing how these younger participants develop their l2 skills in an sa setting as opposed to a classroom setting ah (serrano, tragant & llanes, 2014, as in elt-5). move 2 step 1b: adding to what is known. this step functions as following a direction of research or continuing with a tradition of research previously pursued. there is only one occurrence of move 2 step 1 b throughout the present corpus. for example: # although the number of esp studies conducted in malaysia is small, and the focus is on different disciplines and professions, these studies have helped us to realize the need to conduct constant and updated survey analyses to help prepare our students for the ever-changing world of professionals (kassim & ali, 2010, as in esp-1). move 2 step 2: presenting positive justification. the function of this step is to demonstrate the need for the research or provide positive reasons about the study reported usually following the identification of research gap. the use of this step is also rare as it is found in 6 articles with total frequency of 8, and the frequency of average occurrence per section is below 1. two examples from move 2 step 2 are given below: # investigating the discourse of argumentation in reading groups thus offers an opportunity for obtaining insight into how people debate with one another in self-organized, informal circumstances (o’halloran, 2011, as in al-2). # when designed and executed with caution, particularly in combination with other data collection methods, the rvr can provide researchers with added in-depth insights into participants’ pragmatic knowledge (ren, 2014, as in al-5). from this analysis, it can be assumed that similar to j.m. swales (2004) model, niche is established in the present corpus through “indicating a gap” or “adding to what is known” and “presenting positive justification”. quantification of move 2 shows that “indicating a gap” is the highest occurring step of move 2, and research niche is established mainly through this step. such findings concur with previous studies of b. samraj (2002); p.d. pho (2008); b. kanoksilapatham (2011); and m.m. del sazrubio (2011). move 3: presenting the present work. in j.m. swales’ cars (create-a-researchspace) model, in 2004, move 3 serves the purpose of describing the research being conducted in the present study; and according to this model, the purpose can be achieved through seven steps (swales, 2004). in the present applied linguistics corpus, however, this move is realized by five steps. in none of the 20 ras (research articles) that comprise the corpus has step 4 (summarizing methods) or step 5 (announcing principal outcomes). despite the omission of two steps, move 3 is an obligatory move in the present corpus due to its 100% occurrence. move 3 step 1: announcing present research descriptively and/or purposively. move 3 step 1 is the most frequent step in move 3 78 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare that describes the objective of the study to be reported. it is available in all the ras (research articles) of applied linguistics corpus occurring 35 times across the ras, with an average frequency of 1.75 per section. relevant examples are given below: # this study investigates whether and how nss collaborate with the learner in the solution of their linguistic problems and the co-construction of new language knowledge (dobao, 2012, as in al-3). # the present study, therefore, attempts to create a comparison of isolated and integrated approaches to vocabulary teaching in a reading lesson, by providing equal instruction time and promoting similar processing for the target words in both conditions (file & adams, 2010, as in tq-1). table 6 shows that step 1 (announcing present research) is the highest occurring step used to realize move 3. move 3 step 1 has been used more than other steps of move 3 resemble the findings of similar previous studies (jogthong, 2001; and jalilifar, 2010). comparatively more occurrence of this step in the present study and similar other studies demonstrate that move 3 step 1 is an important step for the realization of move 3. move 3 step 2: presenting research questions or hypotheses. the purpose and role of this step is straightforward that is to present research questions and hypothesis. though all 20 ras (research articles) do not have a move 3 step 1, majority of them (13) has this step and this is second most frequent step in move 3. normally ra (research article) authors present either research question/s or hypothesis. surprisingly, the occurrences of this step are all research questions, except one instance of hypothesis in the present corpus. the way move 3 step 2 was realized in the present applied linguistics corpus is shown in the examples below: # our study is guided by the following research questions: (millar, budgell & fuller, 2013, as in al-4). # based on the emerging themes extracted from the literature we formulated the following research questions: (macaro & lee, 2013, as in tq-4). move 3 step 3: definitional clarifications. the function of this step is to describe the key terms that are integral to the concerned study. there are only four occurrences of definitional clarifications in the present corpus; therefore, this is an optional step in applied linguistics corpus. see, for example: # when i refer to “argumentation” in this article, i am signalling the process of argument (o’halloran, 2011, as in al-2). # sociopragmatics is “the sociological interface of pragmatics” (leech, 1983:10), and addresses the relations between linguistic actions and social constraints [ren, 2014, as in al-5]. move 3 step 4: summarizing methods. this step was not found in the present corpus. move 3 step 5: announcing principal outcomes. this step was not found in the present corpus. move 3 step 6: stating the value of the present research. this step introduces the significance or value of the study in terms of the positive effect that the study is able to create. out of 20 ras (research articles) in the present corpus move 3 step 5 occurred in 4 ras with an average occurrence of 0.2 per section; therefore, it is an optional step in the present corpus. the realization of two of these steps is shown in the examples below: # perhaps the greatest value in this current study is that it describes the process of how learners’ positional identities are constructed and reconstructed across contexts and interactions (kayi aydar, 2014, as in tq-5). # this investigation has contributed to both syllabus design and module development which could mould and cater for the needs of engineering students as future global engineers, and hence, ensure their language development and enhance their competitive advantage in the job market (kassim & ali, 2010, as in esp-1). move 3 step 7: outlining the structure of the paper. this step is employed to describe the structural organization of the paper, i.e. the way different sections of the paper is arranged so that reader can clearly understand what to expect in a particular section of the paper. this is the lowest occurring step in move 3 occurred only twice in the corpus and, hence, is an optional step. both the move 3 step 7 educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 79 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare steps found in al (applied linguistics) journals are shown in the examples below: # the structure is as follows. we start by critiquing commonly cited arguments against using the passive voice and outlining our research questions. we then describe our data set and the metrics which we used to analyse it. in the following sections, we present and discuss results from our analyses and argue the need for style guidelines which better reflect the reality of actual usage (millar, budgell & fuller, 2013, as in al-4). table 7: pattern of move structure of ra (research article) introductions ra (research article) moves number of move units al-1 1-2-3 3 al-2 1-2-3-2 4 al-3 1-3-1-2-1-3 6 al-4 1-3-1-3-1-3 6 al-5 1-2-1-3-2-3-1-3-2-3-1-2-3-1-3 15 tq-1 1-3-1-3-1-3-2-3 8 tq-2 1-2-1-3-1-3 6 tq-3 1-2-1-2-3-1-2 7 tq-4 13-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-3 11 tq-5 1-2-3-1-2-1-3 7 esp-1 1-3-1-3-1-3-2-3 8 esp-2 1-2-3-1-3 5 esp-3 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3 11 esp-4 1-3-1-3-2-1-2-1 8 esp-5 1-2-1-2-1-3 6 elt-1 3-1-3-1-3-1-3 7 elt-2 1-3-1-3 4 elt-3 1-3 2 elt-4 1-2-3 3 elt-5 1-2-1-3-1-3 6 table 8: frequency of the patterns of move structure in the corpus move structure number % 1-2-3 2 10 1-2-3-2 1 5 1-3-1-2-1-3 1 5 1-3-1-3-1-3 1 5 1-2-1-3-2-3-1-3-2-3-1-2-3-1-3 1 5 1-3-1-3-1-3-2-3 2 10 1-2-1-3-1-3 1 5 1-2-1-2-3-1-2 1 5 13-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-3 1 5 1-2-3-1-2-1-3 1 5 1-2-3-1-3 1 5 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3 1 5 1-3-1-3-2-1-2-1 1 5 1-2-1-2-1-3 1 5 3-1-3-1-3-1-3 1 5 1-3-1-3 1 5 1-3 1 5 1-2-1-3-1-3 1 5 80 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare # the article is structured as follows: first, the literature on learners’ cognitive processes in l2 pragmatics research is reviewed, followed by a brief overview of the validity and reliability issues of the rvrs. the methods and findings of the present investigation are then presented, followed by a discussion of the findings (ren, 2014, as in al-5). in the analysis of move 3, it can be noticed that the applied linguistics corpus of the present study used five of the seven steps of move 3 of j.m. swales (2004) model for ra (research article) introductions. these findings differ with e. sheldon (2011), whose l1 (first language) english applied linguistics ra authors used all the seven steps of j.m. swales (2004) model. the difference of findings of these two studies is perhaps because the corpus of the present study is small and, therefore, all the seven steps might be found in a larger corpus. the difference may also occur for the reason that the corpora of these two studies were selected from two different periods (swales, 2004; and sheldon, 2011). however, the findings of the present study that applied linguistics ra authors were heavily reliant on move 3 step 1 (announcing present research descriptively and/or purposively) in presenting their research to the expected readership concur with e. sheldon (2011)’s study. move patterns. the results provided in table 7 shows the presence of 18 different patterns of move structure in the corpus. the number of move unit ranges from 2 to 15. six move units occurred in highest number, i.e. in five ras (research articles), while fifteen and five move units occurred in just one ra. cars (create-a-research-space) model approves of the cyclicity in move occurrence; therefore, four introductions – in al (applied linguistics)-1; esp (english for specific purposes)-3; esp-5; and elt (english language teaching)-4 – follow cars model and remaining sixteen ras deviate from cars model. the formation of esp-3 and esp-5 is the recurring move 1 and move 2, and culminates in move 3. in the actual realization, the penultimate step in esp-3 is a gap indication followed by the final step announcing the present research; while in esp-5, it is review of literature followed by announcing present research. see table 7. table 8 shows m1-m2-m3 was found to be occurred in 10% (2 out of 20) of ra (research article) introductions as mentioned in the cars (create-a-research-space) model. m1m3m1m3m1m3m2 m3 also occurred in 10% (2 out of 20) of ras (research articles) and other 16 move structures occurred only one time in each ra. these results suggest that there is no distinct move pattern in applied linguistics as in the corpus consisted of 20 ras there is no dominant move pattern. g. crookes (1986), referring to j.m. swales (1981) model, opined that the linear m1-m2-m3 pattern occurs in ra (research table 9: proposed model for ra (research article) introductions in applied linguistics m1 establishing a territory via s1 (obligatory) claiming centrality s2 (obligatory) topic generalizations s2 (obligatory) citations/literature review m2 establishing a niche via s1 (a) (obligatory) indicating a gap, or s1 (b) adding to what is known s2 (optional) presenting positive justification m3 presenting the present work via s1: (obligatory) announcing present research descriptively and/or purposively s2: (obligatory) presenting research questions or hypotheses s3: (optional) definitional clarifications s4: (optional) stating the value of the present research s5: (optional) outlining the structure of the paper educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 81 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare article) introductions which are short. for longer introductions, according to g. crookes (1986), various alternative ways of patterning are possible. however, in the present corpus as can be found in table 7 that only two of the short introductions, al (applied linguistics)-1 and elt (english language teaching)-4, conform to m1-m2-m3 pattern. this result is consistent with i. ozturk (2007), who also could not find any strong link between move pattern and length of ra introduction (ozturk, 2007). j.m. swales’ cars (create-a-researchspace) model, in 1990 and 2004, also does not seem to be applicable in majority of introductions in the ras (swales, 1990 and 2004). in respect to the pattern of move structure, the results indicate that there is an overwhelming deviation from the cars model. it is interesting to note that 3 out of 5 elt introductions do not have move 2 and elt-1 begins with a move 3. it is perhaps because elt as a journal is more concerned with practitioners of applied linguistics than with researchers, who can ignore the necessity of niche establishment in move 2. the findings of the study highlighted that the rhetorical structure of ras in applied linguistics, both conform and depart from the cars model proposed by j.m. swales (1990 and 2004). the three moves of j.m. swales’ model are obligatory in the present corpus. the steps also conformed to cars schema except move 3, which in j.m. swales (2004) model comprised of seven steps; however, move 3 in applied linguistics corpus is constituted of five steps. move 3 step 4 (summarizing methods) and move 3 step 5 (announcing principal outcomes) are omitted in the present corpus. the proposed model of rhetorical structure of applied linguistics ras is shown in table 9. a series of three moves serves the overall communicative purpose of applied linguistics corpus. these three moves largely do not occur in a sequential order rather 20 ras (research articles) of the corpus followed 18 different structural patterns. therefore, the move structural patterns of the present corpus deviate from m1-m2-m3 structure as predicted by j.m. swales (2004). conclusion the sketch drawn from communicative functions of rhetorical structure and move structural patterns can become a showcase of how professional writers construct ras (research articles) in applied linguistics and, thus, can facilitate better understanding of ras in applied linguistics for novice scholars and contribute to these scholars’ efforts to publish their research in this field. although the present study provides useful information regarding rhetorical structure and move structure of ras in applied linguistics, the results derived from this study should be treated with caution as 20 ras (five each from four different journals) were the basis of this study. future research may need to expand the present corpus to increase the representativeness of the ras for enhancing the generalizability of the study.2 references basturkmen, h. 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(elt-3) 84 mizanur rahman, saadiyah darus & zaini amir, rhetorical structure of introduction © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the journals and research articles (source: http://umet.suagm.edu, 12/12/2016) as a discipline under social sciences, introduction section of ras (research articles) in applied linguistics have been investigated in some studies, yet the attention given to it is not sufficient considering the challenges associated with writing introduction of ras by novice writers. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 169 minh-quang duong is a lecturer at the faculty of education, university of social sciences and humanities vnu-hcmc (vietnam national university – ho chi minh city), 10-12 dinh tien hoang road, district 1, ho chi minh city, vietnam. e-mail: mqduong. ussh@yahoo.com introduction since the late 1950s, a number of researchers have theorized about the nature of job satisfaction and developed models which attempt to explain differences of job satisfaction (sseganga & garrett, 2005). job satisfaction is a major concern of managers in business, executives in industry, and teachers and administration in educational organization. although there is no universal definition of the concept (evans, 1997), most of the definitions that exist in literature have a common theme. different authors have different approaches towards defining job satisfaction. the most used definition of job satisfaction in organizational research is that e.a. locke (1976), who described job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences and as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one’s job values (cited also in nguni, sleegers & denessen, 2006). a more definitive describes job satisfaction an attitude developed by an individual towards the job and job conditions (luthans, 1994). p.e. spector (1997) refined the definition of job satisfaction to constitute an attitudinal variable that measures how a person feels about his or her job, including different facets of the job. minh-quang duong a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members of the university of technology and the university of science in vietnam abstract: since the late 1950s, a number of researchers have theorized about the nature of job satisfaction and developed models which attempt to explain differences of job satisfaction. job satisfaction is a major concern of managers in business, executives in industry, and teachers and administration in educational organization. it is clear that very little research on university faculty job satisfaction has come from the developing world like vietnam. this aim of this study was to determine the specific factors that affected the job satisfaction of academic members both universities. the study used a questionnaire to survey with 141 academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam which selected as a statistical sample. the study showed that academic members of two universities were only a moderate level of job satisfaction. however, faculty members in the university of technology were more satisfied than faculty members in the university of science. the present analysis found that no significant differences existed job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities; but, there were significant difference between male and female faculty. in addition, male faculty members were generally more satisfied than female colleagues. the study also recognized that job satisfaction of academic members were significantly affected by their work time and institutional characteristics. key words: job satisfaction, vietnamese higher education, academic members, work time, institutional characteristics, and developing country. minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 170 there is a relationship between job satisfaction and very different variables. they include life satisfaction (ho & au, 2008); demographic, job, and personality characteristics (miller, mire & kim, 2009; and telman & unsal, 2004); performance (luthans, 1994); organizational characteristics (glisson & durick, 1988); and leadership, climate, and culture of the university (grunwald & peterson, 2003; hagedorn, 2000; and zhou & volkwein, 2004). several studies of higher education sector are used different factors to measuring job satisfaction of academic members. t. oshagbemi (1997) employed eight scales designed to measure satisfaction of university teachers in the united kingdom, namely: (1) teaching, (2) research, (3) administration and management, (4) present pay, (5) promotions, (6) supervision/supervisor behaviour, (7) behavior of co-workers, and (8) physical conditions/working conditions. the study of f. kusku (2003) measured the job satisfaction of academics in a university in turkey using the seven determinants: (1) general satisfaction, (2) management satisfaction, (3) colleagues, (4) other working group satisfaction, (5) job satisfaction, (6) work environment, and (7) salary satisfaction. according to k. sseganga & r.m. garrett (2005), measured the job satisfaction of academics of higher education in uganda using nine general elements of their work comprising: (1) teaching, (2) research, (3) governance, (4) remuneration, (5) opportunities for promotion, (6) supervision, (7) co-worker’s behavior, (8) working environment, and (9) the job in general. a study of s.h. chen et al. (2006) measured the job satisfaction of teachers in a private university in china using six satisfaction factors, namely: (1) organization vision, (2) respect, (3) result feedback and motivation, (4) management system, (5) pay and benefits, and (6) work environment. although c.j. cranny, p.c. smith & e.f. stone (1992) estimated that over 5,000 articles and dissertations have examined the topic of job satisfaction and it is a continuing topic for research. most of the research that has been conducted in the field of job satisfaction has focused on organizational business and industrial setting (platsidou & diamantopoulou, 2009). however, in recent years, a clear increase has been observed in the number of studies related to the job satisfaction of academics (neumann, 1978). unfortunately, evidence from job satisfaction of academic members in higher education of the developing countries is seriously lacking and is a gap which needs to be filled (garrett, 1999; hean & garrett, 2001; sseganga & garrett, 2005; and eyupoglu & saner, 2009). furthermore, very little research has focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (verret, 2012). hence, this study was conducted to explore factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members both universities within technology and science fields. the present study was designed to answer the following research questions: (1) what is the general level of job satisfaction of academic members both universities in vietnam?; (2) do any significant differences exist in the level of job satisfaction with regard to discipline and gender characteristics?; and (3) how are job satisfaction of academic members affected by their work time and institutional characteristics? studies of job satisfaction and faculty higher education there are several recent studies that addressed job satisfaction among academic members serving in the higher education context. the study of t. oshagbemi (1997) comprised academics from 23 universities in the united kingdom that teaching, researchrelated activities, and several miscellaneous dimensions of the jobs contribute significantly to both job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of university academics. for job satisfaction among academic staff from thirteen universities in turkey, h. saygi, t. tolon & h. tekogul (2011) found that co-workers and promotions were considered more important than the pay. the most important factor in job satisfaction was co-workers, with working as a team and sharing also rated as important. in another study, m. springfield-scott (2000) showed that sex and rank affected faculty job satisfaction; while age, race, and educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 171 tenure did not affect faculty job satisfaction in piedmont, north carolina university. in north cyprus, s.z. eyupoglu & t. saner (2009) explored that the job facets advancement, compensation, co-workers, and variety were found to be statistically significant with job satisfaction. beside, this study also explained that academic in north cyprus indicate only a moderate level of overall job satisfaction. in their study with academic members of ten private universities in bangladesh, t. ali & i. akhter (2009) recognized that faculty members are overall satisfied with their present condition, except the factors like training facilities, and some physical facilities and distribution of courses. further, it has been found that there is no significant difference between male and female faculty members regarding job satisfaction. in asia–pacific area, regarding the relationship between faculty job satisfaction and demographic variable of academics in a public higher education in singapore, e.p. paul & s.k. phua (2011) indicated that satisfaction over interpersonal relationships with students and co-workers, the autonomy and flexibility that the job offered. conversely, they expressed dissatisfaction over the amount of administrative/non-academic work they had to shoulder, heavy workload, salary, presence of “red tape” and other corporate practices, and dealing with disruptive students. age and job position affected the job satisfaction levels of the respondents. however, variables such as gender, academic qualification, length of employment, and marital status showed no significant difference. the study of f. noordin & k. jusoff (2009) comprised two hundred and thirty-seven of academics from a public university in malaysia that overall the academic staff of the university has a moderate level of job satisfaction. in addition, current status, marital status, age, and salary appear to have significant impact on the respondents’ level of job satisfaction. in their research with 173 teaching staff from three private universities in malaysia, a.s. santhapparaj & s.s. alam (2005) found also that pay, promotion, working condition, and support of research have positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. on the other hand, benefits and support of teaching have negative effect, and female staff are more satisfied than their counterpart. regarding the relationship between incentives, rewards, and recognition on employee motivation and job satisfaction of two hundred and nineteen of academic member of hue university in vietnam, n.c. nguyen et al. (2013) found that significantly positive relationship between reward and recognition, satisfaction with supervision and the job characteristics, with job satisfaction as well as a very positive and significant relationship was also observed between job satisfaction and personal motivation. in another study, m. gautam, k. mandal & r.s. dalal (2006) surveyed faculty members of faculty of veterinary sciences and animal husbandry, sher-e-kashmir university of agricultural sciences and technology of jammu, india that job satisfaction is a multidimensional phenomenon with a number of factors operating simultaneously. the overall job satisfaction of the faculty members is fair and moderate. moreover, the younger faculty members are more satisfied as compared to those with a longer service period although the relationship is not linear. again, the study of r.d. sharma & j. jyoti (2006 and 2010) comprised one hundred and twenty faculty members of jammu university in india that professors were more satisfied than lecturers and job satisfaction decline in the middle age. addition, intrinsic, extrinsic, and demographic factors were effecting academic staff ’s job satisfaction. unfortunately, very few studies have been conducted in the area of job satisfaction in vietnamese higher education as well as other developing countries. method dependent and independent variables. job satisfaction has been identified as the dependent variable in this study. this study measured the job satisfaction of academics of higher education in vietnam using six satisfaction factors, namely: (1) recreation and sport equipment, (2) medical facility, (3) in-service teaching training, (4) bonus and minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 172 welfare, (5) curriculum reform and evaluation, and (6) teaching load. in this study, factor loading and cronback’s alpha coefficient were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of this constructed measurement for job satisfaction of academic members (see table 1). according to j.f. hair et al. (2006), the selected criterions are: factor loading ≥ 0.6, cumulative explanation ≥ 0.6 (60 per cent), and instruments used in exploratory study have reliability of 0.6 and 0.7 or more (cited also in nunnally, 1978). the cronbach alpha estimated for this study shows acceptable level of 0.898. hence, based on the validation of construct reliability which is concluded that research construct of job satisfaction is reliable. the independent variables of this study include two blocks. the first block is work time per week, including teaching time, research time, community service time, and private time. the second block is institutional factors, including development aim, leadership style, campus landscape, and administration efficiency. sample. the population for this study was comprised of academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam. they consist of university of technology and university of science. those universities are member of vietnam national university of ho chi minh city (vnu-hcmc). a random sample of 141 questionnaires administered to potential subjects selected from the two universities. participants were currently working on campus. it is notable from table 2 that demographic data of responding academics was wide ranging. of the 141 respondents, 29% were female and 79.4% of male faculty. almost respondents consisted of 64.5% faculty were from 31 to 40 years old. regarding marital status, 67% were single, 73% academics were married. in terms of their academic qualification, 36.9% had master’s degrees, and 51% faculty had attained a doctoral degree. almost 91.5% of the respondents were lecturers and only 0.7% and 7.8% academic were associate professor and teaching assistant, respectively. the 39% faculty had from 6 to 10 years, 23.4% had from 11 to 15 years, and only 8.5% academic members had from 16 or more years teaching experience. data analysis method. questionnaire survey was used to gather data in this study. the participants are weighted on a 4-point likert’s scale to measure job satisfaction of academic members and institutional factors which impact job satisfaction (1 = very dissatisfaction, 2 = dissatisfaction, 3 = satisfaction, and 4 = very satisfaction). for work time factors, however, there are used working hours per week to measure the influence of job satisfaction of academic (1 = 0 hour, 2 = 1 to 5 hours, 3 = 6 to 10 hours, 4 = 11 to 15 hours, 5 = 16 to 20 hours, 6 = 21 to 25 hours, and 7 = over 26 hours). all data were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) 13.0 software. the statistical methods employed to analyze data are included. descriptive analysis is computed to examine the general level of job satisfaction of academic members. the analysis of variance (anova) is enabled to examine the difference between job satisfaction and discipline, and gender. to study the key factors of work time and institutional factors which significantly affect job satisfaction, multiple regression analysis is used for this study. results and discussion first, the level of job satisfaction of academic members among different universities. the results of table 3 display means (m), standard deviations (sd), and anova (analysis of variance) of job satisfaction of academic members in two universities and to answer the first and apart of the second research question of this study. as shown in table 3, the m and sd job satisfaction level of the respondents were 2.69 and 0.82, respectively. this result indicated that academic members were only a moderate level of job satisfaction, mirroring the results of the studies by s.z. eyupoglu & t. saner (2009) and n. malik (2011). according to s.h. chen et al. (2006), quality in teaching and learning can only enhanced if the faculty members are satisfied and content; and the health of an educational institution depend on the job satisfaction of its employees educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 173 table 1: the results of dependence variable in this study dimensions of job satisfaction factor loading cumulative explanation cronbach’s alpha recreation and sport equipment .858 66.630 0.898 medical facility .854 in-service teaching training .848 bonus and welfare .812 curriculum reform and evaluation .804 teaching load .711 table 2: demographics data of the sample characteristics n percentage (%) gender: male 112 79.4 female 29 20.6 age (years old): under 30 31 22 31 – 40 91 64.5 over 40 19 13.5 marital status: single 67 47.5 married 73 51.8 widowed 1 0.7 academic qualifi cation: bachelor’s degree 17 12.1 master’s degree 52 36.9 doctoral degree 72 51.0 academic rank: teaching assistant 11 7.8 lecturer 129 91.5 associate professor 1 0.7 length of employment (years): less than 1 17 12.1 1 – 5 24 17.0 6 -10 55 39.0 11 – 15 33 23.4 16 or more 12 8.5 (wood, 1976). furthermore, job satisfaction has serious implications for relations between the academics and the management of the higher educational organizations they belong to (eyupoglu & saner, 2009). thus, university management should invest more resources in enhancing the job satisfaction of academic members in designing institutional policies. for job satisfaction of academic members in two universities, academic members in the university of technology (m = 2.79, sd = 0.89) were more satisfied than academic members in the university of science (m = 2.58, sd = 0.73). however, the results of table 3 also found that there were no significant differences of academic members’ job satisfaction among the two universities (f = 2.198, p = 0.140 > 0.05). second, job satisfaction and gender of academic members among different universities. the findings of table 4 showed that a significant difference has been found between the level of job satisfaction of male and female academic members in the two campus (f = 7.032, p = 0.009 < 0.01), mirroring the results of studies by d.a. minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 174 pearson & r.e. seiler (1983); m. springfieldscott (2000); s. schulze (2006); n. malik (2011); f. mehboob, m.a. sarwar & n.a. bhutto (2012); and m.m. ghafoor (2012). however, male academic members both universities are generally more satisfied with their job than the female academic members in this study, supported by the studies of t. bas & k. ardic (2002) and o.e. olorunsola (2010). as shown in table 4, male faculty members in the university of technology had the highest job satisfaction (m = 2.86, sd = 0.43). the difference of job satisfaction among female academic members of the university of technology (m = 2.26, sd = 0.91) and the university of science (m = 2.37, sd = 0.55) were negligible in general. in addition, female academic members both universities were less more satisfied than male counterparts. third, regression between job satisfaction and work time, and institutional characteristics. the regression model wielded rather different explanation power for job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities. the results of table 5 showed the regression model proposed by this study explained 58.7% of job satisfaction of academic members in the university of technology (r2 = 0.587) and 46.6% of the university of science (r2 = 0.466). as shown in table 5, job satisfaction of academic members in the university of technology had a significant positive effect on community service time (β = .346, p < 0.01), private time (β = .234, p < 0.05), leadership style (β = .436, p < 0.001), and administration efficiency (β = .586, p < 0.001); however, job satisfaction of academic members had negative effect on teaching time (β = -.269, p < 0.05), and development aim of university (β = -.428, p < 0.001). both private time (β = -.417, p < 0.001) and development aim of university (β = -.287, p < 0.05) had significant negative effect on job satisfaction of academics at the university of science. according to n. hensel (1991), the average professor in higher education sectors works approximately 55 hours per week; and when added to home duties, it can grow 70 hours. there had no significant impact teaching, community service (bameka, 1996) and research (sseganga & garrett, 2005) on job satisfaction academics. research, teaching, and service are different dimensions of faculty work that often compete for faculty members’ time and commitment and are in conflict with one another (linsky & straus, 1975; fox, 1992; hattie & marsh, 1996; and fairweather, 2005). according to d. olsen, s.a. maple & f.k. stage (1995), academics expressed greater satisfaction with teaching are less likely to receive support and recognition from their peer in their department. m.c. liu (2001) found that academic members spend a greater percentage of time on teaching express greater dissatisfaction with their work; and faculty in table 3: means (m), standard deviations (sd), and anova (analysis of variance) results of the job satisfaction level in two universities universities m sd f sig. university of technology 2.79 0.89 2.198 .140 university of science 2.58 0.73 average of two universities 2.69 0.82 note: the mean difference is significant at the p ≤ .05 table 4: anova results between job satisfaction and different universities universities male female f sig. m (sd) m (sd) university of technology 2.86 (0.43) 2.26 (0.91) 7.032 .009 university of science 2.67 (0.79) 2.37 (0.55) note: the mean difference is significant at the p ≤ .01 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 175 the natural and engineering were more likely to spend time conducting research than teaching. m.f. fox (1992) and h.w. marsh & j. hattie (2002) indicated that increased time spent on research positively impacts job satisfaction of faculty, however, their study was inconsistent with this study. in addition, the results of this study are supported some suggestions by j.d. kelly (1989) and k. sseganga & r.m. garrett (2005) that most frequently perceived as responsible for low satisfaction is university policy/aim. morale is highest when faculty members participate in governance and decision making (rice & austin, 1988). the studies of t.n. kyamanywa (1996); e.j. venter (1998); and t. ali & i. akhter (2009) showed that leadership style significantly affected job satisfaction of academic members in higher education institution. a research conducted by s.h. packard & d.r. kauppi (1999) found that employees with supervisors having democratic management styles experienced higher level of satisfaction than with autocratic leadership style. furthermore, the important role management can play in the job satisfaction of academics. according to l.l. van tonder (1993), a manager could modify his/her management style to ensure that staff enjoyed maximum satisfaction and thrived emotionally and professionally. specifically, job satisfaction of academics may affect their perceptions of the effectiveness of the school as an organization (schulz & teddlie, 1989; hemmasi, 1992; maghrabi, 1999; and judge & church, 2000). conclusion 1 it is clear that the findings of this study have practical implication for university management and policy makers in vietnamese higher education. this aim of this study was to determine the specific factors that affected the job satisfaction of academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam. through the findings described in this study, academic members in the university of technology were more satisfied than faculty members in the university of science. the present analysis found that no significant differences existed job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities; but, there were significant difference between male and female faculty. in addition, male faculty members were generally more satisfied than female colleagues. this study also recognized that job satisfaction of academic members both universities were significantly affected by their work time and institutional characteristics. the findings of this study show that academic members both universities were 1acknowledgment: i would like to acknowledge my sincere gratitude to anonymous, kindest support and help, valuable advice, synthesized comments on revision, and detailed editing throughout. table 5: regression analysis results between job satisfaction and independent variables at the each university independent variables university of technology university of science beta (β) work time (per week): teaching -.269* research community service .346** private .234* -.471*** institutional characteristics: development aim -.428*** -.287* leadership style .436*** campus landscape administration efficiency .586*** r2 .587 .466 note: the mean difference is significant at the *p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01, *** p ≤ .001 minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 176 moderate satisfied in their job. thus, policy makers and management of university need to re-examine their reward structures, value systems, and expectations placed on faculty work in order to keep highly productive faculty more satisfied with their jobs. in addition, each university management and policy makers should take more position factors than other factors in the process of policy development for institution. it is hoped that the barrier to the job satisfaction of academic members are found in this study may be useful for management institutes to develop work environment and culture that would allow higher levels of faculty job satisfaction and can contribute to a great extent to improve the level of academic members in developing countries in general and vietnamese higher education in particular. the data of this study obtained through questionnaires were all self-reports from the participants; 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(2004). “examining the influences on faculty departure intentions: a comparison of tenured versus non-tentured faculty at research universities using nsopf-99” in research in higher education, 45, pp.139-176. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 95 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a risa haridza & karen e. irving the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum: a comparison study abstract: curriculum reform is an important strategy to improve the quality of education and human resources in order to increase economic development to better compete in a globalized world. this paper focuses on curriculum development in indonesia, comparing indonesian school curriculum to usa (united states of america) school curriculum, and analyzes several factors that strongly influenced indonesian and american curriculum design and curriculum decision-making. curriculum development in indonesia, from independence in 1945 to today, is characterized by cycles of planning and revision. currently, the goal of the new curriculum requires students to be able to appreciate and implement honesty, discipline, responsibility, compassion (tolerance and working together) and politeness, self-confidence, and effective interactions in social and natural environments. science curriculum development in the usa schools started with private educational religious institutions. nowadays, students are encouraged to use scientific information to make choices about issues that arise in everyday life, engage intelligently in public discourse, and debate about important issues that involve science and technology. several aspects must be taken into account in order to reform the science education curriculum, especially in indonesia. in designing curriculum, decision makers should involve many parties, such as higher education, researchers, politicians, scientists, teachers, parents, social and religious community leaders, and industrialists. key words: curriculum development; science education; indonesian and american; curriculum design; curriculum implementation. about the authors: risa haridza, m.a. is an educational authorities of pontianak city, public middle school 3 pontianak, jalan kalimantan 123, pontianak 78116, west borneo, indonesia. karen e. irving, ph.d. is an associate professor at the department of teaching and learning, college of education and human ecology osu (ohio state university), 1945 north high st columbus, ohio 43210, usa (united states of america). corresponding author: haridza.1@osu.edu how to cite this article? haridza, risa & karen e. irving. (2017). “the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum: a comparison study” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(2), february, pp.95-110. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (september 8, 2016); revised (january 15, 2017); and published (february 27, 2017). the curriculum were providing more and better food, shelter, clothing, and security” (peddiwell, 1939:28). in modern perspectives, food, shelter, clothing as well as security become primary needs of the community and are strongly influenced by personal economics and wealth (utomo, 2005). the economic growth of a nation is affected by many factors, such as natural resources, culture, human introduction why is there a need to reform school curriculum in a country? various answers to address this question reflect different perspectives on the question. the first and foremost answer relates to the economic issue and wealth of the people of a nation even since chellean times. in his parable, saber tooth curriculum, j.a. peddiwell (1939) explained, “the educational goals to construct 96 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare resources, and the development of science and technology. thus, in order to increase economic development, a country should be concerned with how to improve the quality of human resources through superior education as well as how to combine and incorporate the latest developments into the school curriculum to provide citizens with a relevant educational background, so that they can play a role in a modern globalized world. parallel to this notion, the main goal of restructuring curriculum in hong kong is improving the quality of education and preparing students for lifetime learning to build a knowledgebased society (yeung, lee & lam, 2012). indonesia has been struggling to increase its economic growth by providing high quality human resources through education. since the 1970s, the education reform policies in indonesia have concentrated on developing quality of life for the purposes of national development (utomo, 2005). in order to ensure greater position in the global market place, the government has targeted areas of the national curriculum to improve the quality of education (mone, 2003a). many attempts to improve the quality of education have been conducted through the teacher recruitment method, teacher certification program, teacher training in the home country and abroad, providing textbooks, as well as revising school curricula based on current international trends and issues in education and national and global needs (mone, 2003b).however, based on the results of the pisa (programme for international student assessment) in 2012, indonesia was ranked 64th out of 65 participating countries (cited in safrudiannur, 2015). this result indicates that there is no improvement of students’ scientific literacy from the previous pisa in 2009, which indonesia was ranked 66th out of the 74 participating countries. furthermore, a.j. ganimian & r.j. murnane (2016) reviewed 223 evaluations of educational initiatives from 56 low and middle-income international sites, including indonesia. their findings indicate that when countries expand school options and reduce the cost of school attendance, more students are able to attend school, but student achievement does not consistently improve (ganimian & murnane, 2016). in order to improve student achievement, better resources must be coupled with a change in children’s daily school experiences. although teacher incentives might result in greater student achievement for very low performing student populations, improving teacher practice is a necessary condition for increasing student achievement.for those reasons, there is a need to examine science curriculum development in indonesia, comparing indonesian school curriculum to a developed country’s school curricula, in this case is the united states of america; and analyzing several factors that strongly influenced curriculum design and curriculum decision making in order to achieve the national purpose, increasing the quality of human resources in indonesia. curriculum development in indonesia understanding the history of curriculum development in indonesia, since 1945, will provide insight into what has been done in the past, how curriculum was implemented, what strengths and limitations existed in the curriculum, and what experiences should be taken into account to design the new curriculum. curriculum development in indonesia has been planned and revised from 1947 until 2013, and will be described further in the following section. “rentjana peladjaran” or lesson plan curriculum in 1947. the first curriculum introduced in indonesian schools after independence was rentjana peladjaran or lesson plan curriculum. this curriculum followed the school curriculum made by the dutch during the 350-year colonial period and began the process of changing from dutch interests to the national interest. because the situation in the nation was strongly influenced by the recent fight for freedom from the dutch, the government designed the new curriculum that was oriented to build the character of the indonesian people as independent, sovereign, and with equal opportunity for all citizens (sutisna, 2011). educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 97 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the educational principles of this curriculum were based on the state philosophy for the republic of indonesia and the five basic principles (pancasila) that are: (1) belief in the one and only god; (2) just and civilized humanity; (3) the unity of indonesia; (4) democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives; and (5) social justice for all the people of indonesia (cf nishimura, 1995; and taniredja, afandi & faridli, 2012). this first curriculum was derived into two main parts that included a list of subject matter and time allocations for each subject domain. in 1952, this curriculum was revised to provide more emphasis on the relationship between subject matter content and daily life events, as well as to include physical education and art education (saputri, 2014). curriculum in 1964 and 1968. in 1964, the government of the republic of indonesia conducted a review and revision to enhance the previous curriculum. in the new curriculum rentjana pendidikan 1964 (educational plan 1964), the goal of education was to strengthen academic knowledge at the elementary level for the indonesian people. the revised elementary education program placed emphasis on knowledge and practical functional activities (sutisna, 2011). the five main subjects included in this curriculum were morality, higher level thinking skills, artistic expression, life skills, and physical education. these subjects concerned the development of creativity, values, participatory skills, craft, and morale of students (hamalik, 1993).the government renewed rentjana pendidikan 1964 in 1968. the curriculum 1968 was restructured into the development of life based on pancasila, fundamental knowledge and special skills. the objective of the curriculum 1968 was to fulfill the human rights of indonesian people that include having a strong and healthy body, enhanced intelligence and physical skills, morals, manners, and religious beliefs (sutisna, 2011). curriculum 1975 and 1984. trends to provide an education that is effective and efficient based on the mbo (management by objective) strongly influenced the development of curriculum 1975. these curriculum components included objective based content and strategies that were written with more detail into lesson units following an instructional systems development procedure. a typical lesson unit covered general objectives, particular instructional objectives, content, learning resources, learning activities, and evaluations (sutisna, 2011). particularly in the reform of science education, this curriculum provided instructional objectives, but left the challenge of recognizing and positioning relevant instructional materials and lesson planning completely to the teachers (thomas, 1991). in order to implement curriculum 1975 properly, training courses were given to principals, teachers, and administrators. in this context, m. thair & d.f. treagust (1997) write, as follows: [...] for teachers, this training had three separate components: science content of curriculum; use of scientific apparatus to carry out experiments; and the methodology involved in producing activity based lessons in the classroom (thair & treagust, 1997:584). in subsequent reviews, curriculum 1975 was further developed to produce curriculum 1984 to address the current trends in science education at that time. curriculum 1984 emphasized the process skills approach that aimed to achieve not only the objectives of learning, but also skills that were gained in the learning process. in this curriculum, students were asked to engage actively in learning pursuits through observation, classification, and reporting. this curriculum was based on instructional objectives (sutisna, 2011). instructional objectives are statements that describe what students will know or be able to do on completion of the lesson in a specific allocated time. thus, in order to make the learning process more effective and efficient, before teachers start their lesson, they have to design the specific instructional objective that is possible to be achieved during their instructional period.in order to develop teacher’s competences in designing instructional objectives, the indonesian 98 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare government conducted teacher training, both in country and overseas. in one example described by t. somerset (1988), about 12 selected science teachers completed a twelve weeks teacher-training abroad program that covered content knowledge, practical work, classroom teaching instruction, and teacher training methodology (somerset, 1988). on returning to indonesia, these teachers were expected to train their colleagues in a teachthe-teacher model. however, curriculum 1984 had several limitations. for example, the learning content presented in the curriculum 1984 presented broad and unfocused science concepts and included what many deemed as irrelevant knowledge. teachers and students experienced difficulty with the higher level objectives presented in the new curriculum (drost, 1998). in addition, the concept of student active learning, while theoretically elegant and with evidence to show better results in piloting schools, proved difficult to bring to scale (khoiriyah et al., 2015). the implementation of active learning strategies resulted in many irregularities and teacher modifications when applied nationally. unfortunately, many schools were unable to interpret and implement the concept of student active learning with a high degree of fidelity. curriculum 1994. curriculum 1994 was a refinement of the curriculum 1984. changes in the way classes were delivered and goals of learning were unique characteristics of the curriculum 1994 (dharma, 2008). the previous class organization was one learning year divided into two semesters while in the curriculum 1994, one learning year evolved into three caturwulan or trimesters, one caturwulan was equal to 4 months (wirianto, 2014). the motivation for this change was to provide students with shorter learning segments and more opportunity to learn content knowledge gradually. the main goal of this curriculum was developing students’ conceptual understanding and skills in solving problems. even though the curriculum encouraged students to develop their conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills, in fact, most indonesian classrooms still practiced rote learning and memorization in teaching and learning activities as well as methods of assessment. most of the assessments were paper and pencil written tests that commonly measured lower-order thinking skills, such as defining scientific terms or providing examples that related to some science principles. plausible reasons for this situation could be both the teachers were not trained well on how to apply this curriculum in the classroom and the lack of proper monitoring for the implementation of this curriculum in schools (yeom, acedo & utomo, 2002). curriculum 2004. the reform in educational policies continued when the regime of president soeharto collapsed in 1998 (sato, 2003). at this time, regional authority was granted to the district or city level, bypassing the provincial government (gaylord, 2008). in 2004, the curriculum reformed into a cbc (competencybased curriculum). this cbc was intended to provide greater flexibility in responding to changes in society, such as the rapid developments in information and communication technology (utomo, 2005). the new curriculum focused on developing students’ competence individually or in a group in order to achieve standard competence of learning objectives established by the government or moec (ministry of education and culture) of the republic of indonesia. although the curriculum was enacted as the core standards across indonesia, provinces and cities were encouraged to adjust the curriculum to promote their regions’ priorities. the local content curriculum required all elementary and junior secondary schools to allocate 20% of all instruction to locally designed subject matter (bjork, 2004). the moec encouraged schools to create a local content curriculum course that fit the unique condition of the community they served (torar & wahono, 2016). for example, a school in papua might decide to offer instruction in mining, while an institution located in the riverside area of borneo could create a course on fishery. in this context, k. lewin (1985) claimed, as follows: educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 99 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare [...] curriculum quality has frequently been perceived to depend more directly on the availability and distribution of physical plant and material resources for schools than on the less tangible characteristics of the infrastructure that supports these (lewin, 1985:129). moreover, the curriculum 2004 also had a stronger content orientation with many topics that had to be covered in one learning year compared to the previous curricula. to implement the new program, local governments or schools needed to use general operating funds or to collect funding from other sources. accordingly, c. bjork (2003) wrote as follows: [...] on some occasions, the funds were taken out of the donation that parents remit to the school each month (bjork, 2003:196). additionally, even though teachers had freedom to design several components in the curriculum, limitations still existed due to the tradition, culture, demands of parents and community, districts and provincial regulations, and financial matters as well. despite the intentions of the reformers, teacher contributions in developing curriculum did not fulfill the expectation of the central government. however, teacher contributions in curriculum planning and development were still compulsory (marsh & willis, 2007). school-based curriculum 2006. in 2006, the moec (ministry of education and culture) of the republic of indonesia introduced ktsp (kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan or school-based curriculum), the revised version of curriculum 2004. the implementation of school-based curricula gives more freedom to schools and school committees to develop school curriculum, determine the vision, mission, and objectives of education initiated by the school (firman & tola, 2008). the freedom was expected to encourage teachers and schools to take part in curriculum planning and school development. under ktsp, the central education authority developed general competences and minimum content outlines, while individual teachers were to develop their subject curricula, including formulating learning objectives, selecting content, teaching strategies as well as developing learning evaluations independently. l. parker & r. raihani (2011) declare that: [...] this curriculum stressed the achievement of standardized competencies that students had to achieve, and the development of life skills to prepare graduates to survive in life after school (parker & raihani, 2011:715). it can also provide an opportunity to students to develop skills and competencies relevant to the local needs and potentials and thus increase their ability to contribute to the development of their district or provinces (suprihatiningrum, 2012). after being implemented in 2006, several evaluations and analyses conducted by the moec (ministry of education and culture) led to the conclusion that in its current condition, graduate competencies are not emphasizing values education. teaching and learning processes remain based on teacher centered learning, and stress cognitive aspects (kemdikbud ri, 2013). moreover, several important competencies are not developed effectively by curriculum 2006; for example, confronting future challenges around environmental issues and globalization (sadiman, 2009). this curriculum does not fully prepare students with competency for understanding and tolerance for others, who have different perspectives, awareness of social changes in local, national, and global contexts, or living in a global community. curriculum 2013. evaluation of schoolbased curriculum yielded several areas for development and revision in the school curriculum. the rationale for this curriculum is because there are some challenges that have to be confronted in the future. those challenges include growth in the population of individuals of working age, i.e. 15 to 64 years old as defined by the oecd (organization for economic cooperation and development) in 2015, the development of a globalized world, information technology, knowledge, and pedagogy, as well as current social phenomena (kemdikbud ri, 2013; and oecd, 2015). 100 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare based on these findings, the moec (ministry of education and culture) revised and enhanced the curriculum 2006 into an advanced version called curriculum 2013. the core competencies for example in junior high school are designed as four interconnected categories relating to religious beliefs, social attitudes, science content knowledge, and the application of knowledge. curriculum 2013 is designed mainly based on core competencies and basic competencies. core competencies are some qualities that have to be achieved by the students after they complete the learning processes. whereas basic competencies are skills that students build upon subject matter (kemdikbud ri, 2014). a unique feature of curriculum 2013 is that both core and basic competencies at the elementary level focus preferably on good manners and behavioral education. however, at the secondary level, the learning processes are centered in developing high order thinking skills. the content of curriculum 2013 for science has a specific purpose (falak, 2014). the overarching structure and matter of science are integrated to introduce life science, environmental science, and various advantages of indonesian as an archipelago country. because of this framework, life science and environmental science dominate the substance of the curriculum, while physical science and chemistry will be studied to corroborate students’ understanding about the natural world and its phenomena. the impact of physical science and chemistry are applied to living things and the environment. curriculum 2013 also strongly supports multiculturalism (suparno, 2017). one of its graduate competencies requires students to be able to appreciate and demonstrate honesty, discipline, responsibility, tolerance, politeness, and self-confidence in social and natural environments. students should have abilities in strengthening equality, accommodating differences, and participating actively in building harmonious relationships in society. mostly only the moec and higher education faculty initially designed this curriculum. these groups identified new standards and basic competency levels and attached learning indicators to describe them. next, the moec selected around 6,000 schools at the elementary, middle, and senior high schools level across indonesia to implement this curriculum. teachers from those schools were prepared with specific training using activitybased teaching approach to implement curriculum 2013 from moec staff or university faculty member. this notion is supported by a. koul (2014), who stated that teachers’ development program should be designed to be activitybased teaching closely related to students’ prior knowledge and their surrounding environment rather than conventional methods, such as lecture from the experts (koul, 2014). starting in july 2013, the selected teachers educated their students using the guidance of this new curriculum. the experts also monitor their classroom activities, so that they can assess teacher performance, conduct an evaluation, and provide some suggestions for better learning activities in the next session. the number of piloting schools will be increased gradually every year until this curriculum is applied in all schools in indonesia. curriculum development in the united states of america as a developed country, investigating the progress of science curriculum in usa (united states of america) schools is very interesting. the development of science curriculum actually started in the usa and has been followed by other nations in the world (blum, 1979). furthermore, the usa has regional educational standards and a solid tradition of local control (schmidt et al., 2001). control and power in the usa educational system, traditionally, are highly influenced by independent organizations, or school boards. school boards are representatives of the local community, selected by members of that community through campaigns and elections in the community in a school district or appointed by the state governor. currently, the federal government is attempting to become more involved in the educational system to improve the quality of schools. thus, it is very interesting to examine a educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 101 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare contrast of power and control in education that has been applied in other countries, such as in the usa, in order to obtain information about the advantages and disadvantages in decentralized education systems. historically, the control of usa public schools has been primarily in the hands of local school boards with state government having ultimate legal responsibility. j. spring (2008) stated that through the nclb (no child left behind) act in 2001, the usa federal government employed greater power and reduced the local control in public schools (spring, 2008). an important feature of nclb was the federal government provision of funding to public elementary and secondary education. a condition of using this funding required the state government to agree to implement a range of activities asked for by the federal government, including determining the academic standards and testing programs, public reporting of test scores, identifying and improving schools failing to meet adequate yearly progress, using particular types of reading programs, offering school choice plans, and a host of other provisions in the legislation (spring, 2008). the following section will describe the history of science curriculum development in the usa schools. the first one hundred years, 1776–1875. in the decades after usa (united states of america) independence from great britain was declared in 1776, public education was recognized as a necessary force for socialization (bybee, powell, & trowbridge, 2008). most educational institutions were private and religious based. when religious groups created and managed their own schools, the presence of strong religious views and the virtual absence of more widely held secular views posed no significant, overt problem (eisner, 1979). according to r.w. bybee, j.c. powell & l.w. trowbridge (2008), during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the religious indoctrinations decreased and utilitarian objectives increased in schools. an effect was that curriculum based on religion was replaced with more practical curriculum with several options of subject matter, including science, agriculture, and navigation. after the depression of 1873, because of the economic and social reform, educators followed with clear demands for more science in the classroom (bybee, powell & trowbridge, 2008:71). in order to fulfill the demands of social and economic changes as well as the effect of the industrial revolution, the aim of public education was changed to provide a more general understanding about the concept of science and technology. relevant to the idea of focusing more on science and technology, in the 1870s, the usa had a broader range of subjects in their school curricula, such as mathematics, art, science, and geography. teachers attempted to link these subjects with each other during instruction. nevertheless the usa school also taught non-academic competencies, for example sewing, gardening, creating pottery, and weaving (cuban, 1984). from 1870 to the 1950s. science became part of the school curriculum during the 19th century, both in europe and in the usa (united states of america) in large part, because of the urgings of the scientists themselves (deboer, 2000). the development of science and technology demanded an increase in scientific literacy. in 1892, the committee of ten, a group of educators mostly representing higher educational interests, stated that all students should be taught the same curriculum regardless of whether they planned to attend college (maitland, 2007; and bybee, powell & trowbridge, 2008). the committee designed the subjects to be taught and the hours per week and weeks per year to be devoted to each subject. through learning science, students would develop inductive thinking skills as well as scientific attitudes through investigations and independent inquiries such as experiments or other laboratory learning activities (bybee, powell & trowbridge, 2008). by 1915, the emphasis in science education shifted to goals wider than those for college entrance (maitland, 2007; and bybee, powell & trowbridge, 2008). at this time, the broadened science curriculum attempted to provide students with various learning 102 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare activities and experiences to prepare them to compete in the job market. however, the requirements set by the various standardizing committees, such as the committee of ten and the committee on college entrance requirements helped to ease the transition from high school to college, but they also formalized the college preparatory role of high school (deboer, 1991). a few years later, the influence of college entrance requirements was not the only main concern on the development of science education curriculum. in 1918, publication of the cardinal principles by the commission on the reorganization of secondary education stressed the importance of organization and sequencing of secondary science as well as pointed out social goals beyond the traditional knowledge goals (bybee, powell & trowbridge, 2008). from this perspective, science education curricula was not only concerned with college entrance requirements but also tried to accommodate students’ interests and needs, and social demands, as well as explore students’ abilities to construct their knowledge based on real experiences. g. deboer (1991) stated that it was a period of confirmation of child-centered education, the importance of real world application, the social importance of knowledge, and the need to make school learning enjoyable and meaningful to students (deboer, 1991). late 1950s to 1983. as the 1960s approached, the usa (united states of america) science education community was becoming more and more interested in the strategic role of scientific knowledge in society, especially given the recent launching of the earth orbiting satellite sputnik by the soviet union in 1957 (deboer, 2000). because of this event, trends of science education reform at that time focused more on producing people, who understood science and were aware of employment opportunities in science fields. the curriculum emphasized the understanding of science content knowledge using inquiry. scientists also took a huge part in designing the content of science education. they also played other important roles, such as research mentor, content knowledge specialists, instructional development collaboration, and role models (lederman, 2003). this contribution resulted in students learning about science and the natural world through an abstract model. only a few topics were linked to the students’ daily experiences. the curriculum development in the postsputnik era focused less on personal needs and more on military and national defense and preferentially presented theoretical aspects of science. however, many science educators did believe that the goals of science education should be for personal development and to help individuals adjust to life in modern society (deboer, 2000). in 1982, the nsta (national science teachers association) introduced the sts (science-technology-society) curriculum. the aim of the sts curriculum was to give students knowledge about the science/society interface and the ability to make decisions about science related social issues (deboer, 2000). this curriculum provided learning opportunities for students to observe the social issues that arose in their daily experiences, in media such as newspaper and magazines. students were encouraged to investigate the social problems in groups, design and implement action plans to overcome the problem, analyze the strength and limitations of their action plan, and give further suggestions to revise it into a better model or plan. with insufficient teacher preparation and acceptance of the new model and a tradition of strong local control of schools, the sts curriculum was only implemented in some districts (rubba & weisenmayer, 1991; and mansour, 2009). year 1990s to 2013. in 1989, usa (united states of america) mathematics educators and mathematicians introduced national standards with two publications: curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics by the nctm (national council of teachers of mathematics), in 1989; and everybody counts: a report to the nation on the future of mathematics education by the nrc (national research council), in 1989. the nctm capability had a pivotal role in the expansion of other education standards, for instance the national science educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 103 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare education standards (nrc, 1996). in the same year, the aaas (american association for the advancement of science), with its project 2061, issued science for all americans, describing scientific literacy for all high school graduates. the nsta (national science teachers association) followed with the publication of the content core using scope, sequence & coordination project (aaas, 1989; and aldridge, 1992). begun in 1992, the nses (national science education standards), in 1996, was part of the usa governments’ approach to education reform, an approach that involves setting national goals and the standards for meeting them (deboer, 2000). president george w. bush supported this meeting by establishing the national education goal panel and this support continued with the next elected president, william clinton. in this context, ncsesa (national committee on science education standards and assessment), in 1996, states as follows: the standards for content define what the scientifically literate person should know, understand, and be able to do after 13 years of school science (ncsesa, 1996:13). thus, school becomes the place to implement those standards and students will able to achieve a comprehensive knowledge and understanding about science after they graduate from school. in december 1994, the nss (national science standards) were released as a draft document for nationwide review. the standards provided specific criteria about the principles that underlie the vision of scientific literacy for all students. they also stated the basic principles about teaching and teacher standards, teacher’s professional development of skills and knowledge, as well as science education assessment standards. as for the content knowledge, the nss emphasized the implementation of inquiry in the science classroom; linking the traditional subjects, such as physical and life science, chemistry, earth and space science to technology; and highlighting the knowledge of history and nature of science (cited in nrc, 1996). furthermore, the standards also set the criteria on quality and interaction among schools, districts, and the larger communities, so that all parties could help students achieve the goals. an important point in the creation and release of the national science education standards was that although researchers from the national research council, an arm of the usa government, supported them, they were issued as guidelines for the states and not directives. each state was allowed the option to adopt them as written, or amend them to better suit local interests. many states produced individual state versions of these standards, such as the ohio academic standards for science (doe ohio, 2011). year 2013 to future. as the second decade of the twenty first century dawned, the nrc (national research council) established the ccf (committee of conceptual framework) for new k-12 science education standards. this committee accepted responsibility for advancing a conceptual framework that would define core ideas in physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology as well as crosscutting concepts and practices for the classrooms of the 21st century (nrc, 2012). based on the report of the ccf for these new k-12 science education standards, the nrc, in july 2011, declared as follows: [t]he ultimate goal of this framework is to ensure that at the end of 12th grade, all students have some appreciation of the beauty of and wonder of science; possess sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussion in related issues; are careful consumers of scientific and technological information related to their everyday lives; are able to continue to learn about science outside school; and have the skills to enter careers of their choices, including (but not limited to) careers in science, engineering, and technology (nrc, 2012:9). the main reason for establishing a new standard for usa (united states of america) science education was mainly because of the continued development of the science of teaching and learning based on the recent research in science education. armed with the ideas and practices in those relevant research studies in teaching and learning 104 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare in science education, the committee and design team contracted by nrc (national research council) prepared and revised the draft, which was released for public comment in july 2010. the extensive inputs from the public were used to revise and redesign the outline of the framework (nrc, 2012). the framework was developed with several guiding principles, which are children’s competency in learning science; focusing on core ideas; continuous development of understanding; balancing both knowledge and practice; connecting students’ interest and experiences; and promoting equity among students. moreover, the framework also has a unique structure that consists of three dimensions (nrc, 2012). those dimensions are: dimension 1 (scientific and engineering practices), dimension 2 (crosscutting concepts), and dimension 3 (core ideas in science discipline). in dimension 1, the practices that scientists and engineers actually engage in are identified and introduced to students. eight essential elements are included in the curriculum: (1) asking questions or defining problems; (2) designing and applying models; (3) conducting an investigation; (4) analyzing and interpreting data; (5) applying mathematical principles and computing skills; (6) reasoning and offering solutions; (7) evaluating the evidence in a discourse; and (8) obtaining, evaluating, and presenting the result of investigation (nrc, 2012). student opportunity to engage in these practices and explore their central importance to science and engineering represent a central tenet of the frameworks (duschl, 2012; nrc, 2012; and reiser, berland & kenyon, 2012). dimension 2 focuses on crosscutting concepts that bridge disciplinary boundaries. the explanatory value of these concepts re-occurs throughout much of science and engineering. introduction of these core concepts intends to provide students with an organizational framework to connect knowledge across science and engineering disciplines into a coherent world view (duschl, 2012). the committee identified seven concepts that encompass scientific and engineering domains: (1) patterns; (2) cause and effect; (3) scale, ratio, and quantity and its relevancy to a system’s structure and enactment; (4) systems and system models; (5) energy and matter; (6) structure and function; and (7) stability and change (duschl, 2012; nrc, 2012; and reiser, berland & kenyon, 2012). dimension 3 emphasizes disciplinary core ideas in physical sciences, life sciences, earth and space science, engineering and technology, and the application of science. each core idea covers several essential topics. those topics will be studied from elementary to secondary level with increasing complexity, from the simplest to the most multifaceted phenomena. the standard’s originators have planned that at the end of grade 12, students would achieve a broad and thoughtful knowledge base about the phenomena in nature and its application in real life (duschl, 2012; nrc, 2012; and reiser, berland & kenyon, 2012). following the release of the framework, a collaboration of 26 lead partner usa states along with a team of 41 writers with broad expertise in both science and science education created the internationally benchmarked new science standards. the framework document was used as the main reference source for both structure and content in developing the next generation science standards (ngss lead states, 2013). many institutions, such as nrc (national research council), nsta (national science teachers association), and aaas (american association for the advancement of science) worked together to complete the ngss (next generation science standards). early drafts of the ngss were released for broad public comment to produce a document that represents collaboration across stakeholders in science, science education, higher education, and industry (aaas, 1989; aldridge, 1992; and reiser, berland & kenyon, 2012). the final product next generations science standards, published in summer 2013, provides a high quality set of standards that can prepare students to be successful in career and life. individual states and school districts are encouraged to use the ngss either as written, or as a blueprint to create individual standards linked more closely to educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 105 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare local concerns and interests. because of the tradition of local control of schools, the usa federal government cannot mandate the adoption or implementation of these standards (ngss lead states, 2013). discussion both science curriculum development in indonesia and the united states of america is a long-term and complex process. v.m.y. cheng (2010) emphasized that “curriculum reform is such a complicated process, which has no simple direct path” (cheng, 2010:18). the history of the development of science education curriculum, both in indonesia as well as in the united states of america, describe two emerging factors that strongly influenced curriculum design and curriculum decision making in education. firstly, collaboration among parties. in indonesia, science curriculum is strongly influenced by the government policies through moec (ministry of education and culture). the government sets the core competencies, basic competencies, and minimum standards of learning process (power & cohen, 2015). teachers and schools are able to select learning activities, teaching strategies, methods of assessment, and resources of learning activities that will be conducted in the classroom based on students’ interest and needs, the availability of materials, culture, and the students’ development of mental and thinking processes. because the standards are similar, the implementation of the curriculum and learning activities in the classroom has similar patterns across indonesia (madya, 2010). the similarity of standard competencies and content knowledge shared by indonesian schools enable students to transfer from one school to another school in different regions all over indonesia without much difficulty. it also facilitates the measurement of student’s achievement and national comparisons simply by taking national examinations conducted by the central government. on the contrary, science curriculum in the united states of america is designed at the state and district level (nrc, 2012). in this case, the curriculum will have more opportunity to explore local resources and may be tailored for the natural and social resources that are available in that place. furthermore, the curriculum decisionmaking involves many parties, such as school boards, principals, teachers, parents, social community, higher education, and industry as well. collaboration among those parties will produce a strong curriculum, because they will provide various learning experiences, stages of continuing education, and relevant goals that fit to the economic and social needs of the community that the schools serve. however, student transfer from state to state is complicated by the lack of uniformity in school curriculum. also, national assessments of science learning must reflect a wide diversity of science standards and local interests, and may not reliably measure science learning in all communities using a single assessment instrument. secondly, curriculum goals. in general, the goals of science education curriculum in indonesia are fostering students to appreciate and practice their religion, integrating character education in learning science, developing students’ cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills, and improving students’ science process skills. compared to the goals of science education curriculum in the usa (united states of america), the goals of science curriculum in indonesia are relatively constant, even though they have experienced steady reforms on curriculums’ structure and content from 1947 to today.1 in the usa, the goals of science curriculum change based on the current demands and needs of the nation. for example, the needs to fulfill college entrance requirements caused the curriculum change to be more appropriate with the standards determined by the ceeb (college entrance examination board). another example was the orbiting of the sputnik satellite by the soviet union in 1957 that triggered greater emphasis on science content knowledge into the curriculum (deboer, 2000). 1see, for comparison perspective, “goals for science education”. available online at: https://www.nap.edu/ read/11625/chapter/4 [accessed in pontianak city, indonesia: september 15, 2016]. 106 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare furthermore, the usa curriculum clearly promotes connecting science subjects with technology. as a developed nation, the usa has remarkable infrastructure and high technology levels. those facilities provide much information, such as videos, films, digital books, and other internet sources to support and enrich students’ learning experiences. on the contrary in indonesia, teachers are encouraged to do so, but it is not mandatory for them, because those facilities are only available in the big cities in indonesia (cf mulyasa, 2006; and de ree et al., 2016). establishing a reliable infrastructure and communication service is an ongoing challenge in indonesia. thus, teachers have to deal with accessible supplies and facilities in their local region to design the lesson plans and conduct the lessons. on the other hand, both curricula share similar ideas about science learning processes in the classroom. science learning activities are designed to encourage students to discover concepts and to connect the knowledge with their own experiences as well as to support inquiry learning and develop problem-solving skills. conclusion the discussion above leads to several conclusions about the elements that must be taken into account in order to reform the science education curriculum, especially in indonesia: (1) what are the ongoing and recent developments in science education internationally and are they relevant to the national needs; (2) what level of involvement is desirable by third parties besides the government and school in designing the curriculum; (3) how best to balance authority between central and local authorities in designing the curriculum; and (4) who should fund educational initiatives. additional research is needed to determine how much and what the specific role of each party should be in designing curriculum. suggestions that can be offered to improve the quality of the curriculum are: first, in designing curriculum, decision makers should gather much information from current international educational research, global and present national needs, and patterns and trends of science education development for the future. second, curriculum decision makers should actively involve many parties, such as higher education, researchers, politicians, scientists, teachers, parents, social and religious community, and business leaders, in the development of curriculum. various perspectives provided by different cultural, economic, educational, and religious backgrounds will increase the opportunities for learning, learning experiences, and enhance the content and teaching strategies of curriculum. involving a broad spectrum of leaders also may provide stronger community support for educational reform movements. third, central government should increase opportunities by transferring some authority to provinces and cities in designing curriculum. the central government can determine the national standard of competencies that should be achieved by students and leave other components in curriculum to be developed by local governments. in this way, provinces and districts can develop their own science curriculum based on local content relevant to the human resources and natural resources of their communities. these curriculum and learning activities can also promote local economic and cultural development. fourth, the development and implementation of science curricula at the local level should be monitored and supported by funding, establishing cooperation among institutions and job markets, and providing professional development for school staff. central government, members of the community, higher education, scientists, industry, and other parties that have connection both direct and indirect to education in indonesia should act to support these efforts.2 2authors’ declaration: we, the undersigned, declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. we wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this 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(2016). the management of national education in 2014/2015 at a glance compiled. jakarta: center for educational and cultural data and statistics moec [ministry of education and culture]. available online also at: http://publikasi. data.kemdikbud.go.id/uploaddir/isi_6549da847a7f-44b5-ad22-829b1f002a4f_.pdf [accessed in pontianak city, indonesia: january 11, 2017]. utomo, e. (2005). “challenges of curriculum reform in the context of decentralization: the response of teacher to a competence-based curriculum (cbc) and its implementation in schools”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. pittsburgh: graduate faculty of the school of education at the university of pittsburgh. available online also at: www.proquest. database [accessed in pontianak city, indonesia: september 7, 2016]. wirianto, d. (2014). “perspektif historis transformasi kurikulum di indonesia” in islamic studies journal, 2(1), pp.13-47. yeom, m., c. aced & e. utom. (2002). “the reform of secondary education in indonesia during 1990s: basic education expansion and quality improvement through curriculum decentralization” in asia pacific education review, 3(1), pp.5-68. yeung, y., y. le & i. la. (2012). “curriculum and reform and restructuring of senior secondary science education in hong kong: teachers’ perceptions and implications” in asia-pasific forum on science learning and teaching, 13(2), pp.1-33. 110 risa haridza & karen e. irving, the evolution of indonesian and american science education curriculum © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare indonesian and american students at senior high schools (source: https://id.wikipedia.org and http://www.westmilfordmessenger.com, 11/1/2017) both curricula, in indonesia and united states of america, share similar ideas about science learning processes in the classroom. science learning activities are designed to encourage students to discover concepts and to connect the knowledge with their own experiences as well as to support inquiry learning and develop problem-solving skills. educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 109© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr. effecting change on students’ critical thinking in problem solving abstract: critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillsfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. most formal definitions of critical thinking characterize critical thinking as the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation. critical thinking and problem solving have long been important terminologies in the context of education, but within the framework of the 21st century classroom, they take on very specific definitions. critical thinking employs higher level analytical skills to understand a problem and to work toward a means by which it can be solved, that word implies an answer. this study investigated the effect of using problem situations on the critical thinking of graduate students in solving problems. the study utilized the experimental design participated by a group of graduate students enrolled in educational statistics. four problem situations were utilized that aimed to develop critical thinking of students in problem solving. students’ critical thinking was measured before and after giving th em the problem situations. results revealed that students’ critical thinking in problem solving significantly improved after using problem situations. the students also expressed positive attitude and sentiments towards the used of these problem situations. it is recommended that these problems situations be used in other topics and areas in mathematics. key words: problem situation; critical thinking; problem solving; graduate students; positive attitude and sentiments. about the authors: rene r. belecina, ph.d. is a full professor at the cgster pnu (college of graduate studies and teacher education research, philippine normal university) in manila, philippines. jose m. ocampo, jr., ph.d. is a full professor at the faculty of education sciences pnu in manila, the philippines. the authors are able to be contacted via their e-mails at: rrbelecina@ yahoo.com and juno_6970@yahoo.com suggested citation: belecina, rene r. & jose m. ocampo, jr. (2018). “effecting change on students’ critical thinking in problem solving” in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february, pp.109-118. bandung, indonesia and bs begawan, brunei darussalam: minda masagi press owned by aspensi and briman institute, issn 1979-7877. article timeline: accepted (december 19, 2017); revised (january 20, 2018); and published (february 28, 2018). introduction there are various definitions of critical thinking in the literature. according to m. scriven & r. paul (1996), critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillsfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action (scriven & paul, 1996). most formal definitions of critical thinking characterize critical thinking as the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation (angelo, 1995; ten dam & volman, 2004; and lai, 2011). rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., effecting change on students’ critical thinking 110 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare c. wade (1995) identifies eight characteristics of critical thinking. critical thinking involves: asking questions; defining a problem; examining evidence; analyzing assumptions and biases; avoiding emotional reasoning; avoiding oversimplification; considering other interpretations; and tolerating ambiguity (wade, 1995). dealing with ambiguity is also an aspect identified by s.m. strohm & r.a. baukus (1995) as an essential part of critical thinking. according to them, ambiguity and doubt serve a criticalthinking function and are a necessary and even a productive part of the process (cf strohm & baukus, 1995; malmir & shoorcheh, 2012; and laqaei & mall-amiri, 2015). another characteristic of critical thinking identified by many sources is metacognition. metacognition is thinking about one’s own thinking. more specifically, metacognition is being aware of one’s thinking as one performs specific tasks and, then, using this awareness to control what one is doing (jones & ratcliff, 1993; and jaleel & premachandran, 2016). critical thinking and problem solving have long been important terminologies in the context of education, but within the framework of the 21st century classroom, they take on very specific definitions. critical thinking employs higher level analytical skills to understand a problem and to work toward a means by which it can be solved, that word implies an answer (resnick, 1987; cederblom & paulsen, 2006; and moore & parker, 2012). often the problems of the present classroom can have as many answers as there are students trying to solve them. problem solving describes a situation in which students are faced with an authentic and relevant task on which they work toward a solution or more likely an end product (khandani, 2005). frequently, if not always, the scenario in the classroom is structured, so that problem solving involves collaboration within a group of students to create an end result, which solves the problem at hand. in the present mathematics class, students are encouraged to move away from trying to manipulate numbers and formulas to arrive at an answer and instead focus on the metacognitive skills necessary for approaching a problem. group work can be helpful, since students have the opportunity to work through a problem together and discuss difficulties. the professor does not tell students how to solve the problem, but asks questions that help the students approach and solve the problem on their own. this doesn’t mean that the instructor waits until the students have the answer. instead, the instructor interacts with the groups, asking questions when a group is stuck or the approach is not clear (winter et al., 2001). while this teaching method might seem time consuming, students gain a deeper understanding of the work, they are doing than if they simply copied examples that instructor put on the board. students are learning the process of thinking through problems as an expert would approach a problem and practicing higher-order thinking skills (resnick, 1987; and swartz & mcguinness, 2014). when teaching mathematics, critical thinking skills can be used, practiced, and enhanced by effective cognitive methods. critical thinking can enhance creative problem solving options by encouraging students to seek new strategies when solving mathematical problems. mathematics teachers know the importance of mathematical reasoning, for it builds the skills required for higher-level mathematics (ball, 2003; and sullivan, 2011). t. van gelder (2005) believes that improving critical thinking abilities requires practice and to be actively engaged in the skill of thinking critically. t. van gelder (2001)’s recommendations for improving critical thinking also included practice of: active engagement; transfer of learning; understanding theories; thinking map skills; the ability to identify biases; and being open to what should be considered truth (gelder, 2001 and 2005). the results of various studies support the fact that, with practice, students can improve their critical thinking skill levels in this area (pascarella & terenzini, 1991; and lai, 2011). the work of b.r. reichenbach (2001) and other studies indicate that students can expand their thinking skills, including educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 111© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare their clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic that stills identified in the universal intellectual standards (reichenbach, 2001; shahsavar & hoon, 2013; and tew, 2015). in the field of mathematics education, it is generally agreed that critical thinking is very important, especially in problem solving. students should be able to develop this skill in order to be successful in this age of globalization. most researches on critical thinking in mathematics education focused on elementary, secondary, and college students, but very few has delved on graduate students (cf fung, townsend & parr, 2004; pellegrino, 2007; and stinson, bidwell & powell, 2012). this study attempted to test and describe pedagogical practices or strategies on how to enhance critical thinking of graduate students in solving problems in mathematics. carefully developed problems situations were used to find out if these will enhance critical thinking of students in solving problems in mathematics. efforts to develop the critical thinking skills of mathematics have become the main agenda in the curriculum of mathematics education worldwide (nctm, 2000; innabi & sheikh, 2006; and mason, burton & stacey, 2010). many researchers have also shown that the development of critical thinking skills can improve mathematics achievement (silver & kenney, 1995; nctm, 2000; semerci, 2005; jacob, 2012; and chukwuyenum, 2013). in fact, critical thinking skills will encourage students to think independently and solve problems in school or in the context of everyday life (cct, 1996c; nctm, 2000; and jacob, 2012). critical thinking skills are very important in mathematics learning, because these skills can improve the quality of mathematics learning in better and meaningful way (cobb et al., 1992). therefore, students should not only understand the content of mathematics, but also the process of mathematical thinking (cobb et al., 1992; and rajendran, 2010). one of the priorities of the university is to produce graduates who will contribute to the development and improvement of the nation; and critical thinking is very important in developing successful students in this endeavour (firdaus et al., 2015). hence, this study is very significant to the research priorities of the university. promoting critical thinking and problem solving in mathematics education is crucial in the development of successful students. critical thinking and problem solving go hand in hand. in order to learn mathematics through problem solving, the students must also learn how to think critically (semerci, 2005; jacob, 2012; and chukwuyenum, 2013). there are five values of teaching through problem solving. these are: (1) problem solving focuses the student’s attention on ideas and sense making rather than memorization of facts; (2) problem solving develops the students belief that they are capable of doing mathematics and that mathematics makes sense; (3) it provides on going assessment data that can be used to make instructional decisions; (4) help students succeed and inform parents; and (5) teaching through problem solving is fun and when learning is fun, students have a better chance of remembering it later (cf marcut, 2005; and firdaus et al., 2015). the primary objective is to help the student to become aware of the fact that problem solving is not a special area, but instead uses the same logical processes to which they are already familiar and use routinely (marcut, 2005). the problem statement itself is the primary cause of novice students’ difficulty in solving word problems. the solution is to ignore, when reading a problem statement, any phrases that start with words like “if ”. the initial action in starting a solution is identifying what is asked for. the student must be learned to verbalize. a verbal statement following the final result is of particular importance: what does the result tell me? in addition to completing the solution, the ending statement serves as a quick check of one work. an adequate solution presentation does not have to be explained. mathematics is often held up as the model of a discipline based on rational thought, clear, concise language, and attention to the assumption and decision-making techniques rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., effecting change on students’ critical thinking 112 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare that are used to draw conclusions (makina, 2010). in 1938, harold fawcett (1995) introduced the idea that students could learn mathematics through experiences of critical thinking. his goals included the following ways that students could demonstrate that they were, in fact, thinking critically, as they participated in the experiences of the classroom: selecting the significant words and phrases in any statement that is important, and asking that they be carefully defined; requiring evidence to support conclusions they are pressed to accept; analyzing that evidence and distinguishing fact from assumption; recognizing stated and unstated assumptions essential to the conclusion; evaluating these assumptions, accepting some and rejecting others; evaluating the argument, accepting or rejecting the conclusion; and constantly re-examining the assumptions that are behind their beliefs and actions (cf fawcett, 1995; robertson & rane-szostak, 1996; and makina, 2010). fifty years later, the critical thinking is still present in the goals, but it has been subsumed by more holistic notions of what it means to teach, do, and understand mathematics (marcut, 2005). in this context, the students will be able to: organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication; communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others; analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others; and use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely (marcut, 2005; and lee, 2015). these ideas are very similar to those promoted by harold fawcett (1995) in 1938. little has changed in the mainstream ways that people tend to define critical thinking in the context of mathematics education. students are expected to search for the strengths and weaknesses of each and every strategy offered. it is no longer good enough to reach an answer to a problem that was posed. now, students are cajoled into communicating their own ideas well, and to demand the same communication from others. a shift has occured from listing skills to be learned toward attributes of classrooms that promote critical thinking as part of the experience of that classroom (fawcett, 1995; and makina, 2010). such a class to promote critical thinking can be created by providing the conditions for the students to communicate with one another in order to reflect together on the solution to the problem. the first condition is for the students to feel free in expressing their ideas. then, they must be able to listen attentively to their classmates and show interest in their ideas. so, they communicate both for learning mathematics and in mathematical terms. on the other hand, the students get accustomed to group work, which implies mutual help and cooperation for a mutual aim (robertson & rane-szostak, 1996; marcut, 2005; and lee, 2015). conceptual framework. this study is anchored on the belief that critical thinking skills can be learned and should be taught explicitly; and students should be informed about the types of thinking skills taught to them (swartz, 2001; and mcgregor, 2007). research shows that students’ critical thinking skills can be developed, if teachers create a classroom environment that supports the thinking activities (swartz & parks, 1994; rajendran, 2010; and mason, burton & stacey, 2010). promoting critical thinking and problem solving in mathematics education is crucial in the development of successful students. critical thinking and problem solving go hand in hand. in order to learn mathematics through problem solving, the students must also learn how to think critically (marcut, 2005; and lee, 2015). s. krulik & j.a. rudnick (1995) stated that critical thinking is analytical thinking and reflection involving testing activities, questioning, connecting, and evaluating all aspects of a situation or problem (krulik & rudnick, 1995). to meet the challenge of developing critical thinking in problem solving, there is a need to furnish problem situations that improve students’ abilities to communicate their thinking (cf cooper, 1995; krulik & rudnick, 1995; cct, 1996c; and rajendran, 2010). w. szetela (1993), as cited also by wong educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 113© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare khoon yoong (1996), suggested the following ways of developing critical thinking in problem solving: withhold the question or a fact of the problem; after the students have solved the problem, have them create a similar or related problem; present a solution that contains a conceptual or procedural error or a misrepresentation of the problem; and create a problem for which the student must communicate an explanation without actually solving a problem (szetela, 1993; and yoong, 1996). the conceptual paradigm of the study is shown figure 1. the purpose of this study is to effect change on students’ critical thinking in problem solving in mathematics using problem situations. specifically, it tried to answer the following questions: (1) to what extent does the use of problem situations affect the critical thinking in problem solving of the graduate students?; and (2) what are the students’ experiences in using problem situations that aim to develop critical thinking? methods research design. the study employed the experimental method, specifically the one-shot experimental design (campbell & stanley, 1963; graziano & raulin, 1993; portney & watkins, 2000; and beaumont, 2009). a group of fifteen graduate students, who have taken up educational statistics were the participants of the study. the experimental period lasted for six weeks. at the beginning of the session, the students were given an open ended test (pre-test) in problem solving that aims to measure their critical thinking. the students were provided activity sheets every session containing problem situations that aim to promote critical thinking in problem solving. at the end of the term, a post-test was administered to the students to measure their critical thinking in problem solving. moreover, students’ solutions to the activity sheets containing problem situations were analyzed to describe their critical thinking in problem solving. focus group discussion was also conducted to find out students’ experiences regarding the use of problem situations to promote critical thinking in problem solving. the study was conducted on the second term (october – december 2016) of the school year. research instrument. the following research instruments were utilized in gathering the data in this study. firstly, critical thinking test. this is a 10-item open-ended test consisting of typical word problems with supplementary questions designed to encourage communication of critical thinking. this was content validated by three professors teaching educational statistics. secondly, scoring rubric for critical thinking test. this was used to rate the answers of the students on the critical thinking test. this was content validated by three professors teaching educational statistics. thirdly, activity sheets. these were used every class session to enhance students’ critical thinking in problem solving. these consist of open-ended problems on hypothesis testing. the items in these activity sheets took critical thinking in problem solving problem situations:  withholding a fact or a question.  creating a similar problem.  looking for conceptual or procedural error.  communicating an explanation of the problem solution. figure 1: conceptual paradigm rene r. belecina & jose m. ocampo, jr., effecting change on students’ critical thinking 114 © 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare on any of the following forms: (1) a problem wherein the question or a fact in the problem was withheld, the students examine the problem’s facts and conditions, and write their own questions and solutions; (2) students create a similar or related problem after they have solved a problem; (3) students are asked to examine the solution to a problem that contains a conceptual or procedural error and they answer a series of questions focused to reveal the extent of their critical thinking; and (4) students are asked to create a problem for which they must communicate an explanation without actually solving the problem (graziano & raulin, 1993; underwood & wald, 1995; cct, 1996a; portney & watkins, 2000; and beaumont, 2009). fourthly, guide questions for focus group discussion. focus group discussion was done to determine the students’ experiences, when using the activity sheets that aim to encourage communication of critical thinking (robertson & rane-szostak, 1996; portney & watkins, 2000; and beaumont, 2009). results and discussion students’ mean scores on critical thinking. table 1 shows the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the students on the critical thinking test. it can be viewed from the table 1 that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores. this implies that the use of problem situations enhances students’ critical thinking in problem solving (cf cooper, 1995; beyer, 1995; king, 1995; mcdade, 1995; oliver & utermohlen, 1995; cederblom & paulsen, 2006; and chukwuyenum, 2013). students’ experiences in using the problem situations. the following discussions give the students’ experiences on the use of problem situations that aim to enhance critical thinking. when a problem where the question or a fact in the problem was withheld, the students examine the problem’s facts and conditions, and wrote their own questions and solutions. this type of problem situation gave the students the opportunity to think about the given facts and the possible questions that could be asked given these facts. one student gave this comment, as follows: since problems do not have questions, i was forced to think the corresponding questions for the given problem. i really need to understand the situation to be able to come up with right question to ask (comment of respondent a, 10/12/2016). if students are encouraged to supply the needed facts and the required questions, they think more critically rather than the just requiring them to identify the given facts and substituting these value in the formula to find the unknown (cf king, 1995; mcdade, 1995; oliver & utermohlen, 1995; cct, 1996b; cederblom & paulsen, 2006; and chukwuyenum, 2013). students were also asked to examine the solution to a problem that contains a conceptual or procedural error and they answer a series of questions focused to reveal the extent of their critical thinking (comment of respondent a, 10/12/2016; comment of respondent b, 10/12/2016; and comment of respondent c, 10/12/2016). this type of problem allows students to think critically by identifying conceptual and procedural errors that the students may encounter and how these misconceptions could be corrected. one student expressed her sentiment regarding this type of problem, as follows: doing these word problems brought so much fun to me. i wasn’t able only to review and apply my learning about hypothesis testing but i was able to entertain myself too by laughing at the errors which were not meant to be done, although some are really confusing but luckily, i was able to come up with the answers (comment of respondent b, 10/12/2016). table 1: pre-test and post-test mean scores on critical thinking pre-test post-test mean difference t-value p-value mean 6.68 25.84 19.16 17.24 0.000 standard deviation 1.16 4.61 educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 10(2), february 2018 115© 2018 by minda masagi press bandung, indonesia and briman institute bs begawan, brunei darussalam issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare this activity gave the students the opportunity to enhance their critical thinking in problem solving. in this context, c. wade (1995) and other reseachers also believe that problems of this type promotes collaboration, active learning, critical thinking, and multidisciplinary understanding (cf beyer, 1995; cooper, 1995; king, 1995; mcdade, 1995; oliver & utermohlen, 1995; wade, 1995; cct, 1996b; jacob, 2012; and firdaus et al., 2015). having students construct problems of their own also have benefits, one of the students expressed her sentiments regarding problem posing, as follows: people who knew me last term would never believe these word problems that i personally constructed and answered. i am so happy and excited when i was constructing these word problems, because i was able to apply the knowledge i learned about hypothesis testing. i felt that i am already an expert in statistics (comment of respondent c, 10/12/2016). open-ended questions and problems can aid the learners in observing how students process mathematics information and also help differentiate the skill level of individual student (cf king, 1995; cct, 1996a; mcdade, 1995; oliver & utermohlen, 1995; cederblom & paulsen, 2006; jacob, 2012; chukwuyenum, 2013; and firdaus et al., 2015). conclusion the use of problem situations in this study promotes better critical thinking in problem solving among students. it provides better motivation and mechanism for learners to organize their knowledge. problem situations that require students to demonstrate their declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge are valid in assessing their critical thinking. moreover, these problem situations develop students’ ability to be more reflective and metacognitive, especially when they are analysing problems. based on the findings of this study, the following are recommended. firstly, the problem situations utilized in this study may be tried to other topics in statistics or in other mathematics subjects to determine their validity in enhancing students’ critical thinking in problem solving. secondly, other ways of enhancing critical thinking in problem solving should be developed and tried which are appropriate to a particular type of subjects and students.1 references angelo, t.a. 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(1996). “reforms in assessment practices in mathematics: innovations or rigmaroles?” in the mathematics educator, vol.1, no.1, pp.67-81. available online also at: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/ bitstream/10497/16833/1/tme [accessed in manila, philippines: march 2, 2017]. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 137 dr. suwartono is a senior lecturer at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), central java, indonesia. the author can be reached at: suwartono2006@yahoo.co.id introduction suprasegmentals are of paramount importance in spoken english. the presence of suprasegmental features in speech contributes heavily to intelligibility. in addition, these features convey better impression of the speaker (o’neal, 2010:65-87). it means improving the pronunciation of english suprasegmentals can facilitate communication, boost self-esteem, and possibly lead to a better future. therefore, within the context of spoken english communication, suprasegmental features should be given priority or, at least, equality. suprasegmental features cover mainly stress, length, tone, and intonation (ladefoged, 1975:217). these features are essentially the same as prosodic elements of language (trask, 1996:343). perhaps, to most efl (english as foreign language) learners in indonesia, these features are complicated to master. some teachers of english even did not seem to show interest in introducing the features to students. moedjito (2008:129-142) reported that efl teachers in indonesia valued segmental features more than suprasegmental ones. this might be due to a feeling of doubt as to how to teach the suprasegmental features. in the literature on efl, suprasegmental features teaching methodology is still little known. in the current study, a reflective learning method was adopted to help students learn the english suprasegmental phonemes. an expert in reflective learning and practice, jennifer moon (2003), argues that reflection deals with deep learning. in deep learning, the intention is the learner to develop a personal understanding of the suwartono student’s voices in reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation teaching abstract: most of the literature on pronunciation discusses what and how to teach. the learner, that is actually the center of the teaching and learning process, remains little known or untouched. meanwhile, suprasegmentals are of paramount importance in spoken english. the presence of suprasegmental features in speech contributes heavily to intelligibility. suprasegmental features cover mainly stress, length, tone, and intonation. these features are essentially the same as prosodic elements of language. perhaps, to most efl (english as foreign language) learners in indonesia, these features are complicated to master. some teachers of english even did not seem to show interest in introducing the features to students. this article highlights the reflective process within the students learning the english pronunciation. the data were collected through diaries. the students were provided with small notebooks to write entries of reaction, perception, and learning experience when they were being taught english suprasegmental features using reflective method. video was utilized to facilitate student engaging in reflective process through main teaching and learning activities of listening to target model, rehearsing monologue or dialogue, video-recording, and playing video clip. overall, the majority of reflections revealed that the adoption of video as a reflective tool integrated into communicative language activities has helped the students evaluate and self-monitor their own speech performance in learning the english suprasegmental features pronunciation, which is commonly considered complicated. key words: students’ voices, reflective, suprasegmental, pronunciation, evaluate, self-monitor, teaching and learning process, diary, and class-room action research. suwartono, student’s voices 138 material and to relate it to what is already known. while kolb, in the theory experiential learning, explains that the learner’s immediate experience is taken as the focus of learning, giving life, texture, and subjective personal meaning to abstract concepts; and at the same time, providing a concrete reference point for testing the implications and validity of ideas created during the learning process (cited in benson, 2001:38). in experiential learning, he adds, learning is seen as a cyclical process that integrates immediate experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation, and action. within the cyclical process, reflection serves as the bridge between experience and theoretical conceptualisation (benson, 2001). concerning english suprasegmental phonemes learning, the relevance of reflection to experiential learning is that learners take the benefit of experience they already have for testing ideas and assumptions exploratively related with english suprasegmental features that are considered difficult to master. learners, though feeling in doubt, knowing a little or nothing about english suprasegmental features as experience, have readiness to survive under difficult time. reflective learners may survive searching for patterns in english suprasegmental phonemes by learning from experience they have when working with grammar or learning segmental phonemes, for instance. in other words, reflective learners are motivated to find more alternatives to approach english suprasegmental learning challenges. from an experiential point of view, the concept of reflection is inseparable from the characteristics of adult learning. based on age (18 years old or above), the present research participants fall into adult category and, therefore, quite relevant to be discussed in more specific context, i.e. adult education. adult learning cannot be regarded as similar to child learning. brundage and macheracher mention some characteristics of adult learning, one of which is so closely connected to the concept of reflection: adults see their own experience as learning source. thus, experience is central in reflective process. it is the focus in adult learning process (cited in mayuni, 2007). in a narrower context, in the area of language teaching, it is stated that adults have rich life experience, that can be made use for learning. this means any learning which gives emphasis upon reflective process is suitable for adult language learning. the concept of reflective or deep learning can also be viewed from a theory which belongs to constructivist theories, namely personal construct theory. kelly mentions that personal construct theory views human thought as a process of hypothesis testing and theory building involving the continual development and revision of constructs or meaning attached to objects or events in the light of new experience (cited in benson, 2001). personal constructs are derived from shared assumptions and values, but systems of constructs are unique to the individual since they are shaped through personal attempts to make sense of experiences that are uniquely one’s own. in regard to english suprasegmental phonemes, learning that is considered complicated and construct system that learners have, it is expected that the adoption of reflective learning will raise selfawareness of construct systems available in individual learners. k. cercone (2008), in discussing about adult learner characteristics, points out that adult learners need to self-reflect on the learning process and be provided ways to engage in metacognitive reflection by using think logs, reflective journals, and group discussions. this implies that although in adults reflective process already develops, there is no guarentee the process is optimum. dealing with the current research participants, since they are at their beginning of adulthood, it is likely that reflective process is rarely identified. it is for this reason, teachers are supposed to play a role and give control so that students’ reflective process becomes optimum. in line with what discussed above, joan morley (1991) states that pronunciation/ speech study is most profitable when students are actively involved in their own learning, not passively detached repeaters of drills. however, learner self-involvement cannot be left to chance; it must be actively shaped, early and continually, throughout esl (english as second language) course work. teachers and educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 139 materials can help students become involved in say, for instance, the development of selfmonitoring skills. self-monitoring can begin as gentle consciousness-raising with the goal of helping students develop speech awareness, self-observation skills, and a positive attitude toward them by helping them develop a simple self-rehearsal technique—talking to yourself and listening to yourself—as the way to selfmonitor. in the present study, video as reflective tool was adopted to give this kind of impact. video used in the video clip making makes it possible for students listen and repeat after the model while listening to/watching native speakers. while being replayed, video enables students to make the strategies of active listening and mirroring (vitanova & miller, 2002). method of research the current study was carried out in the context of an action-research study. an action-research study was chosen to learn and improve classroom practioner’s own teaching activities. the kemmis and taggart’s model of action research was adopted (cited in gay & airasian, 2000:593). the study involved twenty-four second semester students of class c-2 at the department of english language teaching of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, attending pronunciation course in the 2011/2012 academic year. the collaborative study contained two cycles, each of which comprised three pronunciation sessions. main learning activities in each session covered listening to target model, rehearsing monologue or dialogue, video-recording, and playing video clip. scripts were provided to help the students memorise what to say. videos available on the campus language labs’ computers were made use to facilitate reflection process in the part of students. two types of data were gathered: data on teaching and learning process and data on learning outcome. the research qualitative data included teaching and learning activities, teacher’s behavior, students’ behavior and reaction/response; while the quantitative data dealt with the test result. qualitative data were elicited through observation, diary, and interview; while the quantitative data were collected through recorded conversation task and test. qualitative data were analysed via analytic induction methods to identify common themes and to extract narratives of experience. quantitative data were analysed to calculate statistical frequencies, percentages, and means. triangulation – more than one methods of investigation – was employed to establish validity of the research (bryman, 1988:131134), namely: investigator triangulation and method triangulation. this article is meant to share the main findings revealed in the research diaries. it is especially interesting because the sense “reflective” is twofold in the study: firstly, the adoption of video for encouraging students to engage in reflective process; and secondly, the use of diary, which is by nature reflective, for collecting the research data. according to david nunan (1992:118-120), diary is one of important introspective tools in language research. he asserts that diaries enable students to articulate problems they are having with course content and, therefore, get help and promote autonomous learning, encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning (nunan, 1992:120). findings and discussions the adoption of reflective learning method in the current study was a successful attempt to improve the teaching and learning process. in the pre-intervention period, involvement was a concern. reflective learning method using video incorporated to communicative, meaningful language activities has encouraged student involvement in the teaching and learning process of the commonly-considered complicated suprasegmental features pronunciation. based on the diaries, the students involvement in the teaching and learning process can be explained as follows. their responses varied, that fell into five to six categories: (1) positive responses which comprised the instruction was interesting/ exciting, the instruction provided new knowledge, and the instruction was suwartono, student’s voices 140 meaningful; (2) not wholly positive responses; (3) negative responses; and (4) others. “not wholly positive” constituted responses that contained partly negative responses. “others” were responses that seemed irrelevant or did not fall into any category already mentioned, for example notes on stress patterns, or personal health. below is a figure that displays the students’ responses to the instruction at the beginning (first cycle, first session) of the intervention period. the figure 1 shows that positive responses make up around 50 percent of the whole responses. in the following part, relevant and useful information from the diaries is discussed under those categories mentioned above. it is necessary to note that some responses seemed to overlap quite a lot. consequently, it is not easy to split up the diary entries into clear-cut catagories. on the interesting lessons. the learning activities that tended to be interesting was made possible by the inclusion of exciting learning “menu” in which students were provided with opportunity to directly practice communication in english in meaningful activity, i.e. a challenge to speak in the way the models on the recording do. with facial expressions that could be seen either on-line (during production) or off-line (after production) on the computer screen, the students became more confident in acting and expressing like in front of mirror and as if nobody had seen them. a student commented: “i think it’s very interesting [...]. quite exciting like learning drama with expressions when speaking” (diary of student a, 2/3/2012). what was written by a female student below could be right. the learning activity created in the instuction was believed to benefit her because, beside exciting – that might lead to a sub-concious learning – so that learning became more automatic, it enabled her to selfassess her own performance: the method applied is more varied, and so the atmosphere created is exciting. therefore, the material can be mastered more easily. by practising directly, i can recognise my mistakes and correct them directly (diary of student b, 9/3/2012). most students shared positive impressions dealing with the teaching and learning process, primarily the core-activity of video clip making. a student noted about desire to learn and practise as follows: at the beginning, i felt sleepy as the course is scheduled to start at noon, but now it becomes more interesting. then, i am making a video clip again and comparing a friend’s video clip with mine and delivering comments on flaws or mistakes to correct (diary of student c, 16/3/2012). this shows an advantage of the intervention adopted, which was not only interesting to the students, but also helped them monitor and modify their own performance, including their speech. the students found the learning activity so exciting that they never wanted to miss any single lesson, as implied in the following diary of a student. today i went out for refreshing mind with some mates. i feel a relief, ehm [...] but do not have lunch yet, as i was hurried to attend the pronunciation class. this lesson is really interesting lesson 17% giving new insightlesson 25% meaningful lesson 8% not wholly positive 33% negative 17% figure 1: students’ responses to the instruction educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 141 interesting for me. it is always exciting to listen to own voice again, see expressions (diary of student d, 23/3/2012). on the meaningful lesson. the lessons gave considerable opportunity for the students to use the material being taught. they found the lessons like the real thing. a student, for example, wrote as follows: i enjoy learning this way, because i can directly practise what is taught by mr. ton. i can directly justify when i am right and when i am wrong with the material i learn (diary of student e, 7/4/2012). the meaningful lesson seemed to have motivated the learners to learn. it is a challenge for teachers of pronunciation in general and suprasegmental features in specific to create an environment that most possibly supports learning. on the new insights/knowledge. in relation with the intervention adopted, positive responses to the teaching and learning activity carried out can also be traced from other entries written by some participants, as quoted below: [...] my video is bad. the one deleted was better instead. it’s because i’m nervous, time is limited [...], i’m hurried [...]. however, i enjoy learning this way, so that i can show my own ability. working in groups is not maximum, i have to share and am dependent upon others (diary of student f, 14/4/2012). this example expresses the student valued individual work that was assigned at that moment. while not every learner may have been be in favour of the individual activity, it was chosen for a genuine reason. the materials being taught was the stress patterns. the students were expected to make monologue video clips. in addition, this, unintentionally, could serve as a variety and accommodate different needs of learner. the students seemed actively involved in the classroom activity. they were evaluating, selfmonitoring, and self-correcting their own performance (both speech and visual cues) upon completion of a monologue video clip making. the use of video as reflective tool integrated into communicative language activities has enabled them to engage in reflective process when learning the commonly-considered complicated english suprasegmental features pronunciation. similarly, another student wrote: “fairly easy, but i have to be careful [...]. a bit difficult to make it, because once is not enough, i have to make and remake a video clip” (diary of student g, 21/4/2012). another student commented: “i am happy, because i can listen to videos from the computer on my desk, so that i can hear more clearly how stress is produced by speakers in the videos” (diary of student h, 28/4/2012). from the note, it is obvious that a revised plan by sharing video files to all computers in the network was considered beneficial to the student. figure 2: a reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation class suwartono, student’s voices 142 seriousness, involvement, self-monitoring, and evaluation was reflected in most of the expressions produced by the students. the learning that was considered helpful has encouraged them to learn and practice more enthusiastically: “thanks god, today i get new knowledge. i have to study harder in order to achieve better” (diary of student i, 5/5/2012). the following expression suggests that reflective process has already developed stronger in the student: “i thinks it is more complicated. i have to find out the verbs first [...]. however, my pronunciation is better, no more dominated by the local accent” (diary of student j, 12/5/2012). the development of selfmonitoring in the parts of students is thought to be associated with the learning process or the teaching and learning activity adopted in the current research study. a number of students reflected the development of reflective process, including self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and selfcorrection. a participant, for example, wrote: “i understand better now, but unfortunately i can’t give the right comments” (diary of student k, 19/5/2012). similarly, another learner mentioned: “i am happy, because my speech voice is getting better” (diary of student l, 26/5/2012). on the not wholly positive responses. some students noted different expressions reflecting responses that are not wholly positive, such as feeling of interest and fun in joining the lessons with no clear reason and sign of being able to monitor and evaluate performance by themselves. a participant commented: very, very interesting, although there is a little technical problem the learning activity continues well. with a method that adopts video, i can instantly recognise mistakes in my pronunciation and repeat them better (diary of student f, 14/4/2012). this shows an advantage of using the intervention adopted, that was not only interesting for the students but also helped them evaluate and correct their own pronunciation. the exciting learning enabled the students to handle learning obstacles they met as implicitly conveyed in the following diary entry of a student. again, [...] new sort of intonation material, i am so happy to learn it. it’s so interesting. there are errors today, especially in our media, but i think we have good results as we hope. hopefully, there’ll be another exciting lesson next time (diary of student h, 28/4/2012). a not wholly positive response that reflects developing capacity for monitoring and evaluation in student’s own learning is best exemplified in the following note of a low achiever: “i am still learning intonation. i gradually understand better. however, when practising, i still have difficulty and often make mistakes” (diary of student c, 16/3/2012). another note written by another weak yet dilligent student contains similar message: making a video clip is very interesting. i can act and it’s a freedom of perfomance. however, it seems that i am still having problems with several things in pronouncing words, unable to distinguish when to go up and when to go down (diary of student j, 12/5/2012). it implies in the note that the writer has been able to self-evaluate learning material mastery. thus, information of mental process could be found either in positive or negative responses. such a thing becomes necessary as most of the literature on pronunciation deals with what and how to teach, while the learner remains an abstract, silent body in the classroom. that is why, it is important for pronunciation teachers to listen to students’ voices related with their beliefs and thoughts about their pronunciation learning/teaching. when the teachers listen to the students’ voices, they give an opportunity for the development of their self-awareness, involvement, and responsibility in the process of learning suprasegmental phonemes. when the teachers listen to the students’ voices, they could determine strategies and pronunciation teaching components the students find most valuable. in the case of english suprasegmental features, this enables the teachers to monitor the students’ learning advancement. conclusion diary is valuable to be utilized for “hearing” student voice. it has a high revealing power dealing student reaction, feeling, educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 143 perception, and learning experience. in the context of the current research, in which reflective english suprasegmental features pronunciation learning method is adopted, one dominant sort of information from the diary entries is that capacity for self-monitoring, evaluation, and self-correction develops in the students’ learning. this finding is of great value, considering that so far in pronunciation teaching (mostly segmental features), learners have not been taken into account properly. either teacher or students, with this information, can do the best in the teaching and learning activity. the teacher can immediately give necessary assistance to the students who have learning problems, improve the weak points of teaching and learning process they conducted, and find advancement in the teaching of the commonlyconsidered complicated suprasegmental features pronunciation materials. references benson, phil. (2001). teaching and researching autonomy in language learning. harlow: pearson education limited. bryman, alan. (1988). quantity and quality in social research. london: unwin hyman ltd. cercone, k. (2008). “characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design” in aace journal, 16(2), pp.137-159. available [online] also at: editlib.org/d/24286 [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 23, 2013]. diary of student a, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 2, 2012. diary of student b, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 9, 2012. diary of student c, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 16, 2012. diary of student d, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 23, 2012. diary of student e, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 7, 2012. diary of student f, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 14, 2012. diary of student g, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 21, 2012. diary of student h, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 28, 2012. diary of student i, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 5, 2012. diary of student j, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 12, 2012. diary of student k, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 19, 2012. diary of student l, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 26, 2012. gay, l.r. & p.w. airasian. (2000). educational research: competencies for analysis and application. new jersey: prentice hall ptr. ladefoged, peter. (1975). a course in phonetics. new york: harcourt brace javanovich, inc. mayuni, ilza. (2007). peningkatan mutu guru bahasa inggris melalui pendidikan dalam jabatan. bandung: lubuk agung. moedjito. (2008). “priorities in english pronunciation teaching in efl classrooms” in k@ta, 10(2). moon, jennifer. (2003). “learning journals and logs: suwartono, student’s voices 144 reflective catatan harianes” in centre for teaching and learning: good practice in teaching and learning. available [online] also at: www.deakin.edu.au/itl/ assets/.../tl.../teaching.../learning-journals.pdf. [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 18, 2013]. morley, joan. (1991). “the pronunciation component in teaching english to speakers of other languages” in tesol quarterly, 25(3). nunan, david. (1992). research methods in language learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. o’neal, george. (2010). “the effects of the presence and absence of suprasegmental on the intelligibility and assessment of an expandingcircle english according to other expandingcircle english listeners”. available [online] also at: www.dspace.lib.niigata-u.ac.jp:8080/ dspace/bitstream/.../1/15_65-87.pdf [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 12, 2013]. trask, r.l. (1996). a dictionary of phonetics and phonology. london: routledge. vitanova, gergana & ann miller. (2002). “reflective practice in pronunciation learning” in the internet tesl journal, 8(1). available [online] also at: http:// iteslj.org/articles/vitanova-pronunciation.html [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: january 1, 2013]. educare agustus 2016.indb educare: international journal for educational studies this journal, with issn 1979-7877, was firstly published on august 17, 2008, in the context to commemorate the anniversary of indonesian independence day. since issues of february 2009 to february 2016, the educare journal was organized by the lecturers of fkip ump (faculty of education and teacher training, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java; and published by minda masagi press, as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. the educare journal is published twice a year, i.e. every august and february. editorial board address (for correspondence): minda masagi press, sekretariat aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614, jawa barat, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com website: www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare cover disgn: “seameo hand drawing competition” (source: http://www.seameo.org, 30 august 2016). copy right © 2016 by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (the association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. honorable patron: chairperson of aspensi, the association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com editor-in-chief: andi suwirta, m.hum. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: suciandi@upi.edu expert reviewers board: prof. dr. haji udin s. sa’ud upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: usaud@upi.edu prof. dr. m. syaom barliana upi, indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: aombarli@yahoo.com prof. dr. ramlee mustapha upsi, sultan idris university of education, tanjong malim, malaysia. e-mail: drramlee@yahoo.com assoc. prof. ampuan dr. haji brahim bin ampuan haji tengah ubd, university of brunei darussalam, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. e-mail: ampuanb@ubd.edu.bn prof. dr. mina hattori nu, nagoya university, nagoya, japan. e-mail: s47544a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp prof. dr. mohd shakir amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: aligarhshakir@gmail.com prof. dr. mohammad parvez amu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh, india. e-mail: mparvez9@yahoo.co.in assist. prof. abbas madandar arani lu, lorestan university, kashan, iran. e-mail: rie2000@gmail.com prof. dr. gonzalo jover ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, madrid, spain. e-mail: gjover@edu.ucm.es prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré qu, queen’s university, ontario, canada. e-mail: brunojor@queensu.ca associate editor: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: journal.educare@upi.edu secretariat staff: suci noor anisa putri rahayudianti aspensi, association of indonesian scholars of history education, bandung, indonesia. e-mail: journal.educare@upi.edu printed by rizqi offset bandung guideline/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding the education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 10 pages minimum and 20 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each them are attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail address. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction methods results and discussion sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (taniredja, 2009:7). bibliography from books, journals, and unpublished sources should be written in the following form, respectively: henley, m. (2006). classroom management: a proactive approach. new jersey: pearson education, inc. wilson, b. (1996). “quality in universities” in journal of higher education and management, 18(2), pp.149-157. haryadi. (2005). “faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja dosen dan hasil belajar mahasiswa universitas jendral soedirman di purwokerto”. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bandung: sps upi [graduate school, indonesia university of education]. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access, for example: ferreira, f.h.g. et al. (2013). “an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future”. available online also at: http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/document/africa/report/africas-pulse-brochure_ vol8.pdf [accessed in bandung, indonesia: october 9, 2014]. interview with jarot priyono, former headmaster of junior high school vip al-huda, in kebumen, central java, indonesia, on february 12, 2014. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication month (august and february), addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article should be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international scholarly journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published article in an online version is free from charge of journal fee. but if the author wants also to get the printed journal, he/she has to pay the journal fee for the editing, printing, and shipping costs, in which amount will be determined by the editorial board. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get the journal prints, and his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website at: www.mindamas-journals.com/ index.php/educare authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print, but his/her abstract, photograph, and full text in pdf will also be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except based on written requests from the authors. for detailed information about guidelines for the authors, it is able to be searched at: www.mindamas-journals. com/index.php/educare /guidelines articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the articles content and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication in the educare journal. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts related to the articles published by the educare journal rests solely with the individual authors. educare agust 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 19© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com about the author: pamujo, m.pd. is a lecturer at study program of elementary-school teacher education ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, p.o. box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. he can be reached at: pam@ump.ac.id how to cite this article? pamujo. (2014). “the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement toward the learning achievement” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.7(1) august, pp.19-26. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and ump purwokerto, issn 1979-7877. available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/the-effect-of-self-concept/ chronicle of the article: accepted (july 23, 2014); revised (july 30, 2014); and published (august 17, 2014). introduction the opinion that learning achievement is one of the essential outputs of a learning process has got wide acceptance among experts. this is why it has become an indicator of various policy and research on education. experts in the field of education commonly agrees that there are three main categories of input that affect the education output, namely: learners background, school environment, and learner’s talents. learner’s background provides learning facilities, encouragement, and learning atmosphere. this because conducive environment encourages learners to study better, so that family and school as the learners environment affect greatly the result of learning (anoraga, 1995; bell et al., 1996; and surya, 2003). sumadi suryobroto states that learning achievement is subject to learner’s internal and external factors. psychological conditions, i.e. the form of achievement motive, learning habit, attitude, and self-concept are examples of internal factor (suryobroto, 2005:83). in other words, learning success is determined by the characteristics of the learner. teachers, school climate, and school facilities are parts of school environment. all these variables need to be attended. teachers, for example, should have an active role as professional. his professionalism should encourage learners to have positive motivation and attitude, which will give positive impact toward learning achievement (bruno, 1983; and crow & crow, 1984). learning achievement is an end product of learning, which is realized in the form pamujo the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement toward the learning achievement abstract: this research is aimed at finding out the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation toward the students learning achievement at the six-grade of elementary schools in the kebasen district of the banyumas regency in central java, indonesia, both individually and wholly. this research belongs to ex-post facto type with descriptive-quantitative approach. the sample, a cluster one, was 20% of the population which was 150 students of the six grade or two classes of each category. the data for the learners’ self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation was collected through questionnaire based on likert scale with four options of answer, while that of the students learning achievement was taken from the list of scores of the national examination. the correlation between the independent and dependent variable was analyzed using correlational statistics and multiple regression. hypothesis was tested at the level of significance with α = 0.05. the result was that the mean score of the self concept was 3.175, the learning habit 3.311, and the achievement motivation 2.973, which belong to the category “high, very high, and high” respectively. the mean score of the learning achievement was 22.09, which was categorized as “fair”. individually, the self-concept (t = 3.512, p = 0.001), learning habit (t = 2.603, p = 0.010), and achievement motivation (t = 2.679, 0 = 0.008) gave positive and significant effect toward learning achievement. simultaneously, the three variables x 1 (the self-concept), x 2 (the learning habit), and x 3 (the achievement motive) showed significant effect, the f count being 12.789 with p at 0.000. key words: self-concept, learning habit, motive of achievement, learning achievement, elementary schools, and national examination. pamujo, the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement 20 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com of scores. in kebasen district of banyumas regency in central java, indonesia, the learning achievement is low. the teachers of the elementary schools in this district are equal in terms of age, experience, and level of education with those of other districts within the same regency (data from education office of the banyumas regency), so that it can be expected that the learning achievement is equal too. in reality, compared to other district in the same regency, the learning achievement as shown in the result of the national examination in the last four years ranked the seventeenth out of twenty seven schools which was categorized as low. therefore, there must be an effort to find out the cause. the possibility is that the cause is within the psychological condition of the learners. from the initial observation and interview, it was found that teachers tended to use old way of teaching in which verbal explanation or lecturing dominated the teaching session, resulting students as watcher in watching the teacher as the actor (interview with teacher a, 15/12/2010). this led to limited use of learning media. other findings included the unqualified teachers and low motivation and self-concept on the part of the learners. it was not clear whether this was the result of insufficient attention given by the learners’ family which is very crucial if good result is to be achieved (blocher, 1974; and bower, 1987). david mcclelland (1972) and david mcclelland et al. (2006) said that the achievement motivation (n-ach) person is achievement motivated and therefore seek achievement, attainment of realistic but challenging goals, and advancement the job. there is a strong need for feedback as to achievement and progress, and a need for a sense of accomplishment. in others words, it is the learners with high achievement motivation that will have high learning achievement (cf beck et al., 1976; and uno, 2007). the interview with teacher revealed that most of learners’ time was spent watching television and playing play station, resulting in their poor learning habit, which in turn made their learning achievement also poor (interview with teacher b, 20/12/2010). teaching learning process in elementary school is handled by class teachers, not by subject matter one. it is quite normal to say that the success of teaching learning, which the learning achievement of the learned, is determined by the teacher’s teaching skill, attitude, and presence (cole & chan, 1994; and purwanto, 2000). therefore, both external and internal factors, such as the self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation, are believed to affect the learning achievement. the question of this research is to what extent do these factors influence the learning achievement. literature review on the learning achievement. learning achievement is the result of measurement of learners which covers the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domain after a period of learning process using certain types of instrument such as test. s.r. brown (1996) says that every test measures what the test takers has learned throughout his lifetime. in fact, the purpose of testing usually is to access the level of developed skill in a certain area. this evaluation is done to get, analyze, and interpret the data systematically and continuously. for this purpose, a test should meet a certain requirement. j.p. kaplan, c.t. liverman & v.a. kraak eds. (2005) state that testing requires standardized condition, because situational variables can affect the scores. the book standards for educational and psychological testing published by the american psychological association, and other professional groups, emphasize that a test manual should clearly spell out the directions for administration. therefore, learning achievement is the result of an evaluation of learning effort which represented by symbol in the form of either letter or statement describing result achieved by the learners for a certain period (dadidoff, 1981; bootzin et al., 1986; and burn, 1993). as to factor influencing the learning achievement, slameto (2003) states that there are: (1) the internal factor which comes from the learners themselves and is classified as physical, psychological, and fatigue; and (2) the external factor which comes from outside educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 21© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com the learners and is categorized into family background, school environment, and society. on the self-concept. it is accepted that self-concept has positive influence toward learning at school. david m. brodzinsky et al. stated that personality generally refers to the characteristic way that a person behaves, the patterns of belief, actions, and feelings that distinguishes one person from another. part of personality includes the way of person views him or herself, or the self-concept (broadzinsky et al., 1986:179). while harter argues that the self-concept is our total image of ourselves. it is belief about who we are – our picture of our abilities and traits. it is a cognitive construction, a system descriptive and evaluative representation about the self, which determine how we feel about ourselves and guides our action (in papalia et al., 1997:279). this means that self-concept has something to do with ideas, thought, belief of someone about him or herself. this will determine how he or she interacts with others. a similar definition is proposed by stuart j. rupke et al. (2006), who say that self-concept is all ideas, thoughts, and principles of someone about he or herself which affect his or her relationship with others. this implies that self-concept affects how someone view his or her wholeness both physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually (sunaryo, 2004:32). the self-concept forms itself as result of direct and indirect experience. direct experience enables someone to view him or herself on the basis of his or her own experience, while indirect experience allows someone to view him or herself on the basis of others’ experience. lewis & borrok states that the development of self-concept is closely related to the child growing cognitive, emotional, and social skill (in broadzinsky et al., 1986:179). john locke also argues that a child is born like a blank slate (in wijaya, 2013). the self-concept materializes soon after a child is able to respond to his or her environment. the self-concept is formed by experiences, habits, and training in interacting with the environment; or, in other words, self-concept is a social product. this is supported by dale h. schunk that the self-concept refers to someone’s collective self-perception shaped through experience with environment and its interpretation, reinforcement, and evaluation by other people (schunk, 2006:203). e.b. hurlock also says that self-concept is formed through stages of primary self-concept and secondary self-concept (hurlock, 1980:59). therefore, it can be concluded that the more experience, someone has the more aspect the self-concept. on the learning habit. the some one’s uses of time for learning which done over and over will form a learning habit. the liang gie says that learning habit is a constant way using time to learn over a period of time which relative long. this is a learned behavior, not something natural (gie, 2000:192). while burghardt states that learning habit appears due to a decrease in responding tendency using repeated simulation. in learning process, habit formation includes a decrease of actions needed to repond (in syah, 2001:118). this decreases lead to new pattern of behaving which relatively constant and automatic (feist & feist, 2008). learning habit does not for overnight, it develop gradually. mohammad surya & rochman natawidjaja (1992) said that habit was developed in two ways. firstly, human being tends to follow a course of action the least obstacle. in other words, people tend to choose the easiest way of doing or responding to something. secondly, through act done on purpose and with care to give automatic reaction. this happens when someone wants to change old habit with the new one. sumadi suryobroto states that learning habit can shaped through: (1) developing rehearsing plan; (2) making rehearsing schedule; (3) allocating specific time for subject matter rehearsal; (4) employing certain strategies of learning; (5) focusing; and (6) disciplining oneself to learning (suryobroto, 2005:52). good learning habit is an important tool to achieve good result in learning. sumadi suryobroto also adds that a good learning habit: (1) is good use of spare time; (2) will give priority on understanding; (3) encourage a learner to like library; (4) make a learner pamujo, the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement 22 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com regularly rehearse learning material; and (5) drive a learner to have passion in learning (suryobroto, 2001). on the achievement motivation. rita j. atkinson & richard c. atkinson (1983) and david mcclelland et al. (2006) studied the motivation for a broader purpose and the result was a theory of motivation, which has the impact on the realm of economy. david mcclelland et al. (2006) distinguish three main needs that influence human behavior, namely: (1) the need to achieve, (2) have power, and (3) affiliate. the need to achieve or achievement motivation is shown on someone’s tendency to always set him or herself to a certain standard of excellence. this type of person has a personal responsibility and open to feedback in order to improve his creative achievement (cf irwanto, 1997:206). someone with high motivation will have high quality performance. j. skinner says that knowledge of right, high aspiration, and clear goals are the best preparation and incentive to self-motivation, especially if the pupil is directed and encouraged to set his own goals and seek intrinsic incentive and superior remote goals (in surya & natawidjaja, 1992). therefore, motivation means giving encouragement to someone to direct, organize a certain behavior to reach a certain goal. norman a. sprinthall & richard c. sprinthall also argue that the achievement motive is usually aimed at emphasizing a high level of ability and avoiding any display of low ability (sprinthall & sprinthall, 1987:468). similar position is said by john p. houston, who defines need as the urge to overcome obstacle, to exercise power, to strife to do something difficult as well as and as quickly as possible (houston, 1985:239). in other words, the need to achieve has to do with the desire to meet or exceed standard of excellence. therefore, achievement motivation is the tendency to do something challenging and to avoid failure (gerungan, 2003:158). people with high motivation to achieve tend to have good self confidence, sense of responsibility, expect a concrete knowledge of his or her performance, get good score at school, and to be active member of the school and society. they also tend to choose friends who are expert in something than just friends who are emotionally close to him or her. they tend to take risk on the basis of his ability to overcome it rather than of luck or coincidence. therefore, to arouse this motivation, the role of family is very crucial (hurlock, 1980). method this research was aimed at finding out the relationship between self-concept, achievement motivation, and learning achievement of students of the sixth grade of elementary schools in the kebasen district of banyumas regency in central java, indonesia. this research belongs to ex-post facto type with descriptive-quantitative approach, but qualitative data was also gathered through interviews and observation to supplement the quantitative data. relationship among variables was analyzed using correlation method (arikunto, 2000). the population of this research was all the students of grade six of the elementary school of the academic year 2009/2010. out of this population, 20% or 150 students was taken as sample which was cluster in nature. so, there were 2 classes for each category. before sample was taken population was classified into 3 categories of schools, those with high, fair, and low achievement on the basis of national examination scores. besides that geographical was also taken into consideration. the variables studied in this research were: the independent variables – the self-concept (x 1 ), the learning habit (x 2 ), and achievement motivation (x 3 ); and the dependent variable – the learning achievement (y). to obtain valid and reliable data, data collecting instrument underwent validity and reliability test. to test the first, second, and third hypothesis, simple correlation, regression, and determinant coefficient technique were used. the fourth hypothesis was tested using multiple correlation analysis, multiple regression, and determinant coefficient. after correlation coefficient was found, significance (f) test was done. the value of f-count was compared to f-table with numerator degree of freedom (df) = k, and denominator degree of freedom (df) = n-k -1 at the degree of error of 5%. if the f-count educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 23© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com was higher the f-table, ho was rejected and accepted. on the contrary, if the f-count is lower than the f-table, ho was accepted and ha was rejected. the testing of hypothesis was done through multiple analysis using spss (statistical package for the social sciences) 16 for windows. if there was the joint influence of the self-concept (x 1 ) and achievement motivation (x 2 ) toward y, it was continued with multiple regression analysis also using spss 16 for windows. the equation for the multiple regression is y = a = b 1 x 1 + b 2 x 2 + b 3 x 3 . the significance of the multiple regression was tested using f test, the result of which was then compared to the f-table with numerator degree of freedom (df) = 1, and denominator degree of freedom (df) = n-2 at degree of error of 5% (α = 0.05). results and discussion about the normality test. data normality is shown by normal p-p plot which indicates data which lies along the diagonal with the direction as can be seen in the figure 1, each for the dependent variable of the students learning achievement. the result of normality test was summarized in the table 1. from the table 1, it can be concluded that the residual of the dependent variable has normal data distribution, due to significance of p = 0.333 which is higher than 0.05. based on table 2, it can be seen that the correlation between each independent variable and dependent variable is linear. this is because the probability value (p) of the f-count in the deviation from linearity of each independent variable is higher than 0.05. the assumed linearity of correlation is met. the result of heteroscedasticity test on table 4 shows that assumption of the absence of heteroscedasticity is fulfilled at the three independent variables. this is shown by the probability value (p) which is higher than 0.05. this can be the basis of conclusion that the regression used to estimate the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation toward can be used to test the hypothesis. about the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation toward learning achievement can be described as follows: first, coefficient of determination (r2). the analysis of multiple regression with three predictors (self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation) gives the coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.183. this magnitude of r2 shows that 0.183 or about 18.3% of the changes in the dependent variable of learning achievement can be explained by the three independent variables through the equation of multiple linear regression obtained from the result of data processing with spss (statistical package for the social sciences), namely y = 0.371 + 2.956x 2 + 2.027x 2 + . based on the discussion about the multiple linear regression by singgih santoso (2010:335), the constant of 0.317 indicates that if there is no effect of x 1 (self-concept), x 2 (learning habit), and x 3 (achievement motivation), each of which being zero, the value of the learning achievement variable is only 0.317. the x 1 regression coefficient of 2.956 indicates that any one unit increase observed cum prob 1.00.80.60.40.20.0 ex pe ct ed c um p ro b 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 normal p-p plot of regression standardized residual dependent variable: prestasi belajar figure 1: normal p-p plot, dependent variable of learning achievement pamujo, the effect of self-concept, learning habit, and motive of achievement 24 © 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com of learning achievement increases by 1.922 unit (due to positive sign). while that of x 3 at 2.027, indicates that any one unit increase of achievement motivation will cause learning achievement to increase by 2.027 (due to positive sign). second, measuring the significance of simultaneous effect using f-test. the result of measurement of the simultaneous effect of x 1 (self-concept), x 2 (learning habit), and x 3 (achievement motivation) toward y (learning achievement) using f-test gave f-count of 12.789 with p being 0.000. because the value of p was less than 0.05, the three variables simultaneously gave significant effect toward the dependent variable y (learning variable). third, measuring the significance of individual effect using t-test. regression analysis gave correlation coefficient for x 1 variable (self-concept) of 2.956, with positive sign. meanwhile, the significance test to this coefficient using t-test resulted in t-count of 3.512 with p being 0.001. since the value of p was less than 0.05, the effect of x 1 (selfconcept) toward y (learning process) was significant and positive (due to the positive sign). regression analysis gave correlation coefficient for x 2 variable (learning habit) of 1.922 with positive sign. meanwhile, the significance test to this coefficient using t-test resulted in t-count of 2.603 with p being 0.010. since the value of p was less than 0.05, the effect of x 2 (learning habit) toward y (learning process) was significant and positive (due to the positive sign). regression analysis gave correlation coefficient for x 3 variable (achievement table 1: result of normality test for the dependent variable of learning achievement no. dependent variable z value kolm-smirnov p (sig.) status 1. learning achievement 0.946 0.333 normal source: result of primary data processing (2010). table 2: result of linearity test correlation between independent and dependent variable deviation from linearity conclusion f-count p x 1 y 1.284 0.159 linear x 2 y 1.159 0.103 linear x 3 y 0.890 0.639 linear tabel 3: result of multi-co-linearity test based on tolerance value and vif dependent variable independent variable tolerance vif remarks learning achievement self-concept learning habit achievement motivation 0.941 0.906 0.947 1.063 1.104 1.056 no multiple-co-linearity source: result of primary data processing (2010) tabel 4: result of heteroscedasticity test using glejser method independent variable t -count p remarks x 1 1.464 0.145 no heteroscedascticity x 2 -1.700 0.105 no heteroscedascticity x 3 -1.818 0.071 no heteroscedascticity educare: international journal for educational studies, 7(1) august 2014 25© 2014 by minda masagi press bandung and ump purwokerto, indonesiaissn 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com motivation) of 2.027 with positive sign. meanwhile, the significance test to this coefficient using t-test resulted in t-count of 2.679 with p being 0.008. since the value of p was less than 0.05, the effect of x 2 (self-concept) toward y (learning process) was significant and positive (due to the positive sign). conclusion as the analysis and discussion on the effect of independent variable (self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation) toward the learning achievement at elementary schools in kebasen district of banyumas regency in central java, indonesia show, the followings are the conclusions. the value of r2 indicates that 0.183 or about 18% of change in the dependent variable (learning achievement) can be explained by the three predictor variables (self-concept, learning habit, and achievement motivation) using f-test shows significant effect with f-count of 12.789 and p at 0.000. simultaneously, the three variables have significant impact toward the dependent variable. individually, the variable self-concept (t = 3.512, p = 0.001), learning habit (t = 2.603, p = 0.010), and achievement motivation (t = 2.679, p = 0.008) gives positive and significant impact toward learning achievement. based on the result of this research, it suggested that: (1) to obtain maximum result of learning achievement of the elementary school’s students of kebasen district of banyumas regency in central java, indonesia, stakeholders need to improve the students’ 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(2013). “john locke on character building” in atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan, vo.3(2) december, pp.115-128. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press and unsur cianjur, issn 2088-1290. available [online] also at: www.atikanjurnal.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 111 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera attitude of post graduate students towards mobile learning abstract: there are various ways to use mobile phones for enhancing learning. mobile phones plays an important role in our day today lives in various purposes. one of the important purposes is learning. mobile learning, as a novel educational approach, encourages flexibility; students do not need to be a specific age, gender, or member of a specific group or geography, to participate in learning opportunities. restrictions of time, space, and place have been lifted. mobile learning is an emerging concept as the development of an adoption rate of mobile technologies increase rapidly on a global scale. while there are as many people using mobile technologies as there are opinions on how mobile technologies will impact e-learning, the majority agrees that mobile learning will play a major role in e-learning. in the present study, the investigators made an attempt to study the attitude of pg (post graduate) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal, india. the descriptive survey method was used. one hundred and fifty students (both male and female) reading in semesters-2nd and 4th were taken as representative sample of the whole population. an attitude scale was used for collecting the data. the means of both groups were tested for significance of difference by using cr (constructed-response) test. results indicated that the attitudes of pg male and female, rural and urban, general and sc/st (scheduled castes/scheduled tribes), semester-2nd and 4th students were statistically not significant. the attitude of pg arts and science students was statistically significant and the attitude of pg students towards mobile learning was neither more favourable nor unfavourable, but satisfactory or average. key words: attitude; mobile learning; post graduate student; satisfactory; enhancing learning. about the authors: kusum fouzdar is m.a. student at the department of education, sidho-kanho-birsha university, purulia, west bengal 723104, india. dr. santosh kumar behera is an assistant professor at the department of education, sidho-kanho-birsha university, purulia, west bengal 723104, india. email address: santoshbehera.jkc@gmail.com how to cite this article? fouzdar, kusum & santosh kumar behera. (2017). “attitude of post graduate students towards mobile learning” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(2), february, pp.111-120. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (january 8, 2017); revised (january 20, 2017); and published (february 27, 2017). introduction the 21st century is known as an age of science and technology. it was also declared to be the age of information and communication technology, due to the revolution of mobile technology. mobile technology has become an integral part of our lives. we cannot work in the society without mobile, internet, etc. everybody is using online technology in day today work (wagner, 2005; low & o’connell, 2006; and behera, 2013). in this new millennium modern technology also plays inevitable role in our lives. now-a-days anywhere and anytime, education is made possible. the practice of providing education with the help of modern technologies is termed as e-education, or e-learning, or m-learning (polsani, 2003; traxler, 2007; and begum, natesan & sampath eds., 2011). mobile technology in 112 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare word open various ways for new educational technologies aimed at fulfilling the country’s educational needs. there are various ways to use mobile phones for enhancing learning. mobile phones plays an important role in our day today lives in various purposes. one of the important purposes is learning. mobile learning, as a novel educational approach, encourages flexibility; students do not need to be a specific age, gender, or member of a specific group or geography, to participate in learning opportunities (sharples, 2005; kadirire, 2007; and shih & mills, 2007). restrictions of time, space, and place have been lifted. m-learning (mobile learning) is an emerging concept as the development of an adoption rate of mobile technologies increase rapidly on a global scale (abdalla & hegazi, 2003; kukulska-hulme & traxler, 2005; and traxler, 2005 and 2007). while there are as many people using mobile technologies as there are opinions on how mobile technologies will impact e-learning, the majority agrees that m-learning will play a major role in e-learning (mbanusi, 2012). m-learning is the idea that a student can learn from any place at any time using portable learning devices. m-learning, or “mobile learning”, is any sort of learning that takes advantages of learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies. mobile learning combines e-learning and mobile computing. mobile learning is sometimes considered merely an extension of e-learning, but quality m-learning can only be delivered with an awareness of the special limitations and benefits of mobile devices. mobile learning has the benefits of mobility and its supporting platform. m-learning is a means to enhance the broader learning experience. m-learning is a powerful method for engaging learners on their own terms. e-learning and m-learning diagrammatically mentioned in table 1. functionality and mobility in a definition of mobile learning. mobile learning means “acquisition of any knowledge and skill through using mobile technology anytime, anywhere that result in alteration of behavior” (eltayeb & hegazi, 2014). in this context, mobile learning also brings strong portability by replacing books and notes with small ram (random access memory)’s filled with tailored learning contents. mobile learning implies different things to different people (motiwalla, 2007; khatal, 2011; and behera, 2013). here, there are some definitions of mobile learning given follows. r. pea & h. maldonado (2006) stated that mobile learning incorporates “transformative innovations for learning futures” (pea & maldonado, 2006). d. parsons & h. ryu (2006) also stated that mobile learning is broadly defined as the delivery of learning content to learners utilizing mobile computing devices (parsons & ryu, 2006). k. peters (2007) also stated that it was a subset of e-learning, a step toward making the educational process “just in time, just enough and just for me” (peters, 2007). according to m. ally ed. (2009), the process of using a mobile device to access and study learning materials and to communicate with fellow students, instructors or institution (ally, ed., 2009). mobile learning provides the potential to provide the right information to right people at the any time and any place using portable learning devices. thus, the mobile learning can be summarized in a single statement: “deliverance of education or any learning via any portable devices”. mobile learning combines e-learning and mobile computing. mobile learning is sometimes considered merely an extension of e-learning, but quality mobile learning table 1: functionality of e-learning and mobility of m-learning functionality mobility computer laptop computers pda’s handhelds palmtop smart phones mobile phone elearning m-learning educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 113 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare can only be delivered with an awareness of the special limitations and benefits of mobile devices. mobile learning has the benefits of mobility and its supporting platform (behera, 2013; and eltayeb & hegazi, 2014). from the above discussion, it is clear that mobile learning plays a magnificent role in human lives. since the post-graduation/ higher education level is the crucial stage of the present educational system in our country, it needs special attention. therefore, the necessity of getting the students well acquainted with mobile learning in postgraduation stage can never be minimized. mobile learning should spread all over the world. it is found that there are different reasonable opinions in this regards. but, we cannot come to a conclusion about all the post graduate students’ attitude towards mobile learning from several comments or discussions with a handful of students only. many questions are arising in the researchers mind about the students’ attitude towards mobile learning at pg (postgraduate) level. still now, it is very important and sensitive issue. it is an urgent need for developing certain strategies, which can improve their knowledge, attitude, and skills on mobile learning. therefore, in order to know the attitude of pg students towards mobile learning, the investigators have decided to take up a systematic and objective attitudinal study of pg students towards mobile learning. the investigators intend to restrict their research work to purulia district of west bengal, india. so, the problem for the present study may be specifically stated as follows: “attitude of post graduate students towards mobile learning”. the review of related literature. b.f. fozder & l.s. kumar (2007) conducted a study to better understand and measure students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the effectiveness of mobile learning. results of this study revealed that introducing mobile phone could be helpful in improving retention at bachelor of science students, by augmenting their teaching/learning and supporting the existing learning system. they found out that more than half of the respondents surveyed highly support the introduction of mobile phone to enhance the learning experience (fozder & kumar, 2007). f.n. al-fahad (2009) conducted a study to better understand and measure students’ attitudes and effectiveness of mobile learning. the result of his study revealed that the majority of students supported the idea that the wireless networks increase the flexibility of access to resources of learning independently in any place. therefore, students can save their time, effort, and even money (al-fahad, 2009). wafa’ n. muhanna & awatif m. abu alsha’r (2009) conducted a study on university student` attitudes towards cellphone learning environment. the main purpose of this study is to investigate jordanian university student` attitudes towards cell phone learning environment. the study investigates whether there are any differences in university student`s attitudes based on gender and level. the findings indicate that undergraduates are more favorable to cell phone environment than graduate students. the study also reveals that cell phone has more influence on male students than on female students (muhanna & al-sha’r, 2009). v. demouy & a. kukulska-hulme (2010) investigated students’ experiences when using portable devices, e.g. ipods and mp3 players, for listening and speaking practice within a course. they conclude that learners will need to be helped towards recognizing the specific value of this type of practice as a stepping stone towards authentic communication. they recommended further areas of investigation and potential applications (demouy & kukulska-hulme, 2010). p. pollara & k.k. broussard (2011) have studied on the student perceptions of mobile learning, a review of current research. the objectives of this study are necessary to analyze how these devices can be used for learning. the review specifically focuses on student perceptions of mobile learning and summary of the current. the majority of studies measured the attitude of participations with respect to the type of learning they experienced with a mobile device. these studies were in most part created to measure the attitudes that students had about 114 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare mobile learning rather than strictly student achievement gains with mobile learning technologies (pollara & broussard, 2011). another study was conducted by a.b. nassuora (2013) to examine students’ acceptance of mobile learning for higher education in saudi arabia. the author adopted a framework which is based on the utaut (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) model to determine the factors that influence the students’ intention to use mobile learning. the statistical results showed that a high level of students’ acceptance for using mobile learning (nassuora, 2013). mostafa al-emran, hatem m. elsherif & khaled shaalan (2016) have investigating attitudes towards the use of mobile learning in higher education. this paper aims at exploring students and educators’ attitudes towards the use of mobile learning in higher educational universities within oman and uae (united arab emirates), two neighboring countries in the arab gulf region. findings revealed significant differences among the students’ attitudes towards mobile learning with regard to their smartphone ownership, country, and age. furthermore, results indicated that mobile learning can be one of the promising pedagogical technologies to be employed in the higher educational environments within the arab gulf countries (al-emran, elsherif & shaalan, 2016). h. hashim, m. yunus & m. embi (2016) have conducted a study on pre-university esl (english as second language) learners’ attitude towards mobile learning. this study investigates pre-university esl learners’ attitude towards mobile learning for the purpose of learning esl. the findings of the study are hoped to provide polytechnic administrators a means to make effective fiscal and educational decisions regarding mobile learning, and to ensure the fiscal and pedagogical success of a mobile learning initiative in a globally competitive environment (hashim, yunus & embi, 2016). following recommendations reported in the literature, this research intends to conduct a similar study to the above mentioned studies, in which the study focuses on the attitude of pg (post graduate) students towards mobile learning at sidho-kanho-birsha university, purulia, west bengal, india. need and significance of the study the technological revolution poses remarkable challenges to the educators to rethink their basic tenets, to apply technology in creative way to redesign education. in this context, mobile learning plays an important role. mobile learning is the new innovation which help greater learning opportunities for the students (trifonova, 2003; sharma & kitchens, 2004; and patil & sawale, 2012). now-a-days, there is a growing necessity of mobile learning to make new outlook. it is necessary in many perspectives. so far as education concerned, mobile learning plays an important role for imparting education among the students. it helps to learn anytime and anywhere, it is the most important means of learning, it provides quick feedback, it helps to learn beyond a classroom, it helps the student in dependent learning, etc. therefore, the researchers feel that particularly the pg (post graduate) student’s opinions or their attitudes can never be ignored, rather those should be reviewed or re-explored time to time; and it is this feeling that has urged these investigators to take up the present study on a particular region of west bengal, india. it is expected that this study, through small, will be able to make some significant contributions in the field of education. delimitations of the study. in geographical area, the investigation was delimited to only purulia district of west bengal, india. in level of education, the study was restricted to the pg (post graduate) students of sidhokanho-birsha university of the said district. among the pg students also only the arts and science streams (2nd semester and 4th semester) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university were considered as the subjects of the present study. in type of study, it was conducted only at surface level. it was not an “in-depth” study. attempt to know the subject’s attitude by administering an attitude scale constructed by the researchers. no inter-state/university educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 115 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare comparison was done. only intra-district/ university comparison between the attitude of the male and female students, general and sc/st (scheduled castes/scheduled tribes) students, rural and urban students, arts and science students, and 2nd and 4th semester students were done. the objectives of the study are: (1) to ascertain the attitude of pg students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal, india, towards mobile learning; (2) to compare the attitude of pg male and female students of sidhokanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning; (3) to compare the attitude of pg rural and urban students in purulia district of west bengal towards mobile learning; (4) to compare the attitude of pg general and sc/st students in purulia district towards mobile learning; (5) to compare the attitude of pg arts and science streams students in purulia district towards mobile learning; and (6) to compare the attitude of pg 2nd and 4th semester students in purulia district towards mobile learning. hypotheses of the study are as follows: h 1 : “the pg students of sidho-kanho-birsha university will have more favourable attitude towards mobile learning in purulia district of west bengal, india”; h 2 : “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg male and female students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal towards mobile learning”; h 3 : “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg rural and urban students in purulia district of west bengal towards mobile learning”; h 4 : “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg general and sc/st students in purulia district towards mobile learning”; h 5 : “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg arts and science students towards mobile learning”; and h 6 : “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg 2nd and 4th semester students in purulia district towards mobile learning”. methods the present study is based on survey method, particularly, the normative survey research method (best & kahn, 2005; and sharma, 2008). it is the most popular and scientific research technique, which consist of analyzing the phenomena into their components. the pg (post graduate) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal, india comprised the population of this study. about 150 pg students of sidho-kanhobirsha university in purulia district of west bengal were taken as representative sample for the whole population. stratified random sampling technique was followed for selecting the departments. there are a number of pg students in each department. only arts and science students were selected following purposive sampling technique. the tool used. an attitude scale (likert type) was used for knowing the attitude of the pg (post graduate) students towards mobile learning. there were 30 items. there were five scale points against each item, so this is to say a five point attitude scale consisting of 30 items was constructed. in the scoring procedure, likert’s method was used (lokesh, 2004; and sharma, pathak & sharma, 2006). the subject is asked to indicate the degree of agreement towards each item on a five point scale: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree weightage was given in the following manner, as shown in table 2. analysis and interpretation of data testing of h 1 : “the pg (post graduate) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university table 2: scoring procedure items strongly agree (a) agree (b) neutral (c) disagree (d) strongly disageree (e) favourable 5 4 3 2 1 unfavuorable 1 2 3 4 5 116 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare will have more favourable attitude towards mobile learning in purulia district of west bengal”. see table 3. through the help of cut-off point, the investigators verified the h 1 . here cut-off point is m + 1σ. it means: mean = 98.59, n = 150, and σ = 11.61. hence, m + 1 σ is 98.59 + 1 x 11.61 = 110.2. and m -1 σ = 98.59 11.61 = 86.98. most of pg (post graduate) students (103 in number), i.e. 68.67% of students were lies between 86.98 to 110.2 scores. hence, it can be said that the attitude of pg students of purulia district of west bengal, india is neither more favourable nor unfavourable towards mobile learning, i.e. satisfactory or average in attitude towards mobile learning. testing of h 2 : from table 3, it is found that the calculated cr (constructed-response) value was found to be 0.58, which is less than that of table value, i.e. 1.96 at 0.05 level; and, thus, it is not significant at 0.05 level. hence, the ho 2 is accepted and the researchers’ h 2 is rejected; that is to say that “there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg (post graduate) male and female students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning”. see table 4. testing of h 3 : from table 3, it is also observed that the calculated cr (constructedresponse) value was 0.29, which is less than that of table value, i.e. 1.96 at 0.05 level; and, thus, it is not significant at 0.05 level. hence, the ho 3 is retained and the researchers’ h 3 is rejected; that is to say that “there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg (post graduate) rural and urban students of sidho-kanhobirsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning”. testing of h 4 : from table 3, it is also established that the calculated cr value was found to be 0.12, which is less than that of table value, i.e. 1.96 at 0.05 level; and, thus, it is not significant at 0.05 level. it can be said that “there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg general and sc/st (scheduled castes/scheduled tribes) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning”. table 3: the attitude of pg (post graduate) students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal, india towards mobile learning category n mean s.d. pg (post graduate) students 150 98.59 11.61 table 4: showing significant differences between variables group n mean sd cr remark gender male 78 99.14 11.20 0.58 ns** female 72 98 12.72 locality rural 94 98.83 10.27 0.29 ns** urban 56 98.20 14 caste general 114 98.54 12.55 0.12 ns** sc/st 36 98.78 9.92 stream arts 75 101.01 12.41 2.53 s* science 75 96.17 10.96 class 2nd semester 79 99.38 10.01 0.84 ns** 4th semester 71 97.72 13.77 notes: * significant at 0.05 level. ** not significant at 0.05 level. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 117 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare testing of h 5 : from table 3, it is also observed that the calculated cr value was 2.53, which is greater than that of table value, i.e. 1.96 at 0.05 level; and, thus, it is significant at 0.05 level. hence, the h 05 is rejected and the researchers’ h 5 is accepted; that is to say that “there is significant difference between the attitude of pg arts and science students of the skb (sidho-kanho-birsha) university in purulia district towards mobile learning”. it is also found that the mean attitude score of art students is much greater than the mean attitude score of science students. since greater score is indicative of more favorable attitude, it can be said that the attitude of pg arts students towards mobile learning is relatively more favorable than that of pg science students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district. testing of h 6 : from table 3, it is also observed that the calculated cr value was 0.84 which is lower than that of table value, i.e. 1.96 at 0.05 level; and, thus, it is not significant at 0.05 level. hence, the ho 6 is accepted and the researchers’ h 6 is rejected; that is to say that “there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg 2nd semester students and 4th semester students of skb (sidho-kanhobirsha) university in purulia district towards mobile learning”. analysis of data shown that the attitude of pg students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district of west bengal, india is neither more favourable nor unfavourable towards mobile earning, i.e. satisfactory or average in attitude towards mobile learning. it is found that there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg male and female students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning. it may seem to be that both pg male and female students have realized the importance of mobile learning in same manner. the present study indicated that there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg rural and urban students of sidho-kanhobirsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning. the mean attitude score of pg rural students is being little greater than that of pg urban students. hence, it can be said that the attitude of pg rural students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning is slight favorable than that of pg urban students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district. on the basis of this finding, it can be said whatever be the attitude of the students regarding this important issue, little difference (and therefore, little change in attitude) is found among students so far as the area concern. the major findings of this study revealed that there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg general students and pg sc/st (scheduled castes/scheduled tribes) students, as a whole, of skb (sidho-kanhobirsha) university in purulia district towards mobile learning. the present study indicated that there is significant difference between the attitude of pg arts students and science students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district towards mobile learning. the attitude of pg arts students is comparatively more favorable than the pg science students towards mobile learning. it may due to the fact that pg arts students of skb university have realized more the consequence of mobile learning for their better future. they feel that is acquaints them with the wealth of knowledge. however, it is found that there is no significant difference between the attitude of pg 2nd and p.g. 4th semester students of skb university in purulia district towards mobile learning. on the basis of this finding, it can be said whatever be the attitude of the students regarding this important issue, little difference (and therefore, little change in attitude) is found among students within one year or so of their level education. educational implications are: (1) it is a meek attempt in this direction to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of pg students towards mobile learning; (2) this study contributes a new teaching-learning in the form of assessing the level of knowledge and attitude towards mobile learning in 118 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the classroom instruction; (3) this study is very much essential for the development of students’ interest, attitude, knowledge, and motivation towards mobile learning; (4) this study is very much essential for student selfdevelopment; (5) the need of the day is to make students realize their capabilities and improve upon capabilities to help solve the problems of their life through mobile learning; (6) special efforts should be made in order to develop mobile learning attitude among the pg 4th semester students; (7) special efforts should be made in order to develop mobile learning attitude among the female students; and (8) this study will be of immense use for the educational administrators, which will throw light upon the attitude of students’ of higher education towards mobile learning. conclusion mobile learning will became more and more popular with the progress of information and communication technologies. mobile technology progresses education. mobile learning may currently be most useful as a supplement to ict (information and communication technology), online learning, and more traditional learning methods; and can do much to enrich the learning experience. it is widely believed that mobile learning could be a huge factor in getting disaffected young students to engage in learning, where more traditional methods have failed. if we develop the positive attitude towards mobile learning among the students, then, the teaching-learning situation may be effective.1 references abdalla, mohammed eltayeb & mohammed osman ali hegazi. 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(2005). “enabling mobile learning” in educause review, 40(3), may/june. available online also at: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/ pdf/erm0532.pdf [accessed in purulia, india: december 20, 2016]. 120 kusum fouzdar & santosh kumar behera, attitude of post graduate students © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare students of sidho-kanho-birsha university in purulia district, west bengal, india (source: http://www.vidyasarathi.com, 15/1/2017) the present study indicated that there is significant difference between the attitude of pg (post graduate) arts students and science students of skb (sidho-kanho-birsha) university in purulia district towards mobile learning. the attitude of pg arts students is comparatively more favorable than the pg science students towards mobile learning. it may due to the fact that pg arts students of skb university have realized more the consequence of mobile learning for their better future. they feel that is acquaints them with the wealth of knowledge. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 85 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare ikid ad nn e sp e ja an r a aj hr a ins di os nai es so ias a minda i. cabilao valencia gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution in the philippines abstract: this study aims to examine the gender mainstreaming efforts of the pnu (philippine normal university), a tei (teacher education institution) in the philippines. it specifically looks at the experiences, challenges, and issues of pnu as it implements its gender policies and programs. using the gmef (gender mainstreaming evaluation framework), a gender analysis tool, the study examines the pnu’s gad (gender and development) policy, enabling mechanisms, and gender projects, programs and activities. data were gathered and analyzed through interviews with concerned university officers and personnel, faculty members, and students. a documentary analysis was also done with the gad plans, budget, and accomplishment reports of the university, among others. the findings of this investigation show that pnu has been in the forefront of gender mainstreaming activities for several decades. advanced works have been conducted in different areas of gender mainstreaming. the strength of the policies lies on the management pronouncements in support of gender activities, offering of a women’s studies program, issuance of an anti-sexual harassment policy, establishment of the ugdo (university gender and development office), and creation of the gad focal point committee, among others. in addition, the university’s gad programs, projects and activities are reflected in its three main functions, namely: instruction, research, and extension. it is hoped that the findings of this study will serve as a guide in assessing the gender policies and programs of other education institutions and other organizations. key words: gender mainstreaming; evaluation framework; gender and development; philippine normal university; gender policies and programs. about the author: minda i. cabilao-valencia is an associate professor of sociology/anthropology; former head of the university gender and development office in pnu (philippine normal university); and a member of the ngdrp (national gender and development resource pool) of the philippine commission on women. e-mail address: valencia.mc@pnu.edu.ph how to cite this article? valencia, minda i. cabilao. (2017). “gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution in the philippines” in educare: international journal for educational studies, vol.9(2), february, pp.85-94. bandung, indonesia: minda masagi press owned by aspensi, issn 1979-7877. chronicle of the article: accepted (october 9, 2016); revised (january 10, 2017); and published (february 27, 2017). reflected in all policies and programs at the national, regional, and international levels (licuanan, 2015). in 2005, the cwrp (committee of women’s rights promotion) of taiwan’s executive yuan included six tools in every government agency’s work of gender mainstreaming (li-ching, 2014). furthermore, gender mainstreaming in the united kingdom is entrenched in its introduction gender mainstreaming is widely viewed as a significant strategy that seeks to advance gender equality and gender equity. since the adoption of the bpfa (beijing platform for action), the resulting document of the united nations fourth world conference on women in 1995, various countries agree that gender mainstreaming should be 86 minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare legislation and has become a fundamental strategy for implementing equality in the public services (conley & page, 2010; and page, 2011). in the philippines, the government recognizes gender equality and strongly supports gender mainstreaming as an important approach to achieve gender equality. it is also committed to the provisions of the un (united nations) convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (cedaw), the bpfa, the millennium development goals (mdgs), and similar international conventions. as such, ra (republic act) 9710, or the mcw (magna carta of women), was passed into law in 2009, and its implementing rules and regulations was approved in march 2010. ra 9710 is, as stated, following here: [...] a comprehensive women’s human rights law that seeks to eliminate discrimination against women by recognizing, respecting, protecting, fulfilling, and promoting the rights of filipino women, especially those in the marginalized sectors (cited in pcw, 2012a). the main strategy to implement the law is gender mainstreaming. gender mainstreaming, again cited in pcw (philippine commission on women), refers to: [...] the strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic, and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated” (pcw, 2012a). in short, gender mainstreaming is undertaken by integrating the gender perspective in the policies, programs, and activities of government agencies, lgus (local government units), including sucs (state universities and colleges). to be specific, chapter vi or the institutional mechanisms of the law requires all government departments, including sucs, to comply with the following measures to ensure gender mainstreaming within the organization: (1) planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation for gad or gender and development; (2) creation and/ or strengthening of the gad focal point system or gfps; and (3) generation and maintenance of gad database. the development of gad programs shall be based from the conduct of a gender audit. the pcw-neda-dbm (philippine commission on women – national economic and development authority – department of budget and management) joint circular no.2012-01 has also identified the conduct of gender audit as one of the essential elements in gad planning and budgeting (http://pcw.gov.ph/law/jointcircular-2012-01, 15/12/2016). gender audit, according to pcw, refers to: [...] the examination of the agency’s level of gender mainstreaming or extent of the genderresponsiveness of its policies, programs and projects, the level of gender awareness and competence of its personnel and the presence or absence of enabling mechanisms that support gender mainstreaming (pcw, 2012b). the result of the gender audit or evaluation can serve as basis for the agencies and sucs (state universities and colleges) to effectively plan and implement their programs on gad (gender and development). to guarantee that the gender activities will be implemented and financed, the philippine government instituted the gad budget policy in 1992, during the administration of former president fidel v. ramos (ingeniero & domingo-almase, 2013). the policy requires all government instrumentalities to formulate their annual gad plans and budgets, and set the cost of implementation at a minimum five percent (5%) of their total budget. since then, the government has been monitoring the utilization of this gad budget. at present, there is a scant literature about gender mainstreaming efforts of various institutions in the country. the most comprehensive research on gender audit/ mainstreaming among various agencies was done by jeanne illo et al. (2010). jeanne illo et al.’s study looked at the compliance of philippine government agencies with the gad budget policy and the achievement of the law (illo et al., 2010). educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 87 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare the pcw (philippine commission on women), in 2016, also noted the experiences of various government agencies in gender mainstreaming, such as the dole (department of labor and employment), the denr (department of environment and natural resources), and the pnp (philippine national police). in all of these studies, however, an evaluation of the gender mainstreaming activities of different higher learning institutions is wanted (pcw, 2016). in view of the foregoing, this study conducted an examination of the gender mainstreaming efforts of pnu (philippine normal university), a tei (teacher education institution) in the philippines. to be specific, this study looked into the following: (1) the activities supported by the gad budget; (2) the experiences of pnu in implementing its gender mainstreaming efforts; and (3) the challenges in implementing gender mainstreaming. it is hoped that the findings of this research will serve as a guide and ensure the pnu’s compliance with ra (republic act) 9710, particularly its gender mainstreaming efforts.1 consequently, pnu will move towards a more sustainable, gender-responsive, and performance-based planning and budgeting. the study also hopes to serve as a model in assessing the gender mainstreaming activities of other educational institutions and other organizations. method the research was conducted in pnu (philippine normal university), a tei (teacher education institution) in the philippines. it made use of case study method with in depth interviews as the main research techniques to gather data. interviews were done with concerned university officers and personnel, faculty members, and students of pnu. moreover, a documentary analysis was done on the tei’s gad (gender and development) plans, budget, and accomplishment reports, among others 1see and comparison also about “republic act 7877 or anti-sexual harassment act of 1997”. available online at: http://www.gender.go.jp/english_contents/international/ eastasia/pdf/2006-07-07.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: november 10, 2016]. (schuh & upcraft, 2001; upcraft & schuh, 2002; and duignan, 2008). for this research, some of the questions and entry points in the gmef (gender mainstreaming evaluation framework) of the pcw (philippine commission on women) were used as guide during the interviews. the gmef is a gender analysis tool that has been developed by the pcw after a thorough study of existing gender audit tools as well as numerous consultations with partners (pcw, 2016). it is an essential tool for keeping track and facilitating gender mainstreaming in any organization. this study adopted some of the entry points, which the gmef had identified as important in gender mainstreaming. these entry points were policy, enabling mechanisms, and programs and projects (pcw, 2016). policy pertains to official statements and pronouncements in support of gender mainstreaming. through these memoranda and guidelines, the institution has recognized the importance of gender mainstreaming on campus (cf ncrfw, 2001; and henrick, 2010). enabling mechanisms refer to the resources allocated for gad activities, and the systems and mechanisms necessary for gender mainstreaming. programs, projects, and activities involve the conduct of various paps (projects, activities, and programs) to ensure gender mainstreaming in the organization. results and discussion this section discusses and analyzes the experiences of pnu (philippine normal university), a tei (teacher education institution), in gender mainstreaming. it specifically presents its gad (gender and development) policies, enabling mechanisms, and paps (projects, activities, and programs). the section also analyzes the challenges and issues encountered by pnu in its gender mainstreaming efforts. background. the pnu (philippine normal university) was formally opened on 1 september 1901, as an institution for the training of teachers (ogena, 2014). on 18 june 1949, pnu was converted into a college through ra (republic act) no.416 88 minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare and was authorized to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in education (quodala, 2013). the passage of ra no.6515 on 22 july 1972, authorized the college to grant advance degrees such as ph.d., ed.d., and other academic programs related to education (quodala, 2013; and ogena, 2014). on 26 december 1991, the institution was elevated to a university status under ra no.7168. in recognition of its leadership role in teacher education, the tei (teacher education institution) was declared the country’s “national center for teacher education” by virtue of ra no.9647 on 30 june 2009 (quodala, 2013; and ogena, 2014). the university operates five campuses with its main campus located in manila. the four campuses are in mindanao, visayas, north luzon, and southern tagalog. its student population is more than 4,000 in the provincial campuses, and another 4,000 in the main campus. the total number of faculty members and staff is more than 700 (quodala, 2013; and ogena, 2014). the university envisions itself as an “internationally recognized and nationally responsive teacher education university” (ogena, 2014). in order to fulfill such vision, the university is dedicated, as follows: [...] to developing teachers and educational leaders as valued contributors in the social transformation of the filipino for a better world. this mission is propelled by the institution’s commitments to quality education and excellence; knowledge creation and application; a culture of sharing and service; and growth, efficiency, and accountability (cited in ogena, 2014). since its founding a century ago, the university has unabatedly continued its dynamism. at present, it continues to excel as a national and internationally-recognized teacher education university (ogena, 2014). gender mainstreaming. the university has been in the forefront of gender and development activities for several decades. this condition can partly be attributed to the efforts of various international organizations, government, and nongovernmental organizations to promote women empowerment. various agencies of the un (united nations) have through the years developed programs to address women issues and concerns. there are also numerous legal and policy issuances of the philippine government that aim to advance the improvement of women’s status and condition in society (fernandez, 2003). sensitized by the global and national discourses on gender, some faculty members initiated and implemented gender policies and programs on campus as early as the 1980’s (parpart, connelly & barriteau eds., 2000). after attending a gst (gender sensitivity training) sponsored by the then nct (national commission on women), now known as the pcw (philippine commission on women), they held a series of informal meetings which tackled women issues in the university and in the country (interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). these meetings led to the creation of an organization for female faculty members known as urduja in 1989 (interview with respondent e, 16/8/2016). the organization’s name was taken from the name of a legendary warrior princess, who was recognized as a heroine in the province of pangasinan in central philippines during the pre-spanish period (ang, 2013). urduja became the venue for faculty members in the university to share their experiences from attending seminars and workshops on women (interview with respondent f, 16/8/2016). the students of the university also organized themselves into the urduja youth. the members served as support group of the faculty urduja, and encouraged other students to study and advocate women’s issues. they would regularly hold fora, symposia, rallies, training workshops, drama presentations, and group discussions, among others to popularize and highlight women’s issues and concerns (interview with respondent g, 23/8/2016). there were years, however, when these mainstreaming efforts waned. at present, the university has once again actively forayed into gender mainstreaming (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016). this is reflected in the policies, enabling mechanisms, paps (programs, activities, projects) of the university. educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 89 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare policies on gender mainstreaming. there are pronouncements which the university has issued in support of gender mainstreaming. through these memoranda and guidelines, the institution has recognized the importance of the integration of gender perspective on campus. first, women’s studies. an important program in the 1990s, in the university, was the establishment of the ws (women’s studies) specialization. through the initiative of the faculty urduja, the board of regents, the highest policy making body of the university, issued a memorandum that the ws be offered as a specialization program during the school year 1996-1997 (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent e, 16/8/2016). since then, the program has trained more than 80 students. the ws specialization continuously attracts undergraduate students, who want to advance gender equality in campus and in the society (interview with respondent h, 23/8/2016). this supports the study of louise morley (2007), who argued that while women’s studies has been in decline in the united kingdom, it has continued to expand in many low-income countries (morley, 2007). second, anti-sexual harassment. an adr (administrative disciplinary rule), which aimed to address sexual harassment in campus was passed in 2004 (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016). the adr promulgates the university’s own regulations defining the administrative offense of sexual harassment and prescribing the standard procedure for the administrative investigation, prosecution, and resolution of sexual harassment cases in the university (interview with respondent b, 9/8/2016). an important component of the adr is the creation of the codi (committee on decorum and investigation) on sexual harassment. the codi is tasked to receive and investigate complaints of sexual harassment, and submit a report of its findings with the corresponding recommendation to the disciplining for decision (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). when the complainant is a student, the codi is composed of the following: vice president for academics, dean of student affairs and student services, faculty association president, administrative employee president, representative of the student government, head of the gender office, and university legal consultant (interview with respondent b, 9/8/2016; interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016; and interview with respondent h, 23/8/2016). thus far, the university was able to address all complaints on sexual harassment and similar violations which were reported by students (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016). third, the cged (center of gender and education development). a significant development in the university in terms of advocating gender issue was the establishment of the cgphr (center for gender, peace, and human rights education) through a board resolution in 1999 (yeban, 1998). the creation of the cgphr started the institutionalization of the gender program in the university. in 2003, the cged (center of gender and education development) was established which technically separated the peace and human rights education program from the gender program. the cged, which was then under the college of arts and social sciences, all the more strengthened the gender program of the university (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). fourth, ugdo (university gender and development office). when the organizational structuring was implemented in 2013, the university created the ugdo under the office of the vice-president for academics. the ugdo, which evolved from the cged (center of gender and education development), is responsible for mainstreaming and institutionalizing gad (gender and development) programs in the university. to achieve this goal, ugdo has undertaken mainstreaming programs in instruction, research, extension activities, information dissemination, and administration (interview with respondent b, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent e, 16/8/2016). 90 minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare fifth, gfps (gad focal point system). another landmark policy in the university was the creation of the gad [gender and development] (gfps) by virtue of special order 387 in 2014. the gfps, which is headed by the vice-president for academics, is composed of 21 representatives from various offices, and colleges in the five campuses (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent f, 16/8/2016). it is tasked to perform the following functions: (1) ensures the mainstreaming of gender perspective in the policies, plans, and programs of the university; (2) monitors the effective implementation of gad-related policies and annual gad plans, programs, and budget of the university; and (3) prepares and consolidates the required gender data, accomplishment reports, and budget. the gfps has thus far ensured that the gad budget of the university is spent on relevant gender programs efficiently and effectively and that these are implemented uniformly across campuses. sixth, celebration of women’s month and other campaigns. the university has through the years also consistently shown interest for gender mainstreaming by supporting numerous campaigns directed on women’s concerns. these include the university’s issuance of statements articulating support and active participation of gad (gender and development) activities, such as women’s day/month celebration, and 18-day campaign to end violence against women and children (illo et al., 2010). gad enabling mechanisms. the university has authorized the allocation of resources and set up numerous essential gad (gender and development) mechanisms in support of its gender mainstreaming efforts. some of these mechanisms include the establishment of the ugdo (university gender and development office), creation of the gfps (gad focal point system), creation of the codi (committee on decorum and investigation), and offering of ws (women’s studies) as a specialization course, among others (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). in addition, the university has undertaken the following gad mechanisms to ensure that gender mainstreaming will be implemented across campuses: first, organization of kabataang urduja. the urduja youth of the late 1980’s has evolved and is now known as the kabataang urduja. this student organization works closely with the ugdo (university gender and development office) in implementing gender activities, particularly for students and the youth in the adopted communities (interview with respondent i, 23/8/2016). much like the early fora organized by the organization, all these activities are well attended. second, establishment of partnership with individuals and institutions. the university has through the years partnered with other individuals and institutions to facilitate gender mainstreaming. it has conducted fora, seminars, trainings, and workshops on gender with other universities, government and nongovernment organizations, and other gender advocates, among others (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016). the preparation of the annual gad pb (gender and development plan and budget) and gad ar (gender and development accomplishment report) has also been done in coordination with the pcw (philippine commission on women) and the ched (commission on higher education and development). the university’s gender advocates also constantly undergo capacity building activities with various government and non-government organizations (interview with respondent f, 16/8/2016). third, institutionalizing gad/sexdisaggregated database. the university is at its early stage of collecting gad (gender and development) / sex-disaggregated data for faculty members, administrative personnel. the gad office is currently working on how to develop or integrate the gad database or statistics in the existing database of the university. such database will be used as bases for planning and budgeting future gad programs (orbeta, 2006). fourth, allocation of gad budget. the university has without fail allocated educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 91 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare an annual budget for activities supporting gad (gender and development) plans and programs. this gender budget, however, is below the mandated five percent (5%) of the total agency budget appropriations under the annual gaa (general appropriations act) of the philippine government (interview with respondent b, 9/8/2016). be that as it may, the university has been consistent in the preparation and implementation of its annual gad pb (gender and development plan and budget) as mandated by law (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016). the main campus of the university also consolidates the gad ar (gender and development accomplishment report) on the gender activities, and the corresponding budget from the main and provincial campuses, for onward submission to ched (commission on higher education and development) and pcw (philippine commission on women). about the paps (programs, activities, projects). to facilitate gender mainstreaming in the university, its paps are reflected in its three main functions, namely: instruction, research, and extension. the following is explanation related to main functions. firstly, participation in national and international events. the university has through the years been actively participating in various women’s events, such as the national women’s day/month celebration, the one billion rising campaign, and the 18-day campaign to end violence against women and children, among others (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016). to promote public awareness on the significance of these events, the university has lined up numerous creative activities, such as film showing on women, exhibit of women’s achievements, fun run, film making/poster making contests, slogan making contest, quiz bowl, palm printing, dancexercise, demonstration on self-defense, and talent showcase of students honoring women through songs, dance, poetry, and art work. other activities included participation in the activities organized by the pcw (philippine commission on women) and the ched (commission on higher education), such as the “juana gender formation”, and conduct of fora and seminars based on the theme of the celebration, among others (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016; and interview with respondent g, 23/8/2016). secondly, conduct of gsts (gender sensitivity trainings) and gad (gender and development) orientation for faculty members, administrative personnel, security personnel, students, and clients/partners in the adopted communities. in order to raise gender awareness, the university has been conducting gsts and gad orientation, both in campus and in the partner communities (interview with respondent c, 9/8/2016). to further deepen awareness on gender concerns, there were sessions on specific issues, such as gender and religion; lgbtqci (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, celibate, intersex); hiv-aids (human immunodeficiency virus – acquired immune deficiency syndrome), and teenage pregnancy among the youth. thirdly, conduct of seminars on laws on women for faculty members, administrative personnel, security personnel, students, and clients/partners in the adopted communities. other seminars were focused on specific laws affecting women and the youth, such as anti-sexual harassment, rape, violence against women and children, human trafficking, and health issues, such as hiv-aids (human immune deficiency virus – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), among others. these seminars were both conducted in the university and in the adopted communities (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). the resource persons in these sessions were gender advocates from pnu (philippines normal university) and other partner institutions. fourthly, conduct of feminist counseling counselors and concerned faculty members, and peer facilitation for students. there were also trainings conducted to empower and prepare gender sensitive counselors, and selected faculty members and students in handling gender-related concerns. the trainings were specifically designed to equip the trainees on how to address cases of vaw (violence against women) on campus and other settings 92 minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare (cf dobash & dobash, 1998; santos, 2001; and mallorca-bernabe, 2015). fifthly, integration of gender and multicultural perspectives in the syllabus, and updating of modules for gender fair education training. there are syllabi being used with gender and multicultural education concepts (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). these syllabi are outputs of trainings on how to integrate gender and multicultural perspectives in the syllabus. in addition, modules were updated for gender fair education training for faculty, staff, and students. sixthly, production/updating of information and advocacy materials. gender advocates, including the students and kabataang urduja, have produced information/campaign materials and various forms of advocacy. gad (gender and development) bulletin boards are also updated. kabataang urduja has also created a networking site/facebook account for gender mainstreaming efforts (interview with respondent i, 23/8/2016). seventhly, establishing the grc (gender resource corner) and rg (research on gender). the university has established a grc in the university library, where information and resource materials on gender are displayed. part of the gad (gender and development) budget of the university is also allocated in the conduct of feminist research studies. these studies are presented in various national and international conferences. the foregoing activities reveal the university’s commitment towards gender mainstreaming. in addition, since the establishment of the gfps (gad focal point system) in 2014, its gender advocates have been attending trainings as part of their capacity development (interview with respondent a, 9/8/2016; and interview with respondent d, 16/8/2016). these trainings include gst (gender sensitivity training); gad orientation; ga (gender analysis) tools, such as gmef (gender monitoring and evaluation framework), preparation of gad pb (planning and budgeting), and gad ar (accomplishment report); and use of gmms (gender monitoring and mainstreaming system). these trainings have been very helpful in preparing the mandatory annual gad pb and gad ar. the members of the gfps, particularly those from the provincial campuses, are represented in preparing these documents. the latter are then submitted to ched (commission on higher education) and pcw (philippine commission on women), government agencies which are mandated to ensure that other government agencies and educational institutions are capacitated on gad. challenges in gender mainstreaming. it is undeniable that with the numerous activities on gender mainstreaming, the university has the full support of the top management in this effort. the university, nonetheless, still encounters several challenges towards this end. while most gender advocates of the university are committed to advance gender concerns through mainstreaming, their efforts are hampered by certain conditions (innes ed., 2000). there were lean years or when efforts towards gender mainstreaming waned. this is due to the fact that some early gender advocates of the university were given administrative positions. as such, there was no full time officer who would oversee the gender concerns of the university. in addition, prior to the institutionalization of gfps (gad [gender and development] focal point system) in the university in late 2014, gad planning and budgeting was solely conducted by the gad focal person. in terms of implementing the gender activities, the gad focal person was sometimes assisted by other gender advocates – faculty members, administrative personnel, and students. with the creation of the gfps, activities related to gad are supposed to be done by the committee. however, the gad focal person of the university does the bulk of work. the latter is also not a full time officer on gender concerns of the university and is loaded with other responsibilities. the gad focal person and other gfps members are burdened with multiple assignments. they normally perform multiple tasks and not solely assigned to perform gender mainstreaming. on top of their work educare: international journal for educational studies, 9(2) february 2017 93 © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare as gender advocates, they also teach, perform extension work, and conduct research. they are busy with their other tasks that they do not have time to attend trainings or meetings, or perform their responsibilities. noteworthy is that there are other gfps members, who simply do not perform their tasks (masilungan ed., 2001). in spite of all the challenges, however, the university has been consistent in implementing its gad programs through the years. it is also able to submit all the required gender documents and reports to concerned government agencies. the challenges have not deterred the university from continuously pursuing its commitment to mainstream gad in its system. conclusion by way of concluding, the university has certainly done advanced works in different areas of gender mainstreaming, particularly in policies and enabling mechanism, including all projects and programs. the strength of the university lies on the solid support of the management towards mainstreaming, especially its provision of a gad (gender and development) budget to realize all the proposed activities. main activities and projects revolve around faculty members, employees, students, and greater stakeholder communities. the study also reveals areas, which are challenging in the implementation of gender programs. in spite of the difficulties, however, the university has relentlessly pursued its gender mainstreaming efforts. while the university has utilized its gad budget to implement its numerous activities for gender mainstreaming, there is a need to further examine the impact of these gad activities, programs, and projects on the male and female members (e.g. faculty members, officials, students, and partners in the community) of the university. it is a known fact that mainstreaming the gender perspective will not happen instantaneously. as such, it is important to document and evaluate all these gad activities vis-a-vis their effectivity in enhancing gender equality. there is a need to fully explore whether gender mainstreaming is able to counterbalance gender hierarchies in the educational institution.2 references ang, tiffanie munda. (2013). “princess urduja”. unpublished b.a. thesis. diliman: college of mass communication, university of the philippines. available online also at: http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/ images/a/a8/princess_urduja_written_thesis_ (final)_-_tiffanie_ang.pdf [accessed in manila, philippines: december 15, 2016]. conley, h. & m. page. (2010). “the gender equality duty in local government: the prospects for integration” in industrial law journal, 39(3), pp.321-325. dobash, r. emerson & russell dobash. (1998). rethinking violence against women. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. duignan, p. (2008). “methods and analysis techniques for information collection”. available online at: http://knol.google.com/k/paul-duignan-phd/ [accessed in manila, philippines: december 15, 2016]. fernandez, mary ann z. 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(2000). accelerating change: resources for gender mainstreaming. canada: canadian 2statement: i, the undersigned, declare that this paper is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. i wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. i confirm also that the paper has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. the paper is not reviewed and published yet by other scholarly journals. 94 minda i. cabilao valencia, gender mainstreaming in a teacher education institution © 2017 by minda masagi press in bandung, west java, indonesia issn 1979-7877 and www.mindamas-journals.com/index.php/educare international development agency. interview with respondent a, one of the university officers at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 9 august 2016. interview with respondent b, one of the university officers at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 9 august 2016. interview with respondent c, one of the university officers at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 9 august 2016. interview with respondent d, one of the faculty members at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 16 august 2016. interview with respondent e, one of the faculty members at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 16 august 2016. interview with respondent f, one of the faculty members at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 16 august 2016. interview with respondent g, one of the students at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 23 august 2016. interview with respondent h, one of the students at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 23 august 2016. interview with respondent i, one of the students at pnu (philippines normal university) in manila, on 23 august 2016. li-ching, wang. 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(2001). violence against women in times of war and peace. quezon city: up [university of philippines] center for women’s studies and ford foundation, schuh, j.h. & m.l. upcraft. (2001). assessment practice in student affairs: an applications manual. san francisco: jossey-bass. upcraft, m.l. & j.h. schuh. (2002). “assessment versus research: why we should care about the difference” in about campus, 7(1), pp.16-20. yeban, felice i. (1998). “human rights education in a teacher training institution: a philippine normal university experience”. available online at: http:// www.hurights.or.jp/archives/human_rights_ education_in_asian_schools/section2/1998/03/ human-rights-education [accessed in manila, philippines: november 10, 2016]. educare feb 2014.indb educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 i volume 6 number 2 february 2014 table of content foreword. [ii] abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives: contextualization of comparative education as a university’s discipline. [111-118] yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions. [119-128] ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace in the light of national curriculum framework – 2005. [129-136] suwartono, student’s voices in reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation teaching. [137-144] thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english in the preparatory year at the taif university, kingdom of saudi arabia. [145-160] rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence in modern literature. [161-168] minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members of the university of technology and the university of science in vietnam. [169-178] eko priyanto, improving democratic values in civic education learning through grouped-discussion method for the students in higher education institution. [179-188] fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies at ordinary level by students in high density urban schools of harare, zimbabwe. [189-198] info-edu-tainment. [199-206] educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 ii foreword assalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be upon you) let us thanks to our almighty, allah swt (subhanahu wa-ta’ala), who has bestowed us all the best blessings and prosperity. peace may be upon to our great prophet muhammad saw (salallahu ‘alaihi wassalam), his companions, his family, and his faithful and dutiful followers until the end of the world. amien. as the rector of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, kindly allow me to convey several things which will be the part of commitment and big work of ump in revealing the world class university. first, in academic level, nowadays ump has 11 faculties and 1 post-graduate program with details as follow: 3 (three) diploma study program iii (d iii), 25 (twenty five) bachelor degree program (s-1), 1 post-graduate program (s-2), and 2 (two) profession program. dealing with the competition of higher education in national and international also by considering the rapid development of knowledge, technology, and culture, we believe that in 10 years forward the number of study program either s-1 or s-2 in ump will be developed and increased. related to the presence of new study program in the future, it is in line with the commitment of ump to answer the society’s need in terms of academic superiority and professional graduates of ump. second, as cited in the vision and mission, ump is determined in preparing the qualified, excellent, professional, entrepreneur minded and islamic graduates through modern education and independence in its science discipline in which it is fully supported by information technology and communication. it is also accompanied by the system of quality assurance which is held by the institution of quality assurance in ump. ump applies conducive, interactive and islamic learning concept between lecturers and students. it is also supported by academicians teaching staffs and practitioners who have competence and experience in each field; well-acknowledged university graduates in indonesia and overseas which have a high commitment in each knowledge discipline. ump also has representative classes and labs with good quality of facilities. as the result, the optimal and conducive teaching and learning atmosphere could be established. the students will also have opportunity to apply their knowledge and skill in various institutions and companies in which it will increase the students’ ability either in hard skill or soft skill which will be the promising get a job after graduation. third, as the muhammadiyah (followers of the prophet muhammad) university, ump will definitely make serious effort in supporting the mission: “making ump as the center of excellence within the region (‘uswahhasanah’ or center of superiority) in terms of education, research, and service toward society and also as the driving force of religious proselytizing and ‘tajdid muhammadiyah’ which traverse time to create the real islamic society and to give inspiration along with contribution in educating and brighten nation’s life”. referring to the mission, superiorities can be briefly formulated in which those are needed to be grown by all “civitas academica” in ump. the superiorities are critical thinking, creativeness, willingness to increase knowledge concept and research aptitude, open minded upon diversities in serving excitement toward students and society. in addition, it can be added as expanding the islamic tenets as “rahmatan lil-‘alamin”. especially, i do realize that the lecturers of ump really need to increase the spirit of researching, writing, and publishing the result of the research in various scientific forums either in journal or in international scientific conference. fourth, the commitment to provide scholarships for students is still be the main focus of ump. for students who have achievements in several fields such as science, sport, and culture as the first winner, 1st runner up, 2nd runner up in province and national level, ump will gives scholarship opportunity and learning facilities. the achievements which have been accomplished by ump during 2012-2013 are reported by students’ advisory with the detail, one of them is as follow: 1st winner of short story creation in sultan ageng tirtayasa university, banten, west java, indonesia, on behalf of irfan m. nugroho; and 3rd winner talented students championship in central java province level, on behalf of arini syarifah. fifth, make serious effort in varied corporations in realizing ump vision and mission. in the process of educating and brighten national’s life, ump’s goal to produce qualified graduates can only be realized through corporations either with internal or external side of ump. finally, those are things which will be the commitment and big work of ump in realizing the goal to be world class university (wcu). it is hoped that by publishing the educare journal, ump can produce qualified writers by showing accountability in lecturers’ research, increasing ability and culture to make a research by writing and publishing journal. this educare journal can be a model to guide study program’s journals which have not been accredited and publish the result of the research in international journal publisher. i would like to give gratitude toward all staffs and sides which have worked very hard for arranging the educare journal. hopefully, all efforts and patience can bring our goal in reality. final words, may allah swt bring easiness and strength in every step in our life. do enjoy reading the educare journal and hopefully you will derive much benefit from it. wassalamu’alaikum wr. wbr. (peace be also upon you). dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad, rector of ump. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 111 dr. abbas madandar arani is an assistant professor at the department of education lu (lorestan university) in iran; mrs. lida kakia is a ph.d. student in comparative education at su (sofia university) in bulgaria and at present works as a teacher counselor at different schools in tehran, iran; and mrs. batol moazani is m.a. (master of arts) in islam history and at present works as a teacher at different schools in tehran, iran. the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: rie2000@gmail.com and lida.kakia@gmail.com introduction following many western countries, a historical description of comparative education exists in many societies. this description forms a public identity to prove that many logical and comprehensive attempts have been made to understand educational systems during the ages. this is an interesting subject to indicate those who have tried to make a precise survey of educational system. some of these histories appear in travelogues and some others in disquisitions and printed books. this is the case that the former president of the world council of comparative education societies, in inspecting improving movement of the discipline, elaborates on a traditional type of philosophical and literary thesis writing and also reminisces about some pioneers of the field (wilson, 2003). to our surprise, d.n. wilson (2003) names thinkers such as herodotus, xenophon, and aristotle, and only ibn khaldon from the world of islam, the one who is popular as a sociologist rather than an educator (cf oweiss, 1988; and enan, 2007). the fact that great muslim educators have not been mentioned reminds us that many researchers of the field all around the world may not know them as properly as possible. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives: contextualization of comparative education as a university’s discipline abstract: during the two recent decades, the world has witnessed that regional conflicts are increasing because of the type of relationships among civilizations. most of these conflicts have been resulted from political, social, and economical relations among muslim countries and western countries at the middle east. in such a situation, for reducing millions of people’s sufferings, educational systems and especially higher education system surely play a vital role. higher education system, through developing humanities-related disciplines, could increase levels of common understanding among intellectuals of the involved societies. on this score, comparative education has the power to encourage hearing other cultures out and international mutual understanding among people round the globe through educational system. unfortunately, comparative education as a university discipline has not developed considerably at higher education systems in the middle east countries. the present paper, first, tries to briefly explore the present situation of comparative education science in the region and, then, through comparing educational viewpoints of three muslim pedagogues: al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali; and three famous educators of the west world: john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey, demonstrate the possibilities of developing comparative education science as a university discipline in the middle east. the comparisons between muslim educators and their counterparts in the west, however, made in this paper have bilateral benefits. key words: comparative education, educational perspective, muslim, middle east, pedagogues, western, higher education system, and understanding. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 112 on the other hand, comparative education (ce) discipline is still in embryo in many islamic countries. hence, it seems to be a mutual responsibility to establish and develop the discipline in islamic world to explicate both its existing role among muslim countries, and its position in developing international understandings. as far as its first mission is concerned, it should be pointed out that ce, in spite of attempts made by many researchers in recent decades, is still deeply influenced by the old tradition of writing philosophical and literary disquisitions. for example, although ce as an academic discipline is still not familiar even for many educated people in iran, few people might be found who are not heard of educational ideas of al-farabi, al-ghazali, sadi, avicenna, hafiz, rumi, and nasir khosrow. it is completely understandable that their ideas and educational teachings, after such a long time of a few centuries, are yet informative and invigorating for iranians. the lifestyle of these people who already have been considered as intellectual thinkers and sophisticated teachers can still be viewed as proper models for all teachers and students in islamic world (nofal, 1993). iranian comparativists, studying the lives and works of these educators, will not only explicate the position of the discipline in iranian higher education system, but help the iranian youth in exploring their identities (rajaee, 2003). in addition, the works of each one of these educators can function as a rich source for explicating the very existing of ce in the islamic world. ce, through analyzing and comparing educational views of these scholars with that of great educators such as kant, pestalozzi, rousseau, locke, and dewey, shows that muslims and iranians have already benefited from very rich intellectual and educational sources. it is one of the responsibilities of ce researchers to survey the history of education with no dogmatism. hence, as said by one of the present writers, abbas madandar arani (2003), the development of a regional comparative education seems to be necessary. in fact, ideas of these muslim scholars can contribute in the establishment of “regional comparative education association” in the middle east countries. the reason for such an association is their religious similarities and also the fact that they have written their books and disquisitions both in arabic (main language for arab countries) and persian (for people of iran, afghanistan, tajikistan, and some parts of pakistan, india, and turkmenistan). unfortunately, a quick study reveals that muslim countries have not made use of this rich intellectual source in order to establish and develop different educational programs (bachelor, master, and ph.d.) in the field of ce. for example, turkey is the only country in the middle east in which a comparative education society has been founded. iran and saudi arabia have ce program at master’s degree in a university each and the condition is even worse in other countries; b.a. students should pass a 2 or 3-credited course in the field of ce. the second responsibility assigned to ce in muslim countries can be analyzed based on r. cowen’s analysis and interpretations of academic atmosphere (cowen, 1996 and 2000). having considered a set of mainly political incidents during 1960-1990, r. cowan coins the term “read the global” and shows the way in which scientific controversies and debates are being carried out in higher educational centers and universities. therefore, the writers of the present paper, based on the r. cowen’s analysis, believe that the common interpretations of scientific issues in the first decade of the 21st century affected by incidents like the attacks on september 11th, 2001, war in afghanistan and iraq as well as different terrorist attacks around the world might be considered as an analysis of the “relationships between civilizations”. most of these conflicts have occurred in the middle east based on economic, social, and political relationships between muslim countries and the west (al-harthi, 2007). in such a situation, educational systems in general and higher education in particular would have a crucial responsibility in relieving people’s sufferings. higher education can increase a common understanding among educated people in involved societies by educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 113 developing humanities programs. so, it would be no more difficult to predict the mission of ce in this regard (grant, 2000). ce has the capability to hear the voice of other cultures and to increase an international mutual understanding among people in the world through educational system. this might be considered an important ce mission. the discipline can help us understand each other more deeply (sepehri & madandar arani, 2007). using great muslim educators’ books and disquisitions and comparing their ideas with that of famous international educators would be a good initiation for this recent mission. this way, common grounds between civilizations would be revealed and also unwelcome phenomenon such as “islam phobia” would be avoided (allen & nielsen, 2002). ce researchers in the middle east, in deed, are supposed to make their best attempts to explain the point that human beings disregarding their nationalities and other differences are idealist people who seek to grow and rise. we do believe that recognition is the introduction to mutual understanding and ce, more than any other academic discipline, is able to bridge the gap between different civilizations and cultures (madandar arani & abbasi, 2007). considering the above discussion, the present paper tries to give a brief comparison between the ideas of three muslim thinkers with that of three great international educators to show the extent to which ce might have the capabilities to develop into an academic discipline with a crucial responsibility in muslim countries. a brief comparison of the lives of al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali with john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali lived in the 9th, 10th, and 12th centuries respectively; while john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey spent most of their lives in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. the existence of lots of similarities between ideas and educational views of these educators makes us ask ourselves if they had been ahead of their time and if education in general moves so slowly that in spite of passing the time the speeches made by these great educators never would lose their freshness, vigour, and enthusiasm. a quick study of family backgrounds of these thinkers shows that al-ghazali and jeanjacques rousseau belonged to the poor class people; and al-farabi, avicenna, john locke, and john dewey were among middle class people. nevertheless, they spent most of their lives in service of upper classes and authorities, except john dewey. occupationally speaking, al-farabi played the role of a consultant for the governor, avicenna was a minister, alghazali became the university chancellor, john locke was a tutor and also held a high governmental position, jean-jacques rousseau was a homeless rebellion, and john dewey was a respected university teacher. al-farabi died when he was just 53 (the youngest) and john dewey lived for 93 years (the oldest), yet they both experienced a similar calm and riot-free life. exile, imprisonment, and burning their books by the enemies and escape from hometown, are the inseparable part of life of avicenna, al-ghazali, john locke, and jean-jacques rousseau. undoubtedly, although jean-jacques rousseau is the greatest educator among these thinkers, he must be known as the unluckiest one. based on his ideas and recorded works, jean-jacques rousseau was discontented with his society and considered it a corrupt society (boyd, 1963). al-farabi, al-ghazali, and john locke were misanthrope and cloistered themselves (cf fakhry, 2002; and zarinkob, 2004). avicenna was also seeking for such an opportunity while he never arrived at. john dewey, criticizing the thought procedure, the practice of education and also proposing the relationship between democracy and education, had a critical view towards the society (westbrook, 1991). hence, all these educators can be renowned as the “reformists” of their time. in spite of many similarities between these educators, their large-scale impacts and reputations vary from one another. the three muslim educators are native iranians, were born in the eastern abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 114 part of the country and wrote their books in persian and arabic (almasi, 1998). in the world of islam, al-farabi, because of his vast knowledge in logic, philosophy, music, and politics is recognized as the second teacher, after aristotle, called as the first teacher. many researchers have mentioned him as the first muslim philosopher (cf al-talbi, 1993). ordinary people, because of the stories heard about avicenna, knew him as the most skillful physician of his time, while he has been a great philosopher for the educated people. avicenna’s philosophical ideas made him unique not only in the world of islam but also in the west. the compilation of christian religious argumentations by albert the great, and particularly thomas aquinas, was greatly influenced by fundamental teachings of avicenna (halabi, 1980). there are a lot of similarities between alghazali and jean-jacques rousseau, perhaps more than the others. al-ghazali was a grand rebel like jean-jacques rousseau. escaping from school and secluding himself, he takes the responsibility of refining the religion from incorrect ideas. there is a known story about his seclusion. it is said that once alghazali dwelled in a mosque for a short time as a sweeper in damascus, syria. one day, he noticed that a group of seminarians were harshly debating on an issue and each of them was attributing his own idea to “imam mohammad” al-ghazali. in order to settle their controversy, alghazali explained the issue in detail and solved their problem. their surprise and astonishment in how could an old man in tattered clothes explicate such a complex problem gave him away. al-ghazali who wanted to get rid of seminarians, the lessons and the school move to egypt, saudi arabia, and then returned back to his hometown, toos, eastern iran (zarinkob, 2004). he is the first scholar who warns everybody of possible dangers in philosophical interpretations of divine teachings. the significance of john locke relies on his sincerity of thought much more than on the depth of his philosophy. he expresses a moderate view on both philosophy and education. through presenting the principle that says “man’s mind is like a blank sheet”, john locke had a wonderful influence on the two fields of politics and education (cf aldrich, 1994; and moseley, 2007). undoubtedly, jean-jacques rousseau and the followers of behaviorism are beholden to john locke. jean-jacques rousseau, with his genius and exciting writings, created a set of impressive works which were extraordinarily influential in stimulating french public opinion and provoking people into a political revolution. the writers of the present paper, based on their personal experiences, believe that, even in the present time in spite of passage of some centuries, many of jean-jacques rousseau’s ideas and teachings in developing countries need to be interpreted and examined in detail. let finalize this discussion in remembrance of john dewey. john dewey, with his sincerity, modesty, and perseverance, reminded people all around the world that the initial stage of freedom of thought and democratic life must start from the school (caspary, 2000). the spread of john dewey’s ideas made the teachers around the globe happy and hopeful that the realm of education is still capable of experiencing immense heights of intellectuality, such as al-ghazali, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau. we, teachers, disregarding our race, language, culture, and politics are proud of these great educators. a quick clarification of educational views in this part, we try to examine the ideas and educational approaches of these educators (al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali; and john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey), according to their books and also in a comparative framework. therefore, their philosophical school of thought, the position of education, and its basic elements (goals, methodology, curriculum, teacher, and learner) are summarized as follow: first, philosophical school of thought. these six scientists agree that man needs philosophy and philosophy plays a very basic role in everyone’s life. yet, their views towards philosophy are so wide that indicates specific educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 115 viewpoints of each of them towards the affairs such as culture, politics, and religion. for example, al-farabi pays much of his attention to the role of philosophy in politics; avicenna is a philosopher who tries to adapt the aristotelian understanding of philosophy and brings it in an islamic tradition; whereas alghazali takes religion apart from philosophy and believes that philosophy hinders religious improvements. in this way, john locke is a realistic philosopher; while jean-jacques rousseau follows naturalism; and john dewey supports pragmatism. second, the position of education. all these six scientists believe that the importance of man’s education is undeniable. al-farabi, through his political philosophy, proposes the establishment of utopia and believes that education is a means for philosophers and scholars to guide individuals to get to happiness and prosperity in this world and salvation in the next (haque, 2004). avicenna considers education as a precise practice and planning for the purpose of child growth, goodness of family and social affairs management, and finally mans’ attainment of earthly perfection and divine salvation. al-ghazali takes education as a kind of self management by broadening knowledge and undergoing mortification in order to be highly esteemed (almasi, 1998). john locke considers education as a way to prepare a safe and sound conscience and mind in a healthy body which would follow personal happiness and consequently social happiness. jean-jacques rousseau views education as an art or technique which is manifested in guiding the trainees and also through obeying rules of natural growth in cooperation with the trainee himself. also, john dewey considers education as a reciprocal action between social environment and new generation based on present inclinations, reconstruction of experience, and social democracy (westbrook, 1993). even though al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali take a similar religious view toward education, john locke has a physiological view about education; and jean-jacques rousseau determining the educational stages becomes closer to john dewey’s viewpoints. table 1: a glance at biography of six great educators n ame personality living environment al-farabi, 870. ascetic, hermit, politician, musician, sociologist, the first philosopher in the world of islamthe second teacher. establishment of alexandria school – the religious branch – and promoting philosophical ideologies, propagation of different religious groups of sunni, presence in the court of seif-al-dawla, the compilation of more than 33 books and disquisitions. avicenna, 980. a short and tense life, pleasure seeking, politician, physician, philosopher. presence in the courts of kings in different parts of iran, treating sick people, compiling more than 200 books and disquisitions. al-ghazali, 1058. renowned and effective intellectual in the world of islam, propagation of religious philosophy, fight against innovations in religion, struggle with mingling philosophical discussions with religious ones, the great renowned teacher at nizamieh school in baghdad. living during abbasid caliphs, political and military weakness of abbasids, the age of moral degradation and rebellions, foundation of ismaïlia movement, appearance of hassan-i sabbah. john locke, 1623. reticent, calm, revolutionary intellectual, freedom seeking, political thinker, individualist, liberal politician. authority of anglican church, an upholder of moral principles and opponent for indulgence in religious reforms in society. john-jacques rousseau, 1712. sensitive, revolutionary, a true lover of nature, man of letters, the greatest educator after plato. exile in france and prussia, preparation for the french revolution, change of religion, compiling educational and social books. john dewey, 1859. simple, humble, sympathetic, intellectual, perseverance, eloquent, hard work. authority of democracy in the late 19th century, appearance of pragmatism, appearance and propagation of darwinian ideas. abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 116 third, the purpose of education. these great educators agree on the importance of attention paid to moral education and its definite necessity. for al-farabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali, the ultimate goal of education is man’s happiness and human well being; while john locke, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey pay more attention to practical functioning of education in individuals’ lives. even though al-farabi, al-ghazali, and avicenna have founded moral training on the basis of religion, john locke focuses on educating manner as a basic factor. jeanjacques rousseau takes “not doing evil deeds” to others as the basic principle of moral education; and for john dewey, moral education is paying attention to experience and practice (bailyn, 1992). of course, it must also be pointed out that muslim educators considering man as a two-dimensional being emphasize on training the soul as well as the body. fourth, the methodology of education. as far as methodology is concerned, these educators agree on the following grounds: attention on students’ level of understanding, attention on accompanying of theory and practice when performing a given method, emphasis on the strength of imitation in children, and applying encouragement for better learning in students. while alfarabi, avicenna, and al-ghazali stress on educational role of habit; jean-jacques rousseau believes that habits are nothing but adherence to students’ nature. he is in line with john dewey in opposing memorization and repetition drills in learning. in addition, although these six scientists prefer encouragement to punishment in a learning situation, jean-jacques rousseau disagrees with any kind punishment in any form. the final point is this that al-farabi and john locke pay much attention to the important role of observation in learning, but john dewey and jean-jacques rousseau maintain that problem solving and discovery learning are more beneficial. fifth, education curriculum. all these six educators agree that education program must be based on teaching a profession each learner. in this procedure, the planned curriculum must include reading and writing, counting, ethics, and games. al-farabi, jean-jacques rousseau, and john locke believe that teaching program during childhood period must be focused on the child senses. al-farabi, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau call our attention to the basic role of government in educational planning. al-farabi believes that educational planning is a responsibility of the utopian governor (henry, nasr & yahya, 1993). avicenna gives importance to the attention paid to political and economical problems; and jean-jacques rousseau says that the government which has not been corrupted yet deserves an educational planning (al-naqib, 1993). al-ghazali, avicenna, jean-jacques rousseau, and john dewey have similar ideas about stages of education according to human growth. sixth, teacher. there are several common aspects in these educators about the role and position of teachers. they consider the followings as the characteristics of a good teacher: discovering students’ talents and capabilities, focusing on students’ individual differences, and getting interested in teaching profession. al-ghazali and jean-jacques rousseau emphasize that the teachers must not expect to be paid for what they are doing. al-ghazali believes that teachers should teach for god’s sake and blessing – to gain spiritual reward. jean-jacques rousseau, on the other hand, construes the teacher’s job as a humanitarian activity that would be so beneficial for the society in the future. al-ghazali, avicenna, and jean-jacques rousseau believe that teachers function as students’ models. al-ghazali asserts that teachers must gain and keep the respect of their students and try not to loose their own face at any time and in any condition. jeanjacques rousseau, however, says that teachers must play the role of students’ an intimate friend and even a playmate (simpson, 2006). al-ghazali and al-farabi emphasize the importance of social relationships – particularly cooperation between students with each other and their teacher. john locke believes in private teacher’s effectiveness and individual education and also says that the school has nothing to do except educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 117 preventing students’ creativity and innovation development (moseley, 2007). and finally, jean-jacques rousseau and john dewey have similar ideas in the teachers’ role in preparing students for learning activities and provide them a suitable learning condition. seventh, student. these six scientists agree in the presence of individual differences among students and assert that the development of individual talents and aptitudes needs close attention in every instructional setting. cooperation and teamwork are also the stressed issues in education from the viewpoints of al-farabi, avicenna, al-ghazali, and john dewey. jeanjacques rousseau agrees with the principle of cooperation and social collaborations. at the same time, however, he believes we cannot let our students enter the social interactions based on their natural dispositions and this is because the society is corrupt for the moment. al-ghazali, jean-jacques rousseau, and john locke have similar ideas in preventing children from having friendly relationships with their badly-behaved peer groups. alghazali, emphasizing on the aforementioned cases, approaches to jean-jacques rousseau’s negative education to some extents. their differences, however, lie in the fact that jeanjacques rousseau denies any direct education – good or bad – up to the age of 12 years. also, al-ghazali, john locke, and jeanjacques rousseau agree that the child needs to develop a sense of tolerance in dealing with difficulties and problematic issues in order to get experienced and maturity. their difference is that al-ghazali agrees with both compulsory and arbitrary procedures, while jean-jacques rousseau believes that education must be chosen freely (westbrook, 1991; caspary, 2000; and simpson, 2006). conclusion le thanh khoi, in his message written to the persian version of his book in 1992, addresses his iranian readers and calls their attentions to an important point. he remarks that although comparative education, in its daily development, considers the experience of other countries, cultures, and social groups, it must take full attention to the concepts, theories, and procedures taken from a particular geographical environment too (khoi, 1981). in spite of le thanh khoi’s informative warning, it should be pointed out that comparative education, as an academic discipline, is very young and unknown in the middle east yet. perhaps and bitterly, it might be said that unfortunately the middle east which is a generating source of international conflicts and clashes, especially in the recent decade, has not made use of the discipline’s capacities in favor of a better understanding of other cultures and decreasing people’s sufferings. comparative education, as an academic course, has been included in the syllabus of educational sciences program in iranian universities for four decades. yet, because of a number of reasons such as lack of appropriate information about its purposes, methodology and procedures, unavailability of innovative comparative research methods, and more importantly lack of enough experts in this field in our universities, comparative education has not developed as much as it should. the comparisons between muslim educators and their counterparts in the west made in this paper have bilateral benefits. on the one hand, researchers, students, and practitioners of educational systems might come to the idea of making use of their historical backgrounds to develop the discipline. and, on the other hand, the paper would direct the focus of attention of ce (comparative education) practitioners to other society’s experiences. a brief comparison of educational views of these renowned educators shows that there are considerable instances of similarities between their ideas. the basic question, however, is why our understanding of global issues and problems is so different. we do believe that ce in a region, like the middle east with so many crisis and conflicts, can help us find a proper answer to this question. mark bray, the former president of the world council of comparative education societies, in a message written for the persian version of his book in 2005, points out that ce emphasizes on the importance of paying deep attention to other cultures and accepting pluralism in educational sciences (bray, 2001). abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani, a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives 118 it is definitely obvious for the middle east comparativists that the characteristics of ce studies would be impossible to understand unless a precise knowledge of the tortuous route passed in the previous centuries are at hand. references aldrich, r. 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(2004). literary criticism. tehran, iran: amir kabir, 7th edition. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 119 dr. yayat sudaryat is a senior lecturer at the department of sundanese language education, faculty of language and art education upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia. e-mail: kisudaryat_ sunda@yahoo.com introduction every nation or tribe has its own system and truth of its culture educational inheritance, such as its objective, background, ways, and output; and also its structure and use. the truth of culture educational inheritance is educational philosophy. smith in 1960 stated that educational philosophy is related to the practice of education, that is, comprehensive and critical analysis about how education should be carried out and implemented in human life (cited in mudyahardjo, 2004:5). likewise, in sundanese culture educational inheritance, sundanese educational philosophy is found. the truth of sundanese culture educational philosophy or inheritance can be seen in sundanese society behavior, both in psychological and social-culture, and in language behavior. the truth of sundanese culture educational inheritance in social culture and language behavior are seen more clearly than in psychological behavior. one of language behavior existences showing the truth of sundanese culture educational philosophy or inheritance is traditional idiomatic expression. it contains the values of local wisdom that can be used as a mirror, should be done, and should not be forgotten. one of the native languages in indonesia, that bears the wealth of traditional idiomatic expression, is sundanese language. this language, generally, are still spoken by most sundanese living in west java, indonesia, in yayat sudaryat the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions abstract: the study was aimed at exposing the result of reinterpretation and reformulation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions. traditional idiomatic expressions are plastic-aesthetic words having connotative meanings. the structures and sounds of words in traditional idiomatic expressions do not change from one generation to another. this study applied descriptive method. bibliographic study, intuition, elicitation, and questionnaires were used to get data. the data were, then, analyzed using hermeneutic method by immediate constituent analysis. this study found that traditional idiomatic expressions implied high moral values and reflected local wisdom, particularly those dealing with character building. philosophically, character building or education process involved education trident or three education practice, i.e. planning, implementation, and evaluation. besides, the values of sundanese education practice consisted of the objective, methodology, teachers and students, media and learning materials, and evaluation. education should start as early as possible, so that the result could be gained when one reached his or her adulthood (“kudu guguru ti lelembut, diajar ti bubudak, geus gede kari makena”). the teachers and students should be caring and attentive (“silih asah, silih asih, silih asuh”). thus, it would create “jelema masagi” (complete people) who were well-rounded; and “legok tapak genteng kadek” (had a lot of experiences), and “cageur, bageur, bener, pinter, singer, tur pangger” (had the qualities of being healthy, morallyright, intellectual, skillful, and tough). key words: philosophy of education, traditional idiomatic expressions, sundanese character, local wisdom, nusantara languages, unity in diversity, and indonesia nation-state. yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy 120 their daily life. the frequency of sundanese language use in villages or rural areas is quite high. as native speakers, sundanese people have tried to maintain and develop the language seriously. it is very important since sundanese language is a part of sundanese culture that automatically serves as a means of developing it. there is a sundanese proverb saying that “basa teh ciciren bangsa” (a language indicates a nation). in this context, einar haugen explains that language and nation are closely related and not separated, “a nation who has dignity should own a language” (haugen, 1972). in the result of seminar politik bahasa nasional (the political seminar of national language) in jakarta, indonesia, in 1975, it was stated that sundanese language, as a native language, had certain function. it is in line with undang-undang dasar (constitution) 1945, chapter xv, in the explanation of verse 36 stating that: in regions that have their own languages, that are maintained well by their people (such as javanese, sundanese, maduranese, and the others), the languages will be respected and maintained by the country. those languages are also parts of indonesian culture existed (cited in halim et al., 1980:150). native languages in indonesia, as nusantara languages, have precious content, in the form of traditional idiomatic expressions. apart from being the language wealth, traditional idiomatic expressions are also the wealth of nusantara culture. as a native language in indonesia, sundanese language contains the high value of local wisdom as it is implied in traditional idiomatic expressions. the values of local wisdom are connected with various aspects, for example, the aspect of the truth of its culture educational inheritance. besides, to maintain the traditional idiomatic expressions in the society, the reinterpretation and reformulation of its usage should be done. research should be conducted to observe the truth of its culture educational inheritance. therefore, a study related to the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions must be conducted. the study was aimed at describing the interpretation of the truth of its culture educational inheritance in traditional idiomatic expressions. the description is related with the trident of education, the truth of education system components, the quality of education output, and the quality of sundanese people expected in traditional idiomatic expressions. research method descriptive method was applied in the study. the elements described included the trident of education, the true components of education system, and the quality of sundanese people expected in the traditional idiomatic expressions. related with the objective of the study, this method was presumably suitable to apply and propose the values of sundanese educational philosophy embodied in traditional idiomatic expressions. to collect data, four research techniques were used, i.e. (1) literary study, (2) intuition or introspection, (3) elicitation, and (4) questionnaires. literary study was used to get information on sundanese traditional idiomatic expressions. intuition technique was used since the researcher was a sundanese native speaker who became the source of data about sundanese traditional idiomatic expressions. elicitation technique was used to check the rightness of intuition data source towards other sundanese traditional idiomatic expressions. questionnaires were used to find out the society perception towards sundanese tradional idiomatic expressions and educational philosophy. in line with the techniques, the instruments used in the study were cards of data and questionnaires. the cards of data were used to gather data in the forms of sundanese traditional idiomatic expressions. the data were taken from books of sundanese idioms and proverbs. to analyze the data of traditional idiomatic expressions, hermeneutic and immediate constituent analyses were used. the immediate constituents analysis was used to analyze the elements of traditional idiomatic expressions; meanwhile, hermeneutic analysis was used to analyze the meaning and sense of traditional idiomatic expressions (sumardjo, 2004). educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 121 findings and discussion on the findings. traditional idiomatic expression is a language wealth that is stylisticplastic. it is plastic since traditional idiomatic expression is a string of language bearing imitation and symbol of life with certain meaning. it is stylistic because traditional idiomatic expression is an expression containing linguistic style. according to suwarsih warnaen et al. (1987:8), traditional idiomatic expression is very aesthetic, contains the elements of rhythm and the power of word sound. therefore, it is easy to remember and does not easily change. its word sound and structure stays the same, does not change. in this study, traditional idiomatic expression is divided into two groups: idiom and proverb. idiom is a language form in the form of combined words in which its meaning cannot be explained from the meaning of the words combined (moeliono et al. eds., 1988:320). idiom is a compound sentence or word group having stable structure and figurative meaning (sudaryat, 1991:118). meanwhile, proverbs are sentences or groups of words having stable structure and usually alluding certain meaning (tarigan, 1985:156-157). proverb is a sentence or clause having stable structure and containing compared meaning as a symbol of human behavior (sudaryat, 1991:99). james danandjaja calls traditional idiomatic expression as proverb. there are three functions of proverb, that is: (1) as a projection system, as a means of culture institutions and infra-structure legalization; (2) as a means of child education; and (3) as a means of society norms mandatory and supervision in order to be obeyed (danandjaja, 1982:31). traditional idiomatic expression is a language wealth that is stylistic-plastic. it is plastic since traditional idiomatic expression is a string of language bearing imitation and symbol of life with certain meaning. it is stylistic because traditional idiomatic expression is an expression containing linguistic style. traditional idiomatic expression contains several local wisdoms, of which is the value of sundanese educational philosophy. regarded with it, stella van petten henderson (1959) says that popularly, philosophy means one’s general view of life of men, of ideals, and of values; in the sense everyone has a philosophy of life. philosophy means the attempt to conceive and present inclusive and systematic views of universe and man’s in it (moore, 1982; and sadulloh, 2004:16). sundanese philosophy attempts to review the value content of the world accompanied with the quality of thinking and feeling that is “lantip” and “surti”, “wawuh ka semuna”, “apal ka basana”, “rancage hate rancingas rasa”, meaning having the ability to read and perceive what is stated and unstated. philosophical activity is not separated from human ability to interpret anything he or she experiences. the result he or she gets is any meaning and perception he or she interprets. meaning is the relationship between one thing and its enclosure, that is, text and context relationship. whether sense is the relationship between the meaning and the essential value it bears (suryalaga, 2010:33). this study that is related with the philosophy of education is a comprehensive and critical analysis on how educational process should be carried out in human life. in philosophy, what and how educational process is discussed: what the real objective of education is and how it can be achieved (henderson, 1959:237; and mudyahardjo, 2004:5). the result of the study is related with two things, that is: (1) the philosophical value of sundanese education trident; and (2) the philosophical value of sundanese education components in traditional idiomatic expression. first, the philosophical value of sundanese education trident in traditional idiomatic expression. viewed from philosophy, education is a process leading to three activities, namely: planning, implementation, and evaluation (sagala, 2010:200). connected with educational planning, there were some traditional idiomatic expressions fit with it, such as education “should be well-planned” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “caringcing pageuh kancing, saringset pageuh iket” and “kudu dipikir dibulak-balik, dibeuweung diutahkeun”. yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy 122 concerned with the implementation of education, there were some suitable traditional idiomatic expressions. they state that the implementation of education “should be in harmony” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “sareundeuk saigel, sabobot sapihanean” and “sabata sarimbagan”. and its method “should be known” and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “kudu apal jurus-jurusna”. the implementation of education “should be carried out in a peaceful atmosphere” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “silih asah, silih asih, silih asuh” or love, give, and guide each other. regarded to the evaluation of education, there were some traditional idiomatic expressions connected. the evaluation of education is performed “to get a satisfying output” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “kudu kapetik hasilna, kaala buahna”. the evaluation “should be done objectively” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: kudu ngukur ka kujur, nimbang ka awak, ngukur baju sasereg awak”. second, the philosophical value of sundanese education components in traditional idiomatic expression. in educational practice, there were five components connected, that is: raw input, learning and teaching process, instrumental input, environmental input, and output (suryabrata, 1986:3). it is closely related to the philosophical value of educational components referring to six things, that is: the rightness of the objective of education, teaching material, students and teachers, learning method, media and learning source, and learning evaluation. related with the rightness of educational objective, twenty-seven traditional idiomatic expressions were found. the objective of education bears character values, that is: spiritual and emotional development, intellectual development, physical and kinesthetic development, and affective and creativity development (mulyati, 2011:183). it is interpreted in the objective of education that we have to be ready and the lesson plan should be composed systematically. the objective to reach should be clear and measured. in reaching the objective, we are probably lacked behind and never satisfied: “satungtung ngajugjug kidul, kaler deui kaler deui” or during the trip to the south, a sign that we are still in the north is given. nevertheless, “niat kudu buleud” or the willingness should be total. in accordance with the philosophical value of students and teachers, some traditional idiomatic expressions were found, for example: the interaction between students and teachers should be in harmony with the content of discussion, so that the output is satisfying. learning should be done since the beginning of life; therefore, in the adulthood the output can be utilized. in the process of teaching and learning, there were various strategies that “could be useful” and in sundanese idiomatic expressions such as “silih asah, silih asih, silih asuh”. learning “should be accustomed” and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “matih tuman batan tumbal”; because someone who learns “will be able to do later” and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “bedog mintul mun diasah laun-laun jadi seukeut”. how smart a student is, he or she “should be polite” to his or her teacher, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “kudu hade tata hade basa, hade gogog hade tagog”. students “should also respect” their teachers, parents, and the leader of the country, in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “guru, ratu, wong atua karo wajib sinembah”. teachers “should be able to teach” their family and others, in sundanese idiomatic expression is “ulah elmu ajug”. whether, students “should be critical” when they are learning and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “ulah elmu sapi”. if they have gained knowledge and got smart, they “should not be arrogant, but should be wise” and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “kudu kawas elmu pare”. concerned with learning method, some traditional idiomatic expressions were found. in the process of learning, both students and teachers should try hard to get satisfying output. the effort should be done diligently and firmly. every learning process has its own way and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “mun teu ngakal moal ngakeul, mun teu ngarah moal ngarih”. it means that if we do not do anything, we cannot live and eat. education educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 123 should be carried out from the early childhood, so that in the adulthood it can be utilized; and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are: “kudu guguru ti lelembut, diajar ti bubudak, geus gede kari makena”. in line with the media and learning sources, four traditional idiomatic expressions were found. knowledge can be gained from any source, such as experience, calamity, reading, dispute, and other people. “meunang luang tina burang” means getting experience from a calamity; “meunang luang tina baruang” means getting a chance from a poison; “meunang luang tina bincurang” means that getting experience from an ankle; “meunang luang tina daluwang” means getting experience from the reading; and “meunang luang ti papada urang” means getting experience from other people. learning material, according to sundanese educational philosophy, is all materials that can be learned, any knowledge, and eschatology, in sundanese idiomatic expression is “elmu tungtut dunya siar”, meaning that knowledge and wealth should be sought. seeking for knowledge is a must, but it should be balanced with the seeking for wealth. the output of learning is the creation of a complete man or a well-rounded man who can do anything, and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “legok tapak genteng kadek”, meaning have a lot of experience; who is not bound by ignorance, but has high-knowledge, and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “luhur ku elmu jembar ku pangabisa”. knowledge is more important than wealth, but never be a pedant, be a wise one. meanwhile, although there is a proverb saying “sirung moal ngaluhuran tangkal, taktak moal ngaluhuran sirah”, in reality, students may be smarter than their teachers. on the discussion. four things are discussed here, that is the philosophical value of sundanese education quality; the philosophical value of sundanese people quality; the relationship between sundanese education philosophy and four education pillars of unesco (united nations of educational, scientific, and cultural organization); and the relationship of sundanese educational philosophy and competence domain. the quality of sundanese education embodied in traditional idiomatic expressions is related with two things, namely: (1) the value of knowledge, characterizing human race: “sato busana daging, jalma busana elmu”, meaning that the main characteristics of human is his/her knowledge, whether the main characteristics of animal is its flesh; knowledge and wealth should be sought for “elmu tungtut dunya siar”; learning should be started since the childhood or “guguru ti lelembut, diajar ti bubudak, geus gede kari makena”; and (2) smartness, don’t be ignorant, or “ulah bodo katotoloyo”; and should be diligent in studying and seeking for knowledge or “kudu nyukcruk elmu, nyiar pangabisa, nyuprih pangarti”. the relationship between the philosophical value of sundanese education and four education pillars of unesco (delors, 1996) is the value of “cageur, bageur, bener” (healthy, kind-hearted, right) refers to “learning to live together”; the value of “pinter” (smart) refers to “learning to know”; the value of “singer” (skilled) refers to “learning to do”; and the value of “pangger” (firm) refers to “learning to be”. the relationship between the value of sundanese educational philosophy and competence domain is the value of “pinter” (cognitive domain), “singer” (psychomotor domain), and “cageur, bageur, bener tur pangger” (affective domain). the quality of sundanese people is characterized by showing good manners or having good character, that is a person who is “nyunda” (cultured), “nyantri” (religious), and “nyakola” (academic), who is able to enter “gapura panca waluya” (five gates of a complete life) as the character of behavior, namely “cageur” (healthy), “bageur” (kind-hearted), “bener” (right), “pinter” (smart), “singer” (skilled), and also “pangger” (firm). with those characters, it is hoped that people with “catur jatidiri insani” (four human identities) will be created. those are: “pengkuh agamana” (spiritual quotient), who are pious; “luhung elmuna” (intellectual quotient), who master science, technology, and art; “jembar budayana” (emotional quotient), who are not culture-shocked, do not lose their human identity; and “rancage gawena” (actional quotient), who work creatively, actively in “ngigelan sareng ngigelkeun jaman” or adapt and yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy 124 act in line with the advance of time (suryalaga, 2003:78). to reach four human identities, six morals marking human quality called human moral (hm), that is human moral towards god (hmg), human moral towards individual (hmi), human moral towards other people (hmp), human moral towards nature (hmn), human moral towards time (hmt), and human moral in pursuing material and immaterial satisfaction (hmmi) have to be built (suryalaga, 2003:10; and suryalaga, 2010:17). the existence of the six human morals is needed to improve the sundanese image, namely: mental map, cognitive map, schemata, cognitive signature, or the image related with sundanese culture and education. this sundanese image can be improved through the holistic education of formal, informal, and non-formal education, so that all sundanese people have varied images: spatial image, temporal image, relational image, personal image, value image, and national image (ahman sya, 2012:27-28). firstly, the spatial image is related to the place in which he lives, meaning that sundanese people should be able to adjust with their neighborhood, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “ciri sabumi cara sadesa, jawadah tutung biritna, sacara-carana” or “every place has its own way, every person has his/her own characteristics”. secondly, the temporal image is connected with the time change, meaning that a sundanese should be able to adjust with the change of time, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “bisa ngindung ka usum, ngabapa ka jaman or “being able to adjust with the development of era”. thirdly, the relational image shows that sundanese people, as individual, grow in the regular system of the universe. it means that sundanese should obey the rule, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “kudu nyanghulu ka hukum, manjang ka nagara, mupakat ka balarea” or “should respect the law, live based on the country regulation, and agree with people’s willing”. fourthly, the personal image shows that sundanese people do not live by themselves. they live with other people and organizations; therefore, sundanese people should have the character of: “silih asah, silih asih, silih asuh” or “guide and educate each other lovingly”. fifthly, the value image depicts that sundanese’s life is in good and bad scale. sundanese people should be good in behaving and speaking, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “kudu hade gogog hade tagog, hade tata hade basa” or “should be polite”. sixthly, the emotional or affection image illustrates the image of sundanese’s awareness of sundanese education and culture, certainty or uncertainty about sundanese education and culture, and the life scale image as individual and also the social scale out of themselves. the image ownership will be an initial capital to strengthen the sundanism in indonesian environment (ethno-national), not ethnocentral. therefore, if it is assumed that sundanese people who love and keep their culture are ethnic chauvinism, it is a big mistake. indonesia exists because of sundanese and other tribes included in bhinneka tunggal ika (unity in diversity). it means that there should be a pattern of living harmoniously and peacefully, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “hirup sauyunan jeung sabilulungan, ka cai jadi saleuwi ka darat jadi salebak” or “living peacefully and cooperatively”; not in the opposite way, in hostile and violence, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “ulah pagiri-giri calik, pagirang-girang tampian” or “don’t compete to exceed each other”. the nationalism image is, in fact, the image owned by all tribes in nusantara or the nkri (negara kesatuan republik indonesia or unitary state of the republic of indonesia). therefore, it can be said that the reinterpretation and reformulation of sundanese educational philosophy included in the traditional idiomatic expression is one of the educational development strategy pioneer works based on the local wisdom or cultural potency of all tribes (ethno-pedagogy). it is understandable since this education develops humanist complete people based on the local society identity, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “dina budaya urang napak, educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 125 tina budaya urang ngapak” or “growing and developing well based on the culture”. in the nationalism image implies the existence of region variety having different characteristics, ways, and styles, and in sundanese idiomatic expressions are “lain tepak sejen igel, ciri sabumi cara sadesa, jawadah tutung biritna, sacara-carana” or “different ways different styles, every place has its own way, every person has his/her own character”. it means that education does not only create experts of varied knowledge and science, but also should be based on the nation culture. if the value of local educational philosophy is left behind or “poho ka purwadaksi” (leaving behind all the beginnings) and the independent characteristics of indonesian culture are forgotten, we will lose our identity and experience a moral degradation. the natives will be set aside by strangers, and in sundanese idiomatic expression is “jati kasilih ku junti”. that idiomatic expression gives a sign that we do not forget the values of the local wisdom that will build and strengthen the national identity. if the local wisdom is drawn from its root of culture, the national identity will be lost. in brief, the result of reinterpreting sundanese educational philosophy values in traditional idiomatic expressions can be shown in the diagram 1. the process of education the outcome of education the output of education trio-silas:  silih asih  silih asah  silih asuh human moral (hm): • hm towards god • hm towards individual • hm towards other people • hm towards nature • hm towards time • hm towards material and immaterial satisfaction four human identity: • pengkuh agamana (sq = spiritual qotient) • luhung elmuna (iq = intellectual quotient) • jembar budayana (eq = equational quotient) • rancage gawena (aq = actional quotient)  healthy  kind  morally-right  intellectual  skillful  tough complete person:  legok tapak genteng kadek  hirup kudu alus tungtung, beres pancen dipigawe, tuntas tugas dipilampah  nyunda (cultural)  nyantri (religious)  nyakola (academic) characters sundanese image: • spatial image • temporal image • relational image • personal image • value image • emotional image • nationalism image emotional diagram 1: the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy emotional yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy 126 conclusion this study concluded the conditions related to the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions, as follows: traditional idiomatic expressions are sentences or groups of words that have stable structure and allude certain meanings. the traditional idiomatic expressions were “babasan” (idiom) and “paribasa” (proverb). the philosophical value of sundanese educational trident in traditional idiomatic expressions refers to planning, implementation, and evaluation. educational planning should be prepared well and proficiently. educational implementation should be carried out harmoniously and its method is known. in order to reach the satisfying output, educational evaluation should be performed objectively, in line with the criteria. the philosophical value of educational components in traditional idiomatic expressions refers to the truth of educational objective, teaching material, teachers and students, learning method, media and learning source, and learning evaluation. the objective should be clear and be measured. the interaction between teachers and students should be harmonious with the topic discussed in order to get a satisfying output. learning should be accustomed. students should be polite to teachers. teachers should be able to educate their family and other people. students should be critical while studying and should not be arrogant when they have been smart. the learning strategies are “silih asih, silih asah, silih asuh” (guide and educate each other lovingly). seeking for knowledge is a must, but it should be balanced with seeking for wealth. the source of learning can be one own experience, from disasters, from books, and from other people. the final output of learning is the creation of complete people, who are well-rounded and have a lot of experience. in living a life, people should not be bound by ignorance, but should have high knowledge. sundanese educational quality contained in traditional idiomatic expressions is related to two things: the value of knowledge, that characterizes human; and smartness, it means that we should not live in ignorance. sundanese people quality refers to cultured and characterized people, who are “nyunda” (cultured), “nyantri” (religious), and “nyakola” (academic), who are able to enter the five gates of life perfection (“gapura panca waluya”), namely: “cageur” (healthy), “bageur” (kindhearted), “bener” (right), “pinter” (smart), “singer” (skilled), and also “pangger” (firm). therefore, people having four human identities will be created, those who are pious or “pengkuh agamana” (spiritual quotient), smart or “luhung élmuna” (intelectual quotient), cultured or “jembar budayana” (emotional quotient), and skillful or “rancagé gawéna” (actional quotient). to reach that, six human morals (hms) should be developed, that is: human moral towards god (hmg), human moral towards individual (hmi), human moral towards other people (hmp), human moral towards nature (hmn), human moral towards time (hmt), and human moral in pursuing material and immaterial satisfaction (hmmi). these human morals are expected to be able to improve sundanese images, namely spatial image, temporal image, relational image, personal image, value image, emotional image, and nationalism image. the behavior of society towards traditional idiomatic expressions containing the values of sundanese educational philosophy is quite good. the behavior and response of society are connected with five matters, i.e. the urgency of traditional idiomatic expressions; the value of traditional idiomatic expressions; the maintenance and development of traditional idiomatic expressions; the perception and meaning of traditional idiomatic expressions; and the truth of educational components in traditional idiomatic expressions. references ahman sya, h.m. (2012). “citra budaya sunda” in majalah mangle, no.2378. bandung: pt mangle panglipur, 14-20 june. danandjaja, james. (2002). folklor indonesia. jakarta: grafiti. delors, j. (1996). learning the treasure within: report of international commission on education for the 21st century. paris: unesco [united nations of educational, scientific, and cultural organization]. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 127 halim, amran et al. (1980). politik bahasa nasional, jilid 2. jakarta: balai pustaka. haugen, einar. (1972). “dialect, language, nation” in a.s. dil [ed]. the ecology of language: essays by einar haugen. california: stanford university press. henderson, stella van petten. (1959). introduction to philosophy of education. chicago: the university of chicago press. moeliono, anton m. et al. [eds]. (1988). kamus besar bahasa indonesia. jakarta: balai pustaka. moore, t.w. (1982). philosophy of education. london: routlede & kegan paul. mudyahardjo, redja. (2004). filsafat ilmu pendidikan. bandung: remaja rosda karya. mulyati, sri. (2011). “integrasi nilai-nilai pendidikan karakter bangsa dalam pembelaharan bahasa indonesia” in jurnal bahasa dan sastra, vol.11(2), october. sadulloh, uyoh. (2004). pengantar filsafat pendidikan. bandung: alfabeta. sagala, syaeful. (2010). konsep dan makna pembelajaran. bandung: alfabeta. sudaryat, yayat. (1991). ulikan semantik sunda. bandung: geger sunten. sumardjo, jakob. (2004). hermeneutika sunda: simbolsimbol babad pakuan/guru gantangan. bandung: kelir. suryabrata, sumardi. (1986). proses belajar-mengajar di perguruan tinggi. yogyakarta: andi offset. suryalaga, h.r. hidayat. (2003). kasundaan. bandung: wahana raksa sunda. suryalaga, h.r. hidayat. (2010). filsafat sunda. bandung: yayasan nur hidayah. tarigan, h.g. (1985). pengajaran semantik. bandung: angkasa. warnaen, suwarsih et al. (1987). pandangan hidup orang sunda. bandung: sundanologi. yayat sudaryat, the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy 128 sundanese people in west java, indonesia (source: www.google.com, 5/1/2014) as a native language in indonesia, sundanese language contains the high value of local wisdom as it is implied in traditional idiomatic expressions. the values of local wisdom are connected with various aspects, for example, the aspect of the truth of its culture educational inheritance. besides, to maintain the traditional idiomatic expressions in the society, the reinterpretation and reformulation of its usage should be done. research should be conducted to observe the truth of its culture educational inheritance. therefore, a study related to the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions must be conducted. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 129 mr. ajit mondal and dr. jayanta mete are a research scholar and an associate professor at the department of education, university of kalyani, kalyani, west bengal, pin-741235, india. the authors can be contacted via their e-mail at: mondalajit.edn@gmail.com and jayanta_135@yahoo.co.in introduction peace, however, is an elusive concept having different interpretations in different cultures as well as different connotations for the spheres, in which peaceful processes are applied. it ranges from inner peace to outer peace. consequently, the interpretation of peace ranges from absence of war, and society without structural violence to liberation from exploitation and injustice of any kind, ecological balance and conservation, and peace of mind, etc. education for peace, therefore, includes a variety of issues like human rights education, environmental education, international education, conflict resolution education, development education, etc. education for non-violence and peace includes training, skills, and information towards cultivating a culture of peace based on human rights principles (delors, 1996; and unesco, 2008). in india, education for peace programmes have traditionally been concerned with promoting certain core values (pandey, 2007). mahatma gandhi envisaged a non-violent society, which would be free from exploitation of any kind and can be achieved through the instrument of education. in gandhian concept of peace, truth and non-violence are important. the educational policies of the country lay stress on combative obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition, and fatalism; and promote some core values such as india’s common cultural heritage, ajit mondal & jayanta mete education for peace in the light of national curriculum framework – 2005 abstract: we live in an age of unprecedented levels of violence, with constant threats posed by intolerance, fanaticism, dispute, and discordance. ethical action, peace, and welfare are facing new challenges. a strong need is being felt by educationists, philosophers, scientists, and political leaders to rejuvenate the human values, which may bring long lasting peace on this planet. the purpose of education goes beyond the propagation of knowledge. j. delor’s report (1996) on learning to live together as the central pillar of education proposes that education must be geared to promote a culture of peace, tolerance, democratic values, human rights, and duties among students. with the reality of the alarming increase in violence in school life, the national curriculum framework (ncf) – 2005 strongly advocates education for peace at all levels of schools. in this backdrop, the present paper tries to epitomise the concept of education for peace in the light of ncf – 2005. peace and living together have been integral part of indian way of living and manifested in its constitution through various articles. it firmly believes that inculcation of certain values among younger generation would help them to exist in the dynamic socio-cultural fabric with peace, harmony, and prosperity. in the final section, approach, strategies, activities, and teacher’s role in education for peace in the landscape of school education are also addressed as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. key words: education, peace, human values, harmony, tolerance, democracy, national curriculum framework, and india’s government and society. ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 130 egalitarianism, democracy, secularism, equality of sexes, inculcation of scientific temper, etc. peace and living together have been integral part of indian way of living and manifested in its constitution through various articles. it firmly believes that inculcation of certain values among younger generation would help them to exist in the dynamic socio-cultural fabric with peace, harmony, and prosperity. this is the reason why all commissions and committees on education in india, like the radha krishnan commission (1948–1949), mudaliar commission (1952–1953), sri prakasha commission (1959), sampurnanand commission (1961), kothari commission (1964–1966), rammurti committee (1992), and chavan committee (1999) make important recommendations for incorporation of value education at all levels of education. consequently, the national curriculum frameworks of 1975, 1988, and 2000 had adopted a value-oriented approach to integration of peace concerns in education (udaykumar, 2009; and mondal, 2011). a major shift in this approach is witnessed in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, which considers that value education is subsumed in education for peace, but is not identical with it. the national focus group on peace education constituted in the context of ncf–2005, in its position paper on education for peace says, as follows: peace is a contextually appropriate and pedagogically gainful point of coherence for values. peace concretizes the purpose of values and motivates their internalization. without such a framework, the integration of values into the learning process remains a non-starter. education for peace is, thus, the ideal strategy for contextualizing and operationalising value education (ncert, 2005:1). while accepting the traditional approach of integration of various peace related values and concern in school curricula, it further adds that education for peace must be a concern that permeates the entire school life – curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacher pupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. the rationale and objectives of the study need and importance of peace is understood by the increasing conflicts and violence in the society. conflict violence and war are the products of individual mindsets, which have got condition to violent and aggressive ways. the mindsets are shaped by education, and effective education should produce non-violent and peaceful individuals. the action for nurturing and peace building must be located in the educational system. the national curriculum framework (ncf) – 2005, by ncert (national council of educational research and training), asserts that education must be able to promote values that foster peace, humanness, and tolerance in a democracy; and the values of equality, justice, freedom, secularism, and multicultural society. the aims of education enunciated in the ncf include developing commitment concern for others well beings. the ncf speaks of the compelling need for peace education, clearly stating that education must be oriented towards values associated with “peaceful and harmonious coexistence” (ncert, 2005:9). this framework also proposes that values of peace education must be integrated into all aspects of education. the researchers intend to review the approach and strategies for education for peace as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. it is also necessary to review how to integrate peace education across the curriculum made by the ncf – 2005. the present paper is a modest attempt in this direction. the following are major objectives of the present investigation: (1) to epitomize the concept of education for peace in the light of ncf – 2005; (2) to analyze the approach and strategies for promoting education for peace in the school environment; (3) to explore the ncf guidelines for integrating peace education in the curriculum; (4) to analyze the teacher’s role in integrating education for peace in the subject content; and (5), finally, to sketch out some co-curricular activities through which education for peace can be realized as envisaged in the ncf – 2005. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 131 review of literature, method, and sources of data some of the related studies are reviewed below with a view to carrying out the present investigation. james smith page (2004) explored some philosophical foundations for peace education and the possibility that such foundations might be located within: (1) virtue ethics, (2) consequentialist ethics, (4) conservative political ethics, and (5) the ethics of care. each of the above is important, although ultimately a thorough basis for peace education can only be established through an integrative approach to the above foundations, an approach that mirrors much of the emphasis within un (united nations) and unesco (united nations of educational, scientific, and cultural organization) initiatives to encourage a culture of peace. s. pandey (2007), in his study, emphasized on education for peace, not as a part of value education as traditionally been integrated in schools, but as an independent value in itself. he showed the paradigm shift in the approach towards learning for promoting the culture of peace as, both, the constructivist approach; and peace education are associated with the humanistic philosophy which is dedicated to developing more mature and self-directed learner – a pre-requisite for living together. he also opined that the epistemological shift suggested in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005 provides greater opportunity to promote the culture of peace than ever before (pandey, 2007). priyadarshani rajagopalan (2009) interpreted the peace education guidelines laid down by india’s ncf – 2005 as five facets of peace education (values embedded in lessons and activities, cultural and social awareness, sensitivity to differences, a pro-active approach and effective, and developmentally appropriate follow-up activities). he also reviewed the suggestions made by the ncf on how to integrate peace education across the curriculum (rajagopalan, 2009). dharmendra kumar & kr. sudheer pundeer (2012), in their study, pointed out some ways and means to incorporate peace feeling at all levels of schooling, and how peace as a way of life can be inculcated in the classroom and in various extra-curricular activities of the school and in daily life situations. benudhar chinara (2012) made an attempt to show how to educate the self of a teacher on peace, i.e. orienting self into a culture of peace, carrying out a self-dialogue on peace values, and practicing peace through universal ethics, who in turn can empower the selves of the student mass to choose the ways of peace, and in the process the entire society may get transformed to yield the greatest good for all, ensure sustainability of both humans and nature, and result in welfare of the entire society. the present study is basically analytical in nature based on official documentary evidence. the national curriculum framework – 2005, national focus group on education for peace, executive summary of national focus groups position papers written by national council of educational research and training have been used as primary sources of data in the study. various articles published in the journals and books written on peace education have been taken as secondary source of data. education for peace and ncf – 2005 the purpose of education goes beyond the propagation of knowledge. education is now a significant dimension of the longterm process of building up peace: tolerance, justice, intercultural understanding, and civic responsibility. however, education as practiced in schools often promotes forms of violence, both real and symbolic. under these circumstances, education needs reorientation and, therefore, the school curriculum takes priority. according to the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, peace, as an integrative perspective for the school curriculum, is an idea whose time has come (ncert, 2005). education for peace is different from peace education. in the latter, peace is a subject in the syllabus. in the former, peace becomes the shaping vision of education. this implies a paradigm shift in the total transaction of education. education for peace, as distinguished from peace education, ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 132 acknowledges the goal of promoting a culture of peace as the purpose shaping the enterprise of education. if implemented with vigor and vision, education for peace can make learning a joyful and meaningful experience. the ncf – 2005 is more vocal and direct towards the need of promoting peace through education than the earlier curriculum reform attempts where the concept of peace was subsumed in value education. the ncf – 2005, in its position paper on education for peace proposes, elaborates that: education for peace is education for life, and not merely training for a livelihood. equipping individuals with the values, skills, and attitudes they need to be wholesome persons who live in harmony with others and as responsible citizens is the goal of education for peace (ncert, 2006:1). according to niharika panda (2013), peace education may be defined as the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills and behavior to live in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the natural environment. historically, moral instruction and value education were the precursors of education for peace. they share much in common. religion, according to the national curriculum framework for school education (ncfse) in 2000, is a source of value generation. values and attitudes are the building blocks of the culture of peace (ncert, 2000). what, then, is unique to education for peace? education for peace calls for a significant reduction, not an increase, in curriculum load. peace embodies the joy of living. learning, from the peace perspective, has to be a joyful experience. joy is of the essence of life. peace is not unrelated to pace. today’s world, hurry and worry sour the joy of learning and undermine learning and the harmony of life. it is a serious matter that schools, which are meant to be the nurseries of peace, become transmission points for violence. education for peace contextualizes learning. it calls for a liberation of learning from the confines of the classroom and its transformation into a celebration of awareness enlivened with the delight of discovery. ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005 says as follows: education for peace seeks to nurture ethical development, inculcating the values, attitudes, and skills required for living in harmony with oneself and with others, including nature. it embodies the joy of living and personality development with the qualities of love, hope, and courage. it encompasses respect for human rights, justice, tolerance, cooperation, social responsibility, and respect for cultural diversity, in addition to a firm commitment to democracy and non-violent conflict resolution. social justice is an important aspect of peace education. the concern for equality and social justice, which refers to practising non-exploitation towards the have-nots, the poor and the underprivileged and creating a non-violent social system, is the hallmark of education for peace. similarly, human rights are central to the concept of peace. peace cannot prevail if the rights of individuals are violated. basic to human rights are the values of non-discrimination and equality, which contribute to building a culture of peace in society. these issues are inter-related. peace education is, thus, a host of overlapping values (ncert, 2008:61-62). education for peace, thus, empowers individuals to clarify their values; to enable them to take conscious and deliberate decisions, taking into consideration the consequences of their actions; to choose the way of peace rather than violence; and to enable them to be makers of peace rather than only consumers of peace. education for peace, therefore, an essential component of holistic education that aims at the comprehensive development of persons. major frontiers of education for peace. ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, in its executive summary, points out the major frontiers for education for peace in the indian context. this is done with reference to the two major goals of education, namely: education for personality formation and education to foster responsible citizens (ncert, 2008). the major frontiers of education for peace are: (1) bringing about peace-orientation in individuals through education; (2) nurturing in students the social skills and outlook needed to live together in harmony; (3) reinforcing social justice, as envisaged in the constitution; (4) the need and duty to propagate a secular culture; (5) education as a catalyst for activating a educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 133 democratic culture; (6) the scope for promoting national integration through education; and (7) education for peace as a lifestyle movement. for realizing the education for peace, some strategies can be developed as follows: first, simplistic approach to moral behavior. at the time of teaching values, teacher needs to move away from mere talk, to a meaningful discussion of experiences and reflections. the teacher needs to draw out the children, gain their confidence, and avoid using threatening language or hostile body language. teachers should make deliberate attempts to infuse and reinforce the importance of peacerelated values that are commensurate with the textual material taught in school and the developmental stages of children. second, using appropriate strategies for understanding peace related values. strategies like questions, stories, anecdotes, games, experiments, discussions, dialogues, clarification of values, examples, analogies, metaphors, role playing, and simulation are helpful in promoting peace through teachinglearning. the teaching and practice of ethics go from the personal sphere to social and community-oriented thinking and then link up with global perspectives. third, presenting lesson or topic from a humanistic and positive perspective. every peace-laden topic or lesson (hidden or explicit) needs to be transacted with deliberate planning from a positive and humanistic perspective. the methods of teaching should be creative, child-centred, largely experiential, and participatory. these include creation of appropriate learning experiences, discussion, debates, presentation, and group and cooperative projects, depending on students’ maturity levels and the subject content. approach to education for peace. in the ncf (national curriculum framework) – 2005, education for peace is not envisaged as a separate subject that would further augment curriculum load, but a perspective from which all subjects are to be taught. an integrated approach to education for peace is the ideal, especially since peace is an integrative and allembracing concept. the integrated approach must be reflected in the totality of educational programmes in schools and must permit the school curriculum and co-curriculum (ncert, 2005). ncf – 2005, in its executive summary, made some suggestions with respect to curriculum contents. they are as follows: first, the primary school years could focus on laying the value foundations for personality formation and the development of the social skills necessary to live together in harmony. focus could then shift gradually to a perspective on peace, especially to enable students to understand the value-foundations of peace. the area of special emphasis here is the need to promote skills for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. second, in the upper primary years, students could be enabled to view the culture of peace from the perspective of indian history, philosophy, and culture. third, thereafter, education for peace could focus more on citizenship education. a brief introduction to the basic features and ethos of the constitution is what is envisaged here. the emphasis may shift, thereafter, to “peace as a lifestyle movement”. students can be made aware of the need to for lifestyles conducive to the integrity of creation and stability of society. the various challenges to national unity can be the focus thereafter. the main emphasis here must be on promoting an attitude of respect for diversity and difference. students also need to be made aware of the various hindrances to unity. fourth, at the plus two level, the foci of education for peace could be : (1) understanding the logic, modes and expressions of violence; (2) skills for an objective understanding of issues; and (3) developing a global perspective on peace (ncert, 2008:57). integrating peace in the curriculum – the ncf guidelines. the ncf (national curriculum framework) proposes that the values of peace education must be integrated into all aspects of education, including teacher training, curriculum, student-teacher relationships, and examinations. in other words, as stated in the ncf, peace education is not an add-on-subject per se but a way of making all the subjects in the curriculum peace-oriented. the ncf guidelines for ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 134 integrating peace education in the curriculum have three main areas of focus: teacher training, content, and peace activities for students. first, on the teacher training. the ncf (national curriculum framework) suggests, “no reform, however well motivated and well planned, can succeed unless a majority of teachers feel empowered to put it in practice”. teachers being the central to the entire gamut of all relationships at school, their orientation is most crucial (ncert, 2007). suggestions for teacher include sensitizing teachers to their own biases so that they can set aside judgments while dealing with students. the emphasis is on how teachers can create a non-threatening environment by treating students with respect and thereby help them feel/confident and comfortable. teachers need intensive training so that they can address issues in a fair and unbiased way and become good role models of peace. another suggestion is to include discussions and dialogues in everyday processes, thereby setting the stage for respectful communication between students and teachers. historically, value education has focused on encouraging desirable behavior; here, the emphasis is on creating an environment that will also offer an opportunity to discuss undesirable feelings and thoughts (rajagopalan, 2009). differences between students should be used constructively to support peer learning. a true society is made up of individuals with varied levels of skills and strengths; classrooms and school community should reflect this diversity and value each person’s contributions. the ncf emphasizes on interdependence and the need for children to be aware of it. teachers should also be encouraged to contextualize lessons to suit the current situations in the child’s immediate environment. second, on the content. throughout the ncf (national curriculum framework), there is a strong focus on the content a child is exposed to. the language used in texts and other media should be checked to determine age appropriateness and relevant context. the idea is to select appropriate texts that convey positive values and do not subscribe to any bias or misrepresentation. this is recommended across subjects and can be used both in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities like book or science clubs. third, on the peace activities for students. the ncf (national curriculum framework) guidelines also suggest activities that call for cooperation and team work as opposed to individual assignments that only foster competition. projects that require group effort will allow children to work towards a common goal while retaining their individuality through their unique contributions. suggested peace activities in the ncf can be broadly categorised into three major themes. the first deals with awareness of issues and the impact of actions at a universal level. for example, helping children realize the impact of wear and tear on a leaf that is passed around the classroom, representing the damage to the environment. the second encourages children to express their own views, be open to other perspectives and build empathy through discussions. the third category gives space for reflecting on issues and organizing events and forums to debate or change policies at their level. for instance, thinking of laws that they might put into action if they were peace lawyers of the country. all of these can be achieved by structuring activities with a purpose and providing space for choice. teaching-learning activities for education for peace: teacher’s corner. education has to ensure peace, according to national curriculum framework for school education (ncert, 2000:34-35); develop peace loving personality, according to curriculum framework for quality teacher education (ncert, 1998); and is vital for the effectiveness of promoting a culture of peace, according to national curriculum framework – 2005 position paper (ncert, 2006:5). national curriculum framework – 2005 position paper (2006 : 9) acknowledged “teachers as peace builders” and stressed further that the success of the initiative for education for peace substantially depends on the vision, motivation, skills, and awareness of teachers (ncert, 2006:23). teachers who carry out education for peace have to educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 135 cherish its values, hold comparable attitudes, and exhibit similar behavioral tendencies’. teachers as self-reflecting and self-performing individuals thus can play a crucial role for promoting peace in students in the context of global commitment to peace. their personal commitment and firm determination to the promotion of peace has to be absolute. ncf – 2005 suggested some examples of teaching-learning activities for integration in the subject content. children could be asked to: (1) demonstrate the many ways in which one can show respect to elders at home and in school, in subjects of environmental studies or language; (2) express the meaning of the word “cooperation” in different subject, in subject of language; (3) imagine a peaceful world and what would it be like, in subject of social science; (4) write a story on tolerance, sensitivity to others, etc., in subject of language; (5) compose a poem or a song depicting values like honesty, hard work etc., in subject of language; (6) organize field visit to local orphanages or old age homes to sensitize students to the loneliness, deprivation, and helplessness of these sections of society; (7) discuss how environmental degradation affects the poor; and (8) describe how anger destroys peace, in subjects of social science or language. education for peace can also be realized through the co-curricular life of the school (ramani, 2004). a number of activities and projects embodying peace themes could be organized in school, such as: (1) students can be motivated to learn and develop skills for peacemaking by including peace issues in debates, seminars, and audio visual shows; (2) participation of children in role-plays, dramas, composing peace poems, peace songs, etc.; (3) participation in various days observed internationally, such as human rights day, children’s day, united nations day, day for the disabled, girl child day, environment day, etc.; (4) to help develop sensitivity towards others, children could be encouraged to visit homes for senior citizens, disadvantaged groups, etc. and enabled to develop an interest in their welfare; (5) religious festivals and national days could be celebrated in the schools and in the neighborhood; and (6) story-telling sessions and discussions could be held to promote tolerance and understanding. conclusion education shall be directed towards the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial, or religious groups for maintenance of peace, as cited in an article 28, the universal declaration of human rights (kumar, 2011). taking into consideration the very function of education, the ncf (national curriculum framework) spelt out that peace education must be integrated across the curriculum, in lessons as well as activities. peace education must be a concern that permeates the entire school life: curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacherpupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. accordingly, teacher training, the content of social science in particular, and learning through work and activity are three areas, it indicates as warranting attention. education for peace seeks to nurture ethical development, including the values, attitudes, and skills required for living in harmony with oneself and with others. the ncf – 2005 set out a few foundational convictions which underlie the contours and contents of education for peace, such as schools are potential nurseries for peace, peace skills promote academic excellence, education for peace can humanize education, teachers can be social healers, and justice is integral to peace. this framework, thus, made a plea to turn education for peace into a people’s movement. education for peace needs to be seen as an enterprise for healing and revitalizing the nation. education for peace could be an effective catalyst in activating a holistic vision for education. this could also transform education into a movement for national integration and regeneration, which is the need of the hour. an approach to education that erodes social ajit mondal & jayanta mete, education for peace 136 cohesion, aggravates economic inequalities, and undermines ethical foundation needs to be recognized as a threat to peace and a disservice to society. peace must be pursued with singleminded vigor and an undeviating sense of purpose; and education for peace must be implemented with vision and determination. conclusion can be ended with words of mahatma gandhi, “if we are to teach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against, we shall have to begin with children”. references chinara, benudhar. (2012). “educating self peace and teachers: a process of social transformation” in university news, 50(30), pp.10-15. delors, j. (1996). learning the treasure within: report of international commission on education for the 21st century. paris: unesco [united nations for educational, scientific, and cultural organization]. kumar, dharmendra & kr. sudheer pundeer. (2012). “role of educational pillar for inculcation peace education” in vsrd technical & non-technical journal, 3(5), pp.207-212. kumar, sanjeev. (2011). “values and attitudes required for peace education” in research tendem, 2(6), pp.95101. mondal, a. (2011). “ways and means of achieving education for peace in schools” in panchakotessays, vol.2, no.1 [may], pp.139143. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (1998). curriculum framework for quality teacher education. new delhi, india: national council of educational research and training. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (2000). national curriculum framework for school education. new delhi, india: national council of educational research and training. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (2005). national curriculum framework – 2005. new delhi: national council of educational research and training. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (2006). national curriculum framework – 2005 position paper: national focus group on education for peace. new delhi, india: national council of educational research and training. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (2007). training course on peace education for teachers. new delhi, india: national council of educational research and training]. ncert [national council of educational research and training]. (2008). ncf 2005: executive summary of national focus groups position papers. new delhi, india: national council of educational research and training. page, james smith. (2004). “peace education: exploring some philosophical foundations” in international review of education, 50(1), pp.3-15. panda, niharika. (2013). “peace education: the best investment for future generation” in university news, 51(03), pp.13-17. pandey, s. (2007). “constructivism and the pedagogy of education for peace: a reflection on school education curriculum reform” in journal of indian education, vol.xxxiii, no.2 [august], pp.21-29. rajagopalan, priyadarshani. (2009). “from agenda to action: interpreting and implementing the ncf peace education guidelines” in educational policy research series of prajnya, 1(3). ramani, s. (2004). “fostering peace through education” in journal of indian education, vol.xxix, no.2 [august]. udaykumar, s.p. (2009). “peace education in india: a proposal, peace prints” in south asian journal of peace-building, 2(1). unesco [united nations of educational, scientific, and cultural organization]. (2008). unesco’s work on education for peace and non-violence: building peace through education. paris: unesco. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 137 dr. suwartono is a senior lecturer at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), central java, indonesia. the author can be reached at: suwartono2006@yahoo.co.id introduction suprasegmentals are of paramount importance in spoken english. the presence of suprasegmental features in speech contributes heavily to intelligibility. in addition, these features convey better impression of the speaker (o’neal, 2010:65-87). it means improving the pronunciation of english suprasegmentals can facilitate communication, boost self-esteem, and possibly lead to a better future. therefore, within the context of spoken english communication, suprasegmental features should be given priority or, at least, equality. suprasegmental features cover mainly stress, length, tone, and intonation (ladefoged, 1975:217). these features are essentially the same as prosodic elements of language (trask, 1996:343). perhaps, to most efl (english as foreign language) learners in indonesia, these features are complicated to master. some teachers of english even did not seem to show interest in introducing the features to students. moedjito (2008:129-142) reported that efl teachers in indonesia valued segmental features more than suprasegmental ones. this might be due to a feeling of doubt as to how to teach the suprasegmental features. in the literature on efl, suprasegmental features teaching methodology is still little known. in the current study, a reflective learning method was adopted to help students learn the english suprasegmental phonemes. an expert in reflective learning and practice, jennifer moon (2003), argues that reflection deals with deep learning. in deep learning, the intention is the learner to develop a personal understanding of the suwartono student’s voices in reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation teaching abstract: most of the literature on pronunciation discusses what and how to teach. the learner, that is actually the center of the teaching and learning process, remains little known or untouched. meanwhile, suprasegmentals are of paramount importance in spoken english. the presence of suprasegmental features in speech contributes heavily to intelligibility. suprasegmental features cover mainly stress, length, tone, and intonation. these features are essentially the same as prosodic elements of language. perhaps, to most efl (english as foreign language) learners in indonesia, these features are complicated to master. some teachers of english even did not seem to show interest in introducing the features to students. this article highlights the reflective process within the students learning the english pronunciation. the data were collected through diaries. the students were provided with small notebooks to write entries of reaction, perception, and learning experience when they were being taught english suprasegmental features using reflective method. video was utilized to facilitate student engaging in reflective process through main teaching and learning activities of listening to target model, rehearsing monologue or dialogue, video-recording, and playing video clip. overall, the majority of reflections revealed that the adoption of video as a reflective tool integrated into communicative language activities has helped the students evaluate and self-monitor their own speech performance in learning the english suprasegmental features pronunciation, which is commonly considered complicated. key words: students’ voices, reflective, suprasegmental, pronunciation, evaluate, self-monitor, teaching and learning process, diary, and class-room action research. suwartono, student’s voices 138 material and to relate it to what is already known. while kolb, in the theory experiential learning, explains that the learner’s immediate experience is taken as the focus of learning, giving life, texture, and subjective personal meaning to abstract concepts; and at the same time, providing a concrete reference point for testing the implications and validity of ideas created during the learning process (cited in benson, 2001:38). in experiential learning, he adds, learning is seen as a cyclical process that integrates immediate experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation, and action. within the cyclical process, reflection serves as the bridge between experience and theoretical conceptualisation (benson, 2001). concerning english suprasegmental phonemes learning, the relevance of reflection to experiential learning is that learners take the benefit of experience they already have for testing ideas and assumptions exploratively related with english suprasegmental features that are considered difficult to master. learners, though feeling in doubt, knowing a little or nothing about english suprasegmental features as experience, have readiness to survive under difficult time. reflective learners may survive searching for patterns in english suprasegmental phonemes by learning from experience they have when working with grammar or learning segmental phonemes, for instance. in other words, reflective learners are motivated to find more alternatives to approach english suprasegmental learning challenges. from an experiential point of view, the concept of reflection is inseparable from the characteristics of adult learning. based on age (18 years old or above), the present research participants fall into adult category and, therefore, quite relevant to be discussed in more specific context, i.e. adult education. adult learning cannot be regarded as similar to child learning. brundage and macheracher mention some characteristics of adult learning, one of which is so closely connected to the concept of reflection: adults see their own experience as learning source. thus, experience is central in reflective process. it is the focus in adult learning process (cited in mayuni, 2007). in a narrower context, in the area of language teaching, it is stated that adults have rich life experience, that can be made use for learning. this means any learning which gives emphasis upon reflective process is suitable for adult language learning. the concept of reflective or deep learning can also be viewed from a theory which belongs to constructivist theories, namely personal construct theory. kelly mentions that personal construct theory views human thought as a process of hypothesis testing and theory building involving the continual development and revision of constructs or meaning attached to objects or events in the light of new experience (cited in benson, 2001). personal constructs are derived from shared assumptions and values, but systems of constructs are unique to the individual since they are shaped through personal attempts to make sense of experiences that are uniquely one’s own. in regard to english suprasegmental phonemes, learning that is considered complicated and construct system that learners have, it is expected that the adoption of reflective learning will raise selfawareness of construct systems available in individual learners. k. cercone (2008), in discussing about adult learner characteristics, points out that adult learners need to self-reflect on the learning process and be provided ways to engage in metacognitive reflection by using think logs, reflective journals, and group discussions. this implies that although in adults reflective process already develops, there is no guarentee the process is optimum. dealing with the current research participants, since they are at their beginning of adulthood, it is likely that reflective process is rarely identified. it is for this reason, teachers are supposed to play a role and give control so that students’ reflective process becomes optimum. in line with what discussed above, joan morley (1991) states that pronunciation/ speech study is most profitable when students are actively involved in their own learning, not passively detached repeaters of drills. however, learner self-involvement cannot be left to chance; it must be actively shaped, early and continually, throughout esl (english as second language) course work. teachers and educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 139 materials can help students become involved in say, for instance, the development of selfmonitoring skills. self-monitoring can begin as gentle consciousness-raising with the goal of helping students develop speech awareness, self-observation skills, and a positive attitude toward them by helping them develop a simple self-rehearsal technique—talking to yourself and listening to yourself—as the way to selfmonitor. in the present study, video as reflective tool was adopted to give this kind of impact. video used in the video clip making makes it possible for students listen and repeat after the model while listening to/watching native speakers. while being replayed, video enables students to make the strategies of active listening and mirroring (vitanova & miller, 2002). method of research the current study was carried out in the context of an action-research study. an action-research study was chosen to learn and improve classroom practioner’s own teaching activities. the kemmis and taggart’s model of action research was adopted (cited in gay & airasian, 2000:593). the study involved twenty-four second semester students of class c-2 at the department of english language teaching of ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, attending pronunciation course in the 2011/2012 academic year. the collaborative study contained two cycles, each of which comprised three pronunciation sessions. main learning activities in each session covered listening to target model, rehearsing monologue or dialogue, video-recording, and playing video clip. scripts were provided to help the students memorise what to say. videos available on the campus language labs’ computers were made use to facilitate reflection process in the part of students. two types of data were gathered: data on teaching and learning process and data on learning outcome. the research qualitative data included teaching and learning activities, teacher’s behavior, students’ behavior and reaction/response; while the quantitative data dealt with the test result. qualitative data were elicited through observation, diary, and interview; while the quantitative data were collected through recorded conversation task and test. qualitative data were analysed via analytic induction methods to identify common themes and to extract narratives of experience. quantitative data were analysed to calculate statistical frequencies, percentages, and means. triangulation – more than one methods of investigation – was employed to establish validity of the research (bryman, 1988:131134), namely: investigator triangulation and method triangulation. this article is meant to share the main findings revealed in the research diaries. it is especially interesting because the sense “reflective” is twofold in the study: firstly, the adoption of video for encouraging students to engage in reflective process; and secondly, the use of diary, which is by nature reflective, for collecting the research data. according to david nunan (1992:118-120), diary is one of important introspective tools in language research. he asserts that diaries enable students to articulate problems they are having with course content and, therefore, get help and promote autonomous learning, encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning (nunan, 1992:120). findings and discussions the adoption of reflective learning method in the current study was a successful attempt to improve the teaching and learning process. in the pre-intervention period, involvement was a concern. reflective learning method using video incorporated to communicative, meaningful language activities has encouraged student involvement in the teaching and learning process of the commonly-considered complicated suprasegmental features pronunciation. based on the diaries, the students involvement in the teaching and learning process can be explained as follows. their responses varied, that fell into five to six categories: (1) positive responses which comprised the instruction was interesting/ exciting, the instruction provided new knowledge, and the instruction was suwartono, student’s voices 140 meaningful; (2) not wholly positive responses; (3) negative responses; and (4) others. “not wholly positive” constituted responses that contained partly negative responses. “others” were responses that seemed irrelevant or did not fall into any category already mentioned, for example notes on stress patterns, or personal health. below is a figure that displays the students’ responses to the instruction at the beginning (first cycle, first session) of the intervention period. the figure 1 shows that positive responses make up around 50 percent of the whole responses. in the following part, relevant and useful information from the diaries is discussed under those categories mentioned above. it is necessary to note that some responses seemed to overlap quite a lot. consequently, it is not easy to split up the diary entries into clear-cut catagories. on the interesting lessons. the learning activities that tended to be interesting was made possible by the inclusion of exciting learning “menu” in which students were provided with opportunity to directly practice communication in english in meaningful activity, i.e. a challenge to speak in the way the models on the recording do. with facial expressions that could be seen either on-line (during production) or off-line (after production) on the computer screen, the students became more confident in acting and expressing like in front of mirror and as if nobody had seen them. a student commented: “i think it’s very interesting [...]. quite exciting like learning drama with expressions when speaking” (diary of student a, 2/3/2012). what was written by a female student below could be right. the learning activity created in the instuction was believed to benefit her because, beside exciting – that might lead to a sub-concious learning – so that learning became more automatic, it enabled her to selfassess her own performance: the method applied is more varied, and so the atmosphere created is exciting. therefore, the material can be mastered more easily. by practising directly, i can recognise my mistakes and correct them directly (diary of student b, 9/3/2012). most students shared positive impressions dealing with the teaching and learning process, primarily the core-activity of video clip making. a student noted about desire to learn and practise as follows: at the beginning, i felt sleepy as the course is scheduled to start at noon, but now it becomes more interesting. then, i am making a video clip again and comparing a friend’s video clip with mine and delivering comments on flaws or mistakes to correct (diary of student c, 16/3/2012). this shows an advantage of the intervention adopted, which was not only interesting to the students, but also helped them monitor and modify their own performance, including their speech. the students found the learning activity so exciting that they never wanted to miss any single lesson, as implied in the following diary of a student. today i went out for refreshing mind with some mates. i feel a relief, ehm [...] but do not have lunch yet, as i was hurried to attend the pronunciation class. this lesson is really interesting lesson 17% giving new insightlesson 25% meaningful lesson 8% not wholly positive 33% negative 17% figure 1: students’ responses to the instruction educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 141 interesting for me. it is always exciting to listen to own voice again, see expressions (diary of student d, 23/3/2012). on the meaningful lesson. the lessons gave considerable opportunity for the students to use the material being taught. they found the lessons like the real thing. a student, for example, wrote as follows: i enjoy learning this way, because i can directly practise what is taught by mr. ton. i can directly justify when i am right and when i am wrong with the material i learn (diary of student e, 7/4/2012). the meaningful lesson seemed to have motivated the learners to learn. it is a challenge for teachers of pronunciation in general and suprasegmental features in specific to create an environment that most possibly supports learning. on the new insights/knowledge. in relation with the intervention adopted, positive responses to the teaching and learning activity carried out can also be traced from other entries written by some participants, as quoted below: [...] my video is bad. the one deleted was better instead. it’s because i’m nervous, time is limited [...], i’m hurried [...]. however, i enjoy learning this way, so that i can show my own ability. working in groups is not maximum, i have to share and am dependent upon others (diary of student f, 14/4/2012). this example expresses the student valued individual work that was assigned at that moment. while not every learner may have been be in favour of the individual activity, it was chosen for a genuine reason. the materials being taught was the stress patterns. the students were expected to make monologue video clips. in addition, this, unintentionally, could serve as a variety and accommodate different needs of learner. the students seemed actively involved in the classroom activity. they were evaluating, selfmonitoring, and self-correcting their own performance (both speech and visual cues) upon completion of a monologue video clip making. the use of video as reflective tool integrated into communicative language activities has enabled them to engage in reflective process when learning the commonly-considered complicated english suprasegmental features pronunciation. similarly, another student wrote: “fairly easy, but i have to be careful [...]. a bit difficult to make it, because once is not enough, i have to make and remake a video clip” (diary of student g, 21/4/2012). another student commented: “i am happy, because i can listen to videos from the computer on my desk, so that i can hear more clearly how stress is produced by speakers in the videos” (diary of student h, 28/4/2012). from the note, it is obvious that a revised plan by sharing video files to all computers in the network was considered beneficial to the student. figure 2: a reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation class suwartono, student’s voices 142 seriousness, involvement, self-monitoring, and evaluation was reflected in most of the expressions produced by the students. the learning that was considered helpful has encouraged them to learn and practice more enthusiastically: “thanks god, today i get new knowledge. i have to study harder in order to achieve better” (diary of student i, 5/5/2012). the following expression suggests that reflective process has already developed stronger in the student: “i thinks it is more complicated. i have to find out the verbs first [...]. however, my pronunciation is better, no more dominated by the local accent” (diary of student j, 12/5/2012). the development of selfmonitoring in the parts of students is thought to be associated with the learning process or the teaching and learning activity adopted in the current research study. a number of students reflected the development of reflective process, including self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and selfcorrection. a participant, for example, wrote: “i understand better now, but unfortunately i can’t give the right comments” (diary of student k, 19/5/2012). similarly, another learner mentioned: “i am happy, because my speech voice is getting better” (diary of student l, 26/5/2012). on the not wholly positive responses. some students noted different expressions reflecting responses that are not wholly positive, such as feeling of interest and fun in joining the lessons with no clear reason and sign of being able to monitor and evaluate performance by themselves. a participant commented: very, very interesting, although there is a little technical problem the learning activity continues well. with a method that adopts video, i can instantly recognise mistakes in my pronunciation and repeat them better (diary of student f, 14/4/2012). this shows an advantage of using the intervention adopted, that was not only interesting for the students but also helped them evaluate and correct their own pronunciation. the exciting learning enabled the students to handle learning obstacles they met as implicitly conveyed in the following diary entry of a student. again, [...] new sort of intonation material, i am so happy to learn it. it’s so interesting. there are errors today, especially in our media, but i think we have good results as we hope. hopefully, there’ll be another exciting lesson next time (diary of student h, 28/4/2012). a not wholly positive response that reflects developing capacity for monitoring and evaluation in student’s own learning is best exemplified in the following note of a low achiever: “i am still learning intonation. i gradually understand better. however, when practising, i still have difficulty and often make mistakes” (diary of student c, 16/3/2012). another note written by another weak yet dilligent student contains similar message: making a video clip is very interesting. i can act and it’s a freedom of perfomance. however, it seems that i am still having problems with several things in pronouncing words, unable to distinguish when to go up and when to go down (diary of student j, 12/5/2012). it implies in the note that the writer has been able to self-evaluate learning material mastery. thus, information of mental process could be found either in positive or negative responses. such a thing becomes necessary as most of the literature on pronunciation deals with what and how to teach, while the learner remains an abstract, silent body in the classroom. that is why, it is important for pronunciation teachers to listen to students’ voices related with their beliefs and thoughts about their pronunciation learning/teaching. when the teachers listen to the students’ voices, they give an opportunity for the development of their self-awareness, involvement, and responsibility in the process of learning suprasegmental phonemes. when the teachers listen to the students’ voices, they could determine strategies and pronunciation teaching components the students find most valuable. in the case of english suprasegmental features, this enables the teachers to monitor the students’ learning advancement. conclusion diary is valuable to be utilized for “hearing” student voice. it has a high revealing power dealing student reaction, feeling, educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 143 perception, and learning experience. in the context of the current research, in which reflective english suprasegmental features pronunciation learning method is adopted, one dominant sort of information from the diary entries is that capacity for self-monitoring, evaluation, and self-correction develops in the students’ learning. this finding is of great value, considering that so far in pronunciation teaching (mostly segmental features), learners have not been taken into account properly. either teacher or students, with this information, can do the best in the teaching and learning activity. the teacher can immediately give necessary assistance to the students who have learning problems, improve the weak points of teaching and learning process they conducted, and find advancement in the teaching of the commonlyconsidered complicated suprasegmental features pronunciation materials. references benson, phil. (2001). teaching and researching autonomy in language learning. harlow: pearson education limited. bryman, alan. (1988). quantity and quality in social research. london: unwin hyman ltd. cercone, k. (2008). “characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design” in aace journal, 16(2), pp.137-159. available [online] also at: editlib.org/d/24286 [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 23, 2013]. diary of student a, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 2, 2012. diary of student b, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 9, 2012. diary of student c, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 16, 2012. diary of student d, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: march 23, 2012. diary of student e, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 7, 2012. diary of student f, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 14, 2012. diary of student g, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 21, 2012. diary of student h, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: april 28, 2012. diary of student i, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 5, 2012. diary of student j, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 12, 2012. diary of student k, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 19, 2012. diary of student l, who was attending in the pronunciation classes, at the department of english language teaching, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia: may 26, 2012. gay, l.r. & p.w. airasian. (2000). educational research: competencies for analysis and application. new jersey: prentice hall ptr. ladefoged, peter. (1975). a course in phonetics. new york: harcourt brace javanovich, inc. mayuni, ilza. (2007). peningkatan mutu guru bahasa inggris melalui pendidikan dalam jabatan. bandung: lubuk agung. moedjito. (2008). “priorities in english pronunciation teaching in efl classrooms” in k@ta, 10(2). moon, jennifer. (2003). “learning journals and logs: suwartono, student’s voices 144 reflective catatan harianes” in centre for teaching and learning: good practice in teaching and learning. available [online] also at: www.deakin.edu.au/itl/ assets/.../tl.../teaching.../learning-journals.pdf. [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 18, 2013]. morley, joan. (1991). “the pronunciation component in teaching english to speakers of other languages” in tesol quarterly, 25(3). nunan, david. (1992). research methods in language learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. o’neal, george. (2010). “the effects of the presence and absence of suprasegmental on the intelligibility and assessment of an expandingcircle english according to other expandingcircle english listeners”. available [online] also at: www.dspace.lib.niigata-u.ac.jp:8080/ dspace/bitstream/.../1/15_65-87.pdf [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: april 12, 2013]. trask, r.l. (1996). a dictionary of phonetics and phonology. london: routledge. vitanova, gergana & ann miller. (2002). “reflective practice in pronunciation learning” in the internet tesl journal, 8(1). available [online] also at: http:// iteslj.org/articles/vitanova-pronunciation.html [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: january 1, 2013]. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 145 dr. thaer issa tawalbeh is a lecturer at the testing unit, english language center tu (taif university) in kingdom of saudi arabia. for academic purposes, the author can be contacted via his e-mail address at: ansathaer@hotmail.com introduction higher education is capable of making a significant contribution to the development of individuals, and the first academic year can be highly formative in that experience (bovill, bulley & morss, 2011). the negative consequences affect individuals, universities, and societies (bryson & hand, 2007; and tinto, 2006-2007). strong links have been suggested between a student’s early experiences and subsequent progression and success (flores juarez, 2005; and yorke & longden, 2007 and 2008). research may have revealed a variety of teaching-learning challenges that might be similar in a way or another to the challenges proposed, but in a different context. these challenges might be faced by pyp (preparatory year program) students learning english as a foreign language at taif university in kingdom of saudi arabia, in their first year of the university study program. and it is worthwhile to state the fact that the academic year 2012 is the first year the pyp is applied at taif university. the purpose of the present study is to investigate the teaching-learning challenges students face in the preparatory year program (pyp) at taif university from instructors’ and students’ perspectives. thaer issa tawalbeh teaching-learning challenges facing students of english in the preparatory year at the taif university, kingdom of saudi arabia abstract: the present study aimed to investigate the teaching-learning challenges students face in the preparatory year program (pyp) at taif university from instructors’ and students’ perspectives. the first two questions were concerned with the instructors’ and students’ extent of agreement on the challenges students face while learning english in the preparatory year at taif university from students’ and instructors’ points of view. the third question tried to answer whether there were any statistically significant differences at ( = 0.05) between instructors’ and students’ responses due to the five domains of teaching-learning challenges. descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data related to the first two questions, and independent t-test was used to answer the third question. the findings of the first question showed that the fifth and the first domains include most of the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students in the preparatory year program from the instructors’ point of view. the results of the second question indicated that with the exception of the third domain, all the other domains represent teachinglearning challenges facing students from their own points of view. in addition, the results of the first two questions showed an agreement between instructors and students in terms of ranking the fifth and the first domains as having most of the teaching-learning challenges facing students. as for the third question, the findings showed that there were statistically significant differences at ( = 0.05) between instructors’ and students’ views due to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges. these findings could be due to the fact that instructors and students are two heterogeneous groups having different mentalities, belonging to different age groups, and educational and cultural backgrounds. key words: instructors’ perceptions, students’ perceptions, teaching-learning challenges, taif university students, learning efl, and preparatory year. thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 146 learners of english as a foreign language encounter number of teaching-learning challenges. these challenges might include factors related to learners’ lack of educational and language background knowledge and academic english skills, instructors’ teaching and linguistic competencies and pedagogical methods, the course syllabus and learning materials used to provide learners with content in terms of culture and linguistic difficulty, and the physical learning environment where the teaching-learning process is carried. other factors might include learners’ age, anxiety as an obstacle for learning and available resources. c.p. cassannave & p. hubbard (1992) reported that esol (english for speakers of other languages) students need to be competent in academic language skills in order to cope with academic demands at north american schools (cited in huang, cunningham & finn, 1992). they added that students have challenges in all academic language skills. they have difficulty in understanding academic lectures. they find it challenging to participate in classroom discussions and make oral presentations, and they have challenges in academic reading and writing. d. moje & d. o’brien (2000) stated that it is interesting to note that background knowledge of the content can make comprehension easier. students can comprehend passages better if they reflect their cultural traditions. so, lack of knowledge of culture makes comprehension of texts more difficult. g. braine (2002) mentioned that esol students have considerable challenges in their academic studies at north american schools, and one of the challenges is their inadequate english proficiency. b. ambe (2009) stated that many factors make learning in english challenging for english language learners at the college level. these factors include: (1) the student’s level of english language proficiency and prior educational experience; (2) the amount of background knowledge in related areas; (3) experience in the first language; and (4) the learners’ age. b. elizabeth ambe (2011) pointed out in another study that for english language learners at the university level to be successful in their academic endeavors, they need to be proficient in the target language. to be proficient and successful involve overcoming a number of challenges such as the learners’ age, the learning environment, lack of background knowledge, and the fact that proficiency in the target language takes several years. there are many lecturers from western universities who report difficulties in teaching international asian students. these difficulties were summarized by j.b. biggs, as follows: they rote learn and lack critical thinking skills; they are passive, they won’t talk in class; they appear to focus excessively on the method of assessment; they don’t understand what plagiarism means; they stick together […] won’t mix with locals; they do not easily adjust to local conditions; they tend to look on lecturers as close to gods; progressive western teaching methods won’t work with asian (biggs, 2003:125-131). e. almanza, de schonewise & janette k. klingner (2012) pointed out that english language learners are the fastest growing segment of the student population. an understanding of the diversity these students bring to contexts of disciplinary learning is critical to determining how best to teach them. at the secondary level, english language learners are required to learn content and build english language proficiency simultaneously. teachers who work with them should be knowledgeable about: (1) linguistic issues and the second language process; (2) cultural issues and cultural-responsive pedagogy; (3) assessment considerations; and (4) instruction that support language and literacy development in the content areas. to conclude, the researchers believe that experts into the teaching-learning challenges classified challenges into: academic language skills (cassanave & hubbard, 1992; braine, 2002; and ambe, 2011); background knowledge (moje & o’brien, 2000; ambe, 2009; and ambe, 2011); students level of english language proficiency, prior educational experience, learning environment, and learners age (ambe 2009; and ambe, 2011); lack of critical thinking skills, students being passive, and the focus on the method educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 147 of assessment (biggs, 2003). however, the present study has classified the teaching-learning challenges into domains that are inclusive to the challenges revealed by the experts; and under each domain, there are a number of detailed items that specify the teaching-learning challenges under investigation. this paper tries to investigate the teaching-learning challenges facing students in the preparatory year at taif university from the students’ and the instructors’ points of view. the results are of significance for policy makers and instructors of english. statement of the problem, research questions, definition of terms, and significance and limitations of the study as education specialists working in the field of teaching english as a foreign language, it can be clearly observed that learners of english in general, and taif university students in specific, encounter a number of teaching-learning challenges while learning english. these challenges might include factors related to learners’ lack of educational and language background knowledge. in addition, instructors’ teaching and linguistic competencies and pedagogical methods might play a role in causing a learning challenge. another source of difficulty might be the course syllabus and learning materials used to provide learners with content in terms of culture and linguistic difficulty. moreover, the physical learning environment, where the teaching-learning process is carried out, might cause a challenge for learners. other factors might include learners’ age, anxiety as an obstacle for learning, and available resources. this research paper aims to investigate the teaching-learning challenges related to the efl (english as a foreign language) course, teaching-learning process, students and teachers, assessment, and the physical learning environment. the present study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) what are the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students at the preparatory year from instructors’ perspectives?; (2) what are the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students at the preparatory year from their own perspectives?; and (3) are there any statistically significant differences at  = 0.05 between the instructors’ and students’ views due to the domains of the teaching learning challenges. the following terms will have the associated meanings whenever they appear in the present study. first, teaching-learning challenges: problems and difficulties that face efl (english as a foreign language) learners while learning english in the preparatory year program. these difficulties include structure and organization of the efl course, teaching-learning process, students and teachers, assessment, and the physical learning environment. second, preparatory year program: a one-year study program for the high school graduates, where they study fundamental courses that prepare them to specialize in the following year. they are streamed into humanities, sciences, and health education students. the results of this study should be of importance and significance to: (1) university personnel, including decision and policy makers, to emphasize, highlight, and follow up all the domains of the teaching-learning challenges in their policies. it is of importance to enhance the implementation of the domains that rank higher and build on those that rank lower from students’ and instructors’ perspectives; (2) efl instructors of english to consider the items ranked low throughout their teaching plans; (3) efl instructors to form a common understanding of what contributes most to their students’ effective learning; and (4) curriculum and course evaluation and adaptation committee to consider the items ranked low in the domain of structure and organization of the efl course. the following points could be considered as limitations to the generalization of the findings of the present study. first, the present study was limited to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges developed for the purpose of implementing the present study, namely organization and structure of the efl course, teaching and learning, students and thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 148 teachers, assessment, and physical learning environment. second, the present paper was limited to male efl students’ and instructors’ views in the preparatory year program in the academic year 2012-2013. review of related literature j. huang, j. cunningham & a. finn (2002) carried out a study to find out what specific language skills are perceived to be most problematic to their esol (english for speakers of other languages) students’ academic learning. results showed that students experience considerable challenges in english academic listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. specifically, understanding classroom tasks, giving oral presentations and being able to communicate a problem, comprehending the main ideas as well as the details of texts were identified as most challenging for the students in academic listening, speaking, reading, and writing respectively. g. ellen batt (2008:39-43) carried out a study which sought to learn directly from the idaho state’s english language learners’ educators what they perceived as the greatest challenges and needs for improvement of english language learning (ell) education. both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized in the research project. the participants for this study were purposefully selected to attain a maximum, all-inclusive sample of the rural state’s educators with a primary role in ell education. the study sample consisted of a total of 161 participants. teachers perceived that not all educators who work with ells in their schools were qualified to work with linguistic minority students. in response to the question whether all staff members in their school who serve ells are highly qualified for their positions, thirty-nine percent of the respondents indicated “no” and 55 percent of the respondents indicated “yes”. six percent did not respond to the question (batt, 2008). one of the open-ended questions on the survey asked: “what are the three greatest challenges you face in educating ells?”. twenty percent of the respondents indicated that the lack of colleagues’ knowledge and skills in educating ells was one of their three greatest challenges. many teachers indicated that their colleagues lacked an understanding of diversity or multicultural education. ell specialists’ pointed out that extra duties in addition to their instructional roles constrain teachers’ effectiveness and create much pressure and personal stress. eighteen percent of the respondents specified that allocated time in the workday to accomplish the workload demanded of them was one of their greatest challenges. the teacher respondents identified priorities for professional development to compensate for knowledge and skills not obtained during the teacher certification process. the ell practitioners also recommended restructuring solutions to improve ell education (batt, 2008). in order of priority ranking, they proposed for their school to: hire more esl (english as a second language) or bilingual education certified teachers (75 percent); create an esl consulting teacher position (52 percent); hire more bilingual education assistants (45 percent); create a sheltered english academy (44 percent); provide effective professional development (41 percent); group students by the same language proficiency levels (30 percent); change the esl curriculum (20 percent); and use a different education model (14 percent). b. uckun & jessica buchanan (2008) conducted a comparative study to examine the education culture in two turkish universities involving native teachers, english speaking foreign teachers, and their turkish students in an attempt to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges faced by both students and teachers. four versions of the questionnaire were administered to 15 teachers and 228 students. all four versions focused on classroom management and examination procedures, pedagogy, and other affective factors. the authors aimed to investigate students’ and teachers’ mutual beliefs, perceptions, and expectations of each other within the educational context and whether any differences could be accounted for by cultural differences between the two parties. this study was designed by both a turkish academic educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 149 and a native english speaking instructor, a collaboration which serves to temper cultural biases inherent to any culturally based inquiry. the researchers found out that cultural diversity between students and teachers may be a source of “miscommunication” that compromises the learning/teaching environment. in such cases, students may be accused of poor performance or teachers may be blamed for inadequate methodology. the researchers hoped to maximize the effectiveness of cross-cultural classrooms as well as to suggest directions for further research (uckun & buchanan, 2008). b. ambe (2009) explored the processes by which a foreign-born english language learner with limited english proficiency acquired literacy skills for university work, and examined the strategies that the student used to comprehend course content. data revealed that the english language learner encountered difficulties in the following domains: receptive and expressive aspects of the english language; written assignments; comprehension; and the teaching, learning, and assessment models of the host country. the student employed strategies such as asking questions, seeking academic peer coaching, and using multiple media to succeed. implications and recommendations were made for both instructors to adopt instructional approaches that would enable adult english language learners to attain higher levels of language proficiency and academic success (ambe, 2009). srichanyachon (2010) investigated goal setting for learning english language of bangkok university students. a set of questionnaires for the assessment of goal settings and problems of learning english was administered to 370 second-year students. the study revealed that the goal setting was at a moderate level. there were statistically significant differences found in the students’ opinions for goal setting at .05 level as classified by gender, faculty, and english learning experience, but no statistically significant differences in terms of educational background. moreover, there was a positive relationship between english background knowledge and goal setting at .05 level. there was a negative relationship between english background knowledge and problems of learning english at .05 level. in addition, there was a negative relationship between goal setting and problems of learning english at .05 level (srichanyachon, 2010). c.t. nguyen (2011) conducted a study to explore the challenges students from selected south east asian countries (vietnam, thailand, and indonesia) face while studying english in australia before entering into australian university courses. the study was conducted at one of the largest language institutions in melbourne, and the results collected draw on the english learning experiences of nine students (three vietnamese, three thailand, and three indonesian) and two language teachers. semi-structured interviews were adopted as the primary data collection method, and this allowed the major problems that these students experience while studying english for university entry to be identified. he found out that these students must contend not only with different styles of teaching and learning, but also with the challenge of adapting to a new culture (nguyen, 2011). as for their english learning experiences in the countries of origin, c.t. nguyen (2011) found out that all students acknowledged that english lectures in their countries focused a lot on grammar, and other skills were not adequately taught. they reported that from primary school to high school, or even at university, teachers often taught them grammar and vocabulary which was taken from textbooks. they all recognized that, at that time, they were learning english theoretically and not pragmatically. others skills like speaking, pronunciation, listening, or writing were also taught but not efficiently, as asserted by participants. with regard to student-teacher interaction, all vietnamese, thailand, and indonesian students stated that there was a distance between teachers and students, both inside and outside classroom. in classrooms, teachers worked mostly by themselves, and students listened and wrote in silence without interrupting teachers’ work (nguyen, 2011). with regard to the challenges of learning thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 150 english in australia, c.t. nguyen (2011) stated that the common problems of vietnamese, thailand, and indonesian students are pronunciation, speaking, and plagiarism in writing. both teachers stated that these cohorts of students have problems when they pronounce english words, especially with consonant classes and word ending like s, sh, t, d, x, g, or j. all of the respondents admitted that the rule of plagiarism in writing in their countries is not as strict as it is in english. in the first few weeks in language classes in australia, those students felt puzzled with how to quote and paraphrase and also how to avoid plagiarism in academic writing (nguyen, 2011). the researcher found out that the reasons leading to the difficulties in learning english include: (1) different linguistic structures: all teachers and students agreed that there were no strict rules for pronunciation in thailand, vietnamese, and indonesian languages; and (2) difficulties in adapting with new culture, language, and learning styles: southeast asian students still kept their traditional characteristics when studying overseas, and this was not easy to be changed overnight (nguyen, 2011). h. yi-chang (2011) conducted a study to investigate self-perceived anxiety levels of taiwanese efl (english as a foreign language) university students speaking english under different contextual conditions, including in class and outside of class, presenting individually and in groups, and learning english in formal and informal situations. a total of 191 students completed two survey questionnaires for the data collection. the results demonstrated that students had a higher level of self-reported anxiety speaking english in the classroom than outside of classroom. and students making oral presentations individually tended to have a higher level of self-reported anxiety than students making presentations in groups. besides, students learning english in formal situations tended to have a higher level of self-reported anxiety than students learning in informal situations. this study provided a framework that would help language educators and learners acquire a better understanding of the effect of different contextual conditions on taiwanese efl university students’ language learning anxiety in a language classroom (yichang, 2011). to sum up, the challenges discussed above represent a number of teachinglearning challenges revealed by literature. these have been categorized by experts into: prior knowledge and skills (batt, 2008); academic language skills (huang, cunningham & finn, 2002); understanding of multicultural education and extra duties (batt, 2008); classroom management, assessment procedures, pedagogy, and cultural differences (uckun & buchanan, 2008); limited english proficiency (ambe, 2009); goal setting (srichanyachon, 2010); styles of teaching and learning, adapting to a new culture (nguyen, 2011); and anxiety levels (yi-chang, 2011). however, the context in which these challenges have been experienced is different. the present study has investigated the challenges that taif university students face in the preparatory year program, which has been implemented at the university for the first time since the beginning of the academic year 2012. moreover, the challenges under investigation have been divided into domains that reflect a wide variety of teaching-learning challenges that are expected to be encountered by students in the preparatory year program at taif university in the academic year 2012 after implementing the first year of this program. identification of these challenges would help policy makers and instructors to identify the reasons behind the difficulties and, thus, put forward solutions. the domains under investigation include structure and organization of the efl course, students and teachers, teaching and learning, assessment, and the physical learning environment. method this section of the research discusses the method followed to gather and analyze data. it includes population and sample of the study, instrument, validity and reliability of the instrument, procedures of the study, and the statistical analysis method. population and sample. the population of the study comprised all male taif university efl (english as a foreign language) students and instructors in the preparatory year educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 151 program. the total number of students was 3,700 and the total number of instructors was 55. a convenient sampling technique was used to recruit the participants of this study. a sample of 326 male students was selected, which is about 10% of the population, and 55 instructors which is the whole population. instrument of the study. the researcher developed two questionnaires of 60 items each. i have been adapted from two projects by m. holmquist et al. (2002) and n. entwistle, velda mccune & jenny hounsell (2002) to investigate the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students in the preparatory year program at taif university from students’ and instructors’ perspectives (see appendix a). likert scale of four degrees (strongly agree = 1, agree = 2, don’t agree = 3, strongly disagree = 4) was used to determine the extent of students’ and instructors’ level of agreement on the teaching-learning challenges. the four degrees of the scale have been entered as numbers for the purpose of analysis, so numbers 3 and 4 represent challenges. this means that a mean of 2 or more indicates a teaching-learning challenge. the items have been positively directed; they have been formed to represent the positive aspect of a statement. validity of the instrument. the questionnaires are valid since the items have been derived from two teaching-learning projects developed by a group of experts, namely m. holmquist et al. (2002) and n. entwistle, velda mccune & jenny hounsell (2002). however, the questionnaires were also given to 10 efl (english as a foreign language) specialists who were asked to determine whether or not the questionnaires items were clear and relevant to the domain. the jury of judges suggested that since the items are general and applicable to all teachers, they should be modified in such a way that they are more specific to address efl jordanian teachers. reliability of the instrument. in order to guarantee the questionnaires reliability, it was distributed to a sample of 25 students and 10 instructors other than the subjects of the study in order to ask for their responses. it was distributed again two weeks later, so that the researcher counts its reliability. the results were calculated and analyzed. the correlation coefficient (pearson) between the previous and post responses for the students’ questionnaire was 0.85 and 0.87 for the instructors’ questionnaire, which is considered acceptable for the study. the cronbach alpha reliabilities for the two versions of the questionnaire were .88 for the students’ questionnaire and .90 for the instructors’ questionnaire. procedures of the study. after getting the approval of the university to distribute the questionnaires on the participants of the study in the preparatory year program at taif university, the researcher identified the population and the sample of the study and carried out the process of questionnaires validity and reliability. then, i asked a number of colleagues to distribute 425 questionnaires on the students, and received 375 questionnaires, so the response rate is 88%. the researcher excluded 39 questionnaires where many items were missing. meanwhile, the researcher distributed 55 questionnaires on the instructors and received them all. finally, the researcher analyzed the results and drew conclusions and recommendations based on the results of the study. statistical analysis. in order to answer the first and the second questions related to the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students from their own perspectives and from the instructors’ perspectives, descriptive statistics were used. to answer the third question concerning whether or not there were any statistically significant differences at ( = 0.05) between students and instructors due to the domains of the teaching-learning challenges, independent t-test was used. findings of the study this part shows the findings of the present study in terms of the three questions highlighted in the study. with regard to the first question related to the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students in the preparatory year program from their instructors’ point of view, the table 1 shows the means and standard thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 152 deviation of the instructors’ responses to the five domains included in the questionnaire distributed to them. the table 1 indicates that the fifth and the first domains include most of the teachinglearning challenges facing taif university students in the preparatory year program from the instructors’ point of view. the table 2 gives more details on the percentages of the instructors’ responses to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges facing students. it is clear from the table 2 that instructors don’t agree mostly with the fifth and the first domains, which represents a teaching-learning challenge for the students. with regard to the second question related to the teaching-learning challenges facing taif university students in the preparatory year program from their own points of view, the table 3 shows the means and standard deviation of the instructors’ responses to the five domains included in the questionnaire distributed to them. the table 3 indicates that with the exception of the third domain, all the other domains represent teaching-learning challenges facing students from their own points of view. in addition, tables 1 and 4 indicate that there is an agreement between the instructors and students in terms of ranking the fifth and the first domains as having most of the teachinglearning challenges facing students. they also agree that the third domain include the least challenges facing students from the instructors’ as well as the students’ points of view. the table 4 gives more details on the percentages of the students’ responses to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges from their own points of view. it is clear from the table 4 that the fifth and the first domains received the highest table 1: means and standard deviation of the instructors’ responses to the five domains from their points of view domain means std. deviation the first domain: organization and structure of the efl course 2.19 .37 the second domain: teaching and learning english 1.90 .30 the third domain: students and teachers 1.51 .33 the fourth domain: assessment and other set work 1.99 .33 the fifth domain: physical learning environment 2.78 .53 table 2: percentages of the instructors’ responses to the five domains number domain agree don’t agree 1 organization and structure of the efl course 25.45 75.55 2 teaching and learning english 61.82 38.18 3 students and teachers 94.55 5.45 4 assessment and other set work 56.36 43.64 5 physical learning environment 10.91 89.09 table 3: means and standard deviation of the students’ responses to the five domains from their points of view domain means std. deviation the first domain: organization and structure of the efl course 2.26 .47 the second domain: teaching and learning english 2.14 .48 the third domain: students and teachers 1.88 .51 the fourth domain: assessment and other set work 2.13 .49 the fifth domain: physical learning environment 2.56 .72 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 153 table 4: percentages of the students responses to the five domains number standards agree don’t agree 1 organization and structure of the efl course 31.29 68.71 2 teaching and learning english 42.33 57.67 3 students and teachers 60.43 39.57 4 assessment and other set work 45.09 54.91 5 physical learning environment 23.00 77.00 table 5: means and standard deviation of the instructors’ and students’ responses to the items from their points of view domain no. item no. means for instructors item no. means for students 1 2 2.56 11 2.78 5 2.52 9 2.73 10 2.36 14 2.41 7 1.96 8 1.98 1 1.92 7 1.96 3 1.83 1 1.91 2 16 2.58 17 2.67 27 2.30 19 2.23 15 2.29 27 2.23 22 1.61 24 2.00 24 1.52 22 2.00 23 1.52 26 1.96 3 31 2.03 34 2.81 32 1.89 38 1.95 30 1.60 36 1.92 33 1.34 37 1.75 40 1.29 29 1.69 29 1.27 28 1.67 4 41 2.81 41 2.88 46 2.18 44 2.21 43 2.18 43 2.19 48 1.72 50 1.92 49 1.69 48 1.91 50 1.49 45 1.82 5 59 3.45 59 2.99 55 3.32 55 2.86 52 3.10 60 2.65 58 2.52 51 2.42 56 2.29 57 2.38 54 2.05 54 2.35 percentages in terms of students’ disagreement, which represents a teaching-learning challenge facing them from their own point of view. the table 5 displays the items that represent most of the teaching-learning challenges facing the students from their instructors’ as well as students’ points of view. the table 5 displays the first three highest and the least three means of the instructors’ and students responses to the items of the teachinglearning challenges facing students, and that all the items that got a mean of 2 or more represent a teaching-learning challenge for students. it is evident that all the items included in the fifth domain related to the physical learning environment include represent a teachingthaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 154 learning challenge for students from instructors’ as well as students’ views. in addition, it is clear from the fifth domain that there is an agreement between the instructors and students in terms of ranking items number 59 and 55 as having most of the teaching-learning challenges facing students. they also agree that item number 54 represents the least challenge in the fifth domain of the challenges facing students from the instructors’ as well as the students’ points of view. to answer the third question related to whether or not there were any statistically significant differences between the instructors’ and the students’ views due to the domains of the teaching-learning challenges, the table 6 shows means and standard deviation of the instructors’ and students’ responses to the five domains of the challenges. it is clear from the table 6 that there were statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between instructors’ and students views of the teaching-learning challenges facing students in the preparatory year program at taif university due to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges. however, there were no statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between instructors’ and students views in the first and fifth domains, which comes in agreement with previous results indicating a consensus of instructors and students on ranking these domains as having most of the teachinglearning challenges for students. discussions as for the first question related to the teaching-learning challenges facing students from the instructors’ points of view, it is clear that the fifth and the first domains represent most of the teaching-learning challenges. the fifth domain related to the physical learning environment got the highest rank of challenges as all the items represent a challenge for students. the instructors seem to reflect a realistic situation since the physical learning environment is inappropriate enough. according to them, the most salient challenges include classrooms which are neither equipped for the disabled nor with effective teaching aids. in addition, the seating arrangements are inflexible for pair work and group work. in addition, the first domain concerning the organization and structure of the efl (english as a foreign language) course got the second rank in terms of the challenges facing students from the instructors’ point of view. the textbooks have been adopted for the preparatory year students regardless a careful assessment analysis of their academic or language needs. the most salient concerns include issues related to the facts that most of the instructors believe that students are not given a good deal of choice over how the go about learning in the course. many instructors added that the course doesn’t sharpen their analytical skills and does not help students to develop their ability to plan for their own work. all in all, students don’t feel relaxed to do well in the course. with regard to the second question about the teaching-learning challenges facing students from their own point of view, it was clear that with the exception of the second domain, all the other domains represent a table 6: means and standard deviation of the instructors’ and students’ responses to the five domains of the teaching-learning challenges domain means for instructors mean for students t. value df sig. 1. organization and structure of the efl course 2.19 2.26 -.949 379 .343 2. teaching and learning english 1.90 2.14 -3.626 379 .00 3. students and teachers 1.51 1.88 -5.238 379 .00 4. assessment and other set work 1.99 2.13 -2.164 379 .031 5. physical learning environment 2.78 2.56 1.134 379 .073 total average 2.07 2.19 -2.22 379 .02 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 155 challenge for students. they ranked the fifth and the first domains as having most of the challenges. this comes in agreement with the instructors’ views in these two domains in general, which may support the point that the domains of physical learning environment and the organization and structure of the efl course should be revisited. as for the third question which showed that there were no statistically significant differences between instructors and students due to the five domains of the teachinglearning challenges, it can be stated that although there was a consenses between instructors and students on the fifth and the first domains, the results indicated that there were major differences between the instructors’ and students’ views. firstly, instructors indicated that there were only two domains that showed teaching learning challenges for students, namely: (1) the physical learning environment; and (2) the organization and structure of the course. meanwhile, students indicated that with the exception of the third domain about students and teachers, all the other domains represent a challenge for them. besides, it can be claimed that instructors and students are two heterogeneous groups having different mentalities, belonging to different age groups and educational and cultural backgrounds. instructors are mature enough to consider and evaluate issues scientifically and objectively; they have got the experience required to judge the items of the domains according to scientific standards. this might help explain why they only found two domains of challenges faced by students. meanwhile, students might not have the knowledge and experience to judge the items according to internationally recognized standards used by their instructors. besides, they are in their first year of this academic environment at university in which they have not adapted themselves enough to it. this might help explain the results indicating that they consider most of the domains as challenges for them. to sum up, the previous studies share this study in that they all discuss one or more of a teaching-learning challenge that face students at university level. for example, some studies discussed challenges related to academic language skills needed by students at university (cassannave & hubbard, 1992; braine, 2002; huang, cunningham & finn, 2002; batt, 2008; and nguyen, 2011). others discussed challenges of background knowledge (moje & o’brien, 2000; ambe, 2009; and ambe, 2011). another study was about the difficulties of learning environment (ambe, 2011). other studies were conducted to investigate challenges related to cultural issues (uckun & buchanan, 2008; and almanza, schonewise & klingner, 2012). in addition, a study found out that students have difficulties in critical thinking, being passive, not being able to mix, and ineffectiveness of progressive teaching methods (biggs, 2003). some of the challenges discussed above were included in the present study such as the learning environment (ambe, 2011). conclusion however, the present study was carried out to investigate a more comprehensive set of teaching-learning challenges students face in their first year of studying at university. it tried to investigate challenges related to the efl (english as a foreign language) course, teaching learning process, student and teachers, assessment, and the physical learning environment in which all the teaching-learning process is implemented. based on the results of the study, the researcher recommends the following: first, policy makers as well as instructors should pay more attention to preparing a suitable physical learning environment that enable students to maximize their opportunities of learning english in the preparatory year program at taif university. second, the curriculum committee should consider all the items of the questionnaire while reviewing and revising the course as both instructors and students agreed that the course being used represent a challenge for students. third, other studies should be conducted to investigate the teaching-learning challenges facing female students in the preparatory year program at taif university. thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 156 fourth, professional development workshops for instructors on the domains that reflected teaching-learning challenges facing students from their own of view, namely organization and structure of the efl course, teaching and learning english, assessment, and physical learning environment. references almanza, e., de schonewise & janette k. klingner. (2012). “linguistic and cultural issues in developing disciplinary literacy for adolescent english language learners” in top lang disorders, 32(1), pp.51-68. ambe, b. (2009). “literacy skills acquisition and use: a study of an english language learner in a u.s. university context” in adult basic education and literacy journal, 3(1), pp.24-33. ambe, b. elizabeth. (2011). “post-secondary learning: recognizing the needs of english language learners in mainstream university classroom” in adult basic education and literacy journal, 4(1), pp.13-19. batt, g. ellen. (2008). “teachers’ perceptions of efl education: potential solutions to overcome the greatest challenges” in multicultural education. buckingham: caddo gap press. biggs, j.b. (2003). teaching for quality learning at university. buckingham: the society for research into higher education and open university press. bovill, c., cathy j. bulley & kate morss. (2011). “engaging and empowering first-year students through curriculum design: perspectives from literature” in teaching in higher education, 16(2), pp.197-209. braine, g. (2002). “academic literacy and non-native speaker graduate students” in journal of english for academic purposes, 1, pp.59-68. bryson, c. & l. hand. (2007). “the role of engagement in inspiring teaching and learning” in innovations in education and teaching international, 44, pp.349-362. cassannave, c.p. & p. hubbard. (1992). “the writing assignments and writing problems of doctoral students: faculty perceptions, pedagogical, and needed research” as cited in j. huang, j. cunningham & a. finn. “teacher perceptions of esol students’ greatest challenges in academic english skills: a k-12 perspective” in ijaes: international journal of applied educational studies, 8(1), pp.68-80. entwistle, n., velda mccune & jenny hounsell. (2002). “approoaches to studying and perceptions of university teaching-learning environments: concepts, measures, and preliminary findings” in etl project: teaching and learning research program. conventry and durham: university of edinburgh. flores juarez, j.b. (2005). “promoting student success: students’ perceptions of the factors that influence their engagement at a mexican university”. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. austin: university of texas. available [online] also at: http://repositories. lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/1546 [accessed in taif, kingdom of saudi arabia: january14, 2013]. holmquist, m. et al. (2002). large-class teaching/learning: a c-selt project. sweden: chalmers university of technology. huang, j., j. cunningham & a. finn. (2002). “teacher perceptions of esol students’ greatest challenges in academic english skills: a k-12 perspective” in ijaes: international journal of applied educational studies, 8(1), pp.68-80. moje, d. & d. o’brien. (2000). “reexamining roles of learners, text, and context in secondary literacy” in journal of educational research, 93(3). nguyen, c.t. (2011). “challenges of learning english in australia towards students coming from selected asian countries: vietnam, thailand, and indonesia” in canadian center of science and education, 4(1), pp.13-21. srichanyachon. (2010). “goal setting for learning english of efl students”. paper presented in the v� worldwide forum on education and culture, in rome, italy. tinto, v. (2006-2007). “research and practice of student retention: what next?” in journal of college student retention: research, theory, and practice, 8, pp.1-19. uckun, b. & jessica buchanan. (2008). “investigation of cross-cultural communication between native english-speaking lecturers and their students in turkish tertiary education” in university of gaziantep journal of social sciences, 9(1), pp.101-129. yi-chang, h. (2011). “the effect of situational and contextual variables on taiwanese university students’ self-perceived language learning anxiety levels in the efl classroom” in pro quest dissertations and theses. yorke, m. & b. longden. (2007). the first-year experience of higher education in the uk: report on phase 1 of a project funded by the higher education academy. london, uk: hea [higher education academy]. available [online] also at: http://www. heacademy.ac.uk/assets/york/documents/ourwork/ research/fye/web0573_the_first_year_experience. pdf [accessed in taif, kingdom of saudi arabia: september 10, 2013]. yorke, m. & b. longden. (2008). the first-year experience of higher education in the uk: final report. london, uk: hea [higher education academy]. available [online] also at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ assets/york/documents/resources/publications/ fyefinalreport.pdf [accessed in taif, kingdom of saudi arabia: january 23, 2014]. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 157 appendice a: dear, students/instructors. the researcher intends to conduct a study to investigate the instructors’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning challenges facing students in learning efl in the preparatory year at taif university. to conduct this study, the researcher will distribute a questionnaire to identify your present level of the teaching learning challenges you face while learning english in the preparatory year at taif university. you are kindly requested to read the items and indicate the degree of your agreement on the challenges you face. please note that your contribution will be dealt with professionally and for research purposes only. thanks for your highly appreciated cooperation. the researcher please, put (√) in the box that corresponds to your point of view when learning english. domain degree no. the first domain: organization and structure of the efl course strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 1 it is clear to me what i am supposed to learn in this course. 2 i am given a good deal of choice over how i go about learning in this course. 3 the course units are well organized and run smoothly. 4 the course helps me to develop my problem-solving skills. 5 the course sharpens my analytical skills. 6 the course helps me to develop my ability to work as a team-member. 7 the course improves my skills in written communication. 8 i am generally given enough time to understand the topics i have to learn. 9 i feel relaxed to do well in this course. 10 the course helps me to develop my ability to plan my own work. 11 the course is easy to cover, which makes it possible to comprehend thoroughly. 12 the course strengthens my ability to discuss with others in a reasonable way. 13 the course encourages me to relate what i learn to issues in the wider world. 14 overall, i am satisfied with the quality of the course. the second domain: teaching and learning english 15 the different types of teaching (lectures, tutorials, labs, etc.) support each other well. 16 i always have a positive role in lectures. 17 the lectures are mostly an innovation of the course content. 18 the lectures are effective and clear. 19 i am encouraged to look for links between the course units. 20 the handouts and other materials i am given help me to understand the course units. 21 the teaching encourages me to rethink my understanding of the aspects of the course. thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 158 domain degree strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 23 i am prompted to think about how well i am learning and how i may improve. 24 i am not just given information; the teacher explains how knowledge is developed in this course. 25 the teaching helps me to think about the evidence underpinning different views. 26 the teacher helps me to see how i am supposed to think and reach conclusions in this course. 27 i find most of what i learn really interesting. the third domain: students and teachers 28 the teacher tries to share his enthusiasm about the course with us. 29 the teacher is patient in explaining the topics which seem difficult to grasp. 30 my views are valued in this course. 31 we support each other and try to give help when it is needed. 32 talking with other students help me to develop my understanding. 33 the teacher motivates me to do my best in the course. 34 the teacher seems more interested in testing what i have understood than what i have memorized. 35 the teacher makes a real effort to understand difficulties i may be having in my work. 36 the teacher normally gives me helpful feedback on how i am going. 37 the teacher is very good at explaining the topics. 38 the teacher encourages me to try my own ideas. 39 the teacher lectures the content in a clear way. 40 the teacher makes a real effort to have me actively taking part in lectures. the fourth domain: assessment and other set work 41 there are too many examination tasks on complex facts. 42 in the examinations, i am expected not only to show what i have learnt, but also to apply my knowledge practically. 43 the examinations help me to understand the content better. 44 it is clear to me what is expected in the assessed work for this course. 45 i have to really understand the topics to get good marks in this course. 46 to do well in this course, i have to think critically about the topics. 47 the teacher encourages me to think about how best to tackle the set work. 48 the feedback given on my work helps me to improve my ways of learning and studying. 49 the feedback given on my set work helps to clarify things i have not fully understood. 50 the teacher gives me the support i need to help me complete the set work for this course. the fifth domain: physical learning environment 51 the number of seats is adequate in relation to classroom display. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 159 domain degree strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 53 the number of students suites pair and group work. 54 lighting is enough for effective learning. 55 classroom is equipped with effective teaching aids. 56 ventilation is appropriate for effective learning. 57 classroom space and size are adequate for the number of students. 58 space of display is enough for effective learning. 59 classroom is equipped for the disabled. 60 classroom is clean enough for effective learning. thaer issa tawalbeh, teaching-learning challenges facing students of english 160 main campus of taif university (source: www.google.com, 13/12/2013) the first two questions were concerned with the instructors’ and students’ extent of agreement on the challenges students face while learning english in the preparatory year at taif university from students’ and instructors’ points of view. these findings could be due to the fact that instructors and students are two heterogeneous groups having different mentalities, belonging to different age groups and educational and cultural backgrounds. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 161 rosida tiurma manurung is a ph.d. student at the postgraduate program of literature science, majoring in linguistic unpad (padjadjaran university) in bandung, west java, indonesia; and prof. dr. dadang suganda and prof. dr. davidescu cristiana are the lecturers at the faculty of humanities unpad bandung. corresponding author is: rosidatm@gmail.com introduction in today literature, teacher figure has shifted. formerly, it was high, noble, and respected; now, it is corrupted, even poisoned. where does the positive label go? most students show no respect now to their teachers, as well underestimate and look down on them. what’s going wrong to have caused such negative labeling where the profession is highly burdened? they must teach and share their knowledge with sincerity, while still having to be patient with their students and transform them into useful human beings for the nation. it is a too burdened a job considering having to still make them (the students) smart while facing indecent act from the part of the students. a job that sucks. in the past, teaching was a highly respected profession. teachers used to live in wellbeing. during the dutch administration in indonesia, teachers used to receive more income as opposed to government officers. their profession was highly prestigious. their position was considered high. what has been happening from 2000s up to now? the profession of teaching is viewed as insignificant and marginalized. a teacher with teaching hour 24 hours weekly is only paid idr 900,000 (nine hundred thousand rupiah indonesia or less than usd 90) monthly. just slightly higher than the national basic/standard payment of labor. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence in modern literature abstract: previous to 1960, the literatures recognized teachers as highly respected figures. upon seeing a teacher from far away, a student would hurriedly run to reach him/her and would lead his/her bike. it was considered an honor to help teachers in one way or another. time and time in the past literature, teachers are labeled in such ways that the students would kiss their teachers’ hands to show them respect. the students would not hesitate to give their selves away to help cut their teachers’ grass. however, it is no longer the case in today’ literatures. the literatures repeatedly make fun of teachers, as well harassing and paralyzing them. it is ironical. teachers have lost their positive label and are labeled negatively as the product of indecent behavior from the part of the students. schools are becoming the fields for channeling violent attitude and behaviors to ruin the good image of a teacher. in this work, teachers labeling in the past and today’ literature are compared. literatures from 1960s and 2000s become the sources of data. language expression is analyzed with the help of critical discourse analysis using the method of contrasted descriptive and analysis, while data are collected by the technique of library study and interviews. it is expected that the result of the research help put the teachers’ label (already fading away, corrupted, and falling onto pieces) on its early respected place again. teachers with positive image are always needed and cannot be compromised. with the positive label of teachers, the process of studying and teaching can be performed more conducive, effective, interactive, and optimum. positive labeling of teachers need to be started in today literature. poets and authors have the central role to give appreciation for the teachers. key words: teachers labeling, violent expression, 1960s’ literature, today’ literature, contrasted analysis, and critical discourse analysis. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 162 what about honorary teachers? theirs must be even worse. teachers are also demanded to plant good values in their students’ life besides teaching them. when students are behaving indecently, teachers are the first to be blamed by the society, not the students or the parents. it is also the case when the students fail the national exam. teachers become like scapegoats. it is too ironic. negative labeling as expression of violence language is also used as a tool to express self. language expression is a tool to reveal openly everything in our minds, at least to establish our existence. the motivations behind the expression of self is various, among others is to get attention from people and to release emotional tensions. discourse can be utilized as a ware to determine someone’ or a group status who is under a certain authority or social order. discourse can be used to register a as immoral, b as moral, c as the violator, d as the enforcer, e as civilian, etc. it is clear that discourse is used to label status, authority, sanction, or punishment, etc. in discourse, status legitimating is done by labeling. jalaluddin rakhmat (2005:108) mentions that labeling is a form of euphemism, with significant difference. if euphemism is inoffensive as a substitute for uninteresting phrase, (for example “effort to control and rehabilitate” to substitute for the phrase exiling), labeling is on the other hand applying offensive phrase to a person, a group, or a symptom. during the era of nazi in germany, for example, the jews were labeled as “parasites”, “troubling animals”, and “bacteria”. by so doing, jews were considered no human being, but disease that must be busted and terminated. in indonesia, labeling also happens all the time. language expression, inside which labeling occurs, for example, labeling to indicate insignificance, such as kroco (slave), wong cilik (lay people), or tikus got (mouse). labeling in authority is showing when they use the phrases, such as anti-pancasila (antiideology), koruptor (corruptor), ekstrem kiri (left extremist), ekstrem kanan (right extremist), antipembangunan (anti-development), anti-reformasi (anti-reform), pro-kapitalis (pro-capitalist), and so on (depdikbud ri, 2004). language is strongly used as a tool to express. a philosopher, john dewey, reveals that words can express idea (cited in rakhmat, 2005). so, it’s not only words submit to our mind. our mind also submits to words. hence, words can influence how we think, remember, and perceive. in america, labeling has always been phenomenal. for instance, the terms like nigger, darky, honky “orang kulit putih” (white man), white boy, the little woman, and broad “wanita” (women) are labeling on status that ridicule and humiliate. based on its application, labeling is done with certain intention, be it positive or negative. some examples of labeling positively are gagah (handsome), bersih (clean), jujur (honest), pemberani (bravemen), aktif (active), and kreatif (creative). some examples of labeling negatively are lemah (weak), ceroboh (careless), pasif (pasive), pemabuk (drinker), pemalsu (counterfeiter), pembalak (loggers), and so on (depdikbud ri, 2004). during 1960s, positive labeling towards teachers was bold. teachers were adored and respected. their attitude and way of thinking were taken as examples of good ones. their words were considered orders to be taken. the students honored them higher than their parents. they didn’t stare at their teachers when speaking with them. instead, they bowed and spoke with low voice, always nervous and sweat. students of today have changed and their behavior shift into labeling their teachers negatively. teachers are no longer figures to be followed. the students are inclined to look down on their teachers due to great money they have paid for the teachers. teachers are viewed no more than paid people. this becomes a dilemma on the part of the teachers. in one hand, they eagerly seek to be labeled positively by the students, but on the other hand, they have to eat, to rent a house besides many bills to pay. they still have to work extra hours by giving extra courses in various places. in some places, teachers don’t hesitate educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 163 to drive people on a bike for money. hence, economic problem is one reason behind the downfall of teacher’s image. in addition, bad influence of culture coming from abroad and technology advances are also believed to cause the shift on students’ behavior which manifest itself in forms such as fight, bikers gang vandalism, drugs use, and immorality. the spirit of labeling teachers negatively seems to have dominated the students now. to gain back the positive label, teachers are required to have big hearts to fight for improved performances, competences, and professionalism. smart and broad minded teachers can always “hypnotize” and amaze their students. in return, their students will respect them. pursue of money has always been keeping them from doing so and causing the negative labels. will the teachers be left alone? in no way. the noble duty of teachers should be paid with high appreciation. no longer can no-payment-over-their-work be let happen. to quote fairclough & ruth wodak (1997), critical discourse analysis seek through languages used how existing social groups fight and propose their own versions. based on critical discourse analysis order, texts of today’ literatures will be analyzed from language expression perspective. texts will be interpreted and represented by using power expression. language is a tool for expressing political power, putting aside people, political jokes, realizing political violence agenda, selling out conflicts, chaos and spirit of sectarianism. language expression is searched with the use of critical discourse analysis model by fairclough & ruth wodak (1997), with language unit taken from political discourses, violence expression, critical texts study, and inter-textual analysis which covers texts level, discourse practice, and socio-cultural in representing parties in conflict who are inclined to use language expression containing violence. materials for study in this work take the form of violence expression in various literatures as found in newspapers. language expression containing violence will be analyzed based on critical discourse analysis (cda). when perceived from cda in formal settings, various kinds of terms to persuade positive expression concerning unity, orderliness, nation advancement, ideology of unity, archipelago perspective, taking off, national discipline, introspection, selfawareness, openness, and so on (cs, 2000). in the opposite, there are terms which sell out words expressing violence state, such as conflict, enmity, chaos, and sectarian spirit. for example, anti-development, left and right extremes, gpk (gerombolan pengacau keamanan or disorder and troublemaker group), sara (suku, agama, ras, dan antargolongan or tribe, religion, race, and intergroups), involved, non-native, embarrassing nation, disturbance on peace, subversion, unconstitutional attitudes, inconsistent, outsider movement, steering, to steer, free ride, pitting, delirious, social jealousy, etc. as dom camara helder (2000) put it, it seems that when violence meets violence, it is very much like a circle with no obvious point to cut off. violence is “any avoidable impediment to self-realization” (galtung, 1990:37). violence is everything that keeps people from actualizing self naturally from which he/she can actually escape him/herself besides to put aside the violence directly and indirectly, be it personal or collective including violence in language. in this wok, today literatures are prone to violence expression study on teachers labeling in literatures by reading literatures, sketches of life happening around us will be obvious to our eyes, besides we can detect values. at the opposite, negative elements and immorality occurring around the globes can be recorded in literatures. literatures from 1960s era and today differ significantly when put in contrast to each other. in this study, it is found that teachers labeling in 1960s and today are opposite to each other. the following data and analysis shows us about them. first, positive labeling on teachers in era of 1960s. literatures from era of 1960s shows as following: “there i saw mr. ajar, an angel, standing in front of the class, and his students, young angels. wow, what a wonderful screen to see” (cited in nm, p.42). rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 164 a young man desired to master sword skill. someone had told him that there was a famous sword master who had never been beaten. the master now stayed alone on top of a high mountain. becoming so determined, the young man managed to make a long trip and hiked the rugged mountain to reach the master. he finally reached the place, and learned that the master was already very old, skinny, but full of authority. “master, please teach me your sword skill” (anonym). “then, everyone will mind, teacher. no one would give away himself over to help work the land. but, for you, teacher, we will do whatever you tell us. for us, we know for sure that there are great rewards awaiting those who help his teacher” (cited in k1, p.34). “we all can feel that teacher is no longer here. no one else can do as much as he does. only to him in this village we pay respect. yes, it’s only to him. that’s it, teacher” (cited in k1, p.75). “i owe you, teacher. i will never afford to payback till the day i die. please, give me some more time to pay you back your kindness” (cited in k1, p.94). bang maing was very happy to listen to teacher rahim, while he was admonishing him. [...] bang maing returned home with clear mind ever since (cited in bdp, p.8). teacher rahim still smiled after koding kissed her hands, then she asked them to sit (cited in bdp, p.109). my grandpa used to teach [...]. i still remember that he was respected highly by his village citizens. everyone would bow respecting him when they met him on the street (cited in pk, p.32). from the above data, we can make analysis on how the students represent their teachers which as follows (table 1). second, negative labeling towards teachers today. today’ literature, especially well-liked fictions novel and teenage short story, recognize following data: “he worries about me? for what reason? she thinks mr. daud will pounce me like a tiger?” (cited in dm, p.13). [...] most teachers he knows are ferocious and rigid (cited in k2, p.13). “this ain’t yours, you say? this is your bag! oh, i know, all this time you play this robot toy”, snapped mrs. narlyn. “sometimes also plays karambol, mam!”, samsul responded. “geeeerrrr table 1: data on teachers labeling in the eye of students as found in literatures from era 1960s no. positive labeling on teachers students behavior representation and interpretation about teachers 1. very much like angels (holy) peaceful and exciting teachers are labeled angels (holy), which raises meaning that teachers have holy and soft hearts, have certain characters on their faces. students feel secure around their teachers, along with peace, being calm, and free from any fear. 2. called as master uphold their masters very highly labeled as masters, teachers are considered leaders, place for service, figures that have many faithful followers who will give their selves away to service, and highly respected. 3. rewards await those who help their teachers help teachers with enthusiasm teachers labeled as place for those who have rewards in heaven is a noble way of interpreting. doing so is the dream of every student. 4. highly respected place where students can ask everything the label “highly respected people” implies that teachers are charismatic, authoritative, a figure that makes students bow, obey, respect, and afraid of making them disappointed and hurt. 5. helpers owe their teachers labeling teachers as helpers implies that teachers have ability to ease their students’ burdens, figure willing to help in trouble, ready to help fix problems and difficulties, and to get rid of pain in any time. teachers with good manners of speaking and behaving always have idea to help solve students with problem. teachers are associated with curing drugs. 6. their advice are worth listening their advice calm the mind of the students the label implies that whatever the teachers say has some wisdom and virtue in it. their words and thinking have valuable lessons worth caring, listening, carrying into action. teachers are considered godly whose advices worth listening and following up. 7. worth respecting kiss their hands with respect the label implies meaning that they are loved, adored, needed, upheld, and respected. the students can also reflect on the virtues. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 165 ...”, the class became noisy and chaotic like in the traditional market. mrs. narlyn became mad (cited in o & f, p.55). “if mrs. nunik is our head class teacher, then we are in trouble. we know she is such garrulous. it’s a nightmare” (cited in bg, p.17). “how i long to choke her (mrs. nunik) on her neck. she is going to sit us on separate chairs” (cited in bg, p.17). “i am not color blinded. she is the one who is oldfashioned. witch, nenek lampir, villager” (cited in bg, p.43). “if nenek lampir had canine tooth, her bite will surely infect me. i smile to myself imagining she get crazy to bite me” (cited in bg, p.44). “not only once or twice i went through nightmares with her. suddenly, the horror music start to play in my mind” (cited in bg, p.138). the above data shows expression of violence in the form of harassing teachers, making fun of them, and humiliating them. the following analysis shows it (table 2). when visited from labeling perspective, teacher figure shows significant difference as found in literatures from 1960s and 2000s. literatures from 1960 still radiate positive labeling. students still adored their teachers, respected them, and placed them in the high places. students raced in helping their teachers for rewards from heaven. teachers were place for seeking answers for asking questions about lessons, family, or even about fields. thus, teachers were still considered experts, possessing much knowledge, and wise. in the eyes of the students and the society, teachers were higher than the parents, even other leading figures in the society. having an opportunity to communicate and interact with them was still an honor. hence, in literatures from 1960s, teachers’ image was positive. however, it is not the case today. teachers labeling shows a shift into negative trend. table 2: data on teachers figure, guru, in the eye of the students as found in today’ literature no. negative labeling towards teachers how students act representation and interpretation concerning teachers 1. fierce avoid teachers labeled “fierce” by their students usually speak loudly, has fierce face, and are quick to get angry. most students don’t like teachers such as them. the students always daydream about skipping classes with fierce teachers. they don’t expect their coming. this negative labeling leads to disobedience on the part of the students and to skip classes. once in a while, students dare to ambush teachers of that kind on the street and hurt them, even to the point of humiliating them. 2. rigid uncomfortable “rigid” labeling results in a figure characterized with inflexibility, stubbornness, and carelessness to the students and to the surrounding. a figure that is highly hated by the students. however, the students actually mistake consistency, obedience, and orderliness by the teachers with rigidness. 3. garrulous not care to the teachers; class in chaos “garrulous” negative labeling result in image that always cause dizziness. the students believe that this kind of teachers have fun in making up comment on everything every day. from the study material, to home assignment, to students’ fashion, to class setting, and to the students characters. they consider those comments as forms of getting involved with their problem. 4. horrifying scared “horrifying” labeling cause uneasiness to the students, besides dread and reluctance to associate personally with the teachers. 5. horrible nightmare “horrible” labeling emerges rude and impolite meaning. horrible teachers mean teachers whose comings are not expected. they must get rid of them because they are bad. they can damage peace, cause students to worry and relent. 6. talkative don’t like “talkative” labeling is worrying, since teachers are considered nerd, arrogant, proud, and talkative. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 166 teachers are ridiculed, humiliated, and become figure to be put shunned. students no longer consider their teachers as partners to work with. they place them in negative places. teachers are symbolized as horrible, evil, and dreadful figures. teachers labeling by students is not a rumor. they set them as targets for violence. once, there was a student beating his teacher badly only because hurt of being reproved in front of class. in other time, there was a student caused his teacher’s tire flat because given bad score on his lesson. in another time, a student threatened his teacher with knife to be passed on his exam. moral corruption is accused to have caused the behavior degrade. young generation today seems to not care of everything, see money as more important than religion, and set aside good characters. cultures from abroad and technology advances also have role in diverting teens’ behavior. noble characters are replaced with apathetic attitude, extremism, egoism that leads to crime, adultery, and sadistic acts. parents and teachers have moral and absolute obligation to filter influences of cultures and technology that bring negative effect, especially to teenagers (djamarah, 2005). they must have such sensitivity to detect anxiety and emotional instability of teenagers. parents and students must be close to each other and interact in harmony. students don’t need rigid rule but discipline that educate and personal approach that is sympathetic. parents can persuade teenager to think seriously about their future and prepare to be responsible about it. teachers must fight seriously to make progress in their images. negative, rigid, and terrifying label on their figure must be removed. the only way is to treat students as subjects not objects, that is by considering them as partners to work with in the learning and teaching process. teachers must have positive label, be wise, and have wisdom. anger can never help a teacher to be effective. he must invite his students to discuss problems in open sphere in order that problems be solved (kusnandar, 2007). teachers labeling is a determining factor in education process. teachers with no positive label will find it real hard to create conducive settings in the class and experience downturn in his value in the eyes of the students. students will perceive them no more than paid people. the phrase “hero without award” will leave as they lose their positive label. to encourage positive labeling, authors of today’ literature are suggested to create examples on good values and morality in their writings so that their readers, especially the students, can improve their diverted behavior. put the teachers on its place. do not make fun of them. in addition, every teacher must improve their performance and professionalism. teachers are necessary to be proactive to advance their understanding and competences to get positive reception from the students. smart teachers can always amaze their students and make them adore and uphold their teachers (soetjipto, 2004). conclusion from the research, some following findings can be achieved: in literatures of 1960s, positive labeling towards teachers was bold and teacher figure was pictured positively, teachers were central and key to education. teachers were labeled as though they were angels, esteemed, masters, worth to be honored for their words. in this research, it is found that today’ literature project a lot negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence. teachers are pictured as negative figure with no place. they are labeled as furious, garrulous, rigid, horrible, and terrifying. negative labeling towards teachers result in representation and interpretation that put teachers as victims of violence. positive labeling on teachers can be established if only teachers are willing to approach the students personally and spiritually. negative labeling on teachers can actually be removed if only teachers expand their knowledge and proficiency to be more valuable. technology advances and the coming of foreign cultures join in triggering the change and shift in young generation’ morality. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 167 references bdp, berita dari pinggiran (news from periphery area), by toha mohtar. bg, bad girl, by vierna mariska. cs [cultural studies]. (2000). teori sastra: pengantar komprehensif. jakarta: jalasutra egletonterry. depdikbud ri [departemen pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia]. (2004). kamus besar bahasa baku. jakarta: balai pustaka. djamarah, syaiful bahri. (2005). guru dan anak didik. jakarta: rineka cipta. dm, daun muda (young leaves), by el ovio. fairclough & ruth wodak. (1997). “critical discourse analysis” in teun a. van dijk [ed]. discourse as social interaction: discourse studies a multi-disciplinary introduction, vol.2. london: sage publication. galtung, johan. (1990). “cultural violence” in journal of peace research, 27(3), pp.291-305. helder, dom camara. (2000). spiral of violance: spiral kekerasan. yogyakarta: komunitas aparu, translation. kusnandar. (2007). guru profesional. jakarta: rajawali press. k1, kemarau (drought), by a.a. navis. k2, kencana (gold), by sitta karina. nm, nyanyian malam (night song), by ahmad tohari. o & f, ony & friends, by ferry a.f. pk, pohon keramat (sacred tree), by yus r. ismail. rakhmat, jalaluddin. (2005). retorika modern. bandung: remaja rosda karya. soetjipto. (2004). profesi keguruan. jakarta: rineka cipta. rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana, negative labeling towards teachers 168 the teachers of indonesia (source: photo album of aspensi, 10/12/2013) negative labeling towards teachers result in representation and interpretation that put teachers as victims of violence. positive labeling on teachers can be established if only teachers are willing to approach the students personally and spiritually. negative labeling on teachers can actually be removed if only teachers expand their knowledge and proficiency to be more valuable. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 169 minh-quang duong is a lecturer at the faculty of education, university of social sciences and humanities vnu-hcmc (vietnam national university – ho chi minh city), 10-12 dinh tien hoang road, district 1, ho chi minh city, vietnam. e-mail: mqduong. ussh@yahoo.com introduction since the late 1950s, a number of researchers have theorized about the nature of job satisfaction and developed models which attempt to explain differences of job satisfaction (sseganga & garrett, 2005). job satisfaction is a major concern of managers in business, executives in industry, and teachers and administration in educational organization. although there is no universal definition of the concept (evans, 1997), most of the definitions that exist in literature have a common theme. different authors have different approaches towards defining job satisfaction. the most used definition of job satisfaction in organizational research is that e.a. locke (1976), who described job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences and as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one’s job values (cited also in nguni, sleegers & denessen, 2006). a more definitive describes job satisfaction an attitude developed by an individual towards the job and job conditions (luthans, 1994). p.e. spector (1997) refined the definition of job satisfaction to constitute an attitudinal variable that measures how a person feels about his or her job, including different facets of the job. minh-quang duong a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members of the university of technology and the university of science in vietnam abstract: since the late 1950s, a number of researchers have theorized about the nature of job satisfaction and developed models which attempt to explain differences of job satisfaction. job satisfaction is a major concern of managers in business, executives in industry, and teachers and administration in educational organization. it is clear that very little research on university faculty job satisfaction has come from the developing world like vietnam. this aim of this study was to determine the specific factors that affected the job satisfaction of academic members both universities. the study used a questionnaire to survey with 141 academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam which selected as a statistical sample. the study showed that academic members of two universities were only a moderate level of job satisfaction. however, faculty members in the university of technology were more satisfied than faculty members in the university of science. the present analysis found that no significant differences existed job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities; but, there were significant difference between male and female faculty. in addition, male faculty members were generally more satisfied than female colleagues. the study also recognized that job satisfaction of academic members were significantly affected by their work time and institutional characteristics. key words: job satisfaction, vietnamese higher education, academic members, work time, institutional characteristics, and developing country. minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 170 there is a relationship between job satisfaction and very different variables. they include life satisfaction (ho & au, 2008); demographic, job, and personality characteristics (miller, mire & kim, 2009; and telman & unsal, 2004); performance (luthans, 1994); organizational characteristics (glisson & durick, 1988); and leadership, climate, and culture of the university (grunwald & peterson, 2003; hagedorn, 2000; and zhou & volkwein, 2004). several studies of higher education sector are used different factors to measuring job satisfaction of academic members. t. oshagbemi (1997) employed eight scales designed to measure satisfaction of university teachers in the united kingdom, namely: (1) teaching, (2) research, (3) administration and management, (4) present pay, (5) promotions, (6) supervision/supervisor behaviour, (7) behavior of co-workers, and (8) physical conditions/working conditions. the study of f. kusku (2003) measured the job satisfaction of academics in a university in turkey using the seven determinants: (1) general satisfaction, (2) management satisfaction, (3) colleagues, (4) other working group satisfaction, (5) job satisfaction, (6) work environment, and (7) salary satisfaction. according to k. sseganga & r.m. garrett (2005), measured the job satisfaction of academics of higher education in uganda using nine general elements of their work comprising: (1) teaching, (2) research, (3) governance, (4) remuneration, (5) opportunities for promotion, (6) supervision, (7) co-worker’s behavior, (8) working environment, and (9) the job in general. a study of s.h. chen et al. (2006) measured the job satisfaction of teachers in a private university in china using six satisfaction factors, namely: (1) organization vision, (2) respect, (3) result feedback and motivation, (4) management system, (5) pay and benefits, and (6) work environment. although c.j. cranny, p.c. smith & e.f. stone (1992) estimated that over 5,000 articles and dissertations have examined the topic of job satisfaction and it is a continuing topic for research. most of the research that has been conducted in the field of job satisfaction has focused on organizational business and industrial setting (platsidou & diamantopoulou, 2009). however, in recent years, a clear increase has been observed in the number of studies related to the job satisfaction of academics (neumann, 1978). unfortunately, evidence from job satisfaction of academic members in higher education of the developing countries is seriously lacking and is a gap which needs to be filled (garrett, 1999; hean & garrett, 2001; sseganga & garrett, 2005; and eyupoglu & saner, 2009). furthermore, very little research has focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (verret, 2012). hence, this study was conducted to explore factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members both universities within technology and science fields. the present study was designed to answer the following research questions: (1) what is the general level of job satisfaction of academic members both universities in vietnam?; (2) do any significant differences exist in the level of job satisfaction with regard to discipline and gender characteristics?; and (3) how are job satisfaction of academic members affected by their work time and institutional characteristics? studies of job satisfaction and faculty higher education there are several recent studies that addressed job satisfaction among academic members serving in the higher education context. the study of t. oshagbemi (1997) comprised academics from 23 universities in the united kingdom that teaching, researchrelated activities, and several miscellaneous dimensions of the jobs contribute significantly to both job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of university academics. for job satisfaction among academic staff from thirteen universities in turkey, h. saygi, t. tolon & h. tekogul (2011) found that co-workers and promotions were considered more important than the pay. the most important factor in job satisfaction was co-workers, with working as a team and sharing also rated as important. in another study, m. springfield-scott (2000) showed that sex and rank affected faculty job satisfaction; while age, race, and educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 171 tenure did not affect faculty job satisfaction in piedmont, north carolina university. in north cyprus, s.z. eyupoglu & t. saner (2009) explored that the job facets advancement, compensation, co-workers, and variety were found to be statistically significant with job satisfaction. beside, this study also explained that academic in north cyprus indicate only a moderate level of overall job satisfaction. in their study with academic members of ten private universities in bangladesh, t. ali & i. akhter (2009) recognized that faculty members are overall satisfied with their present condition, except the factors like training facilities, and some physical facilities and distribution of courses. further, it has been found that there is no significant difference between male and female faculty members regarding job satisfaction. in asia–pacific area, regarding the relationship between faculty job satisfaction and demographic variable of academics in a public higher education in singapore, e.p. paul & s.k. phua (2011) indicated that satisfaction over interpersonal relationships with students and co-workers, the autonomy and flexibility that the job offered. conversely, they expressed dissatisfaction over the amount of administrative/non-academic work they had to shoulder, heavy workload, salary, presence of “red tape” and other corporate practices, and dealing with disruptive students. age and job position affected the job satisfaction levels of the respondents. however, variables such as gender, academic qualification, length of employment, and marital status showed no significant difference. the study of f. noordin & k. jusoff (2009) comprised two hundred and thirty-seven of academics from a public university in malaysia that overall the academic staff of the university has a moderate level of job satisfaction. in addition, current status, marital status, age, and salary appear to have significant impact on the respondents’ level of job satisfaction. in their research with 173 teaching staff from three private universities in malaysia, a.s. santhapparaj & s.s. alam (2005) found also that pay, promotion, working condition, and support of research have positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. on the other hand, benefits and support of teaching have negative effect, and female staff are more satisfied than their counterpart. regarding the relationship between incentives, rewards, and recognition on employee motivation and job satisfaction of two hundred and nineteen of academic member of hue university in vietnam, n.c. nguyen et al. (2013) found that significantly positive relationship between reward and recognition, satisfaction with supervision and the job characteristics, with job satisfaction as well as a very positive and significant relationship was also observed between job satisfaction and personal motivation. in another study, m. gautam, k. mandal & r.s. dalal (2006) surveyed faculty members of faculty of veterinary sciences and animal husbandry, sher-e-kashmir university of agricultural sciences and technology of jammu, india that job satisfaction is a multidimensional phenomenon with a number of factors operating simultaneously. the overall job satisfaction of the faculty members is fair and moderate. moreover, the younger faculty members are more satisfied as compared to those with a longer service period although the relationship is not linear. again, the study of r.d. sharma & j. jyoti (2006 and 2010) comprised one hundred and twenty faculty members of jammu university in india that professors were more satisfied than lecturers and job satisfaction decline in the middle age. addition, intrinsic, extrinsic, and demographic factors were effecting academic staff ’s job satisfaction. unfortunately, very few studies have been conducted in the area of job satisfaction in vietnamese higher education as well as other developing countries. method dependent and independent variables. job satisfaction has been identified as the dependent variable in this study. this study measured the job satisfaction of academics of higher education in vietnam using six satisfaction factors, namely: (1) recreation and sport equipment, (2) medical facility, (3) in-service teaching training, (4) bonus and minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 172 welfare, (5) curriculum reform and evaluation, and (6) teaching load. in this study, factor loading and cronback’s alpha coefficient were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of this constructed measurement for job satisfaction of academic members (see table 1). according to j.f. hair et al. (2006), the selected criterions are: factor loading ≥ 0.6, cumulative explanation ≥ 0.6 (60 per cent), and instruments used in exploratory study have reliability of 0.6 and 0.7 or more (cited also in nunnally, 1978). the cronbach alpha estimated for this study shows acceptable level of 0.898. hence, based on the validation of construct reliability which is concluded that research construct of job satisfaction is reliable. the independent variables of this study include two blocks. the first block is work time per week, including teaching time, research time, community service time, and private time. the second block is institutional factors, including development aim, leadership style, campus landscape, and administration efficiency. sample. the population for this study was comprised of academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam. they consist of university of technology and university of science. those universities are member of vietnam national university of ho chi minh city (vnu-hcmc). a random sample of 141 questionnaires administered to potential subjects selected from the two universities. participants were currently working on campus. it is notable from table 2 that demographic data of responding academics was wide ranging. of the 141 respondents, 29% were female and 79.4% of male faculty. almost respondents consisted of 64.5% faculty were from 31 to 40 years old. regarding marital status, 67% were single, 73% academics were married. in terms of their academic qualification, 36.9% had master’s degrees, and 51% faculty had attained a doctoral degree. almost 91.5% of the respondents were lecturers and only 0.7% and 7.8% academic were associate professor and teaching assistant, respectively. the 39% faculty had from 6 to 10 years, 23.4% had from 11 to 15 years, and only 8.5% academic members had from 16 or more years teaching experience. data analysis method. questionnaire survey was used to gather data in this study. the participants are weighted on a 4-point likert’s scale to measure job satisfaction of academic members and institutional factors which impact job satisfaction (1 = very dissatisfaction, 2 = dissatisfaction, 3 = satisfaction, and 4 = very satisfaction). for work time factors, however, there are used working hours per week to measure the influence of job satisfaction of academic (1 = 0 hour, 2 = 1 to 5 hours, 3 = 6 to 10 hours, 4 = 11 to 15 hours, 5 = 16 to 20 hours, 6 = 21 to 25 hours, and 7 = over 26 hours). all data were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) 13.0 software. the statistical methods employed to analyze data are included. descriptive analysis is computed to examine the general level of job satisfaction of academic members. the analysis of variance (anova) is enabled to examine the difference between job satisfaction and discipline, and gender. to study the key factors of work time and institutional factors which significantly affect job satisfaction, multiple regression analysis is used for this study. results and discussion first, the level of job satisfaction of academic members among different universities. the results of table 3 display means (m), standard deviations (sd), and anova (analysis of variance) of job satisfaction of academic members in two universities and to answer the first and apart of the second research question of this study. as shown in table 3, the m and sd job satisfaction level of the respondents were 2.69 and 0.82, respectively. this result indicated that academic members were only a moderate level of job satisfaction, mirroring the results of the studies by s.z. eyupoglu & t. saner (2009) and n. malik (2011). according to s.h. chen et al. (2006), quality in teaching and learning can only enhanced if the faculty members are satisfied and content; and the health of an educational institution depend on the job satisfaction of its employees educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 173 table 1: the results of dependence variable in this study dimensions of job satisfaction factor loading cumulative explanation cronbach’s alpha recreation and sport equipment .858 66.630 0.898 medical facility .854 in-service teaching training .848 bonus and welfare .812 curriculum reform and evaluation .804 teaching load .711 table 2: demographics data of the sample characteristics n percentage (%) gender: male 112 79.4 female 29 20.6 age (years old): under 30 31 22 31 – 40 91 64.5 over 40 19 13.5 marital status: single 67 47.5 married 73 51.8 widowed 1 0.7 academic qualifi cation: bachelor’s degree 17 12.1 master’s degree 52 36.9 doctoral degree 72 51.0 academic rank: teaching assistant 11 7.8 lecturer 129 91.5 associate professor 1 0.7 length of employment (years): less than 1 17 12.1 1 – 5 24 17.0 6 -10 55 39.0 11 – 15 33 23.4 16 or more 12 8.5 (wood, 1976). furthermore, job satisfaction has serious implications for relations between the academics and the management of the higher educational organizations they belong to (eyupoglu & saner, 2009). thus, university management should invest more resources in enhancing the job satisfaction of academic members in designing institutional policies. for job satisfaction of academic members in two universities, academic members in the university of technology (m = 2.79, sd = 0.89) were more satisfied than academic members in the university of science (m = 2.58, sd = 0.73). however, the results of table 3 also found that there were no significant differences of academic members’ job satisfaction among the two universities (f = 2.198, p = 0.140 > 0.05). second, job satisfaction and gender of academic members among different universities. the findings of table 4 showed that a significant difference has been found between the level of job satisfaction of male and female academic members in the two campus (f = 7.032, p = 0.009 < 0.01), mirroring the results of studies by d.a. minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 174 pearson & r.e. seiler (1983); m. springfieldscott (2000); s. schulze (2006); n. malik (2011); f. mehboob, m.a. sarwar & n.a. bhutto (2012); and m.m. ghafoor (2012). however, male academic members both universities are generally more satisfied with their job than the female academic members in this study, supported by the studies of t. bas & k. ardic (2002) and o.e. olorunsola (2010). as shown in table 4, male faculty members in the university of technology had the highest job satisfaction (m = 2.86, sd = 0.43). the difference of job satisfaction among female academic members of the university of technology (m = 2.26, sd = 0.91) and the university of science (m = 2.37, sd = 0.55) were negligible in general. in addition, female academic members both universities were less more satisfied than male counterparts. third, regression between job satisfaction and work time, and institutional characteristics. the regression model wielded rather different explanation power for job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities. the results of table 5 showed the regression model proposed by this study explained 58.7% of job satisfaction of academic members in the university of technology (r2 = 0.587) and 46.6% of the university of science (r2 = 0.466). as shown in table 5, job satisfaction of academic members in the university of technology had a significant positive effect on community service time (β = .346, p < 0.01), private time (β = .234, p < 0.05), leadership style (β = .436, p < 0.001), and administration efficiency (β = .586, p < 0.001); however, job satisfaction of academic members had negative effect on teaching time (β = -.269, p < 0.05), and development aim of university (β = -.428, p < 0.001). both private time (β = -.417, p < 0.001) and development aim of university (β = -.287, p < 0.05) had significant negative effect on job satisfaction of academics at the university of science. according to n. hensel (1991), the average professor in higher education sectors works approximately 55 hours per week; and when added to home duties, it can grow 70 hours. there had no significant impact teaching, community service (bameka, 1996) and research (sseganga & garrett, 2005) on job satisfaction academics. research, teaching, and service are different dimensions of faculty work that often compete for faculty members’ time and commitment and are in conflict with one another (linsky & straus, 1975; fox, 1992; hattie & marsh, 1996; and fairweather, 2005). according to d. olsen, s.a. maple & f.k. stage (1995), academics expressed greater satisfaction with teaching are less likely to receive support and recognition from their peer in their department. m.c. liu (2001) found that academic members spend a greater percentage of time on teaching express greater dissatisfaction with their work; and faculty in table 3: means (m), standard deviations (sd), and anova (analysis of variance) results of the job satisfaction level in two universities universities m sd f sig. university of technology 2.79 0.89 2.198 .140 university of science 2.58 0.73 average of two universities 2.69 0.82 note: the mean difference is significant at the p ≤ .05 table 4: anova results between job satisfaction and different universities universities male female f sig. m (sd) m (sd) university of technology 2.86 (0.43) 2.26 (0.91) 7.032 .009 university of science 2.67 (0.79) 2.37 (0.55) note: the mean difference is significant at the p ≤ .01 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 175 the natural and engineering were more likely to spend time conducting research than teaching. m.f. fox (1992) and h.w. marsh & j. hattie (2002) indicated that increased time spent on research positively impacts job satisfaction of faculty, however, their study was inconsistent with this study. in addition, the results of this study are supported some suggestions by j.d. kelly (1989) and k. sseganga & r.m. garrett (2005) that most frequently perceived as responsible for low satisfaction is university policy/aim. morale is highest when faculty members participate in governance and decision making (rice & austin, 1988). the studies of t.n. kyamanywa (1996); e.j. venter (1998); and t. ali & i. akhter (2009) showed that leadership style significantly affected job satisfaction of academic members in higher education institution. a research conducted by s.h. packard & d.r. kauppi (1999) found that employees with supervisors having democratic management styles experienced higher level of satisfaction than with autocratic leadership style. furthermore, the important role management can play in the job satisfaction of academics. according to l.l. van tonder (1993), a manager could modify his/her management style to ensure that staff enjoyed maximum satisfaction and thrived emotionally and professionally. specifically, job satisfaction of academics may affect their perceptions of the effectiveness of the school as an organization (schulz & teddlie, 1989; hemmasi, 1992; maghrabi, 1999; and judge & church, 2000). conclusion 1 it is clear that the findings of this study have practical implication for university management and policy makers in vietnamese higher education. this aim of this study was to determine the specific factors that affected the job satisfaction of academic members from two public universities of ho chi minh city in vietnam. through the findings described in this study, academic members in the university of technology were more satisfied than faculty members in the university of science. the present analysis found that no significant differences existed job satisfaction of academic members among the two universities; but, there were significant difference between male and female faculty. in addition, male faculty members were generally more satisfied than female colleagues. this study also recognized that job satisfaction of academic members both universities were significantly affected by their work time and institutional characteristics. the findings of this study show that academic members both universities were 1acknowledgment: i would like to acknowledge my sincere gratitude to anonymous, kindest support and help, valuable advice, synthesized comments on revision, and detailed editing throughout. table 5: regression analysis results between job satisfaction and independent variables at the each university independent variables university of technology university of science beta (β) work time (per week): teaching -.269* research community service .346** private .234* -.471*** institutional characteristics: development aim -.428*** -.287* leadership style .436*** campus landscape administration efficiency .586*** r2 .587 .466 note: the mean difference is significant at the *p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01, *** p ≤ .001 minh-quang duong, a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction 176 moderate satisfied in their job. thus, policy makers and management of university need to re-examine their reward structures, value systems, and expectations placed on faculty work in order to keep highly productive faculty more satisfied with their jobs. in addition, each university management and policy makers should take more position factors than other factors in the process of policy development for institution. it is hoped that the barrier to the job satisfaction of academic members are found in this study may be useful for management institutes to develop work environment and culture that would allow higher levels of faculty job satisfaction and can contribute to a great extent to improve the level of academic members in developing countries in general and vietnamese higher education in particular. the data of this study obtained through questionnaires were all self-reports from the participants; 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(2004). “examining the influences on faculty departure intentions: a comparison of tenured versus non-tentured faculty at research universities using nsopf-99” in research in higher education, 45, pp.139-176. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 179 eko priyanto is a lecturer at the faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia. e-mail: ahmadump@yahoo.co.id introduction the issues emerging in the globalization time among others include democracy, human right, civil society, and environment. those issues, for the international society, are made into parts of requirements to be accepted in the international relation. the countries who do not comply with them will be seen to be isolating themseleves and they are regarded as abnormal and violating the rules (allen white, 2000; rodriguez et al., 2000; and winataputra, 2006). democracy, as one of the global issues, is viewed by many as a social system that will enable the people to pursue a good living (branson, 1999; azra, 2002b; and budimansyah, 2007). going in the line with the belief, many countries, including indonesia, have made countless efforts to transform their states to lead into a democratic society— particularly for indonesia, after its three decades of experience under an authoritarian ruler (ibnu chamim et al., 2003:vi). manifesting democracy in a society and a state is not someting easy to do; it is, in fact, a complicated process which possibly comes into a dead-end, meaning it fails to achieve. among the factors for such failure is a lack of main prequisite to be, i.e. the democratic culture and socio-politics. gabriel almond explained that a nation developing their democratic culture shall eko priyanto improving democratic values in civic education learning through groupeddiscussion method for the students in higher education institution abstract: this study was aimed at improving the students’ democratic values among the students in higher education institution through a grouped-discussion method. this was trigerred by a lack of understanding on democratic values among the students in the uniersity level. they also indicated less-democratic attitudes and behavior. this was an action reseach study following the model of stephen kemmis & robin mctaggart (1988). the subject of the research was the fourth-semester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. there were 60 students. the action (treatment) given was an application of grouped-discussion in the civic education courses. the data collection was through observation from which the results was noted in an observation guide. in addition, it was also done through testing of essay questions and an interview. two types of data were collected, i.e. qualitative data from document, results of observation, and recorded interview; and the quantitative data were from testing of preand post-test. based on the analysis, it was proved that the democratic values among the students can be improved through grouped-discussion method applied in civic education course. their average learning score was 63.75 before the treatment and it increased to 72.77 after the first cycle. at the end of the second cycle, it became 80.68. besides, another increase was indicated from their democratic attitude and behavior. they acknowledged that every individual has a freedom of giving his/her opinion, of making a group of organization, and participating in any organization, appreciating citizen and gender equity, and respecting other people’s opinion. key words: democratic values, grouped-discussion, civic education, students, democratic attitude and behavior, and good citizen of indonesia. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 180 undertake two following stages (cited in ibnu chamim et al., 2003:viii). the first stage is to develop democratic institutions. at this stage, it is aimed at creating a social condition and individual personalities which will promote the democracy. the second stage is a process to nurture individual attitudes supportig democracy. the first stage is to set a democratic social-structure and political-culture. indonesia is a democratic state. this can be seen from the formal and judicial evidences of its constitution or uud (undang-undang dasar) 1945, as it is ruled in chapter 1 on the form and the authority, article 1 paragraph (2) saying that “the authority is on people and it is conducted according to the constitution” (ubaidillah et al., 2000). based on its historical experience, democracy as a system of state rules a balance relation between the government, state, and people. these three parties control each other in conducting their rights and obligations. the balance position and inter-controlling are to avoid an anarchy and tyranny which may be done by one of the parties (dahl, 1971; budiardjo, 1977; sartori, 1987; and wuryani & syaifullah, 2006). this time, indonesia is at the stage of coming into the learning process of applying democracy in all aspects of nation and state run after its long waiting for the momentum. in national conference held by central committee of muhammadiyah on board of higher education, research and development (majelis pendidikan tinggi, penelitian dan pengembangan, pengurus pusat muhammadiyah), zamroni argued as follows: this can be well understood since the past legacy either of the old order or of the new order did not promote the democratization process, and the lack of education contribution to nurture the democratic culture. evenmore, the education have gone against it; it has made the cultural democracy a means to eliminate the democracy itself (zamroni, 2001:xvii). the break of reform waves in 1990’s has brought a new hope of demoracy development and of realizing a civil society in indonesia, though it left many unresolved social phatologies in the transition periods. building a strong foundation of democracy and civil society, particularly in the transition times, should not only be fought; it shall be nurtured, grown through well-planned efforts targetted to all layers of the whole society (ubaidillah et al., 2000). this is to make sure that “the tree of democracy and civil society” starting to grow, along with the “big wave” of democracy, human rights, and civil society in the world will not be withered and dry-dead even before it is rooted well. to this point, azyumardi azra explains that: one of the democartic infrastructures having an important effect on realization of democracy, democratic culture, and even civil society is education. it is not a ready-to-use product which needs only to be taken for granted. in fact, it needs to be learned and is sustainably practiced (azra, 2002a:6). civic education (ce) subject in the higher education has a strategic position in nurturing the understanding of democratic basic concepts, including the democratic values. it also teaches the application of the concepts and the values in society and in government. it is a step to grow the students’ awareness to practice the democratic concepts and values in the academic and social life of their educational setting and in the society in which they live (azizy et al., 2002). thus, the ce strategic learning is needed to establish a safe and critical atmosphere. this also functions to maintain a dialogue and participation of the students in the class. to achieve the objectives, some important aspects need to consider in planning and implementing the learning process. those include objectives, materials, method, media, learning facilities, learning atmosphere, and the students (djajadisastra, 1981; ali, 1987; and ahmadi & prasetya, 1997). the ce learning should employ a participative learning method and approach, i.e. learning approach and method to interest tthe students’ motivation to actively participate in the learning process. on the topics of democratic values, the right method to apply is a grouped-discussion. in practice, the usual method taken tended to indoctrinate, like a usual lecture with a little question and answer session. in such a process, students were only passive objects of learning. in fact, they should educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 181 be active subjects in the learning. this will put bad impacts on the students on the learning of democratic living which later will guide them in handling the problems in social life. they should be prapared to anticipate the complex and dynamic problems of realities which need right solutions (rosyada, 2003). the ce learning ideally is done in a democratic atmosphere. it refers to a class which provides all students with freedom to hold an open and fear-free discussion in critisizing actual social problems concerning the implementation of democratic values. it also have to entertain them with an active participation in the learning. thus, the role of the lecturer is only a facilitator to ease the students in learning a democratic life and he/ she is also a motivator to encourage them to learn actively a democratic living (numan somantri, 2001). based on the reasons above, a groupeddiscussion is an appropriate method to apply in the learning of democratic values. it is to train the students to practice a democratic life in the classroom, in the society where they live, and in indonesia as a nation-state. through its application, it was expected that the democratic values among the students would be improved: they would understand the values of civic knowledge more deeply, they would have a civic disposition, and they could implement the values (civic skills) in the daily practices. research method this is a classroom-action research adopting the model of stephen kemmis & robin mctaggart (1988). the method used is qualitative and quantitative descriptive method. the data of the research were collected through testing, observation, interview, quesionnaire, and documentation (arikunto, 1998; and muhyadi, 2008). the instruments of the data collection include: (1) evaluation instrument, post-treatment testing; (2) observation guide; (3) interview guide; and (4) questionnaire. the subject of the research was the fourthsemester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. there were 60 students. the action (treatment) given was an application of grouped-discussion in the civic education courses. the researcher here was also the actor of the treatment and two of his colleagues became the observers. the data collection was through observation from which the results was noted in an observation guide. in addition, it was also done through testing of essay questions and an interview. two types of data were collected, i.e. qualitative data from document, results of observation, and recorded interview; and the quantitative data were from testing of preand post-test. they were then analyzed through descriptive-quantitative method to analyze the learning achievements of democratic values, and the qualitative-descriptive was also applied to analyze the data driven from the observation and the interview. the formula used to analyze the quantitative data is as follows: frequence (f) pecentage (%) = ---------------------x 100 n note: frequence (f) = the sum of the students’ score. n = the number of students (subject of the research) results and discussion first, the analysis of average score of the democratic values learning. the result of improvement of students’ democratic values among the subjects from the pre-treatment, post-treatment of first cycle, and post-treatment of second cycle is displayed in table 1. based on the table 1, it can be concluded that the average score of the learning of democratic values among the subject indicated a consistent improvement. the evaluation of pre-treatment gave an average score of 63.75. from the second test given after the first cycle, it increased to 72.77 and it went up more after the second cycle, 80.68. in other words, the improvements in the stages were 14.15% (from the first cycle) and 10.87% (from the second cycle). the improvement of students’ score on democratic values learning is depicted in the diagram 1. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 182 second, an analysis of students’ learning mastery. the bottom limit of learning mastery in ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia is 70, based on the rector’s decree (rektor ump, 2008). the data analysis of the students’ learning mastery can be seen in the table 2. as it is seen in the table 2, the students’ understanding on the democratic values is low as it is indicated by the small percentage of those achieving the score above the required standard of learning mastery, 70. finding this fact, the researcher did an evaluation with two collaborators. it was done through observation on the learning process. the result of the observation revealed that the students had no much involvement in the learning process. this fact was seen in the students’ few responses after the lecturer’s presentation. only 3 students (5%) gave comment/question. some students were seen to chat with others, especially among those in the back row. the lecturer, then, warned and asked a question to regain their attention on the material discussed. based on the evaluation result, it is found that the alternative solution for the problems in learning the subject, especially on the democratic values, is a proper learning method. it is a method which goes in line with its material characteristics. it was, then, decided that the right method is a groupeddiscussion method. the method is rarely put, and even, is never used in the ce (civic education) learning, especially in the class as the subject of this study. it used to use a lecture method complemented with question-answer method (djajadisastra, 1981; and ahmadi & prasetya, 1997). thus, it was then concluded that the grouped-discussion method is the most appropriate method to be used in the ce subject, especially in the topic of democratic values (freedom, equality, responsibility, cooperation, belief, and legal obedience). from the table 3, it is seen a dramatic increase in which most students (90%) had made scores equal to or above the required standard of learning mastery. this was in contrast to the previous condition of pretable 1: the improvement of students’ democratic values pre-test post-test of cycle 1 post-test of cycle 2 average score 63.75 72.77 80.68 % improvement 14.15 10.87 table 2: the students’ learning mastery at the pre-treatment no total score below the required standard score above the required standard n 60 54 6 % 100% 90% 10% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 pre-treatment rata-rata cycle 1 average diagram 1: a diagram of students’ learning score of democratic values among the subjects educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 183 treatment in which 90% of them were unable to reach the minimum score. based on the on-spot observation, during the treatment of the first cycle, it was noted that all three meetings had changed in terms of the behavior of the students and the lecturer (observation notes i, 17/4/2013). as it has been known that, in the pre-treatment classes, the students were passive and they were reluctant to engage in the learning process; they did not ask any question and some even chatted to each other. the class was not conducive. it was only a one-way communication in which the lecturer always feeded in everything and the students were only passive audience. in short, the lecturer was the center of the learning process (ali, 1987; and sudjana, 1989). in the first cycle of the treatment, the condition had changed. the chances for the students to actively engage were there by opening a grouped-discussion sessions. the atmosphere was so conducive and muct better than the pre-treatment. the students focused on the class work and they were involved more actively in the learning process. this could be seen from their activities in the discussion either the members of the presenting group or those of the audience group. this proved an increase of democratic values implemented by the students. seen from their average score of 72.77, which was more than the previous score of 63.75, it was obviously found that the academic improvement was really there. the data of the students having gained a score equal to or more than the required standard of learning mastery was displayed in the table 3. as it was seen in table 4, the students who achieved below the standard were only minor, 3.33%. most of them (96.66%) had sucessfully achieved the standard score. in sum, the increase of the students’ learning of democratic values between three stages was 80% and 6.67%. there was a very dramatic increase from the pre-treatment to the posttreatment of the first cycle, as follows: (1) pretreatment = 10%; (2) post-treatment of first cycle = 90%; and (3) post-treatment of second cycle = 96.67%. the observation on the second cycle is basically the same as the one on the first. it was targetted to the activities of lecturer and students during the learning, particularly on the learning of democratic values using grouped-discussion method. the lecturer took a role of facilitator, motivator, and the drive (observation notes ii, 24/4/2013). the role of the lecturer as facilitator is to facilitate the discussion implementation like planning the learning activities and the grouped discussions, designing the rules of grouped discussion, guiding the paper writing, explaining the aspects of evaluation, providing the references for the students, and suggesting the students to actively update the information/news in electronic media as well as those reported in the printed media (journals, magazines, and newspapers), and also preparing the learning media. lecturers as a motivator is encouraging students to get involved in the learning table 3: the students’ learning mastery at the post-treatment of cycle 1 no total score below the required standard score equal/above the required standard n 60 6 54 % 100% 10% 90% table 4: the students’ learning mastery at the post-treatment of cycle 2 no total score below the required standard score equal/above the required standard n 60 2 58 % 100% 3.33% 96.66% eko priyanto, improving democratic values 184 process, namely the implementation of grouped-discussion on the actual social problems associated with democratic values (kirschenbaun, 1995). the ways taken by lecturer to motivate the students were through reinforcement, such as giving a reward and punishment. the prizing can be in the words of praise and in giving a score; meanwhile the punishment can be in the form of reducing the score or even cancelling the score of the subject. the lecturer as a dynamic factor is to ensure that the discussion can run well and it can achieve the targettted objective. in acting the role, the lecturer became a moderator of the discussion and gave a review of the discussions by providing case examples of actual social problems associated with democratic values (zamroni, 2003; and wantoro, 2008). the lecturer could make some humors in between, so the learning activities and group discussions can run more interesting and fun. however, it is undeniable that there are still some students who have not been involved in the learning process optimally and the grouped-discussion in teaching the democratic values . hence, they could not gain the learning objectives. the students, in the implementation of the second cycle, looked more active and creative. this can be seen from the students’ learning motivation which is generally better than that of the first cycle. more activities and higher motivation were proved in both groups (observation notes ii, 24/4/2013). the presenting group was better than the one in the first cycle, in terms of their mutual cooperation in the presentation, their topic mastery, their self-control/emotional control, their ability to respect the different opinion of others, and their reaction to answer the questions in polite way. the same improvement also appeared in the audience groups. they have a higher motivation to involve in the discussion as it was seen from the increased number of students who ask questions or respond comments from the audience, their questions were also about the topics discussed. their questions also explored the actual social problems. their competence was good: the ability to respect other ideas, the ability to control emotions, and the ability to use of the language properly and politely. thus, the interaction between the groups of students who presented papers and other groups of students who responded as well as among fellow students in the class was good and it created a conducive condition. the data in table 5 is depicted in a diagram 2. based on the precentage of learning mastery in each cycle, it proved that there was a very significant increase as the result of the second cycle shows a high proportion of 96.67% which can categorized as excellence. considering this achievement, the research was decided to be in two cycles only. discussion. through the grouped-discussion method, the students were trained to have a freedom of thinking, a freedom of giving opinion, and a freedom of participating. they were also trained to control their behavior; and their emotion and to respect others’ opinion, though their opinion was perhaps different from theirs. hence, they were trained not to be egocentric, and they learned to see thing in others’ perspectives. the application of the group discussion method in ce (civic education) learning can increase the students’ democratic value in the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia, since a group discussion is the decision-making process through consultation among several groups in order to solve problems that arise due to problems of common interest in order to reach an mutually agreed decision. the group discussions for students can increase their courage to put forward the ideas and opinions about the alternatives of solving a problem (solution) of the actual social problems discussed in the paper as well as to propose the arguments in proper manner. it has improved the students’ critical thinking and sensitivity to social problems that require the actual solution, widened their insights related to social life, of the nation and of the state by means of studying the actual social problems (gutmann, 1999; cipto et al., 2000; and muhaimin, 2002). it also has improved their educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 185 self-confidence and self-control ability, improved their ability to respect the other people’s opinion, and fostered a sense of great responsibility. finally, the grouped discussion has improved the students’ ability to cooperate with others in a same group or with other groups. the grouped discussion also can educate the students to understand and to have a willingness to implement the democratic values in society: the public of their class, the college community, the community in which the students live, to the wider community of the unitary state of the republic of indonesian. their understanding and application of democratic values as parts of the citizens will be able to strengthen the enforcement of indonesian state life, hinged at the democracy as stipulated in article 1, paragraph 2 of the constitution or undangundang dasar 1945 (budiardjo, 1977; daroeso, 1986; and taniredja, harmianto & priyanto, 2010). the students who have mastered thoroughly were given a remedial teaching and teachers also interviewed them. based on interviews, it was concluded that both students had a low motivation to attend the course/the learning of ce, especially in the democratic values. this was proved from the facts that they were not actively involved in the discussion. they, evenmore, preferred chatting with other friends to listening to the explanation of the course material given by the lecturer and to the ongoing discussions. for them, writing paper was only for meeting the teacher’s instruction; they did not put their best efforts to it. they were found out to frequently leave their classes. they did not like to read references, even the books were available (interview with the students, 24/4/2013). in fact, one of the students argued as follows: [...] the material of ce (civic education) is always the same from the past to the present; and i did not have any willingness to read literature books of new civics which have been modified to accord to the development demands in the reform and the globalization eras (interview with student a, 30/4/2013). seen from their learning achievement, both students had not mastered the civic knowledge, the civic disposition, and the civic skill. this was seen from their understanding on the material; they did not master the topics so well in presenting their paper. they could not explain the terms in their paper, and they also failed in three tests given. from their civic table 5: the data of students’ scores between three stages no evaluation below the standard of learning mastery equal and above the standard of learning mastery 1 pre-treatment 54 6 2 cycle 1 6 54 3 cycle 2 2 58 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 pre-treatment cycle i cycle ii diagram 2: diagram of students’ learning mastery in three stages eko priyanto, improving democratic values 186 disposition, both had not showed democratic attitudes, i.e. they did not respect others and even ignored them by having a chat with others during the discussion process, they did not accept the differences of opinion, and they were not responsible in doing their academic tasks. from their civic skill, both students were not skillful in finding the actual social problem in the society and could not give a good alternative solution (basrie et al., 2000; dirjendikti depdiknas ri, 2000; and azizy et al., 2002). conclusion based on the analysis and discussion in the previous sections, it can be drawn the conclusion as follows: the grouped-discussion method can increase the students’ democratic values among the fourth-semester students at the study program of indonesia and local languages education, faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java, indonesia. this is proved from a significant increase (86%) of the students who achieved the required score of standard learning mastery. the grouped-discussion method can improve the students’ civic disposition reflecting the democratic values in their daily practices. they have implemented and practiced the freedom of giving opinion and the freedom of participation, and they have actively participated in discussion. they have respected others’ opinion, the equality of individuals, and the rules of the discussion. references ahmadi, abu & joko tri prasetya. 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(2000). learning about foundation of democracy. los angeles: center for civic education (cce) university of california. rosyada, dede. (2003). “menciptakan experimental democracy melalui pembelajaran ce (civic education)” in warta ptm, 7/vi [july]. yogyakarta: majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. sartori, geovani. (1987). the theory of democracy revisited. chatham, new jersey: chatham house publishers, inc. sudjana, nana. (1989). cara belajar siswa aktif dalam proses belajar-mengajar. bandung: sinar baru algensindo. taniredja, tukiran, sri harmianto & eko priyanto. (2010). “development of civic education campusbased at muhammadiyah universities in central java, indonesia” in educare: international journal for educational studies, 3(2), pp.153-170. available [online] also at: www.educare-ijes.com [accessed in purwokerto, indonesia: march 5, 2013]. ubaidillah, a. et al. (2000). pendidikan kewargaan, demokrasi, hak asasi manusia, dan masyarakat madani. jakarta: iain [institut agama islam negeri] jakarta press. wantoro, tri. (2008). “profil pengembangan pendidikan kewarganegaraan sebagai pendidikan demokrasi” in acta civicus: jurnal pendidikan kewarganegaraan, 2(1), pp.215-222. winataputra, udin s. (2006). pendidikan demokrasi dan hak asasi manusia sebagai wahana demokratisasi: perspektif metodologi. bandung: rizqi offset. wuryani, sri & syaifullah. (2006). ilmu kewarganegaraan (civic). bandung: laboratorium pendidikan kewarganegaraan, fakultas pendidikan ilmu pengetahuan sosial upi [universitas pendidikan indonesia]. zamroni. (2001). “civic education di perguruan tinggi: urgensi dan metodologi” in warta ptm, edisi i tahun xvi. yogyakarta: majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. zamroni. (2003). “pendidikan kewarganegaraan: tradisi dalam memelihara kehidupan majemuk” in warta ptm, 7(xv). yogyakarta. majelis diktilitbang pp muhammadiyah. eko priyanto, improving democratic values 188 democracy in indonesia: between hope and reality (source: www.google.com, 15/9/2013) the break of reform waves in 1990’s has brought a new hope of demoracy development and of realizing a civil society in indonesia, though it left many unresolved social phatologies in the transition periods. building a strong foundation of democracy and civil society, particularly in the transition times, should not only be fought; it shall be nurtured, grown through well-planned efforts targetted to all layers of the whole society. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 189 fungai hamilton mudzengerere, m.sc. is a research fellow at the faculty of the built environment nust (national university of science and technology), p.o. box ac 939 ascot, bulawayo, zimbabwe; and edmore mbokochena, m.ed. is a lecturer at the department of psychology, women’s university in africa, harare, zimbabwe. corresponding author is: fmudzengerere@gmail.com introduction religious studies in zimbabwe have always been part of the curricula both in rural and urban areas. according to b.r.s. chivore (1990), its origin can be traced to the advent of the white missionaries who started formal education. religious studies was then introduced in the secondary school curriculum by the white missionaries and become one of the core subjects in any missionary school. the teaching of religious studies was a preserve of the white minority missionaries who wanted to convert african children to christianity. according to m. haar (1990), religious studies was taught only by the white missionaries and very few indigenous people were qualified to teach it and this resulted in the subject becoming compulsory in the colonial education system. at this juncture, it is interesting to note that religious studies was only confined to few missionary schools and later it was also introduced to a few selected government schools in urban areas. as pointed out by g. haar, a. moyo & s.j. nondo (1992), at independence in 1980, the new zimbabwean government inherited a curriculum at secondary schools level structured on the british elitist model, which was designed to alienate the majority of black children. since its introduction in the secondary school curriculum, religious studies at ordinary level has not witnessed fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena the delicate dropping of religious studies at ordinary level by students in high density urban schools of harare, zimbabwe abstract: with the new developments in technology worldwide, science subjects are dominating in the curricular and given special preference as compared to the arts subjects. this study examined some of the factors that influence pupils to drop religious studies at ordinary level in harare education province in zimbabwe. the research focused on aspects such as social problems, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors on the student as well as the influence from the teachers and school authorities. four schools were selected for the study and interviews were done to students sitting for the ordinary level examinations to determine the reasons for dropping religious studies. key informants interviews were done to respective teachers, school authorities to get their views on the dropping of religious education in schools. the other research instruments used were questionnaires, interviews, and the document analysis in order to gather as much data as possible both from students and school authorities. the research found out that pupils in high density secondary schools of harare are badly burdened by the poor financial background, lack of learning resources, and uncertainty of the future careers of the subject when they finish school. this was found to affect the schools enrolments for religious studies at ordinary level as well as sitting for the final ordinary level examinations which was shown to have drastically declined. the study, thus, recommended the promotion of modern and dynamic methods in the teaching of religious studies with a new changed path for multi-faith approach in lesson delivery as well as the use of technologies to make the learning exhilarating. key words: students, school, religious studies, teacher, urban, pupils, ordinary level examinations, social problems, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies 190 any significant change in forms of content and methodology. though effort has been exerted to introduce and promote the multifaith approach in teaching religious studies, the implementation phase has been piecemeal; hence, the traditional and orthodox methods of teaching religious studies are still prevalent in most missionary and government schools throughout zimbabwe, which has negatively affected pupils’ interest and enthusiasm in the subject. scope of the study, research method, and study area the research aimed at seeking to find the principal factors which have influenced pupils to drop religious studies at ordinary level in large numbers. it involved determining the dropout rate for religious studies in four highglen cluster secondary schools in harare education province. in trying to justify the dropout, the research also established the reasons why pupils are dropping out and hence trying to solve the problem by highlighting some recommendations on how this can be resolved for the benefit of the community. the research also seeks to determine the attitude of students towards religious education, the availability of learning resources, as well as the instructional approach employed by religious studies teachers in imparting the knowledge to the pupils. the research tools used were interviews, questionnaires, and primary and secondary data sources. the researchers used two types of triangulation, that is, data triangulation and methodological triangulation whereby data triangulation involved the collection of data over some period and from one person at more than one location so as to check on consistency and validity. p.d. leedy (1983) regards validity as the degree to which correct references can be made on the basis of results obtained from an instrument. method of triangulation involves the use of more than one method of obtaining information (gunda, 2011). thus, in this research different times of interviewing as well as data collecting environments were varied so as to reduce the bias. this research utilised both qualitative and quantitative methods where the researchers tried to simplify what has been observed for the purposes of data analysis and interpretation. case study was also done on the selected schools so that detailed data was obtained pertaining to the dropout of religious studies by the pupils. interviews were done both to students, teachers, and administrators so as to get their views on the dropout of religious studies. according to k.s. sidhu (1984), interviews are crucial in getting the facial and body language in collection which makes it reliable as data collection technique. for students, group interviews were done; and key informants interviews were conducted on administrators and educationists. the researchers used both individual and group interviews to probe information from heads of departments, religious studies teachers, and pupils who had dropped religious studies at form four in harare province of the ministry of education, sport, and culture in zimbabwe. for effective collection of data, research instruments like questionnaires were used as these helped to control responses (cohen, 1985). documentary analysis was also done on checking the documents for those who were taking religious studies and later dropped. this was done to cater for the non-participatory observation (jackson, 2004). four high schools were selected in the high-glen district of the ministry of education, sport, and culture of the harare region in zimbabwe. the sample size comprised of 90 students, 30 teachers, and four heads of departments. school leavers were also part of the target population. data collected was analysed and then summarised in tables, graphs and pie charts, frequency distributions, and percentages assigned in relation to frequencies of response type. in this state, data became easy to compare. tables were used in analysing population sizes and responses. frequency distributions and percentages of samples, similarities, and differences of responses were also analysed. the research project was confined to high-glen district of the harare region of the ministry of education, sport, arts and culture in zimbabwe. four high schools were educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 191 selected for study to ascertain the dropout in religious studies by students. high-glen district comprises the high density areas of highfield, gen-norah, and glenview. the areas comprised of people whose livelihoods depend on formal employment in the industrial areas, informal employment, and some who are not employed at all. the catchment area of the schools is the local area though there are some who travel from other residential areas and some students from this study area also study elsewhere. in terms of educational administration, there is a district education office in the area which then refers other issues to the regional office and head office in the city of harare. literature review with the continuous review of the curriculum, there is still a dispute within the curriculum development unit (cdu) about what may be considered legitimate curriculum content in religious studies. according to h. cohen (1985), there is a problem in determining the religious studies curriculum and the students’ christian beliefs. thus, christian beliefs should not be taught as body of established truth knowledge in religious studies, but religious studies must be considered as a subject when it is being taught. as pointed out by e.o. iheoma (1986), religious studies content should understand the language, history, and customs of society with the aim of preserving the society’s identity and social existence. e. ezewu (1986) also supports the same idea by saying that the nature of society in which the child lives is of paramount significance with regard to the scope of content. some scholars are of the opinion that religious studies content must be based on the interest and inclinations of pupils themselves (gunda, 2011). thus, the curriculum content should satisfy the inherent interests and preferences of the pupils rather than become an imposition of the value judgment of the society as this in the end will affect the pupil’s interest in the subject which can then lead to dropping the subject (cohen, 1985). in religious studies, thus, the child centered approach in lesson delivery should be employed. this can be done through building the content around the needs and interest of children as well as changing the curriculum which remains static over a long period of time. s. nondo (1991) has questioned the continuous dominance of christianity in religious studies lessons at the expense of other religious and african traditional religion. this alone undermines the importance of religious studies in the school curriculum. the religious studies content and syllabus should be relevant and reflective of societal aspirations of the zimbabwean people besides teaching the christianity values. according to s. schoeman (2006), teaching methods are those strategies or techniques adopted by teachers as the most efficient means of achieving lesson objectives. these teaching methods play a crucial role in disseminating information as well as instilling interest and motivation to the students. currently, religious studies teaching is basically bible knowledge and little emphasis is given to the traditional culture. in the education system at schools and colleges what goes on by the name of religious education are lessons in bible-knowledge whereby teachers use the bible content approach and not child-centred approach (sanders, 1984). religious studies is basically now viewed as the transmission of knowledge of the bible and the christian faith. traditional teaching methods characterised by teacher and book domination are prevalent in most secondary schools in zimbabwe. p. kasambira (1998) believes that the persistence of orthodox and conventional methods of teaching religious studies have been necessitated by the aims and objectives of the subject and the methods of assessment. there is an assumption that the teaching of religious studies is more of indoctrination whereby besides the objective of grasping the concepts, the religious beliefs of the students are also affected as in the end they are to be converted to christians. the adequate provision of teaching and learning resources enhances academic performance and motivation of pupils (duncan, 1989). deprivation of basic educational resources such as textbooks, affects fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies 192 pupils’ performance, and this in the end may cause pupils to dropout some subjects. however, e. ezewu (1986) argues that the provision of teaching resources does not necessarily improve pupils’ performance as performance is based on ability and attitude. however, there is need for making sure that learning resources are provided so as to motivate students in taking up religious studies and improve on their performance. according to j. duncan (1989), the general feeling or belief towards religious studies is that it is easy and is an option offered to slow learners in schools. pupils, then, develop a negative attitude towards the subject as they don’t want to be associated with cheap subjects. m. haralambos (1985) rightly confirms that the manner in which teachers react to individual pupils can affect their educational career and feeling towards the subject. the system of streaming practiced by most school has worsened the situation as religious studies is offered to the slow learners; hence the fast learners end up dropping the subject. streaming results in pupils perceived as having low ability being actually denied knowledge which is essential for educational success. discussions and findings first, on the qualifications of the religious studies teachers. figure 1 shows that most teachers who teach religious studies attained ordinary level as their highest qualification of learning. trained teachers comprise 50% with the female teachers dominating from the interviews conducted. the teachers’ qualifications are necessary to show competence in the subject areas as this plays a role in ensuring quality education. m. hanson (1979) says that the training of teachers and administrators in the education system improves on quality and confidence in the execution of the duties. students will have confidence in their teachers through the qualifications they hold. second, on the reasons for dropouts of religious studies. to some extent, the school administrators who are the headmasters and the teachers contribute as well to the dropout of religious studies. about 10% of the students quit religious studies because of streaming. streaming of pupils according to ability is one of the reasons why pupils do not attend certain subjects or take it seriously for they are considered incapable of doing some subjects and content. according to r. jackson (2004), lack of interest and poor academic performance at primary level are some of the reasons which adversely affect school performance and, thus, end up dropping religious studies as a final resort. according to the teachers interviewed on the reasons for the dropouts, 25% attributed lack of relevance of syllabus and 20% cited inappropriate objectives of the subject which lead to pupils dropping it at ordinary level (interview with the teachers, 9-16/10/2012). figure 2 shows the responses by the teachers on the reasons for the dropouts. the headmasters interviewed attributed the dropout to lack of relevance of the syllabus as well as lack of motivation of the students on the subject (interview with the headmasters, 18-25/10/2012). thus, carrier guidance needs to be done in schools so as to motivate students and letting them know the future carriers they can do with religious studies (ndlovu, 2013). the histogram shows that about 26% of the religious studies dropout in the four schools have a feeling that pupils’ dropout is due to the restrictions of the relevance of the syllabus. this implies that the content in the syllabus figure 1: distribution of teachers by qualification educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 193 seems to be too difficult for pupils’ perception. about 20% of the teachers believe that the current religious studies syllabus is predominantly christian in nature and does not include non-christian sects. they felt that the syllabus should be amended without delay so that it incorporates the students’ needs in their learning. the teachers felt that objectives of the subject were not well revised in that though they tended to be measurable within the thirty-minute lesson they hardly have lasting effects (interview with the teachers, 9-16/10/2012). lack of motivational background and lack of interest from pupils in general both have 14% responses. pupils lacked motivation from parents who hardly encouraged them to do homework at home. pupils’ sentiments were that home backgrounds were not conducive to learning. about 10% of the teachers agreed that streaming of pupils is one of the factors which influenced the subject dropout. d.c. sanders (1984) also points out that streaming of students have an implication on the performance of the students as it labels students. third, on the teaching method used. from figure 3 shows that about 10% of the religious studies teachers from the high density schools in harare use dictation method when teaching the pupils. it is an indication that teachers hardly use varied teaching methods. discovery method through group work was used by about 20% of the teachers and 30% of the teachers use the lecture and chalk board method. from the teachers interviewed, about 40% of the teachers give notes to the pupils either by dictation or by chalk-board writing. the teachers stated that shortage of basic resources and the non-availability of revision practice books influenced teachers into giving notes to pupils (interview with the teachers, 9-16/10/2012). the research found out that the problem of text books shortage is common in all the schools under study. discovery learning, according to p. obanya (1985), affirms that teachers should encourage researching, reasoning, and presentation of accounts by pupils. most teachers interviewed agreed that most of the pupils are of mixed abilities who find it difficult to make their own notes but need to be spoon fed (interview with the teachers, 9-16/10/2012). m.r. gunda (2011) regards drama as essential in religious studies lessons. he argues that it provides opportunities for active participation in lesson being taught at ordinary level and it will be easy for the pupils to recall the information dramatized. there is need to adopt and implement the new approaches in religious studies teaching that makes the subject interesting. as shown in figure 4, about 40% of the heads of departments of the four schools confirmed that the lecture method was used by most teachers because of the format of assessment of religious studies examinations stressed retention and the regurgitation of stories. the heads of department also agreed that note giving is often used by some teachers although they agreed that such scenario make the religious studies lessons to be teachers responses 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 r e la v a n c e o f s y lla b u s o b je c ti v e s s e t m e a s u ra b le s tr e a m in g o f p u p ils l a c k o f in te re s t p o o r b a c k g ro u n d p o o r s ta ff d e v e lo p m e n t p o o r p ri m a ry p e rf o m a n c e items p e rc e n ta g e s percentage figure 2: responses by teachers on the dropout of religious studies fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies 194 response by teachers discovery method 20% lecture method 30% dictation 40% note giving 10% n = 30 figure 3: distribution of respondents view on teaching methods used response by heads of departments 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 lecture method note giving discovery dictation variables pe rc en ta ge percentage figure 4: responses by head of departments dull, monotonous, and uninspiring; consequently, pupils drop the subject at ordinary level. least number of heads of department agreed that discovery method and dictation was barely used by teachers during lesson delivery, since most pupils are of below average and cannot grasp anything either by discovery method or by dictation (interview with the heads of departments, 1-8/11/2012). fourth, on the reasons by students for dropping religious studies. figure 5 shows that about 22% of pupils drop the religious studies subject due to unconfirmed transfers as revealed in class registers of the four schools. about 28% of the pupils lacked financial support from parents or guardians for them to sit for all the subjects at ordinary level. the research found out that the pupils’ guardians dictated to them the subjects they would enrol. about 33% of the pupils dropped the subject for no apparent reason. about 7% dropped the subject from school to go and become housemaids, tuckshop keepers due to lack of financial support from their guardians. this has been triggered by the high cost of living which most parents are failing to cope depending on their type of employment. only about 2% of the girl-child dropped from writing the religious study subject due to early marriages. the writers felt that this was due to lack of parental guidance. about 5% of the pupils dropped from writing the subject owing to ill health problems as they were at hospital or recuperating from home. according to r. jackson (2004), student’s dropout from schools due to social problems can as well be attributed to early socialization where the community takes little value in the education. thus, motivation for pupils to continue studying can begin at the family level if meaningful results are to be attained as the family is the centre for primary socialization. fifth, need to change the syllabus. from the information on figure 6, about 60% of the heads of department from the four schools were for the idea that the current syllabus needs to be changed completely so as to incorporate the content that makes the subject interesting. some key informants from the ministry of education officials beg to differ saying that world religions and african traditional religions were well catered for, especially at junior certificate level and other subjects like history and sociology. about 30% of the heads of departments felt that the current religious studies syllabus needs slight alterations. the research found out that the respondents only wanted other religions other than christianity to be integrated into it so that there is a balance between christianity and other religions and traditional beliefs. some key informants lamented on the lack of relevance in the current syllabus and were for the idea of complete overhaul of the syllabus. this could have been sighted due to poor educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 195 performance by most pupils with the current syllabus (interview with the heads of departments, 1-8/11/2012; and interview with the ministry of education officials, 9-16/11/2012). b.r.s. chivore (1990) points also out that curriculum development is crucial and it must take into consideration the pupils and other stakeholders. sixth, on an availability of teaching resources in religious studies. though the schools had different capacities to source teaching or learning resources, they experienced a critical shortage of bibles and commentaries. in all the four schools, the revised standard version bibles were readily available. from the information shown in the diagram, figure 7, about 60% of the resources used are bibles which are mainly imported into the country. barely 20% of the bible commentaries were available from all the four schools. about 80% of the teachers indicated that there was a critical shortage of bibles in the schools making the learning resources limited which to some extent contributes to the dropout of religious studies by the students. from the key informants interviews done on the school heads and the ministry of education officials, textbook pupil ratios ranged from 1:3 to 1:10 or more. having such a ratio distribution of resources, most pupils can hardly carry out their homework or assignments (interview with the headmasters, 18-25/10/2012; and interview with the ministry of education officials, 9-16/11/2012). h. cohen (1985) says that learning resources helps to improve the performance and need to be provided for the benefit of the students. according to l. ndlovu (2013), most school libraries are poorly equipped in terms of bibles, commentaries, and others resources for use; and this is a drawback to those who would want to excel in the subject. from the focus group discussions done on teachers and figure 5: distribution of respondents on possible reasons/causes of dropouts in religious studies departmental heads response 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 complete change overhaul slight alterations major alterations variable percentage percentage figure 6: the responses of the heads of department on syllabus changes pupils, poor performance in the subject was a result of inadequate learning resources and non-availability of revision practice books which makes the pupils well equipped for the examinations. about 33% of teachers interviewed said that inadequate learning materials, coupled with non-supporting home backgrounds, down-graded the status of urban pupils as fully pledged pupils (interview with the teachers, 9-16/10/2012). from table 1, absenteeism by pupils from the documentary analysis of four schools stood at 27% whilst low teacher morale stood at 20%. this was probably due to lack of teaching/learning resources in the four schools. pupils could hardly be given homework due to lack of learning resources and most pupils’ guardians could hardly afford to buy them personal textbooks since they come from the low income earning families. fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies 196 staffing issues with the massive exodus of teachers to greener pastures outside the country had impacted negatively on the performance of the students. the remaining teachers, whose morale is low due to poor working conditions, also has an impact on performance of the students; hence, this leads to the dropping of religious studies and other subjects. intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is crucial for both the teacher and the student in achieving goals (haralambos, 1985). conclusion the research found out that most religious studies teachers were qualified and have had long experience with the pupils’ social needs and concerns. thus, dropping of students in religious studies and poor performance is attributed to many factors, among which are: streaming of pupils according to ability which de-motivate pupils from performing better results; pupils’ lack of interest to learning; poor background and poor primary performance which was found to have negative impact on the pupil’s performance; and development thus dropping out of certain subjects such as religious studies. thus, pupils with such poor family background need assistance from teachers, well wishers, and other social organisations such as churches so as to be afforded the opportunity to go to school. there is also a prevalence of a wide range of problems in organisations such as syllabus changes or alterations, and varied teaching methods used by teachers and lack of teaching or learning resources. there is hardly time given to religious studies teachers on staff development to counsel the absconding pupils as compared to other science subjects with variety of teaching methods and technological advancements. thus, pupils end up dropping religious studies due to lack of such innovations. there is, therefore, need to advocate for up to date teaching methods, resources, and technologies which makes learning more interesting and child centered. the following recommendations regarding teaching of religious studies have been made: first, there is need to restructure the religious studies syllabus so that it caters for other aspects like traditional beliefs and other religions to see similarities and differences. second, financial assistance need to be provided to pupils whose parents and guardians who cannot meet the required amount to register for all subjects at ordinary level for example by hupenyu hutsva orphanage and the nazarene church all in highfield area. pupils orphaned due to the table 1: distribution of respondents on possible reasons for poor performance possible reasons percentage frequency teachers heads of departments inadequate resource learning 33 50 poor staffing 20 0 absenteeism 27 25 low teacher morale 20 25 total 100 100 resource distribution 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 bibles commentaries nothing variable p er ce n ta g e percentage figure 7: the impact of resource shortages on pupils’ performance educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 197 current aids (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) pandemic should be followed up and assisted by aids organisations so that they complete their academic studies, for example the sos (save our souls) children village and the mashambanzou care centre in waterfalls, usually pay up fees for registered orphaned children. third, parents and teachers should educate children on the importance of a positive attitude toward schoolwork, for productive learning to take place in religious studies. fourth, the school development committee, as the arm of school’s development machinery, need to staff develop its religious studies teachers to enable professionalism and effective operations by inviting relevant educational officers in the subject and conducting seminars on new teaching methods. fifth, teachers, especially the newly trained, need constant support from the head teachers and from the supervision team, the heads of department to guide the teachers and pupils in their learning. sixth, the community should be involved in motivating pupils’ interest to learn religious studies by inviting professionals such as prominent pastors and evangelists of various religions sects to assist in narrowing the syllabus and motivating students to take the subject. finally, seventh, the ministry of education, sports, and culture, through the education district officials, should be involved in processing speedy methods of importing relevant textbooks needed in schools or provide cheaper photocopying stations for schools in high glen, so that all pupils benefit from available resources. references chivore, b.r.s. (1990). curriculum evaluation in zimbabwe. harare: books for africa. cohen, h. (1985). an introduction to the sociology of education. london: macmillan. duncan, j. (1989). the education of the ordinary child. new york: the ronald press. ezewu, e. (1986). sociology of education. london: longman. gunda, m.r. (2011). “from text to practice: the role of the bible in daily living of african people today” in bible in africa studies, 4. haar, m. (1990). sociology: themes and perspectives. london: unwin-hyman, 3rd edition. haar, g., a. moyo & s.j. nondo. (1992). african traditional religions in religious education: a resource book with special reference to zimbabwe. utrecht: university of utrecht. hanson, m. (1979). educational administration and organisational behaviour. massachusetts: allyn and babylon. haralambos, m. (1985). sociology: themes and perspectives. london: bell and hyman. iheoma, e.o. (1986). “the role of religion in moral education” in journal of moral education, 15(2), pp.139-149. interview with the heads of departments, at four highglen cluster secondary schools in harare education province, zimbabwe: november 1-8, 2012. interview with the headmasters, at four high-glen cluster secondary schools in harare education province, zimbabwe: october 18-25, 2012. interview with the ministry of education officials, at the ministry of education, sport, and culture in zimbabwe: november 9-16, 2012. interview with the teachers, at four high-glen cluster secondary schools in harare education province, zimbabwe: october 9-16, 2012. jackson, r. (2004). rethinking religious education and plurality: issues in diversity and pedagogy. london: routledge falmer. kasambira, p. (1998). educational administration and management. harare: college press. leedy, p.d. (1983). practical research planning and design. new york: macmillan, 5th edition. ndlovu, l. (2013). “religion education teaching in zimbabwe secondary schools: the search for an authentic values-oriented multi-faith religion education pedagogical model” in british journal of religious education, doi:10.1080/01416200.2013.78 1500. nondo, s. (1991). multifaith issues and approaches in religious education with special reference to zimbabwe. utrecht: rijsksuniversiteit. obanya, p. (1985) teaching methods across the curriculum. london: billing and sons ltd. sanders, d.c. (1984). elementary school: organisation and administration. new york: meredith publishing company. schoeman, s. (2006). learning area didactics: teaching life orientation. pretoria: university of south africa. sidhu, k.s. (1984). methodology of research in education. new delhi: sterling publishers. fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena, the delicate dropping of religious studies 198 religious studies at the school of zimbabwe (source: www.google.com, 15/12/2013) the ministry of education, sports, and culture in zimbabwe, through the education district officials, should be involved in processing speedy methods of importing relevant textbooks needed in schools or provide cheaper photocopying stations for schools in high glen, so that all pupils benefit from available resources. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 199 info-edu-tainment tawarikh: international journal for historical studies. this journal was firstly published on october 28, 2009. since april 2012 issue, it has been joining publication between aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java and the department of history education uvri (veteran university of the republic of indonesia) in makassar, south sulawesi, indonesia. starting issue of october 2013, the tawarikh journal will be published by minda masagi press, as one of the publishers owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia. published twice a year i.e. every october and april. for further information, please searching it at: www.tawarikhjournal.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: tawarikh.journal2009@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 200 sosiohumanika: jurnal pendidikan sains sosial dan kemanusiaan (journal of humanities and social scjences education). this journal was firstly published on may 20, 2008. published by aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia and having joint publication with upi (indonesia university of education) in bandung; with ums (malaysia university of sabah) in kota kinabalu; and with unipa (university of pgri adibuana) in surabaya, east java, indonesia for period of 2009 to 2011. starting issue of may 2014, the sosiohumanika journal will be published by minda masagi press, as one of the publishers owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia in collaboration with ums-kal (malaysia university of sabah – labuan international campus) in malaysia and laboratory of history and culture unhas (hasanuddin university) in makassar, south sulawesi, indonesia. published twice a year i.e. may and november. for further information, please searching it at: www.sosiohumanika-jpssk.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: sosiohumanika@gmail.com and aspensi@ yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 201 atikan: jurnal kajian pendidikan (journal of educational studies). this journal was firstly published on june 1, 2011. since june 2012 issue, it has been joining publication between faculty of education and teacher training unsur (university of suryakancana) in cianjur, west java, indonesia and aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung. starting issue of june 2013, the atikan journal has been published by minda masagi press, as one of the publishers owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia. published twice a year, every june and december. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.atikan-jurnal.com and www. aspensi.com e-mail address: atikan.jurnal@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 202 susurgalur: jurnal kajian sejarah & pendidikan sejarah (journal of history education & historical studies). this journal was firstly published on march 24, 2013. since september 2013 issue, it has been joining publication between aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung and the lecturers of ppb ubd (center of bruneian studies, university of brunei darussalam) and history program, faculty of letters and social sciences ubd in bandar seri begawan, negara brunei darussalam. starting issue of march 2014, the susurgalur journal has also been published by minda masagi press, as one of the publishers owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia, and also joining publication with department of history education unigal (university of galuh) in ciamis city, west java, indonesia. published twice a year, every march and september. for further information, please searching the journal website at: www.susurgalur-jksps.com and www.aspensi.com e-mail address: susurgalur. jurnal2013@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 203 signing ceremony of moa (memorandum of agreement) between ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), ums-kal (malaysia university of sabah – labuan international campus), and minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia, on 27th december 2013. “we are really professional managers of the scientific journals”. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 204 one of the aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education)’s agendas is not only publishing the scientific journals but also attending the workshop and conference. showing in the picture is andi suwirta, as chairperson of aspensi and lecturer of upi (indonesia university of education) with his colleagues from southeast asian countries, in the workshop and symposium on aseanness citizenship education in nagoya university, japan, on february 20-23, 2014. pictures from l to r are: souphany heuangkeo of lao, sim boon yee jasmine of singapore, sumlee thongthew of thailand, gian tu trung of vietnam, andi suwirta of indonesia, seng sary of cambodia, kamaraguru ramayah of malaysia, sallimah salleh of brunei darussalam, and jerick c. ferrer of the philippines. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 205 list of authors and articles published in educare: international journal for educational studies, volume 6, number 1 (august 2013) and number 2 (february 2014) no author institution title of article vol/pages 1 abbas madandar arani, lida kakia & batol moazani lu (lorestan university), iran; su (sofia university), bulgaria; and school in tehran, iran a comparative study of muslim and western pedagogues’ educational perspectives: contextualization of comparative education as a university's discipline 6(2), 111-118 2 ajit mondal & jayanta mete uok (university of kalyani), kalyani, west bengal, pin741235, india education for peace in the light of national curriculum framework – 2005 6(2), 129-136 3 akhmad jazuli ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia description of mathematical creative thinking and reasoning ability of smp students in islamic culturebased learning 6(1), 81-90 4 alias azhar uum (university of utara malaysia), 06010 sintok, kedah darul aman, malaysia contemporary fiqh learning module at mosques in malaysia 6(1), 69-80 5 eko priyanto ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia improving democratic values in civic education learning through groupeddiscussion method for the students in higher education institution 6(2), 179-188 6 fungai hamilton mudzengerere & edmore mbokochena nust (national university of science and technology), p.o. box ac 939 ascot, bulawayo, zimbabwe; and wua (women’s university in africa), harare, zimbabwe the delicate dropping of religious studies at ordinary level by students in high density urban schools of harare, zimbabwe 6(2), 189-198 7 hilal ahmad wani, andi suwirta & joseph fayeye uoi (university of ilorin), ilorin, nigeria; upi (indonesia university of education), bandung, west java, indonesia; and uoi in ilorin, nigeria untold stories of human rights violations in kashmir 6(1), 55-68 8 minh-quang duong vnu-hcmc (vietnam national university – ho chi minh city), 10-12 dinh tien hoang road, district 1, ho chi minh city, vietnam a comparison of factors influencing the job satisfaction among academic members of the university of technology and the university of science in vietnam 6(2), 169-178 9 mohammad parvez & mohd shakir amu (aligarh muslim university), aligarh 202002, up (uttar pradesh), india higher education system in india: are we heading towards right direction? 6(1), 35-42 10 namitha elizabeth jacob & baby shari uc (university of calicut), kerala, india organizational effectiveness in educational institutions 6(1), 17-26 11 rahimah muhammad nor & zakaria mustafa um (university of malaya), 50603 kuala lumpur, malaysia socio-cultural adaptation in japan: how malaysian international students deal with challenges? 6(1), 91-102 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 206 no author institution title of article vol/pages 12 ramlee mustapha upsi (sultan idris university of education), tanjong malim, perak darul ridzuan, malaysia transforming education toward k-economy in malaysia 6(1), 1-16 13 rita destiwati & junardi harahap poltek (telkom polytechnic), jalan telekomunikasi, terusan buah batu, bandung, west java, indonesia; and unpad (padjadjaran university), jalan raya bandungsumedang km.21, jatinangor, west java, indonesia implementation of competency-based curriculum in bandung natural school 6(1), 27-34 14 rosida tiurma manurung, dadang suganda & davidescu cristiana ukm (maranatha cristian university), bandung, indonesia and unpad (padjadjaran university) bandung, west java, indonesia negative labeling towards teachers as expression of violence in modern literature 6(2), 161-168 15 suwartono ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, purwokerto city, central java, indonesia student’s voices in reflective suprasegmental features pronunciation teaching 6(2), 137-144 16 thaer issa tawalbeh tu (taif university), taif, kingdom of saudi arabia teaching-learning challenges facing students of english in the preparatory year at the taif university, kingdom of saudi arabia 6(2), 145-160 17 yayat sudaryat upi (indonesia university of education), jalan dr. setiabudhi no.229 bandung 40154, west java, indonesia the interpretation of sundanese educational philosophy in traditional idiomatic expressions 6(2), 119-128 18 yayu heryatun iain (institut agama islam negeri or state islamic religion institute) “sultan maulana hasanuddin” in banten, indonesia how students make meaning from literary text? 6(1), 43-54 educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 207 index of author aldrich, r. 114, 118. ali, t. & i. akhter. 171, 175-176. ambe, b. 146, 149-150, 155-156. azra, azyumardi. 179-180, 186. bameka, p. 174, 176. bray, mark. 117-118. bryman, alan. 139, 143. bryson, c. & l. hand. 145, 156. budiardjo, miriam. 180, 185-186. caspary, w.r. 114, 117-118. cassannave, c.p. & p. hubbard. 146, 155-156. cercone, k. 138, 143. chinara, benudhar. 131, 136. danandjaja, james. 121, 126. daroeso, bambang. 185-186. delors, j. 129, 136. djamarah, syaiful bahri. 166-167. duong, minh-quang. 169-178. enan, m.a. 111, 118. entwistle, n., v. mccune & j. hounsell. 151, 156. evans, l. 169, 176. fairclough & ruth wodak. 163, 167. fakhry, m. 113, 118. flores juarez, j.b. 145, 156. fox, m.f. 174-176. galtung, johan. 163, 167. gay, l.r. & p.w. airasian. 139, 143. ghafoor, m.m. 174, 176. grant, n. 113, 118. gutmann, amy. 184, 186. halabi, a.e. 114, 118. haugen, einar. 120, 127. helder, dom camara. 163, 167. hemmasi, m. 175-176. holmquist, m. et al. 151, 156. ibnu chamim, asykuri et al. 179-180, 186. iheoma, e.o. 191, 197. issa tawalbeh, thaer. 145-160. jackson, r. 190, 192, 194, 197. judge, t.a. & a.h. church. 175-176. kelly, j.d. 175-176. khoi, le thanh. 117-118. kirschenbaun, howard. 184, 186. kumar, sanjeev. 135-136. kusnandar. 166-167. ladefoged, peter. 137, 143. leedy, p.d. 190, 197. liu, m.c. 174, 177. madandar arani, a., l. kakia & b. moazani. 111-118. mayuni, ilza. 138, 143. moje, d. & d. o’brien. 146, 155-156. mondal, a. 130, 136. mondal, ajit & jayanta mete. 129-136. moseley, a. 114, 117-118. mudzengerere, f.h. & e. mbokochena. 189-198. mulyati, sri. 122, 127. ndlovu, l. 192, 195, 197. neumann, y. 170-171, 177. nguyen, c.t. 149-150, 155-156. nofal, n. 112, 118. nunan, david. 139, 144. obanya, p. 193, 197. o’neal, george. 137, 144. oshagbemi, t. 170, 177. oweiss, i.m. 111, 118. pandey, s. 129, 131, 136. pearson, d.a. & r.e. seiler. 177. priyanto, eko. 179-188. rajaee, f. 112, 118. rakhmat, jalaluddin. 162, 167. ramani, s. 135-136. rice, e.r. & a.e. austin. 175, 177. schulze, s. 174, 177. simpson, m. 116-118. srichanyachon. 149-150, 156. sudaryat, yayat. 119-128. sumardjo, jakob. 120, 127. suwartono. 137-144. tarigan, h.g. 121, 127. telman, n. & p. unsal. 170, 178. tinto, v. 145, 156. tiurma manurung, r., d. suganda & d. cristiana. 161-168. trask, r.l. 137, 144. uckun, b. & j. buchanan. 148, 150, 155-156. udaykumar, s.p. 130, 136. van tonder, l.l. 175, 178. venter, e.j. 175, 178. verret, l.b. 170, 178. vitanova, gergana & ann miller. 139, 144. warnaen, suwarsih et al. 121, 127. wilson, d.n. 111, 118. wood, o.r. 173, 178. yi-chang, h. 150, 156. zamroni. 180, 184, 187. zarinkob, a.h. 113-114, 118. zhou, y. & j.f. volkwein. 170, 178. educare: international journal for educational studies, 6(2) february 2014 208 index of subject academic language skills. 146. actional quotient. 123, 125-126. approach to education for peace. 133. al-ghazali. 111, 113-117. availability of teaching resources. 195-196. background knowledge. 146. big wave of democracy. 180. british elitist model. 189. central java. 179, 181-182, 184, 186. character building. 119. civic education. 179-182, 184-185. comparative education. 111-113, 117-118. critical discourse analysis. 161, 163. curriculum development unit. 191. day for the disabled. 135. democratic values learning. 181-182. diary. 137, 139, 142. dropouts of religious studies. 192-193. dutch administration. 161. education for peace. 129, 131-135. emotional quotient. 123, 125-126. english as a foreign language. 145, 147-148, 150. expression of violence. 162-163. faculty higher education. 170-171. female academic members. 173-174. first teacher. 114. gender of academic members. 173-174. girl child day. 135. goal setting. 150. grouped-discussion method. 179, 181-186. harare education province. 189-190. hero without award. 166. ho chi minh city. 169, 172, 175-176. human moral towards time. 124-126. human rights day. 135. india. 129-130. institutional characteristics. 174-175. interesting lessons. 140-141. iran. 111-114. jammu university in india. 171. john dewey. 111, 113-117. junior certificate level. 194. kemmis and taggart’s model. 139. kingdom of saudi arabia. 145. knowledge and skills. 148. level of job satisaction. 172-173. life satisfaction. 170. local wisdom. 119, 125. mahatma gandhi. 129, 136. middle east. 111-112, 117-118. modern literature. 161, 163. monologue video clips. 141. muslim educators. 111, 117. national curriculum framework. 129-135. need to change the syllabus. 194-195. negative labeling. 162, 164-166. new insights/knowledge. 141-142. not wholly positive responses. 140, 142. nusantara languages. 119-120. observation note. 183-184. ordinary level. 189-190, 193-194, 196. organizational characteristics. 170. peace activities for students. 134-135. philosophical value. 121-122. position of education. 115-116. positive labeling. 163-165. preparatory year program. 145, 147-148. qualitative and quantitative data. 139. quality of sundanese people. 123. questionnaires. 120-121, 172. radha krishnan commission. 130. reasons for dropouts. 192-193. religious studies. 189-197. second teacher. 114-115. simplistic approach. 133. spiritual quotient. 123, 125-126. students’ learning mastery. 182-184. studies of job satisfaction. 170-171. sundanese educational philosophy. 119-121, 123, 125. suprasegmentals. 137-139, 141-143. taif university. 145, 147, 150-152, 154-155. teachers labeling. 163-166. teaching-learning challenges. 145, 147. traditional idiomatic expression. 119, 121-122. turkish academic. 148-149. united nations. 131, 135, 170. unity in diversity. 124. university of science. 169, 173-174. using appropriate strategies. 133. value of knowledge. 126. vietnam. 149, 169, 172, 175-176. violator. 162. west java. 119, 128. white man. 162. working environment. 170. zimbabwe. 189-190. educare: international journal for educational studies this journal was firstly published on august 17, 2008. since issue of february 2009, the educare-ijes journal has been joining publication between faculty of education and teacher training ump (muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) in central java and aspensi (association of indonesian scholars of history education) in bandung, west java, indonesia; and for period 2014 to 2016, the educare-ijes journal has also been joining publication with ums-kal (malaysia university of sabah – labuan international campus) in labuan, malaysia. this journal is published twice a year i.e. every august and february. starting from issue of august 2013, the educare-ijes journal has been published by minda masagi press as a publisher owned by aspensi in bandung, west java, indonesia. editorial board honorable patron: dr. haji syamsuhadi irsyad (rector of ump, purwokerto, indonesia) editor-in-chief: prof. dr. haji tukiran taniredja (ump, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto) vice editor: dr. furqanul aziez (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) assistant editor: ahmad, m.pd (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) andi suwirta, m.hum. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) expert reviewer board for february issue: prof. dr. m. syaom barliana (upi, indonesia university of education, bandung) prof. dr. ramlee mustapha (upsi, sultan idris university of education, malaysia) prof. dr. gonzalo jover (ucm, universidad complutense de madrid, spain) expert reviewer board for august issue: prof. dr. haji zamroni (uny, state university of yogyakarta, indonesia) prof. dr. mina yamaguchi hattori (nu, nagoya university, japan) prof. dr. rosa bruno-jofré (qu, queen’s university, canada) associate editors: h. joko purwanto, m.si (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. h. tanto sukardi (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. h. akhmad jazuli (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) dr. suwartono (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) secretariat staffs: sri redjeki rosdianti, m.m.pd. (aspensi, bandung, indonesia) suwarno, m.si. (ump, purwokerto, indonesia) address: 1. secretariat of aspensi, komp. vijaya kusuma b-11 no.16 cipadung, cibiru, bandung 40614 west java, indonesia. e-mail: ijes.educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com 2. rectorat building, muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump), jalan raya dukuhwaluh, po box 202, purwokerto 53182, central java, indonesia. e-mail: sekret_ump@yahoo.com and tukiranump@yahoo.com website: www.educare-ijes.com and www.aspensi.com copy right © by association of indonesian scholars of history education (aspensi) in bandung in collaboration with muhammadiyah university of purwokerto (ump) in central java, indonesia. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. printed by rizqi offset, bandung article guidelines/instruction for the authors educare: international journal for educational studies educare will provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of thought-leadership articles, briefings, discussion, applied research, case and comparative studies, expert comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding education and its various aspects. analysis will be practical and rigorous in nature. prospective authors must adhere to the following guidelines: (1) article length is 15 pages minimum and 25 pages maximum, including bibliography and appendices; (2) abstract and its key words are included; (3) the article may be written by three persons maximum with a photograph of each attached; and (4) attach a bio mentioning author’s current profession and e-mail addresses. the article should follow the outline: title (brief, clear, and interesting) name of author abstract introduction sub title sub title sub title (adjusted as needed) conclusion (including the recommendation) references (contains literature cited in the text) citation takes the following form: “…” (saripudin, 2004:7); bibliography from books and journals should be in the following order respectively: zainul, asmawi. (2005). alternative assessment. jakarta: ut publisher; and hasan, said hamid. (2007). “kebijakan dan pelaksanaan kurikulum pendidikan sejarah di indonesia” in historia: journal of historical studies, ix(1), pp.25-40. internet sources and interview should include place and date of access. the article should be sent at least 3 (three) months prior to the publication months (august and february) addressed to the editor of educare: international journal for educational studies. it is recommended that the article be sent via e-mail. e-mail addresses that can be contacted are: ijes. educare@gmail.com and aspensi@yahoo.com information on the article’s possible publication will be sent via e-mail. educare is an international academic journal, especially for the scholars of southeast asia countries and around the world. published articles will require the author contribute a remuneration for the editing, printing, and shipping costs of which amount will be determined later. authors of published articles and paying the journal fee, he/she will get 2 (two) the journal prints, 3 (three) journal off prints, and his/her abstract, photograph, and full text will be displayed in the journal website at: www.educare-ijes.com authors who not pay the journal fee, he/she will not get the journal print and off print, but his/ her abstract, photograph, and full text will be displayed in the journal website. unpublished articles will not be returned, except on written requests from the author. articles in educare: international journal for educational studies do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the editorial committee. the editor is responsible for the final selection of the content of educare and reserve the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication. responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts published in articles rests solely with the individual authors.